Legolas shifted his seat on the ground, trying to find a position that would not irritate his wounds, but as wounded as he was, the attempt was ineffective, and he finally settled into the least excruciating arrangement he could find. Stretching his legs out before him, the archer moved his seat involuntarily backwards in the grass so that he sat closer to Strider, and then reclined against the tree trunk behind them. He was not aware of it, but the Wood-Elf had no desire to leave the Ranger's side. He did not fear the twins or the disfigured human across the way, and with Ament dead and the goblet in the honorable hands of the Noldor, he found he had little to fear save for failing in his promise to see the others back to Eryn Galen. The young human's presence comforted him, though, and so the much older and wiser creature scooted closer to the Ranger.
The tree behind him, an old oak tree whose roots were curled up around them, forming natural grooves in which they sat, also comforted the Silvan. He rubbed the rough bark of the oak lovingly, unthinkingly, communing with the friendly tree as he waited for the Ranger to speak. The lifesong of the forest, though tainted as it was, was drowned out by the single, thunderous aria of the tree behind him, and he took solace in its tender, albeit deafening melody. Blurred and etiolated, his vision had not improved, but he no longer felt submerged in the achromatic forest, and slowly, almost imperceptibly, the grieving berceuse whelming the Wood-Elf's consciousness was allowing the forest's song back into his soul.
Sighing, the Ranger handed Legolas the nearly emptied bladder of water he had been passed. "Why do you not first tell us how you found us, brothers," the human said, shirking telling the story of his and the Wood-Elf's captivity.
He does not wish to tell them, the astute Prince discerned, though he could not fathom why the Ranger would shun his worried, devoted brothers' concern.
"Now that is truly a story, though not one as lengthy as yours," Elladan exclaimed, digging through his twin's pack and pulling out a tunic, which he handed to his younger twin. "Elrohir has had visions!"
The Noldo in question blushed slightly, standing and coming to where the Ranger and Prince sat. Unfurling the rolled tunic, Elrohir claimed, bending down to reach the archer, "They are hardly visions, muindor."
"Do not be modest, Elrohir! You collapsed on the ground while we were on the Misty Mountains and then woke screaming that Legolas and Aragorn were in danger! And it was you that insisted that we find Aragorn to begin, long before your first vision."
Elrohir explained, smiling at the Ranger and Prince as he began to help Legolas dress in the thick tunic, "I saw nothing, truly. I only felt that the both of you were together, and in trouble, though at first it was nothing more than a whim." Glad to have his bare chest covered and for the warmth and simple pleasure of the soft, clean fabric, the Silvan smiled his thanks to Elrohir, who grinned back at him before settling back in his seat. With the bulky bandaging underneath, the fabric bulged out and could not have been buttoned properly, had not the Noldo's tunic been too large for Legolas already.
"You may have seen nothing, brother, but your revelations are why we decided to cross the Misty Mountains at once, rather than wait. And it is well that we did, for we would not have met Tirn to find that the Prince was missing, and we may well have traveled on to Thranduil's halls and not been here to assist," the elder twin argued. He frowned, "Had we not dyed Glorfindel's robes as a prank, we would never have fled Imladris in the first place." The twins frowned at each other in tandem, looking to Legolas like Elladan was the vexed reflection of Elrohir, though the elder twin's bruised face and bandaged arm evinced the two Noldor were, in fact, not mirror images – at least, not until Elladan healed.
Elrohir's premonitions and abilities as a foreseer are new to him, then, the Prince mused, reminded of how twice Elrohir had come to aid him in his times of trouble. It is good that he learned quickly how to use these gifts.
Tirn's story could not be told in full, but Elladan related that which they knew, saying, "Tirn told us that King Thranduil despaired that no trace of Legolas could be found. The rain had washed away the tracks," the twin told them, sparing Jalian, who sat shamefaced and quiet at the fringe of their irregular circle, a brief glare. The elder Noldo did not hide his detestation for the mercenary. "The King has sent only Tirn to find you, Legolas, believing that to send more would weaken Eryn Galen's defenses unnecessarily."
Legolas was not surprised and nodded at Elladan's statement: the Prince's father had done just as Legolas expected, as the archer would have him do, by placing the safety of Mirkwood before that of his son, Prince or no. His father's despair, however, troubled the Silvan, but he ignored these thoughts, making himself listen to the remainder of the sentry's story, as told by Elladan.
"We met Tirn at the river where the Forest Road crosses, and here we learned that you were missing." Chuckling as he repositioned the sentry's head after placing a few of the soft, empty satchels under it, Elladan told them, "Tirn had no leads as to where the mercenaries had taken you, Legolas, and so he flipped his medallion to decide which way to travel in his search." More quietly, the Noldo added, "He said that fate may lead him where reason could not."
"And it did," a mystified Elrohir said, giving the comatose sentry an affectionate smile from where he sat across the way from Tirn's inert body. "Just as our meeting him on our way to Eryn Galen was fate and just as your dying Glorfindel's robes caused us to flee Rivendell, Elladan. It is well that we followed his medallion's guidance, also."
"Yes," Elladan agreed, sharing his twin's fondness for the sentry, who though they had known for only a short time, they both regarded with high esteem. "He told us on our journey down the river that he would not return to Eryn Galen without you, Legolas."
His already grieved heart constricted once again at his sentry's sacrifice to save him, a scared young Elfling lost in the forest. The Prince thought, And he will not return to Eryn Galen without me, for one of us will surely die before then. He would try, though, to live to return to Mirkwood with the Noldor and Ranger, for he wanted to get the sentry to Mirkwood as much as he wanted to go home himself. He was homesick. I would see my father again.
"We happened across a grove of birch trees along the river, where we found evidence of your passing through. We have followed you into the forest since," Elrohir explained.
"It is not as simple as that, muindor," Elladan argued. "We came across the clearing. It was Tirn who wanted to search between the trees, and much to our surprise we found the tunnel hidden within them. Of all things to find in the Mirkwood forest!"
"Shortly thereafter," Elrohir concluded, "we found you in the hallway, Legolas, beneath the blond mercenary in the hallway."
Strider turned to Legolas quickly, remorse and concern coloring his face: the man thought the Prince had been abused again. I nearly was, the Elf thought.
"He wanted only my death," he told the Ranger quietly, lying to the human so that he would not need to explain Doran's promises of violence towards him during his stint in the cell, and so not to add to the Ranger's burden of guilt.
The human exhaled slowly, nodding once before he turned to hear Elrohir's inquiry. "Perhaps now," Elrohir said again, taking his mortar from Jalian and handing the mercenary leaves to tear for a poultice, ones that would be used for Elladan's concussed head, he added, "you could tell us what has happened, Estel. How came you to be with these mercenaries, brother?"
The Ranger twisted the bandaging around his forearm nervously. "I stopped in Fulton to buy supplies and spend the night. At the inn, I overheard Ament and Ramlin questioning a farmer about a goblet, one that they claimed would make mortals immortal. Although I could not remember Melfren's fable, I thought to follow the brothers, to find out of what they spoke and how they intended to use it, as I missed hearing its location. However, I attracted their attention, and to get out of it, I told them my interest in them was only in that I desired that which they did, the destruction of the Elves." Such an obvious mistruth did not need explanation for the twins or Legolas, all of whom knew that the Ranger desired no such thing.
But that the Ranger had lied caused Elrohir to ask with skepticism, "Your lie convinced them?"
"Truly, Aragorn," Elladan added, smirking in his own disbelief, "you are horrible at lying."
Smiling, the Ranger merely shrugged. "I must be better at lying than you give me credit for, dear brothers." The human broke off another piece of dried meat, saying, "Ament allowed me to accompany them, although Ramlin wasn't nearly as accommodating. We traveled the night through to a cave close to the river, where we met Doran."
Elladan cut short the Ranger's story, asking, "Doran was the blond mercenary?"
"Yes." Strider nodded. The human exuded his reluctance to tell his story as easily as he exuded the sweat that poured from his feverish body. "Meika and Jalian brought Legolas to the cave. He appeared near death, and since none knew of healing, I offered my services to them, to keep their cargo safe," the human said derisively, no longer eating the meat he held in hand but only staring at it. "I did not know they intended to capture an Elf," the Ranger said, already beseeching his brothers to understand his actions, "and I could not flee with Legolas without leaving the mercenaries to find the goblet unhindered."
"You did not help Legolas?" His voice rising in indignation, Elladan straightened from where he reclined against in the grass, and inveighed, "You mean you willingly allowed the Prince to be held captive by the mercenaries? You were not held against your will this whole time?"
"I was in no condition to flee," Legolas told the Noldo, confused by the twin's anger. "Strider kept me alive." He smiled at the Ranger, trying to bolster the human's flagging cheerfulness. "It was complicated, was it not, Strider?"
"Yes, Legolas," the guilty Ranger said, shaking his head in negation, however, and not at all aided by the Silvan's attempt to lighten his burden of blame. "But Elladan is right. I acted foolishly by keeping you with the mercenaries." He continued, "Legolas did not trust me, and gave me the false name of Tauron to hide his identity. I thought I could keep him safe until the goblet was found, and Ament and Ramlin's plan ruined. We left the next morning, only three days ago, to search for the goblet." The twins were growing irate, Legolas could see, and though he felt their blame was misplaced and wished to correct them, he let the Ranger finish his tale. "I did not think Legolas healthy enough to run. The luingalas they gave him was potent, and too much."
"We stopped after crossing the Anduin." Aragorn wrapped the dried venison he held back into its leaf wrapper and tucked it into his pocket, for his appetite was gone. "Legolas intended to flee," the Ranger told his brothers and Jalian, who was listening raptly although he tried valiantly to act uninterested in hearing the hidden story behind the last several days' events. While perhaps it was in reality Legolas' story to tell, he did not mind that Strider spoke for him. "But Ramlin did not share his brother's interest in keeping Legolas alive, and sought to destroy him."
"And you did not try to stop him?" Elrohir ranted, ceasing grinding the herbs in his mortar to glare at his adopted brother.
"Of course I tried to stop him," the Ranger hissed, crossing his arms across his wounded torso; he winced at the disturbance of his lacerated chest, and dropped his arms so that his fidgeting hands rested in his lap once again. He sighed, "But Ramlin throttled me into unconsciousness and would have broken my neck had not Legolas stopped him."
"Without trusting you he saved your life," Elladan grumbled, saying without conviction, "perhaps he should have let Ramlin break your fool neck."
Why do they blame him? the Silvan thought, coming to the Ranger's defense again: "Strider aided me," he refuted, saying, "He kept Ramlin from me... that time at least." The twins flinched concurrently at his words but it did not stop Legolas from arguing, "Strider bid me to run, facing Ramlin alone and forsaking his intentions to find the goblet so that I could find safety. However, Ramlin ran after me through the copse of trees, screaming for Ament's help. Ament caught me: I could not outrun his horse, and bound as I was, I could not fend him off when he subdued me. It was then that he learned my identity." When the Ranger turned his awkward expression to the Prince, Legolas realized, He blames himself as do the Noldor.
This part the Ranger had not been present for, and asked, "How did he come to know this, Legolas?"
Chewing his meal of bread thoroughly so as not to choke on it, the Prince shrugged his shoulders, unsure but saying, "By the insignia on the inside of my tunic, I believe. It became torn as we fought. Ament was staring at it. He must have recognized what it meant."
Elrohir dumped the herbs he had ground into a tin pot, handing it to Jalian, who added his torn leaves and poured water in with the fusion to make a cold extract of the volatile mixture for use on Elladan on the morrow. They were quickly running out of prepared herbs and would soon run out of the healing plants altogether. "It was after you aided Legolas that they bound you as well?"
"No. Ament faulted Ramlin for Legolas' escape attempt, and Ramlin, who had already expressed his intentions for Legolas, did not have the opportunity to contradict his brother's belief."
The twins stiffened at this news, Elrohir even more so as he asked, "Then you knew from the start what Ramlin intended for Legolas?"
Weary of being spoken of as though he did not sit with them, Legolas began to speak, but was stopped by a violent bout of coughing. A bladder of water was passed to him: he could not hold it, his vision grew dark and his chest heaved with his attempts to breathe, so the Ranger helped him drink. The effort of speaking was growing to be too much for him, he knew, but he imbibed deeply from the flask, emptying the scant supply of water ere he thanked the Ranger, and then told Elrohir, "Ament had made clear that Ramlin was not to touch me. Strider could not have known Ramlin would disobey."
Not wishing to argue with the Silvan, Elrohir nodded with a frown, and Aragorn hastily continued, "Later that night Ament made even clearer that Ramlin was not to touch Legolas, for he instructed me to kill Ramlin should he try to accost the Prince again." Recapping the empty water bladder, Strider tossed it across the clearing to the growing pile of empty flasks. They were running terribly short of water. "I told Ament that Elves can die from the torment Ramlin wished for Legolas," the human explained softly, "which is when Ament told me he knew that Tauron was Legolas, and that his plans for Thranduil could now be exacted. He spoke of his father's death and how it was Thranduil's doing. He told me that Legolas was the means to his end of revenge, and that he would stop at nothing to obtain it."
"Ament's line again. Damn his line," Jalian interrupted in a whisper which was clearly meant not to be said aloud, for Jalian then startled as if surprised he had dared to speak. "Damn him," he said, mixing the tin pot of steeping herbs delicately as Elrohir had taught him. Twisting his disfigured features into some semblance of a smile, the mercenary told Elrohir pointedly, "The line in the sand is what's worth fighting for, right?"
The younger twin seemed to be the only one in attendance with any real clue of what the mercenary spoke and why Jalian had found it amusing, but it was Aragorn who responded, recalling his own conversation with Ament about this topic, and whispering, "Well said, Jalian."
"Meika's said it," Jalian corrected, his smile fading and his attention returning to his task.
Confused by the latent meaning within the private conversation between his brothers and the mercenary he obviously loathed, a cross Elladan queried, "Why did Ament believe Thranduil to have killed his family? Why did he hate King Thranduil?"
Looking up from his pot of herbs again, the mercenary inserted, "Ament and Ramlin didn't always hate the Elf-King. They'd not even seen many Elves until they helped me catch a few of 'em one time for the slave market." Suddenly aware that the majority of his audience was Elves, Jalian flushed, quickly changing the gist of his explanation, "No, Doran had told Ramlin about the goblet, and Ramlin told Ament a long time ago. Didn't believe it, he didn't, not Ament, not even when others claimed it was true. Never was one for superstition or tall tales, but when Ramlin said Doran had heard a farmer telling where it was, Ament wanted to find it." The mercenary glanced at the goblet, which was still securely tied to Elrohir's waist, the blood having been cleaned from it, though its taint was palpable if not seeable. "By then Ament was tired of petty thieving, and he wanted something more, which is when he got it in his head to take from Thranduil. Ament said the King had what he didn't: a family, a house, food, riches, clothes…"
The Ranger expressed his own curiosity, momentarily turning the conversation away from his and Legolas' story, to stall. "How did you come to know them, Jalian?"
"They're from Laketown, like me and Meika." Rubbing his hands briskly over his scarred head, the mercenary amended, "Haven't lived there for many years, now, though. Been for hire for whatever I was needed for. Was there visiting Meika when Ament and Ramlin asked us to join them. Talked Meika into going, for the company."
When the mercenary turned his head back down to hide the tears welling in his eyes, Aragorn began again to relate the events of the past few days again, sighing as he started, "Ament told me that night that Wood-Elves drove Orcs into the fields of his family's farm. He told me that King Thranduil's influence on Laketown had some part in his poverty, and in his becoming a thief."
It was a poor excuse for their actions. Crimes such as these have been performed on behalf of causes much less worthy, the Prince thought.
"Soon after our conversation, spiders attacked the camp, and Ament was injured by one. We waited a day for him to wake ere we left to find the goblet."
"Then it was Ament whose wound you tended," Elladan alleged bitterly, smirking in displeasure at his young, human brother. "We came across your labors at mixing an antidote. We taught you too well to care for the ill, I see."
Aragorn shifted uncomfortably on the ground, his voice grim, as he countered, "I could not let him die. Ramlin would have been in charge, no doubt. Having discovered Legolas' identity, I told Legolas what I knew of Ament's plans, and he told me of what he knew. I begged him to flee while Ament was unconscious, thinking that Ramlin may not follow with his brother ill. But Legolas did not wish to run, desiring to keep his father and home from danger." Looking to Legolas, the Ranger smiled warmly at him, saying, "And I would still hear why having Elladan and Elrohir as brothers makes me stout of heart."
As he did the night he had told Strider this, Legolas laughed merrily but did not answer. They would have time for such things on their journey. "So would we," Elrohir said, jesting lightly, "although I believe I can recall why your opinion of us is so low. But what then, Estel? What happened next?"