Lament
Chapter IX
Left Behind
She hadn't slept a wink the whole night. After having been all but thrown out after their kiss Devina had wandered in a daze. She felt more confused than ever, there was just no way whatever was going on was completely one sided. Even if it were just lust for him. She felt defeated and wanted to scream and cry but wouldn't allow herself to be reduced to a snotty tear streaked mess by yet another man. Let alone one she hardly knew, one whose relationship with here was essentially nonexistent.
"Damn it! Stupid stupid stupid girl!" She snapped to the empty hall, hitting her fist against the wall. Pain flared up through her joints and up her arm to rest in her elbow and shoulders. She let out a whimper of pain quietly, cradling her abused hand to her chest. "Yeah just hurt yourself by punching stone walls, that'll solve everything. Moron." She cursed herself.
A hand came to rest on her shoulder, drawing her attention away from her self pitying. She expected, hoped, to see Thorin. Hoped he had come after her. But it wasn't him. Instead of was perhaps the worlds most breathtaking woman she has ever seen. She wore robes the flowed about her like mist and were as white and moonlight against snow. Her long golden hair shone with the light of stars. She was positively radiant and ethereal.
"Why is a heart so young weary with such sorrow and fear?" Her light and even voice seemed to wrap around every inch of her like a warm and safe blanket. She felt like pure white magic.
"Who are you?" Devina asked quietly. The she elf smiled sweetly at her, fore there was not way she was anything but an elf.
"I am the Lady Galadriel, and what is your name child?" She asked her other hand reaching up to rest on her other shoulder in a very motherly gesture. "There is a great tragedy that rests on your shoulders. One that will come to pass only by your actions or inaction. Is this the weight I feel pressing against your heart?"
"Devina. You can see Thorin's future?" She asked in earnest, amazed that she should meet Galadriel. She had no place in the book, why would she be here? "Please tell me what you see. I have to save him." She found herself pleading. Galadriel only continued to smile at her.
"You care for the exiled king. His fate is yet to be decided. Come with me, we are needed elsewhere," Galadriel slipped past her and walked away, leaving Devina to trail after here.
"Not decided yet?" She took hope in those seven little words.
They'd some to a large outdoor space surrounded by pillars that looked liked they'd come straight from a Grecian film. A large circular stone table dominating the area. The ground jutted out far over the cliff walls that lead down to a river stretching out of the valley. Shadows could be seen creeping across the waters surface as the clouds hid the moon from sight.
"Why are we here?" She asked and as if by magic Gandalf appeared lead by lord Elrond. Gandalf's face looked more shocked than she felt.
"You're both here because Imam not the one you must answer to," his gaze looked out behind Devina towards Galadriel. Gandalf was surprised by the other worldly figure framed on the ledge. The moon creeping out from behind the clouds and setting her iridescent hair alight.
"Lady Galadriel." He let out with the breath he must have been holding.
"Mithrandir," she greeted, her voice low and musical. She spoke to him in Elvish and once again Devina was left unaware of what was going on. Whatever Gandalf has said left her smiling brilliantly, pleased.
"I had no idea Lord Elrond had sent for you," he said in English as he approached Devina and left a hand rest on her shoulder. His earlier surprise replaced with a contemplatively sad expression.
"I still don't understand-" but she was cut off by the appearance on a tall ancient looking man wearing robes stark white, his long beard and hair matching apart for the ends near his mouth and nose which were black as pitch just like the staff he carried with him.
"He didn't." He said he voice sounded chiding and Devina instantly mistrusts him. The air around him reeking with self importance and condescension. "I did."
Gandalf looked like a child caught playing hooky from school. Elrond's brows rose closer to his hairline. His expression saying that Gandalf had asked for it.
"Saruman," he greeted, a low bow of his head out of respect and plastered a smile on him face that looked forced while Devina's blood ran cold.
"You've been busy of late, my friend" the Wizards expression lighted unexpectedly, amusement written all over his face. "Come let us sit," he gestured, everyone but Devina moving forward which Saruman noticed and studied her.
"You must be the girl with interesting insight into the events of our futures," it wasn't a question but she answered anyway, the words slipping past her lips before she could stop herself.
"You bet your ass I am. And you're Saruman, the wizard who believes he knows everything," instantly she regretted that and her eyes widened. But Saruman laughed deeply and held out his arm towards the table so she could sit before him.
"I suppose I do rather believe that of myself from time to time. It is refreshing to be reminded that I do not."
"What the hell?! The murdering bastard is being nice?!" But she stopped that train of thought as she took a seat between Elrond and Gandalf. As far as she knew he wasn't that version of himself yet. That story took place more than 50 years later. Still feeling uneasy she tried to quell the desire to warn them all of what would happen later.
"Did you think your schemes would go unnoticed?" Saruman was asking Gandalf while taking a seat.
"Unnoticed?" He repeated. "Well I, N-no. I was merely doing what I feel to be right." He explained lamely. It amazed her to see Gandalf nervous around anyone. He was always matter of fact, even when he spoke on riddles.
"The dragon had long been on your mind" Galadriel said slowly walking the circumference of the room listening and observing the progression of the meeting more than partaking in it.
"It is true my lady, Smaug owes allegiance to no one. But he should side with the enemy..." He trailed off for a moment. This god Devina's attention as well as the other's it would seem. "A dragon could be used to terrible effect." He finished sitting up straighter now that he seemed to be being taken a touch more seriously by his counterparts. "Is he talking about those Orcs that chased us? What Radagast spoke of? But this isn't in the book...just how much more goes on that isn't even mentioned?" Dread settled in the pit of her stomach. The shear amount of danger ahead of them beginning to become apparent to her. Tolkien pointedly only wrote about this adventure but of course there was more going on in the world, things that would take effect later, things that she didn't even know about. "God please say he isn't walking about..." Her thoughts trailed off too frightened to even pretend that was a possibility at this point.
"What enemy?" Saruman asked sounding unsettled at the suggestion. "Gandalf the enemy defeated. Sauron is vanquished. He can never regain his full strength." He finished matter of factory as if that settled any imaginative fears the younger wizard might be entertaining.
The dread in her stomach hardened and spread throughout her limbs leaving her feeling cold as stone and as white as death.
"Vanquished does not mean dead." She found herself speaking, barely above a whisper but plenty loud for them all to hear. "Full strength or not...you've underestimated someone...something that will never stop." She stared blankly at the table her breathing coming in shallow breaths while they stared at her silently. Gandalf with respect and understanding, Galadriel and Elrond with thoughtful consideration and Saruman with bored attention. Gandalf broke the silence on her behalf.
"Does it not trouble you? That the last of the great dwarf rings should simply vanish, along with its bearer?" No one answered. "Of the seven dwarf rings, four were consumed by dragons, two were taken by Sauron before he fell in Mordor. The fate of the last, remains unknown. The ring that was worn by Thrain," this last part pulling Devina's head up sharp.
"Thorin's father? Who's been missing since the battle for Moria?" She asked.
"Without the ruling ring of power, the seven are of no value to the enemy." Sauron cut in, ignoring her question. "To control the other rings, he needs the one. And that ring was lost long, long ago." Gandalf's posture had shifted, he looked frustrated, his bottom lip thinning. Always the calm one to rarely react. Devina felt very differently. She wanted to punch the slimy treacherous worm on the nose and shout at him that it wasn't lost at all. But she bit her tongue. If she did and they found out who had it or would soon have it...they'd never succeed and probably be dead before they passed though Mirkwood.
"Gandalf, Devina, for four hundred years we have lived in peace. A hard one, watchful peace." Elrond chimed in trying to sound reasonable. She got the impression he suspected her intentions to at the very least abuse the white wizard similarly to how she'd treated him and was trying to placate them both. As angry as she was for his words about Thorin, she still couldn't help but admire him. Gandalf wasn't having it this time though.
"Are we? Are we at peace?" He asked almost sarcastically, leaning forward looking all business and determined. "Trolls have come down from the mountains, they are raiding villages, destroying farms." He turned to each member in turn as he continued to list the evils plaguing the 'peaceful' world. "Orcs have attacked us on the road."
Elrond approached him, she almost thought he'd lay a hand on the old wizards shoulder but they remained clasped behind his blue robes. "Hardly a prelude to war,"
"Always you must meddle. Looking for trouble where none exists." Saruman added. This conversation sounded more like an attack on Gandalf more than anything and she honestly didn't know how much more she could stand before she fought back.
"Let him speak." Galadriel interjected, her voice calm and devoid of judgment. Devina felt herself admiring the striking woman even more.
"There is something at work, beyond the evil of Smaug. Something far more powerful." He looked around them all before his eyes fell on her at last, causing her to shift in her seat. Something about the way he looked into her eyes telling her to keep her mouth shut. But about what?
"We can remain blind to it but it will not be ignoring us for much longer. That I can promise you. A sickness lies over the greenwood. The woodsmen who live there now call it Mirkwood, and they say..uh..," he faltered at this as if knowing he would be met with instant dismissal.
"Well? Don't stop now, tell us what the woodmen say," Saruman encouraged jokingly.
"They speak of a Necromancer living in Dol Goldur. A sorcerer who can summon the dead." He finished. It was obvious Gandalf was troubled by these rumors. Any sane person would be I'm her opinion.
"That's absurd, no such power exists in this world." Saruman brushed the rumor away puting zero stock into it. "This...Necormancer...is nothing more than a mortal man. A conjurer dabbling in black magic."
"So I thought too," Gandalf relented, admitting that he didn't think it likely at first either. "But Radagast has seen.."
"Do not talk to me of Radagast the brown" Saruman snaps. Gandalf chuckled lightly admitting to Radagast's odd ways but also defends that he is only a solitary sort who prefers animals to others. Saruman the Pigheaded, Arrogant, Ass-hat would not listen and started to rant about all of Radagast's faults.
Rolling her eyes heavenward Devina stands from the table and moves away from him, the distance from him she hoped providing a better deterrent from her hitting him. She came to stand beside the lady Galadriel who shared a knowing smile with her. "He can be tiresome when he holds to his truths" her voice suddenly spoke in her mind, causing Devina to jump a little at look at her in astonishment.
"Did you just..." She whispered. She gave such a slight nod of her beautiful head that she almost wasn't sure she had at all. "You're troubled by the talk here. But more by what this talk means for the young dwarf king than by the danger itself." It could have been a question so she chose to answer it with a nod.
"There is so much more going on that I don't know about, that is directly effecting us and it scares me. How am I to protect him...them." She tells her in a whisper, not wanting to be overheard by the others. She didn't trust the wizard, and Elrond sadly had already made his opinion clear. She really hoped Galadriel would not be against her and the company so outright. "Not everything can be foreseen to its full extent. Even the things I see are limited to the picture before me and not the outside forces that may interfere. perhaps your book is the same,"
"and for Thorin? Can you tell me what you see?" She asked, hopeful for something helpful. Galadriel looked almost sad then and Devina could feel fear trickling into her heart. "One thing remains steady in his future. Fire and death." Devina must have given some sign that she would collapse because the woman's hands came to rest on her shoulders supportively. "Fire and death await Thorin Oakenshield, but whose deaths will meet him in Erebor, I cannot say. You will have to fight hard, harder than you do now, if you wish to ensure it is not his own. But are you so willing, if it were to mean your own?" Devina didn't even hesitate to answer her. She didn't have anything to go back to in her world, nothing worth going back for. "Yes, I would if I had to."
"Then he has every chance fate and luck can afford to him. If he will bewise enough to hold onto it," she spoke aloud this time before turning to gaze at Gandalf with a sudden intensity. Glancing over at him Devina should see his head turned as though he were listening to something in their direction. "Is she speaking to him the same way she just did to me?" She wondered and as if to answer her question Gandalf slowly withdrew a brown parcel from his lap and set it gently on the table. The sound it made though was as if he'd dropped an iron hammer onto its surface. Everything, even the air, grew quiet and tense.
"What is that?" Elrond asked cautiously, slowly reaching out a hand to reveal what was hidden in the wrappings.
"A relic, of Mordor," Galadriel spoke aloud, stepping closer to the table, leaving Devina sanding alone, away from the group. Elronds hand had stilled, almost pulling away as though he thought better of touching anything from Mordor, but resolved himself and revealed the item to their eyes. Everyone but Devina looked grave and fearful at the sight of the small sword on the table. Devina thought it looked plain and dull, nothing frightening at all. But the longer her looked upon it, it were as though all the evil and malice in the world were radiating from its very presence. It's dark miasma oozing into the very air around them. Of course she was being imaginative. It was just a plain boring but sharp blade. The stress of things must have been getting to her. And yet the longer it lay there free to be seen, their air felt dark and cruel. She wanted to cover it again.
"A Morgul blade," Elrond states not believing his eyes.
"Made for the witch king of Angmar...and buried with him," there was a trace of fear in her voice, her eyes meeting Gandalf's. "When Angmar fell, the men of the North took his body and all that he possessed, and sealed it in the high fells of Rhudaur. Deep within the rock they buried him, in a tomb so dark, it would never come to light."
Elrond stepped closer a little more before leaning over the table and yet touching it as little as possible, as if worried the vile aura of the blade might touch him if he got too close. " This is not possible. A powerful spell lies upon those tombs. They cannot be opened."
"What proof have we that this" Saruman made a motion with his hand as though to find the right word. "Weapon came from Angmar's grave?"
"I have none," Gandalf admitted, as if that weren't enough to proove he were wrong.
"Because there is none!" Saruman added patronizingly. "Let us examine what we know. A single Orc pack has dared to run across the Bruinen. A dagger from a bygone age has been found. And a Human sorcerer who calls himself the 'Necromancer' as taken up residence in a ruined fortress. It's not so very much after all." He let silence fall for a moment before he continued. "God he loves to hear himself talk. Get this guy a soap box.' Devina's mind snapped personally tired of listening to him anymore. She only grew angrier again when he opened his mouth and continued.
"The question of this dwarfish company, however, troubles me deeply. I'm not convinced Gandalf. I do not feel I can condone such a quest. If they had come to me, I might have spared them some disappointment,"
"Well it's a dam-" Devina began, in full swing to curse the pompous fit back to his black tower, but then they were interrupted by a young handsome elf she didn't recognize.
"My lord Elrond. The dwarves. They've gone." The world shifted on its axis and Devina did not wait to hear their reactions to the news, instead she found herself sprinting back to their rooms, not believing Thorin had deliberately abandoned her. "He wouldn't! He wouldn't leave. He wouldn't leave me behind." Her heart thudded dully in her ears at a far slower pace that it should have been given her exertion. Her mind repeated images of that dream back to her, of him and the others surrounding her, dead on the ground. Never hearing his voice again.
Finally she came to a halt heaving outside the first door. His door. With a shaking hand she pushed it open, praying to find him there. A clean but barren room greeted her. All of his belongings gone. Shaking her head she refused to believe it were true and proceeded to slam every door open, looking for signs of the others only to be greeted with the same desolation left behind. It was as if they'd never been there. Just like at Bilbo's that first day, not a single trace of them.
Reaching the last door she half hoped to see her things gone and a note with instructions to meet them but that didn't happen. Her bed was still unmade. Pack in the chair beside the large opened windows. She stood there staring out the window feeling utterly lost and abandoned when a hand clasped her shoulder.
"He wanted you to stay here, where you'd be safe." Came Gandalf's gentle, knowing voice. "I do believe he's grown to care for you too much to allow you to endanger your life any further. I thought you already knew of his plan and that was why you were at the meeting before." He sounded apologetic as if he felt responsible for the deception. Slowly she turned around looked up at Gandalf. Her face red with dried tear tracks marring her soft round cheeks.
"He knows what my book says." She told him. Gandalf looked a little surprised but nodded. "After what happened, after the things Elrond said. I wouldn't keep secrets from him anymore. So I told him what we would face until we would have reached Mirkwood." She trailed off, images of their kiss searing across her mind. She'd give anything to just hold his hand again, to hear his laugh. And then a dreadful thought hit her.
"Oh god Gandalf, the Orc aren't in my book. He doesn't know they are still after them. We have to go after them. Please help me find them." She plead but was confused when Gandalf began chuckling at her.
"My sweet sweet girl, did you really think I would just leave you behind? That may be Thorin's wish, but what about yours? You are you're own master, not Thorin." He smiled at her and pushed her towards her belongings. "Gather your things, we are at least a few hours behind them. If we're lucky and fast, we might reach them, in the mean time you're going to go over every detail you remember of the book." And with that he left to make preparations.
They'd ridden as fast as they could for two days and still hadn't found the others. Damned if those dwarves hadn't continued their journey on through the night. Night had fallen by the time Devina and Gandalf had reached the base of the mountain. Ominous thunderclouds that had loomed above them hours before had reached it before them and they were now forced to travel on foot, much to her protests and fears for their animal companions. Gandalf had reassured Devina that the horses knew their way back to Rivendell and were some of the fastest. They would not come to harm from any normal predator. The same unfortunately could not be said for them as they slowly picked their way over the mountain path with little light to aid them through the onslaught of rain that threatened to either drown them of wash them away down the side of the cliffs. Devina had done as Gandalf asked and spent the first day going over every detail she could remember of the book. Well apart from Bilbo's separation and she hoped she wouldn't regret that.
"We want to hurry, but it would be better it we avoided the Giants." Gandalf cautioned. They mutually agreed that trying to reach the others before the colossal encounter was useless and they could only hope to find them before they were captured, at worse they would need to find a way in so Gandalf could come to their aid just in time. He would broker no argument regardless which turn of events were to come about, she would wait at the other side of the mountain for them to escape and would not under any circumstances enter the mountain. He would not risk any harm coming to her in there. Warning that the Goblins would not simply torture and kill her like they would the others. Her being a woman put her at an even more dire risk should they not escape. It was only with great reluctance and after being thwamped on her head sharply by his staff that she agreed.
She couldn't be too mad at the wizard. Over the last couple of days traveling alone with him they'd discovered a friendship of their own that had nothing to do with her and the quest. He was as meddlesome and mischievous as people accused him of being. But his heart was always in the right place and he never misused those he cared for or viewed as innocent. Not intentionally anyway. He loved to tell stories and riddles, the stories she adored, the riddles she was rotten at. Though he had continued to try and after a while she was able to start discerning how they worked and could occasionally guess the answers. The evening before, while she hated smoking, she'd asked him to teach her how to blow smoke rings like he did. She still couldn't quite get it, but after nearly finishing off his pipe tobacco they were full of laughs and didn't quite care much anymore and has settled down into quiet songs before falling sleep. He was the first person apart from her paternal grandfather she ever sang in front of.
It hadn't taken long for them to discover the Giants as she had described. Though they weren't playing as the book had implied. Devina gasped as ones head has been knocked clear off its shoulder and they both watched in stunned amazement as it slowly crashed into the side of the mountain be for falling to the low valley below. The remaining two giants continued their brawling but we're moving off to the other side of another peak, away from the mountain pass.
"They've gone, we must hurry if we're to find them before the goblins," she called out to him. "There's no telling how far ahead they are or where the cave is,"
"We will find it, follow me. Carefully now!" he called back to her as they continued to pick their way along.
The pair had to have been climbing the pass for over an hour and nearly to the other side before the rain began to dissipate, allowing the clouds to part and leak in moon light. If it hadn't been for that they might never have heard the shouting of their companions a short distance ahead. Something was wrong. With little more than a look at one another to rushed I. The direction of the commotion. At first they couldn't find the enters nice to the cave and had somehow passed them while looking. It was on a second pass back the way they came that they saw the low lights and shouting was fading. They hurried inside, just as the floor swallowed up the last of the dwarves and slammed shut.
"No! Damn it we're too late. Gandalf we failed them!" She looked back at him looking panicked. Gandalf only stared at the floor where the cracks had sealed shut, thinking.
"I believe I know where the entrance on the other side lies. If we hurry I can leave you there and get to them before it's too late. Come. We must hurry!" And with that they were rushing almost dangerously out of the cave and over the mountain path once more. What took maybe another hour felt like days before the sloping path began to fade into the trees of a forest that grew along the mountain ridge. They'd reached the other side. She continued to follow the wizard, trusting he knew where he was going and not trusting herself to stay calm. Another agonizing hour went by when they saw it at the same time. A great yawning hole in the wall of the mountain couldn't be mistaken for anything else. They made a wide circle into the trees in case anyone was guarding the entrance before Gandalf made them stop.
"I want you to climb this tree and stay quite. We don't know what else may be lurking in the woods. You should be perfectly safe here until we return"
"If it's so dangerous out here too then let me come with you!" She tried to protest. Hiding in a tree like a frightened squirrel?! She hated the thought of it, even is she did feel about as brave.
"Devina I will not argue with you about this nor do we have the luxury of time to do so! Now do as I say! Do not come down from this tree until you see us exiting the mountain. We will quite possibly be running for our lives and you will need to meet us and not get left behind. However if for some reason we do get separated," he paused, looking around before reaching into the tree and pulling the largest fuzziest moth she ever seen down. He brought it to his lips and began to whisper to it before opening his hands and allowing it to fly to her and rest on her shoulder.
"If for some reason we are to be separated tell him to go and wait at the top of the closest tree you can find. He will bring you help and that help will take you to what I believe will be a safe place for us to meet again. Do you understand me, Devina?" He asked her sternly. She could only manage to nod, starting to feel like imitating a squirrel in shining armor up a tree was a pretty good idea after all. He turned and started walking away but she called after him.
"Please be careful and bring him back to me. All of them," she wished him luck when he smiled at her and turned again without another word.
Once alone she looked around her, feeling chilled. Glancing down to her shoulder where the large moth still rested, she smiled. "What do you say little guy? Time for us to get stuck in a tree you think?" She giggled a little when no response came but a small twitch of its thick antenna. Taking a deep breath she reached up to the lowest hanging branch she could find and slowly hoisted herself into it and continued to climb higher into its fuller appendages, hoping to remain out of sight of any wandering predators or enemies. And the waiting game began.
A/N: sorry for the wait! Been sick since Sunday and have been too tired to do much of anything. Well I'm feeling better and wanted to get this in! I apologize if it rather sucks and doesn't have much going on. I had planned on getting them reunited fist before ending the chapter but by this point it would have been extremely long indeed! I am slowly pulling away from sourcing the book as the events start to get more and more muddled but once we get past a specific point I'll be relying on it again to cause more trouble for our gang. Well trouble they think they will be prepared for but aren't!
As as usual be sure to leave your beautiful thoughts and opinions in the reviews and I hope to get the next far more action and drama packed chapter up this week!
Cheers!
T.T