Date: TA 2941
Thorin: 195 years old
Lina: 192 years old
Messengers flew back and forth across the camp. Scouts slipped in from missions beyond the orc army. With each piece of news, tensions in the camp rose.
Lina could taste war in the air. That flavor had not been in her mouth since the days of the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. Anger, hatred, fear: all burned hot like the fires of a forge. They marred the faces of the warriors. Commanders tried to hide the emotions behind granite facades. Yet still the camp was alight with barely contained tempers.
Nes did her best to shield Lina from the worst of the news, an attempt which irritated the old linebreaker more with each passing day. Though the dwarven army stood nearly at the base of the Lonely Mountain, they could not reach it. Nor could they reach the armies arrayed at its foot to battle the orcs.
Only one messenger managed to get through to Lina and Kira from the other commanders. According to Dain Ironfoot, his armies were being blocked from uniting with Thorin's small band by the combined might of Thranduil's Elves and the Men of Laketown united under Bard, the descendant of the last King of Dale. It seems Thorin promised a share of the treasure in Erebor to the Men of Laketown if they helped him reclaim his rightful place on the throne. The Elves, however, seemed to believe they too deserved some portion of the gold and jewels contained within the Mountain.
As for the betrayal Thorin ranted about, his thoughts echoing in Lina's dreams though she did not try to reach him, the burglar was responsible. Bilbo found and stole the Arkenstone, not from the dragon but from Thorin. Thranduil now was in possession of the dwarves' most valued gem. The thought made Lina sick to her stomach. Without the gem, Thorin's signs of power were nearly gone. The ring his forefathers wore, which should have passed to him, had been missing since the disappearance of Thrain. Now the brilliant jewel of Erebor was in the hands of Elves. If it remained with them, Thorin would still be accepted as King based on his ancestry, but his power would be diminished. Whispers of weakness and madness would forever plague his reign.
How could the hobbit, Lina's friend, do such a thing? He knew what that stone represented to the Dwarves. Was his promise, like Kira's, conditional? Bilbo promised to help the dwarves reclaim their home. Yet, even as Men and Elves threatened to force Thorin from his rightful place, Bilbo turned to aid them instead of his former companions.
Blocked from joining Thorin, Dain tried to reach Kira's small army. However, the Men of Laketown moved to prevent even this. Though Kira sent message after message to warn the three armies in standoff at the base of the Mountain of the orc army, it seemed none of them cared or received the messages. No attack on the orcs came.
As for the black horde, it simply sat quietly just out of sight of the other armies, blocking any advance by Kira's forces. For the moment, Bolg's forces seemed content to wait. Lina wondered if Bolg hoped the three armies would fall into battle with one another, allowing his army to sweep in and destroy the survivors.
Lina turned to her small band of specialists for way to combat the orcs without directly engaging in battle. Her earth mage spent hours carefully feeling out the earth around and beneath the orcs, searching for any weakness in the ground. Nes and Kes tried a number of times to locate Bolg in an attempt to kill him before he could lead his army into battle.
All attempts proved useless. The only fissures in the ground would require the orcs to actually begin their advance before they could be swallowed by the earth. Even then, her mage could not get close enough to the cracks to see how deeply the army would fall should he succeed. Perhaps they would fall miles, perhaps meters, but it was also conceivable that the collapsed ground would only create a slight indentation through which the army would march.
As for the twins, no target presented itself. Though Bolg must have been with his army, he was nowhere to be seen. There was no ripple in the camp to suggest his presence. As far as the scouts could discern, none of the orcs left the army save in death. Yet the disfigured orc was all but invisible. No one could find trace of him.
The general tension of the battle that must come was only compounded by the tension within the camp. Kira's army and Lina's small band kept apart. Though many of the warriors once trained together, the rift between Kira and Lina created conflicts of interest. Once it became clear that the Kira would not be slaying the dragon, she nearly turned back. The loss of so many of her warriors made her hesitant to send those remaining up against the orcs in pitched battle. Her warriors followed her, as their oaths dictated they should. Likewise, Lina's band followed her. As dwarves with something left back in the Blue Mountains, they pledged their service to their ruler's wife. They did not fight for gold as Kira's army did, they fought for family and loyalty.
Missteps in communication only served to aggravate the situation between the two leaders. Kira had once declared Lina to be supreme commander, yet tried to usurp that authority now that Smaug was dead. This left the state of which camp the scouts were to report to in question. To try easing tensions, Lina encouraged the scouts to return to their direct commander, Gavin. Still Kira refused to speak to her old comrade.
It was only a matter of time before the mercenaries simply turned for home. The only thing holding Kira's attention now was the prospect of a full-scale battle. Without Dain Ironfoot's help, she knew she could not hope to crush the orcs alone. Being forced to wait, however, only tore at her nerves.
Lina grimaced in pain, sipping at the tea Nes prepared, as she examined her carefully sketched map. The battle would come. It was only a matter of time. She could only hope that she was not too late to save her husband.