4
Thranduil leaned down to whisper to his horse. He knew he was pushing the animal to its limits but there were only so many hours of daylight left. He did not want to stop and he did not want lose the trail. He knew his elves could still track the wargs at night but it would be slower progress than they were making now.
From what he could tell of the trail it was likely not even a day since the warg riders had ridden north, followed by horses not far behind. Those likely had been the survivors of the orc attack. Thranduil clenched the mane of his horse as he blamed himself yet again for not setting out earlier from the Greenwood. Just one day earlier. Just a few hours earlier and he might have arrived before the attack. He whispered to the horse again. He needed more speed.
Elladan leaned down to whisper to his horse. He knew it likely wouldn't help, as the horse was bearing both him and Elrohir and likely could not give them any more speed. But he had to try. Somewhere out there in the night an orc pack had his mother. He couldn't spare the horse. He needed to find her. And fast.
His mind kept replaying the orc attack. They had not had any warning, not a sound, not a feeling, not a thing had seemed out of place. They had been outnumbered, but that had never been a problem before. These orcs were different. A combined attack on foot and with wargs. It had been many years since Elladan had seen warg riders. These orcs had tried to shoot or kill the horses under them. It wasn't like their usual uncoordinated attacks.
And that's why he was riding with Elrohir behind him. More than half their horses had been killed and what was left of the company was riding double in their chase of the wargs.
The last sight of his mother had been seeing her pulled up off the ground and thrown across the back of one of those wargs. If he hadn't seen it with own eyes he would not have believed it possible. She had been between them, sheltered by their horses and their bodies! Elladan blamed himself. If he had just reacted quicker, if he had just finished that orc off faster, if he had just . . .
"Stop it." Elrohir said from behind him.
"Stop what?" Elladan snapped.
"Blaming yourself. If we are going to apportion it, I'm as much to blame as you," his twin replied.
Elladan shook his head. "I don't understand it, 'Ro. They came out of nowhere. So many of them. I've never seen them shoot and kill the horses the way they did this time."
"Rather than us, you mean? I'd say there were still a fair amount of arrows and swords attacking us." Elrohir answered "We have lost more than half the company. And there isn't one of us, barring Glorfindel, that isn't wounded."
"When do you last remember them taking captives, 'Ro? Answer me that." Elladan countered.
Elrohir was silent for a few moments. "I don't remember them ever taking captives, 'Dan. Not since long before we were born, from the stories Ada tells."
"We've got to find her." Elladan paused. "Them, I mean. Naneth and Cyllessil." He bent to whisper to the horse again just as Glorfindel unexpectedly called a halt.
"Why are we halting?" Elrohir shouted at Glorfindel as he rode over to them, Mirdan swaying in the saddle behind the golden-haired elf.
"Can't keep up the pace this way. We're going to kill the horses and we've wounded among us who can't keep riding like this. We have to stop." Glorfindel said.
"We can't stop. We have to follow those orcs before they, before they. . ." Elrohir started.
Glorfindel interrupted him. "Those of us who can ride will ride hard, single rider. We'll go faster that way. The rest we leave here. We can send riders back for them once we've found your mother and Cyllessil."
"The ones left behind will never survive another orc attack, Glorfindel." Elladan said, quietly looking at Mirdan.
Mirdan looked at Elladan with tired eyes. "We can't let them have the Lady Celebrian, my lord. We were part of this escort to keep her safe and we have failed her. I will not fail her further by hampering her rescue." He slid off the horse and looked up at Glorfindel. "We will do what needs to be done, Glorfindel. Find them."
Elladan nodded and slid off the horse. Moving quickly, he and Glorfindel took the least injured of their party and assorted them on the remaining horses.
"Isdir, you are in charge while I am away." Glorfindel said to the elf near him. Isdir was bleeding from a cut on his head and was holding his left arm close to his body.
"Yes Commander." Isdir said quickly. "I've got this. Find the Lady Celebrian, sir. And the Queen. Please." Glorfindel quickly patted Isdir's uninjured shoulder and mounted his horse. The rest of the small company mounted up and sped after the moonlit trail in grass.