Chapter 24

*Bold ~ Elvish*

The next thing that Annelise was aware of after falling asleep were voices whispering in her room from near her door.

"I did not think she would be in here when she didn't answer after I knocked on her door," said a female voice that she quickly identified as Tauriel's.

"She is in the exact same position that she was in when I left her last night. She did not even move in her sleep. It could not have been her," she heard Legolas respond. At that last sentence, Annelise knew that Bilbo must have released their companions and she began to stir from her position on the bed.

Both elves in the room turned to look at her at the sound of her movement.

"Legolas, Tauriel. Is everything alright?," she asked, confusion coloring her voice at seeing them both standing there, even if she already knew the reason. Instead of answering right away, Legolas walked over and sat on the side of her bed looking at her.

"Please get dressed and follow Tauriel to the throne room. My father and I will be waiting for you there."

After speaking, he quickly stood up once again and left the room. Annelise looked to Tauriel in question, trying to play up her confusion a bit, but Tauriel simply shook her head and reached into Annelise's wardrobe and produced the travelling outfit that Arwen had given her while she was in Rivendell.

"Bring your weapons with you," she said sternly, offering nothing else before walking out the door to allow her to change in private. Although the summons were not completed unexpected, the instruction to bring her weapons with her took Annelise completely by surprise. She rushed through changing her clothes and braiding back her hair, and was in the process of tying her belt carrying her sword around her waist as she opened the door into the hallway.

Tauriel took in her appearance and nodded once before turning and leading Annelise to the throne room. Annelise reached over her shoulder carefully to make sure that reaching for her bow or twin blades would not cause too much strain on the stitches in her back, but found that the motion was easy. This brought her a strange amount of relief, as she was completely uncertain of the situation she was being led into.

She instantly tensed upon approaching the throne at the sight of Legolas holding one of his blades against the throat of an orc kneeling at his feet.

She looked into Legolas' eyes with confusion and anger covering her face, silently asking him what was going on. Thranduil saw the look on her face and began speaking.

"The dwarves have escaped from my dungeons. The keys somehow were stolen from their keeper and your companions escaped riding in barrels down the river that flows from underneath this palace," he said, the anger in his barely concealed.

All Annelise could manage at this news was a disbelieving, "In barrels?," before the King began speaking again.

"Legolas tells me it is impossible that you could have any part in this escape, but I do not think you are as ignorant of it as you seem," he spoke, seeming to dare her to lie again.

Annelise began to speak, not seeing the harm in revealing some of the truth now that she knew her friends had managed to break out.

"There was another member of our company, a Hobbit by the name of Bilbo Baggins, that was not captured by the Guard. When I learned he was not with the others, I feared he must have still been lost in the woods...or worse. He must have found his way here and freed the others."

Annelise knew this would seem unlikely to the Elvenking and that she would most likely have to reveal that she had indeed had a part in the plan to break out her companions, but Tauriel spoke up.

"She is right. I counted fourteen figures in the barrels, instead of the thirteen that were held in our dungeons. I had planned to ask Annelise about it, but it seems she has explained it now."

The Elvenking looked down at Annelise in suspicion for a moment longer, before turning to look at the orc still at his son's feet, looking on in confusion as it could not understand what was being said.

"Very well," he said in dismissal, beginning to walk around the orc in circles like a hunter stalking its prey. After a time he began speaking again, this time addressing the orc.

"Such is the nature of evil. Out there in the vast ignorance of the world, it festers and spreads. A shadow that grows in the dark. A sleepless malice as black as the oncoming wall of night. So it ever was. So will it always be. In time, all foul things come forth."

After his father finished, Legolas began questioning the orc. Annelise was shocked by the tone he used. It was colder and darker than any she had ever heard from him, and shivered slightly at the sound of it.

"You were tracking a company of 13 dwarves. Why?"

"Not 13. Not anymore," these words causing a shot of panic to run through Annelise. "The young one...the black-haired archer...we stuck him with a Morgul shaft."

"Kili," Annelise whimpered quietly, but that small reaction from her drew the orc's attention.

"The poison's in his blood," it continued speaking directly to Annelise, taunting her. "He'll be choking on it soon."

Tauriel stepped in front of Annelise, blocking her from the orc's view.

"Answer the question, filth," she threatened, to which the orc responded aggressively in its own language. Legolas' blade pressed even closer to the creature's throat, while Tauriel drew her own knife menacingly. Based on both Tauriel and Legolas' reactions, Annelise was again thankful for not being able to understand the vile language.

"I would not antagonise her," Legolas said, the threat clear in his voice.

"You like killing things, orc? You like death?," Tauriel said, the orc sneering at the questions.

"Then let me give it to you!"

With these words Tauriel sprang away from Annelise, her blades out in front of her ready to follow through with her threat. But one word from the King stopped her actions.

"Enough!"

She paused and stepped back a bit before Thranduil continued speaking.

"Tauriel, leave. Take Annelise with you. Go now."

The orc sneered at Tauriel once more, as she slowly began to back toward Annelise.

Once she reached the young girl, she turned and started walking away as ordered.

Annelise hesitated for just a moment, but at a slight nod from Legolas, turned and followed after the elleth.

They walked for a few moments until they were out of earshot of the King and his son and then Tauriel turned to face Annelise suddenly.

"I will not allow these orcs to continue through our lands unchallenged. If you wish to follow after your friends, we have to leave now while there is still a chance."

Completely taken aback by this turn of events, Annelise simply motioned for Tauriel to lead the way.

"Is there anything you need to retrieve from your room? We do not have much time."

"Nothing that I cannot retrieve if I am ever allowed to return here," Annelise responded quickly, knowing that the Elvenking could easily see her actions as treason and chose to deny her entrance into his kingdom after this.

"Good," Tauriel replied curtly, leading Annelise toward what looked to be the front gate.

The guards stopped them before they could get far.

"The Lady Annelise has asked to see some of the forest surrounding the palace," Tauriel spoke confidently and the guards simply nodded and opened the doors for them, leaving them open for whenever they would return.

Although both women got strange looks from the guards at carrying so many weapons just for a walk, they were not questioned and walked out of the gate slowly to avoid raising suspicion.

Once they were far enough away, Tauriel signalled to Annelise and they soon were running through the forest quickly, Annelise following closely behind the elleth.

'I just hope we can reach them in time,' Annelise thought to herself, worry over her cousin pushing her along after the quick elleth.

"I do not care about one dead dwarf. Answer the question. You have nothing to fear. Tell us what you know and I will set you free," Thranduil continued once he was sure that Annelise was far enough away that she would not be able to hear.

"You had orders to kill them. Why?," Legolas continued his questioning. "What is Thorin Oakenshield to you?"

"The dwarf runt will never be king."

"So you wish to stop them from trying to reach Erebor?," Legolas asked, knowing from Annelise that that was the motive behind the quest she had been on.

"You know nothing! Your world will burn."

"What are you talking about? Speak!"

"Our time has come again. My master serves the one. Do you understand now, elfing?," the orc continued addressing Thranduil.

"Death is upon you. The flames of war are upon you!," it laughed, before the sound was suddenly cut off when Thranduil drew a blade, seemingly out of thin air, and threw it at the orc severing its head from its body.

"Why did you do that?," Legolas asked in mild annoyance, still holding the severed head before dropping it next to the convulsing body on the ground. "You promised to set him free."

"And I did. I freed his wretched head from his miserable shoulders," his father responded coldly, stepping on the orc's foot to stop its movements.

"There was more the orc could tell us."

"There was nothing more he could tell me."

"What did he mean by the flames of war?," Legolas questioned, following after his father as he walked away from the throne.

"It means they intend to unleash a weapon so great, it will destroy all before it."

This answer shocked Legolas, and he stopped in his tracks as his father continued walking.

"I want the watch doubled at our borders! All roads, all rivers. Nothing moves but I hear of it," King Thranduil ordered, looking back at his son.

"No one enters this kingdom. And no one leaves it."

Legolas quickly moved to the front gate after his father left to make sure the King's orders were followed.

"Close the gate. Keep it sealed by order of the King," he shouted to the soldiers guarding the open gate before turning to continue his duties. A shout from one of the guards made him freeze where he stood.

"What about Tauriel and Lady Annelise?"

"What about them?"

"They went into the forest armed with bows and blades. They have not returned," the guard finished, pointing out which way they walked as Legolas came forward and walked out the gate passed him.

'The King will not be pleased,' was all Legolas could think before turning to report to his father, knowing where the two women would likely be heading.

After speaking with his father and dealing with his anger at the women who had snuck away, Legolas received orders to follow them and bring them back. Knowing they would not have much time to leave, Legolas assumed that Annelise would not have had time to go back to her room and grab her things, and decided to make a stop there after grabbing his own things.

Sure enough upon walking into Annelise's room, he saw the pack she had been carrying when he first saw her.

Picking it up, he glanced around the room one last time before leaving the room once again.

Once in the forest, Legolas followed the path of destruction left by the pack of orcs pursuing the dwarves, knowing Tauriel would be doing the same.

He hoped that, despite the head start, he would be able to catch up with Tauriel and Annelise before they caught up with the orcs.

After running in relative silence for most of the day, Annelise and Tauriel reached the end of the forest where the river fed into a lake.

Tauriel was standing on a rock next to Annelise gazing over the lake. Just as Annelise was about to ask Tauriel what they should do next, the elleth suddenly turned and pulled back the arrow that she had kept strung in her bow for most of their journey.

Annelise quickly turned at her motion and grabbed her twin blades out of their steaths, ready to fight.

She instantly relaxed a bit when she saw Legolas standing behind them, with his own arrow drawn back. She watched Tauriel smirk a bit before addressing the prince.

"I thought you were an orc."

Legolas smirked in return before answering. "If I were an orc, you would be dead."

He then let his arrow relax in his bow, before approaching both women.

"Tauriel, Annelise, you cannot hunt 30 orcs on your own."

"But we're not on our own," Tauriel said smiling back at Legolas, the prince answering with a soft smile of his own.

"You knew I would come."

Annelise and Tauriel both looked at the prince standing before them, and the matching smiles on the women's faces was enough of an answer for him.

"The King is angry, Tauriel," Legolas said, coming to stand between the two women.

"For 600 years my father has protected you, favored you. You defied his orders. You betrayed his trust," he spoke sadly before turning to Annelise. "I can understand your decision to follow the only family you've known for the last 22 years, but my father does not see that."

"Come back with me," he addressed both of them, "he will forgive you."

"But I will not. If I go back, I will not forgive myself. The King has never let orc filth roam our lands. Yet he would let this orc pack cross our borders and kill our prisoners," Tauriel spoke, looking at Annelise with caution, wondering if she had offended the girl by speaking about her family like that. The young girl shook her head slightly, understanding the meaning behind the woman's words.

"It is not our fight," Legolas countered, forgetting about Annelise's presence next to him.

"It is our fight. It will not end here. With every victory this evil will grow. If your father has his way, we will do nothing. We will hide within our walls, live our lives away from the light, and let darkness descend."

Legolas looked sharply at Tauriel as she spoke her last sentence, and recalled the words the orc had spoken earlier to his father. He then turned and looked down at Annelise, finally remembering that she was not simply tracking an orc pack. She was fighting to find her family again.

"Are we not part of this world?," Tauriel continued, seeing that her words had seemed to have a slight effect on the prince. "Tell me, mellon. When did we let evil become stronger than us?"

With these final words, a determined look came into Legolas' eyes and he locked eyes with Annelise once more.

"Let's find your family."