17: It's a Promise
The bath to which they were taken after the tense conversation in the loft turned out to be deserving of the name, which came as a bit of a surprise to Tauriel, who had grown accustomed to commodities such as lavatories and mealtimes to be a bit of a travesty during her time as a prisoner on the Easterlings' vessel. This particular bath was located inside a squat building one reached after crossing yet another courtyard at the back of the main house and ducking through a low stone gate.
There were several rooms, equipped not merely with the necessities for a quick wash, but rather, it seemed, with ample tools to pamper oneself, if one should choose to do so. And so Tauriel had her first proper soak in weeks, in water that was, if not quite hot, at the very least not completely cold, and with a bit of soap that smelled of unfamiliar spices and was not altogether unpleasant. She would have liked to have savored it, but, aside from the fact that her mind kept circling back to the question of what would come after this, she and Kíli had been separated upon entering the facilities and this was something she found she could hardly bear.
As if sharing a bath with him would not have opened up a whole other set of difficulties, she tried to mock herself, but it was no use. He had been taken out of her sight, in this strange place which they still knew so little of, and she could not shake the choking fear which had taken hold of her the moment she had realized that they would not be permitted to stay together.
And so she washed as thoroughly and as quickly as she could, scrubbing her skin with trembling fingers while she watched the water inside the tub turn brown. Her hair would be a nightmare to detangle after such a neglectful treatment, but she could have cared less as she soaped up the long tresses and submerged her head under water to rinse them as swiftly as possible.
When she emerged from the women's section of the bath—her skin pink and her hair hanging in an inelegant, wet braid down her back—soaking through the fabric of her tunic between her shoulder blades, Kíli was already waiting for her. His arms were crossed in front of his chest while he leaned with one shoulder against the wall next to the entrance to the baths.
His posture was clearly intended to look leisurely, at ease, to a casual observer, but Tauriel saw the way his shoulders fell in relief when he caught sight of her, and, upon stepping closer, noticed the dents his teeth had left in his lower lip where he had been biting it. He, too, it would seem, could hardly stand being parted from her even for the short time it took to have a proper bath. While that realization made Tauriel dizzy with a wild, almost inappropriate sort of joy, it also gave her pause.
Maybe Kíli was right, maybe caring about someone and living the consequences of it wasn't cowardice. In a situation such as theirs, it was a liability, though, and she could not help but feel that they were moving too fast, were falling too hard, perhaps. For where would it leave them, when things went wrong? So far, most of her anxiety about the future had been focused on what would happen once Kíli was free to return to his life and she to hers, but what if they never made it this far in the first place? If she couldn't stand being parted from him for half an hour, what would losing him to whatever schemes Gansukh had cooked up for them do to her?
Perhaps it won't be so bad, she told herself as she headed over to Kíli and leaned against the wall beside him. Their neighbors inside the loft had seemed unharmed, for the most part, so perhaps they would not live under the constant threat of physical harm while they worked on a plan that would set them free from their current state of involuntary servitude. But then she remembered the bruises on the ribs of Nesrin's friend and felt her heart sink. Whatever it was they were supposed to be doing here, it probably wasn't something simple such as peeling potatoes or tending to the gardens.
Kíli nudged her shoulder with his. "It will be alright," he whispered, low enough so that the guard who was approaching them from across the courtyard wouldn't hear. "Let's just try to find out as much about this place as we can while we're out here."
Tauriel pressed her lips together, nodded. "Try not to get into too much trouble while you do so."
Kíli grinned up at her even as he pushed away from the wall. "Me? Never."
The guard stopped a few paces away from them and waited until they had begun to cross over to him before turning around sharply and heading back in the direction he had come from. With a shrug, Kíli fell into step behind him, and Tauriel, with a final deep breath, followed.
They crossed the courtyard but did not head back to the main house, choosing a narrow path between two smaller buildings instead. The path soon turned into steps which they descended for what seemed a long time, the roar of the sea growing louder as they did. They had not passed through any sort of gate, however, and so Tauriel guessed that they still had to be inside the walls surrounding Gansukh's estate. Somewhere on the opposite side of the island from the one which they had arrived on then, she supposed.
And, indeed, they eventually found themselves facing a towering wall made of stone, higher than the one on the northern side of the island where they had anchored the day before. Beyond the wall, waves crashed against what had to be jagged cliffs, demanding access to the island. Tauriel would have liked to put a hand against the wall to see if she could feel the sea's heartbeat even through the massive structure, but their guide had already taken a sharp turn to the right and she thought it better to follow him rather than lose her way on their very first day here.
With the clamor of the sea to their left, they trekked along the bottom of the wall for yet another couple of minutes before they reached a small, iron gate inside the wall with yet another set of narrow steps leading down into darkness beyond it.
The guide unlocked the gate with a key fastened to a chain around his neck and gestured for them to step through. Tauriel's neck prickled with apprehension. After weeks of being locked up in a cage without light, without fresh air, was yet another dungeon really to be her fate?
Kíli seemed less troubled by the idea, which maybe wasn't quite that surprising, seeing that his kin had famously built a whole kingdom inside a mountain. He did not hesitate as he stepped across the threshold. Tauriel tried to draw some strength from his courage as she followed close behind.
The gate clanged shut behind them. At the sound of the key turning in the lock Tauriel whipped her head around, but the guard had already left, his steps a fading crunch on the gravel lining the wall.
"Come." Kíli's gentle voice reached her from the darkness of the stairwell. "Whatever awaits us down there, I'm certain we have both seen worse."
And he was right, wasn't he? And even better yet, they were facing this new challenge together. No reason to have her heart pounding with nervous fear.
Still, as she descended the stairs, her hand slipping easily into Kíli's now that they were out of sight of watchful eyes, her stomach was doing some rather interesting somersaults. Quickly, she catalogued the different sorts of foul things which might await them in the darkness as well as the strategies which worked best against them.
Trolls, daylight, obviously. Giant spiders, swiftness and a sharp blade. Goblins, a bit of wit and more or less any sort of weapon at hand. Wargs, stamina and, preferably, a place to hide until they had tired themselves out.
Once that list was complete, she felt marginally better. As long as she held back the thought that most of the things she might use to defend herself were currently not at her disposal, that was.
As they went deeper and deeper into the cavernous space beyond the wall, the smell of the sea grew stronger with every step. The air was damp, and when Tauriel reached out to steady herself against the wall, the ground slippery beneath her bare feet (were they ever going to wear shoes again, she wondered?), her palm came away covered in a sheen of salty moisture.
"Do you think they have sent us down here to drown us?" she asked Kíli, only half kidding. This place was definitely making her neck prickle with an uneasy foreboding.
"After all the trouble they went through to bring us here? I doubt it."
His hand, despite his words of reassurance, tightened around hers. She could feel the thrum of his pulse at his wrist, not racing, exactly, but quickened by the same nervous anticipation which was making her own breaths come faster the longer she was forced to wonder what they were up against.
They reached the bottom of the stairs and followed a narrow corridor towards where the roar of the sea was the loudest. And then, suddenly, there was light. Light and air, fresher than that trapped inside the tunnel. Tauriel had to force her steps to remain measured, the urge to rush towards the promise of being able to breathe freely once again, of being able to see more than just dim shapes in the darkness, almost overwhelming.
As they drew closer to what had to be the end of the tunnel, though, Tauriel's sensitive ears picked up another sound over the clashing of waves against unyielding rocks. The sound of steel meeting steel, with a considerable amount of force behind it. Swords. Someone down here was fighting.
She dug her heels into the hard floor, her iron clasp on Kíli's hand forcing him to stop and turn back towards her.
"Whoever is down here other than us, they are armed," she informed him.
Kíli did not even question how she knew this, his brows drawing together in consternation. "I still don't think that their plan is to simply have us finished off down here," he said, a muscle in his jaw jumping at the thought. "Without weapons, I can hold my own against an armed opponent or two, and I'm willing to bet that so can you. Can you tell how many there are?"
She strained her ears once more. "More than two, armed with heavy swords. That is all I can say with certainty."
He nodded. "Alright. If we need to, the first thing we do is make sure that one of those swords ends up in your hands. I'm not terrible with a blade, but it isn't my weapon of choice."
Tauriel inclined her head in agreement with his plan. If they worked together, getting hold of one of those swords shouldn't be impossible, and then she would be able to defend the both of them. A fact which placated the part of herself that longed to make Kíli's well-being one of her top priorities.
Again, Kíli squeezed her hand. "We'll be alright. With you at my back, I've got nothing to worry about."
This time Tauriel couldn't help herself and tugged him closer, capturing his lips in a soft kiss. It already felt too long since she had last tasted him, and here, on the verge of yet another instance of mortal danger, she at least did not have to worry about taking things too far, about losing control.
When they parted, Kíli gave a low sigh. "I really wish those wouldn't always feel a bit like they might be a goodbye."
Tauriel smiled, ruefully. "Perhaps they won't, one day, far away from here."
Bringing up their joined hands between their bodies, Kíli let his lips graze her knuckles. "I'll take your word for it, Amrâlimê."
She did not know what that word meant, and yet did not have to ask. "It is a promise, then," she said instead, breathless and incredulous at the fact that they were having this conversation here, now. Talk about a loss of control, albeit in a different manner than she might have dreaded a few moments ago.
With a final smile, a bright spark in the darkness still surrounding them, Kíli stepped back. "Follow me, then."
And she would. No matter where he'd lead her.
Before they left the relative safety of the cold dank tunnel, however, Tauriel stopped him once more with her voice, something just having occurred to her. "Wait—your weapon of choice, what is it?"
Strange as it was, with all the fighting they had been forced to engage in, that was something they had never discussed, seeing that they usually had to make do with what little their captors provided them by way of weapons anyway.
Kíli turned his head over his shoulder, winked at her in the semidarkness. "Bow and arrow."
Tauriel almost laughed out loud. Of course it was. What else should the Dwarf who had uprooted all her prejudices about his kind, the Dwarf she was falling for a little harder with each passing day, be other than an archer, like herself? She shook her head at herself. Tauriel, you really are a lost cause, aren't you?
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The first thing Tauriel became aware of as they emerged from the tunnel into blinding light was sand. Lots and lots of sand, reflecting the sun in the sky above and making it hard to see anything at all. They were standing at the mouth of a large cavern which the sea must have carved into the rocky foundations of the island over the course of many centuries. Currently, however, the tide was out, leaving the space below the land above accessible to those who could not call themselves creatures of the sea.
Tilting her head back, Tauriel could see the man-built walls far above them, lining the cliffs they had just passed underneath. The cavern was mostly dry right now, only small pools of water suggesting that this wasn't always the case. The sea was to their right, lapping against a white, sandy beach. On each side, the steep cliffs which embraced the cavern protruded into the sea, thereby making the tunnel they had just come through the only point of access to this secluded space, as far as Tauriel could tell. Other than the sea itself, of course, but there were no boats or other vessels in sight to suggest that anyone had recently approached the beach by water.
And there were other people here, though that did not come as much of a surprise after the sounds of fighting she had heard before. What was indeed a bit surprising was that the group of people scattered about the beach and the oblong shape of the cavern appeared to consist solely of the other inhabitants of their loft. No guards or overseers in sight.
In a repetition of that same morning, Tauriel and Kíli's arrival on the scene was met with strained silence. On the far side of the cavern's opening, where the overhanging rocks provided protection from the glare of the sun, the two young women who occupied the quarters next to them and the two men from the breakfast table gaped at them with their swords still raised, whatever fight they had been engaged in forgotten for the moment. Further down the beach, a loose circle had gathered around one of the other women Tauriel had caught a glimpse of this morning and the young man Nesrin had been checking on earlier. From their stance, it looked as if they had been about to enter into a wrestling match. Now, however, they—same as everyone else on the beach—were examining the newcomers with wary eyes.
"I don't think we ought to go through with disarming anyone," Kíli muttered beside her. "We might not be making any new friends if we do."
Tauriel very nearly gave an indignant snort. "I somehow think it will not make any difference either way. But you are right, of course. This situation does not seem to call for a forceful removal of weapons. Though I would feel better with the weight of a blade in my hand," she added a little ruefully.
"Well, that can be solved rather easily, I suppose."
Tauriel followed Kíli's line of sight until her eyes came to rest on an old wine barrel from which several sword hilts protruded. Her heart leapt. Whatever they were to be here, defenseless did not seem to be a part of it. As she let her gaze travel over the beach once more, however, her anxiousness to arm herself subsided gradually. Yes, there were weapons here and her ears had not deceived her when she had picked up the sounds of fighting. Still, this was not a fighting-ground. She had spent enough time as a recruit in her king's guard to recognize her surroundings for what they were.
"It is a training space," she said to Kíli. "We have been brought here to practice our skills, I believe. As have the others."
Kíli frowned. "Practice for what?"
"I am not certain I want to know the answer to that just yet."
It made sense, in a way. Gansukh had already revealed that he thought of them as valuable assets. Hence, it followed that he would want them to remain at the top of their game rather than letting them waste away in idle captivity. Still, Tauriel could not quite shake the feeling that the true purpose of having them hone their fighting skills was more intricate and, sadly, more sinister.
Kíli felt the same way, judging by the unhappy scowl with which he surveyed the beach and the space inside the cavern. Now that Tauriel felt confident that they weren't about to be attacked, she was able to discern further training stations scattered across this unusual place. Among those was, to her utter delight, a small shooting range.
She nudged Kíli with her elbow. "Did you not just claim the bow as your weapon of choice? Care to prove your worth as an archer to me?"
With raised eyebrows Kíli followed the motion of her head with his eyes as she nodded towards the targets set up further down the beach, at a safe distance from the group practicing hand-to-hand combat. An instant spark of interest chased away any gloominess in his expression.
"If you insist," he drawled, though the eager twitch of his fingers belied far greater enthusiasm to get a hold of a bow than his words implied. "Lead the way, mylady."
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Half an hour later found them engaged in a not very heated competition opposite two practice-targets, the distance to which they were slowly increasing. Kíli's archery skills were unlike anything Tauriel had ever witnessed. His technique was sometimes sloppy and spoke of someone who had taught themselves rather than being given proper instruction. Which was maybe not all that surprising, seeing that the bow would not have struck Tauriel as a typical weapon for a Dwarf.
What he lacked in execution, however, he easily made up for in boldness, letting his arrows fly with confidence as soon as his eyes had sought out his mark. Perhaps he was no match for Tauriel, but the unpredictability of his moves made it fun to compete with him nevertheless, and more than once he startled a laugh out of her when he hit the target more precisely than she would have expected while he had lined up his shot.
The sun had climbed high into the sky by that time, and they had been forced to turn their back to the sea in order to avoid being blinded by its glare. Which was why neither of them realized for a while that they had garnered an audience, the combatants from further down the beach having abandoned their fighting in order to watch them shoot.
It was only when low murmurs of appreciation sounded after Tauriel had managed to divert Kíli's arrow from its course by hitting it with her own that she became aware of the men and women gathered behind them. The sword fighters up by the mouth of the cavern had ceased sparring as well, leaning idly on their blades while they watched.
Nesrin, who was among the small crowd on the beach, stepped forward. "It is a consolation to see that the trouble you two are likely to stir up is at least somewhat justified. You're a good shot."
That last bit was directed at Tauriel, who accepted the reluctant compliment with an incline of her head. She glanced back up, however, when another person broke free of the crowd. "A good shot? Nonsense! That was an honor to witness. I mean—the skill of Elven archers is legendary, of course, but to see it with my own eyes. . . An honor, and nothing less."
By the time he was finished with his speech, the young man had blushed to the roots of his auburn hair. He swiftly merged back into the small group gathered, though not before a small, grateful smile from Tauriel had turned his flush an even deeper shade of red.
"I take it that no one here feels inclined to rhapsodize on the fabled strength and skill of Dwarves, then? I must say, I am a bit offended."
Tauriel suppressed a wince at Kíli's interjection. After the tentative progress she seemed to just have made with the others, she was not sure how they would react to his teasing words. But then Nesrin grinned, her dark eyes lighting up with mischief and crinkling at the corners.
"I must say, just a few hours ago I hardly thought you capable of fetching a pot from the highest shelf. So have it witnessed by everyone present here on this fine day when I say that I am indeed impressed by your skill, Master Dwarf."
A beat of silence. Then Kíli burst out laughing and was quickly joined by most of the bystanders. Whatever misgivings had created a deep chasm between them and their new acquaintances this very morning appeared to have blown over for the time being.
"What say you then, Dwarf," one of the men from up by the sword fighting ground called down to them, "will you prove that you are also capable of holding up a sword and spar with me?"
"I gladly will," the Dwarf in question called back. "Only if you call me Kíli, though."
As he trudged up the beach to where his new sparring partner was waiting for him, Kíli threw a quick look over his shoulder, locking eyes with Tauriel. She gave a small, encouraging nod. It was good for them to get closer to their new neighbors—how else would they find out more about the workings of this place and how they might be disrupted and used to their advantage? Especially after the less than promising start to the day, this was an unexpectedly positive development.
The voice inside her which had begun clamoring loudly as soon as Kíli had moved away from her would simply have to be silenced for the time being.