Dance Of Darkness And Light

Chapter 17: Halls Of The Mountain King

Previously:

"Da!"

"Nooooo!" Tilda and Sigrid's screams joined the wailing of others.

At once, Bain and Linshara reached for Sigrid and Tilda whose subconscious movements rocked the boat as they reached in the direction of their fallen father. Linshara felt Sigrid struggle against her embrace.

Mentally she tried to sense if Bard was still alive or not but it was difficult to feel his life force with all the mayhem. Her mind reached out through the inferno that engulfed the city, touching every soul on the way, attempting to find it's goal. All these people, all these emotions. Even with her training it was hard, but finally she sensed him.

"Sigrid! Sigrid, calm down, your father's alive." The girl suddenly froze and looked at the Jedi warily, the other two children looking at her too in a mix of disbelief and hope.

"Bard's alive." Linshara repeated slowly releasing Sigrid.

The elder daughter seemed almost seething. "Do not lie to us. How can you tell?"

"I'm a wizard in training remember?" Linshara smiled and put a placating hand on Sigrid's shoulder. "You need to trust me, he's alive. Now lets get to shore, hm? Bard will make his way to us."

Bain and Sigrid exchanged looks before the girl nodded, obviously reluctant to not go back and look for her father. Eventually they continued rowing. It took them a while s to finally reach the safety of the shore which was by now littered with debris, various flotsam and jetsam.

"Are you really sure he's alive?" Tilda asked quietly as they made shore and Linshara was helping them out of the boat.

The Jedi kneeled down to the girl's eye level. "I am certain of it. You will see him soon, little Tilda." Linshara said as gently as she could.

In her mind she was trying to discover where Bard was. He made it to the shore further down and was slowly making his way to them. She was brought out of it by Tilda taking her courting braid into her hand and looking at it.

"That is a dwarvish braid. You and Prince Fili are courting." She stated a very obvious fact very seriously. "When I am old enough I will be courted by Prince Kili."

Linshara surpressed a laugh, "I think you may need to ask what he thinks of the idea first, or if your father will agree."

She could see Bain and Sigrid sniggering out of the corner of her eye. At least they were distracted and not giving into worry. But a worry gnawed at her. She needed to get moving. The longer the dwarves were in that mountain the more dangerous it was.

Thorin was already battling darkness, but that mountain, now that she was closer to it, was fraught with an evil aura. Spirits only knew what was going on in there now. She needed to find out and fast.

The small dark one with stringy hair was saying something. Linshara focused back to the situation at hand and stood up, stepping closer to him as Sigrid rounded her siblings up. At one point he looked at her then to others in his irate speech, all weasly pretense. Linshara had thought initially he was being confounded too, but it turned out he really was just a corrupt, two-faced weasel. One didn't need to be a Force user to notice that.

The orange haired one though, she wasn't so sure about, but he was nowhere in sight. The black one tried to pull Tilda away from Sigrid. Instinctively Linshara stepped into his path.

"Step back." Her tone was low, her eyes hard set.

"Or what? Don't you know who I am?" The weasel countered.