Eclipse of Hearts ✔

Chapter 56. [Alyssae]

Although he had had an angry expression on his face all the time, Alyssae was afraid he would leave now with the pole on his back.
"If he dares to touch you with a single finger, I will fillet him from top to toe. 
His eyes were so bright and full of flaming hate that a shiver crept down her spine. 
His words almost blew her over. His aversion for the elf king was so enormous it no longer mattered that he said out loud how he really felt about her. 
"How does he dare to come up with something like that!"
"The question why he proposed me is even more urgent," Alyssae mumbled, who still was uncertain about that. There was only one reason she could come up with, and that only made things worse. 
"He's just insane," Thorin grumbled. "Even more than I am."
Alyssae chuckled and she touched his cheek. "You are not insane." She saw the reflection of her own sad face in his eyes. "You're just ill."
As soon as she touched his skin, he stopped grouching. He stared at her, as if he considered if he should become angry or not. He didn't seem to have the energy anymore to do so.
"I will make sure you get food."
She pulled back her hand and climbed up again. She wanted to share her thoughts with him, but reminded the words he had spoken to her not so long ago: he couldn't bear much more. A daughter that might be captured by their enemy, was probably too much.

"How is he?" Dwalin asked when she sat with the dwarfs. She noticed he followed Iorwen with his eyes when she went down to give Thorin his lunch. 

"I don't know," Alyssae admitted. "Sometimes he seems to make progress, but out of nothing his temper can change."
"Well, that never has been different, " Kíli noticed, balancing his knife on its top. His hair waved in the wind and there was a dark grimace on his face. She doubted he would ever forgive his uncle. 
Alyssae had to admit that he was right. Thorin had always been that way. He had became angry out of nothing before.
"I had expected worse," she said. Despite his angry and sometimes blunt remarks, they had had a conversation. He was way different than yesterday, when he could only make fun of her. "He has to process much."
"What did he say about Niamh?"
Alyssae shrugged. "I think he can barely comprehend. I haven't told him that she is gone." She stared at her finger tips. "Do you think it is ridiculous I have the feeling that Thranduil is the reason she has disappeared?"
She risked a careful look at her friends, who both watched her face pensively. 
"Maybe not," Kíli said in the end. "Do you think he wants to trade her... for you?"
Alyssae felt sick. Why hadn't she thought about that before? Where else would Niamh be? 
"Oh no," she whispered and she hid her face behind her hands. "I've been so blind."
She felt Kíli's hand on his back. "You are on a ship full of elves. One of them can surely find out if she is really held captive in Mirkwood."

Alyssae folded her arms aggrieved. "No?"
She had just shared her thoughts with Eldinòr. She had begged him to go to Thranduil's kingdom, but he had shaken his head and said "no".
"My child is locked up there and you don't even want to look if she's there?"
He sighed and let go of the helm. "It's not only Thorin's head Thranduil would like to see at a stake. I will be dead before I take a step into that forgotten forest."
"What? Why?"
She had considered Eldinòr as someone who could travel freely through Middle Earth. Who knew how to get to places others avoided.
"Do you think Thranduil changed into a heartless beast all of a sudden, only because you showed your pretty face? He has been this way for a very long time. He has more enemies than our drunken king alone."
Her face grew gloomy when Eldinòr called him that way, but she kept looking at him. "Why does he hate you so much?"
He looked away, fixed his eyes on the silhouettes of Lake town that faded slowly. 
"He had a beautiful daughter."
"And you made a pass at her?" she asked with raised eyebrows. 

"More or less. She wanted to leave the kingdom behind to explore the world."
"Where is she now?" Alyssae asked, hesitating. The sad look in his eyes hadn't escaped her attention. 
"Dead." He seized the helm again, his knuckles turned pale. "During a storm she fell overboard and drowned." A dark look appeared in his eyes. "Something her daddy will never stop blaming me for."