Brightest Stars | Love of Royals: Book I

II: Safety

'You passed out in my arms, êl nín.'

Blinding light bores into my eyes, and I rub them absentmindedly before surveying my surroundings. I am inside an elaborate chamber fashioned within a tree, adorned with leaves and tiny lights glittering across the walls and ceiling. On the end of the bed I rest in, there is King Thranduil: dry, preened and clad in a new set of pristine silver robes. He flashes me his signature smirk.

'I am not your Star. I am not anyone's Star but my own,' I say firmly, wriggling into a sitting position. The thick duvet slides off me to reveal a gleaming white nightgown around my body, and Thranduil gives a small laugh at my expression of confusion.

'I had you changed out of your wet clothes and dried before going to bed. I would have done it myself but my maid insisted you would prefer to be changed by a female.' His smirk returns, and I immediately banish all irrational thoughts from my mind.

'For that I am grateful. Now where can I find a horse?  I mean to leave as soon as possible,' I say determinedly, attempting to wriggle further out from under the bedclothes.  Suddenly I am halted by a rush of pain shooting down my right leg, and I cry out as I realise I cannot move it.

'Ah... that may be a problem...' Thranduil begins uneasily, 'you fell off my elk halfway through the journey here.  It was a long drop, and you landed in a ditch full of hard rocks and did not wake... luckily I managed to get you back.' Of everything Thranduil has said to me so far, this has given him a slight edge of tension.

'Curse this weak elleth body!' I scowl, 'and curse you!  You said you would keep me safe, and what did you do?  You let me fall into a ditch!  Should you not have been holding me still while riding your precious elk, or was that too difficult?'

Thranduil, his expression harder than rock, breathes out slowly.  'You are too difficult, êl tithen.  The truth is you will be unable to walk for a week, and after that you will still need support.  The wound may not fully heal for several months.'

A boulder drops in the pit of my stomach.  Disbelievingly, I search Thranduil's stern eyes for a glimmer of hope, but there is none.  'Several... months...' I whisper, the dreadful truth sinking in like a poison.  I am to be stuck here, in Thranduil's kingdom, for several months?  It is a prospect too terrible for words. 

'The healers do not lie,' he says simply.

'What about my task?  How am I to fulfill it trapped in your halls?'

'I do not know what your task is, so I cannot help you there.  Just rest and hope recovery comes swiftly.'

'I will not REST while someone in this world needs a Star's help!' I cry, wrenching my injured leg out from under the duvet despite the immense pain.  It has been bandaged in several places, but patches of blood seep through still.

As he notices me trying to hoist myself up, Thranduil immediately rushes to my side and his strong arms ease me back into bed.  He shakes his head in a mixture of disbelief and exasperation before saying, 'unless you want to bleed to death, stay here until you are healed.  I am trying to help you.'

Accepting that while Thranduil is here I am not going anywhere, I sigh and pull the bedclothes back over my legs.  'Why are you of all people trying to help me?  Where are these healers you speak of?'

Despite my (somewhat poor) attempt to be rid of him, Thranduil sits himself back down on the end of my bed.  'My healers have other maladies to tend that are more challenging than yours.  I have appointed myself to your care; as I brought you into this kingdom by choice, your welfare is my responsibility, and do not assume that I have no skill in healing myself.'