Healing a Soul

The Road Home.

"My lady, we must ask you to come with us. Now." The guard spoke, his voice hard and unwavering in his orders. Her face turned from the wind as she looked to the owner of the voice that had called out. She met his green gaze and dismounted her horse, setting the baby elk in the grass.

"I will not." The queen spoke, her voice firm despite her fatigue and the fear that wracked her soul.

His hand had rested on the pommel of his sword and slowly he began to unsheathe it. "My lady, my orders are to bring you back, willing or not."

"You will not and you may draw your weapons but I shall not participate in a Kinslaying." Despite her firm voice, the queen was tired. She hardly slept through the nights without the memories of what Thranduil had done haunting her. Nienna had seen much in her centuries of living but little broke her and terrified her as much as those memories.

"Really? Well, that is surprising." The guard drawled as he extended his sword towards her. "But it does make my job easier, my lady." He went to strike her and she managed to weave out of the way just in time. One of the others grabbed her from behind, his arm wrapped around her neck in a choke hold. Nienna's eyes flashed in fear and she struggles against him, her fear causing her movements to be much more erratic than her normal grace.

"Let me go!" The guard leader held his sword against her throat and as his eyes trailed her body his sword followed their trail, moving down her dress.

"Will you come with us?"

Nienna was quiet. "I... I can't go back there... please, you must know what he is doing to me. You're soldiers; you have a right to not follow orders you deem immoral. Please..." she looked between the two guards as she begged to be freed. Before Thranduil, she would never have begged like this. Would never have lost her nerve but here she was, more broken and shattered than before and begging for her life.

"I don't think so. You are not my queen. I don't have to bow to you."

The noldorian queen closed her eyes and tried to calm herself.

His hands cradled her face, his thumbs stroking away the tears falling from her eyes. "My queen... Nienna... I will not see you like this again. You are stronger than all of those out there. No elleth can seduce me from you, my love." The High King of the Noldor kissed his wife's forehead. "I will not see you cry again. I will not see this fear in your eyes. You are the most beautiful, the strongest, woman I have met and in here," his hand fell upon her heart. "In here you outshine all of them with your kindness and empathy. Remember your strengths and never allow another to make you feel inferior. It is a lie."

Her eyes opened and she met the gaze of the leader.

"I may not be your queen but I am more than the wife of Gil-Galad. I am the granddaughter of Feanor and I do not have to bow to you either."
The guard holding her had loosened his grip a little after she had begged and the queen managed to break free and push him back, she quickly broke to her horse, scooping up Bandorian as she jumped onto the horse and willed him to go as fast as he could. It wasn't long before she heard the guards pursuing her. She just had to get to Rivendell. It wasn't far now.

***

As her horse made its way over the stream, hooves splashing in the shallow waters, her heart kept still as she looked up and saw the white stone and waterfalls that made up her home. She must have lost the guards for they hadn't been behind her for some time. Letting out a sigh of relief she sped the horse up towards the gardens of Imladris. The queen heard the shouting of one of the guards, "My Lord! Rider approaching! My Lord Glorfindel!" Before she blacked out from the strain and exhaustion.