Wildest Storms | Love of Royals: Book III

II: Daughter of Kings

The tension in the atmosphere of the meeting room hits me like a brick wall as I walk in, trailing behind Legolas.  Beside me, Alëaren is biting her lip and looking at the floor; on my other side, Telamír is pretending to be interested in the ornate window frame.  None of us really want to be facing the plethora of elves stood around the large table, all of our parents among them.  It would seem they were halfway through a rather heated conversation, as some are leant over the table—like Fíria, whose dark eyes are blazing. Her brother Fírion is running his hand through his hair in his trademark sign of unease, while Tauriel has her hands gripping the back of a chair. A little more stressed than the average court meeting.

My father, ever the epitome of regality in his elegant steel-coloured robes, stops mid-sentence, his face resolving itself from its growl across the table at Fíria.  Of course, through all of this, he has a glass of wine balanced almost lazily between his fingers.  A hint of relief ghosts his eyes upon our entry, but he remains where he stands; my mother, however, immediately crosses the room to examine us.

'Thank the Valar...' she breathes, her round eyes shining with tears. 'None of you are hurt.'

Part of me wants to give her a reassuring smile, but the prospect is shattered when her expression hardens to ethereal rage and she steps away from us. I brace myself for a telling-off.

Thankfully, Legolas interjects, rounding on the group of guards at one end of the table.  'How did this happen?'

'There was a breach in the eastern wall,' says Feren, one of my father's most trusted commanders, 'the orcs managed to get through because the entire Guard had been diverted to the front gates.'

'Because somebody broke a vase with their night magic and then vanished without a trace,' adds the Captain of the Guard, a sharply beautiful elleth named Evellan.  'I had all my forces looking for you. And amid the chaos, in the absence of my dungeon guards, the prisoner somehow escaped.'

Evellan is a force.  An intense and dedicated warrior.  A different kind of strength to Tauriel makes her an equally good Captain, perhaps even more devoted to the job than her predecessor.  Beside Evellan as she leans threateningly over the table, high-ranking guard Amarien radiates a calm that softens the Captain's atmosphere.

'Gollum?' Legolas says in disbelief. 'Gollum escaped? I thought we had him under the highest security.' He looks almost accusingly at Evellan, who sets her jaw in indignation.

'We did, until certain events unfolded,' she says icily.  I don't so much as blink when the Captain shoots a glare my way. 

'We think,' says Amarien, 'that some of the orcs let him out when they ransacked the dungeons. Nobody has been able to find him since.'

'And to make matters worse...' Feren begins, 'you surely saw what the orcs left behind as their mark, arion-nín. Well, Lord Elrond of Imladris has called a meeting to discuss the urgent matter of the threat posed by the Dark Lord Sauron. It is our belief that a representative from this kingdom should go and inform him of what has happened here.'

'And tell Aragorn that the top security prisoner he delivered here has escaped because of our incompetence?' says Legolas.

My father turns slowly from his glass of stress-relieving Dorwinion, towering over the rest of the room in an unspoken authority that no other royal can rival. His gaze sets on me like winter frost. 'Our incompetence was only apparent because we were preoccupied searching for some missing heirs.'

I step forward, raising my hands. 'We can explain—'

'I don't want to hear it,' my father snaps.