Bearded

Chapter 16

At the sound of the alarm, the mountain went into a state of high alert. Shops were shuttered and forges extinguished. Pickpockets took advantage of the chaos as Dwarrow tried to run to their homes or to pre-arranged strategic locations. Dwarrowlings were led quickly to the deepest mines, their feet quick to follow the route, guided by years of drills, as well as by memories of the all too real events of the previous year. Their parents, armed with spears and axes lined the narrow passages, ready to defend their young.

The king was at table, and threw down his ale at the sound of the alarm. Without a second thought he seized his axe and ran to the throne room, his guards flanking him as they awaited information and his queen was by his side with her mattock. Most of his council waited in the throne room and looked on in silence as the Elf was dragged in, and listened in ever deepening silence to the guard's stark report.

The king looked sternly on Legolas as he lay crumpled on the ground before the throne. This Elf was the first he had spent time with beyond a battlefield. He had not been as he expected. He did not have the fabled eloquence of the Elves, but next to Silvertongue, few would stand up to scrutiny. He did not see in this Elf the disdain, hatred and hostility he had been told were the building-blocks of Elves. This elf teased Gimli and had looked on him with undisguised affection. He had allowed himself to be humiliated, to be stripped of his weapons. Maybe the simmering resentment had become too much and he had snapped. Now he lay at his feet, covered in the blood of Gimli, Hero of the Fellowship.

Through the silence Thorin's voice boomed out. "For what cause did you attack Gimli, son of Gloin? Did he fight the enchantment? Are there more Elves preparing to attack?"

Again came the only words Legolas had spoken. "Does he yet live?" He pleaded, "take me to his side!"

Long and searchingly Thorin questioned Legolas but the Elf spoke only in their strange tongue. When he spoke Westron he would only ask how Gimli fared. The guards flanking him tried to hold him up, but he sank to the ground once again.

Thorin's chief advisor sighed and shook his head with impatience. He stroked his beard and shared his thoughts with Thorin. "I knew that to allow an Elf to stay under the mountain would lead to tragedy. I will call the executioner and resolve the matter this very hour."

Thorin stopped him with a gesture of his hand. He looked poised and in command, but his eyes betrayed his uneasiness.

Another of his advisers spoke, an old friend. "My king, before making a decision that would allow no return to the fragile peace we now have with the Elves, let us hear from Gimli and from the Elf himself. If Gimli wakes, he will speak the truth of what transpired. If he perishes, the Elf will meet his doom here."

"Very well!" said the king. "Take the Elf away and keep him safe, until he feels inclined to tell the truth."

The head guard took his own interpretation of 'safe' and soon Legolas had been bound in chains and shut in one of the innermost cells of the dungeons. They set beside him food and drink; water and a dry slice of bread. There in the king's dungeon Legolas lay.

After the Elf was taken away his queen stood before Thorin and said, "I spoke to them at the feast on the first night. The love between Legolas and Gimli is great. He would not have slain Gimli."

This was received with cold disapproval by some councillors.

"Can you not see what is before your very eyes? The Elf has done this. If we were him," they said, "we would have looked for a dalliance somewhere else. And Gimli should not have allowed himself to get carried away. He has always been one to be led by his breeches and now see what has come to pass."

They noted that Thorin became very quiet at these words, and they left him to his own thoughts, thinking that sooner or later he would come to a decision that agreed with theirs.

As the rumours of enchantment had spread, the mountain had quietly split into two camps. The one camp said: "If their friendship is true, let them be together. We all know Gimli; he is not one to not know his own mind." The other camp said: "He has been enchanted. A Dwarf under enchantment can make no decision." Both groups seemed to agree with the statement "This Elf is the cause of great disturbance and must leave." Even those who believed they shared the natural bond of shield-brothers, preferred that the friendship continue outside the mountain. And even those who believed it was enchantment were hesitant to suggest execution, having seen in these months past the deadly fury of Elves in battle and how their desire for revenge could span the generations.

Thorin knew this crisis could be the catalyst for a leadership challenge. He had come from the Iron Hills and taken the throne after the death of his father Dáin Ironfoot. There were those who believed that of those who had survived the wyrm Smaug, one of the former Erebor Lords deserved to rule. There were many of the line of Durin; some of those claims were dubious as everyone liked to claim a tenuous link to Durin, nevertheless, many of the potential contenders had real support in the guilds.

There had been no direct challenge to his rule but the nature of this surprising dispute, that of enchantment of a Dwarf by an Elf, made the matter unpredictable. He had to tread carefully to avoid a rockslide.