Lady of Rivendell

Chapter 4

Aelin paced outside the throne room, listening carefully for any hint of Thorin's interrogation. It was easier than thinking about her own to come.

After a moment, a guard came out and beckoned her in. She frowned, thinking it was strange that she was already being called in after only a few minutes, but followed the elf in. Thorin still knelt, Legolas's hand gripping his shoulder to keep him from escaping.

Thranduil glanced at Aelin as she knelt. To her relief, she saw his face soften slightly at the sight of her. Legolas, however, stiffened and looked away, back at his father.

"So. Aelin." Thranduil had an amused expression on his face. "It has been centuries since I have seen you in my forest, dear. You are sorely missed. How old are you now?"

This felt like a trick. Thranduil was never this friendly, not even to her. Oh. Of course. He's trying to get me to tell him what the dwarves are doing here. "I am 2058. Your highness."

"Ah, of course! Aelin, now, dear. I wonder if you could help us. Your friend here refuses to tell us what he was doing in the forest with his friends. Could you perhaps, bring some light to the situation?"

She glanced at Thorin, who shook his head almost imperceptibly. "It depends what light you wish brought, my lord."

"Well. Why did your friends awake the spiders and disrupt my people?"

Thorin interrupted. "We were starving and lost. We were simply trying to find food."

"But what were you doing in the forest?"

"Starving."

"Where were you going?"

"Through the forest to find food, because we were starving."

Thranduil's eye twitched. "Aelin. What were the dwarves doing in the forest?"

"Looking for food." It was the truth. Thranduil took a deep breath, his face turning red. She repressed a laugh, and continued: "They had gone off the path to find food, because they were starving."

Thranduil spoke, his voice tight. "Atlas." The guard looked up. "Take the dwarve to the dungeon." The guard did so. Legolas moved to the side of the throne, still silent and refusing to make eye contact. Thranduil turned to Aelin again. "Why were you with the dwarves? What business had you with them?"

What could she say without betraying the dwarves' mission? "I fell in with them at Rivendell. Gandalf accompanied us. We were trying to visit the dwarves south, and came west instead. Gandalf had gone by the time we arrived. I knew we were going the wrong way, but they insisted on searching for food in here. They really are starving."

Thranduil leaned forward. "Naturally. Gandalf was, I presume, accompanying them before he came to Rivendell? How came Mithrandir to join these dwarves on a simple visit to family?"

Aelin opened her mouth, at a loss.

"This certainly doesn't have anything to do with the Mountain, I'm sure. You coincidentally got lost. This wouldn't be a quest of any sort. They surely aren't trying to reclaim Erebor."

Thranduil could truly be a nightmare. How she wished Mithrandir were here.

He sighed. "You have not betrayed your friends, if it makes you feel better. I suspected when the dwarve said you had come in from the east. They will be imprisoned, however, until I ascertain a promise from them. You may not leave the palace until I do so or until Mithrandir arrives and vouched for you, but you may stay in your room and explore the palace."

She nodded and began to rise. "I thank you, my lord." She hesitated. "If I may ask. What promise do you hope to extricate from Thorin?"

"There are gems in the mountain that I too desire. White gems, of pure starlight. Gems that are rightfully mine. If you can perhaps, persuade him to hand them over if his quest succeeds, you will be able to leave all the sooner."

"I shall try. The necks of dwarves are stiff, but I should certainly think my friends would do anything to leave your palace."

***

Her friends were not nearly as desperate as Aelin had hoped. Thorin had nearly stomped a hole in the concrete floor of his cell when she went down after her interrogation. "I know nothing of white gems. And I shall certainly not give away my treasure."

She sighed, thinking. She nearly tripped on an uneven stair on her way up. She came into a hallway of cells, higher than that of her friends and empty. One piece of information she had gained was that Bilbo had not been captured. He was perhaps still in the forest or in the palace somewhere.

"Aelin." A voice startled her out of her thought. She turned around. Legolas leaned against the wall, his hands in the pockets of his tunic. His voice was soft and almost pleading.

She moved to his side. "Is everything okay? You seem...upset."

He stared at the ground. "I'm glad you're here. I've missed you."

"Is something wrong?"

"Why haven't you visited me?" he blurted out, turning to her. "It's been a millennia since you visited. My father won't let me out of the forest, and there's no one I care about here."

"What about Tauriel? She seems rather fond of you."

He snorted. "No. She's five hundred years older than me and thinks it means she can control me. Besides, I saw her eying your archer friend earlier."

Kili? Strange to think of, but she had seen Tauriel and him speaking in the forest earlier, on the way to the palace. "I'm sorry, Legg. I was in Lothlorien with my grandparents, and you know I can't leave more than necessary. And then... I suppose I forgot. My father adopted one of the Dunedain, a little boy. His father was killed. I've been busy with him for the last ten years, and I couldn't leave until Glorfindel got back from his travel. "

"A little boy?"

"We call him Estel."

He gave a small smile. "Perhaps I'll convince my father to let me come visit."

She smiled back. "Mellon, I hope so. We have a lot of catching up to do."