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Scarred Fate	By : Massanie Category: +Third Age > Slash - Male/Male Views: 2051 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
CHAPTER 10: The Gift

CHAPTER NOTES

SCRIPTS:

'Thoughts'; ~visions~; **mind speech**; -l-Letters-l-

Glorfindel's party had been resting near the top of the High Pass, when the avalanche had come down. They had heard the distant roar of the snow masses although they could not see it. And they had known the sound for what it was and hoped that they would not find the ones they had ridden out to rescue smashed to death by the deadly ice.

They planned on arriving at the High Pass' top that very midday and to attack the Orcs with the sun as their ally. The problem was that they would have to fight directly on the pass which meant that they would not have more than three meters contact area with the enemy.

Glorfindel had therefore attached more importance to their archers who would fight covered by four or five rows of foot soldiers. It could end disastrous: maybe they would have to fight uphill against Orcs who would recklessly use their masses to press them back. And his archers would have to shoot uphill at targets they could not see, at short distance no less.

And he knew nothing about the local conditions. He had sent scouts ahead in the early morning hours and was expecting them back soon. But up to then he had to lead a blind manoeuvre. Hopefully he would not lead his men into death.

Concerned Glorfindel looked forward to the direction from where he expected his scouts to return and then to his men again. Maybe such a dangerous mission should not have been started to begin with but he was driven forward by his fear to lose Elrond or his sons ... how should he tell Arwen what happened? How should he tell his cousin that after not being able to save her daughter, he had lost her grand-sons also? Galadriel would never forgive him.

And he needed them, he could not imagine life without his lover. Surely Glorfindel of Gondolin would grace Mandos once more as Glorfindel of Imladris if that was to happen.

He had sworn to protect him.

While he was thusly deeply absorbed in his dark thoughts, he was suddenly startled by a jubilant cry.

Moments later a small party came in sight, and Glorfindel's heart missed a beat when he recognized the twins at the very front.

They looked weary and wrecked, but they lived and walked – a good sign. His heart beating madly in his chest he spurred his horse, riding towards the newcomers. He had to proceed slowly because the path was narrow and there were some soldiers that he had to pass.

When Elrohír and Elladan spotted him, two nearly identical smiles greeted the seneschal.

"Elladan! Elrohír! I am so glad you are well. Where is your father?"

One of the twins nodded towards a spot behind him and when they stepped back he could see a strangely baggy coat held by six soldiers, that obviously bore something heavy.

Then a hand emerged from within. "I am in here. I could walk, really, but they won't let me. My own sons and guards!"

When Glorfindel had dismounted with a grin, Elrohír stepped forward and happily embraced his step-father. "He is complaining since almost three hours. A good sign that the antidote is working."

Glorfindel knitted his eyebrows and since he could not look the younger twin into the eyes he gazed questioningly towards the elder one. But Elladan only shrugged helplessly with his shoulders.

"Let me see Elrond, you all worried us beyond reason, you know?" Slowly he disentangled himself from Elrohír's embrace and stepped nearer to where Elrond was being laid down by weary guards. He went down on his knees and embraced his lover.

"Never, ever do something like this again, do you hear me you stubborn, foolish Half-Elf?"

Elrond smiled sweetly. "I missed you, too. And just out of curiosity, captain, what would you advise so that we might prevent such a situation?"

Glorfindel smiled affectionately at his lover, caressing his cheek.

"I thought you had the gift of foresight, dearest?"

Then he looked to the guards. "Let him walk, I will help him. Rest and eat something, you have earned it."

He was about to ask Elrohír and Elladan to report to him before they rested, too, but then his gaze fell on the young guard amidst the small party and he groaned.

"Tauron? Where is Erestor?"

The dark haired soldier raised his eyebrows and took a deep breath. "That is indeed a very good question my lord. I don't know.

But there have been some interesting occurrences that you and lord Elrond should know about; concerning the chief advisor. And these two humans need medical attention and guarding. Maybe they have important information, also."

Glorfindel nodded and looked around. Well, this was a place as good as any on this damned path to make a rest. Furthermore he wanted to look after Elrond. The Half-Elf was obviously hurt and the talk of an antidote was far from being to his liking.

So the seneschal of Imladris gave orders to make camp. He begged some of the warriors to make a fire and to erect a place for Elrond to rest on. The newcomers seemed to be in need of a rest and something to eat, and it was provided.

Elrond was laid on a waxed mat covered with a thick blanket. It would keep the wetness and cold away.

Carefully a healer removed the bandages and saw to the poisoned wound. But Elrond, being a healer himself, could not refrain from commenting.

"The swelling is much better. The poison is being neutralized. The antidote is really fast so you should just clean it a little bit with hot water as we were not able to do so thus far. Then just bandage it and I will be able to ride. Really there is no need to …"

The healer stopped and glared at his lord while the twins and Glorfindel tried to hide their grins. "With all due respect my lord. If someone laid in your healing wing his arm in the condition yours is in, you would have kept him in bed for another week. Possibly drugging him if it was needed to keep him there."

The lord of Imladris glared back. "But we are *not* in my healing wing, but on the High Pass. These are special conditions and I won't be carried any further on a litter! So just wash and bandage it!"

"Elrond, why is it that healers make the worst patients? And stop glaring."

Glorfindel gave his lover something to eat and drink, while they waited for the water to be heated.

Elrond gave Tauron some time to eat and drink as well, then he called him and his sons to his side. Arveldir came also, but stood a little bit aside and silent.

"As we seem to be spending some time here …" and he glared again at the healer who was ignoring him rather successfully "… please inform us what happened. Why are you here, Glorfindel? Not that I am complaining, mind you, but we did not expect to get help."

"Erestor." The seneschal said.

Tauron murmured "once again …" but was silenced by his captain. Elrond raised an eyebrow at the strange comment.

"I was on a patrol and just returned, when Erestor stormed towards me and told me that there had been a note from the sentries saying that Orcs from the north were spreading on the High Pass to attack passengers. He had already formed a search patrol and was only waiting for me. He showed me the sign that had been brought by a messenger bird. I only increased our numbers and broke up.

Erestor insisted on accompanying us and so I took him along. I feared for you all and did not want to waste time on arguing with Erestor. He would have followed anyway.

When we had just left, he let his common raven fly to find you and we got your message two days later. That was, when I send him home with two guards ... the day before yesterday."

Elladan interfered, slightly indignant "We *never* sent you a message. And we were attacked only the day before yesterday!"

Tauron smirked. He could respect a genius when he saw one, and Erestor had managed to fool the most intelligent people in the Hidden Valley.

Elrond saw that grin but did not comment on it now. Tauron would tell his tale.

"But it was Elrond's handwriting. I recognized it!" Glorfindel tossed in, rather confused.

"Glorfindel, can I see that message?"

The seneschal drew out a piece of parchment from under his coat and gave it to his lover who read it aloud for all to hear:

-l-

We were ambushed near the top of the High pass by Orcs. Elladan, Elrohír, some guards and I were able to save ourselves into a cave nearby on the mountainside of the pass , but we lost many.

We have enough arrows to keep them at bay for some days for they can reach the cave's entrance only by climbing. But they intend to starve us out and Elrohír has a poisoned arm wound.

Be fast, I fear for him

Elrond

-l-

"That curiously fits to our situation. Except that it was I and not Elrohír who was wounded and that it weren't Orcs but humans."

Elrond halted for a moment. "And this is definitely my handwriting, though *I* didn't write it."

"Erestor did, obviously." Tauron said.

"But how would he know? He must have written this more than a week before it actually happened. Probably while still being in Imladris!" Elrohír countered "Is he ... did he betray us?"

"There is much more mystery surrounding the chief advisor ... but I do not think that he is a traitor ...

Maybe I should speak verbosely a little bit." Tauron continued unperturbed.

"I think that he *wanted* you to send him back, captain." Glorfindel raised an eyebrow and the guard only smiled to the baffled faces obviously enjoying the unique situation of knowing more than his elders and lords.

"If he had stayed with us he would never have had the chance of arriving at the High Pass' top alone, get Vilya and save our lords.

Therefore he behaved in a way that made everyone wary towards him. He knew that we observed him and still he drugged himself quite openly. At night he had those nightmares and more and more he gave everyone the feeling that he was endangering the mission.

But he made sure that we needed him: his common raven that was sent to find you, lord Elrond, and give you the means to write us a message; the bird that only obeyed to lord Erestor.

We now find that the raven never reached you and that the message he brought must have been written by lord Erestor himself."

The soldier paused for a moment. "He must have known that he would be sent back the moment the raven returned. And so he timed its return to get enough time to be sent back, bypass you in the night and reach the High Pass' top the night before you would.

I mean think about it: two days for a raven to search lord Elrond, fly to the High Pass and back to us? We would have needed four days just for the way there!

When the raven returned, Erestor was sent back, as was to be expected. And he was prepared. When we were making a short rest that he had begged us to make in the first place, he sedated us and fled. And he had everything he had needed for his escape: the sedative and the strange climbing device with which he managed to bypass you, lord Glorfindel, by climbing the whole night long, while you were resting.

I managed to follow him because despite his climbing device, he is still fading and therefore weaker; although his stamina is much better than I thought."

Glorfindel nodded. "Lord Erestor started climbing some decades ago and has, since then, been climbing thrice every week in the valley, even or especially in winter."

"I followed him up to the top of the High Pass, where I was astonished to find the lords Elrond, Elladan and Elrohír along with some guards, besieged by almost 200 soldiers from Angmar instead of Orcs like the advisor had lead us to believe.

I am almost sure that he somehow knew what to find there but if he had told you, lord Glorfindel, that our lords were attacked by humans he would have had much explaining to do and run the risk that you might not have believed him.

Anyway, once at the cave, Erestor used his climbing device to bypass the humans also and reached the eastern side of their camp. From there he sent two messages into the cave our lords were in."

Elladan interfered, turning to his step father. "The first one was seemingly written by you. It said that you were two miles away but had not enough soldiers to overcome the humans. Father was to use Vilya if he was in any condition to do so. If not, we were to send the ring with the raven to you, so that you could cause the avalanche ... the second one was signed by Erestor and contained the antidote." The elder twin swallowed. "I am so sorry, father. It was my idea. Elrohír didn't want to but I thought that …"

Elrond reached for his son with his good hand, catching his wrist. "Hush, it's alright. You could not have known."

"And it saved your lives." Tauron interfered and with this statement he once again drew all the attention to himself.

"Erestor used Vilya to cause an avalanche that swept away and killed most of the humans." Then the young guard cleared his throat. "Well, I … ran … to escape the snow so I couldn't see what happened next. When I came back, the princes had already freed themselves and we began to journey east towards Imladris.

Lord Erestor planned all that and his plans aren't fulfilled yet. He is still up to something."

Glorfindel shook his head disbelievingly.

"I don't know but I think you're right: it does seem to me as if he wants to help us: the antidote he left me and sent to save Elrond, the avalanche … I don't want to mark him as a traitor, even though he obviously stole Vilya.

But maybe I am able to shed some light into this matter: Before we left, Lindir came to me – nearly hysterical, I might add – Erestor had said him his farewells and Lindir was sure that he would not return. He gave me letters …"

The seneschal pulled out the remaining three letters for the peredhil and handed them over.

"Erestor wrote those decades ago and told Lindir to give them to their addressees in case something happened to him or he vanished without a trace.

I have opened mine." Glorfindel was silent for some seconds and it seemed as if something was weighing him down, heavy worries that made him seem older, weary.

"He wrote that he did not regret dying for us. He mentioned something in his past and an endowment but Lindir was to tell me. I don't know what it is."

"You think that he is dead?" Elrond asked aghast at this new information before looking at the envelope in his good hand while the healer was washing his shoulder. Swallowing a lump in his throat, he whispered. "Would you open it for me?"

Nodding, Glorfindel took back the envelope and opened it. A single paper was within and without reading its content, the seneschal gave it back to his lover; this was not his to read.

Elrond took it and began to scan the content:

-l-

My lord,

From all the letters I wrote the last hours, this is the hardest.

I knew what I wanted to tell Lindir, Glorfindel, Elladan, Elrohír and Melpomaen, even the lady Galadriel; and I certainly know what I want to tell you, but not how to put it in words.

Lindir will have told you that I am a seer, that my family imprisoned me my whole childhood long, that they drugged me to increase the frequency and strength of my visions.

And maybe you will think that the fear of them was reason enough to lie to you; I certainly thought so in the beginning and I suppressed my dreams with sleeping draughts. There is nothing in my live that I regret more; because my egoistic actions caused the deaths of Haradion, Aglaron, Berion and Dírhael and your wife's torture, my lord. And this, in some way, makes me a kinslayer.

I hope that by rescuing you and defanging Imladris' enemies I can make amends and earn your forgiveness.

Forgive me

Erestor

-l-

Elrond frowned unbelievingly. This was just too much to accept. A seer? It would certainly explain many things, but …

Glorfindel knitted his brow, seeing his lover's hands shaking. Obviously there must be something grave in his letter besides Erestor being willing to die, for that Elrond already knew.

"Elrond?"

Pale, Elrond gave the letter silently to Glorfindel. After some moments of reading, Glorfindel whispered "that cannot be true!"

Tauron observed the lords of Imladris. If he hadn't been so curious it would have been highly amusing: Elrond grew white and whiter, obviously trying to comprehend whatever stood in this letter Glorfindel was currently reading.

The seneschal did not manage any better, it seemed: his lips moved along with the words, his widening eyes clear signs of his disbelieve.

The princes were … possibly shocked. Elladan had stopped reading after only a few seconds and obviously thought about continuing. After more than a minute he proceeded and his face became … blank. Just that: blank. And Elrohír was now staring down into the valley, the forgotten letter crinkled in his right fist.

Tauron wished he had the right to ask about the letters, but he felt it was not his place; so he waited.

Finally Elrond looked to Glorfindel.

"How can this be?" But the seneschal only shook his head, indicating his cluelessness.

Elrond directed his attention towards his sons, seeing their pallor he asked concerned "Boys? What is it? What did he write?"

But the twins shook their heads. "Mine is private and only meant for my eyes and ears." Elladan told them determinedly.

"Mine is, too." Elrohír said "There is nothing new to learn of it except for me."

Elrond observed his sons closely. Their behaviour concerned him and he feared what Erestor might have told them, but this was neither the time nor the place to probe deeper, with all their soldiers around them.

"It seems that Erestor is a very mighty seer. In this letter …" Elrond held up the piece of parchment "… he says that Lindir should have told us about his past and he indicates that his family used his endowment in a rather cruel way. Feeding him drugs to increase strength and frequency of his visions and keeping him prisoner.

The only possible explanation I have is that he saw all this happen and ... meddled."

"But where is he now?" Glorfindel asked. "It is over; you are safe. Why did he not come back? He has not been buried under the snow, has he?"

Elrond moved. The healer had bandaged his arm and put it into s sling and he thanked him with a smile.

"Maybe it is time now to concern ourselves with those two human soldiers. Maybe they know something."

CHAPTER END NOTES

peredhil ~ half elves
- 9
- 10
- 11
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Scarred Fate