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Twilight Tales - Sacred Bond	By : MPB Category: -Multi-Age > General Views: 12116 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Lord of the Rings (and associated) book series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Advent
- 2-Bridging
- 3-Pledges
- 4-Serendipity
- 5-Deepening
- 6-Request
- 7-Bedfellows
- 8-Liaison
- 9-Catalyst
- 10-Tidings
- 11-Profession
- 12-Rift
- 13-Seeking
- 14-Confluence
- 15-Oneness
- 16-Assignation
- 17-Covenant
- 18-Gambit
- 19-Recovery
- 20-Bond
- 13
- 14
- 15
Chapter XIV: Confluence

Rivendell

Elladan watched his twin saunter aimlessly beneath the beech trees in the gardens of the Last Homely House. Every once in a while, Elrohir would direct his gaze toward the south, his silvery eyes gleaming with worry and yearning and sorrow. It had been like this since the Fellowship departed. Since Legolas left.

Sighing, Elladan approached him, drawing his cloak closer around his tall frame. He and his kin had much of the Elves’ natural resistance to extremes of temperature but they were still Peredhil and that meant feeling the bite of winter on occasion. As he drew closer to his twin, the latter turned to face him, countenance expectant. They knew each other very well and Elrohir recognized in his brother’s expression the signs of an impending fraternal remonstration.

“You will worry yourself sick over him,” Elladan began with some acerbity.

Elrohir shrugged. “I cannot help it,” he said. “‘Tis difficult not to wonder if he is faring well or not.”

Elladan frowned. “I fail to see how you can be so tender in your affections with one who treated you with unwarranted flippancy,” he commented.

“He repented of it,” Elrohir reminded him. “He did not intend to hurt me, Elladan.”

“Yet he dealt you much,” the older twin countered. “He does not treasure you as he ought, Elrohir. So many would be joyful to receive even a crumb of your heart’s regard yet he turned the whole of it away. And so carelessly at that!”

Elrohir’s mouth tightened. But he could not reproach his brother for being protective of him.

“He was only so shocked by my declaration,” he said.

Elladan shook his head. “If he had paid more notice to your needs, he would have long ago seen that you love him,” he retorted.

“He has paid notice to my needs, gwaniaur”—older twin—Elrohir admonished. “Else I could not have borne our mother’s fate.” At Elladan’s surprise, he pressed on. “He succored me then with all that he was and had – heart, body and spirit. Mayhap he does not love me as I do him but I know he esteems me above all others.” His eyes strayed southwards once more. “If that is all he can give me then I will content myself with it.”

He did not have to look at his brother to know Elladan was glaring at him with burgeoning exasperation. But he chose to ignore it. “I should not have stayed away from him in those last days,” he said instead. “‘Twas wrong of me.”

Elladan’s caustic cup ran over and he exclaimed, “You were hurting! You needed to heal the wound he so thoughtlessly inflicted on you. How could that be wrong?”

“If the worst should befall him I will forever rue withholding myself when he most needed me,” Elrohir replied. “You say he failed me. But I failed him as well. I can only pray that we shall both be given the chance to make amends to each other. And I wish you had not castigated him that day,” he added. “It only pained him more.”

Elladan snorted. “And you were not?” he pointed out. “I love him as my brother and would have gladly called him gwanur.” —kinsman. “But I have long seen how he takes you for granted. Speaking without thought for your comfort, foisting on you his troubles unbidden and oft confiding even that which might cause you hurt. And you wonder that I told him so? If my words do no more than to make him take heed in his manner with you, I think it well worth it even if he never speaks to me again!”

Elrohir suddenly grasped him by the shoulders and drew him into a tight embrace. Startled, Elladan drew back and looked at him questioningly.

“Ai, my ever caring Elladan,” Elrohir said affectionately. “What would I do without you, tôr vell?”—dear brother? He smiled faintly. “Yet I cannot help but try and make you revise your opinion of him. Nay, listen to me,” he insisted when Elladan’s scowl threatened to return. “I am not blind to his failings, Elladan. I never have been. But I love him nonetheless because I know why he treats me thusly. You feel he takes me for granted and I cannot deny that ‘tis true in many ways. But if he does, ‘tis because he trusts me utterly.”

Elladan found himself deeply moved by the tender brilliance in his twin’s eyes. He did not interrupt but waited for Elrohir to continue.

“He trusts me, Elladan,” the Elf-knight softly said. “Beyond all reason and rectitude. With me alone can he be all that he is and without shame or hesitation. If in doing so he has on occasion been heedless of my feelings, ‘twas never intentional. He simply is and always has been impetuous and straightforward, sometimes to a fault I admit. Yet I would not have him any other way. I love him, with all his flaws and all his perfections. And in entrusting himself to me, he has already gifted me with more than I could have hoped for.”

“But not his heart, gwanneth”—younger twin—Elladan quietly said. “That he did not give you and mayhap never will.”

Pain glimmered momentarily in the Elf-knight’s eyes. But then it faded and he looked staunchly at his brother “Then so be it,” he whispered. “We cannot have all that we ask for.”

Elladan shook his head. “You and Arwen are so alike,” he muttered. “You would sacrifice your very souls for the sake of your beloveds. I confess I do not understand such devotion.”

Elrohir had to smile. “Only because you have not yet found the one on whom you would bestow yours,” he pointed out. “But I wager when you do, you will prove as besotted as we.”

Elladan grimaced. “I should hope not!” he shot back. “If this is what love does to your otherwise sensible minds, then I want nothing to do with it!”

“If love means to find you, it will, brother,” Elrohir grinned. “Have no doubt about that!”

Elladan glowered at his twin, wondering how their conversation had come to center on him. He was about to make a tart reply when they were hailed from afar by Lindir. The Elf hurriedly approached them.

“Your father requests that you go to his chamber at once,” the housemaster cum minstrel told them.

The twins glanced at each other in surprise. “His chamber? Not his study?” Elladan clarified. When Lindir nodded, he frowned. “Did he say why?”

“Nay, only that it is urgent.”

The brethren hastened to Elrond’s quarters without further comment.

When they entered the chamber, they saw that their father stood by his bedside window. He was gazing at something. The twins gasped in concert when they saw what it was that held their father’s attention. A fierce-looking silver-grey haggard perched on the windowsill, silent and still. There were no markings on it or any indication of ownership.

“What in Arda—!” Elladan said.

Elrond glanced at them as they neared him and held up his hands. In one was a grey pouch, in the other two small scrolls.

While Elrohir gingerly inspected the haggard, Elrond handed Elladan one of the scrolls. Its wax seal had been broken for the Elvenlord had already read the missive. Elladan frowned for no emblem marked the seal. There was no telling just who had sent the hawk or the missives it bore.

He unrolled the parchment when Elrohir joined him and they read the message together.

Aragorn has need of his kindred. Let the Dúnedain ride to him in Rohan!*** There was no signature.

The brothers looked at each other in bewilderment before turning their pewter gazes upon their father.

“Rohan!” Elrohir exclaimed. “Did Estel send this message?”

“It would seem the case,” Elrond said. “But I am not inclined to believe it.”

Elladan looked closely at the bird of prey then drew in a sharp breath. “Lórien,” he declared.

Elrohir stared at him. “What dire straits could have driven them to take refuge in Lórien?” he wondered. “And how could our grandparents know that Estel would seek passage through Rohan?” An instant later, he put his hand to his temple, shaking his head in belated cognition. “Of course, Grandam’s mirror.”

Elrond nodded. “That is what I suspect as well. We must waste no time but summon as many Rangers as possible. Do you know where Halbarad might be?”

“I believe he and a goodly number of his men are encamped just a few leagues north of Rivendell,” the older twin replied.

“Send word to them to come at once with as many of their kindred as they can gather.”

Elrohir frowned. “But are you certain that this message is true?” he mused. “It may be a ruse to lead them into a snare.”

Elrond smiled suddenly and said: “I am fairly certain ‘tis no ruse because of this.”

He handed the other scroll to Elrohir. Elrohir took it, staring at it in bemusement, then caught his breath. The label that bound it bore his name and the insignia impressed in its seal belonged to the youngest prince of Mirkwood. Without further ado, Elrohir broke the seal and unrolled the letter.

As he read its contents, his eyes were seen to soften and a smile slowly curled his lips. When he was done, he lifted so radiant a countenance to his father and brother that they were quite overcome. Elrohir turned his shining gaze on Elladan.

“Come, brother, we ride to war.”

********

Rohan, Gwaeron TA 3019

Beloved.

The whinnies of horses filled the still night as the Riders readied their steeds. Twenty-four in all filled the muddied bailey of Isengard. The Rohirrim’s king and the Lord Aragorn had just bid farewell to Gandalf and the irrepressible young Took, Pippin. Now the wizard and his hobbit-charge were on their way to beleaguered Minas Tirith, fleet Shadowfax bearing them away with astounding swiftness.

I hope this letter will find you well.

Théoden mounted his great warhorse, stately Snowmane. It was the signal for the Riders to do so as well. Aragorn took young Merry Brandybuck with him upon Hasufel while Legolas hauled Gimli onto faithful Arod and settled the Dwarf behind him.

Forgive me, dearest one. I wronged you grievously. More than ever I realize the error of my words.

The company rode out of Isengard into the aging night. They were returning to the gorge of Helm’s Deep and the fortress that lay within it. Legolas idly listened to Aragorn and Théoden’s murmured conversation.

For I have looked into my heart and seen naught but you at its very core.

Gimli mutteringly complained without cease about the perils of entrusting one’s self to the uncertain moods of horses. It was not the first time he had voiced his outrage at being forced to ride any of these dratted four-legged beasts. It was not likely to be the last.

I love you, Elrohir. With all my heart and soul, I love you.

Deciding that enough insults had been heaped on his equine friend, Legolas mildly countered that the Dwarf could run all the way back to the Hornburg if he wished. Arod snorted as if in agreement. The Elf stifled a snicker when Gimli came back with a stream of Dwarvish the meaning of which was clear even if he understood not a word of it.

You told me you would always love me. I pray ‘tis true. Yet even if my folly has caused it to wane, I will win your regard anew.

They rode on, passing through the ruined fields of Nan Cúrunir. The Elf felt a twinge of sorrow at the willful desecration of what had once been a beauteous and fruitful valley. It was near impossible to believe that one who had been sent to aid Middle-earth should have stooped so low as to do injury to the very soil over which the Powers had been given stewardship.

The Valar willing, when we meet again, I will prove myself worthy of you.

The vast empty plains of the Riddermark rushed by in a dim blur as they steadily made for the Isen. Above them, the moon rode low as the night grew old. And still the Riders pressed on, eager to return to the Burg soonest.

You know you are mine, Elf-knight. From the moment of my birth, you belonged to me.

Poor Merry was nodding in Aragorn’s arms. The Ranger let him doze. Legolas sympathized with the hobbit. They would not reach Helm’s Deep until the early hours of the following day if he was any judge of time and distance. Let the little one get some rest.

Come what may, I will have you. And stubborn Wood-elf that I am, I will never let you go.

Legolas’ hand brushed the white-hilted knife at his belt. His beloved’s weapon had stood him in good stead throughout the Battle of the Hornburg just two days past. He smiled to himself.

His letter to Elrohir had not been the most orderly of missives. Nor had he had the time to compose anything more formally worded. And so he had dispensed with order and formality and written from the heart, jotting down the words as they came to him. When he had given the letter into Galadriel’s keeping, he’d felt as if a great weight had been lifted from him. He had felt at peace ever since.

This peace had allowed him to bear the tragedies at Amon Hen where Boromir had been slain and the Halflings Merry and Pippin taken by Orcs. It had sustained him throughout the nightmarish chase to overtake the hobbits’ abductors. It had kept him cool and collected during the harrowing battle for the fortress in Helm’s Deep even when it looked to be the last fight he would ever take part in. It had even given him the wherewithal to indulge in that ridiculous competition with Gimli, so much so he had not minded at all when his Dwarf-friend bested his number of kills by one.

In knowing his love for Elrohir at last, he had come to comprehend and thereby feel the full force of the Elf-knight’s love for him in turn.

They passed the burial mounds at the Fords of Isen. It was not too long after they crossed the fords when one of the Riders reported the approach of horsemen from behind. At once the Rohirrim prepared themselves for a possible assault. They waited tensely as the strangers neared them.

But the newly come horsemen proved an unlooked for boon as Aragorn’s joyful greeting to his kinsman Halbarad soon evinced. Legolas looked on with only half his mind paying attention to the exchange between the two Dúnedain. The sudden appearance of the Rangers of the North had served to remind him all the more acutely of the Elf-knight with whom they had oft ridden and he fought to still his longing for Elrohir.

“…but the brethren Elladan and Elrohir have ridden with us, desiring to go to the war,” he heard Halbarad say.***

Legolas jerked his head up in shock. Only barely concealing his sudden elation, he swiftly scanned the hooded figures on horseback. A movement caught his eyes and he returned his perusal to the midst of the company.

A rider had reached up and now drew back the hood of his cloak. Legolas nearly cried out with joy and relief when he met the rider’s gaze.

His Elf-knight’s argent gaze.

***************

***Passages quoted from LoTR: Return of the King, Book 5, Chapter 2: The Passing of the Grey Company.

Glossary:

haggard – a fully mature hawk

Gwaeron – Sindarin for March

To be continued…
- 13
- 14
- 15
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Twilight Tales - Sacred Bond