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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
- 14
- 15
- 16
CHAPTER 15: The Raven Again

CHAPTER NOTES

SCRIPTS:

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

"Stop that, El! You're making me nervous."

Elrohír immediately hid his hands in his sleeves. Over the last half hour he had touched his waistcoat where the envelope with Erestor's letter was carefully hidden.

"Do you believe him?"

Elladan looked to his brother, sharply. Elrohír's question had a deeper importance than the younger twin wanted him to know, but he could not fool him, never had been able to.

"He wouldn't be the first seer."

Elrohír rolled his eyes. "Grand-mother and ada. Yeah, Erestor fits in there quite fabulously!"

Elladan watched his brother. Something troubled him in a way he had never seen before. Elrohír was nearly crying, his eyes shone with unshed tears. He wished he knew what exactly Erestor had written into his twin's letter, but he could imagine; probably something similar to the content of his letter. And it had shocked him, too. But somehow he knew it to be true.

"Don't be sarcastic, brother. If it is true, Erestor sacrificed himself for us."

"But if it is wrong, he stole Vilya."

"If it were wrong, he would not have written me what he did. Nor would he have given you such a message. For I believe we know what there is in each other's letter, Elrohír."

The younger twin swallowed and looked away. Never once daring to glance over to where his brother was sitting. Elladan was right, he had a very good idea of what Erestor had written his were still resting to grant the peredhil and the soldiers who had accompanied them some time to recover. They had walked the whole night long, not to mention Tauron who had not slept in days in his chase after the chief counsellor.

Elrond was silent and slept most of the time as he was still overcoming the last effects of the poison in his system. Though his fast healing showed his elven heritage he still felt weak and the wound on his upper arm was far from having closed.

They were also resting to give Glorfindel the chance to find out who had poisoned the two humans. But the ones who had provided the meals and the drink claimed to know of nothing. He had then ordered everyone to stand back from their saddle bags and was now searching them.

Glorfindel rummaged through what felt like the 500th saddle pack, his patience wearing thin. His soldiers had complied without so much as a nagging for they respected him beyond anything. He was their leader and if he deemed it necessary to search their personal things, they would indulge him.

The soldier who the horse belonged to stood behind him, nervously shifting from one foot to another.

Glorfindel looked back, feeling the soldier's unease. It was a young guard, ambitious, boisterous and self-confident to the extent of narcissism. But the blond ellon was a good warrior and reliable in battle. Not someone who he would normally think capable of treason. But his behaviour was indeed ominous.

Carefully he searched the saddle bags, but there was nothing. He knitted his brow. Brooding he looked on the snowy path, his gaze sweeping over the rocks framing the path on the mountainside and his eyes narrowed.

Strange. The snow had been moved and then smoothed down but one could easily detect the differences in the surface. He approached the little drift and looked back. The soldier had frozen and more guards were curiously crowding around them.

"You will stay there." He addressed the young soldier. Then he proceeded and gently pushed the snow aside, layer by layer. Soon his hands encountered something hard in the frozen, powdery snow. He pulled forth a little flask.

Glorfindel felt the anger rising in his chest and he tried to fight it down, not quite succeeding. Then he slowly turned.

"You are arrested for the murder of two prisoners and the suspicion of treason." The captain's voice was full of disgust and rage but his face was dangerously void of emotions.

The young guard shook his head in denial, his large eyes full of fear.

"Don't you have to say anything for your defence? Nothing?" Glorfindel spat out.

"Why did you do this? Who gave you those orders?"

"I … no … that is not my flask. It's not mine."

He desperately tried to reason. When he saw that his captain would not believe him, he looked to his comrades. "You know me! I am no killer! Please …" He begged.

But two soldiers approached him and grabbed his arms not too nicely.

"You are convicted! Your own conscience-stricken bearings gave you away!"

Then Glorfindel went to the young ellon, taking on a more gentle, but disappointed expression. Directly looking into the soldier's blue-grey eyes, he searched for the truth there.

"What is done, is done. I will not judge you for it. That is lord Elrond's heavy and unthankful duty. You have murdered two Secondborn and for that crime you will have to be punished. But you can still safe lives if you but tell us, what happened.

I am certain that you are not the originator of this treachery. Who gave you the orders to kill the surviving humans?"

The young guard just looked at him … and said nothing. Glorfindel observed the other blonde's handsome face and instantly knew that this one would stay silent, no matter what.

He assigned him two guards and then waited for Elrond to wake. The peredhel would probably want to question the culprit although he did not believe that Elrond would succeed. In the meantime Glorfindel went back to the twins who seemed unable to sleep, deeply troubled by whatever news they had taken from Erestor's letters. The captain was still somewhat suspicious of their refusal to share those news but he would not force them either.

He smiled slightly as he came to stand in front of them. "Can you not sleep?"

Elrohír did not meet his eyes, but his older brother shook his head slowly.

"You have found the murderer it seems?"

Glorfindel looked back to where the blond guard was now being watched by his men and nodded. "He does not want to speak. He still denies it, but I know he did it. He buried the flask with the poison behind his horse in the snow."

"May I see it?" Elrohír asked and held out one hand. Glorfindel gave him the little crystal flask with the slightly opaque liquid. "That is really a large amount and little is missing, indicating the high potency. Just how many did he intend to kill?"

"As many as necessary, I'd say." Glorfindel answered with a grim expression and looked out into the valley. He wondered how an Elf could do something like that. But then again, even Elves were not above treachery, murder and other crimes. Their own sad history bore witness to that.

Suddenly he froze. "Boys, tell me what you see there." He pointed towards the eastern sky.

But before the twins could answer, one of the soldiers nearby who had heard the conversation gasped. "A crow … no, larger! It carries a leather bag … that must be lord Erestor's raven again!"

It was true, the black bird was soaring towards them, a dark leather pouch in its claws. Slowly other soldiers saw it, too. They alerted those standing near and within minutes the whole camp watched as the black bird flew directly towards the still sleeping lord of Imladris. It fluttered and landed only a meter away from Elrond. A soldier, wanting to guard his lord's sleep, put his hand in the way of the large common raven and tried to take the pouch.

Quickly the raven reacted, pecking at the offending hand and the soldier drew back, hissing, and cradled his hurt limb near.

While Glorfindel and the twins were making their way towards Elrond past the other soldiers, Elrond awoke from the commotion around him. He blinked, seeing a black blur in front of him and as his eyes cleared, making out feathers and a large beak directly in front of his face, he sat up.

The raven stalked nearer, looking at him out of its large black eyes, its head cocked to one side as if to make the Elven lord aware of its impatience.

"Elrond!" Glorfindel called as he arrived at his lover's side. "That is Erestor's bird!"

Elrohír confirmed that suspicion "Yes, that is the raven that carried the two messages Erestor send us while we were in that cave."

"I know!" The lord irritably murmured. He wasn't dumb after all.

"Careful, my lord, that bird is aggressive!" The guard hissed again and tried to grab the common raven, earning himself just another peck.

Elrond looked at the soldier with a sober expression. "Stop harassing that raven. They are very intelligent. Glorfindel, please retrieve that pouch now, will you? My arm is still kind of useless."

Glorfindel sighed. He knew that Elrond hated to be woken early and lack of sleep always got his dark peredhel in that mood.

The blond captain nodded and slowly approached the bird. With slow motion he tried to get the small leather bag. But as his fingers nearly touched it, the dark beak came down onto his hand, leaving a small bleeding wound. Quickly, Glorfindel pulled back.

"Ouch! That beast!"

Once again the bird hopped towards Elrond.

The blond growled.

"If I am not mistaken it seems to have set his mind on you retrieving that bag, Elrond. I don't want to hurt or kill it, if that can be averted." His Mirkwood plague would never forgive him.

Elrond grimaced as he started to move his injured arm, but the raven allowed him to untie the leather pouch. He frowned at the low weight and the feeling of it: it seemed to be empty, but then his fingers encountered something hard and frowning slightly he opened it.

He swallowed and stared at Glorfindel. For some moments Elrond seemed as if he wanted to say something but he only opened and closed his mouth a few times.

"What?" Glorfindel asked a little bit impatient.

Without words, Elrond pulled out a small ring. Golden it was, with a single sapphire – Vilya.

A shocked silence, almost palpable, spread between the assembled elves.

Elladan looked towards Elrohír, his expression saying 'see? He has not stolen it'. But the younger twin ignored him.

Elrond knew that this confirmed the content of Erestor's letters. Obviously this was not a trick to get Vilya, or to kill him.

"We have to get home to see what is in Lindir's letter."

That brought the arrested guard back into Glorfindel's mind and he cleared his throat. "That might be unnecessary, Elrond. We have found the murderer of those poor humans. But he does not want to talk."

Elrond nodded grimly. He slid Vilya onto his finger and felt its power fill him. Taking a deep breath he smiled. It felt good to know it safe again, the mightiest of the three elven rings. And it definitely felt good to feel its power.

"Bring him here, but do not tell him that I have Vilya. He will probably try to lie to us and that might prove to be more informative than his silence." Glorfindel went off to bring the blond ellon to Elrond. He felt responsible for his deeds, and indeed he was in front of his lord, in front of the one above him in station. He would handle everything else internally, taking the blame before his superior.

Approaching his soldier he gestured for him to stand. "Lord Elrond will interrogate you now, come with me."

CHAPTER END NOTES

peredhel ~ half elf

peredhil ~ half elves

ellon ~ male elf
- 14
- 15
- 16
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