Chapter Nineteen

Legolas waited, barely breathing, until he no longer heard footsteps in the corridor on the other side of the door. If he had been paying more attention to the actual sound of the footfalls, instead of just registering the fact that he had to avoid whoever it was making them, he would have recognized them as those of his long-time friend. As it was, he felt only relief that the person had moved on past and he had not been discovered.

When he thought it was safe, Legolas opened the door and peered out. He neither saw nor heard anyone in the hallway.

The elf knew he had to get out of the main house and down into the dungeon before someone found him. The longer he stayed up here, the more likely it was that he would be found, and if that happened, there was no doubt that the necklace would be taken from him. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

The elven archer suddenly remembered that there had been four guards, and he had no doubt that they were also after him. He hoped that they would all be together. If they had split up to cover more ground, it would be harder to avoid them.

Then there was Allaura. The elf had no doubts that that evil woman was on his trail. He had already dismissed her husband as a pursuer, since he was too injured to participate in the search. The archer only hoped that there were no others in the house that could join in the search for him.

Slipping out of the room, Legolas moved swiftly yet stealthily down the corridor until he found another staircase. As long as he could keep moving down, he knew he would eventually reach the safety of the dungeon.

As he moved, Legolas could almost feel the blue stone burning his hand, as if reminding him that it was still there. He thought that the sensation was probably his imagination fueled by his intense desire to stare once more into its depths. That, however, would have to wait until he reached a place where he could do so in complete privacy.

Down he went to the next level and found a small door under the staircase he had just descended. Trying the handle, the door opened, revealing another stairway. This one was far different from the others in the house. This one had stone walls and wound around itself like a corkscrew. It looked to be well-used, as the stone steps were worn.

As Legolas moved downward once more, he cocked his head slightly, a frown on his face. This place seemed familiar to him. Had he been this way before? He couldn’t quite grasp the memory, if memory it truly was. Perhaps it just reminded him of others of this same type.

He shook his head. It mattered not. Finding a safe place to flood his inner being with the blue fire in the necklace was all he cared about. Whatever other thoughts came into his mind quickly vanished, driven out by the need to lose himself in the blue stone. It pervaded everything in his life.

Legolas reached the end of the winding steps and stood at the end of a long stone passageway. He had gone down as far as he could go. This had to be it. This was the dungeon, a cruel prison for most, a place of salvation for him.

He rushed forward until he saw a metal door in front of him. It was halfway open. This, too, looked familiar. He didn‘t stop to ponder why but continued on. Farther along, he found another opened door and then a third. It was after this one that a side door came into view. It stood wide, almost blocking the entire passageway. Torch light flickered off of the dull metal.

Legolas rounded the door and turned into the room, stopping short at what he saw there. A pile of rocks covered the center of the room, and there was a rather large hole in the ceiling. It was obvious where the rocks had come from.

The elf didn’t like the idea of sitting in this room. Anyone above could look down and see him. With this in mind, he went down the entire length of the passageway. Every side door he came to was locked.

When he reached the end, there was another set of steps, but they led only upward. There was nothing to do but go back to the one room he had access to and just hope that no one would look down into the hole in the ceiling.

Entering the room again, Legolas looked clower at what was there. It wasn’t until he saw the stone bench along the back wall that the elf frowned in puzzlement. Why were so many of the things that he had seen look familiar to him? It made no sense. He must surely have been here before, but why then could he not remember? Being in a dungeon was not an experience a person was likely to forget.

Legolas glanced down at the necklace and an almost startled look crossed his face. The blue stone he was so anxious to stare into must have taken his memory away, or at least the majority of it. The elf laughed. Did it really matter? Why should he bother himself even trying to remember inconsequential things from the past, when the blue stone was the only thing that counted?

What lay up above in the room over his head didn’t matter. How the hole had gotten there didn’t matter. He felt safe here, safe from prying eyes and attempts to take the necklace away from him.

Sitting down on the floor in one of the back corners with his back up against the stone bench, Legolas held the pendant out in front of him and smiled, as the blue sparkles were soon reflected in his searching eyes. Deeper and deeper he went until blue was all he knew and all he cared to know.

*~*~*~*

Making his way along the huge tunnel one level above the enraptured elf was a most determined dragon. Freedom lay just a few yards away, and nothing and no one was going to stop him from gaining that freedom. Like the elf, he was single-minded. In mere moments, he would be winging his way homeward.

It took a lot of willpower for Treco not to begin running, in an attempt to get out of this dreadful place as quickly as possible. The tunnel was certainly big enough to accommodate him. After all, he had been brought down here this way. Still there was little room to spare. Running would cause his body to jostle too much, and he didn’t want to end up cracking his head on the stone ceiling or scraping a wing, especially since he had just had the left one mended.

There was another reason the dragon wanted to move faster. He wanted to outrun the growing feeling that he should stay behind and help the human find his elven friend. Now was that any way for a dragon to be thinking? Help a human? Look for an elf? What would his father, or any of this family, think about that? He knew the answer to that all too well and preferred not to dwell on it. “Well I am not going to stay here, so that takes care of that.”

Moving down the tunnel and trying to keep freedom his only concern, Treco was nonetheless becoming reluctant to leave. The two other beings had helped him when he needed it, and the ranger had come up with the plan that led to his freedom, so... The dragon shook off the thought and hurried on ahead. However, that thought kept creeping back to prick at his mind. Was he gaining a conscience? ‘Not possible,’ he told himself. ‘Definitely not possible. Those two are on their own.’

The dragon reached the end of the tunnel, burst through the doors he came to and found himself standing outside in the fresh, glorious, open air.

Treco closed his eyes and took several long, deep breaths. He was tempted to point his head upward and let go a roaring flame in an act of pure joy. However, he couldn’t take the chance that doing so would attract unwanted attention. He couldn’t risk having that witch Allaura use more of her magic on him to keep him from flying away.

Not wanting to give one more moment of his time to this place, Treco spread his wings and lifted into the air.

As he rose higher into the sky, Treco looked back down at Ravenlore. Too bad about the two beings he was leaving behind. They would just have to get out of their situation themselves. The human was also loose, so he could find his elven friend. Now was the time for self-preservation. Echoing an earlier thought, Treco said aloud, “They are on their own.”

In a matter of moments, the huge red dragon was just a speck on the horizon.

*~*~*~*

A loud feminine voice ehcoed down the corridor Aragorn found himself in. Allaura was obviously very angry and coming his way, so the ranger had to find a hiding place - and quick.

He had time to check one door only, and worst luck, it was locked. A few feet away on his right, Aragorn saw a table set back into an alcove. He headed for it. The table had thin legs and offered no real hiding place, but hopefully, if he hunkered down behind it, he wouldn’t be noticed.

Quickly the man swung one end of the table out and then slipped behind it, pulling it back as far as it would go. Sitting on top was one of the grotesque black statues that Aragorn remembered seeing when he was first brought upstairs from the vault far below. He tried not to look at the deformed being in what appeared to be smoothly carved stone. It took a decidedly twisted mind to create such an equally twisted piece of art, if this could even be considered art. He doubted it.

Aragorn heard footsteps coming and turned himself sideways, so his knees would not be sticking out under the table. It was at this moment that he fervently wished he was a hobbit.

Even hearing Allaura open and close what must have been every door along the corridor, Aragorn still hoped that the woman would never think to look into the ranger’s rather exposed hiding place. He couldn’t know that Legolas had escaped her, and she was prepared to search every nook and cranny for the elf.

Turning his head slightly, Aragorn saw the door he had tried a moment ago. It was almost directly across from where he crouched. If Allaura looked down even slightly once she checked the room the door opened into to, then he would surely be seen. The hallway was too wide to hide the fact that someone was in the alcove, no matter how small he tried to make himself.

The ranger’s hope was shattered when he saw Allaura turn away from the door after she had searched the room acroos from the alcove.

Allaura walked straight up to the table and bent down, peering under it. Instantly her rage exploded. She grabbed the table, jerked it toward her and then flung it aside, sending the stone statue rolling several feet before it came to rest on its side. “Get out!” the woman screamed.

With a heavy sigh, Aragorn moved out of the alcove and stood up, facing an enraged Allaura. He looked at her but didn’t speak.

“How did you get free?” Allaura’s voice was low. She was trying so hard to keep her rage in check that she was shaking.

It was pretty clear that Allaura didn’t know what had happened in the dungeon. That in itself wasn’t surprising. With the guards taken care of, there was probably no one left to tell her, though he had no idea how many people might be in this very large fortress.

Aragorn wasn’t sure whether to answer or not. He didn’t want to risk having Treco’s escape thwarted, though he was fairly sure the dragon was long gone by now. Yet lying to Allarua would not go well, that he was sure of.

The man’s eyebrows rose in surprise with Allaura’s next words. “Where is he?”

Thinking she must have figured out that Treco had to have been involved in his escape, Aragorn made his decision to confirm it, so he said, “I imagine he is far away by now.”

“He could not have gotten that far. He was not in such good shape.”

“A dragon is blessed with great strength, and he was not starved or left without water. He could fly a long way in a short time.”

“Dragon?” Allaura said. Then her face clouded even more. “The dragon is gone?”

It was then that Aragorn realized who Allaura had been talking about. Legolas. The elf must have somehow gotten away from this woman’s clutches. No wonder she was so angry. But where could Legolas be? He had no way of knowing, of course, but the very fact that the elf was free made Aragorn smile.

The ranger’s thoughts were abruptly wrenched away, when a sharp pain suddenly spread across his left cheek. He realized with a shock that he had just been slapped. Startled gray eyes looked into Allaura’s very dark and very angry ones.

Through clenched teeth, she repeated, “Where is he?”

“If I knew, do you think I’d be here with you?” For a second, Aragorn though that Allaura was going to hit him again. He was prepared to block the move, if she tried it.

Allaura returned the intense stare of the ranger and saw that he truly didn’t know where the elf was. It made sense that the two of them would be together and even if the elf was under the influence of the blue stone, the ranger would have taken him away to try and ‘cure’ him of his obsession.

The woman took a deep breath. She was well aware that it was the necklace she wanted - needed - far more than she wanted or needed the elf. However, she wasn’t prepared to give the immortal Firstborn up just yet. She was determined to get him and the necklace back.

Allaura almost laughed, because, looking at the ranger right now, she suddenly realized that she still very much wanted to keep him, too.

TBC