Chapter 31

Vardnauth

June 5

Near Rohan's Southeastern Border

They were drawing near, he knew they were close, and it was time to set his men closer to the perimeter.

The Corsair before him tried to look dangerous while not appearing threatening. Vardnauth ignored both pretenses, his mind was fully consumed with the prizes coming to him.

"I want the elf and the man," Vardnauth said clearly, his hoarse voice clipping the orders out like steel sheers through paper. "And if there is another human still with them, bring him as well. Keep yourself secluded; do not allow them to know of your presence until it's too late for them to turn back."

The Corsair, Brorgahn, nodded curtly, but inside he was wild with anticipation. Ever since the deaths of Miksa and Ringa, Brorgahn had risen to a high position and he had not yet failed Vardnauth. Now was a chance to truly prove himself in the elf's eyes.

"Go and do not fail me, Brorgahn. You were there when Ringa died. Imagine yourself in that place before you presume to change my plan in any way."

Brorgahn nodded quickly before turning and leaving the room. He didn't know how the elf seemed to know the things he did, but if it was time to capture the two prisoners once more, he would hardly argue with the Shadow.

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Legolas dropped down from the tree looking all too pleased with himself. "I told you not to so doubt the ability of elves, didn't I?" Legolas was barely concealing his grin and the only thing that was keeping him from bursting out laughing was that he had yet to look directly at the dwarf.

Had he done so his expression could never have been so contained. Gimli's face was the picture of sullen irritation and his short arms were crossed in the most absurd manner, giving him an almost childish appearance.

"I didn't say I doubted it." Gimli tried to sound off-handed. "I simply said that tree looked a wee bit tall."

"'Oh we should choose another tree, for this one is so tall not even an elf could reach its top!'" Legolas quoted in a mild imitation of his friend.

"I didn't say that in so many words— " Just then Legolas made the mistake of looking at Gimli and the inevitable laughter burst forth, forcing Gimli's next words to be spoken in a shout over the elf's merriment. "If you— IF YOU would only listen when I was speaking to you Master Elf, you'd realize that I was speaking figuratively!"

This sent Legolas into another stream of laughter only stemmed by Aragorn's amused interuption.

"If the two of you are just about finished I would like to have Legolas' report."

The elf chuckled at that and at last turned to the man on his left.

"I am sorry my friend, I shall not be so distracted again."

"That will be the day." Gimli gave no show of hiding his comment. Legolas ignored him.

"You were right Aragorn, we're straying a bit off our original path, but Kopairan is up ahead and we should reach it by nightfall if we move quickly."

Aragorn nodded. He didn't know why, but he felt uneasy here, and the idea of reaching Kopairan by night was an encouraging one; they were close to home.

"Good. Then we'll— " And then he heard it, hidden in stealth, yet clear enough to his trained ears and Legolas' elven ones to catch.

"Gimli!" Legolas alerted the dwarf by name and the dwarf quickly pulled out his axes. Legolas trained his bow along the trees, searching for the source of the footsteps they had heard.

"They hide their passing," Aragorn whispered in the Grey tongue. "I cannot make out their number." Legolas nodded and then as one the two friends turned around and fired their arrows into the trees behind them. Like a stick to a hornets nest this one attack sent the whole forest spiraling into chaos. Suddenly there were Corsairs materializing out of the trees, blocking off the path behind the three companions and cutting off escape through the forest.

Every one of them was armed to the teeth and every moment brought more of them spilling from the forest and pouring onto the path.

Aragorn had battled tremendous odds in his time, but not without the ability to recognize when he was outmatched. No matter what mastermind had drawn this noose around them, it was drawn, and there was no escaping it. Aragorn bit his lip in mounting frustration; he was so close to home, so close to Arwen, how could these Corsairs have come upon them so quickly?

"We cannot win this battle, my friends," Legolas whispered, echoing Aragorn’s own thoughts.

"Lay down your weapons." One of the Corsairs leered at the three, moving slowly towards them. "We'd prefer to take you alive."

Aragorn wrestled with himself for several endless seconds. It rebelled against everything in him to simply lay down his arms, but it wasn't just his life on the line, it was Legolas’ and Gimli‘s and...

"Estel," Legolas switched to the Grey tongue once more. "You stand a chance to escape and reach Arwen and your children if we do not die fighting them now."

Aragorn nodded and at last dropped his bow, following it with his sword which he laid down carefully on the ground. Legolas discarded his bow, quiver and daggers; Gimli was dropping his axes on the ground with forceful thuds meant to intimidate even in surrender; and Aragorn was suddenly reminded of their disarmament outside the Golden Hall years before. The memory was encouraging, for in the end they had not needed their weapons

The moment the Corsairs were satisfied that all the weapons were on the ground, they moved forward in a rush, two each taking hold of the elf, dwarf and man.

It was then Aragorn realized he recognized several of their number. They had been with the Corsairs that had captured them in Rohan, but what could they possibly be doing this close to Minas Tirith? Aragorn did not know and decided it wasn't important; all he knew was that he didn't relish another set of failed escape attempts.

Many of the Corsairs were sent on ahead to wherever their camp was, but the leader, a surly man named Brorgahn, stayed with several of his men to handle the prisoners. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli had their hands bound in front of them and were pushed down the path, given shoves whenever their captors decided they weren't moving fast enough. The corsairs were none too subtle in their self-congratulations over the successful capture.

Legolas blocked out their voices and was already forming escape plans when the trouble started. One of the corsairs gave Gimli a very hard shove, knocking the dwarf sprawling heavily among the rocks. Gimli caught himself as best he could on his bound hands, but winced as he tried to lever himself back up again.

The corsair who had pushed him, Greera, grabbed the dwarf by beard and jerked him to his feet. "What's wrong, freak? Can't keep your short legs under you?" Legolas tensed beside Aragorn, but the man shook his head — the last thing they needed was to antagonize their captors. He knew how corsairs could be, they thought of most other living beings as little more than animals, and this one seemed to have a especial dislike for dwarves.

Greera pushed Gimli into another corsair who shoved him back, laughing cruelly at the game. Brorgahn seemed to find the whole thing amusing as well and when Gimli stumbled halfway in his direction the corsair captain struck him across the side of his head, knocking him to the ground.

"You know, he didn't say we had to keep any dwarf alive," Brorgahn leered unpleasantly down at the stunned dwarf.

Gimli was trying to get his wits about him. The whole thing had started so suddenly and he couldn't quite comprehend where he was.

Legolas was struggling hard now, only held back by the two corsairs holding him by the arms and hair. Aragorn was trying to think of someway to change the corsairs' minds, but such a distraction didn‘t seem likely. They would have their sport one way or another.

At Brorgahn's words, several of the Corsairs started beating Gimli. They seemed to especially enjoy dragging him up by his hair or beard and then striking him to the rocky ground again. The dwarf was given little time to resist their abuse.

"Stop it!" Legolas shouted when he couldn't stand it anymore. He had no way of knowing whether they would really kill the dwarf, but he was terrified that they would, if only by accident.

"Shut your mouth!" One of the corsairs cuffed him hard in the face.

Aragorn stepped in then trying hard to keep the situation from becoming deadly. "Please, we surrendered and we are coming quietly, your leader will not be pleased if you kill one of us now."

Brorgahn walked up to Aragorn until he was right in the man's face. "You don't know our leader at all, he'll probably be pleased when he finds out there is one more dwarf dead in this world." Without warning the corsair lashed out striking Aragorn so hard in the stomach that the man doubled over; his guards let him sink to the ground and pinned him there on his knees.

Aragorn was vaguely aware of Legolas cursing at the Corsairs as they continued to beat Gimli. Ignoring both the elf and human, they continued in their sport.

Gimli didn't have much concept of earth or sky anymore, and he didn't know how much more of the blinding flashes of light and edging darkness he could take. He could barely hear Legolas putting up a vicious fight; he wanted to tell the elf not to bother — they would kill him anyway and it wasn't worth the prince getting himself hurt — but he couldn't even begin to find the breath to say anything close to that.

Someone had been kicking him viciously in the ribs, but that left off when several others started throwing rocks. Somewhere along the line he'd gotten a bad gash in the head and the blood was blinding him, but maybe he didn't want to see the end coming anyway.

The whole pointless ordeal went on for a while, but at last Brorgahn called his men off. Regardless of how much pleasure as he was getting out of this, he did not want to be late returning the prisoners to Vardnauth.

"What should we do with him?" Greera asked, booting Gimli hard in the chest again; the dwarf didn't move.

"Leave him, if he's not dead now he will be soon." Brorgahn nodded to the corsairs holding the other two prisoners.

Aragorn was dragged to his feet and at last allowed to look at Gimli. The dwarf was still and bloody, his body crumpled on the its side, and the rocks below him were stained red. Aragorn’s breath caught like a steel barb in his lungs, and in horror he looked over at Legolas. The elf had stopped struggling, standing now as motionless as pale marble, and the line of his jaw showed that his teeth were clenched tight. Fury and tears lay hovering barely contained in his eyes.

They started moving again, but as Aragorn and Legolas were pushed past the place where Gimli lay, Aragorn wrenched himself free. Swift fingers found the dwarf's pulse; it beat uneven, but to his surprise it was still strong beneath his touch. He was only allowed those few moments however before his guards took hold of him again and pulled him up, cuffing him several times in the head before shoving him forward roughly.

When they had caught up to Legolas and the corsairs guarding him, the elf turned a worried glance on his friend.

"It’s alright,” Aragorn replied the unspoken question under his breath in elvish. "I found his pulse Legolas, he's alive. He‘ll be fine."

Legolas nodded fractionally, but still could not speak, and when he tried to look back at the fallen dwarf the corsair holding his hair jerked his face forward again. In silence they continued their trek.

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It did not take the corsairs very long to reach their camp as there had been no further delays. Aragorn couldn’t guess why he and Legolas specifically should be wanted alive, and he decided it was better not to dwell on it just yet.

Legolas had remained stoically silent ever since they had left Gimli lying in the road, but Aragorn could tell the elf was thinking along the same lines. If he was correct in thinking that these were the same Corsairs who had captured them before, then he didn't understand why they hadn't just killed them on the spot, and how in the name of the Valar had they managed to surround them like that? It was as though they'd known the three travelers were coming…

Another thought he hardly wanted to entertain.

When they stopped at last Aragorn looked around, confused. As far as he could tell there was no camp as he had expected. He was only given a moment to ponder this before the corsairs pushed them forward again towards what appeared to be a slit in the rock. Legolas balked at the sight of it and Aragorn could hardly help his own apprehension at being taken under ground away from any hope of rescue. The chances of escape would be slim to impossible once inside the corsairs hideout.

Legolas was shoved through the opening first, bracing himself, but not bothering to resist. Aragorn was close to follow and found himself in a narrow passageway barely wide enough for two men to stand abreast. Sound echoed down the short passage and soon it opened out into a wide cavern. The cave was almost like a room, though a ragged unfinished room. The jagged walls bore torches which flooded the floor with firelight, there were Corsairs seated around fires eating or sharpening their blades, and the entire place reeked of smoke and blood. There appeared to be more passageways that led further back into the cave, though many of these seemed to be flooded — Aragorn considered that perhaps there was an underground spring responsible, or recent heavy rain. This loss of space seemed to have pushed the corsairs into closer quarters and he could easily see that many of them were not pleased with the accommodations.

Aragorn was jolted out of his observations when Greera pushed a bony hand between his shoulder blades, shoving him forward.

They were manhandled through several passageways where the water was at their ankles, but these finally led them to another narrow opening far back in the cave; Aragorn could not see it at first, it blended well with the rock and there was only one torch to light the back passage.

Here they came to a stop and Brorgahn moved through the opening on his own leaving the two prisoners with their guards outside.

Legolas was now level with Aragorn and the human turned a worried glance on his friend. He knew Legolas disliked closed underground spaces like this, but there was something else in his friend's face that he could not quite read, as though Legolas sensed something beyond that crack in the rock that Aragorn could not.

Just then Brorgahn returned. Looking all too pleased with himself he moved up to Aragorn and, reaching around the back of the man's head, he got a painful grip on his hair and pulled him toward the opening.

"Bring the other one as well," Brorgahn ordered over his shoulder.

Aragorn saw the opening ahead of him and then, for a sudden moment he was plunged into complete darkness, only aware of Brorgahn dragging him down through the pitch black, the cold rock pressing at him from both sides.

Then, just as suddenly, light flooded back in and he found himself standing in a small, almost completely closed off, cavern. The only light came from two torches on the back wall and a slit into the open air above, this break in the rock was also letting in a thin breeze that taunted the two prisoners trapped within the stone.

All was silent for a moment as the corsairs stood in the center of the dark cavern as though waiting for something. And then suddenly a voice spoke, guttural, cool and deadly.

"Put them on the wall."

The words echoed strangely, and Aragorn almost thought that it was spoken to his mind as well as his ears, but he shook off the strange feeling as he was pulled to the far wall, opposite the torches.

He gasped slightly as his back was slammed into the jagged rock wall; he felt his hands being pressed into cold irons and heard the click as they were locked above his head.

Legolas was placed to Aragorn's left, closer to the passageway that led from the closed grotto.

"Well done," the voice said after a moment and Aragorn had the unpleasant feeling that whoever was speaking was surveying him and Legolas from the shadows. "You will be rewarded, Brorgahn. Now leave us, and leave only two guards at the door; they are not to enter no matter what they hear. Is that quite understood?"

Brorgahn nodded immediately. "Yes, my lord." He jerked a nod at his men and they quickly moved out down the passageway. Brorgahn glanced back at the two prisoners against the wall and leered unpleasantly, then he disappeared into the shadows, his footsteps slowly fading to utter silence.

Aragorn's eyes scanned the darkness, looking for some sign of the one who had spoken; to be closed in the darkness with the knowledge that some unknown person was close by but unseen was nothing less than unnerving, but Legolas' glow was also present in the dim light and that gave some comfort to the man.

Even so it seemed like a very long time before the voice spoke again, and when it did it was unguardedly pleased, and pitilessly cold.

"King Elessar of Gondor and Arnor…and Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood, keeper of Ithilian. How fortunate that our paths cross at last." At that moment the figure stepped from the shadows, moving until he was only a few feet in front of the captives, standing right in the path of the outside light so that his appearance was clear. Aragorn inhaled sharply. The being before him was most certainly an elf and he knew with a cold certainty the name of their captor.

"Vardnauth." Legolas' voice echoed dully against the cave walls.

The elf turned his gaze to the prince and smiled thinly. "You know me. I shall not ask how — such things are irrelevant and easily obtained without questions."

"What do you want with us?" Aragorn asked, his voice even despite this unpleasant discovery.

Vardnauth moved towards Aragorn, slowly and deliberately until he was just in front of the man. "To bring you pain, your highness…pain like you have never known. I have failed in many ways to bring this end upon you, but now that such a chance is brought to my hands I will do so with great satisfaction. I will succeed where those employed by me have failed and I will return the displeasure you have stirred in me in the most agonizing way possible." Aragorn held the cold blue gaze of the elf with silent disdain. It would be useless to deny how the steely words shook him and yet he would not back down before such a foul being as this, not after the story that Tindu had told and the realization that this elf had been the true instigator of the plot to kill his family.

Vardnauth stared back for a moment before turning to Legolas. "And you, spawn of a heritage I know well. Maybe your agony will be some comfort to repay the long years I spent apart from those I once claimed my kin."

Legolas smiled slightly at that, his vibrant blue eyes denying mirth; it was an expression Aragorn had come to recognize well on his companion. "You have none but yourself to blame for those years, Vardnauth, and the true pain that fills your black heart could never be forced on me. I have not betrayed those who have put trust in me, I have not slain the innocent."

Vardnauth's eyes grew suddenly fiery and without warning he struck Legolas hard across the face, but there was something else behind the blow, something that exploded in Legolas' mind. A picture. A picture of his father turning his face away from him, of friends who would not meet his eyes, of exile awaiting him outside the doors of his own home. Legolas gasped at the painful memory and the vivid feelings which accompanied it.

"Betrayal comes in many forms my young friend," Vardnauth simpered, his rage satisfied by the startled look in the elf's eyes. "And who knows how much pain you harbor." The elf turned his eyes back on Aragorn who had remained silent, wondering uneasily what had caused the change in Legolas' calm demeanor. "But I shall deal with you later, I long to see what secrets young Strider holds."

Legolas tensed at the use of the nickname coming from the evil creature's lips. It was as though Vardnauth had drawn the name right from his mind and spoken it aloud.

Aragorn, however, did not react and instead turned his gaze towards the sliver of sky in the cave's ceiling. He could not know what was coming, but he somehow knew he would need all his strength to withstand it.