Chapter 8 - Interlude before Dawn

"You are abroad late, young Elessar." Aragorn smiled to himself as he looked at the old wizard. It had been a long time since he had been young to anyone. The old one was still sitting where he had left him, in the large comfortable chair and holding Legolas in his arms.

"I could not sleep. Too much has happened this night. I thought to check on my son and remembered that he slept with Rúmil tonight. He will be well protected there from any fears that may yet trouble him. My own lady sleeps exhausted, and I would not disturb her with my restlessness. So, I prowl the corridors of my castle like a homeless cat. I think I needed to see Legolas. Just to make sure he is really still here."

"He is sleeping a sleep that is finally healing. All here have found that same sleep, and this pleases me."

Aragorn looked around the quiet chamber and heard the sounds of rest that he could not share. In the child’s bed, Sulka lay with her arms around her son. In the bed of Legolas, he saw Gimli the Dwarf, his strength finally overcome by the exhaustion of his fear.

Aragorn smiled that in one gnarled hand the sleeping dwarf clutched an undertunic that they had removed from Legolas when they bathed him in the healing herbs of the woodlands. It seemed that even a dwarf could need reassurance that a friend still lived.

The wizard smiled back at the king. "If you cannot sleep, I would welcome your company here. Please sit and rest at least. You are the last to be wandering in your kingdom. Even Gimli did I finally convince to go take rest, so that he would be awake enough on the morrow to speak with this one when he wakes."

Aragorn was tired and gratefully took the chair where he could see the wizard clearly. There was much that troubled the mind of Elessar and drove sleep from it. He had never thought to sit in this room again. Today, he had thought he would be preparing the time of mourning for Gondor.

"And what of yourself, Radagast? Do you not weary of holding him so? Your arms must be stretched beyond endurance."

"Nay, I do not weary. This little one has never been a burden to me, only a joy." The Istar’s lips softly kissed the blond hair of Legolas. The elf sighed at the caress and nestled closer into the protecting arms.

The wizard shifted him slightly so that he could be held in one of his old yet still strong arms. With his other hand, Radagast brushed the gold hair back from the thin face of the elf and tucked the blanket more warmly about his charge.

Aragorn smiled at the sight of his proud friend being held like a child. "You have known him so long that you can call him ‘little one’? He would not allow that from me or anyone I know, save perhaps his brother."

The king poured a cup of wine for the wizard and placed it in his free hand. Radagast sipped it gratefully. The healing had taken much from him and he was still giving his strength to the elf he held.

"I have known these young princes since the night they were born. The friendship of both their fathers was mine from the time they first came from Lindon to Greenwood the Great. The Wood was still clean then and our friendship grew and we were often together at Rhosgobel or Thranduil’s palace. I know this child and his brother well."

As he watched his friend sleeping quietly in Radagast’s arms, the king breathed a prayer of thanksgiving for the friendship and care of the old wizard. "You think he will wake as soon as tomorrow? He was so close to death." The healer in Aragorn doubted this. Legolas had been but a whisper from death.

"He will wake, perhaps not completely but enough to know his friends, if only a little. I shall have to wake him if he does not on his own. I must get nourishment into him, as much and as fast as I can manage it. If nothing else, we almost lost him to starvation. There is barely enough flesh left on him to cover his bones." Aragorn saw a dark anger in the wizard’s eyes.

"What was done to him, Radagast? What evil was it? Haldir is skilled beyond any I know and fought with all his strength. Yet, he could not stop the evil. What was this that came upon Legolas?"

The wizard did not speak at once. Aragorn watched as the old one cradled the sleeping elf as if lost in some thought that none could share. Thought that stretched beyond the limits of human time and beyond the world as the Second Born could know it. Aragorn waited patiently.

"Radagast the Simple you called me. Radagast the Fool." The wizard stroked the golden head sleeping on his breast and seemed to talk only to himself.

"Your arrogance never knew any bounds and now it will bring you down. You chose the wrong victim this time, my old friend." The wizard shook his head almost sadly.

"Ah, Saruman! How you betrayed all that was given to you. Every gift withered in your hand. Now somewhere you have cheated even death. I know not yet where or how, Saruman, but we shall find you. Radagast the Simple will bring you down. He no longer fights alone."

The wizard looked at Aragorn as if he had only just become aware of him. He smiled at the king. "Forgive an old man, Elessar. You asked me a question, and I gave no answer."

"Your answer will come in its time, Radagast. I have enough experience of wizards to know that.’

"Ah, Mithrandir! I miss him, you know. Yes, I miss my old friend. Well, he did what he must on Arda, and now it is my turn." Radagast smiled to himself.

"I should not refuse a bit more of that wine, my boy. Almost as good as Thranduil’s. Nothing can match the wine of the Great Wood, but this is quite good."

Aragorn poured the wine and handed it to the wizard.

"In the Great Wood, this dreadful poison has been known for far too long. Haldir could not have known it, nor even Elrond or Galadriel. I fear that, in Imladris especially, they seldom thought we had much to offer in learning." He sipped the wine and looked down at Legolas sleeping.

"Still, the wood-elves are the ones on whom it was used. It was necessary for us to learn and quickly. Never shall I forget the first victims I rescued with Thranduil. We could not save a single one of them. In mercy, Thranduil finally was forced to kill his own warriors to preserve their spirits. They begged him for that mercy, and he gave it to them as their king, even as it broke his great heart."

The wizard shuddered as he rememberd the dark of those times. "Then, Lalaith and I began our quest for knowledge. We worked ceaselessly and finally were successful after too many years."

"Who is Lalaith and what was this poison?"

"Ah, the human impatience to know all at once! Lalaith is what the weak humans in their ignorance call an elf-witch. She has ever been like a daughter to me and my greatest student. In her own way and beyond what I have taught her, she is as powerful as Galadriel, sometimes I even think more so for there was no ring to assist her. The men of the North both fear and love her, and it is well that they should. She is very powerful. In her is again born the skill in enchantments that was Lúthien’s. The Valar have been kind to her, my boy. She was the gift they gave to the Great Wood. The only gift."

"Once when I rode with the Rangers, I heard rumor of an elf-witch in the North. We laughed at it as a legend of the ignorant."

"That has been the last mistake that many have made, young one. Perhaps, someday you will meet her and know that at times legends walk." He smiled in a way that very much reminded Aragorn of Gandalf at his most annoying.

"As to the poison? Sauron devised it. He used it when first he made orcs. The torture of it would not kill an elf’s body. It just broke their souls, the core of their being that made them elves. The advance and retreat of pain could break the strongest in the end if we did not find him in time. They were left without souls but with still breathing bodies that Sauron could then turn to his purpose. He mutilated those bodies, and the tortured elves became his first minions, the first of the orcs." 

He looked at the sleeping elf he held in his arms.  "That this one's soul survived, and his body broke first amazes me.  That has never happened before.  Always, the spirit crumbled first, and the body was left as a useful tool.  Saruman did not choose wisely with this one.  No, I believe here he has made his first mistake." 

The old one looked at what to him was the young king of Gondor. Could any human understand what he was trying to tell this child? Could the young king grasp the consummate evil of what Sauron had devised?

"The wood-elves were ever his favorite victims, Elessar. In time, any elf taken by Sauron knew to throw himself off the cliff before they reached his foul demesne. You traveled long with, Legolas. Did you ever note the dried herb in each pocket of his clothing?"

Aragorn nodded. Once, he had laughingly accused Legolas that it was some elven method that he knew not to preserve the cleanliness of clothing. Aragorn had been surprised when Legolas ignored his teasing and walked away from him in silence and anger.

"What was that herb, Radagast?"

"The deadliest poison we have ever found. It will kill even the strongest elf in minutes if he can but place it in his mouth or chew on the hem of his clothing where it is sewn in secret. Each elf in the Great Wood carries it, even the children. They carry it to die if Sauron takes them. In each place that it could be hidden upon them, they placed their release. Only when we found this release, did Sauron trouble to begin breeding his orcs. The sport of their creation was taken from him at last."

Aragorn’s heart twisted at the horror of these words. He had teased Legolas about this herb and hated himself for that now. He remembered the fleeting look of anguish in the eyes of his friend before the control of a lifetime had shut it down.

Legolas had not spoken to him at all for almost a day after that. For a week after, he had communicated only necessities. Aragorn had somehow never even dared asked for forgiveness, and the two friends had never spoken of it again. Only now, did Aragorn understand.

"And now, somehow, Saruman has found a way to deliver Sauron’s curse through the skin. He need no longer force it down the throat of an unwilling and struggling victim. In those trinkets he sent to Helmsdeep was far more horror than we ever suspected. It is a mercy that those on the walls there died so quickly. I do not like to think on what might have been otherwise."

"But, how could Saruman live? Grima killed him. Others saw it." All that was human in Aragorn fought against what the wizard told him. He was tired of evil. How long must they fight it?

"And the Valar once chained Melkor. How does evil ever continue, Elessar? I know not how or where, but Saruman lives, and we must find him."