Chapter 16
Amariel's POV
Thorin makes us search for the Arkenstone nearly half the day, while he stands before the throne of the king, looking up into the cracked stone that had once held the King's Jewel. Balin, Dwalin, Bilbo and I stand before him, looking on with sad and angry eyes when we think Thorin isn't watching.
"It is here in these halls, I know it," Thorin breaths, repeating the words he had spoken to all of us numerous times.
"We have searched and searched--"
"Not well enough!" Thorin spits.
"Thorin, we all want to see the stone returned, yet it's still not found!" Dwalin growls. His words echo throughout the hollow mountain, bouncing off the mounds and mounds of gold that Thorin will have us sift through lest we find his precious Arkenstone. Yet I know that he will never find it. Not in these halls, not in those halls.
Only in Bilbo's pocket.
"Do you doubt the loyalty of anyone here?" Balin questions. He is the wisest of us all, and I know for certain that he will not fall under the dragon spell as some of us are. We all look at Thorin, who walks down the steps leading up to the throne, his majestic robes moving about him.
"The Arkenstone is the birthright of our people," Balin continues.
"It is the King's Jewel," Thorin says lowly. "Am I not the king?"
My eyes peer over to Bilbo, who has been avoiding all eye contact with Thorin all day. He stares at the ground now, and I can see in his eyes how hard it is to betray his friend and king.
"Know this," Thorin says through clenched teeth, "if anyone should find it, and withhold it from me, I will be avenged."
He walks past Bilbo, who is trying to keep himself from shaking and looking suspicious. Thorin curves around the throne and stalks deeper into the mountain, leaving us alone. Dwalin and Balin walk away from the throne, parting ways at a staircase. I glance at Bilbo, who meets my eyes and gestures we follow Balin.
We find him in an old storage room, the shelves dusty and full of cobwebs, though untouched by Smaug.He takes a deep breath before he hears us, and he is quick to speak.
"Dragon-sickness. I've seen it before. That look. A terrible need. It is a fierce and jealous love, Bilbo, Amariel. It sent his grandfather mad."
"But, but if Thorin... had the Arkenstone," Bilbo stutters, unsure of what exactly to say without telling Balin the truth. "If it was found. Would it help?"
We both look to Balin for an answer.
"That stone crowns all. It is the summit, of this great wealth. A stone of power, upon he who bears it. Would it stay his madness? No, lads. I fear it would make it worse."
The exact opposite of what we wanted to hear.
"Perhaps it is best that it remains lost."
Bilbo's POV
With Amariel gone to find Kili and Fili, I sit behind one of the great pillars and feel a lump in one of my pockets that is not the Arkenstone or the ring. I reach into my coat and pull out something I completely forgot about in all the hecticness of the past weeks.
"What is that? In your hand?" I hear Thorin's voice and it startles me from my daydreams, and he whips around the pillar, that look of greed and insanity in his eyes.
"It's-It's nothing," I manage, not particularly wanting to show him, and most definitely not wanting him to get rid of it.
"Show me," he demands, and after some hesitation I open my hand to reveal the object.
An acorn. Just a normal acorn, nothing special about it, but it holds great memory. Thorin looks at it in wonder, a small, living thing in this great prison of stone and jewels.
"I picked it up, in Beorn's garden," I say nonchalantly, pretending as if it was nothing. But surprisingly, Thorin's eyes clear and he smiles for the first time in what seems like forever.
"You've carried it all this way," he mutters, and I half nod.
"I'm going to plant it in my garden, in Bag End."
Thorin smiles. "A poor price, to take back to the Shire."
I shrug. "One day it'll grow. And every time I look at it I'll remember. Remember everything that happened; the good, the bad, and how lucky I am that I made it home."
Thorin looks at me the same way he did on the rock outcrop after Amariel and I saved his life. I chuckle a bit, wishing that he would stay like this and not go back to his madness. "Thorin," I begin, but my hopes are short lived. Dwalin cuts in at that very moment, and Thorin's eyes again cloud over, his mouth twisting from a smile to a frown in all of a few seconds.
"Thorin," he says, and though I know Dwalin didn't do it on purpose, I can't help but feel annoyment at him for coming in at this instant. "Survivors, from Laketown. They're streaming into Dale. There's hundreds of them."
"Call everyone to the Gate," Thorin grunts, and he turns and heads in the direction of the hole of a front gate. "To the Gate! Now!"
As soon as the dwarves gather at the front gate, Thorin orders us to stack the huge hunks of stone in front of the opening. The others begin, after some tentativeness, and, being great builders, pile the chunks of stone so that they sit together and form a solid wall. I, being small and not able to left great weights, merely help wheel carts of smaller blocks, as did Amariel, though all the while she has a look in her eye that is part sadness for Thorin, and part 'I will seek my revenge for having to do this'.
The Company fashions ropes and pulleys in the blink of an eye, and soon the new gate is above our heads. We leave a peephole for negotiations, though I do not think there will be many of those that end peacefully with Thorin in the state he is in.
"We'll make this fortress safe by sunup," Thorin commands, and the dwarves keep working. "This mountain was hard won, I will not see it taken again."
"The people of Laketown have nothing," Kili snaps, dropping the front of the cart he was pulling with Amariel. "They came to us in need, they have lost everything."
"Do not tell me, what they have lost." Thorin says. "I know well enough their hardship. Those who have lived through dragon fire should rejoice! They have much to be grateful for." He looks out over our half-made gate to the many fires dotting Dale.
"More stone. Bring more stone to the Gate!"
No, No, No. I think. We should not be ignoring them. When the time comes, they will want the gold we promised them, and what then? Thorin will not easily give up his 'hard won' treasure. But has he felt it out there? It feels like an ice pool. At least we're all cozy inside our mountain, but like Kili said, they have nothing.
Amariel's POV
I sit on my sleeping roll, the cold of the stone underneath me seeping through the seams and chilling my whole body. What was Thorin thinking? Cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world was not the way to keep your home safe. We promised the Men of Laketown gold, and Thranduil will want his gems, and I will not doubt that the Elvenking will start a war over this petty thing. Dwarves can be so stubborn sometimes, especially dragon-sick dwarves.
A few minutes later Bilbo creeps in and bids me goodnight; he is sleeping in the room next to mine. I murmur a goodnight, but keep my eyes on the blank wall of rock in front of me, still deep in thought. Bilbo understands this, for he leaves and the room is again silent. My eyelids begin to droop soon, though, much as I want to keep them open.
"Amariel?" a voice floats through the door and jerks me out of my stupor. Kili's head pokes around the corner and his trademark grin lights up his face. I smile and pat the ground next to me, inviting him to sit down. He brings his own sleeping roll in and lays it so close next to mine so that the edges are overlapping.
"What're you doing?" he whispers as my gaze again locks on the wall. I shake my head.
"Just thinking," I reply, and he scoots close enough for our arms to be touching.
"Thinking of good things?" he asks, and I laugh miserably.
"What good things have happened lately?" I say sadly, but when Kili screws up his face in mock concentration I laugh for real. "Oh, right I forgot-- Thorin is giving away all the gold in Erebor, the Men of Dale are rejoicing and paying homage to him, promising to help us rebuild this great kingdom, Fili is the prince and heir, along with you, and flowers are raining from the sky."
Kili shouts with laughter and lays back, pulling me with him. Our laughter carries through the area, echoing on the stone walls. It sounds much better than just cold yells and orders from Thorin, though it earns us a "Quiet down you two!" from one of the other rooms.
"You forgot one thing," Kili says, still grinning, "You're also the princess."
We stop eventually and lay down on our mats, our hands intertwined and my head resting in the crook of Kili's arm. I take a deep breath, and he snickers.
"What?" I ask, leaning back to look at him.
"I don't imagine I smell very good," he smirks. "On account of not having a wash in quite some time." I think back to the last time I bathed, and run a hand through my hair, which I immediately regret doing, since it feels disgusting. My last bath was probably in Mirkwood.
Its been at least a week since then. Yuck.
"I probably don't either," I say, but take another deep breath anyway. "You don't smell bad," I comment to Kili. "You smell like... okay, sweat and dirt, but underneath that... I don't know, you just smell like Kili. Like home." He smiles a little at that.
"Well you have never, no matter what, smelled like anything other than this one flower that used to grow near the Blue Mountains. Fili and I always picked it for our mother, and ever since the first day I met you at Bilbo's house, you've always smelled like that. Always."
A small smile encases my face, and I snuggle in closer to Kili, who leans his chin on the top of my head. I close my eyes, and for a second imagine that this was all over, that Thorin was the King Under the Mountain, that Fili and Kili were Princes, that I was now a Princess. But all of that vanished when Kili speaks again.
"We'll have to do something about Thorin, you know."
I nod and bite my lip. "I know," I whisper. "I don't really want to though."
"Me neither," Kili says. "I think he's sending a message to Dain in the Iron Hills, asking him to come fight. I'm not for certain though."
There's a long silence, and I think Kili might've fallen asleep when he speaks.
"Can you sing something?"
I raise my eyebrows. "Sing? I don't sing. End of story," I say with an air of finality.
"Please?" Kili whimpers, and I look back to see him giving me puppy dog eyes.
"That won't work. No," I say sternly, though I'm smiling. Kili rolls his eyes. "Fine."
Darkness closes in around us, the only light a flicker coming from out the door where a fire blazes for the guards and from the chinks of moonlight shining in through holes in the mountain. I turn so I'm facing Kili, my head still resting on his shoulder, and close my eyes. I feel his lips press against my temple and stay there, his breath making my hair flutter and tickle my head. It helps me fall asleep, though, warm in Kili's embrace and dreaming--
Dreams.
My eyes fly open, but I don't move. The dreams. I haven't had one in a while. But right here, next to Kili, safe and content, I really don't want to have one.
I love Kili. Not anyone else.
No, my mind whispers back.
Yes. And I don't let myself say otherwise, until I fall asleep.
Dream
I'm in a place that I recognize; Rivendell. The bandages I remember from previous dreams are now gone, though I can feel a scar on myself. The thought makes me shiver. My hand is slipped into my shadow man's, and they fit together perfectly. Almost. A ring adorns my finger, silver with an amythest gem woven in, matching a necklace that I wore. Suddenly my parents rush around the corner, and I nearly jump into my mother's embrace. My father joins us, and I'm stuck in the middle of a group hug that finally feels whole. The scene switches and I find myself accompanied by my mother and shadow man at the practice targets. I watch as my mother flawlessly shoots an arrow at each target, never missing the dead center. I challenge her, though, one of my arrows splitting straight through hers and into the bullseye. The shadow man shoots next, though he stays at one target. He hits the center. Center, center, center, until I think he's getting to good and hit the bottom of his bow up when he's firing and the arrow flies into the distance. He tackles me to the ground, both of us laughing, and pecks me on the lips. My mother smiles and offers a hand to help me up, which I take, only to pull her to the ground as well. We're all grinning, and I feel that at last I've found peace and safety, at last.
End of Dream
My eyes open, though I do not want them too.
I don't realize I'm crying until a tear drips onto my palm. I need fresh air. Now.
I stand up, gently removing Kili's arm from around my waist as to not wake him, and I make my way up a set of stairs and out onto one of the balconies. Moonlight turns my auburn hair silver and a soft breeze caresses my face. I take a deep breath and wipe the last of the tears from my face.
"Amariel?"
Fili's voice startles me and I whip around, grabbing for the bow on my back that isn't there. Fili throws his arms up in surrender.
"Woah, there, Princess. It's just me."
I drop my arms and relax, and Fili sits down next to me.
"You okay?" he asks quietly, and I sigh as I shrug. "Just dreams," I mutter. He slings an arm around my shoulders. "We'll all get through this, just you see," he says, and I smile at his optimism. I think I fall asleep, leaning my head on his shoulder and listening to his rythmic breathing, for I wake up in my room without any knowledge of how I got there. I lay on my back, my hair sprawled all over, and Kili's arm rests across my stomach.
I stretch, thinking it's a good day until thoughs of my dream came back to me. I groan and try to close my eyes again, but the harsh words of Thorin shake me awake once more.
"Get up," he shouts from outside the door, and Kili starts awake, brushing hair out of his eyes.
"What?" he slurs in a morning voice. He rubs his eyes and blinks in the sun as he looks at me.
"You sleep good?" he asks, yawning. I nod, though it's a lie. We both get up, and since I have nothing to change into, I head out the door to where the dwarves are gathering and sharing our scraps of food that we have. The mood was solemn at the table, not anything like it had been long ago at Bilbo's house. Thorin isn't even eating, and it pains me to see him like this; caring about nothing but the gold and gems, longing for the Arkenstone. I turn away and look out one of the high windows. It is cloudy, though small rays of sunlight are peeking in. We go our seprate ways after breakfast, but congress at the front gate a little before midday.
"Come on," Thorin says sharply, striding towards the Gate. After a moment we all snatch up our weapons and follow, and climb up the stairs we created to the top of the wall. Hoofprints are heard in the distance, and we all stare at the path while trying to look majestic.
There are legions of Elves positioned everywhere in Dale, armed for war. Thorin's hard gaze turns harder, and his anger seeps into all of us, save me, who is part Elf. The hoofprints are louder now, and Bard rides around the corner of stone, astride a large, white horse.
"Hail, Thorin, son of Thrain. We are glad to find you alive beyond hope," Bard calls, reining his horse to a stop before the bridge across to the Gate.
"Why do you come to the King Under the Mountain armed for war?" Thorin asks.
"Why does the King Under the Mountain fence himself in, like a robber in his hole?" Bard retorts.
"Perhaps it is because I am expecting to be robbed!" Thorin spits.
"My Lord," Bard says, "we have not come to rob you, but to seek fair settlement. Will you not speak with me?"
Thorin inclines his head as a yes, and leads the way back down the stairs, stopping at a hole we made in the Gate for exactly this purpose. Thorin leans his ear towards the hole.
"I am listening," Thorin breaths. We stand around him, not too close, but close enough to hear.
"I come, on behalf of the people of Laketown. I ask that you honor your pledge. A share of the treasure so that they might rebuild their lives," Bard says, but Thorin only shakes his head.
"I will not treat with any man, while an armed host lies before my door."
"That armed host will attack this mountain if we do not come to terms," Bard says.
"Your threats do not sway me," Thorin mutters, and the tone of his voice makes me cringe. Where was the honest dwarf who was always loyal to his people?
"What of your conscience," Bard tries again. "Does it not tell you our cause is just? My people offered you help. And in return you brought upon us only ruin and death."
"When did the Men of Laketown come to our aid but for the promise of rich reward?" Thorin snaps.
"A bargain was struck!" Bard shouts.
"A bargain!" Thorin says. "What choice did we have but to barter our birthright for blankets and food? To ransom our future for our freedom! You call that a fair trade?"
Thorin's voice dropped to a whisper. "Tell me, Bard the dragonslayer, why should I honor such terms?"
"Because you gave us your word," Bard says simply. "Does that mean nothing?"
Thorin remains silent and moves away from the hole, his back up against the stone our our gate. We all stand before him, some of our faces showing agreement, but many showing regret. Mine is the latter. We will all regret this.
"Be gone! Ere our arrows fly!" Thorin shouts, and I can just see a snippet of Bard's angry face. We hear him smack the stone and cry out in anger, but Thorin doesn't flinch. We hurry back up the stairs to the top of the Gate in time to see Bard ride away back to Dale.
"What are you doing?" Bilbo says angrily. "You cannot go to war."
"This does not concern you," Thorin says calmly.
"Excuse me, but just in case you haven't noticed there is an army of Elves, out there," Bilbo shouts. "Not to mention several hundred angry fishermen."
I stand next to Bilbo, and the dwarves turn and face us, looking at us with a glint that I don't understand.
"We are, in fact, outnumbered," Bilbo concludes.
"Not for much longer," Thorin whispers.
Bilbo opens his mouth as if to say something, but thinks better of it and crinkles his eyebrows.
"What does that mean?" I ask for him.
"It means, Miss Amariel, you should never underestimate dwarves."
Bilbo and I wisely choose to stay quiet, and let Thorin pass as he steps back down the stairs.
"We have reclaimed Erebor. Now, we defend it."
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hello :)
i like this chapter a lot better than the previous one, i hope you do too! im already beginning on the next chapter, so expect another update in the next week!
there'll probably be only be about three or four more big chapters, and then this first book will be over!im pretty excited!
also thanks for 1.3k reads! you guys don't know how much having 1,300 people read my fanfic means to me. it may not seem like a lot to some, but its a lot to me
ily guys!
-gracie