Wild Monster

by Matthew Harrington

  "Lassion!"

  There were gasps and panicked faces as the imposing figure of Bandorion, brother of Oropher, stood in the doorway, two mighty spears in his hand.

  Thranduil's eyes widened in shock at the sight of his uncle, for he had never seen him like this; wild and unleashed, the warrior he had once been yet his control had gone for his eyes were mad and his mind absent - only his heart spoke, it seemed, and Thranduil reached for the pommel of his sword.

  "Lassion! Come to me!" he said from afar.

  Those still standing around Legolas quickly moved back, all except The Company, who stood before him, shielding him as they watched, reaching for their weapons and slowly, menacingly, drawing them with a screech that promised bloody retribution should they touch Legolas.

  Thranduil watched his enraged uncle, ready to call the guard but his eyes momentarily caught sight of a frantic Barathon and Draugole, the darker Sinda desperately clutching at Barathon's sleeve to stop him from rushing to his father's side.

  "I demand Baudh Gwaith," he thundered and the councillors gasped in horror at his words. Baugh Gwaith - the people's judgement.

  "No" answered the king, his face drawn back into a snarl. "You will not touch my son."

  "You cannot refuse, 'tis Sindarin law between warriors. I demand he face me, that the Valar may decide who is just and right."

  "I said no," repeated Thranduil but Bandorion was walking forwards. "Only he," gestured Bandorion towards Legolas with his spears, "can refuse and should he, I will stand down, but when he hears what I will tell him believe me, he will not…"

  Thranduil's heart hammered in his chest, for Bandorion would surely bait his son until his pride and honour were roused and he would not stand down for although he did not know Legolas well, he knew what Rinion would do… his head whipped to Legolas, standing together with the Company, desperately seeking his son's eyes, but the Silvan would not look at him, instead his own, strange green eyes bored challengingly into the mad, shaking face of Bandorion.

  "Speak!" shouted Legolas, his voice powerful and commanding.

  "Did you ever wonder? bastard? Wonder why your mother faded, even though she had a child?" asked Bandorion calmly as he slowly approached Legolas and the Company stiffened as their knuckles whitened upon their swords and knives.

  Thranduil's blood rushed too quickly through his veins and his ears throbbed in time with his labouring heart - Bandorion was going to tell him, and there would be no going back…

  "Did you not ask yourself why you were not enough to keep her here? Did you think perhaps that you had not been enough for her - did you feel hurt and ashamed?" asked Bandorion, a cruel smile spreading on his lips as the purposefully hurtful words spilled from his twisted lips.

  "Stand down," murmured Legolas to the Company, but they did not move and so he turned to them, his eyes commanding. "Do as I say - stand down," he repeated calmly, and they did, reticently and slowly, they backed away but their hands did not move from the pommels of their swords.

  "It will please you then, to know that she did not fade…."

  There were hisses and gasps and even cries of shock but Bandorion had not finished.

  "I know this, without the slightest shadow of a doubt…. because I killed her…."

  Screams and shouts of outrage erupted around them but Bandorion had eyes only for Legolas.

  Thranduil stepped closer, slowly, his eyes wide and full of hurt and disbelief for although Amareth had already told him she had been murdered, the perpetrator had remained a mystery - until now. "Legolas. Do not listen to him, do not let him goad you - if you engage him this can only end in death…"

  "I know," came Legolas' whispered words - and there it was, emotion - Legolas was no longer the cool, calm and deadly warrior he was renowned to be but a seething cauldron of rising ire; there was nothing more Thranduil could do except watch and hope that the rumours of his son's skill were true.

  "Why?" snarled Legolas at Bandorion. "Why did you kill my mother?"

  "Because - I thought I was killing you, in her arms - it was you I sought to kill."

  Legolas was slowly losing the battle and his eyes were wide with disbelief. "Why would you kill a babe…." he asked in disbelief.

  "Why?" Bandorion broke into loud guffaws of bitter laughter. "Because you killed her heart, you stabbed her with your simple presence, as surely as if you had plunged a dagger into it. With you she began to fade and all I wanted was to destroy that which had destroyed her for you see - Aglareb," he could not finish for the queen's name on his lips made his voice hitch and his throat close.

  "You loved her…" said Legolas in shock.

  "I loved her, and she loved him!" thundered Bandorion as he pointed his spear at the king and Glorfindel moved to stand before him, his face alight and terrifying, but the enraged Sinda was too far gone to care.

  "But at least, I had her close to me, even though I knew I could never have her…but the threat of losing her, her pain which I felt as my own … I could not fathom…"

  "You killed my mother…" said Legolas flatly and Thranduil closed his eyes in dread.

  "Yes, although it was you I sought - and yet here you are, enraged and before me, at my mercy for now I will avenge Aglareb, and when it is done I will have peace…"

  Legolas' face hardened and Glorfindel saw it.

  "Legolas. You do not have to do this, let the guards take him away…" he tried.

  "No."

  "My son," cried Thranduil as Rinion and Handir came to stand at his shoulder, both placing a calming hand on his shoulders, albeit their own faces was the very picture of shock and alarm.

  "Baudh Gwaith you say? The People's justice?" asked Legolas. "I will tell you what it shall be, Bandorion - kinslayer - ," he hissed, "for there is indeed vengeance to be had, the vengeance of the Silvan people, vengeance I will deliver in their name…"

  Bandorion snarled and smiled at the same time as he threw one of his long spears at Legolas. "I am told you have some skill with it. Prove it!"

  "Guards!" shouted Thranduil hoping to arrest Bandorion before they could engage but it was too late, for the whirl of wood through air rung in their ears and the mighty Sindarin spears where widening the circle of shocked elves who stumbled backwards as the dual began.

  Legolas ripped the cloak from his back and right at that instant, Bandorion swiped forward and landed a heavy blow across Legolas' head, sending him reeling to the side.

  Shouts of outrage did not deter him though, and neither could the guards, for a dual with spears was nigh impossible to break up.

  Standing back up and wiping the trickle of blood away from his eyes, Legolas smiled and cocked his head to the side, before hoisting his spear aloft and beginning his deadly dance. Glorfindel watched from the side, mentally going through the moves he would execute were it him facing Bandorion, and then smiling in grim satisfaction when Legolas did just that. Squatting low, he held the spear parallel to his arm as the other stretched backwards, palm towards his enemy and Bandorion was momentarily confused. Pivoting upon his heel, Legolas swiped his spear in a wide arc, knocking the feet from under the Sinda who fell to the floor and rolled away defensively before taking up his stance once more.

  Again he lunged forward and Legolas spun to the side, landing lightly off to the left before whirling towards his opponent and attacking.

  From there, they began to fight in earnest, attack and parry, counter attack and counter move. Wood clashed violently with wood, fast and furious, powerful - every blow potentially fatal as the two elves spun around each other, widening the circle of onlookers as they fought, as if in battle. It was brutal and terrifying and yet mesmerising, hypnotic almost.

  Glorfindel's eyes were wide as he chanted the moves he knew Legolas should make, and beside him, Thranduil stood rigid and disbelieving. Idhrenohtar looked ready to rush into the centre and slice Bandorion's head off, but Ram en' Ondo held him back.

  The tip of one spear ripped through the
cloth of a sleeve, drawing a bloody line before the elf danced to one side and landed a blow on his opponent, the spear glancing off his shoulder and ripping his tunic, and then a mighty thud was heard as wood impacted with hard muscle and a whoosh of air followed, but the killing blow did not come, for the elf was no longer where they should have been - Legolas had been faster and when he saw his opening, he seized it, countering a low strike and catapulting himself over Bandorion and then taking him from behind, his spear pressed over Bandorion's chest, his mouth close to his ear.

  "She still left though, didn't she - why? Why did she leave her own children behind?" snarled Legolas as he breathed harshly, his own blood dripping onto Bandorion's shoulder.

  A backward jab of his elbow caught Legolas in the wrong place and he stumbled back, winded once more.

  "She left because she found out - that I had killed that bitch you call mother…" he raged.

  With a mighty cry of rage and frustration, Legolas charged forward and struck once, twice, thrice until Bandorion was reeling backwards, unable to stop the whirlwind of utter fury that pressed against him, until he tripped and fell, and the tip of Legolas' spear sat hovering over his heart, his beautiful, terrifying face looking down at him in utter rage.

  "Do it - end it, kill this body for my heart and my soul have been dead for many years…"

  "Father.." came the shaky voice of Barathon from amidst the horrified onlookers and Legolas' eyes snapped to Bandorion's son. He seemed so young, so vulnerable - a child who fears the loss of a father and not the arrogant, incompetent Captain that had made his life a misery …

  "No," said Legolas.

  "Do it! - kill me because if you do not - I will kill you, here or in Valinor, I will seek you out and end your life…"

  There was a presence at his shoulder then, strong and powerful and Legolas turned his head only minutely, enough to know it was the king - his father.

  "This is Baudh Gwaith - there is no return…" he murmured.

  "But his son…" came Legolas' soft voice.

  "He lost his father many years ago, didn't you - Barathon?"

  Barathon's eyes looked at the king, open and raw, while Legolas' returned to those of Bandorion upon the ground and his hand tightened around the wood of his spear.

  "It is our way, Legolas. He knew what he did when he challenged you - give him peace now," murmured the king.

  "I can't," he whispered. "He did this for love - he killed my mother for the love of Aglareb. It drove him to madness and cruelty but it was for the sake of love… I can't."

  "But I can," whispered Thranduil as he placed both hands over Legolas' upon the spear.

  "For love," he smiled as he thrust their hands down, until the sound of a breaking heart rent the air and Bandorion's final breath died in their ears.

  Barathon's wail of defeat and grief snapped them out of their stupor, and Thranduil pulled the spear from his uncles body, feeling his son's hands grow limp as he let go.

  The Company rushed forward as one, pulling Legolas away from the mess, as guards gathered around the king.

  "Take this traitor to the Healing Halls and prepare him for immediate burial, and place Barathon under house arrest until further notice. And clean this," he gestured to the pool of blood that had collected under the now inert body of Bandorion.

  "Oh, and bring that spear to me, when it has been cleaned," he said as a side thought.

  Saluting, they went about their business and the king's eyes sought out Legolas, who stood quietly amidst his warrior friends, still struggling for breath.

  "Legolas. Come - we have much to discuss," he said calmly but authoritatively, for he could not allow his child to escape him now. It was the moment to talk, so that his sons could finally understand why Thranduil had done what he had, he could not risk Legolas' anger and incomprehension, not after having achieved so much.

  "Elladan, join us?" asked the king rhetorically as he turned then to Glorfindel. "You too, my friend, for he may need you - more than he does me at this moment."

  Glorfindel stared into Thranduil's eyes with newly-found respect. He had not expected the king to do what he had, what he himself would have done. This king was strong, ruthless when the need arose for he had slain his own uncle, not only for vengeance, he wagered, but because Bandorion had not spoken in vain - Legolas would never be safe had he been left to live.

  As they walked to the king's quarters, Glorfindel watched Legolas. His eyes were far away and he walked as one lost, for he paid no attention to his surroundings at all and he wondered for a moment, if that crack to the head had addled him.

  Once inside the room, the door closed firmly, they all sat and breathed deeply as the silence stretched on. Handir and Rinion shared apprehensive looks, while Glorfindel watched as Elladan inspected his absent friend's rapidly bruising head.

  Thranduil however, simply sat the wine decanter upon the table and poured a handsome glass, holding it out for Legolas to take.

  "Drink, and listen," he commanded. Glorfindel was about to protest his tone but something told him not to, that perhaps he was right to ensure that his sons heard him out - after all, he had just found out his lover had been killed, and by his uncle no less, whom he had then killed in Baudh Gwaith.

  "Elladan," called the king, "is he well enough to stay here?" asked the king, his eyes moving from the cut on his head to the slash on his upper arm.

  "He is well enough," replied Elladan as he worked on Legolas' injuries.

  "My sons - it is time to speak of that which has always hung around us like poison, pulling us apart for you did not understand, and I was too broken to even try and explain it - the time has come for you to know of the relationship I shared with Aglareb, your mother," he said as he turned to Rinion and Handir, "and Lassiel - your mother," he said as he turned to Legolas, who still stared off into space.

  "I will tell you all I know but I warn you now, there is more that I do not know, for I believe Bandorion will have taken his own secrets to the grave with him. Are you prepared to listen? With open hearts and not judge me until I have finished?" asked Thranduil, his eyes lingering on Rinion for a moment longer than the rest.

  "I would here it all," said Rinion, and Handir nodded his agreement. Legolas however, simply turned his head without meeting his father's eyes, and nodded.

  "Very well. This, is the story of two, great women…"

  This is the story of two great women…

  "I first admired her from afar, for in my youth I was fond of revelling in the forests with the Silvan people, much to the amusement of Oropher. My father was king and I a happy young prince," he smiled in remembrance, her lovely face floating before his mind's eye and wrenching from him a watery smile.

  Thranduil's avid audience had finally settled, as much as it could after the morning's shocking events. Sipping on potent wine, Handir and Rinion sat shoulder to shoulder, physically closer than they had done in centuries, something that did not escape Thranduil's notice, and Legolas had focussed his eyes once more. The ragged cut on his arm had been cleaned and bandaged, albeit the bruise on the side of his head had reached an interesting shade of purple. Elladan and Glorfindel sat on either side of him and Thranduil found it strange that his Silvan son should be flanked by Noldorin lords.

  Mithrandir, who had stayed behind to oversea the cleanup together with Aradan, had joined them a while later, standing now in one corner as he listened and watched the broken family from the sidelines, watched its leader extend his figurative hand in open invitation to belong once more, to close the circle that had once been so cruelly broken.

  "It was her eyes - those enormous pools of river moss that sparkled and shone and told you everything she felt. So open, so giving, such a child of nature … I fell in love with her that night and in my excitement, I told my father I had met someone, for back then, there was nothing we could not speak of, nothing I would hide from my father…

  Yet he was not pleased that she was not of noble de
scent and I cannot say I had not expected that. It was not because he did not approve, not because she was Silvan but because the Council would be hard-pressed to agree to such a union. I was disappointed but I did not give up hope for I loved my father and he loved me. Indeed, after much pleading on my part, he finally allowed it and I was ecstatic," he smiled, a small part of his remembered joy teasing his bruised spirit.

  "Yet all that changed one day, and I could not understand how that had come about. He told me Lassiel had a reputation, and that I was not to see her any more. I tried to explain that this was nonsense, hearsay and gossip but he was adamant. It was one thing to overlook her family, but to allow his Crown Prince to court a woman of ill-repute was too much. This time, there was no changing his mind and so, knowing I would never court another for thus I told him in no uncertain words, he chose a bride for me, a political union between two of the highest born Sindarin families.

  Our relationship was never the same after that, for although I was a loyal and dutiful heir, he hurt me too deeply - I could never really forgive him, even though I loved him fiercely," whispered Thranduil, his eyes momentarily glancing over at Glorfindel, who sat protectively next to Legolas.

  "Aglareb was grace and elegance," he continued, "and even when I told her of Lassiel, she did not falter in the fulfilment of her father's wishes. She married me, knowing that I did not love her, that I loved another. She said it was her duty, that she would remain by my side and give me children and yet I learned, later, that it was not simply her desire to carry out her father's wishes - she loved me, so much that she gave up her own happiness in exchange for simply being close to me. Had I known, perhaps I would never have agreed to it at all, for I inadvertently ruined her life."

  The king paused here, turning to the window for a moment and sipping his wine, and when he spoke again, it was as if he spoke to himself, ironing out the pieces of this convoluted puzzle.

  "I wonder now, if Lassiel's ill-repute was a purposeful ploy to turn Oropher's mind from my wishes - one devised by Aglareb's own family, for if they knew of her devotion to me, her silent love of me, they would have sought to protect her…. just as I protected Lassiel…"