I shivered and turned over, trying to ignore the smell of fetid water that wreathed me. I desperately wanted to rid myself of the stench, and frankly was nauseated at the constant detection of the odor. 

I sat up and put my head between my legs, trying to breathe deeply and calmly to settle my stomach. Instead of the damp dirt below me, a welcome alternative, I again inhaled a myriad of revolting scents including rancid fish, stagnant pond water, and something that could only be described as slime. Gritting my teeth, I stood up and cast my face up towards the heavens, looking at the stars that twinkled above and breathing heavily. 

"What is it?" Legolas asked, from a few paces away. He was sitting, perfectly still, on a turned over log, and had been for several hours, his bow drawn across his lap. I couldn't imagine that it was a comfortable position, but it was reassuring that I could sleep in peace. 

Provided I could sleep to begin with. 

"I feel sick," I said flatly. "I cannot hope to sleep while smelling as if I died twice on the way here." 

Legolas smiled wryly. "Perhaps a bath?" 

"I wish," I scowled, wistfulness behind my bitter tone. 

"There is a stream not far from here deep enough to bathe in," Legolas suggested. 

"My Shower in Mordor: A Memoir." I snorted. 

"If you want, I can take you there, it really isn't far." he said, seriously, ignoring my sarcasm. 

I was going to find a good argument for the sake of arguing when my need to stop smelling horrific stopped me. 

"Please?" I said, relenting. 

*********

The night was not frigid, but I knew the water would be.  A slow moving stream slipped along a mossy river bank. We had only walked for about 15 minutes in the dark, and although I couldn't have found my way anywhere in the lack of light, Legolas steadily and assuredly led the way. The night's obscurity was unsettling; no bird chirped and no leaves stirred. 

"Is it... safe?" I asked, my concerns speaking of their own accord. My whisper shattered the night like a shot. 

"Of course, Gianna, do you think I would ever even consider bringing you here if it wasn't? 

I smiled sheepishly. "Goheno nin (Forgive me)." 

"I will remain a few paces back and stand watch," he continued. "I won't be able to see you." 

I thought I detected a smile behind his words. I was happy it was dark enough so that he did not see the blush that crept over my cheeks. 

"Are you sure?" I teased lightly, more out of jest than of real concern. 

"You have my word," he said, seriously. "I have no desire to infringe upon any aspect of your privacy." 

"I know." 

"Do not concern yourself with looking at shadows," he added, aware of my slight apprehension. "I have shot a Nazgûl down in the dark and I will do it again." 

I laughed slightly. "Ever the warrior." 

"For those I protect, always," he replied. 

I was deeply moved by this small phrase in the middle of the night, and could find no suitable reply, so instead I just whispered, "I will be back," and crept down the small embankment to the river. 

The faint moonlight glimmered on the slow moving water and I did not feel fear in this land of shadows. Quickly, I tugged off my still-damp leggings and tunic, and gingerly put a toe in the water. It was freezing. 

Utterly freezing; I couldn't even fathom washing my hands in it, much less my whole body. 

But there was no slime or mire, and here, the stones were smooth. I took a deep breath and waded in, before ducking under the water in one decisive motion.

My limbs burned with fierce, cold fire, and when I did come up for air, I gasped, chest heaving. 

Trembling from the chill, I ducked under again and did my best to comb my fingers through my hair and wash the salty much from the strands, and emerging from the water again, I focused on my breathing, trying to steady it. 

Valar, it was cold. 

I swam over to the shore and dragged my clothes into the water, making sure to leave my two daggers on the shore, and rinsed them clean of mud in the water. They would be uncomfortably wet, but wouldn't smell like sewage anymore. 

I needed to get out of the river; my breath came in short gasps and it felt as if my lungs had grown sluggish in the cold. 

I made my way to shore, slipping on the smooth rocks, and tried to pull on my clothes as fast as I could. The wet fabric clung and strained; it did not slide on easily in any way. 

I tugged harder, teeth chattering, and managed to pull my leggings on. 

I couldn't feel my feet, and frankly, that was bad news, since I kept slipping on the rocks. 

Holding my hair in an effort to keep it from pulling on my tunic as I slipped it on, I eventually got it over my head. Frozen, I crouched at the shore, trembling, as the water occasionally crept up and further imparted its temperature upon me. 

Eventually I figured I should move. Unfolding myself felt like a torture; the small breeze that I had ignored before further exacerbated my condition. 

I walked up a few steps and pulled on my boots. 

"Legolas," I whispered. "Where are you?" 

He replied instantly by nearly leaping down a steep embankment full of tall rocks. 

My teeth chattered so hard I couldn't speak, but there was no need to say anything; he already knew. 

"Come, hiril vuin, we will rest here tonight," he said instead. He took my hand and glanced at me in concern at the icy contact, but walked rapidly towards his previous hiding place. 

I followed him in stumbling steps and reached a wall of steep, smooth stone, where we stopped. 

I leaned against the rock, my face cast toward the stars, willing the cold that seemed to encase my very soul to pass to the stone behind me. 

"Gianna," said Legolas softly. "You will hardly be any warmer like that." 

The prince instead reached for my arms, which hugged my chest, and disentangled them gently, before wrapping his arms around me, pressing himself to me in such a way so I no longer felt the wind or the bite of my wet clothes. 

"Hannon le," I said, mumbling into his chest. I did not care to raise my head to speak audibly. 

I knew he heard, of course. 

I couldn't count the seconds or minutes coherently. But slowly, slowly, the chill left my lungs, my  legs, my very heart, and I began to relax. And as I did, I became even more aware of Legolas surrounding me, the soft scent of pine trees and honeysuckle enveloping me in a way more comforting than anything else I had ever experienced. 

"Are you well?" he murmured, after a time. 

I nodded mutely, then said, "Yes, I am no longer so cold." I sat with him, our backs to the tall face of the stone. "Are these rivers always so?" 

"They were not, not when the fires of this earth were roused from slumber with evil deeds and words. In fact, many of them boiled, closer to the summits of Orodruin. But now the ground has cooled, nature has begun to return. The only thing delaying the eventual regression to the wild lands this used to be is the presence of the Remnants." 

He looked up at the stars, running a hand through his hair pensively. "There was a time when you could never see stars here. No light reached this hellish plain."

"Light will again hold dominion," I replied, more hopeful than certain. 

"I hope every day that it will. Now sleep, my lady, I know you need it." 

I did not complain. I barely closed my eyes when I fell deep into a strange dream. 

A small fish-- no, it must have been a dog-- whatever it was kept changing, I couldn't comprehend what it was, but it seemed to be flying up a river of pure light that shifted and changed the harder you looked at it. A trio of shapes, random, flat, paper shapes, trailed in a disjointed line across my field of vision. I was struck by how strange this was, and turned to run and get away from this disturbing sight. The faster I ran, the less I could see, and then I was sprinting alone in the dark, blindly putting my hands before my face by instinct. I knew I had to get somewhere. But where?

I woke at the first light of dawn, still vaguely disconcerted by my dream and also still vaguely damp. However, I could have cared less about that. 

I stood and looked around, blinking with difficulty through a still sleep-soaked gaze. 

Legolas approached me from where he had been rummaging in one of the packs he had brought. He nudged my shoulder and handed me a soft, slightly sticky square made of dried fruit, nuts, and honey. 

Ravenous, I took it. It disappeared within seconds. 

"Did you rest well?" he asked, as he handed me both my daggers, which had been cleaned and oiled. 

"Well enough," I laughed, in a smile that met its grim end on the edge of my lips. 

"We must hurry to try and draw Falcon out," Legolas said, restlessly looking at the small sliver of light that crept up the horizon. 

"Legolas, it no longer matters," I said tiredly. 

"What?" he asked, surprise evident in his voice. 

"I mean that trying to strike at Falcon first will do no good. I had a vision not seven days past, a vision in which I learned that whoever is killed passes on that darkness which he or she possesses to the next available Remnant. The fragments are kept alive by their respective hosts, you know this." 

"I do." 

"Then you realise that this must be true."

He sighed, running a finger along the curve of his bow. "I do now. I should have seen this before." 

"It is not what one would consider obvious information," I said dryly. We made our way down the steep stone slag and walked quickly towards the flatter rocky plains from whence we came. 

**********

We crouched behind a series of lumpy boulders on the edge of the ruins. They looked so abandoned, it was easy to forget the concealment of a full fortress in the spell that lay upon them. 

"Simply by approaching, they will know you are there," Legolas said in a low voice. "Whatever you did before to escape, Falcon will doubtlessly not make that same mistake again."

I grimaced at the thought. 

"I detest this game of cat-and-mouse," I hissed. "You know he will send someone instead of coming himself, and even then just one of his men. They are valuable to him. Not even then! For he has scores of men, hundreds of men who have pledged themselves to his cause. He will send them, and we will fight and be weak, and he will smite us as we cower on his doorstep." 

"Then we need to make him feel threatened enough to send them first," he said grimly, surveying the landscape. "He is aware of the existence of the sword, correct?" 

I nodded. "He was quite bothered to find that he couldn't pick it up." 

Legolas smiled wryly at that. 

I looked around blindly for something to aid our cause and was disappointed. 

Legolas suddenly turned towards me, as if something had just occurred to him. "Gianna, my father sent an actual letter to Aragorn, explaining the situation. His personal herald was to deliver it to ensure that it would not be the one intercepted." 

"What? When?"

"Not a day after you left. He deemed it necessary to inform him of the plan to have you falsely captured to gain access to Falcon, especially after the discovery that Falcon had amassed so many men."

"Would it have reached Minas Tirith by now?" I asked urgently, seeing where this was going. 

"Yes, I am sure of it. If Aragorn has sent men, they are more than capable of dealing with the renegades and when Falcon sees that his human men are no longer a threat to us he will be forced to face us with the Remnants." 

"But how will Aragorn know when to meet us here?" 

Legolas did not reply immediately, and when he did, his voice was strained. "That is our best hope, that he leaves the city with his men immediately after receiving the letter. If not, he will not get here in time and surely Falcon will put up a wall of men to stop our advance. He is a coward, and will hide in his hole for as long as he deems necessary." 

"How long can we wait?" I asked, unsure that this would ever happen precisely how it needed to.

"Long enough for Falcon to think you have escaped to not trouble him more," Legolas answered. 

That was a frustrating answer, but it was the best we had. I slumped against the dusty stone and looked across the rocky slopes we had come from. This was the only seemingly coherent option to confront Falcon, and it seemed to be fated to fail. 

******

Legolas sprang up an hour or so before the afternoon sun had reached its peak, startling me. 

I opened my mouth to speak. "Where are you g--" 

"Nothing, maybe, stay here," he said hurriedly, a gleam in his eyes I had not noticed before. He turned again. "Stay here, Gianna, I mean that. Swear it." 

I was confused at the sudden turn of events but replied, "I swear not to leave this place unless my life is in immediate danger." 

Satisfied, he bounded off into the distance at a run. 

Frustrated again and worn down by the sun that filtered through the now chill-less air, I scratched the pale dirt with a small stone into lines and curves, brushing them away and starting anew every few minutes. 

I had barely begun to exhaust my list of things to do in the sand (which was admittedly quite short) when I sat up, neck prickling at the small particles of sand that stung at my neck as it blew  more strongly in the direction I was sitting. Aside from the sand, something did not feel right. 

I looked around, narrowing my eyes, and tried to raise a hand to shield myself from the dust. 

I tried hard to do so, but whatever mental command I gave, my hand would not lift. I tried to shift again, panicking, and found I could not do that either. 

This was a problem. 

Increasingly desperate, I tried to move as hard as I could and found that I was seemingly turned into a statue but for my eyes, which, after frantically looking around, fell on a lone figure striding towards me. 

"This could not be any more perfect," Falcon said smugly, coming into view. He wore full armor that glinted menacingly in the sun. "I happen to know that the clever little trick you did back there with the sword only works if you have two necklaces, the sunstone being the other, and that your dear little prince has just run off wearing it. I am honored to end this here." 

I tried to answer, but, unsurprisingly, could not form any words. This was even worse than I thought, especially since everything he had said was right. Behind him came four others who I assumed were also Remnants, by their familiarity with Falcon, who seemed amused at the proceedings. Even if Legolas returned at this very second, we would not be able to disarm them, for I could not move and therefore would not be able to wield any sword whatsoever. And without the sword, they would not die. 

What cruelty fate had dealt.