My Past

My Past: Betrayal


Roch explained it all to me. He went over every distressing detail with fascination and excitement.

Gohris planned to take this clan and merge it with his own. To do this he needed to be rid of Dinrogion. So he was doing the obvious thing and murder him. There was an enchanted crystal embedded into the carved arm of Dinrogion's seat. This crystal made the skin-changer's unable to maintain a form when they were in its contact. So they blurred between forms unable to settle until their bodies were overcome and they exploded into an agonizing death. The body would only stop in its tortured switching after it was removed from the vicinity of the crystal.

What Gohris thought Dinrogion had done to deserve such a fate I could not hazard to guess. The gruesome destiny that awaited him upon that chair tore at my stomach and made me physically ill. I loved him. They would murder the one I had fallen for in such a horrid way my insides could not remain stilled.

Roch had been the key.

Gorhis had needed a way in which to enter the Keep unnoticed. Roch had been that entrance. Roch's enthusiasm and youth made him easily looked over. He had been the one who brought the message of the Anga Anca's activities with the villagers. This Gorhis had set up. Roch had made sure to be in the room as Dinrogion placed his people so he would know where they were located. This made Gohris entrance to the Keep disturbingly easy. He simply walked in and was never confronted.

When Dinrogion returned Roch was to go to him in urgency. Claim that a messenger had arrived for him from Gohris himself in complaint of the way he was implicated in the village dispute. This was the female changer who seemed to enjoy the spider's form. Dinrogion would go to the hall where she was waiting and take his seat out of habit. Here he will perish and Gorhis step from the shadows to clam leadership of the clan.

It was often the most simple of plans that returned the best of results for those who made them.

I was the bonus for Roch's effort. He had already been won over by Gorhis' promise for a place of power in the clan. But he had requested that I be given to him as a reward as well for his unfailing loyalty. Gorhis had agreed. What use had he for an elf play thing of Dinrogion's once the clan was his? So I was made a gift. An item to be given and possessed for a job well done.

My elven heart would not allow that. I was not a thing to be owned but an individual to be loved and return love. I needed to be free. To confine me was a slap to nature and to my own soul.

They would kill my love and crush my soul at the same instant in these walls. My mind raced to think of any means to cease this. I could not allow them to harm Dinrogion. Should it require my freedom, so be it. I was determined to see him safe and unharmed above me freedom. There had to be something I could do. Some way to escape from my bonds and locked chamber. There had to be. Dinrogion's life was depending upon my will. I could not give into despair now.

Then the words I dreaded this whole time came to me. I was slumped in the corner. My skin pale and gaunt from strain and my eyes haunted from tark ark and presence of the walls. My wrists and ankles bound by rope. Roch stroking my hair and whispering in my ear of things I do not care to remember.

Gertorn entered my prison and said the words. "Dinrogion returns. Bring him to the chair."

My blood ran cold. Time itself seemed to haze into winter's harsh chill and my world darkened and froze. I was out of time. I would lose Dinrogion. I was numb and unmoving as the panic nestled into my bones and took a home there.

Roch smiled and traced the contours of my face softly. "There now Elrohir, after tonight, no more interruptions. Won't that be wonderful? I shall have you to myself from now on. I will take you from this room to my own so that you may lie upon my bed in comfort. We can be together now. Isn't that wonderful?"

The thought sprang from memory. Dinrogion's voice sounded in my mind. The words echoed husky upon my ear and I leaned to them in craving for warmth. I could smell your arousal if we stood at opposite ends of the Keep and it would call me to you. His sense of smell. A changer's sharpest ally was the nose.

"Yes…" my voice sounded harsh in my own ears from the dryness of my throat.

Roch looked surprised. "What was that?"

"Yes…it will be wonderful Roch…to be with you…alone…" I whispered harshly. My mind racing with thought.

He smiled with pride. "I knew you felt as I, Elrohir!"

"I do…Roch…I wish to be near you…sooner…will you not hold me before you go?" It was a shot in the dark. But it was the only shot I had. If Dinrogion could smell me upon him, would it not make him pause before entering the hall to ask why? I could only hope it would. I needed more time to think. I must think of a way to protect Dinrogion. There had to be a way just out of my grasp. A few more moments of thought would bring it down to me. It had to.

Roch kneeled down beside me, one hand toying with a lock of my hair. The other falling to rest its back against the inside of my bare knee. I started at the abruptness of his unwanted hand on my body. He had no place in touching me so. I had trusted and befriended him. While he had betrayed Dinrogion and made me an object for his amusement. My revulsion was palatable. Yet I remained unmoving to the touch.

"I always heard that elves had a light and I didn't believe it until I saw you Elrohir." The hand in my hair cupped my cheek tenderly. "You glow like a white star burn inside your flesh. I saw Dinrogion carry you into the Keep that night you arrived. We thought you were dead. I think Timlal would have made sure you were dead actually. But Dinrogion wouldn't let him near you and locked you up away from the rest of us. I wanted to touch you then. I would have if Dinrogion hadn't been so snippy and told me to keep away. But I watched. I love watching you Elrohir. When you are relaxed you glow brighter you know? I watched you bath, you're so beautiful in the water Elrohir. And now we're together and Dinrogion can't get in our way anymore. "

I nodded dumbly. The words lost to my ears as my mind was focused on the hand moving in a feather like caress up the inside of my bare thigh. I wanted to strike him. My hands twitched despite my forced calm behind my back in their bonds. I wanted to run away. To throw him back and run from this horror. My feet were bound as firmly as my wrists. And my heart's need for Dinrogion's life overruled my body's instinct to recoil. I remained frozen. Every nerve and sense within my body writhing in distaste. My eyes fixated on the hand that snaked and vanished beneath my tattered, long tunic.

Though my eyes lost contact my flesh did not. His cool fingers wrapped like a corpse's last grip on life about my flaccid member. I fought down the growing nausea building in my throat. Roch seemed to mistake my expression of misery for arousal. For he leaned his pale face in and kissed my unresponsive mouth.

There was no power in all of Arda that could have granted me the will to respond in kind. It took all of my strength and years of experience not to be ill upon him at the moment. His tongue probed for entrance, pressing against my lips. I would not open for him. My nerves still locked on the intimate placement of his hand. Never before had I felt so helpless or defiled. He had betrayed us. He did not see me as a being but merely a pretty thing to own that would listen to him. My nausea threatened to overtake me.

But every moment longer Roch was with me was a moment longer Dinrogion was safe. I was immortal of elven kind. Yet I was pleading the Valar from inside my mind to grant me more time. The irony was not lost on me even now.

I was not given more. For the door to my prison was thrown open to admit Gertorn. "Roch! The Draug enters the Keep, what are you doing? We must move quickly!"

Roch moved away. Though it seemed to me as though his hand lingered an age beneath the cover of my tunic stealing the warmth from my skin. Since his eyes were off me I shivered once of a chill that built from inside my worn body. Roch got to his feet. His hand dropped down to stroke my hair as stood beside me. "Alright, I'm ready. It won't take long after all." He paused and looked down at me with a bright smile. "Would you like to watch? It'll be brilliant!"

I looked up at him momentarily rendered dumb. My mouth became desperately dry. Did I desire to see my beloved die in such a gruesome way? How could he even ask such a thing of me so uncaring? I began to wonder if Roch had any understanding of the delicate wonder that was a life at all. The thought that he did not brought a sadness to my heart that I could not define. I was opening my mouth to plead with him to spare Dinrogion's life when something else emerged entirely from my lips. "How would you hide me from his sight to witness such a thing?"

"Easy, I'll leave you up in one of the alcoves overlooking the hall. You can watch from behind a statue and not be seen. I've done it plenty of times. It's real easy to do. You just have to make sure you're extra quiet because of the echo. But don't worry, I'll gag you securely. Come Elrohir. Let's go this will be something to see. The afterwards we can go eat and then I can take you back to my room where you can lie down on a nice bed instead of this floor. That'll be much better won't it?"

"Yes…much." I whispered hoarsely. I had hope. I could warn Dinrogion. I had my chance to save him now. The gag was not counted on. But surely I could find a way around it to Dinrogion's ears.

Gertorn grunted from the doorway. "You aren't seriously going to allow Dinrogion's pet in the room for his death? He's already escaped and caused Gorhis enough grief. Keep him here."

I cringed inwardly. But I turned my eyes pleadingly upwards to Roch. "Please..? I wish to come and see what happens. I want to be there near you when Lord Gorhis takes the clan." The words sounded hallow even to my ears.

Yet they seemed to sound right to Roch. He beamed at me and then frowned at Gertorn. "I can tie him up and gag him well. He won't be a problem. I promise!"

Gertorn shook his head in frustration. "Fine. Bring him, but if anything happens it's your head. Now. LET'S GO!" He bellowed.

I cringed as the sound echoed through my ears. Humans did have a tendency to speak overly loud at times. Next I found myself being half carried and half dragged by Roch out of the room. He moved quickly through the dark side passages of the Keep. All empty this time of day. Gertorn walking slightly ahead to make sure of that fact. My torn, bruised feet dragged on the stone floor as I fought for some control. Since they were bound I could not achieve it. At one point I heard quick footsteps approaching us. Roch's hand clamped over my mouth and we moved against a wall. Gorhis pressed against one opposite us.

A young woman came dashing down the corridor. She was in her own thoughts and not taking heed of the familiar walls around her. I held my breath as she approached us. She would see us. There was no hiding it. Her feet brought her to us. But her realization was not as swift. For recognition of the Anga Anca emblem did not rise in her green eyes until her life was seeping out of them.

Gorhis removed his sword from her chest with a sickening sound and I found myself once again battling my stomach's rise. Her body lay in a heap face down, alone on the dark stone. The blood from the wound seeping into the cracks. Dying her pale hair into crimson dawn. "Oh Eru…" I gagged.

"You should have cut her throat, would have been faster, and then you could guarantee she wouldn't give us away!" Observed Roch and I found myself being dragged away once more. My eyes locked on the fallen figure along in the halls until long after distance and dark had swallowed her. She was nothing more than a child.

I was dragged into the hall and dumped on the ground for a moment as Roch secured some rope. My bonds were retied and doubled so that they pinched and cut away the circulation from my digits. Roch stuffed a piece of cloth into my protesting mouth then tied another over it sealing in my desperation and distress. All was done so quickly. I knew not what to do.

Roch's body twisted and blurred into that of a large hawk. I began to crawl away from him but before I could get very far I was snatched into his talons and we were rising in the air towards the ceiling. I was tossed unkindly into an alcove containing a rather forlorn winged statue. Roch joined me a moment later in human shape. I crawled from him into the dark behind the statue as best I could. He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. "Now, try not to move. This ledge is a little unstable." He gestured to the front of the alcove that would be in sight of any below. I could see well the cracks in the stone that ran through it. "Just stay in the back and watch. It'll be all done soon." He patted me on the head, morphed back to a bird, and was swooping down and out of the hall before I remembered to breathe again.

I was alone. I was desperate. I crawled to as near the alcove entrance as I dared.

My sharp elven eyes scanned the hall. It seemed I was not alone. Hidden from view upon the ground but revealed to my eyes above were many. Including Gorhis. The spider changer walked into the hall and stood by Dinrogion's chair. Gertorn was hidden not far below me with a crossbow armed and at the ready. While I lay bound and desperate above. What could I do? I looked around. I crawled back to behind the statue and pressed my weight to it. But it was bolted firmly down. I looked it over in hopes of finding a sharp edge. Yet the creature was worn by time and its edges had long since blurred. I leaned against it, my frantic, overburdened mind whirling in desolate need. What was I to do?

The voices crept into my ears. Their owners still a distance away. They had returned. I remained leaning against the statue drowning in the despair of failure. My eyes locked on the hall below. My breathing ragged through my nose. My whole body ached with strain, wear and exhaustion. But it was my heart that was causing my agony now.

Dinrogion entered the hall. Roch jumping eagerly at his side. Timlal, Daimail and Shassma not far behind. Other changers began to enter as normal. The fire in the hearth casting a blood red glow on their faces and making their shadows lurch as though in death's throes. My eyes rested on Dinrogion's proud form as he strode into the hall. Even from this distance I could detect his anger in the set of his shoulders as he advanced upon Gorhis' messenger. Too angry to notice the scent off Roch.

He still wore his cloak a trail of fire red billowing out behind him. The firelight reflected in his white locks and made it look as though he too burned. A torch moving to the front of the room to take its place over the dying embers of the clan. I could not bear to stand idle as my light was to be extinguished. So I crawled to the unstable ledge of the alcove. Dinrogion had reached nearly reached the raised seat. Timlal and Roch at his side. Most of those I recognized were gathering by the fire.

All but Shassma who was headed towards where I lay. She was heading back towards the sick rooms by the side door. It would take her past Gertorn and beneath me. I reacted quickly. I pushed all of my weight onto the weakest section of the ledge.

The instability spread and the cracks deepened. My hopes were granted as a chunk of the ledge gave way and plummeted to splatter to dust on the floor below. On instinct Shassma glanced upward to the alcove that had hindered her path. I was attempting to gain my balance on the broken edge of the alcove. As she looked up her eyes went wide and she cried out in startled surprise.

I saw Timlal and Gertorn both turn to look at her then follow her gaze to me in the same instant. I was still flailing rather unsteadily as more of the ledge was giving way below my body. I saw Dinrogion standing before his chair pause to look at Timlal's sudden change in focus. In my eyes everything remained still for an instant as though time had frozen upon the water's edge. Then the currents of spring ragged and broke free as all broke into motion.

The spider changer lunged at Dinrogion with the intent to push him onto the seat. But Timlal slammed into her side before she could reach him. Dinrogion's eyes met mine for a brief instant and he seemed to gape in confusion. "Elrohir!" He called out to me as Timlal and the other struggled on the floor.

Shassma was still standing below me staring upwards in wonder. Gertorn however was not. He rose from his concealment, crossbow aimed and ready at Dinrogion's heart. Save that Shassma stood between his arrow and its target. Others started moving from the shadows upon the unsuspecting members of the clan. Confusion erupted below into a mass of weapons and bodies.

To this day I wonder what lack of thought made me chose my next course of action.

I rolled and plummeted from the ledge. I twisted in the air and dropped feet first, heart in my mouth and Dinrogion and Roch's voices calling in union. I came down hard and straight and hit my mark with elven accuracy. My bare feet drove into the back of Gertorn's neck and shoulder snapping the spine audibly as the crossbow fired. His collarbone mixed with the force of my descent and bound legs, unfortunately, was enough to break my ankles. His dead body was driven forward to the ground and I came to rest in agony on my back over it.

Twisted, spiked fire laced through my legs, as I lay dazed on the ground.

"Shassma!" Timlal's gruff voice filled with a concern I had never heard from him. I turned my blurred vision to see her with the arrow embedded in her arm. I watched with a new respect for her as she broke off the end and yanked it out unassisted.

"Timlal, stop looking around and pay attention love, your friend is escaping you." Shassma was heading towards me. I turned my sluggish head towards Timlal's voice to see that the spider changer was indeed edging away from him. Dinrogion had closed nearly half the distance between us before he had caught sight of Gorhis standing among the fighters.

Shassma removed my gag. All around us skin changers were fighting for their lives in urgency. Yet her voice was as calm and casual as ever. "Dear, may I ask how you got up there and in such a state? What was done to you?"

It was all so surreal. "Gorhis wants the clan…don't let Dinrogion touch his chair." I pleaded. "There's a crystal…in the arm…it shall kill him if he come into contact with it…" I was having difficulty speaking or making my mind focus around the searing rage of anguish in my defeated body.

"Elfling, how did Gorhis get in?" Daimail's voice was in my ear.

"Roch…Roch betrayed us…Gorhis gave him power to betray us…the Anga Anca were a set up to lure you away…so he could get in…don't let him touch the chair…please…don't them hurt him…"I desperately wanted someone to knock me out cold so that my mind would quiet and the pain would end.

"Roch?" demanded Daimail in surprise. Her dark eyes shifted from me to Dinrogion who was out of my sight line. "Why were you bound elfling?"

"I walked in on them talking…I couldn't sleep…I tried to escape but I was captured…Roch…Gorhis promised me to Roch for his loyalty…please…make sure Dinrogion does not touch the chair!" Shassma was delicately unbinding my feet. Though I know she was trying it could not stop the pain that overwhelmed me. Though I was not ill and did not scream I could not stop those unwanted tears from escaping my eyes.

Daimail was standing and gone as a shadow to the sun. I was struggling to turn to see Dinrogion as Shassma attempted to see to me. "Love, I'm sorry but I'm going to need to move you and it will not be painless."

"…the chair…"I could not think of anything else at this point. I had been pushed far beyond my capacity emotemotional strength. A second thought haunted me. "The girl…the girl they killed in the hallway…coming to here from my prison…they killed her…someone has to get her…she's alone…Dinrogion, is he alright?"

Shassma frowned and reached out a hand to soothe the hair from my face. "Shush now dear, we'll find her and take care of her. Heru Draug is having words with Gorhis." I strained to find him but too many forms blocked his from my sight. Shassma was motioning and calling out for someone to bring a stretcher. "Love, please stay calm. He can handle himself and Daimail will make sure he doesn't go near the chair."

I looked back at her grateful for her calm sense. My eyes fell to the arm she was favoring in worry. She caught my gaze and smiled reassuringly. "'Tis nothing, dear. It imbedded deeper into my robes than it did my skin. Timlal makes me wear a hard leather shielding under them, the paranoid old fool, when we do anything remotely dangerous."

"That sounds like him…" My eyes could not cease in their search for a glimpse of white among the desperate fight. It was chaotic. There was blood and creatures of all sorts locked in combat. The crack of two rams clashing together over a table caused me to start. A bear tearing its teeth into a striped cat forced my gaze away quickly. I could not recognize friend from foe in thLet Let alone find Dinrogion.

The scream ripped through the hall. High pitched as though the very soul of some creature had been shredded and torn from their living chest. My senses reeled as a shudder tore through my body. The scram filled and drowned out the sounds of conflict in the hall and carried on to echo in hollow terror. Many paused and turned to it still locked together in malice. While the scream contorted on through abysmal death.

I turned with them. My head faced the chair. A changer moved from my path to reveal it to me. The source of the scream with twisting and writhing within itself hideously. It boiled and the flesh seemed raw as more limbs than were natural sprang, thrashed and withered from its center. A mouth was stretched unnaturally wide to emit that scream. What passed as its face was melted and skewered into a look of unparalleled anguish. Its features long. Its muscles exposed. The mass seemed to struggle to form once. It gathered itself into a disfigured horse. Then the shriek rose and died as it collapsed in on itself in blackened death. Yet the remains still twitched.

Silence filled the hall but for the harsh breathing and the whispers of fear etched on the faces of those gathered. Some were ill. Some held hands to their mouths in shock. Many turned away.

Dinrogion stood quietly beside the chair. Looking stonily at its contents. Roch was dead.

It could have been Dinrogion. I was filled with relief that threatened to undo me completely. It mingled with the horror of what my eyes beheld. Followed quickly by guilt and shame. Roch was dead.

I turned ignoring the pain in my body and emptied the contents of my stomach on the floor beside me. It was naught but foul bile. Shassma held back my hair unspeaking. Sorrow radiated from her heavy touch. I heard movement around me as the quarrel was realized and remembered.

Dinrogion's angered voice carried to my ears. It was hard and low with malice as he strode unsheathing his sword towards Gorhis. "You slither and lie your way into my home. Defile what I cherish and taint my sanctuary with your presence. You are a coward Gorhis! You use treachery and deceit to steal what you have not the strength to claim on your own! Be gone from my halls you spineless creature. You have no honor and you bring down your clan for your actions here!"

Gorhis' voice returned the challenge along with the unsheathing of his word. "Then I shall take you done the old fashioned way, wolf. You are more animal than man. A dangerous position for your clan. For I believe your leadership to be lacking in allowing your lusts to hamper your judgements."

This was met by a clash of blades and I watched Gorhis' green cloak billow out behind him while Dinrogion's red lined created an inferno of motion at his back. Behind them the fire cast their shadows massive and imposing upon the stone behind Roch's remains.

The other figures of changers locked in a deadly dance around them. While my body was moved upon a stretcher. My eyes remained locked on Dinrogion and Gorhis as Shassma had me and some of the other injured removed from further harm. I was too drained to be anything but numb or fight her to watch the rest play out.

I was taken to my room and given a draught of something to relieve my pain. Shassma said she would return to set my ankles and treat my wounds once the more urgent injuries were cared for. I nodded mutely. Too exhausted to think or sleep. The image of Dinrogion and Gorhis locked in combat dancing in my vision. The draught took is effect and all feeling in my body dulled to silence. I drifted to a quiet gray haze and floated in relaxation. My mind and body in a meditative trance. Eyes open I let myself rest and begin to heal.

I emerged from the daze with Shassma's cool dry fingers running over a bruise on my face. My first thought echoed my groggy words and I became of the dull throbbing in my ankles. As well as a restricted feeling. "Dinrogion…."

"Is chassssing Lord Gorhisss halfway to the Sshire, dear." I was going to sit up but she placed a hand on my chest and pushed me down. "Stay. I jusst finisshed binding your feet and setting your legs. You'll not be leaving thiss bed for ssometime."

"Are you alright?"

She smiled. "I'm fine, dear. Jusst tired." She soothed back my hair in a motherly fashion and smiled down at me with reassurance. "I fear I am nots yos young as I once wasss. And ssetting Dinrogion and Timlal in line iss a full time career."

"Mayhap it is time for an assistant?" I smiled wearily to her.

She patted me affectionately on the shoulder. "I'm not that old, dear. But if you children continue to caussse me grief I may get to be so." She held ass ass of water to my mouth. I had not realized how thirsty I truly was until she did so. I drank of it greedily. "Ssslow…how iss your ssstomach fairing?"

The door to my rooms burst open and a fierce form of metal and fire with a halo of white swept in. "What was done to him? How is he?" Dinrogion was there still in his blood-splattered armor and gripping his stained sword. His amber eyes frantic with worry. "Elrohir…" He walked in and pushed Shassma out of the way and held me tight. I returned the embrace. The desperation and worry I had held over his safety seeped from my body and was replaced simply by gratitude.

"Dinrogion." I clung to him and nuzzled my face into his neck. He pulled back slightly and cupped my face in his hand. I moved forward eagerly and kissed him open mouthed and hard. He met my hungry enthusiasm with his own.

"Dinrogion." Shassma barked hard and deadly. "He isss not to be moved."

I barely heard her as I lost myself to Dinrogion's arms. I never felt a need to be touching something as desperately as I did at that moment.

Timlal and Vitalo burst into the room and were met with Shassma's end of patients. She turned on them and hissed. Eyes flashing and baring an impressive set of fangs. "OUT. NOW." Vitalo was gone before she finished. Timlal paused, looked at Dinrogion. Looked at Shassma and chose wisely, exiting with a crestfallen expression.

She then picked up Dinrogion's sword and used a rag to wipe it clean. "Love, if you would take kinder care of your weaponsss they would lassst longer. Go change and visssit one of my apprenticesss to get looked at and leave the poor elfling to ressst."

Dinrogion was not heeding her words for his mouth was still upon mine. We broke for a moment to catch our breath. My hands tangled into his cloak while his caressed my skin tenderly. The amber eyes flicked from their lock with mine to a bruise on my face. They took in my feet, my ankles, the bandages and state of my body. And they lingered on where the tunic I still wore as my cover had pushed up upon my thigh.

Suddenly I grew embarrassed and awkward. The dull throb in my legs reasserted itself. I pulled at the hem of my tunic. Dinrogion rose from his seat on my bed, passed the glaring Shassma, and grabbed a blanket. He returned and reclaimed his seat, spreading it over my body. When he spoke next his voice was soft and strangely calm. "What did he do with you?"

"Dinrogion…" Shassma warned him of her sliding restraint.

I lay back into my pillows and cringed at a sharp pain in one of my shifted ankles. They were splinted and set with sandbags to hold them straight to heal properly. "I was tossed about mostly...nothing I could not handle."

"Were you…" Dinrogion paused looking distraught. "Did Roch press himself down upon?"

"I was not raped." I assured him softly. I watched his features relax as he took my hands in his.

"Thank Eru…I feared…when I was told Gorhis had offered you to him as a prize…" His amber eyes burned with rage. "He had no place to offer you as such when you were not his."

I entwined my fingers with his. "Dinrogion, I care not to think on it. I care only that you are well and here." I watched the emotional guard rise over his face. He seemed to be struggling with something behind his protective wall that I could not see.

"Dinrogion, leave him. He mussst ressst." Shassma's wary voice demanded.

Something seemed to click and hold behind that wall. "No." The word was soft but firm as though to himself. I looked at him in confusion.

"No?" I asked.

He looked back to me. "No, I will not leave you to harm again. Though thought of you in another's arms…when I saw you fall and heard Roch calling for you...I will not see you fall again nor let you from my side Elrohir. I do not know how you managed but you have gained more of my heart than I thought any but the clan could hold. Prince Elrohir, I ask that you concede to by my life mate."

The sound of the sword hitting the ground clattered ominously in the room. Its sound as it slid from Shassma's shocked hand was the only noise.