Disclaimer: I don’t own them, and I’ll put them back safely when I’m done.

Chapter Fourteen: The Tunnels

     “Your task, my lord and ladies, is to get to the very end of the tunnels and bring back Queen Arwen’s bracelet. It will not be an easy task, and the King and Queen wish me to remind you to please be careful. Good luck!”

     The herald bowed and left the stand, and the group of contestants heaved hidden sighs of relief. The last twenty minutes had consisted of the reading of names, teams, and rules. The selected contestants were Elrohir, Lindir, and Haldir for the elves, and Eldarion, Elfwine, and Theodwyn for the children. All were wearing long cloaks and jackets, and each team had one torch. The entrance to the tunnel was well filled with people, and the servants were handing out small pastries. The royals were all seated nearby, with Estella and Diamond, and the captives. Merry and Pippin were part of a mixed company of guards. Both were grinning broadly.

     Gimli stood up and bowed to them, valiantly hiding a smile. “On my mark,” he said. “Go!”

     Amidst the shouts and cheers of onlookers, the two teams hurriedly set off down the hallway.

     “Good luck, Eldarion!” Elanorallie shouted, jumping up and down on her chair. “Be careful!”

     “You be careful, too, Ella,” admonished Legolas, pulling the elfling down and sitting her on his lap. “Your father will murder me if I allow you to injure yourself.”

    Behind them, Thranduil bit back a smile. What Legolas had said was quite true.

*****

     “How far away are we?” Elfwine asked impatiently.

     Eldarion consulted the small map of the tunnels that they had been given. They seemed to have taken a wrong turning half a mile back, going left instead of right. They ad been ahead of the Elves when they had lost their way; now, they were undoubtedly ahead of them.

    “We’re far away,” Eldarion replied. “But we can go back. Come on.”

    Theodwyn frowned as she followed her friends back the way they had come. Eldarion and Elfwine had insisted that they knew what they were doing, thus getting themselves into this mess. She had resolved not to say anything more, and if they lost, they lost. There was always one more contest.

*****

    “I doubt that Aragorn will be pleased by your filching bits of his supplies, Lord Elrohir,” Haldir remarked dryly, as he watched Elrohir take a ripe plum from a barrel.

    “Nonsense, Haldir, my friend,” Elrohir replied. “You don’t know how many times that blue blooded Dunedain pilfered from the storerooms of Imladris. I am merely exercising my right as his foster brother and brother in law.”

    Haldir and Lindir traded a look; each Elf rolled his eyes and returned to the task at hand.

    “We aren’t very far from the end of the tunnels,” Lindir said. “We can get there soon enough. Where are the children?”

     Elrohir looked back over his shoulder. “I believe that they took a wrong turning a ways back. They were ahead of us before.”

     The three elves glanced at each other uncertainly. There were princes and a princess in the children’s team, and children-especially mortal children-were so easily injured. Elrohir, the leader, hesitated.

    “If any of you receive a bad feeling concerning those children,” he said at last, “Tell me immediately, and we will go at once to find them.”

     Haldir and Lindir nodded, and they continued on.

*****

     “I don’t think that this is the way, Eldarion,” Elfwine said in a soft voice, gazing in awe around them. “I don’t think that these are the tunnels anymore. At least, not the right ones.”

     “I can hear water,” said Theodwyn, holding the torch up higher. “And the walls aren’t stone anymore. I think we went under the mountains.”

      Eldarion nodded, peering ahead with the rest of them. One wrong turn had led to another, and they were hopelessly off course. In taking what Eldarion ad assumed was a short cut, they had trekked far under the mountains, past the end of the storage tunnels and on into a dirt passage. It was just the kind of passage that the Red Book had described Shelob living in, only not so dark.  The prince regent of Gondor was beginning to feel a little sick.

    “M-maybe we should go back,” he said.

    Elfwine nodded. “I think you’re right. Ouch, Theo! That hurts!”

    “Sorry,” whispered Theodwyn, loosening her grip on his arm, but not letting go. “I want my mamma.”

     “So do I,” said Eldarion fervently. “I think that we should let Uncle Elrohir win this one, and go back. Now.”

    Nodding their agreement, the cousins turned and started after the prince back the way they had come. They had scarcely gone five yards when the ground gave way under Theodwyn’s feet, and she fell, shrieking, into a deep hole. The lads, who had linked their arms through hers, fell with her. Their torch went out as they hit the bottom, and darkness descended.

*****

    Far away, Elrohir, Haldir and Lindir had reached the end of the tunnels, and had secured Arwen’s bracelet. As Elrohir put it safely in his pocket, a strange feeling of foreboding filled him. He tensed, and saw that Haldir and Lindir had tensed as well. Then, from far away, quiet screams echoed down the tunnels.

   “The children!” Elrohir cried, and they sprung away in the directions the screams had come from.

*****

    At the entrance to the tunnels, where the onlookers were quietly conversing, the Elves all suddenly fell silent. A strained moment passed as the Elves all listened to a sound too faint to be heard by mortal ears, then several cried out in alarm.

     “Aragorn, the children!” cried Arwen, leaping up. “They are in peril! Go!”

     Aragorn leapt up and rushed away down the tunnels, closely followed by Eomer, Faramir, Merry, Pippin, Thranduil, and Gimli. Several male elves grabbed torches and rushed after them, as well as some of the Citadel guards. Legolas hesitated for a moment, then pulled the rope from his wrist and handed it to Elanorallie and Rowan.

     “I will come back, but now our friends need me,” he said to them, and rushed away.

*****

    The elvish team met the others at the entrance to the dirt tunnel. They all paused for a moment, then pressed forward.

     “The screams came from down here,” Thranduil said grimly. “I thought that they were warned away from here?”

     “They were,” replied Aragorn. “It was written on the map. Have you ever been down here, Faramir?”

      The Steward shook his head. “Never. We were always warned away from here as children. It was too dangerous.”

      “Aye, these tunnels lead deep into the mountains, Aragorn,” said Gimli. “They are not lined with stone, but dirt, as you see. What madness led them in here?”

    “They likely thought that it was a short cut,” Legolas said as he caught up. “There. Do you see the hole in the ground? Be careful.”

     Raising his hand to stop the company, Aragorn took a few steps forward. Merry and Pippin followed, as did Thranduil, holding the torch that he had taken from Lindir.

     “Are they there?” Faramir asked, waiting tensely.

     Pippin dropped to his knees and crawled to the edge of the hole, ignoring Merry’s admonishment to be care. Peering in, he could dimly see, far below, a small pile of…something. He couldn’t tell quite what.

    “I think that they are down there. Can someone bring a torch closer?”

    Aragorn took the torch from Thranduil and advanced. The dirt floor was packed solidly where he stepped, and he came to Pippin without mishap.

      “Eldarion? Elfwine, Theodwyn, are you down there?”

      A small whimper was his reply, and a sigh of relief came from those gathered nearby. Aragorn knelt down close to the edge of the hole and peered down. In the light that his torch cast, he could see Elfwine sitting up, looking at his friends, and then up at him.

    “Elfwine, are they all right?” Aragorn asked tensely.

    “I don’t know, sir,” replied Elfwine. “I can’t wake them up.”

    Pippin grimaced and the king and his knight traded a fearful look.

    “Here, my lord,” a voice said suddenly. “Here is a rope. Do you want me to climb down?”

     It was, to the surprise of absolutely no one, Eowyn. She had had the foresight to grab a long length of thick rope before following the men. Aragorn doubted that Arwen was far behind.

     “Eowyn,” objected Faramir, but Eowyn cut him off.

      “Faramir, I am a woman and therefore lighter than all of you but the hobbits. I can lift the children while they cannot. Now, hold onto that rope while I go down.”

    Everyone knew better than to cross the Lady of the Shield Arm. Aragorn, Eomer, Faramir, Legolas, Gimli, and Thranduil held the rope as Eowyn tied it around her waste and climbed down into the hole. The hobbits held torches to give her extra light as she went.

     “Aunt Eowyn?” whispered Elfwine as she alighted next to him. “I’m scared.”

     “I know, El,” Eowyn said soothingly, bending over the unconscious children. They were breathing, fortunately, and she breathed a deep sigh of relief. “They’re alive!” she called up. “Elfwine, can you hold Theo while I carry Eldarion up?”

    Elfwine nodded, and Eowyn placed her daughter in his arms, than hoisted Gondor’s prince regent onto her hip.

    “Pull me up!” she called, and was obligingly pulled to the surface. In two minutes, she was back again. Instructing Elfwine to hold her tightly around the waist, Eowyn lifted Theodwyn and was pulled up again. Elfwine clung to his aunt, trembling, but they were soon enough at the top of the hole. Many pairs of hands reached out to grab them, and they were pulled to safety. Elfwine was lifted by his father as Faramir took Theo from Eowyn.

    “Come, bring the children. We must take them to the Houses of Healing,” Aragorn said grimly.

TBC