Many thanks to Nilmandra for beta reading this story for me.

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"No."

Celuwen paused and raised a finely arched brow.  "Stop issuing orders, Eilian.  I am neither your horse nor a warrior under your command."  She pulled another gown out of their wardrobe. Her arms whirled like windmills, forcing Eilian to jump out of range. Then she stuffed the more-or-less folded garment into the satchel gaping open on their bed.

He clenched and unclenched his hands at his sides.  "Celuwen, this is madness.  You know what we found at Dol Guldur.  What makes you think you will be safer than Sinnarn was?"

Back rigid, she reached for another gown.

"Are you listening to me?"  He grabbed her arm and turned her to face him.

She yanked her arm from his grasp, and he realized she was quivering with rage.  "I saw Sinnarn's body.  I know what you found at Dol Guldur, and I know what you will face when you rejoin the Southern Patrol next week.  Have I asked you not to go?"

"Of course not."  Eilian leaned over her, his jaw tight.  "I owe service to my adar and the realm.  I have to go.  The least you can do is stay safely in the stronghold so Loriel does not risk losing both parents."

She put one hand on his chest and shoved him away. "Rubbish!  You want to go.  You are twitching with eagerness to swing a sword again.  Do you think I know you so little, Eilian?"

"Are you blaming me for that?"  He was breathing as hard as he ever had in battle.

"No.  I am simply saying I need to go back to our settlement, fetch the rest of our belongings, and let my parents know my plans. I have given in on the need to move here, to deprive Loriel of the life I think would be best for her, but I will not give in on this."  She pressed her mouth in a thin line and lifted her chin.

Trying to prevent himself from saying something he would regret, Eilian turned his back on her, only to catch a glimpse of a small figure peeking around the bedroom doorway.  He froze.  How much had Loriel heard?  "Do you need something, Flower Face?"

She leaned into sight.  Curls had pulled loose from her braids again to riot around her face in an untidy life of their own.  Her wide gray eyes flicking from him to her mother and back again.

"Come here, sweetling."  Celuwen sat on the edge of the bed and held out her arms.  Loriel rushed to climb into her mother's lap and bury her face in Celuwen's breasts.  Celuwen's eyes met his over their daughter's head.

He blew out his breath and wondered if he looked as guilty as Celuwen did.

"Where is Nimloth?" Celuwen asked Loriel.  Whatever she answered was lost in the wool of Celuwen's gown.  Celuwen put her hand on their daughter's chin and lifted it gently.  "Where is your caretaker, sweetling?"

"In the garden.  I wanted to see where you and Ada were."

Celuwen looked at him.  "She will be worried."

"I will tell her where Loriel is."  Eilian left their apartment and strode down the hallway to the antechamber, his mind busy with how to keep his wife from risking her graceful neck by leaving his father's stronghold.  Briefly, he toyed with the idea of forbidding her to go.  In theory, he had the right to do that.  He was the head of his household, an idea that seemed plausible when he looked at his father or older brother, but much less so when he looked at Celuwen. He might have to do it, plausible or not, but perhaps he could still convince her that Loriel's happiness depended on her staying home.

At the entrance to the family quarters, he nearly ran into Nimloth, her round face flushed with haste.  "My lord," she gasped.  "Loriel--"

"She is with her naneth."

Nimloth leaned against the doorframe.  "Thank the Valar.  I believe she is even more slippery than you were at that age."

Eilian laughed.  He cocked his head at Nimloth.  "You have had enough for today, I think.  Why do you not go home?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly.  "What are you up to, Eilian?  Are you sure Lady Celuwen will not mind?"

He extended his hands, palms up.  "Up to?  You wound me.  I have simply decided my daughter needs to spend a little time with her parents."

"Hmph."

Eilian grinned.  No one could load that syllable with more meaning than Nimloth.  "Go.  Have a good afternoon and evening."

Her mouth curved in a reluctant smile.  "Behave yourself."  She pushed herself off the doorframe and went on her way.

Eilian entered his and Celuwen's apartment to find Celuwen in the sitting room talking to one of his father's messengers.  Loriel clung to her mother's side, eyeing the messenger with dislike.  Good.  Eilian was as certain as he could be that his daughter would do everything in her power to keep her mother from leaving the stronghold.

Celuwen's face eased on seeing him.  "Where is Nimloth?"

"I sent her home."

She groaned.  "Then you will have to watch Loriel for a while.  Your adar is asking to meet with some of his councilors."

Silently blessing his father for delaying Celuwen's departure, Eilian smiled at his daughter.  "We can find something to do, I am sure."  Loriel hesitated, then released her hold on Celuwen's skirt.  The relieved looking messenger promptly escorted Celuwen out the door.  He had probably been worried he would not be able to produce Celuwen for Thranduil's use.

"What would you like to do?" Eilian asked Loriel.

"I want my wind-up Oliphant."

"Where is it?"  He took a step toward the hallway leading to the sleeping chambers.  "Is it in your room?"

Loriel stayed where she was.  "I left it home."

"Ah."  He studied her.  "We will have to send a message to your grandparents, asking them to send it here."

She scowled at him.  "I want to go home with Nana. Then I can play with my Oliphant and see grandmother and grandfather too."

Alarm flickered in Eilian's mind.  Surely Celuwen had not suggested to Loriel that she should accompany her to the settlement.  He and she had at least agreed on that much.  As far as he knew, Celuwen had not yet told Loriel she intended to go to the settlement.  She had seen no point in upsetting Loriel too far ahead of time.  "Did Nana tell you she was going home?"

"She has her satchel, and she told you she was going home, and I want to go too. I like it better there."

He sat in his chair by the fireplace and drew her onto his lap.  He tucked a stray curl behind her ear.  "Don't you like it here, Flower Face?"

"Everyone here is sad.  Aunt Alfirin cries sometimes. Nana is too busy with grandfather, and there is no window by my bed."  She leaned against him and rubbed her round cheek on his tunic.  "You should come too.  I do not want you to go with your warrior patrol."

He sighed.  She knew far too much for her comfort.  "I have to go with my patrol.  I need to help make the woods safe so we can live there again.  It is too dangerous for you to go home just yet."  He hesitated, wanting to suggest that she should tell Nana not to go home either, but flinching away from involving her, even if it would help him get what he wanted.

She swung her feet, banging them against the side of the chair.  "It is too dangerous for me to live at home?"

"Yes, and Nana and I would be very, very sad if something bad happened to you."

"Like it did to Sinnarn."

"Yes, like it did to Sinnarn."  He drew her close and inhaled her scent.  How did children manage to smell so sweet?  Legolas had had this clean, flowery smell as a child too.  And Sinnarn, of course.  He sighed.  "I am afraid this is home for now."

Loriel kicked the chair again.  "I want my Oliphant."  Her lower lip trembled.

He cast around for something to distract her.  "How would you like to see some things I used to play with?"

She sat up.  "Did you live here when you were little?"

"I did.  Not in these rooms though. We have to go look in my old room."

She slid off his lap and hopped from foot to foot.  "We should do that!  Come on, Ada."  She seized his hand and tugged.

Grinning, he rose.  "The chest is probably full of spiders and snakes and mice by now."

Her eyes grew huge.  "Hurry!"

He laughed, then led her by the hand down one corridor and up another to the room he had lived in until he married.

"Uncle Legolas's room is there."  She pointed to the room next door.

"It is indeed."  He pushed open the door to his old room, and they entered.  The furniture was still the same, but the room was darker and cooler than it had been when he had lived there and servants had kept it ready to be occupied.  It was also much tidier.  He used the tinderbox on the mantle to light several lanterns.

"Where are your things, Ada?"  Loriel ran around the room, touching the bed, the chairs, the chest, the table, and the shelves as she passed.

"Here."  He indicated the chest.

She slid to her knees next to it, and he sat down beside her and opened the chest.  A tangle of wood and leather released a dusty odor that suddenly made him feel like a youth.

Loriel leaned forward, blocking his view.  "No mice."  She sat back on her heels, her lower lip out again.

"But lots of other things.  See?"  He pulled out a small leather bag, whose rotted bottom immediately gave way, sending marbles rolling in all directions across the room.

"Oh!"  Loriel jumped to her feet and ran around collecting as many as she could hold.  She offered them to him, and he dropped them into a vase on the table.  He hoped the next guest to use this room would not go skating across the room on a missing marble.

Loriel dove into the chest and brought up a toy warrior clutching a sword, its paint chipped and faded.  She stood it carefully on its feet, then pulled out an even more battered archer and lined it up with the swordsman.  Eilian watched her, remembering battles he, Gelmir, and Celuwen had staged with these wooden elves.  Celuwen had been a fierce opponent even then.  He had learned early it was far better to have her on his side.  Poor Gelmir had never stood a chance.

"What is this?"  Loriel held up an arrowhead with viciously curved barbs, designed to rip more flesh coming out than it had going in.

As a boy, Eilian had loved the nasty looking thing.  Now he took it gently from his daughter.  "It is a funny shaped arrowhead. Look, a top."  He offered her the spindle shaped toy, which she immediately set to spinning.  It whirred an arm's length away and knocked over the wooden warriors.  She laughed, set them up, and sent the top to attack them again.

She turned back to the chest and retrieved a second leather pouch, this one full of knucklebones he had used to lose more wagers than he cared to think about.  She examined them without much interest, for which he was grateful.  Celuwen would probably think it amusing if she played with them, but Thranduil and Alfirin would be less entertained, not to mention what Celuwen's father would say.

She found a drum, and much to his relief, she set that aside too.  Celuwen would kill him if he put a drum into their already noisy daughter's hands.  Now that Eilian thought of it, how had his parents ever tolerated his owning that?  He had once crept up behind Ithilden's chair and banged it.  His brother had leapt a foot and then seized Eilian by the scruff of his neck and snarled that he would throw Eilian in the horse trough if he ever did that again.  Eilian had laughed, and Ithilden had turned red, jammed his hands in his belt, and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Loriel brought out more warriors, a whistle, a warg's tooth, a wooden sword, a carved horse, a carved dog, and a ball made of skin that had mostly rotted away so its wool stuffing spewed out all over the floor, like down from a burst milkweed pod.

"What would you like to take?" he asked.

She pointed.  "The warriors and the top and the sword."  She looked over the pile. "The dog too."  She hugged it to her, evidently confident Eilian would carry the rest.

He heaped his old treasures back into the chest and dropped a handful of the ball's stuffing on top.  A bit more stuffing drifted past, and he shooed it under the bed so they would not leave a mess.  "You like the dog?"

She nodded so vigorously her curls bounced.  "Her name is Good Dog.  She is a watchdog.  She barks when bad things come."

He grimaced and lowered the lid of the chest.  "Shall we see if Nana is back yet?"

"I want to show her what I found."  She ran ahead of him and shoved open the apartment door.  Celuwen must have been there because Eilian heard Loriel talking while he was still five yards down the hallway.  "Ada is bringing warriors and other things too!"

Loriel turned at his entrance, but his eyes went straight to Celuwen.  She was smiling, but her face was tight.  "Loriel, you should show your dog to Grandfather and Uncle Legolas.  They are in the big sitting room."

Loriel darted past Eilian and out the door, shouting "Grandfather!  Grandfather!" as soon as she was in the hall.

Eilian closed the door.  He wanted to take his wife in his arms, but their quarrel was too fresh in his mind for him to be less than cautious.  "What's the matter?"

She wet her lips.  "Ithilden wants to see you.  Three days ago, Orcs overwhelmed the Southern Patrol.  He wants you to go south at once, leave today if you can."

For an instant, he stopped breathing.

Celuwen crossed the distance between them and flung her arms around him.  "Oh, take care, take care."

Air struggled into his lungs again.  Automatically, he embraced her, feeling the warm softness of her pressed the length of his body.  Hesitantly, he said, "You will stay here now?"

She sighed into his tunic.  "Yes."  She looked up.  "I am sorry I snapped at you.  I am angry but not really at you.  I hate being driven from the woods.  I hate being terrified for my parents, terrified for you.  I hate what happened to Sinnarn."

To Eilian's dismay, her mouth quivered, much as Loriel's had done.  Celuwen never cried.

"I am sorry to leave you here," he said.  "I just do not see what else is to be done."  He bit his lip and then made a bigger sacrifice than he had thought himself capable of making.  "Perhaps your parents could move into the stronghold."

She was so astonished that she laughed.  "I will make the offer, but I think you can relax.  I doubt if they will do it."

He released her.  "I had better go see Ithilden."

"I will unpack my things and start packing yours."

The next two hours passed in a blur of activity that left him little time to worry.   By mid-afternoon, he found himself standing next to his horse on the Green in front of the palace.  His bodyguard spoke in low tones to his own wife a short distance away, while Eilian said goodbye to his family.  Last of all he turned to where Celuwen stood with Loriel at her side.  He drew her to him.  "I love you," he murmured in her ear.

"I love you."

He released her and smiled as best he could at their grave-faced daughter, who clutched his old wooden sword in one hand and the carved dog in the other.  Before he could speak, she held out the dog.  "Good Dog is for you, Ada, to keep away the bad things."

He picked her up and rested her on his hip as he took the dog.  "Thank you, Flower Face."  He kissed her round cheek, suddenly desperate for what he was about to lose.  How long would it be before he saw his child again?  How much would she have changed?  "Do not forget me while I am gone."

She waved the wooden sword, and he jerked his head back to keep from getting his nose bloodied.  "I have your sword, silly," she said.  "I would never forget you."

He kissed her again and handed her into Celuwen's waiting arms.

"Nana should get something from your toy chest too," Loriel said.  "She should not forget you either."

Celuwen hugged her.  "I already have Ada's most precious belonging."  Loriel buried her face in Celuwen's neck.

Eilian swung onto his horse's back and scanned the little group.  There was his anxious family, already grieving and hoping not to grieve again.  There was his home.

He raised his hand in farewell, turning last to Celuwen and Loriel.  "I will come back."

They both smiled, and he tucked the look of them deep into his heart and rode away.