"Wait!" the voice that called was hoarse by cold and exertion. "Stop it!"

Everyone turned in surprise and stared at the newcomer. The rider was just arriving. The man jumped from the horse and brushed away the snow from his cloak. His dark gaze quickly circled the group, and he finally signed in relief as he found what he was looking for. He was afraid that he had come too late. His horse was breathing heavily. The poor animal seemed totally exhausted.

"What is the meaning of this?" one of the Corsairs turned towards the messenger. "Stop what?"

"Don't kill the kid!" the pirate had a hard time catching his breath. He had ridden as fast as he could, so that he would arrive before the others had followed the order. "Dargmor said not to kill him!"

"What!" the group leader asked in surprise. "But he said-"

"Things have changed," the messenger whispered and motioned the other Corsair to follow him. The two pirates walked some distance away from the rest. "I didn't want the boy to hear what I'm going to tell you," he continued softly. "Bad news for us means good news for him. And the news is bad."

"What happened?" the other pirate questioned in concern.

"We got news from Mrak's men. Bogomil has failed. He was discovered and sent back to Minas Tirith with the rest of the escort. As far as we know, King Elessar is not with them."

"The King is still searching for his son? Is he alone?"

"We don't know. That's why Dargmor wants the Prince alive. We'll go look for the King, but we don't know how many men he has. And most of our men are fighting at Minas Tirith. We might not be able to beat him. But we have our advantage," the man grinned and looked towards Eldarion. "We can always demand the King to surrender if we threaten to kill his son. No parent can resist that, no matter if he is king or not."

"So if Elessar surrenders, we release the Prince?" the other Corsair questioned.

The messenger shook his head, "Dargmor would never let this child go. He hates him. The wound the kid made him still hurts."

"So should we go look for the King now?"

"No. Dargmor wants to come this time. He will lead the men himself. Messengers were sent all around to find all search parties and gather them. Tie the boy well and let's go and meet them."

Eldarion smiled. Stupid men. They didn't know he had elven blood. And he had heard every single word.

---

"So it is you that killed her?" the huge creature stared at the three captives with dark, cruel eyes. Then he turned towards the little troll. "They are skinny, but we'll have to do with them for dinner. We don't have anything else."

"Why don't you eat the orcs you killed?" Gimli asked hesitantly. He wished the trolls ate anything but them.

The troll wrinkled his nose in disgust. "We can't eat them. They are filthy."

The three friends exchanged surprised glances. They didn't know trolls were that picky about food. But this made matters worse for them. Now they were everything the trolls could eat.

Huge hands cut their bonds from the tree, bound them again and threw them roughly to the ground. Legolas raised his head and looked worriedly at his friends. Luckily, the trolls have arrived before the tortures had done any real damage. The wound on Aragorn's leg, although far from a being scratch, wasn't greatly disturbing. The effect of the powders the orcs had applied to his injuries was almost completely gone. But the worst wounds the elf had sustained weren't physical.

This one. His own voice resounded in his head, but it seemed somewhat foreign, as if belonging to someone else.

Although his bonds were severely limiting his movements, he managed to crawl slowly towards Aragorn. The man was lying on his back, breathing heavily. Legolas rolled to his side, his forehead lightly touching his friend's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, mellon-nin. I am so sorry," he whispered brokenly.

"Sorry for what, Legolas?" the man asked in surprise. He tried to turn and face him, but the pain in his leg stopped him. But he felt that the elf was shaking, and that disturbed him a lot.

"I chose the knife," Legolas muttered, his voice thick with unshed tears. "This was all my fault."

This time Aragorn forced himself to turn and face the elf. "You did nothing, my friend. Don't dare blame yourself." His gaze drifted towards the cuts on the smooth cheeks, and for a moment angry fire shone in the gray eyes. Then he lay back down with a sigh. "Water," he whispered. "I need water."

The elf stared at him in concern. Maybe the large amount of salt that had entered his friend's bloodstream required him to drink. "Water!" he shouted, so that the trolls could hear him. "Bring us water, we need to drink!"

A troll glanced at him, "You'll be cooked tonight, you have no time to thirst to death."

Legolas sighed and looked at the man. "I'm sorry. It didn't work. Are you really thirsty?"

"No," Aragorn muttered. "Not to drink. To clean your wounds."

Legolas almost smiled, "Oh, Estel, you will be the death of me. Your wound is in a greater need of cleaning. But they won't give us water," he added sadly.

The look that Gimli gave his friends was somewhat annoyingly amused. "You two certainly don't know how to talk to trolls."

"And I suppose you do, Master Dwarf?" Legolas turned towards his little friend.

"Of course," Gimli continued in a matter-of-fact voice. "We just observed that trolls choose their food carefully. Let's use that. Hey!" he called towards the trolls. "Come here!"

One of the trolls rose lazily and walked toward them.

"I'm afraid you won't be able to eat my friends," Gimli continued.

"Why?" the troll stopped and looked questioningly at the dwarf.

"Well, just before you arrived, the orcs injured them and put some dirty substances in their injuries. I'm afraid they might be poisonous. I don't think it's a good idea to eat them, unless, of course, you wash the substances away."

"Then I'll wash them," the troll spoke and grabbed the two wounded prisoners with alarming ease.

"See?" Gimli grin towards the protesting elf. "It works."

"I'm not sure I want to be washed by a troll," Legolas hissed, as the enormous creature carried him towards the river. The troll dropped them in the freezing water and quite roughly washed their injuries.

"Thank you very much, my friend," Legolas muttered sarcastically after the troll threw him back. "Now it hurts even more."

Gimli gave him a sympathetic look, "It will get better, I'm sure."

"I don't know, but it will hurt you, if I manage to get these bonds off me!" the elf threatened. "Estel, I'm sure you agree with me?" the man seemed deep in though and didn't answer. "Aragorn?"

"Yes?" he looked at his friends, still not quite focused on their conversation.

"What were you thinking about? Are you alright?" Legolas asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, I just remembered something," he paused and tried to organize his memories. "Remember when you saved me from the Haradrim?" the elf nodded. "You said that they mentioned the name of a leader. The one who had ordered Eldarion's kidnapping. Do you still remember the name, Legolas?"

"Yes," the elf replied. "It was Dargmor."

Aragorn's face suddenly brightened. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. I remember names well."

"Then I have a plan," the man announced with a smile.

"That's what I feared," Legolas said. "I'm still trying to recover from your last few plans."

"You have a plan to escape?" Gimli asked hopefully.

"Um, not really. I mean, the plan doesn't involve escape."

"Than what's its purpose?" Gimli asked confused.

"Don't you know the purpose of all of his plans?" Legolas snorted. "It is to get himself beaten. And if he can get me beaten together with him, he'll be even happier."

"That's unfair, my friend," Aragorn protested. "My plan this time is really good."

"I'm not sure I want to hear it," Legolas murmured.

"You don't need to hear it," the man smiled. "You will see it. Look, a troll is coming. Perfect."

"What!" the elf was incredulous. "Don't even think about doing your plan before I approve it!" he glanced nervously at the troll that was already quite near.

"Well, then obviously we have no way out of this, so we'll be eaten for dinner," the man suddenly spoke, his words louder than usual.

"Obviously," the elf answered surprised.

"It could be worse," Aragorn spoke again, risking a quick glance to make sure the troll was listening. "At least they didn't get our friends."

"Our friends?" Legolas gave him an odd look. Was this a part of the plan? It made no sense to him, but Aragorn's plans never did, so he was used to it.

"Yes. It's good that the trolls didn't find them, they are so helpless and would be so easy to catch. And the trolls would want to get them, they are many and would make a good meal."

Elf and dwarf just blinked several times, trying to guess what the purpose of this was. Finally, Legolas decided that whatever it was, it promised a good beating at the end, so there was no use in thinking about it.

"You have friends who are easy to catch and will make a good meal?" the troll asked.

Aragorn pretended to be startled and quickly looked at the creature. "They won't make a good meal since you are not going to find them," he stated calmly.

"Where are they?!" the troll yelled.

"Do you expect me to tell you?" the man asked.

The furious creature grabbed Aragorn and lifted him, "Tell me where they are!"

"Let me down!" the man tried to look scared.

"If you tell me where I can find them. If not, I'll kill you and I'll kill your friends right now."

And the ultimate purpose of his brilliant plan will be fulfilled, Legolas thought darkly.

"I… I can't," the man's voice sounded hesitant. "Maybe…" he turned towards his friends. "Do you think they will forgive me?"

"They will forgive you, just tell him!" Legolas almost yelled. He was both afraid what the troll would do and curious to hear the mysterious answer.

"Alright. Then I will tell you."

"I'm listening," the troll urged him.

Aragorn shut his eyes, as if leading some internal fight. Then, with great reluctance, he spoke one single word.

"Umbar."

---

The tall pirate jumped from his horse and walked towards the boy. "I never believed I would say this," Dargmor spoke, "but I'm happy you are still alive."

"I can't say the same," Eldarion answered. "I still regret that I missed."

"Stupid kid!" the pirate backhanded him. "Will you never learn how to speak to me?!"

"I speak to you exactly the way you deserve," the child smiled confidently. He knew that the Corsairs needed him and wouldn't harm him too much.

Dargmor tried to suppress his anger. Then he realized that he knew exactly how to hurt the child. There was something that would cause the little prince a far greater pain than any physical punishment.

"You are so unjustly rude to me, kid," the Corsair complained. "And I just came to nicely offer you my condolences."

"Condolences?" Eldarion looked at him.

"Yes," Dargmor was surprised that his words didn't seem to worry the child. "I'm sorry to inform you that Bogomil's plan succeeded. As of yesterday, Gondor has no king."

To the pirate's utmost shock, the child grinned. "And I am very happy to inform you that you are lying."

Dargmor gaped in surprise. He expected that Eldarion wouldn't be able to bear the lie.

"If my father was dead, as you are claiming," the prince continued, "I would be dead as well. Your men would have killed me long ago. But, most of all, if he was dead, you wouldn't be taking your men to look for him, hoping that he would surrender to save me."

The Corsair took a step backwards and took a deep breath. "How do you know this?"

"Maybe someone told me." Eldarion smiled. The bluff was working perfectly. He had managed to shake Dargmor's trust in his men, which was his main goal. "Maybe my father isn't the only one who has traitors in his ranks."

The Captain was at a loss. He usually managed to keep his men under control, but Volen's betrayal had shown him that he could trust no one. The alarming thing was that he had no way of knowing who the traitor was. And to him it seemed that there was a traitor. He could think of no other way the child would know all this.

But there was no time to think about that. They had to go and look for Elessar. He just needed to be extra careful.

The pirate party walked north the entire day. They stopped and made camp just before entering a dense and dark forest.

"We continue tomorrow," Dargmor announced.

Eldarion glanced at the forest with an uneasy feeling. Something about it just didn't seem right.

---

"Any news from Rohan?" Arwen asked without tearing her gaze from the window.

"No, my Lady," the messenger replied. "I'm sorry."

The Queen dismissed him. This was disturbing. A few days ago she had sent envoys to Éomer to ask for his help against the Corsairs, but there was still no reply.

And help will be needed, she thought as she gazed through the window. The army was great. She could only hope that Minas Tirith would hold.

Her eyes drifted south. Somewhere there were the two she loved the most. Arwen suddenly realized that even if they returned, they had no way of entering the palace. The entire city was surrounded by the enemy.

With a soft sob she fell to her knees, her forehead touching the cold stone wall. Arwen knew she would never survive it if she didn't see them again.

---

"Umbar?" the troll questioned. "Where is that?"

"South," Aragorn replied. "It is not far away."

"Then we are going there," the troll stated and walked towards his companions. After a while cries of joy could be heard from the creatures.

"Dinner is postponed for now," one that seemed to be the leader spoke. "We take the food to Umbar and make them show us their friends. Then we eat them together." Loud cheers greeted his words.

A troll tied the three prisoners with the same rope and placed them on his huge back. Then the creatures headed south.

"Umbar?" Legolas questioned softly. "Why Umbar?"

"Dargmor," Aragorn replied triumphantly. His friends exchanged a confused look. This didn't really seem to answer the question. The man noticed that and continued, "When you first told me the name, I was too excited to see you and I didn't realize that I have heard it before. And shame on me, I am supposed to know the names of my enemies. Dargmor became Captain of the Corsairs of Umbar a few years ago."

"So the Corsairs wanted Eldarion to be kidnapped!" Gimli exclaimed. "And he is now in Umbar!"

"And you want to make the trolls attack the pirates!" Legolas added, starting to like the plan.

"Exactly. I know it is strange to command a troll army from the position of a captive, but I hope it will work."

"I still don't get something." Gimli stated. "How are we getting out of this? And getting Eldarion out of this if he is captured?"

"I told you the plan doesn't involve escape… yet. There must be a way. I'll try to think of something."

Suddenly Legolas made them a sign to be quiet. He had heard something in the distance.

"Think fast, human," he whispered. "We have company."

TBC