Lost and Found [Thranduil love story]

Chapter 23: Faces Of The King

I almost knocked. It was so very close. But my hand stopped inches from the door, and refused to move. Some feelings woke up inside me, that weren’t there before: anger and aversion. To hell with that! I was not going to enter his bedroom, not after what happened. The deal or not, there were limits. All I wanted was out. Out of this damn palace and its annoying monarch. I had enough of him, the ring, The Hollow Ones. I didn’t care anymore.

I turned back and walked away. But there was no way I was going back to my chambers either. The most reasonable option now was to find the crown jewels and run away again.

I knew they weren’t in his rooms. I snooped a little while he was lying sick. The last place I saw them was his study, so that was where I was going to search for them.

Since he thought we had a deal, he probably didn’t think I would snoop. Not today anyway. That gave me a chance.

I went down the stairs trying to locate the king’s study again. I memorised how to get there before, and now I hoped I still remembered the way.

It turned out my memory wasn’t so bad after all. I had no trouble finding the right room. There was no one around, so I tried the handle and realised the door was unlocked. I entered cautiously, ready run or hide if necessary but there was no need. The room was dark and empty, and I had to go back to borrow a candle from a candelabrum. I locked the door behind me. I didn’t want anyone to catch me.

Like the last time I’ve been here, I noticed many papers lying around. I still didn’t understand the language so didn’t bother with them, and headed straight to the desk planning to search the drawers. I was opening the first of them when something caught my eye.

There were drawings lying on the table-top. They looked so strange surrounded by all the documents, that I got interested.

I took the first one, pulling it from under some other paper and my eyes went wide.

It was a sketched portrait of a woman. Curious, I looked closely. She appeared to be sleeping peacefully. Her hair was a mess, but somehow the author made her look beautiful in some wild way. I took the other one and saw the same woman in a dress, sitting on the king’s throne. The third one showed her pouting face, which made her look like an angry kitten. Then there was her laughing, smirking, staring into the distance and finally standing half dressed in her nightgown. Whoever drew these has done it with a great deal of affection. It was visible in the gentleness of every line and attention to detail. She was clearly adored and cherished by the one whose eyes saw her this way. But there was also some sadness in those drawings: longing, and a feeling of loss.

I knew who was the author of those. Who else if not the king? It was his study after all.

And I had no problem establishing who the model was.

I had to sit down, shocked by the discovery. Of all the things I could suspect the Elvenking of, drawing my portraits was the last. He just didn’t seem to be an artistic type. Or sensitive. Or romantic. I could picture him cutting something into pieces to protect me, or presenting me with some jewellery, but drawing – nope. It seemed just weird and somehow out of place. Did I enter the wrong study, and found the works of some other elf, who was secretly in love with me? I snorted. Yeah, like this was any more probable. I looked around and found a few more pictures. Me, the way I looked when I first came to Mirkwood, then me in a ragged dress, and me in his tent with my blouse revealing a little too much. When I looked at the last one, it made me blush. Now I knew who changed my clothes after my fight with Sauron. The drawing didn’t reveal the most strategic parts, but was quite provocative, and I had to fight the urge to confiscate it. However it was not like it would make the memory disappear from Thranduil’s mind, so I let it be. Watching those pictures made me feel strange, like something warm was surrounding my heart, and there were moments I had a funny feeling in my stomach. It wasn’t unpleasant, just weird, and spooked me a little.