She Walks In Shadow

Chapter 19

Bilba remembered everything about Ravenhill.

Everything.

Every second.

Every breath.

She still felt the cold, sinking through her skin to turn the very marrow of her bones into ice.

She still smelled the blood from the battle. It had risen into the air to hang over them like a thick shroud, coating everything in a scarlet mist. When she'd finished bathing that night the water she'd left behind had been the color of rust.

She didn't need to remember the pain, for it never faded. It thrummed through her like a second heartbeat, twining and twisting its way through her soul until the two were so entwined that one no longer knew how to survive with the other.

She remembered it all, every scene etched in crimson, stalking her dreams at night and haunting the corridors of her mind during the day.

Every...last...moment, and every one of them tied to a single moment. A solitary image that stood above the rest. A lasting memorial to the moment when everything good and beautiful in the world had shattered, leaving dust and ash in its wake.

One image...

One detail that would ultimately cut through the pain to ignite a fire within her.

A rage.

One...

Single...

Thing...

And that was the smirk on Azog's face as he drove a sword through Fili's heart, and hers in turn.

It was as if something inside her simply...stopped.

A strange calm fell over her, and the world around her seemed to fall away. Her heartrate slowed, and the sound of her own breathing was unnaturally loud in her own ears.

Azog was speaking, or at least his lips were moving, but she couldn't hear what he was saying.

She didn't care what he was saying.

Her body moved as if by its own will before she'd even fully formed the desire.

The sycophants Azog had brought along with him moved to block her, and something feral shouted with glee inside her.

The swords she'd picked up in Bree felt nothing like the ones she'd carried for decades, but they killed just as well. Her body fell into the motions with the ease of long practice, even if she intuitively knew it wouldn't last nearly as long with her current level of fitness.

The first orc fell, and a second one appeared, swinging a club over its head. Moron. If one thing could always be trusted, it was that orcs didn't have the first idea about how to fight defensively.

Bilba ducked, easily coming up under the creature's guard, and drove her sword into his chest. The blade vibrated in her hand and she shoved, putting her body behind it as she allowed the orc's own weight to drag it off her blade.

Movement came from behind her and she spun, raising both blades to block a blow from another orc. Dimly, she recognized the dwarves had joined in the fight and her mouth went dry. This wasn't what she wanted. She didn't want them fighting, didn't want him fighting.

She snapped an elbow into the jaw of a third orc, and then a blinding light suddenly filled the landscape, followed by a voice of deep command.

Bilba caught the briefest glimpse of Azog before the light swallowed him. She threw an arm over her eyes, and lunged forward blindly, desperate to get to him before he had the chance to escape.