Bitter Dregs by Aiwen

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To Solve a Mystery

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Galadriel reached the infirmary, where she was stopped by the guards. "No one is to enter under any circumstances, by Master Moriel and Lord Elrond's orders."

Galadriel's heart sank. "Can you tell me what has been happening?" she asked.

"Lord Arluin is dead, and the King is near death," Ornendil said. "They are trying something risky to save his life that must absolutely not be interrupted."

"This day just gets worse and worse," said Galadriel.

"Indeed, my lady. Have you found the murderer?" asked Ornendil.

"I have ruled out many people, and learned much," said Galadriel. "Unfortunately, I have not found the killer yet, and I must eat before I do more."

So Galadriel went and ate, interrupted several times by worried people who wanted to know if their king would live. She told them that she did not know, but that he was in the best of hands and that they would know more by tomorrow. Then she went back and questioned the rest of the Gondorians.

That left her in quite a quandary, for as far as she could tell, none of them were guilty. Rodnor and Borontir were the only two possibilities left, but it would take a rare man indeed to poison himself to kill his foe. Perhaps matters would seem clearer in the light of morning – it wasn't as if anyone could reach any of the targets to harm them right now.

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Breathe in, breathe out - Elrond was the breath, and the breath was Elrond. The world shook, and Elrond fell out of the trance, blinking groggily at the face over him. Moriel. "You need to rest," she said. "I'll look after our king for a while. He's breathing on his own again, so I think we can handle him without you. You were in trance for seven hours."

"Oh, that's good then," said Elrond. He looked down at Gil-galad, who was indeed breathing on his own.

Elrond closed his eyes for just a moment, and awoke to find Celebrian shaking him. "You need to come and lie down for a while," she said. "Lean on me," Elrond did, and found himself looking at an empty bed. It looked most inviting, and he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

A premonition of danger woke him. Unsure for a moment of where he was, he opened his eyes a slit. A figure loomed over him, holding… Elrond grabbed the figure's wrist and twisted it violently, sitting up and yelling 'Help!" as he did so. The wrist snapped, the scalpel fell to the bed and the man screamed. Borontir what the… thought Elrond, now pinning the man to the bed. Borontir swung his fist, but Elrond ducked and grabbed the arm. This unbalanced them, and they crashed to the floor, knocking the wind out of both of them.

The guards burst into the room, taking control of Borontir, and demanding to know what was going on. That was seconded by Moriel, Taurwen, Celebrian, and a weak croak from behind the curtain.

"He's awake?" Elrond asked, staggering to his feet and ducking his head through the curtain.

Gil-galad looked back, wearing an exhausted and confused expression, and trying to lift his head from the pillow.

"Oh no you don't," said Moriel, quickly pushing Gil-galad back down. "Elrond, can you go and get this lot to sort things out somewhere else?"

"I will, and I will come back afterwards to tell you what happened," he reassured Gil-galad, before ushering the others out of the infirmary.

They relocated to the guardpost across the hallway, Borontir unsteady on his feet, and cradling his wrist.

Arothir was looking very dangerous indeed as they all sat down on wooden chairs. Miron found himself without a chair, and opted for leaning against the wall. "First, Elrond, why were you fighting with Borontir?"

"He attacked me with a scalpel," said Elrond. "What I don't know is why. Is he in his right mind, or is this is another poisonous side-effect?"

"Kindly explain yourself," Arothir told Borontir.

Borontir glared back at them, looking rumpled and twitchy. For a moment Elrond thought he was going to go into another fit, but it passed as no more than twitching muscles and a disturbing smile. "I don't know why I did that," he said.

It rang false to Elrond, and apparently to Arothir as well. "Go and find Lady Galadriel," Arothir said.

Miron nodded, and left.

"I think I broke your wrist," Elrond said to Borontir.

Nothing much happened for the next few minutes, and Elrond found his mind drifting to Gil-galad's confused, but aware expression. If he was awake and trying to talk, he was much better than he had been some hours ago. He was most likely out of danger. Thanks be to Eru, thought Elrond. I really thought we were going to lose him for a while there.

Miron returned with a rather rumpled-looking Galadriel. "Now tell us again why you attacked Lord Elrond," Arothir said to Borontir.

"I don't know. The poison – he reminded me of Sauron," said Borontir.

Elrond blinked. Being confused with Sauron was a new one on him, not that he believed Borontir's statement.

"Really?" said Galadriel, sitting back in her chair. "In what way?"

"Just… the abilities," said Borontir, twitching.

"Is it safe for me to use osanwe, or do I risk killing him?" Galadriel asked Elrond.

"It is possible it might send him into a fit, but it won't kill him and shouldn't harm you," said Elrond. "Did you find the assassin, by the way?"

"Not yet, but he may be sitting right in front of us," said Galadriel.

"He only drank half the coffee in his cup," said Elrond. "Lucky, that. Otherwise he'd be flat on his back in bed at best, if not as dead as Arluin."

"Look at me," demanded Galadriel. Borontir looked away. "If you do not look me in the eye, we will take it as an admission of guilt. If you don't want to be executed for murder, look at me right now."

Borontir looked at her. "Did you poison Arluin and the King?" she demanded.

"Do you think I'd be crazy enough to poison myself to get at them?" he answered.

"Yes or no: did you poison them?"

"No," said Borontir.

"Don't lie," Galadriel said. "Well, we've found our assassin. I still have no idea why, though."

"I claim diplomatic immunity," said Borontir.

"For murdering the Arnorian Ambassador, attacking me, and bringing our king to the brink of death?" asked Elrond. He shook his head. "If we don't kill you, Tar Elendil will."

"You are a dead man walking, Borontir. You might at least tell us why you did it." said Galadriel.

"We also need the name of the poison, and any antidotes," said Elrond.

Borontir looked at them and something dark could be seen in his gaze. "You want to know why I did it? Fine." He pointed at Elrond, who frowned in confusion.

"You," Borontir spat. "You sit there, simply because you chose to be an elf. And my nation is dead." He gulped, his face twisting in rage. "You and Gil-galad did what, when Ar-Pharazon usurped the throne and Sauron cozened him into attacking the Valar? Absolutely nothing! We saved your lives when Sauron attacked Lindon in the War of the Elves vs. Sauron, and you, you sat by and did nothing to save us."

"We could have done what, precisely, against Pharazon?" demanded Elrond. "Gone to war against Numenor, and its mighty navy? We would have failed utterly, and you'd not have thanked us when Pharazon used the war as an excuse to murder every Faithful Numenorean he could lay his hands on. Sauron would have used the crisis to gain power over Pharazon even faster. Numenor and Mordor working together would have crushed the Eldar of Middle-earth, and those Faithful who had fled to Middle-earth."

"As for Pharazon, we did warn him of what Sauron was capable, as any reading of a history book ought to have done! He was too arrogant in his own strength to listen. When your people arrived as refugees on our shores, we helped you and befriended you." Elrond lowered his voice. "Do not confuse inability to help with lack of desire. You fool. And in your folly you end up serving Sauron's ends by murdering your own people."

"I wasn't trying to kill Arluin."

"But you knew it would kill him and you did it anyway."

Borontir looked away.

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Chapter End Notes

A/N: I wrote a murder mystery. Good grief. I guess there's a first time for everything...