“Is what Saruman said, true?” Lienan asked herself, “Do they care so little for my well being?”

Alone in the tower of Orthanc chained to the walls, Lienan was beginning to lose all hope for her escape and survival.  Hours she had spent in that chamber pondering her doubts; the doubts what Saruman fueled.  

“Why did Merry and Pippin say those things, they could not have possibly meant them…could they?” she continued to debate to herself, “If only I was able to see a little bit more.”

Just then, the wizard Saruman entered the chamber with a smug look in his face.  Unlike before, he appeared to be alone.

“How is my little caged bird?” he asked in mock innocence.

“Ready to peck your eyes out!” she snapped angrily.

“My, my, such a violent one,” the wizard said in mock disappointment, “No wonder your friends care not for your safety.”

“You’re wrong!” Lienan shouted, “My friends will come for me!”

“We shall see,” the wizard whispered, a menacing gleam in his eyes, “In the meantime…”

Out of the shadows behind the wizard walked an Uruk-hai soldier holding a long leather whip.  Behind that foul creature followed Prince Imrahil and King Éomer holding a hot poker.  Lienan looked on with horror as the three looming figures approached her.

Her cries of pain could be heard throughout the land of Isengard and screams of agony echoed across the many lands of Middle-earth.  A chill was sent through all who heard her cries, including her friends in Gondor.

“Lienan,” Maelute whispered to herself when she felt her friend’s pain.

“You heard it too?” Legolas asked his longtime companion.

“Hear what?” Frodo asked, curiously eyeing the two Elves.

Maelute and Legolas both casually glanced at each other before turning their attention back to their Hobbit friend.

“Nothing,” Maelute replied.

“Just the fires of Isengard,” Legolas added, “They’ve started again.”

“She’s in trouble, isn’t she?” Frodo asked with concern.

The two elves remained silent as they looked away from the little Hobbit standing before them, averting their eyes to the ground.  

“Isn’t she?!?!” the once calm Hobbit demanded.

“Yes, she is,” Maelute replied softly.

“Then we must go help her,” the little Hobbit said with determination.

“No, Saruman will see us coming,” the Elf from the Havens protested, “He will have a trap ready for us.”

“She’s right,” King Elessar agreed.

“Let him set a trap, I don’t care,” Frodo snapped, “Lienan can’t face his treachery alone.”

There was no doubt the others agreed with their Hobbit friend.  But despite that, there was still the looming dread of falling into a trap set by the powerful wizard Saruman that caused everyone to shamefully look down at the ground.

“She’s dealt with everything alone all her life,” Frodo protested, “She needs to know that we’re here for her.”

“I agree,” Legolas spoke up, “But to charge into Isengard without a plan is suicide.”

“It’s better than staying here and doing nothing,” Frodo argued.

“You care for her very much, we all know this,” the Queen of Gondor jumped in, “But it would destroy her to know that you were hurt in any way trying to save her.”

“Arwen is right, my dear friend,” the King agreed, “The reason Lienan left on her own was to keep us from being harmed, you most of all.”

“But I’m worried about her,” Frodo said softly.

“We all are, Frodo,” Legolas said as he placed a comforting hand on the Hobbit’s shoulder.

~*~

“So you do care for her,” Saruman sneered as he gazed into the palantír, “It’s a shame that she doesn’t know it.”

As the dark wizard watched in on the small band of heroes as they debated the fate of Middle-earth. Lienan was still in her chamber in Orthanc chained to the wall.  Her body was still bleeding and aching from the Uruk-hai’s method of “entertainment”.  She had blood dripping down her head, oozing from her lip.  She could also still feel the sting of the whip on her back and the searing heat of the hot poker on her flesh.  She was a complete and total mess with no one to save her and she was losing all hope.

“They should have been here by now,” Lienan pondered to herself, her voice nothing more than a whisper from her torture, “Could Saruman be right; are they really tired of me?”

Lienan closed her eyes tightly as a wave of pain overwhelmed her.  With whatever was left of her will, she held in the whimper that wanted to escape her lips.  

“I can’t think that way,” the elf said with a burst of determination, “But then why haven’t they come for me?”

As the internal struggle within Lienan waged on, Saruman and his loyal servant were quietly watching her through the palantír with amusement at her torment and suffering, the former grinning with joy.

“She is strong,” Grima observed.

“Yes,” the wizard agreed, “But she is beginning to break.”

“What will you do with her next?” the corrupted man asked with curiosity.

“You will see,” Saruman replied mysteriously, mischief in his eyes.

~*~

“I can’t take this much longer,” Frodo said, “The longer we debate this, the more danger Lienan will be in.”

Everyone was getting restless with the endless debates.  Whatever plan they seemed to come up with was soon proven inadequate and scrapped for the next one to come.  All of them were tired of the continuous circles they kept revolving around as their counsel continued on.

“I agree,” Legolas said, “We must make a decision now.”

“Unfortunately, we have no idea what Saruman means to do,” Gandalf explained, “Until we know who or what we are dealing with we cannot make a decision.”

“With all due respect, Gandalf, I will not stand idly by as my sister is put into more and more danger with each passing moment,” Legolas said as calmly as he could, “Something must be done now.”

All were quiet at the Elf Prince’s outburst.  They could understand his unease and irrational behavior as they thought of his sister being trapped in the tower of Orthanc.

“I understand that you are worried about your sister, Legolas,” the wizard said sympathetically, “But we cannot jump into a battle without being prepared.”

“Gandalf’s right,” King Elessar agreed, “If we attack Saruman now, then Lienan is doomed.”

“But she is my sister,” Legolas protested, “She has had to deal with too much because I was never there for her.”

“You are not the only one to blame, Prince of Mirkwood,” King Elessar said, “We were all blind to her pain and we did nothing to mend or ease it.”

“Take comfort in knowing that you were one of the few things that brought joy to her life,” the Lady Arwen added.

“I suppose,” the Mirkwood Prince agreed softly.

“Hey,” Where’s Maelute?” Merry inquired when he found the elf missing.

At his outcry, they frantically look around the room for any sign of Maelute, but found none.

“Frodo’s missing too,” Pippin shouted with worry.

“You don’t think…?” Legolas asked, leaving the end of the question hanging.

“Search the city,” King Elessar immediately ordered, “Merry, Pippin, go to the stables and check if any of the horses are missing.”

As their friends frantically tried to find any trace of their missing companions, Maelute and Frodo were quickly galloping across the fields of Rohan, on their way to Orthanc to save Lienan.

“Are you sure it was a good idea to leave like that?” Frodo asked.

“You haven’t changed your mind, have you?” the Elf from the Haven asked in response.

“No, I haven’t,” Frodo replied, “But the others will be worried about us.”

“Saurman will have more trouble spotting the two of us than an entire company,” Maelute explained, “The others will understand that.”

Just then, someone rode up to them on a grey horse.  From the way the rider handled the horse and the shining armour underneath his cloak, it was clear that he was an Elven warrior.

“Where might you be heading?” the elf warrior asked them.

“That is none of your concern, Haldir,” Maelute replied as she stopped her horse, “Why are you not in Lórien where you should be protecting it‘s borders?”

“I heard what happened to Lienan,” the Elven guard said, “I know what the two of you plan to do and I want to help.”

“No,” the Haven Elf replied flatly.

“Lienan is very dear to me and the Golden Wood,” Haldir said sternly,” Either I got too or no one is going.”

“Are you challenging me?” Maelute said defensively, almost daring him to keep egging her on.

“If it must come to that, then yes,” the Elf captain said in response.

“STOP!” Frodo shouted, bringing an abrupt end to the argument.

The two arguing Elves stopped their bickering to turn to a determined looking Hobbit.  Shock was on both of their features at his outburst.

“We can’t help Lienan if we’re bickering with each other,” Frodo continued on when he had their attention, “Surely we can work something out that would be satisfactory to all of us.”

At the Hobbit’s suggestion, the two Elves glanced at each other as they silently agreed to take it into consideration.  

All the while, Lienan was weakening from the loss of blood.  As she sat in a small puddle of her own blood, her hope faded.  She had long ago lost the feeling in her hands as they hung loosely in her binding chains connected to the wall.  Her clothes were in shreds from the continual lashing of the whip from the Uruk-hai soldiers.  The edges of her eyes were crusted with dried tears, long ago losing the strength to cry from the pain of her wounds.  And even still, her stomach growled with hunger as her body fought to stay alive under the harsh conditions.  The once proud elf of Middle-earth was all but spent and Saruman was not done breaking her spirit yet.  

“How are you my dear?” Saruman asked as he quietly walked through the door, Grima following close behind him.

Refusing to answer the foul wizard, Lienan merely stared at the stone floor in front of her, letting her head hang low and bowed.

“My, that’s a lot of blood you’ve lost,” the wizard commented, continuing on with the small talk.

Still, Lienan remained silent, letting her eyes slide shut for a moment to will away another wave of pain before opening them again to resume her staring.

“I don’t suppose you’d like something to eat,” Saruman inquired, trying a new approach to get the elf to talk, “It’s been days since you’ve had something.”

But still, not a single word was said from the bleeding maiden.

“What’s wrong, cat got your tongue?” the wizard mocked, “Or are you finally ready to accept the fact that your friends aren’t coming for you?”

All Lienan did in response to the wizard’s taunting was blink away the tears that were trying to force their way out.  

“Well, are you?!?!” Saruman asked as he violently grabbed Lienan’s collar and pulled her face up to his.

“…Yes,” the weakened elf replied weakly, her tears finally able to stream down her face in defeat.

“Good,” Saruman sneered, a satisfied look in his eyes as he dropped her to the ground.

He turned and left the dark chamber to start the procedure of resurrecting the great evil that once roamed the earth in the darkest age of Middle-earth history, fully aware of three intruders to his land.  

“How do we get in?” Frodo asked as the trio were sneaking around the grounds of Isengard.

The tower seemed almost impenetrable as Haldir, Maelute, and Frodo hid in the bushes near the entrance.  

“Do you know the mapping of Orthanc?” Haldir asked Maelute.

“I’ve only been in there once and that was when the Ents had already taken control of the area,” Maelute replied.

“Where are the Ents now?” Frodo asked.

“They couldn’t be under the control of Saruman,” the Elf from the Havens replied, “None save Bombadil has control over the forest.”

“But Saruman has been resurrected,” Frodo pointed out, “Is it possible that he received such powers?”

“He may be right,” Haldir admitted, “The Ents would be more useful to him alive than dead.”

“But if that were true, then where are they?” Maelute inquired.

“Where, indeed,” the Lórien Elf pondered.