The group of Elves packed up camp immediately and set out as quickly as their legs would carry them, back to the Palace. Worry had set in Aragorn's face and he feared for Legolas' very life now. Something was wrong, horribly wrong. Legolas' limp body lay on a makeshift stretcher, which the Elves had hastily put together, and it seemed to be deteriorating from the inside out.
      The King of Gondor carried the end of the stretcher, his eyes rarely leaving the still form of his friend. Legolas was not completely unconscious, it was evident from the sighs of pain which escaped his lips from time to time. Not only was the struggled breathing of the Mirkwood Prince frightening Aragorn, but blood began to seep through his closed lips to trickle down the side of his face.

      "He is dying!" Gimli observed, rushing along with everyone else, at Aragorn's side.
      The Man looked to him, "Say not such a thing, dear Gimli. He has not given up and neither should we!"
      But Aragorn feared they would arrive at the palace too late and he urged the Elves before him to make haste.
      Legede ran beside him, attempting to support the edge of the stretcher, "We near the borders of home, Aragorn." he glanced at Legolas' form, "But I do not think we have the skills needed to heal such an affliction."
      Aragorn knitted his brow, "We must try our hardest, Legede. I fear that whatever has physically assaulted Legolas may also do the same mentally. If he is not saved soon, his mind may fall into never ending torment."
      “Aragorn, can you yourself not heal him?” Gimli asked, fear clutching at his heart, though he tried not to show it.
      With a shake of his head, Aragorn’s frown dashed what little hope the Dwarf had. “Healing the darkness upon Men is one thing, Gimli. Healing an Elf, a being of light, against a darkness which could affect his mind... that I can not do safely.”
      Legede’s eyes blinked with understanding, "When we return, I shall send my fastest riders to fetch Lord Elrond from Imladris."
      "Very good." He answered before his concentration was broken by the strangled gasp of the Elven Prince.
      Both looked to the stretcher, fearing that it would be their friend's last breath. The afflicted archer's eyes snapped open, as if some horrid nightmare had plagued him in his mind. For a moment, his eyes rested on Aragorn and he parted his lips as if to speak. No sound issued from his throat save a horse whisper which could not be heard by mortal men's ears. Legede however had heard the message quite clearly and he turned worried eyes to Aragorn.
      "Speak, Legede. What did Legolas say?!"
      The Elf captain struggled to find the right words but he simply replied in Sindarin, knowing that the meaning would be lost in translation.
      "E tiri an i peth o i bad. Dago nin si, nu e garen hirin i peth, Aragorn... Na i Valar, dago nin..." ~[He looks for the words of the passway. Kill me now, before he has found the words, Aragorn... by the Valar, kill me...]~

      Aragorn's face paled slightly but he shook his head, "Nay, Legolas... I pulu... I pulu dago le." ~[No, Legolas... I cannot... I cannot kill you.]~
      At that moment, Legede saw something in the prince's eyes which frightened him and he ordered the Elves to halt. They set the stretcher upon the ground and Aragorn took his friend's head in his lap.
      Legolas looked up to him and spoke in the common tongue, "Saruman will gain the opening words and the world will come to ruin. He will conquer Mirkwood first, Aragorn... then spread his darkness across all lands. Everything will be consumed by his evil greed and no good thing will exist in this world..." he gasped as air was taken from his lungs and blood poured from the side of his mouth. After a few tense moments, air returned to his body as the spasm passed. Reaching up, Legolas' hand grasped Aragorn's shoulder. "His power is strong... Im pulu maeth ha an-uir..." ~[I cannot fight it forever...]~
      Aragorn fought back his emotion, "You must fight it as long as you can, Legolas. For I will not bring myself to kill you, to take your immortal life. You are a friend and confidant to me and I will not let you leave this world so soon before your true time. Remember the sea, mellon nin. I calls to you, you cannot leave this land until you have sailed across the wide sea to Valinor. You cannot abandon us, not now, not yet, Legolas. Hold on! By the Valar hold on!" ~[mellon nin - my friend]~
      The prince's eyes became unfocused for a moment and his breathing stopped completely. In that fleeting moment, the King of Gondor thought he had lost his friend forever. But Legolas' eyes returned to his own and, though his breathing was shallow and ragged now, the corner of his mouth turned up in a smile.
      "Then make haste, Estel... before Saruman takes my mind in his hand once more."
      The man nodded and once again the group moved on, coming soon to the gates of the Elvenking's Halls in Mirkwood.

      Thranduil was at the gate to meet them, but one look at his broken and bleeding son sent his heart into despair. Though he wore his long woven emotional mask upon his face, inside he was being torn in two. Quickly he ordered that the best healers in Mirkwood be summoned into the palace as Legede, Aragorn, and Gimli laid the prince in his own bed.

      "What happened?!" Thranduil asked harshly when the task was completed.
      The King of Gondor shook his head, "I know not, Lord Thranduil. We found him battling a great evil and, though we won the battle, we thought he was fine. His injuries had already begun to heal themselves and Legolas was nearly as merry and joyous as ever. Then, darkness fell upon him as we spoke and, I fear some foul devilry is at work within his body."
      The Elven King paced back and forth, anxious for the healers to come to call but his eyes rarely left his son's bed. Legede had departed at once to send riders for Elrond, but he feared that the Lord of Imladris would arrive to late.
      "All is lost..." Gimli said to himself as he stood near the bed's head, "Aragorn, is there nothing we can do?"
      The man shook his head, "The healers are our only hope, Gimli. But Legolas' strength is fading and he may soon be taken into darkness once more. If he loses the battle with Saruman, all will be over."
      "Saruman?!" Thranduil exclaimed, turning sharply upon Aragorn, "What has that traitorous white wizard have to do with my son?!"
      "My theory about the lost patrols of your army is true, Lord Thranduil. With the help of a band of Orcs in the far north, Saruman the White has returned to power. Some evil gave him his power and, though we believed him to be dead, he has cheated even that fate. What darkness has befallen the mountains to the north I know not, but Saruman has turned your lost patrols into an army of his own and, with that, he attacked the palace. His entire plan, it seems, was to capture a member of the royal family and, from as much as Legolas has told me, this realm is in graver danger than ever. Before he slipped into this state of half wake and half sleep, Legolas told me that 'He looks for the words of the passway.' I know not what that means, but if Saruman gets these words, he could gain control of this entire realm, or so Legolas thought." Aragorn's eyes met Thranduil's and, for the moment, the two had a common understanding.
      "Then Saruman has invaded my son's mind in order to gain the words which will break the Elven seal upon this kingdom... If he cannot be pulled from this darkness, I fear the last course of action may be to..."
      "Do not speak of such things." Aragorn replied, his eyes now upon Legolas once more, "He ordered me to kill him and I could not. We must not give up our hope, not yet."
      "Aragorn's right." Gimli replied, "The strength and will of Legolas surpasses even those of the heartiest Dwarves or the strongest Men or the bravest Hobbits. He is an Elf among Elves, one to be sung of in days gone by. As true as anyone ever was, and a possessor of the purest and most caring of hearts and souls."
      "Well met, Master Dwarf." Thranduil said, his eyes going to the still form of his son, "But words alone cannot save him..."

      Just then, a group of seven healers entered the room and, after ushering out both Aragorn and Gimli, they set to work. Outside the doors of Legolas' room, the two remaining companions stood, each lost in their own thoughts. While Gimli's mind was on all the good jests he and the Elf had shared along their travels, Aragorn's mind was far more troubled.
      He blamed himself for these events and, between prayers to the Valar for Legolas' safety, he wondered what had gone so horribly wrong...