Forgive me for the late update QQ

Chapter 34 - A Touch of Despair

They stared at each other for what felt like a small eternity. A very painful small eternity. Bilbo laughed nervously, but it was a sad, desperate sound that bordered with hysteria.

"What do you mean - she's not a servant?" he asked, struggling to keep his voice even.

Thorin slowly put his cup down, eyes flickering to the door. "What did she say - what does she look like?" he corrected himself quickly, grinding his teeth. Bilbo shuffled in his seat, feeling more than just a little concerned.

"Brown hair, black eyes..." and just as he said that, Thorin flew out of his seat, making an immediate beeline for his sword. Bilbo followed him as he stormed out, almost tearing the door out of his hinges, and had he been less numb from the sudden shock and dread that made his fingers prickle, he might have cringed as Thorin's voice boomed throughout the corridors, making all the guards scramble to follow him. Halfway to his chamber, Bilbo managed to get close enough to catch the furry hem of the dwarf's sleeve, not caring if he received any weird glances from the regiment of soldiers following them.

A new wave of dread hit him when he heard the old Captain's mumble. There are no guards here. Where is everybody? The whisper wormed itself into his ears even despite the thundering sound of the dwarven heavy boots against the cold stony floors.

He felt Thorin's calloused hand grip his own and squeeze, but the gesture did little to calm him down. He squeezed back because he felt the tremor in Thorin's hand and knew the anger and fear burning in his cold blue eyes.

The door was ajar.

The room empty.

The only thing that was out of place was the body that lay on the ground in a pool of black blood.

There was a beat of silence before Bilbo sunk to his knees and Thorin started screaming orders that set the whole mountain into motion. The only soldier who stayed behind was the old Captain whose head was bowed and mouth set into a grim line.

"I'm so sorry," Bilbo whispered as he carefully reached to touch Ilar's cold cheek, "I'm so sorry."

The mountain shook every time Smaug flew by and flooded the air with his furious roars. Bilbo had tried to calm him down but Smaug was not listening and the anger he felt though their mental bond was splitting his skull in half. It took all his willpower to keep the dragon from tearing the mountain apart to find his baby brother.

Bilbo held his head in his palms as Thorin shouted orders left and right, making every soldier panic and stumble. When it finally became too much, he spoke, silently and patiently - which worked on Thorin like magic, silencing him almost instantly. Sometimes, when Bilbo was particularly lucky, it also managed to calm him down enough to talk some reason into him. The first experience had left the hobbit stunned in silence for an unreasonably long time.

"If she's not a servant, who is she?" Thorin had been dodging the answer ever since they left his chambers. The fact that he had not yet made Bilbo half-deaf shouting curses about her didn't sit well with him. He usually took his sweet time to curse the root of the problem, then he moved on to scaring the soul out of his solders, go-betweens and, very rarely, ravens.

So, yes, seeing Thorin panicked and nervous was driving the hobbit up the wall.

He made a few more rounds around the room, tugging at his beard and huffing. He took a sharp breath a few times, looking as if he was finally ready to talk, and Bilbo thought he would finally start talking, but his expectations were only met with an uncomfortable silence.

"Who is she, that it makes you so damn afraid?" Bilbo moaned impatiently, his temper breaking through, "With what kind of serpent have I been drinking tea until now? Valar help me, Thorin, if you-"

"My fiancé," Thorin interrupted, and Bilbo could feel his jaw go slack. He stared at the king in absolute astonishment as he stuttered to correct himself lamely. "I mean, my former fiancé. I revoked the engagement before I went on the journey to Erebor. She wasn't exactly fond of me ever since."

"Excuse me?" Bilbo squeaked after he got his jaw to work again. "Wasn't exactly-? You mean to tell me that-!" he shut his mouth with a loud click. All the questions, all the innocent inquiries about his day, everything! She even asked him to keep their meetings secret because 'it's more about propriety than anything else'. Of course it was about bloody propriety! His Majesty would not be happy if he found his enraged ex-wife-to-be chatting over tea with the source of all the outrageous affair rumours!

"A fiancé," Bilbo repeated, shaking his head, "I've been having tea parties with her and nobody thought it was suspicious? Marvellous!"

"Nobody knew she was still here," Dís commented as she stormed into the room with Dwalin and Nori close behind, "looks like she had enough riches to bribe half of our guards into closing their eyes whenever she was sauntering around." It was clear from the significant distaste in her voice and the agitated palming of the dagger on her belt that Dís and Uzmek did not have a positive relationship. "Why our spies didn't pick up on this is still a mystery to me, though." She shot a pointed look at Nori which Dwalin happily copied.

The spymaster rolled his eyes in his usual, undisturbed, way and politely inclined his head towards the princess. "My apologies, milady," he chirped snappily, "I was busy making sure nobody kills any royal members in their sleep. Mahal knows I can't deal with crazy women at the same time."

"Watch your mouth," Dwalin intervened, but Bilbo hushed them both before the argument could escalate. "If you want to dogfight, do it after we find my nephew and Thorin's fiancé."

"Ex-"

"Yes, we know," Dís shut her brother up with a sharp hand wave, "the problem is that the mountain is full of Dáin's armies as well, and they aren't as passionate about finding a Frodoas the Erebor forces."

"Not to mention that they might be a lot more fond of Uzmek than our people." Nori added unhappily. "I heard that she was planning an engagement to Stonehelm," he clarified with a heavy sigh when he received three questioning stares.

"Lovely," Bilbo added dryly, cradling his aching head in his hands.

"How is that possible?" Thorin inquired, since Dís and Dwalin were shocked into muteness. "Does Dáin know?"

"Dáin knows, but he's not happy about that. Nothing is official yet, but little Thorin seems to be very adamant about his choice."

"It's very possible that they are in it together."

"That's jumping to conclusions!"

"They have a good reason though."

"Just because he's a mean little bastard doesn't mean he's behind every regicide attempt.

"Is he even smart enough…?"

The argument went on and on and Bilbo silently listened to all the accusations and absurd theories until it escalated into intelligible shouting match in Khuzdûl and Bilbo decided that was the right time to make an exit, which thankfully went unnoticed by the four dwarves.

The Captain was already waiting, also fully suited up and armed, silently following as they made their way through the mob of bustling soldiers. "How many soldiers are searching the mines?" Bilbo asked when they reached his quarters.

"Enough."

Bilbo felt momentarily bewildered by the short, gruff answer but when he turned around to look at the Captain, he found him staring at the bloody smear on his floor. He wanted to say sorry, but he knew that wouldn't do much. Instead, he reached for his sword and tied it to his belt. "I want to look around at the top. I remember Thorin saying that there are some chambers that got blocked in and stayed untouched since Smaug's attack. I feel like… " he was interrupted by the sound of the door closing and whipped his head around to see two unknown dwarves there and the Captain standing a lot closer than necessary.

The way they were looking at him made him shudder and take an involuntary step back. He looked back at the Captain, noticing only now that the eyes that looked at him through the slit in the helmet did not belong to the kind old dwarf.

With an unpleasant crawling in his spine, Bilbo remembered one crucial thing.

"Hold on. Didn't you say you were going to take care of Ilar's body?"

The last thing he saw, was a glimpse of the dwarf's toothy grin.