Introduction
Naneth, what's an Adonnen?"
"Where did you hear that word?"
"In adar's book." The queen sighed, meeting her son's bright blue eyes. So much like his father's.
"I thought he asked you not to read it?"
"He did," the young prince admitted, shifting uncomfortably under his mother's gaze. "But he left it out, and I was curious."
"How much did you read?"
"Just the first few pages."
"I suppose you were going to need to know at some point."
The queen took her son's hand and led him out of the library. The king was away to the north on business, so she knew that they could talk in his study without being disturbed. Apparently the prince had also realized this, because the precocious twelve-year-old had clearly been in his father's study if he had found the book. He never would have snuck in there if the king was home.
"Why are we in here?" the child asked, puzzled as his mother pulled him into the large study. Books and charts stood on shelves along the inside wall, while large glass windows looked out over a colorful garden, just starting to bloom with the early spring weather. But it wasn't to the books or the windows that the queen directed her son. She pulled him over to one of the side walls, where several portraits hung. They stopped in front of a large painting of a dark haired elleth, standing on the top of a hill littered with dead orcs, a shining silver sword in one hand.
"It is time you knew the story of the Adonnen, Legolas."
