Once her wrath cooled to a manageable level, Esmerelda headed into Mirkwood with a wicked grin on her face and a sassy swing to her step. The foul siblings of her late pet would gather to her once they learned of his demise. The creatures were a force to be reckoned with. No one knew how she could communicate with them, nor did they wish to find out, as they feared she participated in black magic. Whether she did this or not was a great mystery, forever unsolved. Either way, her army of spiders consisted of about a hundred large specimens that willingly trailed behind their newfound mistress, eager to do her evil bidding. The spiders awaited nearby her house, ready to do battle come morning.
Whatever her methods, her thoughts towards the blonde dwarf changed as she lay awake that night. Just who did Fili think he was, yelling at her like that? Soon enough he would be bowing before her – that is, if he didn’t get killed beforehand. Come to think of it, she didn’t even need him. In fact, she hated him! All she ever wanted him for was to give her a free passage into the Lonely Mountain. Stupid dwarf! He would have been better off if he had died from his wounds in the Battle of the Five Armies.
In the intervening time, Bard rallied a small army against the schoolteacher. He only held a slight concern because he did not know if she would get the spiders to help her or not. Yet he maintained utmost confidence in all his men and knew the dwarves in Erebor would help if need be, although he doubted it would become necessary.
Tauriel, being the only one with true arachnid-fighting experience, gave the soldiers tips on battling with the beasts that afternoon. “Go for the eyes, and if you get a clear jab at the underbelly that is the best place to put the killing blow; it helps when they cannot see as well.” She set them to practicing on hay bales with spots painted on them to simulate the eyes; rough going, but it at least gave them a slight feel for what they were up against. She would not participate, even though she wanted to go, because she was too far along in her pregnancy for either her or Kili to feel comfortable with her risking her life like that. The only way she could fight this war is if absolutely necessary as the last resort.
~
Finally, the day of battle came. Esmerelda stood regally at the edge of town, dressed in a rather revealing robe of a deep purple colour with gold trim, which set off her raven locks and emerald eyes. The spiders stood behind her in half-circle formation, eagerly awaiting her command to attack. They rubbed their foremost legs together and licked their black chops. Their back legs were bent, ready to charge at a moment’s notice. From time to time they would rub their fangs with a thin leg and squirt a bit of venom out at their feet, ensuring they were ready to inflict a fatal bite. There would be no simple stunning of their prey for a few hours today! It would be instantaneous death as their poison travelled through their victims’ blood and dissolved their insides into mush.
The men of Dale situated themselves just inside the walls, which had not yet been fully rebuilt, armed with mostly swords but also a few bows and arrows. The bowmen had been positioned to the front, instructed to let their arrows fly as soon as the arachnid army charged. Each man held onto his bow with his left hand, their right hands gripping their arrows and strings, all aimed at the large, eight-legged figures in the distance. The small measure of time their shots provided would help the swordsmen prepare for one-on-one battle. They all knew there was no way to prevent the spiders from infiltrating the city but would try their best to make sure as few as possible entered.
The women and children had been instructed to stay together inside the largest building with the doors and windows bolted tight. Tauriel helped them get weapons with which they could defend themselves in case of a breach in their miniature fortress, although she expected nothing like that to happen. She tried to assure everyone. “Do not worry, ladies and children. Our menfolk will defeat our foes and be safe; they all love you and will defend your lives bravely as they also strive to save their own. Yes, there is the possibility that some may not return, but do not let that worry you or cause you to do anything rash.”
The sobs of many women sounded yet again, and Tauriel noticed many of the mothers holding their children close to their breasts. One older lady spoke up, tears streaming down her face. “What if they don’t come back and the spiders come in here? My husband is too old to be fighting like that.”
The elf walked over to her and placed a hand comfortingly on her shoulder. “I trained our men to the best of my ability. King Bard selected the best warriors amongst us, and if your husband was counted with them that means our King trusts him and thinks highly of him. The spiders will likely not even make it this far into the city, and this building is strong. I do not see any need to worry about arachnid infiltrations. Why don’t you try to rest?”
“Alright, Tauriel, but I still do not like this.”
“War is not something to be liked.” With that, Tauriel checked the windows once more; they had covered them because some ladies suffered from severe arachnophobia and would likely faint if they saw even a glimpse of the vile creatures, seeing as how they were several hundred times larger than the regular spiders.
On the battlefield, the menfolk gazed at their perilous foes and were slightly taken aback. Since the arachnids tended to stay in the darkest portions of Mirkwood and rarely ventured into the towns of men, most of the warriors had little if any experience with them. However, Tauriel’s instruction helped them know what to expect and how to defeat their eight-legged foes. Despite this knowledge, they would still be a formidable foe, since they could crawl everywhere and jump down from the rooftops instead of staying in one place like the hay bales on which they had practiced, which meant everyone had to be extremely alert.
Esmerelda called out to Bard. “If you will hand over your daughter, I will call off my spiders and leave you all alone. You do not have to fight if you choose not to.”
Fili pushed Bard aside, anger filling his voice, so much so that his father-in-law placed his hands on both his shoulders to hold him back while allowing him to answer. “Esmerelda, you will never, ever get to my wife! We refuse to hand her over to you for any reason. You could give yourself up to us and everything would work out, but I know such an evil being as you would never dream of such a thing. You are worse than the loath dragon Smaug, than my dear uncle Thorin when he suffered from the dragon sickness –” Bard squeezed his shoulders harder and he abruptly quit speaking.
“Ha, I shall never bow down to you! War it is!” With a maniacal laugh, she signalled her arachnid hoard to attack, and their long, spindly legs carried them forward quickly. The archers fired, killing some spiders instantly while wounding others, which only served to anger them as they crept closer to Dale. Before the men knew it, their foes were upon them. Now at close range, they stabbed and killed left and right. Despite there being several hundred seasoned warriors and less than a hundred arachnids, the size difference made the armies about equal and it tended to take at least two men to kill just one spider.
The battle went on for a couple of hours, then the men of Dale triumphed. The last spider was killed and the only one in the army left was Esmerelda herself; she had stayed in the background for most of time time, letting her minions do all the hard work and only sparring with some men on occasion in order to distract them.
Then Bard confronted her face to face, his mouth set in a grim line and his eyes hard and cold. “Well, Esmerelda, what do you say now?”
She stood glaring at him for a minute, then replied. “I still want to be queen!” With that, she stabbed at him with a short sword, which he easily avoided and quickly flicked out of her hand with his own sword. Her eyes widened looked into his, then she stared down at her now-empty hands. She realized she was defeated; up until this point, she had fancied herself invincible and fully believed all her dreams would soon become reality. What a rude awakening!
“Alright, Bard, you win.” She held her hands out towards him in submission, which he promptly grabbed and tied behind her back. A makeshift prison consisted of a ramshackle cabin, one of the few buildings to survive the town’s destruction a couple of hundred years before. Slightly burnt but still usable, it proved a good location for the now ex-schoolteacher until Bard decided her fate.
Since Esmerelda was a woman, the King of Dale held some reluctance in executing her. Thus he summoned the Elvenking Thranduil of Mirkwood and King Dain of Erebor for their council.
A few days later, they met in Dale. “My dear friends,” Bard started, “I have asked you here today to help me decide the fate of my lone prisoner.” He explained all that had happened.
Thranduil replied first, his elfly wisdom showing. “Bard, you do have a tough decision here. My suggestion is to first see if she will truly repent of her ways and then give her a second chance. I wish in my time as king I had done this more often, but until lately I have been a bit hot-headed at times. King Dain, what is your opinion?”
The dwarf lord felt differently on the matter. “I believe she should pay for her crimes by either execution or a life of doing some lowly and disgusting task, such as a swineherd. Although I agree that second chances are good, from what Bard has told us it sounds as though she will never repent of her evil ways. Thus the death penalty seems the best option to me.”
The threesome discussed the matter for a few more hours, the older kings giving Bard much insight as to how to deal with lawbreakers. Then Bard excused himself to talk to Esmerelda and see if she would repent.
He strode to the penitentiary, a thoughtful and compassionate look on his face. Then he called out to his prisoner. “Esmerelda, despite your threats against my family, I always liked you as a teacher and all three of my children admired you. You were not always the woman you are now. Do you not think you could change your ways? I will gladly give you a second chance.”
“Bard, you know I have always liked you as well, perhaps loved you at some point. However, I have gone too far to turn back now. I have to admit I am not at all sorry for what I have done and my only regret is that it failed to work.” Bard heard the clink of chains as she made her way to the barred window and peered out at him. Fury and defeat blazed within her now-cold emerald eyes.
“Fine, Esmerelda. If that is what you want, I have no choice but to have you executed. You shall be beheaded at dawn tomorrow.” As much as he hated to pronounce the fate, he knew he had no other choice. This is why he never wanted to be king. He despised having another person’s life in his hands to do with what he wished. Heavy-hearted, he returned to Thranduil and Dain, telling them his final decision, of which both approved.
However, the next day when a man was sent to perform the deed, he found the doors of the makeshift prison jimmied open, their captive gone and nowhere to be seen. He quickly made his way to Bard. “King Bard! Esmerelda has escaped!”
“What?” Bard stood still a moment with his mouth open, and the man ended up repeating what he’d just said. Once he came to his senses he demanded action. “Quickly, sound the alarm and gather all our able-bodied men! We must find her before she tries to murder anyone else!”
The man obeyed the orders, and within ten minutes search parties of about five men apiece went in every direction. The search went on for several hours but not even a trace of the would-be queen was ever found. Fili headed one group and insisted they keep looking until dark, which they did. However, not even the best trackers could find so much as half a footprint or a scrap of cloth. Only her hands had been shackled and they surmised she had run and found refuge within the vast forest of Mirkwood. Despair caused the men’s faces to fall as they returned home to their loved ones, defeated.