Chapter Four
Eowyn stood at the stairs that lead from the grand hall to the village surrounding them. Once such a happy place, it seemed now that everything was miserable. The people, the guards, the animals, the buildings. She watched as one of the flags ripped off of its pole and blew off into the distance. The once proud Kingdom of Rohan was slowly wasting away, like its king.
Her uncle hadn't even responded when she told him of Theodreds death, he had just looked through her like she wasn't even there. She didn't understand what was wrong with him, and of course that snake Grima had been near, his eyes constantly on her. She hated him.
She saw three strangers on horses arrive in Edoras; she watched them as they entered the town and then disappeared before they could see her. She went to Theodreds room.
Aragorn noticed a woman wearing a white dress with long hair, standing near the entrance to the Golden Hall. She had disappeared when he looked for her a second time. Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf and Aragorn made their way up the stairs to the entrance where they were greeted by a team of guards, whom asked for their weapons. 'I cannot allow you before Théoden King so armed, Gandalf Grey him', the guard paused, 'By order of Grima Wormtongue'. The guard didn't look to happy about that.
'Ahh' Gandalf made the noise before nodding as a signal to his companions to relieve themselves of their weapons. Gimli handed over his Axe rather reluctantly.
Gandalf smiled at the guard expecting to be let through. The guard looked apologetic, 'Your staff?' he enquired.
'Hmm' Gandalf made another noise, 'oh, you would not part an old man from his walking stick?' Gandalf said completely innocent. The guard gave him a knowing look before turning to walk into the hall.
Grima turned to whisper to the king when he seen them approach. 'The courtesy of your hall is somewhat lessened of late Théoden King', Gandalf said as they approached the king who was slumped on the throne. Grima said something to the king before the king replied 'Why should I welcome you Gandalf Stormcrow?' the king trailed off and looked at Grima when he finished.
'A just question, my liege', Grima assured the king, he looked at the four traveller's, 'Late, is the hour in which this conjurer chooses to appear. Ill news is an ill guest'.
'Be silent. Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth. I have not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a witless worm'. Gandalf told Grima and showed him his now White Staff.
'his staff', Grima whispered, 'I told you to take the wizards' staff', he cried more loudly as mean started running at the four traveller's, Aragorn Legolas and Gimli started hand to hand combat with them whilst Gandalf moved closer to the king on his throne.
'Théoden, Son of Thangor', Gandalf started, 'too long have you sat in the shadows.'
Gimli held Grima captive as the hall watched what Gandalf was going to do next. Gandalf said something to him, before holding out his hand and closing his eyes. 'I release you from this spell'. The king started laughing in a voice that wasn't his own. Gandalf opened his eyes, 'You have no power here, Gandalf the Grey', he stated before laughing again. Gandalf threw of his grey cloak, revealing pure white robes, Théoden King let out a shocked grunt and was flung backwards into his throne even more.
'I withdraw you, Saruman, as poison is drawn from a wound', Gandalf thrust his staff at the king. A struggle from Saruman started as he tried to maintain control over the king's body.
Eowyn appeared and tried to get to the king, but was stopped by Aragorn who caught her as she ran towards her uncle, 'Wait', he whispered to her.
'If I go, Théoden dies', Saruman tried to trick Gandalf, who in response forced the king further back into his throne again with his staff.
'You did not kill me, you will not kill him' Gandalf sassed back.
Rohan is mine', the voice of Saruman countered back, only to have the staff pointed at him again.
'Be Gone', Gandalf commanded, with one last struggle Saruman forced the kings body forward with a yell, only to have the staff pointed at him yet again.
Théoden king let out a groan as his colour quickly started returning, he slumped forward. Aragorn let go of Eowyn and she ran and knelt before her Uncle moving him back into an upright position. The king studied her face, 'I know your face', he paused before smiling, 'Eowyn', she smiled and placed her palms on his face, 'Eowyn', he breathed out again. The king looked at the rest of the people in the hall, his eyes falling on the white wizard, 'Gandalf?' he questioned.
'Breathe the free air again, my friend', Gandalf told the king. With Eowyns help, the king rose out of his throne, stretching to his full height. 'Dark have been my dreams of late', he said to himself, but loud enough for his court to hear. He looked down at his hands. 'Your fingers would remember their own strength better if they grasped your sword' Gandalf said with conviction as one of the guards approached with the kings sword in hand. He offered it to the king.
Théoden ran his fingers along the hilt before grasping it in his hands and drawing it from its Sabbath. Grima tried to escape from Gimlis' grasp. The king eyed his sword with wonder before his gaze shifted to Grima.
Grima was thrown down the entrance stairs, quickly followed by the king. 'I've only ever served you my lord' Grima gasped.
'Your witchcraft would have had me crawling on all fours like a beast' the king stated.
'Send me not from your side', Grima implored. The king answered by raising his sword above his head ready to kill Grima.
'no my lord', Aragorn rushed forward and stilled the kings hand. 'Let him go. Enough blood has been spilt on his account', the king looked at Aragorn, trying to find a lie in his eyes, there was none. Aragorn offered a hand to Grima, to help him up and promptly got the hand spat on before Grima fled Edoras on his black steed.
'HAIL THEODEN KING' a cry rang out and everybody present bowed to the king. Théoden looked around, 'Where is Theodred?' he paused, 'Where is my son?'.
Eowyn explained about how Theodred had been wounded and had passed away, how Eomer had bought him back and they had taken a strange woman hostage. The King listened. Sadness filling his eyes and heaviness weighed on his Heart and not only for his son's death but the fact that his Nephew and the new heir to the throne of Rohan had been banished. 'Where is this strange woman now?' the King asked his court. 'She is currently in the dungeon my lord. Would you like me to retrieve her?' one the guards offered his King.
'Yes, I believe the court needs to talk to her to find out what she knows'. Théoden ordered. The guard bowed and left the room.
The cells or dungeons… whatever they were called here, smelt horrible; a potent mixture of urine, Faeces, body odour, rats and vomit. Eilish couldn't breathe to begin with but surprisingly she got used to the smell eventually. The food, if you could call it that was barely food at all; just a cold watery porridgey thing with a cup of water. It wasn't very nutritious and it was the only meal you got throughout the day. Eilish, someone who loved food almost as much as Jennifer Lawrence; was slowly starving. Eilish had decided when after the first day that she would ration her cup of water throughout the day.
She didn't want to drink the water for health reasons. She had never seen water quite so brown before in her life. It resembled the Thames. She didn't want to know what nasty diseases she could catch by drinking the stuff.
She heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs and looked up to see a guard approaching the door to her cell. 'Théoden King has demanded that you speak to the council' he said simply as he opened the doors and cuffed her hands and blindfolding her so she could be taken to the Golden Hall.
Eilish was forced to kneel again, before the blindfold was removed. She looked up at the throne and was taken aback, this king wasn't the one she had been dealing with before, this king was a proud and middle aged man who appeared to be in perfect health, not the frail and pale king that had barely the energy to look up at anybody else but his advisor, who was also missing in action. She felt all the eyes in the room on her and she looked around, meeting everyone's eyes for a minute or so until the king cleared his throat, immediately gaining her attention. He met her eyes for a minute and held her gaze, 'Who are you?' he asked in a steady voice.
'My name is Eilish your majesty', she said in a voice that was quiet, dry and raspy due to her dry throat caused by a lack of water throughout the week. She also didn't really know how to address the king. She was handed a cup of water and asked to repeat what she had said. 'My name is Eilish your majesty', she repeated, her voice louder and clearer this time.
'How did you end up in the kingdom of Rohan and what business did you have here?' the king demanded. She looked around and took a deep breath.
'Well it is a rather involved story that requires an open mind your majesty', Eilish looked around at everybody who just looked confused; then she noticed the old man in white, holy fuck he looks like Jesus she thought to herself. 'It starts in a place called England, and a minor car accident', she was immediately interrupted. 'Where is England?' Jesus look a-like asked. 'What's a car accident?', a blonde dude asked. Eilish answered Jesus' question first and then turned to the blonde guy. Then she noticed the ears. Eilish did her best fish impersonation before stuttering out 'What the fuck is with your ears?', only realising what she had said when the blonde looked offended and everyone else stared at her with open eyes full of shock.
'I'm so sorry', she quickly amended although it was probably too late to apologise. She quickly explained what a car crash was and looked to the king as if to ask whether she should keep going yet, he gave her a nod. So she told them about walking to the stone structure and taking a photo and then falling asleep there and how in the morning she found herself in Rohan and decided to make for the forest she had seen and then how she was suddenly surrounded by a bunch of lunatics welding spears and having them pointed in her general direction. She told them how one of Theodreds scouts reported the Uruk-Hai to him and his cavalry went to fight them and how Theodred left her hiding in the forest near the battle and had threatened her if she hadn't stayed there. She grew more serious when she told them of how she seen the Uruk-Hai run past but she hadn't seen any of the cavalry and when she went to investigate she found Theodred in the river, she told them that she cleaned his wound and bandaged it try and prevent an infection and how Eomer had shown up at that point and he was reluctant to help her. And then she finished up with the dungeon.
Everybody in the room was silent and clearly thinking over what she had just told them. Jesus look a-like spoke first; 'so you claim to be from another world, which is also in the future?' he questioned. She nodded, 'that's exactly what I'm saying'.
'Do you have any evidence?' the king asked.
'Apart from my clothes, I had a bag with me, it's currently down in the cell that I was residing in', she told him. He sent one of the guards down to get it. The 10 minutes that the guard was gone the room was full of non-stop chatter; Eilish had the distinct feeling that she was the topic open for discussion. Eventually the guard returned and handed her bag to the king who placed it on a table that had been bought in. 'May I?' Eilish asked. With his nod of consent she approached the table.
She opened the bag and started pulling things out and placing it on the table. Everyone gathered around. A rather short and hairy man appeared before the table and grabbed the bottle of Jim Beam that Eilish had placed on the table. 'What is this?' he asked in a loud and gruff voice. 'Bourbon' she replied and before she could stop him he opened the bottle and up ended it into his mouth. She winced and the face he pulled and how he started coughing.
The king picked up her instamatic camera. 'What is this?' he questioned.
'It's a camera, it takes pictures', she answered, hoping to god he wouldn't drop it.
'It draws?' the king asked confused.
'Not exactly. I'll demonstrate. Would you like to take a seat on the throne?' she asked the king. He did. She turned to the kings' niece, 'My lady, would you like to stand next to the king with your hand on his shoulder?' the kings niece did as instructed. Eilish set up the camera and looked at them, 'There is going to be a bright light, like a lightening strike, try not to be too alarmed by it', she warned them before she took the picture. She took the picture. The flash going off caused the guards to try and hand cuff her again, however the king stopped them, he rose to his full height and bellowed at her, 'What is the meaning of this?' he demanded. She quickly explained about the lighting and how a camera needs light to take a picture. 'Where is this picture?' the kings' niece asked? Placing a hand on her uncles' arm to try and calm him down. Eilish took the picture out and held it under her coat to develop. 'We need to wait a moment for the picture to develop', she told the kings' niece. The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife whilst she waited for the picture to develop.
She pulled it out and looked at the developed image, Eilish smiled, it really was a nice photo, and the kings' niece approached Eilish. 'Be careful around her Eowyn, we haven't decided if she is a witch or not' the king warned. Eilish held the photo out to Eowyn, who studied it with a smile on her face. 'My lord, come and admire this, it is beautiful. The king walked over and looked at the photo, and then at his niece, a smile appeared on his face.
