A/N: Thank you to everyone who has read this fic. I offer everyone hamentaschen with your favorite fillings. I hope everyone is enjoying reading this collection of musings.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Lord of the Rings or The Rose.
It's the one who won't be taken who cannot seem to give.
Isengard, March 5, 3019 TA:
Saruman sat in his tower, staring at the spot where the palantír once sat. Gandalf had just left Isengard with the Rohirrim and the rest of King Théoden's retinue. The fools were riding to their own destruction, and they didn't even know it! Of course, he was hardly better off in Orthanc, now that the Ents were guarding him. He began to wonder if he should have accepted Gandalf's offer of amnesty.
Since that idiot Wormtongue had thrown the palantír at Gandalf (or so the spy said – it nearly took his head off on its way over the railing), he had no way to communicate with Sauron. The Nazgûl would surely be on their way here since his refusal to answer the summons. His plans for seizing the Ring for himself had failed miserably. Maybe if Gríma had done a better job of getting him the information he needed, Rohan could have been destroyed before Gandalf could rouse the old king to action!
The sniveling coward had spent far too much time pining after the king's niece and not enough time setting up the king's nephew to fall in battle. The king's son was easy to dispose of. If both Marshals were dead, Rohan would have been leaderless. Gríma, surprisingly, did a good job of convincing the king to ignore Saruman's overt attempts to overrun the Mark with orcs.
It was these last setbacks that were the problem. The orcs he sent after the Ring were destroyed, most likely by Éomer, who should have been killed sooner. Now, the annihilation of his army at Helm's Deep, due to the unexpected interference of both Gandalf and those cursed Ents, ended any chance he had of defeating Sauron.
Saruman began to consider whether he should help the fools. After all, he was deep in the Enemy's counsel. At the very least, he would be able to help delay Sauron until a new plan could be formed to defeat Him for good. Gandalf's terms were not overly onerous, after all. Leaving Isengard would become a necessity, anyway, what with the lack of food in the tower. His staff... He glanced at the ebony staff he dropped on the balcony, now 2/3 it's original length. Gandalf had broken it and cast Saruman out of the Order! How dare he?
Forget it! Gandalf's conditions were clearly based on his own designs to rule. He hardly needed to trade one master for another. Saruman would not be taken in by anyone. After all, he had had the only plan that would have worked against Sauron, and they had refused his counsel.
