The Uruk-hai marched closer and closer. Soon, their banners could be discerned: the white hand.
"Show them no mercy," Aragorn ordered in the Elven tongue, "for you shall receive none!" The uruks stopped.
"What's happening out there?" Gimli asked.
"Shall I describe it to you?" Legolas replied. "Or would you like me to find you a box?" Gimli laughed mockingly. The uruks began to stamp their spears; the archers of Men prepared to shoot. A solitary arrow flew through the air.
"Hold!" Aragorn called. One uruk fell forward, and the rest began to yell out. They charged the wall.
"Prepare to fire!" came the command. Mornie drew her small hunting bow; the range was close enough.
"Their armor is weak at the neck and beneath the arm," Legolas said. Mornie aimed for the neck.
"Release arrows!" her father ordered. Nearly every one hit its mark.
"One," Legolas said.
"Did they hit anything?" Gimli demanded. An answering hail echoed from the Men. Mornie drew her bow two more times as arrows from behind whipped past her ears.
"Three," she said.
"Send them to me! Come on!" Gimli hollered. The uruk-hai began to fire from crossbows. An Elf close to her flew back.
"Ladders!" Aragorn called.
"Good!" Gimli said.
"Swords! Swords!" Aragorn called, relapsing into the common tongue. Gimli got the first one that came, but many others followed. Mornie let her instincts kick in again, and the fight became natural. The people, the cries and screams and death around her, even her own pain became only half-apparent. All she knew was the enemy in front of her and the one behind him. With a tiny break in the fighting around her, she got an arrow off at the rope holding the ladder, and it fell. Then there were three on her. She managed them, but while her hands were busy, another came up on the right. With a twist of her head, the metal flower hit his temple. She protected the archers so that they could shoot the attackers climbing the causeway. Suddenly, there was a huge blast. Part of the wall went up in pieces. Mornie hit the ground to avoid the flying chunks. When she began to stand back up, there were already uruks waiting for her, but she slew them. She looked for a way to get down to her father and Gimli when Legolas grabbed her from behind. She held tight as they slid down the stairs on an uruk shield. Then she was fighting again, trying to stem the tide flowing in through the hole.
"To the keep!" she heard the call. She began to fight while walking backwards, turning occasionally, then breaking into a run. Legolas was beside her, pulling Gimli along. She followed Legolas up to the wall above the gate. After a small period of time, at least, she thought it was small, she saw her father and Gimli jump from the side right in front of the gate, into the midst of the uruks on the causeway. But then she had ladders to deal with, and the ropes broke easily with a simple cut. In a lull in the fighting, she looked down and saw her father and Gimli in need of aid. She handed a rope to Legolas and then turned to make sure that he could pull unhindered. Soon came the call again: "Fall back! Retreat!" Even as they ran into the second level, they saw the uruk-hai climbing the stairs behind them. As the grey light of the beginning of dawn began to stream in through the windows, they fought to hold the second gate. She braced the gate with everything she had. Wood, yes, or herself. The instinct wearing off, she could hear those around her.
"The fortress is taken," Théoden was saying. "It is over."
"You said this fortress would never fall while your men defend it," Aragorn argued. "They still defend it. They have died defending it. Is there no other way for the women and children to get out of the caves? Is there no other way?"
"There is one passage," one Man replied. "It leads into the mountains. But they will not get far. The uruk-hai are too many."
"Tell the women and children to make for the mountain pass," Aragorn ordered him. "And barricade the entrance!"
The next blow shook the gate hard. Mornie pressed everything against it, but it was beginning to splinter. She became fully aware: aware of her sweat, her blood, her weakness.
"The sun is rising," Gimli said. She glanced through an eastern window at the sunlight streaming in, but then it was back to holding the gate for a few more minutes, as long as they could.
"The horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the Deep one last time," Théoden announced.
"Yes!" Gimli said, and he left to do so. Their horses were brought up, and Mornie mounted as ordered, for a final desperate charge.
"Fell deeds, awake," Théoden said. "Now for wrath, now for ruin, and a red dawn." Mornie drew her sword as the horn sounded and the gate burst apart. "Forth Eorlingas!" Théoden said, and the others took up a battle cry. Mornie galloped Scyld straight ahead, cutting down uruks. The sound of the horn echoed around them as they burst onto the causeway. There she recognized one of the uruks; it was the same one that had whipped her. With a snarl, he recognized her. As she raised her sword for a blow to his head, he sliced into her leg. That could no longer slow her stroke, nor her. She continued down the causeway. The loud neigh of a lordly horse far away echoed around the valley. Mornie looked up to the east and saw Gandalf there, and her heart was filled with hope again. Behind him came another rider, then many more. They charged down the steep mountainside, and, behind them, the sun rose, blinding the uruk-hai. The uruks were trapped between mountain, fortress, and enemy. There was only one way of escape, and somehow there was now a forest there. They pursued the uruks to the end of the valley. There, the trees took over, swaying and moving. Cries issued from it, whether the screams of uruks or the battle cry of the trees, they did not know. They returned to Helm's Deep. They began to pile the bodies, burying the Elves and Men and burning the uruks. She joined Legolas, standing near Gimli who was sitting on the body of an uruk.
"Final count," Legolas said, "forty-two."
"Forty two?" Gimli replied. :"That's not bad for a pointy-eared Elvish princeling. I myself am sitting pretty on 43." Legolas suddenly took out an arrow and shot the body.
"Forty-three," he said.
"He was already dead, " Gimli argued.
"He was twitching," Legolas explained.
"He was twitching," Gimli reasoned, "because he's got my axe embedded in his nervous system.
"Oh, well," Legolas sighed. "What about you, Mornie?"
"Probably around 42," she replied. Gimli laughed. "Plus two ladders." Gimli stopped laughing.
Mornie found Ecgtheow easily; he was collecting the borrowed weapons. She took the flower out of her hair.
"Ecgtheow!" she called him. "Here: it is a good weapon." She offered it back to him.
"Keep it, if you would, my lady," he replied. "I know how to make more."
"Thank you," she said, stepping away as she saw Eowyn. She listened attentively as Eowyn explained the tradition of the victory feast. As they rounded a corner and were suddenly exposed to the northwest, Mornie stopped short. She had grown so accustomed to hearing the call in the back of her mind, it hit her hard when she realized that it was no longer there.
"Are you all right?" Eowyn asked.
"Yes, fine. I just…" she could not think of a way to explain; luckily, she didn't have to.
"Mornie!" Legolas called. "Come on, we're heading out."
"I'm coming," she said. "Farewell, Eowyn."
"Farewell."
They rode out of Helm's Deep with Gandalf, the king, and Gamling, one of his men, to go to Isengard. Gandalf needed to finish that business. They looked south-eastward.
"Sauron's wrath will be terrible, his retribution swift," he said. "The battle for Helm's Deep is over. The battle for Middle Earth is about to begin. All our hopes now lie with two little hobbits somewhere in the wilderness."
"Is your leg all right?" Legolas asked, noticing the bandage as they turned towards Fangorn.
"The cut is not deep, though I may need to get a new pair of boots," she said.
"Good," he said, "because I was hoping we could have a bit of a game."
"What kind of a game?"
"A test, between Arod and Scyld."
"A race to the forest then?" Legolas nodded. "Let's try it."
"On my mark, then," he said. "Three, two –" Arod shot off. Mornie yelled out behind, and Scyld leapt after. She urged him on as fast as she could, but it was useless; they were losing ground. Suddenly, an idea formed in her mind. She glanced back and nodded to her father, hoping he would see. Then she put her hand on her wound and cried out in pain. Of course, Legolas looked back. Seeing Scyld slowing down and Mornie in pain, he turned Arod and rode to her. Had he been more attentive, he might have observed Aragorn holding back the others.
"What's the matter?" he asked, drawing Arod close to Scyld. Mornie looked him in the eye.
"Nothing," she said, and Scyld was gone, bearing her swiftly over the grass to the trees ahead. Arod, however, though at first turned the wrong way, was soon close behind, and they reached the forest at nearly the same time. They turned their horses and waited for the others.
"That's cheating," Legolas said.
"No," Mornie said, half-smiling. "You did away with any rules when you started off before the end of the count." She patted Scyld for doing so well as the others joined them.
"Adda, I trust –" she began, but the call was back and very strong.
"Come," Gandalf said. "Your questions will be answered at the end of this stage of the journey." She followed him eagerly into the woods.
The moss draped over the trees fluttered gently on the breeze. They came to a gap in the forest. The tower of Orthanc rose up, but immediately in front of them was a broken down wall, with Merry and Pippin sitting on it, laughing and smoking. Merry stood up when he saw them approaching.
"Welcome, my lords, and lady, to Isengard!"
"You young rascals!" Gimli shouted. "A merry hunt you've led us on, and now we find you feasting and smoking!"
"We are sitting on a field of victory," Pippin explained, "enjoying a few well earned comforts. The salted pork is particularly good."
"Salted pork?" Gimli asked.
"Hobbits," Gandalf sighed.
"We're under order from Treebeard," Merry said, "who's taken over management of Isengard." They rode on to see this Treebeard. Inside the wall, there was nearly two feet of water covering the entire space. A few trees dotted the area as well as the pieces of other things floating in the water. One tree turned and began to speak.
"An Ent!" Legolas whispered to her.
"Young master Gandalf," Treebeard said, "I'm glad you've come. Wood and water, stock and stone I can master. But there's a wizard to manage here, locked in his tower."
"Show yourself," Aragorn said.
"Be careful," Gandalf advised. "Even in defeat, Saruman is dangerous."
"Well, let's just have his head and be done with it," Gimli proposed.
"No," Gandalf said. "We need him alive. We need him to talk."
A voice echoed down from the top of the tower.
"You have fought many wars and slain many men, Théoden King," Saruman said, "and made peace afterwards. Can we not take counsel together as we once did, my old friend? Can we not have peace, you and I?"
"We shall have peace," Théoden said. "We shall have peace when you answer for the burning of the Westfold and the children that lie dead there! We shall have peace when the lives of the soldiers whose bodies were hewn even as they lay dead at the gates of the Hornburg are avenged! When you hang from a gibbet, for the sport of your own crows, we shall have peace."
"Gibbets and crows?" Saruman mocked. "Dotard! What do you want, Gandalf Greyhame? Let me guess. The Key of Orthanc. Or perhaps the Keys of Barad-dur itself, along with the crowns of the seven kings and the rods of the Five Wizards!"
"Your treachery has already cost many lives," Gandalf told him. "Thousands more are now at risk. But you could save them, Saruman. You were deep in the enemy's counsel."
"So, you have come here for information," Saruman replied. "I have some for you." He held aloft something seemingly out of legend, one of the lost palantirs. "Something festers in the heart of Middle Earth, something that you have failed to see. But the Great Eye has seen it. Even now, he presses his advantage. His attack will come soon." Gandalf rode forward slowly. "You're all going to die. But you know this, don't you, Gandalf? You cannot think that this Ranger will ever sit upon the throne of Gondor. This exile, crept from the shadows, will never be crowned king." Scyld, feeling Mornie's tenseness, shifted, bringing Saruman's attention to them. "And you, you, who call yourself his daughter. You might as well be mine."
"What do you mean?" Mornie asked, though she hardly dared to know.
"This: that I created you. I was trying to make a better orc, one with more Elvenness than perversion. I stole your mother, and, taking what was available, created you. I made you as good a fighter as you are. I made you to be scorned by your own kind. I made you to obey me. And look! You have. I called, and you came, though it took some time. When your mother hid you, I thought you were lost. I had made you to be strong through periods of time without food, however, and you survived."
Mornie gasped as he laughed at her. "You lie!" she yelled back, but barely hoping that she told the truth.
"You need proof, I see. I also made you smart. Kill the man next to you."
"What? No," she said.
"Really?" he asked. Mornie glanced down. Her right hand was already on her sword hilt. She tried to take it off, but instead she drew her sword. She struggled, trying to win back control, but it was useless.
"Gandalf, please!" she cried out, and the spell was broken. She turned and fled, Scyld's hoof kicking water up into her face. She ran through the forest, but when she was back out onto the plains, she did not know what to do. She dismounted, letting Scyld graze.