Ch. 12: As It Fades

Everything was dark. Kylie was not afraid… at least not yet. The darkness had not overcome her. The mist was leering at her, but did not touch. It was not the time for that. She was there, and it was fascinated, but unsure what to do with her….

Her feat bumped against the cobblestones. Something had its arms wrapped around her chest and was dragging her across cobblestones. At first she thought nothing of it; then suddenly the memories flew back.

The Palantír.

The winged beast.

The Lord of the Nazgǔl.

His hands around her neck.

Panic set in. Kylie wanted to free herself, but she couldn't even move her arms. She could only moan.

"Kylie?" panted a voice. She felt herself being set down on the streets and hands shaking her shoulders. "Kylie, you awake?"

She felt the darkness approach. It tried to lull her back to sleep, but the small voice was more pulling. At least right now.

Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at the face in front of her. "Pippin?" she said slowly.

Pippin hugged her. "I thought you'd died! I thought he'd killed you!" His voice was shaking.

"Who?"

"Lord Denethor! I went to the crypt because Gandalf told me I was needed there, and I saw all of you just lying there! I thought you were dead… but it looked like you were breathing…."

"Where's Gandalf?"

"I don't know... the battle's been going bad. Can you stand?"

Kylie's limbs shivered a bit, but she could stand. Her head felt strangely cold, but she worked to ignore it. "I'll be okay in a minute," she assured Pippin.

The hobbit nodded quickly and reached over his back. "And I picked up something of yours. I thought you would want it." He pulled her bow and quiver off his back and handed them to her.

"Oh Pippin, thanks!" Kylie felt a glimmer of hope for a second, and then it was dead.

She remembered that she was in the middle of a giant battle, and that no matter how well she fought, she would die.

No, she told herself. Must play to win.

"Where's my shield?" she asked the hobbit as she strapped her bow to her back.

Pippin shuffled. "I took it off you. It was cracked in half, and I thought it would not be useful anymore."

Kylie shivered. The Nazgǔl took her most likely means of protection.

Pippin must have seen the haunted look in her eyes. "Kylie, what did happen in there?"

She shook her head. "We were attacked. I… I…I just want Gandalf."

Pippin nodded fervently. "I do too. To be honest, I would feel much better fighting beside him. Or Faramir."

"Is he doing alright?" asked Kylie.

Pippin shrugged. "I don't know if anyone is doing alright."

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Both girl and hobbit paused, barely daring to breathe.

"Pippin… where was all the fighting last time you saw it?" whispered Kylie.

The hobbit shrugged and looked at Kylie incredulously. "I can't keep track of their every movement!"

Something in the far back of Kylie's brain was about ready to give up and throw down her weapons, but that would be suicide. She quickly banished this idea and started walking backwards the other way.

"Did they have trolls?" she asked. She nearly cursed when Pippin nodded. "Run!"

They did. They weaved in and out of the different streets of the city. The ground was shaking less and less, but soon they had a new problem.

"Retreat!" cried approaching voices. They had found the battle. Gandalf led maybe fifty men in a dead sprint. They were being pursued by at least a hundred orcs.

"Pippin! Cover me!" cried Kylie as she shot at the orcs. She was firing as fast as she could, not daring to take time to aim.

A horrible flashback. Something transported Kylie back to the ditch of Helm's Deep. She was firing everything she had at the orcs, but they would not stop! She watched as one of her arrows flew from her bow and flew into Boromir's chest. He fell.

"NO!" she screamed.

"Kylie! Gandalf! HELP!" cried a voice that seemed very far away. A harsh knock ended the dream and Kylie found herself underneath the boot of an orc. She unsheathed her Lorien knife and stabbed it in the leg before it could kill. It howled in pain as Pippin finished it.

"Kylie! Pippin! Come! Run!" cried Gandalf, who had finally reached them. Kylie sprinted away from the fray. Years of tennis and a few recent battles had prepared her for this moment.

"Come! Quickly now!" cried Gandalf, motioning for them to go through the arch. Not a moment too soon. The second they passed through, the doors slammed shut.

"That will buy us a moment, but we must regroup with haste. Come!" shouted Gandalf. "Barricade the door! Use anything you can find!" The men immediately went to work breaking doors for wood and smashing pots against the gate. It truly was amazing how quickly they went to do what the wizard said.

"Gandalf!" cried a voice from behind. Kylie looked up to see Faramir running up to them. "I sent some wounded to the next level to protect the women and children. Is this all we have?"

"I lost track of our battalion on the western side of the city. I have several hundred with me."

"We were followed by the orcs when they breached the northern wall," said Faramir. "We destroyed the northern gate, so this is the only way further into the city unless they have taller siege weapons."

"Good," said Gandalf.

"But Gandalf, they have a troll!" cried Pippin.

Gandalf shook his head. "I know, Peregrin. They have many. Yet, it is good that we found Kylie. We need anyone we can find!" cried Gandalf. "Where you have been all this time?"

"Yes. And have you seen Calavir? He was supposed to rendezvous with me in the northwest, but he never arrived," said Faramir. Kylie could not tell for sure, but it looked like Faramir was behaving more coldly towards her. But then again, his father had claimed that she'd killed his brother.

Which may or may not be true.

Kylie closed her eyes, rubbing her head. She must have looked very bad, because Gandalf grabbed her and examined her closely. "Kylie," he asked, "what happened."

"I got out of jail. I ran into Calavir. He was going to get me out anyway. He said I'd change the entire battle or something. We went up to the crypt because 'it'd be safe'. But your father was there," she said, addressing Faramir.

"What was he doing there?" he demanded.

"He had a palantír! That's how he could see things! That's why he saw me kill Boromir! The palantír told him so!"

"Impossible, the Seeing-Stones are lost!" said Faramir.

"Yet it explains much," said Gandalf. "He came to know things he could not have been even aware of otherwise. Kylie, where is the palantír now?"

She shook her head. "It fell. It fell off the cliff. But… but that's not it. I saw it. It was just like when Pippin had it Gandalf!"

She could not see Pippin's reaction, but Gandalf looked about as pale as his robes. "The eye?" When Kylie nodded he grabbed her severely. "What did he say to you?"

Kylie shook her head. "No. I… I couldn't hear anything. But then a Nazgǔl came. Gandalf… it killed… Faramir… I'm so sorry! It killed them… I couldn't shoot fast enough…."

Faramir looked away, but Gandalf's hold became more tender. "Do not blame yourself. Kylie, you must tell me: what did the Nazgǔl do to you?"

Kylie rubbed her neck unconsciously and Gandalf looked at it, touching it. Even now, his gentle touch hurt her.

"You were in close proximity. Kylie, how do you feel right now?"

The darkness spoke: Lie. Why does he need to be bothered with your troubles?

"I'm fine. Just hurts a little," said Kylie.

She felt the wizard's eyes harden. But he relented surprisingly quickly. "If you insist. Faramir, take her up with you. Her bow will be of use to you from the heights."

"Yes, Mithrandir," said Faramir. Kylie followed him up towards the ledge. He had to help her climb up several of the rock structures, but she reached it. She felt cold and sick when she did, but she reached the top.

"When they come, you must shoot. You say they have a troll?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Then try to shoot that first. Men," he now turned to twenty other archers, "be wary of the troll. Bring it down first."

Not that it is any use. You will all perish.

"Steady your aim!" Faramir cried to everyone. Kylie shook her head, trying to fight this cold feeling entering the pit of her stomach as she took aim. Orcs were coming, and she was tempted to shoot at them, but she knew her orders. Aim for the trolls first.

"They approach! Hold steady!"

Kylie could feel the door reverberate under her when the orcs finally reached it. They were banging it as hard as they could, but everyone knew that it would be no use. At least not yet. A few men shot a few orcs, but Faramir reprimanded them.

"Our arrows run low! Aim for the trolls!"

"Faramir, archers!" cried a voice to Kylie's left. Everybody on the wall looked out to see at least twenty orcs with large black bows pointed right at them.

"Take cover! They have bows!" Faramir called out as he and everybody else on the wall ducked. Below them, the soldiers raised their shields and gathered together as arrows began to pour down."

"Too close," cried a man from below. "Faramir, take them out!"

"Archers, up!" cried Faramir.

Kylie re-notched her arrow and sat up. She took aim and fired. Two of the orc archers fell before she they had to duck to avoid arrows. Cries from below told her that some of the orc arrows found targets.

Tis only the first of many. Calavir is already dead. Who will be next?

"Kylie, are you all right?" asked Faramir. Kylie realized that she had fallen to her knees, grasping her head. The pain was gone, but she was still cold.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She notched an arrow, aimed, and fired. She didn't have time to see if the arrow hit before chills went up her spine, paralyzing her. Her body sank to the stone below.

"Mithrandir!" called Faramir. Kylie felt herself being pulled down, but she resisted.

"I'm fine…" she lied.

"Kylie, what do you feel? The truth!" demanded Gandalf urgently.

The wizard does not need to know. Besides, how could he hope to help you? He is not as powerful as you might suppose.

"Nothing."

"Kylie, when the Nazgǔl attacked you, what did he do? How exactly did he attack you?"

"He grabbed me by the neck," she demonstrated slowly, "and lifted me up. I… I couldn't touch the ground."

"And where was his hood? His hood Kylie!"

"It was no further than your face now." She heard Faramir yelling commands from the distance.

Gandalf cursed. "Black breath," he hissed, and the old wizard quickly put his hands on Kylie's face. His hands felt hot, and felt hotter and hotter as he muttered something in a language she could not understand. But she felt instantly relieved the moment he finished.

"Kylie, you must not go to sleep. If you start to feel cold, or hear fell voices, or sense that anything is amiss, you must come to me, understood?"

"What's wrong?" asked Pippin.

"GET DOWN!" yelled a soldier. The three ducked just in time to avoid the arrows flying over the gate.

"Bring them down!" cried Faramir.

"Kylie fought with the Nazgǔl Peregrin Took! She is far from fine, yet any treatment is out of reach!"

"What?" cried Kylie.

"You must fight it! You must hang on!"

What scared Kylie the most was that Gandalf himself seemed very unsure. "But I'll be okay, right?"

"If you can fight it long enough," insisted Gandalf. "Remember, Rohan is here. They will reach us soon."

"Rohan…." Kylie felt a small glimmer of hope.

Suddenly, the door started to shake. One of the men on the ledge above fell off, hitting several men on the way down. "Troll!" someone screamed.

"Shoot it!" cried Faramir.

"Stay back Kylie, and be ready to shoot!" cried Gandalf.

"Fire!" yelled Faramir from atop the wall. The archers loosed the rest of their arrows and climbed down. Each one of them looked horror-stricken.

"Gandalf, we couldn't bring down the troll. There must be hundreds of orcs right outside the door!"

Kylie's head began to hurt again, but she didn't tell Gandalf. He looked busy.

"I didn't think it would end this way," said Pippin slowly as the door continued to shake.

"End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is but another path… one that we all must take," said Gandalf. Kylie looked up. "The grey rain curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass. And then you see it."

"See what Gandalf?" asked Faramir.

"White shores, and beyond. A far green country under a swift sunrise." Gandalf sighed in reminiscence.

The darkness again assaulted Kylie, much more violently than she would have thought.

He lies. There is no light in the void mortals call death. It is the end, an end which every fool wishes to avoid!

She wanted to tell Gandalf, but she couldn't. And nobody noticed… they were listening to Gandalf.

"That's not so bad," said Pippin. Many of the soldiers standing there, trying to do their duty, agreed.

"No, no it isn't," said Gandalf.

Faramir nodded. "Men, this will likely be our final moments. Do not fear, just think of those who love who may live moments longer because of your sacrifice."

The shadows in Kylie's mind laughed. They laughed and laughed and laughed….

The door burst open and the orcs flooded in. Kylie tried to re-notch her bow, but her body was growing rigid.

The darkness had evaluated its victim. It would not be held back any longer.

As the orcs approached, Kylie fell helplessly to the ground.

"Kylie!" cried Pippin.

Gandalf caught the girl as she fell. "Kylie, no not yet! You must fight! You must stay awake!"

"Can't…." Her entire body had turned to ice.

"Kylie!"

"Sorry Gandalf… tried…."

A/N: Well that was a long chapter! I figured it'd be nice to keep you satisfied(ish) for a little while longer. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter up next week!