Chapter 26: Just Getting Started
My chest burned like someone was tearing the cardiac muscle, encased in my rib cage, string by sting with frozen fingers. My broken ankle scream at me, infuriated. I couldn't form a solid thought as I clutched at the edges of the slab of ice until my knuckles grew white and withered in pain. I gasped at an extremely intense pain in my sternum, and unhinged my eyelids.
The towering ice walls glowed with a ghostly-green tint. The columns rose so high up that all you could see was a speck of black at its peak. The base of the room was layered with puddles. In each corner of the room, a figure-with hands like a rotted skeleton, cloaks as dark as the darkest midnight with a glimmering, silver spear that glinted off the walls-stood patiently, poised like death's breath.
The ripping sensation in my chest continued to almost blind me and keep my thoughts spinning. I choked on pain, mixed with the freezing air. My lungs felt like they were on fire and like I had swallowed a knife at the same time, the dull blade shredding at the sides of my esophagus.
The pain drew laden. I tasted blood that mingled with my saliva. A dark, long shadow cast itself across my face, and I knew from the pounding in my bleeding heart that it was the leading Nazgul, the Witch-King.
My insides were being turned inside out. A crackling voice that sounded like metal scraping against metal bleated and echoed off the walls. "Where is the Ring, Halfling?"
My whole body tensed up. I drew in a deep breath that punctured my vocal chords and choked out around the lump of pain in my throat. "It's long gone now." I spat acid as best I could. "You'd best give up while you still have a chance."
My brain felt like it was being severed in two, and my stomach twisted in a knot to the side of my body. I retched over the side of the slab. Acid bile stung my tongue and throat.
The Nazgul was now inches away from my nose. So close, I could feel the mildew emitting from his breath as it blanketed my face in a humid sheet and smelled the rotting flesh that was between his teeth. I gagged and nearly vomited again. When he spoke it was like he was gurgling from a drain-pipe hole in his face. "I know your weakness, Halfling!" He strained a shriek.
In a flash of white, I saw a dirty face with cuts and scrapes all over it. His eyes were clamped shut, and his eyebrows were in a tight knot on his forehead. He clutched his chest for dear life. My stomach dropped.
A second later, in a white flash, I came back to see the shadowed face. "I can make him suffer just as easy as I can make you suffer." He cackled as if even the word brought him great pleasure. "Now tell us where is the Ring? Sauron grows impatient."
My heart and head throbbed, and this had nothing to do with the pain the wraith was inflicting on me. "You cannot possibly-" BAM! Another flash of lightning. I saw Frodo again, lying on rocks, gasping on the fiery air. With a jolt in my stomach, I realized that I had seen this vision before. He clutched at the gold chain about his neck, and his clouds of eyes could pierce nothing, for they were no longer blue at all, but rather a disheartening shade of grey.
"Meldamiriel," he choked softly. "You can take away my soul, but you can never take away her. Meldamiriel!" He pleaded to nothing. "I need you." The vision was from the mirror.
I blinked away warm tears as they blurred my vision into a bunch of colors and swirls and cascaded like a never-ending waterfall down my cheeks. "Frodo," I moaned. My emotions snapped.
The Nazgul chuckled. "Oh, but Halfling, I can. I will cut out his heart and slice it into a thousand tiny pieces and throw them into the fires of Mount Doom where they will burn slowly and painfully, and I will make you watch if you don't tell me where the Ring is right now!" he hissed through his teeth, blowing icy, nauseating air into my face.
After all I had done to make sure Frodo was safe from harm, this is what it all had come down to. With a flick of the Witch-King's wrist Frodo could be dead in an instant and all would be lost...And I would be lost. I was so stupid. I tried to be the hero, but I lost two battles with one strike. Why couldn't I just die now? This would be the end, anyway. It would be so peaceful-where ever you go after you die: no wars, no evil, no danger, and certainly, no adventures! But is that what I really wanted? Absolutely not. My adventures were just getting started.