Strangers No More

I do not own the Rights to Lord of the Rings

Chapter Thirty Five

Changing Blood

The walls, the floor and the roof were all made of rare black marble, dozens of carved pillars lined the massive hall and the massive windows were made from red stained glass bathing every surface in a terrible dark colour. Around the edges of the room were deep fire pits filling the air with thick hot smoke. Below the largest window, the east one, was a tall altar of black marble with several marble steps leading up to it. The pleas for mercy from the young woman chained to the altar went unanswered by the dozens of elite Avari soldiers standing guard holding their halberds, black armour and long cloaks and dark blue. Above the young woman the cloaked leader of Umbar and dozens of Harad tribes stood and looked at its prey. She was young, no more than twenty years, with black hair and unevenly tanned skin. She was wearing simple clothes, perfect for an offering. She was one of dozens captured in the early raids against Gondor. The others were held in cells below the temple and more prisoners were on the way. The cloaked figure drew its dagger and knelt before the sacrifice, looked east and preyed in Elvish a long and twisted series of words, slowing the cloaked figure twisted in ways which would break the bones of a mere mortal or even an Elf.

'Please let me go,' the woman wept.

The figure raised its dagger and thrust it down into the woman's chest. Her body stiffened but she didn't scream. Her throat was blocked with thick blood and gore which she began to choke on. The cloaked figure sawed with the knife, blood spurting onto her cloak as she did so, until a large enough hole had been made in her ribs. The woman was still barely holding onto life but only by the cloaked ones dark powers. The killer reached into the hole and smiled before pulling out the woman's heart and holding the hot lump of dead, bloody flesh in the air, blood gushing down the cloaked ones arms and cloak. The killer stood up, still clutching both the heart and knife, and stepped down from the altar. It walked around it pausing at each of the fourteen carvings in the floor around the altar before squeezing the bloody organ so blood dripped onto them. At last the cloaked on held the heart high again and stabbed it straight through before shouting,

'LACH!'

The heart and the woman's body burst into flames, the smoke writing in the air and for the briefest moment it looked to be in the shape of an arch before vanishing. The cloaked figure screamed, threw the knife onto the floor and paced violently, the Avari watched on nervously in case their leader struck out at them. When the body and heart had vanished not even leaving ash the cloaked one shouted at the guards.

'Bring the next one! I'm getting closer each day. Their blood is too weak.'

...

I cleaned my sword. It had been days since the battle but still I felt the need to clean Alaric of the blood. I looked up from the boulder I was sat on with some disgust. The bodies of our men had been buried in mass graves a distance from the river while our enemy's remains had been cremated on massive pyres. Still, there were still large piles of weapons and armour everywhere which had been collected after the battle to be sent back to Minas Tirith to show our victory. Tiring of cleaning my weapon I sheathed it and climbed off the boulder before walking over to one of the large wooden crosses marking where a mass grave was located. Rickard was there as he shook his head.

'How many?' I asked him.

'Of my spearmen, a hundred and seven. You?'

'A hundred and fifty swordsmen died.'

'And your company?'

'Seventeen. How many altogether?'

'Over six hundred of our men are dead.'

'Damn.'

'I think my father's taking it badly.'

'You're right. Losing men is something he's always hated.'

'I know. I wish the king and the rest of the army will arrive soon. I don't think we can hold the enemy off again.'

'I thought you were the optimist,' I said and crossed my arms, grinning slightly.

'I am but not an idiot like you,' he said and grinned back.

'Coming from you?'

Just then a horn sounded through the air which grabbed the attention of everyone. It was not our warning horn for battle. Instead it was one we hadn't heard before.

'Is it the enemy?' asked Mathew as he rushed over to us.

'No it's coming from the north,' I answered as we made our way to the command tent to see my uncle.

When we reached it my uncle was standing outside with a few officers. Suddenly a cheer went up from some of the soldiers followed by the sound of maybe a hundred galloping horses. I tried to looked towards the source of the noise but the view was blocked by the men cheering on whoever it was. Soon, over the heads of the men, I saw a standard held high. It was orange with a purple Christian cross on it. In each of the four corners of the flag I saw a golden "E". Suddenly the men parted and I saw the new arrivals. Each man was a light cavalryman, one of whom was carrying the standard. Instead of the heavy suits of plate armour they wore tall, thick leather boots, padded trousers and shirts with breast plates, vambrace's and helmets which tapered to tips at the front. Each man was armed with a thin lance and a thin, single edged sword with a basket hilt. However, one figure stood out amongst them as he was the only one wearing full plate and carried a bastard sword. His armour was ornately designed to be as much a work of art as protection in war.

'Edmund,' my uncle said and smiled as his old comrade climbed off his horse and the two men shook hands. Edmund had aged well, the only sign of the years were a few streaks of white hair. 'It's good to see you again old friend.'

'It's good to see you as well Lord Harris,' he responded. 'I see your boys have had some fun already.'

'Not really fun my friend. What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were in Bree Country.'

'I was but on the way back I heard some bad news.'

'What bad news?' my uncle asked him, suddenly worried.

'Apparently some of the Dunedain have been attacked. Masked warriors in black robes attacked their people and tried to kidnap some of them. They failed but I decided to get back to Gondor as soon as possible.'

'I'm glad you did Edmund. Do you have any news on the king's army?'

'I'm afraid so. I'd rather tell you with the rest of your officers.'

'Of course,' my uncle said with a frown of concern. 'I suppose your men must be tired. My men will stable your horses and your can rest for a while.'

'Thank you Lord Harris.'

About half an hour later I sat with my cousins in the command tent as Edmund, now wearing his normal clothes, began to tell us what was happening.

'To put it simply the Kings Army has been hit by every single problem you can imagine. Supply problems, road damage, the weather. Everything's been slowing them down. They won't be here for another three days.'

'So the defence of the realm is in an army which has lost a quarter of its men,' said Markus, clearly annoyed.

'I've brought new orders,' Edmund told us. 'The King says that if you cannot defend the Crossings you will retreat north along the road until you join the main army.'

'I see,' my uncle said and stroked his chin. 'Our scouts say that the enemies main force will be here any day now. We could be facing twenty thousand of them at least. Even if we bottleneck the ford we won't be able to withstand them. I want the army to be prepared to retreat at a moment's notice. Load all of our supplies onto carts and tell the men that we may need to march at any time.'

'If we retreat we would have lost six hundred men for nothing!' shouted Rickard as he held up his fist. 'We can't just abandon this place.'

'No Rickard,' I said to him and he looked at me in surprise. 'If we stay here we will all die.'

'Thank you John,' my uncle said to me and then looked at Rickard. 'I have made my decision son. You have to follow it.'

Rickard was clearly frustrated but still he obeyed his father's command and sat there in his chair, still clearly angry.

...

It was late at night in Umbar as the cloaked one walked toward the small laboratory located in one of the cellars beneath the palace. The walls were lined with books taken from the libraries in Isengard. All of them were the White Wizard's theories on creating new forms of life from already existing life. They contained the secrets to creating Uruk Hai but the cloaked one didn't care about them. All Orcs were useless creatures good for nothing. In this case the cloaked one stepped up to the desk where dozens of bottles holding the various potions and substances created for this purpose. However, the most important ones were a bottle of blood drained from a captive, bowls of dangerous blue and purple powders and cages of small creatures, lizards, rats and birds. The cloaked one was ready to continue with the experiments for the next creature for the army.

AN: Well, here's the latest chapter and what do you think? I hope you all liked it and I enjoyed writing it.

Review Responses:

ATP: We'll agree to disagree on the converting point. I loved writing that battle. I may have been watching Game of Thrones while doing it though.

KiyaNamiel: I'm really glad you liked that last chapter. I absolutely loved writing the battle in it. Also, no, you cannot have Alaric.