What Exactly Did You Say To Him, Anyway?
In the Great Hall,OsgiliathBridge
Early Afternoon, April 8th, TA 3019
After they left, Aragorn said, "Sauron said he ordered Frodo killed." There was anguish in his voice.
"Frodo may have died weeks ago. We never had any proof that Frodo is still alive." Gandalf said.
Radagast said to Aragorn, "Sauron was just speaking in anger. He's not going to do anything to Frodo. For one thing, he's not done with him yet. He wants to get more information out of him first. And Frodo is a valuable bargaining chip, because Gandalf and Aragorn want him so badly. Sauron would be throwing that away if he killed Frodo, so I don't think he will. Most likely, Frodo isn't in any danger right now." Aragorn almost wept with relief.
Pallando looked toward the East for a few minutes, in the direction where the Mordor delegation had withdrawn. Then he turned his attention to the West side of the room, to the Gondor delegation. He expected to see fear on their faces. Instead, he saw a number of emotions, but mostly embarrassment. And guilt. When he looked their way, Aragorn, Denethor, and Arandur slid deeper into their chairs, trying to become invisible.
"Would somebody like to tell me what just happened?" Pallando demanded.
"Oh. About that." said Aragorn. "We sort of pranked him."
Pallando held him in a long, steady stare.
"I suspected that one of Sauron's spies had infiltrated our headquarters, and I set a trap to catch him. During themiddaybreak, we read from a script full of material designed to upset him. Then we came back here and tried to guess whether he'd overheard it." said Aragorn.
"Based on recent events, I'm assuming he did." said Pallando. "Just for the sake of argument."
"Based on recent events, I think we can say for sure that Sauron placed a spy among us, but we also know the spy is getting information back to him really, really fast." Aragorn said with satisfaction.
"What was in the script?" asked Pallando.
"If the treaty negotiations failed, we would go to war and defeat him in battle. Then, we would take him prisoner and do things to him. And when we were done with him, we would turn him over to the Valar." said Aragorn.
"Well, if you wanted to provoke a reaction, it looks like you succeeded." Pallando said dryly.
Gandalf said to Aragorn, "Ever since we got here, you've been trying to provoke Sauron. I don't think that's a good idea. Maybe you should stop."
"I'm just teasing him." Aragorn said.
"You're finding out what his hot buttons are, and pushing them to see if you can get a reaction out of him. I don't think that's wise." Gandalf warned him. "Sauron has a terrible temper."
Pallando added, "Ossë told me that one time, Morgoth was teasing Sauron, and he just lost it. He turned around and slugged him. There was so much blood, they thought he'd broken his nose. And Sauron loved Morgoth. He was very protective of him."
"What did Morgoth do to him?" asked Aragorn.
"Nothing." said Pallando. "Other than he stopped teasing him. Apparently he was afraid of getting hit again."