Factum Est
Chapter 142
by Llinos
beta Marigold
"Don't trust him!" Sam stepped forward, Sting drawn and ready. "It's a trick! He's up to something."
Frodo hesitated at the warning. Sam was spot-on as usual, something was wrong about this. He had hoped his entreaties would touch Gollum, but he had not expected him to come round so quickly or to actually offer the Ring to him."You know I'll throw It into the fire Sméagol – you want me to do that?"
"Yesss! Yesss Masster!" Gollum squeaked. "Takes It! Takes It now, before Sméagol changes his mind!"
"Mr Frofro sir..." Bloggin began, but was cut short by the others.
"Just do it Frodo!" Merry could not believe after all this time and the struggles they had all been through that his cousin was hesitating.
"Is not... is somewhereings go wrong," Pippin put his hand on Merry's arm, as his cousin looked like he was about to grab the Ring himself. "Not knowering – just feeling!"
"No!" Bloggin shouted above the others to make himself heard. "The Lord Wizzard says, throw It! He's says They is coming!"
"That's it!" Sam exclaimed as the thought dawned on him. "Them Nazgûl is coming. They're going to take whoever has It. That's his game!"
Merry and Pippin both looked fearfully behind them, expecting to see winged beasts carrying Sauron's servants into the very Cracks of Doom. The idea of another encounter with the Nazgûl was enough to strike fear into their hearts at the mere suggestion of being recaptured.
"Masster quick!" Gollum pawed at Frodo's cloak. "He'll take It and take us both. Push Sméagol in! If your hand won't takes It – push Sméagol in the fire! We are done for... finished! We wants to go with the Precious!"
Frodo's head whipped around towards Merry and Pippin. Merry stepped forward but Pippin caught him quickly by the shoulder. "No and it no Mer, Fro got go do decidering best it he got know."
"Take It Mr Frodo!" Sam's voice rose to a panic. "Just take It and throw It in and be done with It!"
"I shall take It!" Frodo made his decision quickly now. He seized the Ring from Gollum and held It aloft, rolling the gold circle around his thumb and forefinger. "It is mine – my burden! My Precious!"
"What's he doing?" Merry whispered to Pippin, anxious not to do the wrong thing, but worried at Frodo's behaviour.
"Not knowering..." Pippin was uncertain too. He cast a sidelong glance at Gollum and saw a shrewd smirk spread across the wizened face. "It he..." Pippin pointed at the creature. "He thinkering Fro not go to do... he thinkering Fro keep and keep then no Ring be get brokened!"
"Yesss Master!" Gollum pawed at Frodo again. "It belongs to Masster! Master wear It now and Sméagol be his slave forever and ever!"
"Yes Sméagol," Frodo patted the fawning creature on the shoulder. "You think that would be good."
"No Frodo!" Merry began to advance again, but Sam was closer and, with unaccustomed anger screwing up his eyes, stepped towards the pair.
"You're wrong," Frodo's face hardened as he spoke. "You're all wrong! My friends think it is too great a wrench for me to destroy It, and you Sméagol," he looked sorrowfully at Gollum. "You hoped I would not be able to do it, but you're all wrong!"
"Naarrgh!" Without warning Gollum leapt upon Frodo, snapping and biting and growling like a mad dog. Both Sam and Merry tried to grab Frodo's assailant, but the combatants were rolling over and over, first one on top and then the other. Bloggin looked frantically around, not knowing whether he should interfere and Pippin held his breath as he uttered a silent plea to all kindly Beings that nothing awful would happen.
Suddenly Frodo let out a scream of agony and the others saw his body go limp. As the struggling had stopped, Sam managed to grab hold of Gollum and, as he pulled him off his Master, the others could see blood dripping from his mouth and something clenched in his spiky teeth – it was a finger!
"Why you filthy little..." Merry's exclamation was cut short as Frodo pushed himself up with his left hand and opened the palm of his damaged, haemorrhaging right to reveal the Ring still there.
"Now you've settled it once and for all Sméagol," Frodo, his eyes tight with pain, spoke through an ironic half smile. "Now I can never wear the Ring again anyway!"
He leaned forward from where he sat and with a cry of "Be gone you foul thing!" flung It as hard as he could into the roiling turbulence below.
"My Precioussss!" Gollum spat Frodo's finger from his mouth and let out a terrible shriek. He pitched himself forward, wrenching out of Sam's grasp, but as the benighted creature turned he plunged into Sam, who had stood firm, Sting still clasped in his hand.
Sam did not intend what happened next. He brought the sword down to fend off Gollum but, rather than slink away or try to deflect the weapon, he grabbed it with both hands and threw himself forward onto the blade with a cry of anguish and absolution.
Sting impaled Sméagol through his heart and, as Sam drew the bloodied sword back from the creature, Gollum with his last breath, let a smile trace across his wizened face as he whispered, "Thank you Samwise, thank you Master." And with that he rolled over the edge of the abyss and into the river of fire, following his Precious to their final doom.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
'Pippin! Pippin! My dearest, are you sure it's safe?'
'go is must to be legolas! fro putted we ring in fireplace! so darking lord must go be finereshed?'
'did legolas! we seed he'
'Merry?'
'is'
'Sniggin? Bloggin?'
'gloop?'
'what you is going blog in you head legolas? what for is snig?'
'It is a long story Merry – do not worry yourself about it now.'
'ahh and we thinkering he go talkthink at blog'
'That is exactly right Pippin. And Sniggin, his brother, is translating for me.'
'but not needing now legolas! it got be safe we talkering!'
'One moment my dears. Sniggin, you can withdraw now, I don't want so many people in my head and...'
'we not peoples legolas!'
'I know Pippin, just wait. Sniggin, ask Lady Éowyn to join with me please.'
Sniggin gingerly lifted his hands away from Legolas's face and looked up at Gandalf. "Please Mister Wizzard Sir," he began tentatively, "err Mister Elf, err Sir Legolast, he wants to talk to the Lady, please Sir."
"What is it?" Gandalf could tell from the orc's manner that something was amiss. "What has happened?"
"It's Mister Frofro Meister," Sniggin wrung his hands nervously. "He put the jul-lorry... the ring in the fire river like you said. Only..."
"Yes?" Gandalf was pointedly keeping his patience in check.
"The sheep noise thing – it bit Mister Frofro's finger orf and then Mister Sandwich killeded him."
"What, Frodo?"
"No! No! Sir," Sniggin saw the Wizard's face turn a strange colour. "No, the sheep noise thing – and it fell in after the jul-lorry!"
"And now," Éowyn's eyes were closed as she concentrated on connecting with Legolas. "Merry and Pippin are telling Legolas – and me actually – all about it! Frodo has succeeded – Sauron's Ring is destroyed!"
Gandalf said nothing. He lifted the tent flap and strode outside. For several tense minutes the Wizard stood silently scanning the skies, his hand shielding his eyes from the glare of a blood-red sun.
With what seemed close to agitation for Gandalf, he turned back into the tent and gasped at Éowyn. "Stop! Tell the hobbits and Legolas to stop talking."
"Wh-what? Why Mithrandir?" Éowyn looked up in shock, the smile on her face quickly fading with the unexpected order. "What's wrong?"
"Now! Make them stop!" Gandalf repeated. "Nothing has changed! The Ring cannot have been destroyed. I do not know why the fires of Mount Doom have failed to put an end to Sauron – but that is the case. The hobbits need to stop mind-speaking and to get out of there as fast as possible."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
"Frodo!" Pippin squawked the name out, confused and frightened by Legolas's last message. "We... you go getted no do in now..."
"Something's gone terribly wrong," Merry took over, realising that Pippin was never going to get to the point with his muddled speech. "It hasn't worked!"
"What?" Frodo was still in shock from his bitten off finger. "I don't understand – it must have worked!"
"You hold still now Mister Frodo," Sam was attempting to bind the bleeding stump on Frodo's hand with fabric torn from Merry's shirt. "Now I know this isn't too clean, but at least it should stop..."
"Sam, there's no time!" Merry hitched both hands under Frodo's armpits and hoisted him to his feet. "Legolas says we have to go – now!"
"B-but where?" Frodo leaned back against Merry, his voice and body shaking. "If it hasn't worked what are we to do now? Where should we go?"
"I don't know," Merry admitted. "But we should probably get out of here. Maybe hide among the rocks outside and then make our way back down to Smagnude, he has horses."
"You think Sauron will find us here?" Sam quickly tied off his makeshift bandage and took Frodo's arm, lifting the hobbit's weight off Merry. "Or maybe those Black Riders? Those Nazgûl?"
"It's what Mister Elf said before," Bloggin reported. "He said, or that is me bruvver said, 'They're coming' but I dursen't know fer sure what 'They' is."
"Right! Well let's not wait for whoever 'They' are." Merry decided.
Together, Frodo leaning on Sam for support; Merry and Pippin leaning on each other and Bloggin bringing up the rear, they limped from the cave into the darkening air.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
The windborne susurration grew malevolently around the rocks and skittered across the ash strewn road, seeking, sniffing and listening. Many of the tormented souls of which it was made were driven by terror of their Dark Master, the One who held them in thrall, forever tortured for displeasing Him. But some were harnessed by Sauron in other ways. The promise of freedom, of being allowed to finally die and pass over into whatever purgatory they truly deserved. The spirits of those put to death by Sauron hoped this time they could escape from the long dark years of lying beneath stone, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, yet all the while aware of their own existence – their own agony.
Now They were becoming a single entity, a combined thought process, united in the harmony of needing to please their persecutor, to find that which He had commanded them to seek.
They could not pry deeply into thoughts, but Sauron had now given them the ability to recognise the reverberation of any being that had touched His Ring, no matter how briefly, an echo would still be there, such was the power of His greatest work.
Mortals were hurrying over the rocks, limping and propping one another up as they staggered towards the road. They had touched these before, when their power had been less, before it combined, when the mortals were able to distract their thoughts and break free from their control.
They reached out again, touching first the smallest one. They felt confusion, a bewildered fear, but there – there it was – a small resonance of their Master's desire! They moved to his companion.
This one was similar and yet quite different. There was fear, but it was tempered with a furious determination to protect what was his, even if it meant his own destruction. But there was no echo.
As the invisible tendrils enclosed around the third being, they almost recoiled with the shockwave! This was the one they had found in the cave and attempted to carry away as he struggled with an even stranger being. They had not been strong enough then, still too separate and dissipated and had only succeeded in slamming him against the caldera wall. The bizarre creature this one had fought with was gone.
But the stink of their Master's craving was thick upon this one, his whole body reeked of it. There was little else They could sense. Now there was another being holding him up and the reverberation of the stench was so strong it seemed to have seeped into the one who was supporting him, almost carrying him along.
By exploring more thoroughly, They realised this was not so. Although his whole being emanated a fierce loyalty and devotion to the other, this one had also touched and even borne their pitiless Master's work. They had also felt this mortal before, but it had escaped their clutches, along with the determined creature, by singing.
They paid no attention to the bedraggled orc that trailed behind the other mortals. Its mind would be non-existent and incapable of defying the Dark Lord.
"Merry! Mr Merry, please slow down, will you!" Sam was not only shouldering most of Frodo's limp form, but was also clutching the stump of his master's finger, trying to stem the flow of blood. "Mr Frodo is fair done in and I'm not much better."
"I'm sorry Sam," Merry halted and, shielding his eyes, scanned the skies for any sign of danger. "We should keep out of sight though if we're going to rest." He turned his attention to their immediate surroundings. "Let's get him under that rock outcrop there. It at least might offer some protection."
As Merry helped Sam to half drag and half carry Frodo to the shelter, both Pippin and Bloggin backed after them, fearfully looking all around for any signs of imminent danger. Suddenly Pippin's keen eyes alighted on something in the sky moving towards them at great speed.
Immediately Pippin's optimistic nature made him hope. The eagles? Had Gandalf sent the eagles to rescue them, just as they had Bilbo all those years ago?
"Eagles go be coming! Eagles go be..." Almost as soon as he began to shout the words, Pippin realised his mistake.
-TBC-
Author's Notes:
Once again, many thanks for the reviews – can't say that often enough!
whiterider: Nice to see you here, thanks for the review and of course there's no prob with you printing out Recap – just hope your printer doesn't mind!
Fantasy Fan; Stop worrying about Faramir, he'll come in to his own yet, promise – you just have to be patent. As to the Ring – well that's a real wait and see!
Pippinfan: Hope the move went okay and that your new house has no cracks of doom in it! Glad you like reading the evil side, even if you don't like writing it!
GW: Happy to surprise you – quite a tricky manoeuvre that!
Lauderdale: Thank you for the avalanche of reviews – always enjoy being inundated with those!
One thing I may not have described properly though. The "spirit" holding Frodo and Gollum over the CoD, was not the scion of Eru, he's long gone. It was actually the "wraiths and wights" in thrall to Sauron – you know, the same guys that were encumbering the other hobbits at the same time outside. Their power is building slowly and they're not too sure what they're meant to be doing right now – just looking for anything that's touched something that their Master wants. That clear? No – I thought not. They're confused, you're confused, I'm confused – we're all doomed!
Anyway – sorry for the confusion!
Heddwch!
Llinos
