"Well, well! The hunt is over, and we meet again at last, where none of us ever thought to come,' said Aragorn.
"And now the hunters can perhaps learn the answers to their own riddles.' said Legolas, peering over at the hobbits seated before and behind Thennil on her horse. 'We tracked you as far as the forest, but there are still many things I should like to know the truth of."
"And there is a great deal, too, that we want to know about you,' said Merry, looking up into Thennil's face, glancing at her revealed eye now and again. 'We have learnt a few things through Treebeard, the Old Ent, but that is not nearly enough."
"All in good time,' said Legolas. 'We were the hunters, and you should give an account of yourselves to us first."
"I would like to know how you got through your journey unharmed as you are,' Thennil whispered into Pippin's ear as he stood up on the back of the horse to get a better look around them.
"Or second,' said Gimli. 'It would go better after a meal. I have a sore head; and it is past mid-day. You truants might make amends by finding us some of the plunder that you were sporting upon the wall. Food and drink would pay off some of my score against you."
Thennil laughed out loud, crystal voice ringing, something that she hadn't done since before Aragorn fell. "I am reminded again and again of your father, Gimli."
The others turned to her curiously, and she explained. 'Glorin was unsure of my people's welcome into Rivendell when Thorin's company came through, and only after food and drink were offered, along with a warm bed, did he agree to lay down his weapons."
Gimli smirked, 'You never know what to think of that airy place, we all thought you elves survived on dew and greens, so thin you all are. Once meat was offered, of course a dwarf would accept."
Pippin bounced behind her, gripping her shoulders with his small fingers as the horse stumbled.
"Then you shall have it,' he said. 'Will you have it here, or in more comfort in what's left of Saruman's guard-house-over there under the arch? We had to picnic out here, so as to keep an eye on the road."
"Less than an eye!' said Gimli. 'But I will not go into any orc-house; nor touch Orc's meat or anything that they have mauled."
"We wouldn't ask you to,' said Merry, offended. 'We have had enough of Orcs and Uruk's to last a life-time. But there were many other folk in Isengard. Saruman kept enough wisdom not to trust his Orcs. He had Men to guard his gates: some of his most faithful servants, I suppose. Anyway they were favored and got good provisions."
"And pipe-weed?' asked Gimli, gazing at their still smoking pipes that they would take a guzzle of ever few minutes.
"No, I don't think so,' laughed Merry from his perch. 'But that is another story, which can wait until after lunch."
"And until after we deal with the wizard, I should say,' said Gandalf.
"Aye, but I had better get some of that salted pork before we leave,' grumbled the dwarf. 'I say let's just have his head and be done with it."
"No.' spoke Gandalf quietly, looking up the long length of the dark tower. 'We need him alive. We need him to talk."
Thennil glanced around at the flooded ruins of Isengard, remembering riding up the path and through it's once great gates. It had been a beautiful place once, full of life and living creatures bounding here and there.
"You have fought many wars and slain many men, Theoden King and made peace afterwards. Can we not take counsel together as we once did, my old friend?
Can we not have peace you and I?" the voice of the white wizard echoed around them, though his form they could see upon a small balcony far above them.
Theoden's face was blank for a moment before his emotions flashed across it. Anger, frustration, betrayal, and sorrow for those lost. He looked up at the face of Saruman with its dark solemn eyes bent down upon him, and the to Gandalf at his side; and he seemed to hesitate. Gandalf made no sign; but stood silent as stone, as one waiting patiently for someone to call that has not yet come. Lifting up his face, he spoke with great feeling, voice swelling. "We shall have peace . We shall have peace when you answer for the burning of the Westfold and the children that lie dead there! We shall have peace when the lives of the soldiers whose bodies were hewn even as they lay dead against the gates of the Hornburg are avenged! When you hang from a gibbet for the sport of your own crows we shall have peace!"
Saruman looked down on them, unpraturbed, leaning on his dark staff. "Gibbets and crows! Dotard! What do you want Gandalf Grahame? Let me guess the key of Orthanc? Or perhaps the keys of Barad Dur itself? Along with the crowns of the seven Kings and the rods of the Five Wizards!"
Gandalf looked up at his long time friend in sadness, though there was a deep anger flickering just below the surface. "Your treachery has already cost many lives. Thousands more are now at risk. But you could save them Saruman. You were deep in the enemies counsel."
The white wizard's eyebrows rose, and he nodded. "So you have come here for information?' he smirked. 'I have some for you."
He lifted up a large round stone, that seemed to flicker with images, though not those that were around them. Thennil could feel that dark power that radiated from it, old and cunning. The wizard gazed into the ball intently, his words dark and forbidding.
"Something festers in the heart of Middle Earth. Something that you have failed to see. But the great eye has seen it! Even now he presses his advantage. His attack will come soon." he paused, looking deeper into the stone, eyes glazing over. Gandalf rode forward, worry blooming in his mind at the changed demeanor of his friend. He had hoped that there was still some of his old friend buried deep within this seemingly new Saruman.
"You are all going to die! But you know this don t you Gandalf?' asked the wizard, his gaze sweeping over the company, landing on Aragorn and Thennil who rode close to one another. He sneered in disgust. "You cannot think that this Ranger will ever sit upon the throne of Gondor. This exile, crept from the shadows will never be crowned King. And the she-elf? You think that she will live through this fight? She weakens. Elrond was foolish to let her join you, she could have been saved."
Aragorn looked over at her, concerned. She shook her head, and placed a hand on him reassuringly, though in her heart she cringed at the truth of the wizards words. She had grown weaker. Slowly, drop by drop, she could feel her strength waining.
"Gandalf does not hesitate to sacrifice those who are closest to him those he professes to love! Tell me, what words of comfort did you give the Halfling before you sent him to his doom? The path that you have set him on can only lead to death."
The Riders of Rohan sat uneasily upon their horses, on either side of their King and those with them, glaring darkly up at the great tower and the wizard that stood upon it's top.
"Hear me, oh Saruman,' cried Eomer suddenly, anger flowing through his veins. 'Now we feel the peril that we were warned of. Have we ridden forth to victory, only to stand at last cowed by an old liar with honey on his forked tongue? So would the trapped wolf speak to the hounds, if he could. What aid can we expect from one such as you? All you desire is to escape from your plight. But will we parley with this dealer in treachery and murder?' his voice shook, emotion threatened to burst forth unchecked. 'Remember Theodred at the Fords, and the grave of Hama in Helm's Deep!"
"If we speak of poisoned tongues what shall we say of yours, young serpent?" said Saruman, and the flash of his anger was now plain to see. 'But come, Eomer, Edmund's son!' he went on in his soft voice again. 'To every man his part. Velour in arms is yours, and you win high honor thereby. Slay whom your lord names as enemies, and be content. Meddle not in policies which you do not understand. But maybe, if you become a king, you will find that he must choose his friends with care. The friendship of Saruman and the powers of Orthanc cannot be lightly thrown aside, whatever grievances, real or fancied, may lie behind. You have won a battle, but not a war."
"Winning a battle is only the first step in winning a war." Thennil called up to him as Merry and Pippin hoped onto both Aragorn and Eomer's horses, trying to get a better look at the wizard.
He sniffed.
"Stick an arrow in his gob already,' growled Gimli.
Legolas reached back for an arrow from his quiver.
"No! Come down Saruman and your life will be spared!" cried Gandalf, Thennil leapt from her horse, thankful for her boots that went over her knees, and looked up at the wizard.
"Saruman, come down, you were once a great wizard, and your wisdom was known across Middle-earth, join us!"
The white wizard snarled, "Save your pity and your mercy,' he spat, a ball of fire forming in front of him, 'I have no use for it!"
With a flick of his fingers, the ball of flame flew down and engulfed them. Thennil let her magic surround her, a golden like haze glittering around her like dust. The fire raged around them, trying to eat at their clothes; the heat of it's flame was immense. The other's shielded their bodies from the heat of the flame, backing away in fear. With a wave of his staff and a few well placed spells, Gandalf dissipated the flames, leaving them both mostly unharmed. She leaned against Gandalf's mount, blinking her eyes as she regained her breath.
"Saruman, your staff is broken!" The black staff held within the wizards hand burst asunder, splintering into numerous pieces, and a great flash of light bursting out from it, dissipating into the air. Behind the shocked wizard, a dark form approached. Those below raised their eyebrows, for this was Wormtongue, he who had fled from their halls not many days since. The man looked pale, sickly even. His hair, which had always been greasy, now blew in the wind, and his eye bulged out like those of a frog from his face. He was hunched over quite like an old man, bent by the weight of his transgressions.
Theoden was shocked most of all, but found his voice quickly. "Grima! You need not follow him! You were not always as you were now. You were once a man of Rohan. Come down."
"A Man of Rohan?' snarked the wizard, his voice deep. 'What is the house of Rohan but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek and their brats roll among the straw with the dogs? Too long have they escaped the gibbet themselves. But the noose comes, slow in the drawing, tight and hard in the end. Hang if you will, but the victory at Helm's Deep does not belong to you, Theoden Horse Master. You are a lesser son of Greater Sires."
"Keep talking,' she said, glaring up at the wizard, 'Maybe for once you'll say something intelligent."
He glared down at her, his eyes like a roaring flame. Theoden turned to Grima, a pleading tone coming into his voice. "Grima. Come down. Be free of him!"
Saruman began to laugh, 'Free? He will never be free."
"No,' said Grima.
Twisting around, Saruman slapped the man. "Get down, you cur!"
Grima cried out, falling to the ground with the incredible force of the blow. He had seen brute strength before, but coming from what looked to be an old man, he hadn't expected it.
"Saruman, you were deep within the enemies counsel, tell us what you know!" Gandalf asked again.
"Withdraw your guard, and I will tell you where your doom will be decided. I will not be held prisoner here,' he stated, but was cut off from any other words by the plunging of a knife into his back. In a breath Legolas had drawn his bow and shot an arrow, sinking it deep into the chest of Wormtongue. Then the wizard was falling, head over foot down the long length of the tower, his long white hair flying this way and that in the wind as it swept past him in his fall. And as he fell, something heavy shining thing came hurtling down from above. It was with finality that the wizard landed upon one of the spiked wheels that he had had built to help in the destruction of Rohan and it's people.
"Send word to all our allies and to the ends of Middle Earth that still stands free. The enemy moves against us. We need to know where he will strike." said Gandalf, turning his eyes from the limp form of his former friend.
Treebeard looked down at the company, then out over the waters that had washed over Isengard. "The filth of Saruman is washing away...Trees will come back to live here. Young trees, wild trees."
Thennil shook herself, a vision of a blooming Isengard, full of life, but no longer a dark tower, but white flashed across her minds eye. She could even hear the singing of the trees, ancient ones with the young, flowing over a nonexistent breeze. "I do believe you're right, Treebeard."
"Pippin!"
Twisting around, while still leaning upon Shadowfax, she watched as the hobbit sloshed through the water towards something. Leaning down, he plucked a great dark stone from the water, turning it this way and that with curiosity. He even shook it a few times, and prodded it's dark surface before Gandalf guided Shadowfax forward, leaving Thennil without her crutch.
She stiffened her back, and whistled lowly to her steed, who splashed through the water towards her. She did not hear anything else that Gandalf said, her body screaming at her as she pulled herself back up into the saddle. She breathed long and deep, her eyes blurring for a few seconds as she tried to get her equilibrium back into place. Her steed must have sensed her discomfort, and shifted gently under her until she was sitting completely in the saddle. Haldir rode up next to her, glancing over her in concern, his eyes asking questions she did not wish to answer. Shaking her head, she straighten and took up the reigns of her horse, following after the others as they rode away, turning their backs on the crumbled doors of Orthanc.
Gandalf wished to speak more with Treebeard, and encouraged the others to see what could be salvaged from the storehouses of Saruman. Pippin and Merry led them on their merry way, weaving in between the decimation that was the Orthanc. They passed under an arch and came to a wide door upon their left, at the stop of a stair. It opened into a large chamber, with other smaller doors at the far end, and a hearth and chimney at one side. The chamber had been hewn from stone, and was rough in it's make, it was dark, for the windows within it's walls looked out only into a tunnel. But light came through from the broken roof above them.
There along the side of the hearth were a pile of logs and fagots, and beside them was a box of kindling. It didn't take Gimli long to light a fire and have it roaring in the hearth, lighting up more of the room.
"I like a bit of fire,' said Pippin. 'It cheers me up when I look out into the fog."
Merry looked out the door again. "We weren't able to light it ourselves, seeing as most of it was wet when we found it."
Gimli looked up into the chimney, sniffing the air. "There looks to be a great drought in this chimney: it seems to wind away up through the rock, but I can smell the fresh air, so fortunately it has not been blocked up."
"I shall make us some toast,' said Pippin. 'The bread is three or hour days old, I am afraid."
Thennil and the other set about looking through the food there, finding barrels of salted pork, apples, and many other things. Though they had to be careful, seeing as many things had gone bad or had started to wilt, they created quite a feast for themselves. It was quite lucky that the store-room had been located above the flood levels, saving most of the food from being washed away. Pippin and Merry came through the door piled high with all sorts of dishes from bowls to cups, to knives, and other things.
"You need not turn up your nose at the provender, Master Gimli,' pipped up Merry with a chuckle. 'This is not orc-stuff, but man-food, as Treebeard calls it. Will you have wine or beer? There's a barrel inside there-very passable. And this is first-rate salted pork. Or I can cut you some rashers of bacon and broil them, if you like.'
He turned to Legolas and Thennil, who were looking over the wilted, and somewhat slimy remains of lettuce and other vegetables. "I'm sorry there is no green stuff that has lasted well: the deliveries have been rather interrupted in the last few days! I cannot offer you anything to follow but butter and honey for your bread. Are you content?"
"Indeed yes,' said Gimli. 'The score is much reduced."
"Elves are able to eat meat too, dear Merry,' said Thennil, plucking a piece of bacon from the pan where it sat over the fire and plopping the piece into her mouth.
The hobbits gapped at her, and Legolas shrugged his shoulders, snagging a piece just as quickly from the pan and snapping off one end to eat it. They both smirked, and she "hmmmmmmm'd" with delight, it had been a while since she had tasted a good piece of meat.
It was as they all sat down at the table that the group began laying into the halflings, questions bursting forth from their mouths in rapid succession. Gimli was soon smoking on a spare pipe that the hobbits had on them as they all listened to their curious tale. They spent most of the afternoon like that, reclining at the table and exchanging stories back and forth, recounting their adventures together. Merry and Pippin were immensely curious of the Rohirrim that had come with them to Isengard, peppering them with questions about the riders, their horses, and the strange fact that they had only thought that halflings were legends. It was good to see them alive and well.
They returned now to the ruins of the wall. Hardly had they passed out under the arch, when from among the shadows of piled stones where they had stood, Treebeard and a dozen other Ents came striding up. Aragorn, Gimli, Thennil and Legolas gazed up at them in wonder.
"Here are four of my companions, Treebeard,' said Gandalf, motioning to them. The Old Ent looked at them long and searchingly, and spoke to them in turn. He looked over Legolas and Thennil with interest. "So you have come all the way from Kirkwood, my good Elf? A very great forest it used to be!"
"And it still is,' said Legolas. 'But not so great that we who dwell there ever tire of seeing new trees. I should dearly love to journey in Fangorn's Wood. I scarcely passed beyond the eaves of it, and I did not wish to turn back."
Treebeard's eyes gleamed with pleasure. 'I hope you may have your wish, ere the hills be much older,' he said.
He continued to speak to the elf, talking about the future. Thennil, began to help the hobbits mount up with the other's, Merry behind Aragorn, and Pippin joining her on her steed. It was as they turned to leave that at last the master of Fangorn spoke to her.
"Long have you lived alone, young one,' he stated. 'And many adventures you have had, but I do not think that you will ever make it back to see my woods."
She had been smiling, but not the light of it had dimmed, and he placed one of his limb like fingers on her shoulder. "Many years may pass before you dwell under the trees again, and time will flow by like a river, never stopping."
It was with those words that he left her as they hurried through the woods.
The sun was sinking below the horizon of the mountains when Gandalf and his companions, and the King and his Riders, set out again from Isengard. Two of the king's men went on ahead, riding swiftly, and passed soon out of sight down into the valley. The others followed at an easy pace. Sunlight was shining in the sky, but long shadows reached over Isengard: grey ruins falling into darkness. Treebeard stood alone there now, like the distant stump of an old tree: the hobbits thought of their first meeting, upon the sunny ledge far away on the borders of Fangorn.
"Are we riding far tonight, Aragorn?' asked Merry after a while. 'I don't know how you feel with small rag-tag dangling behind you; but the rag-tag is tired and will be glad to stop dangling and lie down."
"So you heard that earlier did you?' chuckled Aragorn, looking back towards where they had come. "Don't worry my friend! Be thankful that his words are no longer aimed at you. He had his eyes on you. If it is any comfort to your pride, I should say that, at the moment, you and Pippin are more in his thoughts than all the rest of us. Who you are; how you came there, and why; what you know; whether you were captured, and if so, how you escaped when the Uruk-hai perished-it is with those riddles that the great Saruman worried over."
Thennil, who had been eavesdropping, though not intentionally, as elves have superior hearing anyway, broke into the conversation. "A sneer from him, Meriadoc, is a compliment, if you felt so honored by his concern. He was like that for most of his existence. I can think of many times within our counsel's that he would treat me much the same, though I despised him from the beginning."
"Thank you!' said Merry, leaning against Aragorn in front of him like a pillow.
"I think that Gandalf plans to ride on for a few more hours, gently by the looks of it if I know him well, until we com etc the end of the valley. Tomorrow we will ride faster. We plan on being back in the King's house at Edoras over the plains, a ride of a few days if we continue at this slow pace."
The road passed slowly, winding down the valley and then through the trees at the other end. Now further they flew, over Sen's flowing bed. Night came down from the mountains. All the mists were gone. A chill wind blew. The moon, now waxing round, filled the eastern sky with a pale cold sheen. The shoulders of the mountain to their right sloped down to bare hills. The wide plains opened grey before them.
It was at long last that they halted. Turning aside, they left the highway and taking to sweet upland turf again. Then they entered a dale. It opened up before them, green footed and crowned with heather. The sides of it were shaggy with last year's bracken, among which the tight-curled fronds of spring were just thrusting through the sweet-scented earth. Thorn bushes grew thick in clumps along the low banks and under them they made their camp. Two hours or so before the middle of the night. They lit a fire in a hollow, down among the roots of a spreading hawthorn, tall as a tree, written with age, but hale in every limb. Buds were swelling at each twig's tip.
Guards were set, two at a watch. The rest, after they had supped, wrapped themselves in a cloak and blanket and slept. The hobbits lay in a corner by themselves upon a pile of old bracken. Merry was sleepy, but Pippin was restless. The bracken cracked and rustled, as he twisted and turned in attempt to find a comfortable spot to sleep. Sitting up, he looked around, and his eyes came to rest upon Thennil, who sat before the fire, resting her head on her hand as she gazed into it's flame. He could hear her humming to herself softly, the fingers of her other hand moving in a strumming like movement.
Rising from his bed, he crept around his friend, and the bodies of their sleeping comrades and up to the fire. He settled himself down next to her on a log, looking into the flames. AS she twitched and turned on the log, he heard her shift beside him.
"Couldn't sleep?" she asked.
"No."
"I would imagine you to be tired after such a long few days,' she said, looking at him from the corner of her eye.
He grimaced.
"Or perhaps you do not wish to sleep because of the dreams that haunt you?"
"Nay, it is not that. I am just restless,' he said, finally finding a spot that he liked. 'So much has happened, and my head just won't shut off."
She nodded imperceptibly.
He turned to look up at her, opened his mouth, then shut it, then opened it again. He sighed.
"What is it, little one?" she asked, giving him her full attention, weary as she was.
"Well-I-do you- he paused. 'Would you sing me a song? Like you would do when we first started out?"
She smiled, "I would be honored."
"Waiting for the rain to fall,
Sun hiding behind the clouds,
Oh my,
Rain falling in this place,
Waiting for the sun to come,
Oh my,
The stars shining in the night,
Hope coming down to us,
When did we lose it?
Why do we let it slip through our fingers?
Oh my,
Why do we wait for the sun to rise?
When we know that it is a hope within that shines brightest?
Why do we let the rain fall,
When we could dance in the puddles?
Oh my,
There is light in everything,
Hope for a brighter day,
We just have to believe,
Believe that everything is going to be alright,
Ohhh,
Reach down deep inside
And stand together, together as one.
No darkness shall prevail,
or evil take life,
We stand together,
United as one."
Silence reigned over the night as her words flew on the feet of the wind, carrying over the hills like a river flowing. Pippin was silent next to her, leaning on her shoulder as he watched the flames flicker back and forth, teasing.
"That was beautiful, did you write it?" he asked.
"No, my mother did,' she said, smiling sadly in memory.
"She was very talented, I wish I could have heard it with a fiddle or flute,' he sighed, tapping his leg.
"She was extremely talented,' remembered Thennil, 'She would fill our home with music day in and day out. She was always teaching my siblings and I different instruments, hoping that one of us had her talent for music."
"And did one of you?"
"Well, we each had a portion of her talent, Elladan can play the fiddle and viola exceptionally, but don't ask him to sing, he's awful,' she laughed. 'Elrohir can play the pinafore, and has a pretty good voice, quite deep actually. Naneth would sit and listen to him play for hours, joining in to play duets now and again when he wanted to learn something new. Now, Arwen, Arwen has more of Naneth's talent than all of us, and can play quite a few instruments beautifully. She's preformed for some of the ambassadors that have come to Imladris over the years. She's quite spectacular."
"And what about you?" he asked.
"Well, Ada has always said that I sound the most like her when I sing, but the only instrument that I can play passably is the lute. Everything else confuses me to no end, even other stringed instruments."
"You voice is more beautiful than any instrument known to Men or Elves,' spoke up a new voice. Turning quickly, Thennil blushed to see that Aragorn had snuck up on her, which had been happening more and more often. He had changed, his ranger habits still evident in his movements, but he stood straighter, taller, with more authority than he had before. He looked more like a king.
"I'm not so sure,' she mumbled.
"I think you were angelic,' Pippin stated, squeezing her hand before slipping away to his bed, yawning.
"Thank you."
