Chapter 26:
Sauron paced before his throne, hands clasped behind his back. His hair was glowing red, more flame than anything in some places. His eyes were much the same, staring holes in the floor as he thought.
And fumed.
How long had she been planning this?
It was plain by now Irideth had made a run for it. A very good one, considering he and the Nine had been unable to find her in the Tower or the town at its base.
All he had been able to confirm was that she had left some time in the night; a further investigation revealed some of her clothing was missing, as well as some water skins from the stables and kitchens. It had not, however, revealed anyone who'd been parley to the girl's plans in any way.
There had been thought put into this, and she had completely hidden it from him.
A snarl crept over Sauron's face as he made another about turn, flames sweeping the floor from the edges of his cloak.
He tried yet again to reach out to Irideth's mind, hoping to at least get some idea of her current location.
Again, he could find barely the faintest impression; it was like trying to grab fog.
"Wretched little creature!" Sauron snarled in ancient Black Speech. 'Where are you, you impudent brat?'
There was no response, of course. Among other things, Sauron did not know how the child seemed to have suddenly developed the ability to block their psychic link like this; it was practically like it didn't exist.
Physical distance certainly wouldn't help things, but Sauron couldn't imagine she'd gotten that far in so little time; it had been less than a day and given that there had been no horses reported missing, the girl was traveling on foot.
The sound of the door opening drew the Dark Lord out of his thought; his blazing eyes moved to see Murazor standing at the throne room's entrance. The Witch King immediately fell to one knee.
"We have finished searching the town and the surrounding land. We have not found her, nor any clues to indicate where she is or may have gone," Murazor said, voice quiet but steady.
Distantly, Sauron was impressed; he knew his Captain could sense his rage quite keenly.
"Very well. You and the others fetch your horses and gear. Leave as unobtrusively as you can. Find her and bring her back to me."
Murazor's head snapped up to look at his Master; Sauron felt his servant's surprise at his vehemence. Sauron ignored him, turning back to his pacing.
I cannot afford to lose her, knowing she may be the key to returning my Vala to me.
"Who's Khrosh?" Irideth asked as she swallowed the bite of rabbit Andorthel had handed her. It was barely cooked, but edible; they didn't want to risk a large fire.
"Orc admiral. Really top brass," Scuff said. "Didn't know he was stationed at Angren; probably wouldn't 'ave left when we had if we did."
Irideth felt a chill run down her spine. "Why would he care about a bunch of escaped slaves?"
At this, all attention turned to Scuff. Said man grinned sheepishly. "I tried ma hand at spying, back in the day."
Castor snorted. "Don't know if you could even call it 'tried'. They caught you before you could even send one damn note."
"How were you planning on sending messages?" Irideth asked.
"Crows," Scuff answered. "The Orcs use 'em to pass messages between forts all th' time. Figured I could… borrow a few."
"Except they found the notes he was going to send before he could even get one," Miriel said quietly.
"We were all certain he'd be executed, or at the very least tortured in front of the entire camp," Andorthel continued, voice nearly as quiet as Miriel's. "It'd happened to others, for far lesser offenses."
"Only Khrosh didn' think that'd be the best idea," Scuff said. "He'd just come in a few days before, and since he was a senior officer an' all, he got final say. Since I'd never actually managed to do anythin', he decided a month's hard labor 'd be enough to teach me a lesson."
"It did," Castor said. "For a while; you nearly died from exhaustion and exposure twice."
"Orc knows 'is audience, I'll give 'em that," Scuff said. "Don' doubt the big man sent him down 'cause the captain who'd been runnin' the place was losin' control. There was talk of a full-scale uprisin', you remember. Couldn' afford that on the only major shippin' route through Mordor. Seein' me out there like that, an' then me havin' to go and lie at his boots every night certainly made a point."
"Khrosh made him sleep in the command quarters in his room," Andorthel said when he saw Irideth's puzzled look.
Irideth thought she saw where this was headed. "So… Khrosh figured if he'd let you be killed, then…"
"That woulda been it," Scuff said. "All th' slaves woulda fought, and given we outnumbered the orcs probably twelve ta one at that point, plus most o' us had pickaxes or oil lamps, the whole place woulda gone up in flames regardless o' who won the fight."
After a moment's heavy silence, Scuff added, "plus he threw Grag out a third story window; that cheered everyone up."
Andorthel and Miriel snickered.
"That and called him every variant of 'incompetent' under the sun without ever actually having to say the word," Castor said as he pushed dirt over the pitiful remains of the cooking fire.
Irideth, under different circumstances, thought she may have liked to meet this orc.
When he led an ambush on their camp later that night, she thought otherwise.
Irideth wasn't certain how to describe the feeling that had her sitting bolt upright and grabbing for her pack before she was even fully aware.
It did help her smack and orc in the face with said pack, though, and for that she was grateful.
The orc's yell had everyone else waking up, and it was chaos after that.
Irideth was peripherally aware of sounds of fighting, and a good deal of shouting and screaming. At that point she wasn't really even thinking, she simply threw her pack over her shoulders and ran, pulling a scroll she'd tucked into one of the side pockets free as she did.
Irideth kept running as she unfurled it, the paper beginning to glow with violet-black light. When she tossed it to the ground there was… a noise Irideth didn't know how to describe. How did a ripple in space sound, anyway?
Less than a moment later a large something was leaping back behind her. There was a hoarse, surprised yell, then a crunch and a very unsettling gurgle, followed by a definite thud.
Irideth didn't look back. Thankfully, a moment later, a large wolf… or something in the shape of a wolf… was running by her side; the edges glowed with a faint, ethereal light.
The spirit whuffed at her; Irideth grabbed some fur she was a bit surprised was solid and leaped onto the creature's back.
The second she was seated the wolf took off; Irideth hunched low over its back, feeling almost like the wind would tear her hair clean out. This was definitely not a normal wolf.
They'd been running for a good distance before the spirit simply… disappeared. Given the speed they'd been moving at, Irideth hit the ground hard and rolled several feet before coming to a stop. She rolled to her feet muttering curses under her breath, checking herself over.
Though she certainly felt battered and bruised all over, it didn't look like there was anything serious; she could move everything, albeit stiffly. Her shirt had torn on the right sleeve and there was a long scratch on the arm that was bleeding a bit, but that was nothing that couldn't be fixed. A quick check of the pack showed everything was still intact and nothing had fallen out, though the lid of one of the water bottles had come loose at some point. Irideth screwed it on fully as she began walking, having to concentrate on her footing to keep from stumbling. Though there was some good moonlight, it was still very dark; she couldn't travel too quickly if she didn't want to fall down a ditch or break an ankle.
"Must remember to time and re-cast the spell next time," Irideth muttered, letting the water bottle dangle off its strap again and trying to ignore the way her hands were shaking. She brushed flyaway hair out of her face and re-did her ponytail as she walked, checking the position of the moon. It was likely approaching midnight, so she was still going in the right direction; Irideth wasn't sure if the wolf spirit followed her will, as Irianna had said it would be bound to do, even without her telling it, or if it had been dumb luck it had carried her further north, toward the passage she was seeking.
Irideth couldn't think on that for long, though. Soon she was rubbing her arms to keep warm and forcing her legs to move. Mordor could experience radical temperature differences between night and day (and sometimes even during the day if Orodruin were active enough); that was one of the reasons she had left when she had. In the winter many regions would be covered in snow, including the northern mountains and, valleys and crevices or not, be utterly impassable until late spring. If she had waited for too long, she would have been stuck in Mordor for another seven or eight months.
As though to spite her, a chill breeze tore through her clothing as if it weren't there. Irideth set her pack down, opening the top and pulling out a blanket she'd turned into a makeshift poncho/jacket with some scissors and crude but effective stitching. She pulled it over her head, then took a couple sips of water from one of the bottles before trudging on. She needed to find shelter, somewhere she could stop and sleep for a few hours without being found and keep warm.
That was going to be easier said than done; this place seemed even more barren than the area near the Road. The bushes were smaller, and there were fewer rock piles. Apparently mining wasn't as good here.
It seemed like hours before Irideth found a suitable spot; a small dip, almost completely hidden by scraggly bushes and partially covered by an overhanging slab of rock.
The bushes took some maneuvering to get around, but it was noticeably warmer when Irideth finally slid down beneath the rock.
Even so she pulled another blanket out of her pack, wrapping it around her shoulders as she took another drink of water. She leaned the pack against the wall of stone behind her, resting her head on top of it.
Exhausted though she was, she didn't fall asleep right away. Valar, what had happened to the others? The screaming…
Irideth didn't want to think about it, but her imagination had apparently decided it wanted to do the work for her anyway.
The girl screwed her eyes shut as she wrapped the blanket even more tightly around herself as she tried to push the memory away. She took a shaky breath, wiping a few tears off her cheeks before laying her left arm over the pack and resting her head in the bend of her elbow.
Gods, I hope tomorrow things look better than they do now.
Irideth woke to very chilly air and bright sunlight creeping through the branches of the bushes. She thought it was still early morning, though that was the best guess she could make until she…
A snuffling sound near the entrance to her little den, followed shortly by the sight of very drooly, very toothy jaws had Irideth swallowing a scream.
Warg. Oh, Valar, that's a warg!
Thankfully the creature hadn't found her yet, but at this point that was only a matter of time. It had clearly already found her scent.
Blood pounding in her ears, Irideth moved her head as slowly as she dared. The dip went along further behind her, though the rock covering did not extend as far as the ditch itself. It appeared there was still some cover to be had from plants and the occasional further stone, but this roof wasn't very tall; she would need to crawl, and hope like hell there was a viable exit point somewhere further along where the warg wouldn't see her when she left the crevice.
Moving as quickly as she dared, keeping one eye locked on the sniffing muzzle close to the entrance, Irideth grabbed her pack and pulled it over one shoulder. Staying on her hands and knees, she began crawling backward, lifing her legs and hands as she did to avoid scraping the dirt beneath her and making noise.
The warg was sniffing way too close to the entry bush for comfort when Irideth dared turn around, beginning to crawl a bit more quickly now that she was facing forward.
A few seconds later there was a hair-raising snarl behind her, followed shortly by furious barking and the sound of claws scratching at loose soil.
Heart in her mouth, Irideth bolted. She still couldn't stand; the bushes and lips of rock were too low, but she pushed herself into as low a crouch as she could manage and ran.
The warg realized shortly that its prey was on the move. Irideth heard the thud of running feet up above her, and the accompanying scratch of claws on stone.
She screamed when black jaws snapped through one of the bushes above her, missing her shoulder by less than an inch. The warg pushed desperately against the branches holding it back, barking and snarling; its breath was horrid, stinking of meat that had been left out to rot.
Irideth slapped the creature on the nose, casting a Shock spell. It wasn't very powerful; she had started practicing that one only recently, but it was enough to cause the creature to leap back with a pained yip. Irideth scrambled further along the passage, having to drag herself along on her stomach under a particularly low-hanging slab of rock.
Shortly thereafter she was crawling her way out from beneath two bushes and rolling down a steep slope. She was considerably more battered when she stood, but a hill that high and steep would take a bit of time for something on four legs to navigate.
Irideth had barely gone ten steps when a massive weight knocked her to the ground. She cried out in alarm as she rolled, suddenly finding it considerably more difficult to move. The reason was obvious when her head stopped spinning.
A net?!
A few seconds later, Irideth's breath hitched when she heard footsteps approaching, and then an Orcish face was peering down at her.
Irideth swallowed thickly, hardly daring to breathe. Despite the terror, her jaw almost dropped when the Orc spoke, plainly astonished.
"Mite, what are you doin' all the way out here?"
Apparently Khrosh knew her, though she did not know him. He also knew the warg that had been chasing her; it was his mount, and he'd directed it to flush her out of her hiding spot so he could catch her.
That knowledge didn't make Irideth feel any better. It was all she could do to keep from trembling while Khrosh untangled her from the net, keeping her feet bound while he removed her pack and tied her hands together. To Irideth's surprise, he was gentle throughout the process, though vigilant. He didn't take his eyes off her for a moment and always kept a grip on her despite the fact her legs were still tangled in the net.
Once her hands were securely bound, Khrosh pushed her onto her back. He kept his knee on her chest to keep her down while he bound her ankles as though hobbling a horse. That done, he lifted her into his arms, strapping her pack to the warg's saddle before hauling them both aboard and turning them south.
The creature had a lurching gait Irideth would likely have found uncomfortable at the best of times; with the situation being what it was, she was barely keeping herself from vomiting. The… distinct scent of their mount wasn't helping, either.
"You're not hurt anywhere, are ya, mite?"
Irideth looked at Khrosh, startled. He glanced down at her for a moment before redirecting his attention to the path ahead. "I'll be able to look you over a bit better once we're back at camp; didn' see anythin' serious when I was taking you outta the net. Sorry about that tumble, by th' way, but you're a damn fast little creature. The way you were headin' gets distinctly rockier, and I didn' want to risk seriously hurtin' ya."
One hard swallow helped Irideth clear her throat. "How… how do you know me?" she rasped. "I can't remember ever meeting you."
Khrosh grinned. "Ya wouldn't. You were asleep when the wraiths brought ya back to the boss; I was with 'im when they did."
At the mention of Sauron Irideth could swear she felt the blood drain from her face. Khrosh must have noticed something; he sighed heavily.
"Not gonna lie to you, mite, you're goin' to be in a solid heap of trouble with him. I can understan' why you made a run for it, but it was a damn stupid move. No one who gets taken to the Tower makes it out."
Irideth had no response to that. She was concentrating primarily on not panicking, despite every fiber of her body screaming danger.
"Do the others know?" Khrosh asked after several tense seconds of silence.
Irideth managed to cast him a questioning look.
"Who your Master is. What you've seen, what he's shown you," Khrosh said.
"No," Irideth said thinly. "I didn't tell them anything except my name."
The Orc patted her shoulder in what he likely hoped was a reassuring way. "Well, you aren't completely stupid, then. I was afraid I was gonna have to drag 'em all back to the Tower with me. Would've had to keep 'em in isolation back at the camp, too, 'til we could get transport arranged. Though knowin' Scuff I'd've had to cut his tongue out to keep him from blabbin'."
He must've felt Irideth going rigid. "Just kiddin', mite. He's a mighty big fool, but he's a hard worker and damn clever when it comes to growin' crops in tough soil and fixin' techy things. More valuable than th' run o' the mill slave, otherwise he'd have been killed long before I was sent to Angren."
Something in the Orc's tone had Irideth pausing for a moment. She glanced over her shoulder at her captor again.
Discreet though she'd tried to be, Khrosh noticed. He grinned, looking surprisingly sheepish for an Orc. "He might've grown on me over the years. After this last mess, I think I'm gonna have ta lay official claim to him to keep him off the block, though. Don't doubt he's gonna hate me for it, but I'd hate seein' him strung up and bled out."
Irideth barely suppressed a shudder, almost gagging in horror at the mental image. She was still thrown off enough by that that she almost pitched forward when Khrosh brought the warg to a halt.
"Sorry about this, mite, but I'm going to have to gag you before we get back to camp," the Orc said, pulling a strip of cloth out of one of the saddlebags. "You may not be a chatterbox, but a lot o' the Orcs in this party are, and they don't take well to being refused by a slave. I'm goin' to be keepin' you with me as much as possible, but this'll serve well as an added safety measure."
Irideth swallowed thickly, but managed a short nod in response. Khrosh smiled at her. "Atta girl. Don't worry, it's clean," he added as he gently pushed the cloth into her mouth and tied it behind her head.
True to his word, Khrosh kept Irideth at his side when he returned to the makeshift camp the other members of his raiding party had set up.
He kept Scuff by him, too; the old man had been divested of the ragged blanket he'd wrapped around his shoulders when Irideth had last seen him, and his hands had been tied behind his back to a pole in the command tent.
Irideth was carried into this tent herself by Khrosh, still bound hand and foot in addition to the gag, and was placed in a chair and her own bindings secured to the leg of a table behind it.
Two Orcs, other captains Irideth surmised, had followed Khrosh into the tent and were speaking with him in a dialect of Black Speech she wasn't all that fluent in, but she could catch the gist.
"Sweaty troll's balls, Admiral, whose cur is that to have such a pretty collar?" the one on the left, wearing a ragged cloak of animal skins and with bird feathers strung around his head in what he likely thought was a fashionable manner said, gawking openly at Irideth as Khrosh finished checking her ropes.
"Don't even think of it, Ugdûsh. She's the Lord's," Khrosh said, turning to glare at the now-named Ugdûsh and his hunched companion.
The hunched one opened his mouth. Khrosh beat him to the punch. "Rat failed her recon assignment. The Lord wants to have a word with her."
Irideth had to work very hard to keep her incredulity from showing. What? What the hell was he talking about?
The hunched one gave a watery laugh. He said something Irideth didn't fully understand, but she caught something about "re-training" and "skin in bloody ribbons."
Ugdûsh laughed, too. "Would you object to us gettin' things started, Admiral, hm?"
He looked at Irideth with a hunger in his eyes that sent a knife of terror through her gut. "The Lord doesn't deserve to have to trouble 'imself with punishing a useless roach."
Irideth barely even saw Khrosh move. He'd drawn his dagger before she could blink, slashing Ugdûsh across the face, carrying forward and delivering a powerful punch to the hunched one's jaw in less than a second. Both Orcs were on the ground screaming in short order.
"Who do you think you are, narthrazg, to even think of touching what belongs to our Lord without his leave?" Khrosh snarled, face like a furious animal. "I should gut you for those words! Tantamount to treasonous, that kind of talk! You can consider yourselves lucky none of the Nine are here to listen to your shrak."
The mere mention of the Nazgûl was enough to have both Orcs cowering and whimpering on the ground, whining and whimpering apologies and not even daring to look up at their commander. Khrosh proceeded to kick them both out of the tent, in the most literal sense of the term. Once he'd heard them scamper off, he returned his gaze to Irideth.
"Don't worry, mite. I received word earlier that Lord Sauron has sent the Nine out; the message didn't say why, but I could guess after I found you. I've already sent crows to the Tower and to the wraiths; they're going to be on the way here to collect you in short order. None of the Orcs here are gonna lay a hand on you once I start that movin' through the rumor mill."
Irideth bit down hard on the cloth in her mouth, taking a deep breath as she tried to keep her tears at bay. Is that supposed to make me feel better? Distantly she was aware of Scuff's startled inhalation and subsequent near-choking. That was enough to draw the Admiral's attention to his other prisoner.
"I'll be dealin' with you once I've handed our friend here over to her minders, Scuff," Khrosh said, tone surprisingly businesslike given the situation, before stepping out of the tent. He didn't go far; Irideth could still see him right in front of the main flap, speaking to someone else out of her line of sight.
Irideth lowered her head, feeling a couple of tears slip down her cheek. Oh, Valar…
"Kid?" Scuff asked quietly. Irideth heard him shift, trying to shuffle closer to her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Irideth sniffed, shaking her head.
"Valar, kid, you're in a mess, aren't you?" Scuff asked softly. "The Nine? Mind you, I didn't catch the specifics, but stars kid, we gotta get you out of here before they show up."
He glanced at the pack Khrosh had set on the table behind her. "Anything useful in there?"
"Don't even think about it, Scuff," Khrosh said, stepping back into the tent and walking back over to Irideth. She felt her eyes widen when she saw that he was holding a syringe.
"Just a little somethin' to put you to sleep until you can be picked up," Khrosh said, picking up a cloth from the table and dipping it in a nearby basin. "Witch King got word back quick. He doesn't want to risk anythin' where you're concerned."
Irideth flinched hard when Khrosh brought the cloth toward her neck. The Orc sighed quietly when she tried to jerk away from him, placing the syringe down and gently but firmly gripping her hair and turning her head to the side despite her whimpered protests.
"Let go of her, you bastard!" Scuff shouted; Irideth could hear loud creaks as he fought his bonds.
"Don't worry, Scuff, I'm not hurting her," Khrosh said as he finished cleaning the injection site, setting the cloth down and picking up the syringe without letting up his hold on her. Irideth screwed her eyes shut, giving a quiet sob when she heard him uncap it.
"Sorry, mite. Direct orders, I'm afraid," Khrosh whispered to her. "Full honesty, though, I think it's better for you this way."
A moment later she felt the prick of the needle at the junction of her neck and shoulder. Immediately her head began to spin, and about a minute later everything was dark.
Irianna's grin was absolutely savage. Irideth found it distinctly more unnerving than the Orcs'.
"How do you feel about releasing some unbound dremora in a military camp?"