Disclaimer is the same as in Chapter One.
Author's note at the end.
"Hostile Takeover"—Chapter Seven: A Glamour Unmasked
Sally winced with every step she took. She bore as much of his weight as her body would take but still he had to move his own feet along the narrow aisle of the plane. She held tightly to him willing her arms not to break and her muscles not to tear as she dragged him to the first class compartment of the plane.
Frodo's head lolled forward from her shoulder and his knees buckled underneath him. She stumbled as his body lurched forward but miraculously she managed to keep him from falling. Only when they crossed the curtain barrier did the elf come forward to help her deliver him to a seat.
The armrest jarred his left arm as he settled and he cried out in pain. The elf stooped over him examining him with worry.
Frodo opened his eyes to her fully, revealing his suffering. Her voice fell upon his ears like birdsong with a purity so sweet he began to weep. His pain ebbed away as his senses lulled him with dreams of comfort. He could almost believe that he was somewhere else entirely. He could feel the sand beneath his feet and the wind caress his hair.
The elf herself appeared before him as a vision of loveliness, recalling to him a time and place he had never known. She sang to him with healing words, a voice meant only for his ears.
She cupped his face in her hands and gently wiped his tears away. "We see each other unveiled little Ringbearer," she said. "I only wish I could remember myself as you see me." She spoke bittersweetly as one who longed to linger in this moment of truth.
Sally watched anxiously as the elf tended to her ailing employer. She heard fragments of whispered words and saw his eyes look to the other with longing. She could see the pain transform his face to an expression of profound sadness. What did he see in her eyes and hear in her voice that rendered him so?
"Why is he like this?" she asked, finding her voice at last.
The elf did not look away from Frodo. She attended him with such care and tenderness that she almost lost the awareness of the world around her. She almost didn't hear Sally's question. "He is wounded," she answered.
Sally gasped softly. "Wounded? How? I've been with him all day."
"Not today, girl," she snapped with annoyance. She seemed cross as one awakened from a pleasant dream. Her scowls relaxed as she realized Sally's interruption was not intentional. "This wound marred his flesh nearly a century before I was even born," she explained in a much gentler tone.
The elf reached for the buttons of Frodo's shirt. With a light touch her fingertips released their hold. She leaned her head down to him and said with great reverence, "Forgive this intrusion. Your companion should see this."
Frodo closed his eyes and turned his head away from them. Almost imperceptibly he nodded. He could not bear to see their pity or the wound itself but he would not deny it to them.
"He was pierced by a Morgul blade," the elf explained. She pulled the collar of his shirt back to reveal the flesh of his left shoulder. Sally leaned over him and saw the mark, angry and red. A wound that would never heal. Sally reached down to him. She wanted to touch his scar, feel it against her fingers but she found herself instead closing his shirt. She could not grant him peace but she could at least give him back his dignity.
"The evil contained in such a weapon was so great, it has scarred his soul as well as his body," the elf continued. "Its mark can be seen even through the glamour."
"Glamour?" Sally echoed, looking to her with horror. She thought back to the umbrella. 'It is still what it is but…' Who was Frodo beneath his glamour? What did he hide from the world? From her?
The elf chuckled softly, wickedly, amused by Sally's obvious naiveté. "Did you honestly think this is what he looked like? He's not even human." She shook her head derisively as Sally paled.
Sally took a faltering step backwards reeling from the chaos cast in her mind. He may not have chosen to deceive her but that did not make her discovery any easier to bear. She had already seen and heard too much. She wanted to run but her feet would not obey. She wanted to cry but she remained silent.
With great effort Frodo turned his head to face her. He wore an expression full of sympathy for all that she had experienced by his side. He would not make her stay. He would not ask her to. Lacking the strength to speak he silently implored her to simply forgive him.
Sally's moment of indecision passed faster than her breath passed her lips. The elf's mocking laughter did not matter. Neither did his true form hidden beneath a cast of glamour. She answered a calling that intertwined her soul with his fate. She would not leave him. Only hell itself could tear them apart.
Frodo took hold of the elf's hand, drawing her attention to him. He pulled her close, bringing her ear near his mouth. As he whispered to her, her expression shifted from bemusement to something curious that Sally could not decipher.
Though she would often wonder, Sally would never learn what he told the elf. Whatever he had said, his words had a remarkable result. When the elf turned back to her, she had a new understanding and a subtle respect. "I'm sorry," she said with sincerity. "For too long I have taken people at face value. I forgot there is sometimes more to us than we see."
Sally said nothing to the apology but nodded in acknowledgement. Her concern remained with Frodo who had finally closed his eyes. For the first time since she had discovered him ill, he seemed to be at rest. "Will he be alright?" she asked quietly.
"He'll rest now," the elf answered. She watched him with gentle care as she left his side and settled into the seat across the aisle. She glanced momentarily at her wristwatch. "You'll see him well by the time we land. You're welcome to stay up here with him," she invited, indicating the vacant seat next to him.
Sally smiled in gratitude but did not take the seat. She remained on her feet in the aisle as if standing watch over her sleeping employer. "Thank you," she replied, extending her hand to the elf. The thought had occurred to her that politeness would be easier with introductions. "My name is Sally. Sally Gamble."
The elf accepted her handshake and squeezed it with genuine warmth. "Well met, Sally," she said. "I am known to other elves as Enaiowen." She grew quiet for a long moment turning in her seat to face the resting Ringbearer. She appeared wistful, holding court to tender thoughts she would not share. "You wouldn't know it, seeing him as he sleeps, but he holds the fate of the world in his pocket," she whispered softly, almost to herself.
Frodo turned his head, settling himself deeper into his seat. His passive form belied a great power within. "He knows," Sally breathed in reply.
Enaiowen reached across the aisle to brush a wayward lock of hair from his forehead. Her reach fell unexpectedly short and his hair remained untouched. Her hand hovered towards him, still reaching. "I have not met him til today," she said sadly. "In another world he and I could have become companions. He would be different and I would…" Her words faltered. Her outstretched hand returned to her and she looked away. Whatever she was reaching for, was unattainable. "I would not be on this plane."
Sally did not understand the meaning behind Enaiowen's words but the emotions were plain to see. The elf desired her path to be different. This realization was difficult for her to take.
"I'm going to get our bags," Sally heard herself saying, excusing herself from the presence of the now brooding elf.
Enaiowen felt grateful for Sally's absence. It gave her the moment she needed to shake away the ghosts that haunted her on that plane. She had never felt the call of the Undying Lands before but she longed to 'sail west' as she flew east. From the moment she touched the Ringbearer her mind flooded with thoughts of the Blessed Realm, and a beach that she might once call home.
"Enaiowen," Frodo called her name suddenly in a voice that had not quite found itself.
The elf snapped herself from her reverie and wiped absentmindedly at her eyes. "Try to rest, Frodo," she instructed him tenderly.
He did not move, nor did he open his eyes. He only had the illusion of sleep as he spoke only for her ears. "Your mother is a seer," he stated.
"That is true," Enaiowen confirmed.
Frodo took a shuddering breath and turned to look at her with an unreadable expression. "In this other world, did I destroy the Ring?" he asked.
"I cannot answer that," she said with a heavy sigh. "This is not that world, Frodo. What happened there should hold no sway over your decision here." She watched him carefully and saw him tense. He was not satisfied with her answer but she could offer nothing better.
"If I told you that you destroyed it and you lived happily ever after, what could it change? Except to give you new tools with which to torture yourself," she continued in harsh whispers. "Even if I knew, I would not say. You know what is the right thing to do."
"Do I?" he asked unhappily. In two small words he questioned the whole of his existence.
Enaiowen smiled weakly, knowing her words would bring little comfort. "You always did."
---
"Sally?" a voice called softly to her pulling her from the edges of a dream she could not hold in her memory. She blinked her eyes open to find Frodo standing over her, smiling warmly. "I wish I could let you sleep but the plane has landed," he said.
Sally looked around her and yawned. She had forgotten she was on a plane and the realization caused her mind to stumble. When she had returned from retrieving their bags she had had no intention of falling asleep. She simply wanted to wait for her employer to recover. Her exhaustion had tricked her into closing her eyes longer than the moment she promised herself.
She turned back to Frodo with sudden wonder. "You look better," she remarked. Her face could not conceal her joy although muted with concern for lingering effects.
His smile broadened. Any traces of his ailment had vanished. He had the appearance of a man who had never known illness in his life making Sally wonder again about the power of glamour. "I am," he stated with confidence. "Thanks to you and Enai."
The name struck Sally like a sour note. Locked in the security of her slumber, she had nearly forgotten about the elf, but she saw with chagrin that Enaiowen was not just a bad memory. Despite the gratitude she felt for healing Frodo, Sally did not like her. The thought that the two of them talked while she slept made her even more unhappy. "Enai?" she said with raised eyebrows. His truncation of her name was too much of a familiarity.
The utterance of her name served as the elf's summoning. She appeared at Frodo's other side with the same condescending look Sally first saw her wear. "Come, little one," she called to Sally mockingly. "This part of your journey has ended."
Sally and Frodo followed Enaiowen across the enclosed bridge connecting the plane to the airport. The elf looked back behind her with a watchful expression that caused Sally to frown. "You don't like me much, do you?" she asked finally.
Sally's brow furrowed deeper. She hadn't meant to be so transparent. "You didn't make the best first impression," she admitted.
Enaiowen stopped as they emerged into the airport. "I know and I'm sorry," she said quietly. She surveyed the people around her thoughtfully. So many of them happy to be where they were while she was not. Like Frodo she'd spent her life hiding from the world. The only difference being that she hid herself in plain sight. "Most elves stay at the fringes, coming in and out of the light, becoming the stuff of legends and dreams. Not me," she asserted sadly. "I've immersed myself, embracing the totality of this place. I thought I could keep myself and take in the world too, but I know better now." Tears now ran unhindered down her face. "If you live in this world, its darkness becomes a part of you."
"Why are you telling me this?" Sally asked.
"Because each of us has a destiny and before I meet mine, I wanted you to know I'm not supposed to be like this," she said. She spoke with a gravity Sally would have believed impossible for her. Enaiowen shook from the effort of keeping her emotions from overcoming her. She reached for Sally's hand and clutched it close to her. "I was supposed to bring light to his eyes and yours, someone you'd wait for."
"Enai?" Frodo called to her with concern. Her desperate tone frightened him.
Enaiowen turned her reddened eyes to him and smile weakly. "You were right about my mother, Frodo. She saw many things," she said. "I was on that plane for a reason."
Frodo swallowed and stepped closed to her. "What was that?"
Enaiowen released Sally's hand and reached for him. Instead of taking his hand, she pushed his coat open gently and grasped the handle of the umbrella. "To lay down my life for you," she whispered. Her eyes locked with his as she pulled the umbrella away from him. She was saying good- bye.
And then they heard the screams, shrill and inhuman.
The Nazgul had beaten them to Oslo.
TBC
Author's note: I bet you didn't expect me to take them to Norway. I struggled with this decision for quite a while. New Zealand seemed too obvious, as did Great Britain. I considered Ireland for a while until I got a book on world mythology. So much of Norse mythology reminded me of LOTR, especially the whole "Ring of the Nibelung" thing, so I decided to take them to Norway. (
I can't remember if I have any questions to answer but I do want to assert to my readers and reviewers that if it hadn't occurred to you that Sally, Piper and Merrick are reincarnations YOU ARE NOT STUPID. Heck, they haven't even figured it out…yet. I adore each and every one of you who takes the time to read my story. Your reviews have given me the inspiration I need to keep to work on this.
Chapter 8: A Knife in the Airport. Frodo and Sally flee as Enaiowen fights the Nazgul and Merrick struggles with his inner hobbit about his decision to leave Piper behind.
Author's note at the end.
"Hostile Takeover"—Chapter Seven: A Glamour Unmasked
Sally winced with every step she took. She bore as much of his weight as her body would take but still he had to move his own feet along the narrow aisle of the plane. She held tightly to him willing her arms not to break and her muscles not to tear as she dragged him to the first class compartment of the plane.
Frodo's head lolled forward from her shoulder and his knees buckled underneath him. She stumbled as his body lurched forward but miraculously she managed to keep him from falling. Only when they crossed the curtain barrier did the elf come forward to help her deliver him to a seat.
The armrest jarred his left arm as he settled and he cried out in pain. The elf stooped over him examining him with worry.
Frodo opened his eyes to her fully, revealing his suffering. Her voice fell upon his ears like birdsong with a purity so sweet he began to weep. His pain ebbed away as his senses lulled him with dreams of comfort. He could almost believe that he was somewhere else entirely. He could feel the sand beneath his feet and the wind caress his hair.
The elf herself appeared before him as a vision of loveliness, recalling to him a time and place he had never known. She sang to him with healing words, a voice meant only for his ears.
She cupped his face in her hands and gently wiped his tears away. "We see each other unveiled little Ringbearer," she said. "I only wish I could remember myself as you see me." She spoke bittersweetly as one who longed to linger in this moment of truth.
Sally watched anxiously as the elf tended to her ailing employer. She heard fragments of whispered words and saw his eyes look to the other with longing. She could see the pain transform his face to an expression of profound sadness. What did he see in her eyes and hear in her voice that rendered him so?
"Why is he like this?" she asked, finding her voice at last.
The elf did not look away from Frodo. She attended him with such care and tenderness that she almost lost the awareness of the world around her. She almost didn't hear Sally's question. "He is wounded," she answered.
Sally gasped softly. "Wounded? How? I've been with him all day."
"Not today, girl," she snapped with annoyance. She seemed cross as one awakened from a pleasant dream. Her scowls relaxed as she realized Sally's interruption was not intentional. "This wound marred his flesh nearly a century before I was even born," she explained in a much gentler tone.
The elf reached for the buttons of Frodo's shirt. With a light touch her fingertips released their hold. She leaned her head down to him and said with great reverence, "Forgive this intrusion. Your companion should see this."
Frodo closed his eyes and turned his head away from them. Almost imperceptibly he nodded. He could not bear to see their pity or the wound itself but he would not deny it to them.
"He was pierced by a Morgul blade," the elf explained. She pulled the collar of his shirt back to reveal the flesh of his left shoulder. Sally leaned over him and saw the mark, angry and red. A wound that would never heal. Sally reached down to him. She wanted to touch his scar, feel it against her fingers but she found herself instead closing his shirt. She could not grant him peace but she could at least give him back his dignity.
"The evil contained in such a weapon was so great, it has scarred his soul as well as his body," the elf continued. "Its mark can be seen even through the glamour."
"Glamour?" Sally echoed, looking to her with horror. She thought back to the umbrella. 'It is still what it is but…' Who was Frodo beneath his glamour? What did he hide from the world? From her?
The elf chuckled softly, wickedly, amused by Sally's obvious naiveté. "Did you honestly think this is what he looked like? He's not even human." She shook her head derisively as Sally paled.
Sally took a faltering step backwards reeling from the chaos cast in her mind. He may not have chosen to deceive her but that did not make her discovery any easier to bear. She had already seen and heard too much. She wanted to run but her feet would not obey. She wanted to cry but she remained silent.
With great effort Frodo turned his head to face her. He wore an expression full of sympathy for all that she had experienced by his side. He would not make her stay. He would not ask her to. Lacking the strength to speak he silently implored her to simply forgive him.
Sally's moment of indecision passed faster than her breath passed her lips. The elf's mocking laughter did not matter. Neither did his true form hidden beneath a cast of glamour. She answered a calling that intertwined her soul with his fate. She would not leave him. Only hell itself could tear them apart.
Frodo took hold of the elf's hand, drawing her attention to him. He pulled her close, bringing her ear near his mouth. As he whispered to her, her expression shifted from bemusement to something curious that Sally could not decipher.
Though she would often wonder, Sally would never learn what he told the elf. Whatever he had said, his words had a remarkable result. When the elf turned back to her, she had a new understanding and a subtle respect. "I'm sorry," she said with sincerity. "For too long I have taken people at face value. I forgot there is sometimes more to us than we see."
Sally said nothing to the apology but nodded in acknowledgement. Her concern remained with Frodo who had finally closed his eyes. For the first time since she had discovered him ill, he seemed to be at rest. "Will he be alright?" she asked quietly.
"He'll rest now," the elf answered. She watched him with gentle care as she left his side and settled into the seat across the aisle. She glanced momentarily at her wristwatch. "You'll see him well by the time we land. You're welcome to stay up here with him," she invited, indicating the vacant seat next to him.
Sally smiled in gratitude but did not take the seat. She remained on her feet in the aisle as if standing watch over her sleeping employer. "Thank you," she replied, extending her hand to the elf. The thought had occurred to her that politeness would be easier with introductions. "My name is Sally. Sally Gamble."
The elf accepted her handshake and squeezed it with genuine warmth. "Well met, Sally," she said. "I am known to other elves as Enaiowen." She grew quiet for a long moment turning in her seat to face the resting Ringbearer. She appeared wistful, holding court to tender thoughts she would not share. "You wouldn't know it, seeing him as he sleeps, but he holds the fate of the world in his pocket," she whispered softly, almost to herself.
Frodo turned his head, settling himself deeper into his seat. His passive form belied a great power within. "He knows," Sally breathed in reply.
Enaiowen reached across the aisle to brush a wayward lock of hair from his forehead. Her reach fell unexpectedly short and his hair remained untouched. Her hand hovered towards him, still reaching. "I have not met him til today," she said sadly. "In another world he and I could have become companions. He would be different and I would…" Her words faltered. Her outstretched hand returned to her and she looked away. Whatever she was reaching for, was unattainable. "I would not be on this plane."
Sally did not understand the meaning behind Enaiowen's words but the emotions were plain to see. The elf desired her path to be different. This realization was difficult for her to take.
"I'm going to get our bags," Sally heard herself saying, excusing herself from the presence of the now brooding elf.
Enaiowen felt grateful for Sally's absence. It gave her the moment she needed to shake away the ghosts that haunted her on that plane. She had never felt the call of the Undying Lands before but she longed to 'sail west' as she flew east. From the moment she touched the Ringbearer her mind flooded with thoughts of the Blessed Realm, and a beach that she might once call home.
"Enaiowen," Frodo called her name suddenly in a voice that had not quite found itself.
The elf snapped herself from her reverie and wiped absentmindedly at her eyes. "Try to rest, Frodo," she instructed him tenderly.
He did not move, nor did he open his eyes. He only had the illusion of sleep as he spoke only for her ears. "Your mother is a seer," he stated.
"That is true," Enaiowen confirmed.
Frodo took a shuddering breath and turned to look at her with an unreadable expression. "In this other world, did I destroy the Ring?" he asked.
"I cannot answer that," she said with a heavy sigh. "This is not that world, Frodo. What happened there should hold no sway over your decision here." She watched him carefully and saw him tense. He was not satisfied with her answer but she could offer nothing better.
"If I told you that you destroyed it and you lived happily ever after, what could it change? Except to give you new tools with which to torture yourself," she continued in harsh whispers. "Even if I knew, I would not say. You know what is the right thing to do."
"Do I?" he asked unhappily. In two small words he questioned the whole of his existence.
Enaiowen smiled weakly, knowing her words would bring little comfort. "You always did."
---
"Sally?" a voice called softly to her pulling her from the edges of a dream she could not hold in her memory. She blinked her eyes open to find Frodo standing over her, smiling warmly. "I wish I could let you sleep but the plane has landed," he said.
Sally looked around her and yawned. She had forgotten she was on a plane and the realization caused her mind to stumble. When she had returned from retrieving their bags she had had no intention of falling asleep. She simply wanted to wait for her employer to recover. Her exhaustion had tricked her into closing her eyes longer than the moment she promised herself.
She turned back to Frodo with sudden wonder. "You look better," she remarked. Her face could not conceal her joy although muted with concern for lingering effects.
His smile broadened. Any traces of his ailment had vanished. He had the appearance of a man who had never known illness in his life making Sally wonder again about the power of glamour. "I am," he stated with confidence. "Thanks to you and Enai."
The name struck Sally like a sour note. Locked in the security of her slumber, she had nearly forgotten about the elf, but she saw with chagrin that Enaiowen was not just a bad memory. Despite the gratitude she felt for healing Frodo, Sally did not like her. The thought that the two of them talked while she slept made her even more unhappy. "Enai?" she said with raised eyebrows. His truncation of her name was too much of a familiarity.
The utterance of her name served as the elf's summoning. She appeared at Frodo's other side with the same condescending look Sally first saw her wear. "Come, little one," she called to Sally mockingly. "This part of your journey has ended."
Sally and Frodo followed Enaiowen across the enclosed bridge connecting the plane to the airport. The elf looked back behind her with a watchful expression that caused Sally to frown. "You don't like me much, do you?" she asked finally.
Sally's brow furrowed deeper. She hadn't meant to be so transparent. "You didn't make the best first impression," she admitted.
Enaiowen stopped as they emerged into the airport. "I know and I'm sorry," she said quietly. She surveyed the people around her thoughtfully. So many of them happy to be where they were while she was not. Like Frodo she'd spent her life hiding from the world. The only difference being that she hid herself in plain sight. "Most elves stay at the fringes, coming in and out of the light, becoming the stuff of legends and dreams. Not me," she asserted sadly. "I've immersed myself, embracing the totality of this place. I thought I could keep myself and take in the world too, but I know better now." Tears now ran unhindered down her face. "If you live in this world, its darkness becomes a part of you."
"Why are you telling me this?" Sally asked.
"Because each of us has a destiny and before I meet mine, I wanted you to know I'm not supposed to be like this," she said. She spoke with a gravity Sally would have believed impossible for her. Enaiowen shook from the effort of keeping her emotions from overcoming her. She reached for Sally's hand and clutched it close to her. "I was supposed to bring light to his eyes and yours, someone you'd wait for."
"Enai?" Frodo called to her with concern. Her desperate tone frightened him.
Enaiowen turned her reddened eyes to him and smile weakly. "You were right about my mother, Frodo. She saw many things," she said. "I was on that plane for a reason."
Frodo swallowed and stepped closed to her. "What was that?"
Enaiowen released Sally's hand and reached for him. Instead of taking his hand, she pushed his coat open gently and grasped the handle of the umbrella. "To lay down my life for you," she whispered. Her eyes locked with his as she pulled the umbrella away from him. She was saying good- bye.
And then they heard the screams, shrill and inhuman.
The Nazgul had beaten them to Oslo.
TBC
Author's note: I bet you didn't expect me to take them to Norway. I struggled with this decision for quite a while. New Zealand seemed too obvious, as did Great Britain. I considered Ireland for a while until I got a book on world mythology. So much of Norse mythology reminded me of LOTR, especially the whole "Ring of the Nibelung" thing, so I decided to take them to Norway. (
I can't remember if I have any questions to answer but I do want to assert to my readers and reviewers that if it hadn't occurred to you that Sally, Piper and Merrick are reincarnations YOU ARE NOT STUPID. Heck, they haven't even figured it out…yet. I adore each and every one of you who takes the time to read my story. Your reviews have given me the inspiration I need to keep to work on this.
Chapter 8: A Knife in the Airport. Frodo and Sally flee as Enaiowen fights the Nazgul and Merrick struggles with his inner hobbit about his decision to leave Piper behind.