Estella stepped back and observed her work, looking at the intricate details of Diamond's dress that she had newly painted. The mural was coming along fantastically, and Estella wished that Diamond would get to see it. She wished they all would hurry and return for she hated not knowing what was happening to her best friends while she sat at home safe. She looked over at Chrysie who was diligently carving Pippin and Diamond's fingers laced together.
They spent every day down in the cellar that had become somewhat of a haven for them. As the weeks passed Estella had almost finished Diamond and was diligently working on her drawing of Pippin. The day was engraved perfectly into her mind, as it was the day she had fallen in love with Merry, and so she could remember the scene with little difficulty. Estella used her painting to pass the time until they returned and she hoped it would not be too far away.
Diamond opened her eyes and winced in pain as the cold touch of reality swept back over her. She could feel the sharp pains in her back, and each one seemed to burn with its own vigor. She had been hanging in the cellar for more than a week. They would lower her every other day to force dirty water and maggot infested bread down her throat. She was barely alive, but she knew they would not kill her yet. They intended to break her and she would not allow herself to be broken.
Just then the large black door to the torture cell opened and a pair of half-orcs walked in. Diamond assumed they were there to feed her, but when they lowered her down to the floor they begun to untie the ropes that bound her hands and feet. When they pulled the ropes off of her skin Diamond could see that her wrists and ankles had been cut into by the rope and were badly bleeding. Overwhelmed by her grief and despair Diamond had not even noticed her aching hands and feet, but now as she looked at him the pain came over her for the first time and she nearly blacked out.
The half-orcs dragged her out the door and down a dark passage that led towards the center of the caverns. They soon came upon a dark stairway and the half-orcs led her up it. When they came out a door at the other end Diamond saw that she was within the dark tower. "I am to be questioned," she thought. "Well I have not been broken quite yet."
She was led into a room that was empty except for a dark black chair in one corner. Diamond was thrown to the floor and then the orcs left her. She pushed herself up, and looked around. There was a window on one side of the room and Diamond limped over to it. When she looked outside she saw the dark cloud that had once been hovering on the horizon was now drawing ever closer to the dark tower. In one direction lay a vast forest filled with tall gnarled trees, and in the other a vast field leading towards the lands of Rohan.
"Enjoying the view?" asked a smooth voice from the doorway to the room. Diamond turned to face Saruman, but did not speak. She simply looked at him with the hardest glare she could muster and then turned back to the window.
"I did not expect that you would be ready to tell me what I need to know so soon, and I am therefore not at all surprised by your determined will to protect your friend's memories. I am however curious as to why you were not with your company when the Southerner found you?" he said in a voice that had a good deal of persuasiveness put into it.
"It is not your business to know and I shall not tell you! I shall not speak with you, so I suggest that you send me back to the darkness for you will get no answers from me," she spat coldly, but Saruman saw the hurt behind her glare and knew that he had hit a nerve.
"Answers, my dear, can wait until you are ready to give them," he said calmly. "But they...they...left you behind didn't they?" asked Saruman, prodding her will with the gift of his voice.
Diamond nodded before she could stop herself, but when she realized what she had done she gasped and turned away from him once more. "Leave my thoughts alone. I will not speak with you!"
"They thought that you weren't worthy, that you weren't as skilled and important as they were," said Saruman, liking very much the effect that these words were having on the young Hobbit-lass. "But you are not like that are you? You are stronger than they are. You survived and they did not!"
Saruman held up his staff and suddenly Diamond saw a bright light. Then she looked around and found that she was in Bree again, and there in front of her stood Frodo, Merry, Sam, and Pippin. They looked cold and scared, and very lost. Suddenly a shadow moved behind them and four long, gleaming swords were drawn. The sound of the swords being drawn echoed in Diamond's ears, but to her horror they did not seem to hear it. She ran towards them, screaming their names but they did not see her nor pay any attention to her warnings. Then, just before she could reach them, the four swords simultaneously fell and each of her friends fell dead a look of pain and terror sweeping their faces instantly.
"No!" screamed Diamond. She rushed over to where they lay fallen their blood flowing freely from the deep wounds the swords of the Nazgul had caused. She stopped in front of Pippin and knelt down on the cold ground. She looked down, but could not bear to gaze upon him for the scarf she had given him was clutched tightly in his dying hand. His eyes were frozen in time, and he began to heave up blood before falling still his eyes rolling into the back of his head.
Diamond screamed, and suddenly found herself back in the dark room with Saruman looking down at her. Malice was in his eyes, and amusement as well. He enjoyed watching her suffer.
"What did you see?" he asked harshly, a terrible laugh escaping his lips. "Your pitiable companions met their unavoidable ends while you live on. I could bring them back, you know. The dark lord and I are powerful, very powerful. If you would but tell me what information you know I will save one of your companions and send you both back to your home. You know you want to agree."
The voice in the back of Diamond's head became stronger, louder. It urged to her agree. She opened her mouth, prepared to tell him everything when suddenly the image of the scarf grasped tightly in Pippin's hand flashed into her mind and she was able to beat back the voice, barely.
"No! You will not bring them back. You will get me to tell you everything and then kill me when I have. I am not so easily fooled," she said, her courage drawing itself from happy memories of her past. She concentrated on running through Farmer Maggot's fields and on dancing at the pub and the darkness was driven into recession once more. Saruman cursed her and called for the orcs to bring her back to the torture cells.
"She has not been broken enough. Make the punishments much more severe!" he yelled angrily at them before storming out, his white robes billowing behind him.
The orcs grabbed her by the wrists and she cried out in pain as they reopened the cuts on them. She was in pain, but she had held out through one questioning. "I will not give in yet," she thought resolutely.
The half-orcs dragged her back down the stairway, but this time they passed the door to the torture room and led her farther back into the caverns. The smell grew stronger as they walked on, and Diamond saw the red glow that she knew was hot liquid metal being made into swords and armor. They entered a large cavern filled with orcs being bred and metal being manipulated. Diamond held a hand up to her nose, as the smell of burning metal and orc flesh grew stronger. Then they reached the end of a long line and stopped. The half-orcs looked pleased with themselves and Diamond began to nurture her poor hurt wrists and ankles. She bent over to wrap her ankles with a torn piece of her dress, but found that she could bend over due the to terrible beatings on her back. The line began to move forward and as they approached the front of it Diamond heard the unmistakable sound of burning flesh.
Up ahead there was an overseer who was branding the symbol of Saruman onto the Uruk soldiers with a hot iron rod shaped like the hand of Saruman. It made a deep groove in the Uruk's skin, which they filled with a white paint: the white hand of Saruman.
The Uruk in front of her grunted in pain and he was brutally kicked and then thrown to the Wargs for his inability to tolerate pain. Diamond was shoved up to the overseer who looked at her curiously.
"Special orders from Sharkey," growled one of the half-orcs. "She is to be terribly tortured and therefore must bear the white hand."
The overseer nodded and dipped the brander into hot liquid metal. He then held it up high for all the Uruk's around to see and with a malicious grin he drove it into Diamond's shoulder blade on the left side of her back. It burned through her dress and when the scalding hot metal collided with her skin Diamond let out a terrible, blood-curdling shriek.
When the overseer pulled the twisted metal rod away from her skin the white hand was permanently embedded into her. They then plastered white paint onto the scorched skin. It bonded with the burning skin and forever would remain white. Diamond screamed again as the paint stung her skin. She wondered what more she would have to put up with. Then the put on her the armor they sported to battle. It was much too large for her and it caused Diamond to fall to the ground under its weight. Her half-goblin guards were greatly enjoying the show. Then they seemed to realize that their master would be angry if she was killed and they dragged her away from the disappointed Uruks back to the torture room. Leaving the heavy armor on Diamond they bound her wrists and ankles once again lifting her up into the air. The added weight only made the pain worse, and Diamond slipped in and out of consciousness. She finally fell into a nightmare filled sleep, the image of Pippin's lifeless face and spilt blood forever haunting her thoughts.