Intersections at Right Angles

Chapter 11

By Verbosity

Life is odd. That's all I have to say about my particular life at this time. It's just weird.

A big thanks to all those still reading, in spite of my long absences. I hope the story is reward enough.

I've taken the occasional bit of dialogue from the movie or book, it's not intended as plagerism. Those particular lines are not mine, be aware of that. Anyone who has read the book or seen the movie should recognize them.

                                The tip of Gandalf's staff glowed, illuminating the chamber in a washed-out light.

                                "Well," the wizard said. "The way behind is closed, and the way before us is all that is left. Passage from the West-door to the East-gate is at least forty miles, perhaps three or four marches, and that is only if there is not mishap along the way."

                                "Mishap," said Boromir softly as he glanced down at the desiccated corpses of the dwarves that littered the entry hall.

                                All the company had been casting glances at them since Gandalf had created a light. It appeared Balin's people had met with misfortune, Orcs namely.

                                "Let us make haste, and hope that our presence shall go unnoticed. Gimli shall walk with me. Follow my staff."

                                The Company formed up as Gandalf moved ahead upon the stairs. Gimli, then Frodo, Sam, Legolas, the younger hobbits, and Boromir followed the wizard closely. Aragorn brought up the rear, almost lost on the darkness.

                                Andromeda dropped back until she walked next to him. He glanced at her once, silently, and then continued his wary watch of the surroundings.

                                "You seem grim," said Andromeda in a low voice.

                                The ranger nodded. "My heart misgives me about this path. I passed the doors of Moria once before, years ago, and the memory weighs darkly upon me. I have not the eyes of an Orc, Dwarf, or," he glanced down at her with the barest glimmer of a smile. "An android, with which to see through the darkness."

                                She reached down to the small belt kit that she still retained, but had had no cause yet to use since she arrived. She pulled out the palm light, set it to omni directional, and then flicked it on.

                                Aragorn started in the sudden wash of light and there were exclamations and the sound of people turning around quickly from ahead. Andromeda held the light out to him and after a moment he hesitantly took it.

                                "Press this and it turns directional," she said, demonstrating. The general glow transformed into a single brilliant beam of light, causing Boromir to shield his eyes as the beam focused on him. "Useful for searching," she looked at Boromir with at slight smirk. "And blinding. This button, here, turns it off." She pushed it and the darkness gathered round again.

                                She looked to where the company was staring at them. "What? I didn't loose everything when I came here." To Aragorn she said, "It has about twelve continuous days of power, use it sparingly, and it will last a lot longer."

                                He studied the light in his hand carefully, and then said, "Thank you, Andromeda. I will take care with it."

                                Smiling at him she said, "Use it when you need it. It's probably better to have a couple sources of light down here." She glanced at Gandalf as she spoke.

                                "You wouldn't happen to have a few more of those would you?" asked Sam.

                                "Sorry Sam. Just the one. But don't worry, we won't let anything happen to you."

                                The Company continued on, along winding and twisting passages, slowly descending. After several hours the passage leveled and they continued along a smooth even way. The air grew hotter and it's stifling weight was interrupted at times by currents and eddies of cooler air out of the doorways that broke the walls. Andromeda kept a careful watch as they passed doors and arches leading off into other passages and rooms. Some would slope upward or down, others broke into stairs that twisted out of sight. She could sense the presence of more passages beyond the ones her eyes revealed to her; the air currents and pressure changes spoke of long tunnels and vast open spaces. The signs told of an underground city that rivaled ones she had seen on other, more advanced worlds.

                                She caught the noise of moving water from ahead and soon they came to a fissure in the floor, splitting the hallway. Nearly three meters across, it took some time to get everyone across the gap, while the sound of churning water rose up out of the invisible depths. As they left it behind she heard Sam muttering about not having any rope.

                                The fissures and holes became more frequent as they continued on, slowing the Company, and she could see the weariness of her companions. She was about to voice her concern when they reached a major split in the passage. The Company piled up behind Gandalf as he stood before a series of three arches. They all led in generally the same direction, one sloping up, one down, and the other moving straight on.

                                The wizard stood silently in front of the arches, apparently at a loss. "I have no memory of this place," he said.

                                Andromeda spoke up. "It's well past midnight, and I expect you're as tired as everyone else is. Let's rest on it. Maybe the memory will come to you."

                                The suggestion was met with agreement from all and the company found room to the side, a guard post at some time in the past, and settled in for the rest of the night.

                                Andromeda kept watch as everyone slept, well, almost everyone; she could tell from the pattern of Gandalf's respiration that he was lying awake and not sleeping. Probably worrying over which passage to take. Just like Dylan.

                                She considered for a moment how much of a burden it was to lead people. It was something she rarely had to do. It wasn't that she couldn't, but she had been made with service in mind and not leadership.

                                An hour passed and Gandalf stirred from his sleeping pad. He rose and moved to sit beside Andromeda. The wizard spoke no words as he sat, just removed his pipe and in a few moments was puffing contentedly, the pipe a faint glow in the darkness. Time passed, and Andromeda was content to simply sit in his presence, watching over the rest of the Company. The feeling of protectiveness was oddly familiar, and after a moments reflection she realized why.

                                They'd replaced her crew.

                                Not in the literal sense of course, but she had been made to care for her crew, it was one of the fundamental elements of her nature. She had a drive, a need, to care for and protect these fragile creatures that relied upon her. It was as basic a need for her as the need for companionship. She couldn't live without some form of it, so here, where she had no crew, she substituted as best she could.

                                Her eyes traveled over the sleeping forms before her and she felt a touch of amusement. They were as mismatched and ragtag a band as Dylan's crew was. She did occasionally miss the sense of discipline that a pre-fall Commonwealth crew gave. A slight smile curved her lips. On the other hand, these two mismatched bands of travelers, one sailing the stars to restore a Commonwealth, the other on a quest to save a world, were a lot more interesting.

                                A puff of smoke from Gandalf's pipe drifted past and she turned her thoughts to him. Why did he do it? From what she understood his kind had little in common with the other races of this world. She had the sense that he had sacrificed a great deal to help the peoples of Middle-Earth. And, now, when she had appeared, an alien stranger, he had immediately taken her under his proverbial wing. Why?

                                Andromeda turned her head to ask him but stopped before the question was voiced. The wizard was staring into the darkness, apparently focused not on the present, but rather some distant memory. Later. She would ask him later. It was more important that he remember which direction to take.

                                She turned back to continue her watch over her sleeping companions. This journey wasn't going to end anytime soon. She'd have time to ask him later.

*                                *                                *

                                "Behold the great dwarven realm and city of the Dwarrowdelf!" Said Gandalf as he raised his staff high.  The light on the end of his staff flared up brilliantly, illuminating the vast space before them. A forest of mighty pillars stretched from the floor to the ceiling far overhead.

                                Boromir heard Sam murmur an awed comment before the company moved into the hall, lead by Gandalf and Gimli.

                                The open space of the hall was something of a relief to Boromir. He was no stranger to stone or the underground. Many of the buildings of Minas Tirith were built into the peak it abutted. He had spent much of his life living in such places, but never before had he been underground for so long a time. Nor so deep. There were moments he could imagine the terrible weight of the mountain grinding downward upon them, its weight causing the darkness to ooze upward out of the roots of the world. A darkness broken only by the light of Gandalf's staff and that wondrous lamp that Andromeda had given to Aragorn.

                                His eyes moved, as he found them doing so often now, to the slender form walking just ahead, near Gimli. The dwarf was enthusiastically expounding upon some point of interest about the dwarves of Moria, in a low voice, with Andromeda listening attentively.

                                His soul was in turmoil, though not simply because of his confusion over Andromeda. The Ring kept intruding upon his thoughts, a band of gold that seemed to grow more prominent in his mind as time passed. What he could accomplish with it: the freedom of Gondor from the shadow of Sauron, restoring it to its former glory. And here, they were journeying to destroy it.

                                Boromir's eyes drifted to rest on Frodo, following the thoughts passing through his mind. He had only a moment to contemplate the hobbit before the Gimli's cry brought his attention to the front of the company.

                                The dwarf ran ahead, passing Gandalf, toward a door in the side of the great hall. A brilliant spear of sunlight stabbed downward at an angle from a window set high into the stone and illuminated the door.

                                The Company followed in the dwarf's wake. There had been a battle here, Boromir observed. Much as at the gates, the desiccated corpses of dwarves lay strewn about, scattered among the detritus of battle. Doors, scarred and hacked, stood open as Boromir approached. The sunlight shone through a rectangular hole carved in the stone above the doors and into the room beyond. The white marble, of what Boromir realized was a tomb, shone in the light: seeming to glow in contrast to the surrounding shadows. 

                                The others stood, nervously, glancing around at the evidence of battle. Gandalf passed where Gimli knelt at the foot of the crypt and read from the characters engraved upon the stone, "Here lies Balin, son of Fundin. Lord of Moria." The wizard paused, and then spoke again with a sad sigh, "He is dead then. It is as I feared."

                                The silence was broken only by the sounds of Gimli's grief, as he knelt at the base of his cousin's tomb. Boromir moved to the dwarf's side and set a comforting hand on his shoulder. A slight rustle and sound of something being moved caught his attention, and he looked to see Andromeda lifting a book from the grasp of a long dead dwarf.

                                Gandalf stood at her shoulder as she gingerly turned the pages.

                                "It looks like a log, or a journal, of their time here." Her voice carried in the quiet room. "There are a couple dialects of Elven, and another language I don't recognize."

                                "Dwarf runes," Gandalf said. "Turn toward the end. Those will be the passages of immediate interest to us."

                                As the pages rustled Boromir heard Legolas whisper to Aragorn. "We must move on, we cannot linger."

                                He was about to voice his agreement when Andromeda started to speak. "They have taken the Gate, and the second Hall." Her voice echoed, reaching in and then back out, from the shadowed corners of the chamber. And the members of the Fellowship glanced uneasily around as she continued. "We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them long. The ground shakes. Drums. Drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming."

                                Her voice ceased and Boromir repressed a shiver. Yes, the faster they were gone from this place the better-

                                A sudden loud rattle jerked his attention away from Andromeda to where Pippin stood in a corner of the room. The skeletal remains sitting on what looked to be the edge of a well slid over the edge with a racket that seemed earth shattering. He cringed. Not even an Orc could have missed hearing that.

                                He waited for any indication the noise had been heard. All the members of the company seemed to be holding their breath. Moments passed. Nothing.

                                Let out a slow breath, heart thudding. He was aware of Gandalf chastising Pippin. Just as the wizard turned away form the hobbit there came a new sound that filled him with dread.

                                Doom. Doom. The sound pulsed in the distance, felt as much through the floor as heard in the air, seeming to come from somewhere deep in the earth below.

                                "Drums."

                                The single word, uttered by Andromeda, sparked him into motion and he glanced at Frodo, even as the hobbit pulled Sting partially from its sheath.

                                The blade glowed faintly in the twilight of the room.

                                Legolas spat a single word laced with disgust. "Orcs!"

                                Boromir leapt for the door, already knowing it was too late for them to escape. The familiar sound of Orcish howls and shrieks found his ears as he gazed out into the great hall. He caught a glimpse of a mass of orcs moving toward him just before two arrows slammed into the door in front of his face. Sparing another glance at the approaching force he saw a hulking shadow moving just behind the main group.

                                Aragorn came up beside him even as he grabbed the edge of the door, arrows still quivering, and pushed it shut. The two of them barricaded the portal with old weapons passed to them by Gimli and Legolas. Observing the rickety thing, he knew it wouldn't hold long.

                                His back to the door, he informed the group, with a certain amount of disgust at their fortune, "They have a Cave Troll."

                                Moving back into the room he turned to the door again and readied himself. Shield and sword were solid weights on his arms, familiar and comforting. The doors shuddered under blows from outside and the shrieks and howls redoubled. Out of the corners of his eyes he saw Legolas and Aragorn readying their bows. A third flicker of motion from his right, on the other side of Aragorn caught his attention. Andromeda was standing, sword out, a grim expression on her face.

                                Boromir stifled his impulse to protect her. From experience he knew she probably had a better chance of surviving this than he did. But that didn't seem to mean much to his emotions, and he firmly repressed his protective urge.

                                The door was almost down; holes were beginning to appear, and an ax-head burst through. When it was withdrawn one of Legolas's arrows followed it, earning a scream of pain from the other side of the door. Aragorn let loose an arrow and Legolas another, until, under the weight of the seething bodes outside, the door burst open.

                                A howling, screaming wave of orcs burst into the room. Several went down, hit by arrows, before Boromir found himself hacking at orcs reaching him.

                                He ducked under a clumsy slash and blocked another blow on his shield. Swinging his sword up he knocked aside the orc's shield and then cut the creature down. Spinning to face another attack from the side he twisted away from a blow, to stab his blade into his opponent's chest. The orc dropped and he kicked out at another, while bashing a third's face in with his shield.

                                Gaining a momentary respite he glanced around for the other members of the company. Gimil stood upon the tomb of Balin, an ax in either hand, and any orcs foolish enough to approach found themselves a head shorter. Aragorn decapitated an orc and spun to face two more that approached. Boromir took an instant to admire the ranger's skill as he fended off the two easily. Legolas danced about the room staying out of reach of the numerous orcs as he plied his bow with lethal skill. Gandalf was laying about himself with both his sword and staff, felling orcs as well as any of the warriors. Even the hobbits were making an accounting of themselves.

                                An orc threw itself at him with a scream, and he stopped its charge with a blow from his shield, and then followed with a decapitating strike of his sword. The maneuver brought Andromeda into his line of vision.

                                She was on the opposite side of the room. The ground around her was littered with orc corpses, many more than near any other member of the company, and the few orcs remaining near her appeared to be trying to run away.

                                A roar and an explosion of stone jerked his attention to the entrance. The Troll had arrived. The huge beast lumbered into the room in an eruption of stone dust from the impact of its club on the frame of the door. It moved further into the room and then seemed to notice the hobbit in front of it. Sam looked tiny in the face of the lumbering beast, and Boromir feared he was about to see the young hobbit die, as the beast raised its club. He leapt forward, thinking he would be too late, but Sam dove under the Troll avoiding the crushing blow.

                                The hobbit lay on the ground, dazed, as the Troll turned on him.

                                "The chain!" he heard Aragorn yell. The ranger was leaping over the bodies of slain orcs toward the iron chain trailing from the collar around the Troll's throat.

                                Boromir reached it just an instant before and, even as the ranger's hands closed on the chain, heaved backwards. He pulled with all his strength and, hearing Aragorn's grunt of effort beside him, knew the ranger was doing the same. The tug pulled the Troll off balance and it turned toward them.

                                An orc leapt at Aragorn and the ranger was forced to let go of the chain to avoid being skewered. Boromir found himself, alone, holding the chain with an annoyed Troll on the other end. There was a shoulder-wrenching jerk as the Troll hauled on its end and he found himself flying through the air. He had an instant to brace himself before he slammed into the wall. After a moment, dazed, he shoved himself to hands and knees on wobbly arms, and looked up.

                                The Troll slammed its club down onto Balin's tomb, shattering it, and barely missing Gimli as the dwarf hopped off.

                                Boromir desperately cast about for a way to kill the beast. The hide of a Troll was leathery, thick, and only the strongest blows would penetrate. Usually a group of men with heavy axes or, in the open, a single man on horseback with a lance was employed to kill the creature. Neither were available here.

                                The Troll prepared to take another swipe at Gimli, who had dropped to the ground to avoid a previous blow, when the body of an orc arced through the air to smash into it from the side.

                                The Troll staggered at the blow and looked down at the corpse in bewilderment, to see what had hit it.

                                Andromeda's voice rose over the din of battle. "Over here!"

                                The yell dragged the Troll's attention up and in the direction the corpse had come from just as another orc, this one screaming, hurtled through the air to slam into its face.

                                "Yes, you! The big, lumpy, ugly one!" 

                                Boromir staggered to his feet as the Troll roared and lumbered toward Andromeda, apparently intent upon crushing this pest that was throwing orcs at it. His heart lurched as she raced straight at the Troll and the beast raised its club.

                                Closing on the Troll she scooped up one of the axes that lay forgotten on the floor of the chamber, a remnant of the long ago battle, and moved within the beast's reach.

                                With a bellow the club came down and Boromir, even watching closely as he was, barely caught what happened.

                                Andromeda was a flicker of motion as she sidestepped downward blow. Her ax blade moved with such speed it actually whistled as it cut through the air and drove into the leg of the Troll with an utterly inhuman force. The blade sliced through skin and muscle, and even cut into the incredibly dense Troll-bone, but lodged there, and the force of Andromeda's blow snapped the solid haft of the ax.

                                A noise somewhere between a scream and a howl was torn from the Troll's throat as it toppled to the floor.

                                Andromeda, still moving with that unnatural speed, reached down to grasp one of Gimli's discarded axes, swung it up, then brought it down with terrible force onto the neck of the Troll. The blade cut entirely through, slicing between the vertebrae, and driving into the stone floor beneath.

                                Boromir became aware the sounds of battle had faded and, glancing around, saw that all of their enemies had fallen. Looking once more toward Andromeda, he observed the blade of the decapitating ax was actually driven a handspan into the stone of the floor, and he felt a little shiver run through him at the thought of the force necessary to accomplish that.

                                The members of the Fellowship moved back together from where they had been swept by the battle. Boromir, like everyone else, was looking carefully around at the others to make certain no one had been seriously injured. Bruises and scrapes abounded, but weapon injuries were few, amounting to only a few minor slashes.

                                "Quickly," said Gandalf. "Before we are trapped a they were. To the bridge of Kahzadum."

*                                *                                * 

                                Andromeda ran smoothly as they exited the tomb, unlike the other members of the Company who were breathing hard from the battle. She moved to the head of the Fellowship near Gandalf as he lead the way. They couldn't fight a large company of orcs effectively, so their only chance was to flee, and it was entirely possible there would be more of the creatures between them and the exit.

                                Andromeda smiled grimly. Fortunately orcs were just as fragile as most other organics, so if it came to it she could clear a path fairly quickly. Though if there were more Trolls- they could present a problem.

                                As they sped across the great hall she pushed her passive sensors to their utmost. The noise of hundreds of orcs became clear, in the distance, but swiftly approaching. The tunnels distorted the sound, so she couldn't be sure, but she thought if they had stayed in the tomb much longer they would have been caught out in this hall by the main force.

                                There was something else as well. It was faint, almost undetectable, as there seemed to be a great deal of stone between her and it, but she was picking up an energy source. And it was moving in their direction. Without active sensors she was unable to tell anything about it, but whatever it was, it was throwing off a large amount of power.

                                Reaching the far wall of the great hall Gandalf lead them through the door that broke it's expanse, and down a set of stairs that at first led straight, but then curved back upon themselves.

                                Time passed as they moved along the passage, and Gandalf took them straight along it, for it seemed to go in the direction he wanted. Andromeda noted that it was headed almost straight East. Every now and then it would descend in another flight of stairs. An hour passed and Andromeda heard only distant sounds of pursuit, and no sound of any force in front of them. She began to hope they would reach the Eastern Door uncontested.

                                The descended a seventh flight of stairs and Andromeda noticed a reddish light ahead, reflecting faintly off the walls of the passage. A distinct draft of hot air brushed across her face, but probably still undetectable to her companions, and she said, "There's a fire ahead."

                                Gandalf glanced at her as she spoke and his face grew concerned, but he shook his head. "Whatever new devilry is before us we must go forward. This is the only way; we cannot risk becoming lost in the passages."

                                Minutes later they reached an arched doorway. The red light came through the opening and it was clear that there was some great conflagration on the other side.

                                Gandalf went through, motioning for them to wait. The company huddled together in the passage, the faces of the warriors grim, and the hobbits casting nervous glances both behind and ahead.

                                Andromeda turned to the dwarf beside her and asked in a low voice, "Gimli, what else is there in Moria besides orcs and Trolls?"

                                "Goblin kin and perhaps wrogs, for the most part. Why?"

                                Andromeda hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Before we left the great hall I sensed something other than the Orcs and Trolls. I only got a faint impression, but it was very powerful."

                                The dwarf looked at her in bafflement for a moment, then something seemed to click in his mind. His eyes widened and his expression became disturbed, almost frightened. He looked about to speak when Gandalf returned.

                                "We have reached the First Deep," he said. "Just below the gates. Beyond the eastern end, across the chasm, is the way out. The light is a fire set by the Orcs at this end. Come." The wizard led them forward.

                                They entered a massive hall through a small side doorway. The immense space stretched away, out to the east. At the western end, just past where they now stood, a raging fire burned across the breadth of the hall, blocking the main entryway. The firelight cast a red glow upon the carved walls and towering pillars, illuminating everything in a hellish light.

                                "Had we come by the main road through Moria," Gandalf pointed to the entryway beyond the fire. "We would have been trapped there. Quickly now, down the hall, and across the bridge. We are almost away!"

                                He turned and raced down the hall, the company close behind. Andromeda detected orcs entering the chamber beyond the fire and laughed at their yells.

                                Boromir turned to look back at both her laugh and the sudden outcry, and he to let loose a laugh of his own. "They have trapped themselves with the fire meant for us!"

                                Andromeda could see the sudden mood of elation that gripped the company as they sped down the hall. The bridge was just ahead, and beyond she could see a stair leading upward. Her eyes picked up the faintest hint of daylight glimmering beyond the doorway at the top of the stairs.

                                They began to cross the narrow bridge spanning the chasm in single file. Gimli first, followed by Merry and Pippin. Andromeda glanced over the edge into the abyss and after a moment ascertained that it descended farther than her perceptions reached.

The not-so-proverbial bottomless pit.

                                She started to cross, then stopped and whirled around, staring at the entrance beyond the fire. Gandalf, Boromir, and Aragorn, who were all still on this side of the chasm, regarded her sudden movement with expressions of puzzlement.

                                The thing she had detected moving toward them in the great hall had arrived. No longer shielded by many meters of stone, she could get a clear reading on it, but could make no sense of what she detected, other than the fact that it was very powerful. The only time she had ever detected anything like this was on the Magog world ship, when she was facing the Spirit of the Abyss. It hadn't read properly either.

                                Her voice had a disconcerted note that was foreign to her when she spoke, "What the hell is that?"

                                Even as the others turned to follow her gaze the orcs fell silent and huddled toward the walls in fear.

                                From across the chasm came Legolas's wail, "A Balrog!"

                                Andromeda, with her hearing, also heard Gimli's horrified whisper, "Durin's Bane."

                                A huge shadow loomed behind the flames, and Andromida's eyes, which would have had no trouble at all with any normal darkness, couldn't see within its obscuring depth.

                                Uncertain, Andromeda looked questioningly at the old wizard. "Gandalf?"

                                He didn't answer, just leaned heavily upon his staff and stared into the shadow, an expression of grim resignation creeping onto his features.

                                The Balrog leapt forward over the fire, flames seething upward to embrace it, and Andromeda took a step back as she was faced with unfamiliar sensations. She could feel the Balrog, much like she had sensed Gandalf from time to time, but not with a part of herself she could quantify. Unlike Gandalf's sense, which was warm and comforting, this one seethed with rage and hate, while terror seemed to flow out before it.

                                Gandalf appeared to rally. "Quickly, over the chasm! Fly! This foe is beyond any of you! I must hold the bridge. Fly!"

                                The wizard ushered them before him across the narrow span of stone. Aragorn and Boromir had reached the other side and she was approaching the end of the span when she realized Gandalf had stopped. And at the end of the bridge she stopped, turning to look back.

                                The Balrog stalked down hall, its shadow spread from wall to wall, and flames spilled from its skin. Gandalf appeared to shine in the gathering gloom, like a lantern before a lowering storm.

                                Her eyes met Gandalf's as he glanced back at the Company and they stood that way for a brief moment. His expression was tender and a bit sad as he gazed at her. When he spoke it was in a voice that only her hearing could have discerned from the distance they were apart. "Even if you cannot see me there, you will not be alone, Andromeda. That is my promise to you."

                                His eyes held hers for a moment longer and she thought of so many things she wanted to say and to ask.

                                Then he turned away.

                                The Balrog reached the bridge and stopped, looming over the wizard, a flame and shadow wreathed colossus.

                                Gandalf's voice rang like a clarion as he challenged the Balrog, but Andromeda paid little attention to the words, consumed by a terrible fear for the wizard. A single burning foot crashed down upon the bridge and a flaming sword swung high. Gandlalf's sword, Glamdring, flashed in answer and there was an explosion of white light and a noise like a thunderclap. The Balrog staggered back, its sword dissipating into flaming fragments. Gandalf swayed, and then once again stood firm.

                                "You cannot pass!" he cried.

                                The Balrog surged forward, moving full upon the bridge, and its whip hissed and cracked.                                

                                Andromeda was aware of Aragorn and Boromir beside her, both poised to leap to wizard's aid. And seeing the titanic creature of shadow and flame looming above Gandalf she couldn't stand watch any longer, and made to go to the wizard.

                                In the same instant Gandalf brought his staff down upon the bridge and Andromeda detected a discharge of force. His staff splintered and fell from his hands, while the span of stone cracked, crumbling under the weight of the Balrog.

                                Howling, the Balrog fell into the abyss. Andromeda felt a surge of elation as the creature fell, but then caught sight of the whip lashing upward from its fist. She hurled herself forward even as the thongs curled about his knees and he was pulled into the chasm. He gripped uselessly at the stone, and then slid into the abyss.

                                Andromeda's hand closed over the space his had occupied just a fraction of a second too late. She could do nothing but watch as Gandalf fell into the darkness, crying, "Fly you fools!"

                                And he was gone.