CHAPTER ELEVEN - MORALS
Kelly rode north through the night, ignoring the pain her back gave her. She would deal with it later, when she had spoken to her friends. The palantir was missing from the stable.
Osgiliath approached with the dawn, although it looked a little worse for wear as she saw it. Looking closer, many soldiers seemed to be patrolling around, perhaps still looking for whoever had destroyed some of their city.
She dismounted and hid her horse in a thicket of trees. It looked like she was going to have to walk from now on, a horse silhouette was much larger than a human's and could be spotted more easily.
She kept close to the ground, moving too slow for her own taste, but at least she was alive. She looked at her clothes. At least she was in normal garb now and as the prospect of passing by unnoticed slimmed, passing as a soldier seemed more likely.
She sat for a moment behind a rock formation, watching their actions. It looked as if they'd been attacked and the only things that attacked this far east were orcs. So why were they watching the western shore so viciously?
It dawned on her. Some orcs must have made it across. Damn her luck in getting caught up in this, she had no time to go capering across the countryside looking for orcs, as much fun as it sounded. She could see the outline of Cair Andras ahead, maybe only a couple of miles away. But there was no cover between her hiding place and there.
Another thought dawned on her. If there was no cover this side of the river, then where were Chrissie, Fred and Mark? What if they'd been attacked by the orcs? What if they'd been captured by orcs?
She slumped down to the ground and sighed. She only had two days before the sect would be here and there was no doubt in her mind Canetha would be here before then. They were to meet actually on the island Lee had told her. So to cross, she would need to be at least half a mile upstream.
She turned and looked back down to the lines of soldiers. There was absolutely no way to get through there unnoticed. A piece of lateral thinking slid to her attention. Perhaps that was the point. Perhaps the only way to go through unnoticed was to be completely noticed? Kelly smiled slightly, on one hand she could well be hunted down like a fox by the soldiers, but on the other, small chance, she might get to the island before they knew what she was doing.
She took a deep breath and reached for the orc helmet she'd seen poking up through the undergrowth. She'd done this once before, but could she do it again?
***
Kelly padded out her cloak a little, knowing that if they were only going to see her outline and it had to look like that of an orc. She looked up to where to sun was rising in the east. She had better get a move on.
She slipped down the bank, cursing a little as she nearly stumbled. She ran full out over the plain, not stopping for any man. By the look of it was only two miles at the most. She heard the first shouts from the guards and put on an extra burst of speed.
***
A guard stood in one of the towers of Osgiliath noticed the dust cloud first. At first he could see no movement, but as he looked past it, he spotted an orc running north across the plain. For a full minute he stood and watched, wondering why on earth it wasn't attacking. Why was it running parallel to the river and not trying to cross?
His instincts kicked in as the dot began to get smaller, he rang the bell in the tower and noticed a line of archers appear on a walkway nearby. They notched their arrows and fired, not hesitating or even seeming to breath between shots.
The guard looked as the dot began to fade in the distance. The barrage of arrows stopped. Five soldiers on horseback appeared on the plain and began galloping after the orc. It was only one orc after all.
***
Kelly swore aloud as she saw the cloud of arrows coming for her. She had hoped a guard might be confused to see an orc running past for several minutes longer, but obviously the attack had been more severe than she'd thought.
She looked around for cover, but seeing none cursed again. This was definitely not her day. An arrow bounced off her helmet and she ducked another coming for her neck. It was almost a dance, twisting her head to see where the next arrow was coming behind her and adjusting her body accordingly.
She groaned as an arrow went clean through her palm, but smiled at the irony of it. Just over two weeks ago she had given a similar injury to her only natural enemy. Now she knew just how much it hurt.
She pulled the arrow out as she ran, pleased to see the arrows had stopped, but not happy to see that a patrol of guards were now galloping towards her.
Perhaps if they dismounted, she could take them if she were at full strength. But she was not, she reminded herself, her wound in her side was always slowing her down and if she wasn't careful it would get her killed.
She looked back ahead, trying not to think about the approaching guards.
"I will not be taken again." She swore silently. There were not many things she couldn't handle in some form, but being in a cage was one of them. She'd survived twice before, but a third time might just break her.
She would die before she let them take her again.
Cair Andras was now to her right, seeming to rise out of the waters in sheer defiance. Just another five minutes running and she might make it across she told herself.
She could feel the pound of the hooves on the ground now, feel the tremors shake through her body. She was glad they didn't have bows and arrows or she really would be stuffed.
They were only a hundred metres behind her now, so she began wading into the waters, regardless of how far upstream she was. If she didn't cross now, she would surely die.
Kelly took a deep breath and dove underneath the water, trying to stay beneath the surface for as long as possible. Perhaps they wouldn't be able to follow her movements and give up.
She went back to the surface and checked where she was. The guards were stood by the edge, watching the waters for her. She looked to the other side; she was nearly halfway across. Kicking hard with her feet she propelled herself towards a stone outcrop in the river and let herself catch her breath.
"Hey. I've found it. Captain!" A deep voiced shouted from the western side.
Damn, Kelly thought. She dived back under the water and was glad when she found the bottom not too far away. She swam until she thought her lungs would burst, then broke the surface and crawled up the bank. She dragged herself into some undergrowth and just lay there gasping like a fish out of water.
She thought about fighting back when two arms grabbed her and dragged her backwards, deeper into the island. She thought about struggling, but the run across the plain and swim had left her exhausted. She couldn't see how they could have got across the river so fast anyway, so she just let things be. She'd figure it out later.
***
Kelly woke up wrapped in a blanket, but it was twilight now. Swearing, she shook off her blanket. She was almost surprised to see Chrissie, Fred and Mark sat across from her, obviously not impressed.
She managed a meek smile.
"How on earth did you manage to get that lot behind you? You've only been gone less than twenty-four hours and you're already causing trouble." Fred said, half demanding and half laughing.
"It wasn't my fault really. Some orcs attacked last night and made it across the Anduin. They were feeling touchy. So I dressed up as an orc."
Chrissie raised an eyebrow. "So they're looking for orcs. They want to kill orcs. So you dress up as an orc."
Kelly nodded. "Yeah." Noticing Chrissie's puzzled face she added, "My logic, remember? I'm alive aren't I?"
"Barely." Mark added irritably. He still wasn't happy about her giving away the fellowship and killing an Elf. He still had issues to resolve before he would speak to her again nicely.
"Oh hello Mark. Nice to see you again too." She looked at his Elven clothing. She'd obviously hit a nerve somewhere along the line.
"So where's the meeting?" Fred asked, trying to break up the obvious tension between the others.
"Here, tomorrow at dusk." Kelly began as she ripped some strips from the bottom of her cloak. Although her hand had obviously stopped bleeding some time ago, she decided to bandage it anyway.
"Here? We thought we were safe here, out of the way and all." Fred said, obviously not liking the fact the sect was returning here.
"I told you to wait on the western bank, which would have been out of the way, but did you listen to me? Absolutely not." Kelly mumbled off. She knew she should have crossed to the eastern shore, orcs be damned. She wasn't scared of no stupid orcs.
Kelly ripped off another strip from her cloak, longer this time.
"You're not going to have any cloak left soon, you know." Chrissie said sarcastically.
Kelly looked up and laughed. "Never mind." She felt down her back for the knife wound. Just as she'd thought, her little escapade had broken most of the stitches and the damn thing was bleeding again.
Kelly cursed out loud in a way she learned from the sect. Fred raised an eyebrow.
"That's not very nice you know." She said quietly.
Kelly grunted as she added some more padding to the wound and tightened the bandage.
"Let's get planning then folks, we don't have much time."
***
Fred had constructed a miniature model of the island when Kelly got back, made out of twigs and fir cones. Kelly had gone to check where the guards were, if any patrols were moving this way. Thankfully they seemed to have gone back to Osgiliath. There was also no sign of Canetha.
Kelly dropped some pebbles by the side of the longest twig, meant to represent the river. "Osgiliath is here."
She dropped some small kindling on the east bank of the river, opposite Cair Andras. "The sect will cross here."
"But there's orcs on that side." Mark said. "Why would they risk that?"
Kelly smiled. "We have no fear of orcs. We are all instruments of the same master, and puppets do not destroy each other."
Mark frowned as he realised the implication of that statement.
Fred frowned when Kelly spoke of the sect as 'we'. No matter what they had done to her and made her do, she still thought of herself as a part of them. She thought about saying something, but she doubted it would do anything, make her think any differently. She'd been a part of it too long.
***
Kelly sat in one of the trees on the island, admiring the beauty of Middle Earth. Any respectable brother would be here at least half a day before to check the perimeters, check for intruders or spies. She yawned and nearly fell out of the tree, but luckily balance came easily to her as she shifted her weight on the branch.
She could see no-one in any direction; at least no one outside of Osgiliath. She hadn't slept at all that night, not wanting to risk not seeing them arrive. Today was the day when she would end the threat to Frodo.
She hadn't told them anything of what she planned to do, just that they should leave the island as soon as possible. She'd climbed the tree soon after those final words, seeing the look in Fred's eyes was more than enough reason to retreat. She knew what Fred thought of her and even though she knew it would never change, she didn't want to be around to experience it first hand.
Fred had been just about to launch into her 'you're not a member' speech and cry look what they're done to you every two minutes. Even though she'd made so many mistakes since her arrival seven weeks ago, she wouldn't change any of them. She liked what she had become; strong, powerful and someone who could really kick ass. She didn't ever want that to change.
Before she'd come to Middle Earth, she'd been weak and just another face in the crowd. She'd been the quiet one, the one who kept to herself in lessons and never did much. Sure she'd done expeditions and jumped out of planes and such, but that was only out of boredom. She'd changed so much and for the first time in her life, she was proud of herself, at least for some stuff.
Kelly didn't really expect them to leave, knowing how stubborn they could be, but at least she'd tried. And in truth at the time she hadn't known, but staying awake through the night had left her many hours to think on it.
She could leave the sect in tact; just kill Canetha and leave before they ever arrived. However, what she had wondered was what if the reason why there was nothing about the sect in Lord of the Rings was that it had been destroyed?
If she could somehow trap Canetha and the sect from Minas Tirith, then she could end it here and now. The training centre in Edoras had disbanded after Ordon and the Old Man had died. She'd been told the people there had gone home, which was nice.
There weren't actually that many sects, only in the major cities and she knew for a fact the Minas Tirith one was the largest. If she could take out this one, there would only be a few individuals dotted around Middle Earth and those residing inside Mordor.
She could only think of one way to eliminate them all in one sweep. Hand to hand combat was out, and similarly using a bow. She might take out two or three, but seventeen was out of the question. Thinking back to the way she'd killed Ordon had given her inspiration.
Morally, she knew it was wrong. She'd already killed one innocent and two not so innocent people, could she really live with herself if that number rose to twenty?
***
The conclusion she'd come to was at the end of the day, the people of Middle Earth were at war with Sauron. War was not about individual people, their morals and emotional baggage, but about people as a race fighting for what they believed in for a better end.
The only thing that stood between her and that end were the three people that sat quietly on the ground beneath her, most probably plotting how to capture her again. She needed something to keep the sect and Canetha all in one place, something that would distract them whilst she readied herself. In other words, she needed bait.
"Could I do it?" She asked herself quietly. Could she really go through with what she had now planned and betray them again? Could she really watch them die, seeing the whites of their eyes tremble in disbelief as they were consumed by the flames?
Thousands of people might live after her actions, all for the sacrifice of three. Four, she corrected herself; it was not likely she'd survive this herself.
She looked back to the horizon and noticed a lone figure running cautiously up the eastern riverbank.
"So it begins."
Kelly rode north through the night, ignoring the pain her back gave her. She would deal with it later, when she had spoken to her friends. The palantir was missing from the stable.
Osgiliath approached with the dawn, although it looked a little worse for wear as she saw it. Looking closer, many soldiers seemed to be patrolling around, perhaps still looking for whoever had destroyed some of their city.
She dismounted and hid her horse in a thicket of trees. It looked like she was going to have to walk from now on, a horse silhouette was much larger than a human's and could be spotted more easily.
She kept close to the ground, moving too slow for her own taste, but at least she was alive. She looked at her clothes. At least she was in normal garb now and as the prospect of passing by unnoticed slimmed, passing as a soldier seemed more likely.
She sat for a moment behind a rock formation, watching their actions. It looked as if they'd been attacked and the only things that attacked this far east were orcs. So why were they watching the western shore so viciously?
It dawned on her. Some orcs must have made it across. Damn her luck in getting caught up in this, she had no time to go capering across the countryside looking for orcs, as much fun as it sounded. She could see the outline of Cair Andras ahead, maybe only a couple of miles away. But there was no cover between her hiding place and there.
Another thought dawned on her. If there was no cover this side of the river, then where were Chrissie, Fred and Mark? What if they'd been attacked by the orcs? What if they'd been captured by orcs?
She slumped down to the ground and sighed. She only had two days before the sect would be here and there was no doubt in her mind Canetha would be here before then. They were to meet actually on the island Lee had told her. So to cross, she would need to be at least half a mile upstream.
She turned and looked back down to the lines of soldiers. There was absolutely no way to get through there unnoticed. A piece of lateral thinking slid to her attention. Perhaps that was the point. Perhaps the only way to go through unnoticed was to be completely noticed? Kelly smiled slightly, on one hand she could well be hunted down like a fox by the soldiers, but on the other, small chance, she might get to the island before they knew what she was doing.
She took a deep breath and reached for the orc helmet she'd seen poking up through the undergrowth. She'd done this once before, but could she do it again?
***
Kelly padded out her cloak a little, knowing that if they were only going to see her outline and it had to look like that of an orc. She looked up to where to sun was rising in the east. She had better get a move on.
She slipped down the bank, cursing a little as she nearly stumbled. She ran full out over the plain, not stopping for any man. By the look of it was only two miles at the most. She heard the first shouts from the guards and put on an extra burst of speed.
***
A guard stood in one of the towers of Osgiliath noticed the dust cloud first. At first he could see no movement, but as he looked past it, he spotted an orc running north across the plain. For a full minute he stood and watched, wondering why on earth it wasn't attacking. Why was it running parallel to the river and not trying to cross?
His instincts kicked in as the dot began to get smaller, he rang the bell in the tower and noticed a line of archers appear on a walkway nearby. They notched their arrows and fired, not hesitating or even seeming to breath between shots.
The guard looked as the dot began to fade in the distance. The barrage of arrows stopped. Five soldiers on horseback appeared on the plain and began galloping after the orc. It was only one orc after all.
***
Kelly swore aloud as she saw the cloud of arrows coming for her. She had hoped a guard might be confused to see an orc running past for several minutes longer, but obviously the attack had been more severe than she'd thought.
She looked around for cover, but seeing none cursed again. This was definitely not her day. An arrow bounced off her helmet and she ducked another coming for her neck. It was almost a dance, twisting her head to see where the next arrow was coming behind her and adjusting her body accordingly.
She groaned as an arrow went clean through her palm, but smiled at the irony of it. Just over two weeks ago she had given a similar injury to her only natural enemy. Now she knew just how much it hurt.
She pulled the arrow out as she ran, pleased to see the arrows had stopped, but not happy to see that a patrol of guards were now galloping towards her.
Perhaps if they dismounted, she could take them if she were at full strength. But she was not, she reminded herself, her wound in her side was always slowing her down and if she wasn't careful it would get her killed.
She looked back ahead, trying not to think about the approaching guards.
"I will not be taken again." She swore silently. There were not many things she couldn't handle in some form, but being in a cage was one of them. She'd survived twice before, but a third time might just break her.
She would die before she let them take her again.
Cair Andras was now to her right, seeming to rise out of the waters in sheer defiance. Just another five minutes running and she might make it across she told herself.
She could feel the pound of the hooves on the ground now, feel the tremors shake through her body. She was glad they didn't have bows and arrows or she really would be stuffed.
They were only a hundred metres behind her now, so she began wading into the waters, regardless of how far upstream she was. If she didn't cross now, she would surely die.
Kelly took a deep breath and dove underneath the water, trying to stay beneath the surface for as long as possible. Perhaps they wouldn't be able to follow her movements and give up.
She went back to the surface and checked where she was. The guards were stood by the edge, watching the waters for her. She looked to the other side; she was nearly halfway across. Kicking hard with her feet she propelled herself towards a stone outcrop in the river and let herself catch her breath.
"Hey. I've found it. Captain!" A deep voiced shouted from the western side.
Damn, Kelly thought. She dived back under the water and was glad when she found the bottom not too far away. She swam until she thought her lungs would burst, then broke the surface and crawled up the bank. She dragged herself into some undergrowth and just lay there gasping like a fish out of water.
She thought about fighting back when two arms grabbed her and dragged her backwards, deeper into the island. She thought about struggling, but the run across the plain and swim had left her exhausted. She couldn't see how they could have got across the river so fast anyway, so she just let things be. She'd figure it out later.
***
Kelly woke up wrapped in a blanket, but it was twilight now. Swearing, she shook off her blanket. She was almost surprised to see Chrissie, Fred and Mark sat across from her, obviously not impressed.
She managed a meek smile.
"How on earth did you manage to get that lot behind you? You've only been gone less than twenty-four hours and you're already causing trouble." Fred said, half demanding and half laughing.
"It wasn't my fault really. Some orcs attacked last night and made it across the Anduin. They were feeling touchy. So I dressed up as an orc."
Chrissie raised an eyebrow. "So they're looking for orcs. They want to kill orcs. So you dress up as an orc."
Kelly nodded. "Yeah." Noticing Chrissie's puzzled face she added, "My logic, remember? I'm alive aren't I?"
"Barely." Mark added irritably. He still wasn't happy about her giving away the fellowship and killing an Elf. He still had issues to resolve before he would speak to her again nicely.
"Oh hello Mark. Nice to see you again too." She looked at his Elven clothing. She'd obviously hit a nerve somewhere along the line.
"So where's the meeting?" Fred asked, trying to break up the obvious tension between the others.
"Here, tomorrow at dusk." Kelly began as she ripped some strips from the bottom of her cloak. Although her hand had obviously stopped bleeding some time ago, she decided to bandage it anyway.
"Here? We thought we were safe here, out of the way and all." Fred said, obviously not liking the fact the sect was returning here.
"I told you to wait on the western bank, which would have been out of the way, but did you listen to me? Absolutely not." Kelly mumbled off. She knew she should have crossed to the eastern shore, orcs be damned. She wasn't scared of no stupid orcs.
Kelly ripped off another strip from her cloak, longer this time.
"You're not going to have any cloak left soon, you know." Chrissie said sarcastically.
Kelly looked up and laughed. "Never mind." She felt down her back for the knife wound. Just as she'd thought, her little escapade had broken most of the stitches and the damn thing was bleeding again.
Kelly cursed out loud in a way she learned from the sect. Fred raised an eyebrow.
"That's not very nice you know." She said quietly.
Kelly grunted as she added some more padding to the wound and tightened the bandage.
"Let's get planning then folks, we don't have much time."
***
Fred had constructed a miniature model of the island when Kelly got back, made out of twigs and fir cones. Kelly had gone to check where the guards were, if any patrols were moving this way. Thankfully they seemed to have gone back to Osgiliath. There was also no sign of Canetha.
Kelly dropped some pebbles by the side of the longest twig, meant to represent the river. "Osgiliath is here."
She dropped some small kindling on the east bank of the river, opposite Cair Andras. "The sect will cross here."
"But there's orcs on that side." Mark said. "Why would they risk that?"
Kelly smiled. "We have no fear of orcs. We are all instruments of the same master, and puppets do not destroy each other."
Mark frowned as he realised the implication of that statement.
Fred frowned when Kelly spoke of the sect as 'we'. No matter what they had done to her and made her do, she still thought of herself as a part of them. She thought about saying something, but she doubted it would do anything, make her think any differently. She'd been a part of it too long.
***
Kelly sat in one of the trees on the island, admiring the beauty of Middle Earth. Any respectable brother would be here at least half a day before to check the perimeters, check for intruders or spies. She yawned and nearly fell out of the tree, but luckily balance came easily to her as she shifted her weight on the branch.
She could see no-one in any direction; at least no one outside of Osgiliath. She hadn't slept at all that night, not wanting to risk not seeing them arrive. Today was the day when she would end the threat to Frodo.
She hadn't told them anything of what she planned to do, just that they should leave the island as soon as possible. She'd climbed the tree soon after those final words, seeing the look in Fred's eyes was more than enough reason to retreat. She knew what Fred thought of her and even though she knew it would never change, she didn't want to be around to experience it first hand.
Fred had been just about to launch into her 'you're not a member' speech and cry look what they're done to you every two minutes. Even though she'd made so many mistakes since her arrival seven weeks ago, she wouldn't change any of them. She liked what she had become; strong, powerful and someone who could really kick ass. She didn't ever want that to change.
Before she'd come to Middle Earth, she'd been weak and just another face in the crowd. She'd been the quiet one, the one who kept to herself in lessons and never did much. Sure she'd done expeditions and jumped out of planes and such, but that was only out of boredom. She'd changed so much and for the first time in her life, she was proud of herself, at least for some stuff.
Kelly didn't really expect them to leave, knowing how stubborn they could be, but at least she'd tried. And in truth at the time she hadn't known, but staying awake through the night had left her many hours to think on it.
She could leave the sect in tact; just kill Canetha and leave before they ever arrived. However, what she had wondered was what if the reason why there was nothing about the sect in Lord of the Rings was that it had been destroyed?
If she could somehow trap Canetha and the sect from Minas Tirith, then she could end it here and now. The training centre in Edoras had disbanded after Ordon and the Old Man had died. She'd been told the people there had gone home, which was nice.
There weren't actually that many sects, only in the major cities and she knew for a fact the Minas Tirith one was the largest. If she could take out this one, there would only be a few individuals dotted around Middle Earth and those residing inside Mordor.
She could only think of one way to eliminate them all in one sweep. Hand to hand combat was out, and similarly using a bow. She might take out two or three, but seventeen was out of the question. Thinking back to the way she'd killed Ordon had given her inspiration.
Morally, she knew it was wrong. She'd already killed one innocent and two not so innocent people, could she really live with herself if that number rose to twenty?
***
The conclusion she'd come to was at the end of the day, the people of Middle Earth were at war with Sauron. War was not about individual people, their morals and emotional baggage, but about people as a race fighting for what they believed in for a better end.
The only thing that stood between her and that end were the three people that sat quietly on the ground beneath her, most probably plotting how to capture her again. She needed something to keep the sect and Canetha all in one place, something that would distract them whilst she readied herself. In other words, she needed bait.
"Could I do it?" She asked herself quietly. Could she really go through with what she had now planned and betray them again? Could she really watch them die, seeing the whites of their eyes tremble in disbelief as they were consumed by the flames?
Thousands of people might live after her actions, all for the sacrifice of three. Four, she corrected herself; it was not likely she'd survive this herself.
She looked back to the horizon and noticed a lone figure running cautiously up the eastern riverbank.
"So it begins."