Chapter 26 - Ringspell

"Put it on, dear hobbit," goaded the ring. "Do not be hesitant. You

said you wanted to conquer the world of - what? Ah, right. The world

of the farmers. So, listen to my words. Put the ring on your finger.

Now."

Gently, the ring persuaded Pippin. It purred and cooed to the young

hobbit to have its will granted. The ring certain had no intentions

of helping Pip. It just ached to be visible to the Nazgul. It

yearned for its master, Sauron, and promised the world to convince

the simple hobbit to slip the ring on his diminutive finger.

All the ring needed to do was make sure Pippin had it on his tiny

finger, and the rest would be taken care of.

Pippin caressed the ring gently.

"So, this is how it works, just put it on?" asked Pippin in his

small voice.

"Exactly."

"And I will turn into the farmers' lord?"

"Even before you realize it!"

Pip kept on rubbing the gold band.

"All right."

The ring almost cheered happily, but -

"But maybe later," said Pippin calmly. "Wait until we reach the

Shire. There are not too many farmers here."

The ring was silenced. It had been able to influence a mighty man

such as Isildur so easily; yet, it couldn't beat this foolishly

innocent creature. Shame, shame!

"Why should you wait?" The ring gave another try. "Just put on the

ring around your finger while we are here. You'll be in the Shire in

an instant!"

Pip couldn't hold back his laughter.

"What do you think I am? A wizard? I don't have a flying broom to

take me there!"

The ring almost choked with amazement. Now, how could it respond to

that? This hobbit was ridiculous, but he was not bending.

Impatiently, the ring tried and tried. Pippin finally got upset. He

snapped.

"Quiet! Who is the master here? I own you, you know! It is up to me

when and where I decide to put you on!"

The ring recoiled. It had never guessed that this new master who

looked so childish and frail could behave as if he were the most

powerful man in the Middle Earth. Or had he already become one?

In the end, the ring decided to seduce Pip later, when his

corruption was more complete. That the hobbit loved to touch and

fondle the ring was in itself encouraging.

Pippin curled up and started to hum, completely ignoring his

surroundings. He didn't realize that there were stares coming from

two big folks.

"He's been there for almost two days. I don't know who he is. I

mean, I know some hobbit families here in Bree, the respectable

ones. And he is not one of their children," mumbled one of them.

They were standing not far from the ditch where Pippin was lying.

The other one shook his head.

"I pity him. He looks like someone who comes from a respectable

family, too. If only he were less filthy."

"You're right. But I think he's mad. He talks to himself all the

time! And he's holding something. I wonder what it is."

"Want to check it out?"

*****

Saruman didn't let Frodo rest longer. He shook the hobbit's body to

awaken him. Then he slowly slipped a length of knotted rope through

Frodo's head and tightened it around the neck, not too tightly so

that it wouldn't suffocate him.

Frodo started and tried to pull it free. He failed. The twisted

wizard had his hands secured behind his back. The fair hobbit looked

at the man wearily. His eyes began to get glassy. His head was still

hurt from the previous impact. He fought hard not to cry.

"Would you please take this off?" He moved his head to show what he

meant. "I'll take you wherever you want, but I can't! I really

can't! I didn't want to at first but I realize now that I don't know

where Merry is. I was unconscious when you took me away." Frodo

searched for Ted. The man was standing a bit far.

Ted looked confused. He pitied this soft-looking halfling who seemed

to be always in trouble. But it was impossible to help him. Saruman

was too powerful. He wondered what would happen to him if he decided

to go astray.

Frodo realized that, too. Therefore he no longer begged openly. He

just sent a silent plea through his dazed eyes.

"I can't be more useful to you," added Frodo to Saruman. "I am

without my ring and I don't know where it is." If Saruman wanted to

kill him, so be it. He was exhausted, physically and mentally.

"Oh, why are you so sad, Frodo Baggins?" Saruman asked

mockingly. "You might be useless in that case -but you very well

might not. At any rate, I can still see why I opt to keep you,

Gandalf's dearest and priceless friend. He will do anything to get

you back."

Frodo squeezed his eyes shut. Gandalf's friend? Another lie. But he

didn't say anything.

Saruman tugged the rope, dragging Frodo up. Ted helped mount Frodo

to Saruman's horse and coiled the rope to the saddle's horn,

preventing Frodo from jumping down from the beast.

The horse neighed softly when Saruman jumped on its back. Ted was

on his own horse in an instant.

Saruman reached out for the reign and steered it, turning back in

Bree's direction. The wizard now knew that he would find the ring

there.

***

Sam looked at Strider in despair.

"He lost the ring. I couldn't care less about it, though." Sam

sighed. "It is Mr. Frodo that I worry about."

Merry's twisted lips that were once full of rage turned into a grin.

"You still don't get it, do you, Sam? Frodo does not care about you

anymore!" Merry turned his gaze to Strider. "And he could care

less about you-Ranger! Frodo only mentioned you after one of his

more difficult.lessons."

Sam was upon the bound hobbit like a hawk in for the kill. He

pulled Merry up by the collar and glared at him with fiery rage.

"What..lessons, Devil! What did you do to Frodo?"

Merry grinned widely-but it was a grin laced with blackened cruel

mirth. He may have been bound, but he was back in control.

Strider was quickly losing patience.

"Speak, Halfling! This is not a game we will play. If you haven't

yet noticed, you have no power over us!"

Though Strider spoke the words with authority, he instantly knew

them to be untrue. One look at the anguish that flooded Sam's face

told him as much. Merry had faithful Sam wrapped around his every

word. Strider has a sinking feeling that the next part of

this "conversation" would not be pretty. And he was terribly right.

"YOUR Frodo?" laughed Merry darkly. "Your Frodo thinks you are

dead. Your Frodo belongs to ME now. If YOUR FRODO were here right

now, he would come, begging and pleading to ME, with his child-like

eyes, his submissive posture. He's my little pet now. Did you know

he worships me-Sam? He thinks I am his ONLY friend!"

"LIAR!" yelled Sam with a voice so loud it echoed through the

trees. "You betrayed him terribly. Why should he make a friend out

of the likes o' you?"

Strider bit down hard on his lip trying to suppress his fury. If

Sam were without a clue, Strider was not. The Ranger understood

that that there were ways in which a person might be broken and

reconstructed. The idea that this might have been done to poor

Frodo made him nearly mindless with anger. Strider dreaded what was

coming, and hoped beyond hope that Sam would just ask Merry to be

silent.
"Oh, Sam, chased Merry. "It wasn't hard. At first, of course, he

was very angry and wholly uncooperative. Even attacked me, he did,

when I took the ring from him. A strong punch he gave, right

here." Merry pointed to his slightly bluish jaw. "And at that

time, I don't think he really saw me as his friend."
Sam smiled a little. "You earned that punch, Mr. Merry! Good ol'

Mr. Frodo! He knows a snake when `e sees it! Look, here, Merry-

Frodo doesn't see you as his friend!"
Sam was so jubilant over the thought of Frodo socking Merry that he

relaxed his hold on the smirking hobbit and let him slide back to

the ground with a thud. But Merry was not done. He sat himself up

upon his elbows to deliver the last crushing emotional blow.

Strider's face darkened.
"Oh, Sam! But he DOES. He does now. You see, you did not let me

finish my tale." Merry was almost gleeful now. He has the stocky

hobbit's full and undivided attention. Unbeknownst to him, he also

had the ranger's.
"After that show of .petulance, Pippin and I decided Frodo needed to

be restrained. And, Sam-it was till two against one, and of course,

the ring gave me that extra little.(Merry struggled for the perfect

word)..boost. So bound up your master in a sheet and tied him to

the bed so that we could go out for a well deserved pint-o-ale and

so Frodo could have the time to think about his misbehavior without

the distraction of his senses."

"YOU DEVILS!" exclaimed Sam, as he grasped Merry by the collar

again.

"But somehow, dear Sam, your master managed to escape."

Plunk! Sam dropped Merry, overcome with emotion.

"Frodo escaped! He's free? Where---?"
"No worries, faithful Sam!" continued Merry, clearly enjoying the

tug he had on Sam's fragile emotional state. "We found him

wandering about Bree, missing the sheet, but still bound. I suppose

he was searching for you."
Tears welled up in Sam's eyes as he envisioned his dear Frodo, cold,

tied, calling out his name, alone, and scared. If only he had

known!!!

"But you didn't see him, did you SAM?" stabbed Merry.
Sam began sobbing. HE was so devastated, he forgot to be enraged.
"So he came back under our gentle care. We gave him refreshing tea

with some special ingredients to help your poor master relax and get

some sleep."
Strider translated. "You drugged him."
"If you must put it like that-yes, I suppose so," chirped

Merry. "And we felt so underappreciated that we felt it best to put

Frodo somewhere where he might, in time come to better appreciate

us. So we housed him away from us in a dark barn outside of town.

Only a few days without food in a pitch dark cellar did the trick!

He called for us, Frodo. He came back to us as if we were candy.

And seeing him subdued, we were kind, very Kind."
If Sam was befuddled, Strider was not. Sam remained silent, taking

in every sentence. Striders fists began ton involuntarily clinch.
"We sat him down and spoon fed him applesauce, gave him all the

water he could drink. And he thanked us, Sam. He thanked me with

eyes that looked like those of a newly-adopted puppy. In that

moment he saw me as not only a friend, but as a loving guardian!"
"But he couldn't Merry!" exclaimed Sam in disbelief. "You were the

one that starved him-that put him in that cruel barn!"
"Poor naïve Sam. You still don't get it. I broke him. And when he

still refused to tell me about the ring, I broke Frodo some more. I

bound him to the chair so he couldn't move an inch, and blindfolded

him, and from there led his mind in new and more useful directions.

By the time I was done with that lesson, Sam, he was so broken he

asked me to kill him, but I didn't, dear Sam. No-I took off the

blindfold, kissed him, cajoled him, and asked only that he see me as

a friend. But he was not yet utterly broken. Do you know whose

name he called, Samwise? Can you guess?"
Sam's eyes were big as saucers. Tears streamed down. He did not

answer.
"Yours. He called your name, Sam."
Sam's breath hitched. And the tears kept falling. His expression

bounced between horror and unrestrained joy.
"But I couldn't have that, Sam. I needed him to tell me the secret

of my new precious possession, and I knew he would not unless he was

totally, completely mine. I needed him to see me, not YOU as his

everything. So every time he called out your name, Sam-and he

called it out A LOT, I took my belt and thrashed his legs. `Sam!

Sam! Sam!' Merry imitated in a mocking voice."
Sam could barely breathe through his anguish. Merry continued

triumphantly.

"He called your name so many times. I had to thrash his legs until

they bled and bled and until he lost his grip on consciousness and

blacked out. And when he awoke, he was utterly mine! He loved only

me, his only friend. We took him in our arms then, Sam, and tried

to feed him, as he sobbed and sobbed like a child. All thoughts of

you, his dear Sam, were utterly banished. To Frodo, Sam, you are

literally dead and- "
Merry did not have the opportunity to finish his thought, as a pair

of large hands fastened around his shirt collar.
Strider had tried to be patient but he couldn't stand it anymore.

He had fought a battle with his own fury and had lost. He grabbed

the crumpled heap up, held Merry in place with his left hand, and

struck him hard on the face with his right hand. At first Merry

didn't feel anything on his cheek. He just felt sore all over his

neck when his head was snapped to the right. But then the feeling

came. Merry felt as if his left cheek were burning. Strider had

slapped him with all his might.
Now Merry almost couldn't stand the stinging pain. He sobbed. It was

worsened by his inability to rub his cheek to lessen the hurt, not

with his hands still tied behind his back.
Strider's anger had not been totally quenched yet. He raised his

right hand again. Merry went rigid to see it coming to him. And it

did. Strider blew at exactly the same place as before, Merry's left

cheek. The yet unhealed burn from the first strike cracked for the

second time.

Merry whimpered through his bleeding lips. He shivered. It was hard

to tell that he was the same hobbit who had uttered the evil,

mindless words about Sam's beloved master, Frodo. The blows degraded

him to the lowest level of humanity. Sam could no longer see the

pride in his eyes. Sam could only spot Merry, his old Mr. Merry,

pained and broken, in his companion's hands.

What would become of him later on, Sam thought.

"Who has the ring now?" he demanded.

Merry looked down and mumbled, "Pippin."

Sam heaved disappointedly. And where was Pippin? That made the

matters more complex. Were they going to look for Pippin with the

ring, or Frodo? Thinking about his master again, Sam began to cry.

TBC