Disclaimer: I own nothing created by Tolkien.
Ch 20 An eye for an eye
"Tell me, where is the Ring bearer?" Saruman leaned over Fred who was tied to the table in the great hall where she had first met David.
"I don't know." Fred insisted, she could tell that Saruman was getting increasingly impatient, after all she knew he had more important things to do than deal with a girl.
One of the Orcs came over to her and held a pair of what looked like pliers up to her face.
"Either you tell me what I want to know or I let my friend here perform a little surgery. I'm not a very patient person and you are beginning to test my patience. Now, one last time, where is the Ring bearer?"
Fred was even more intimidated than usual by the White Wizard, he had a look in his eye like he was going to kill her if she didn't tell him.
"I don't know. Please, don't hurt me."
Saruman let out and angry sigh and nodded to the Orc with the pliers. He bent down over her until they were touching her face. She didn't know what he was going to do, after all it was hard to perform surgery with just pliers.
"Tell me what I want to know or he'll stick that wonderful torture weapon in your eye and you'll never 'see' your friends again."
"I don't know where he is now. I saw him a long time ago but I don't know where he was heading. I promise. Please, you have to believe me."
Saruman smiled evilly. "I believe you."
Fred sighed in relief. Saruman nodded to the Orc with the pliers. Fred saw them coming towards her and she tried to squirm away from the Orc but she was bound too tightly. There was no way of escaping. She cried out and wished that David could hear her, although she knew it was hopeless.
The pliers touched her eye and she screamed in pain, everything went black in one eye and she felt blood trickling down her face. She wished she could push the Orc away and remove the instrument from her eye but there was no way.
Fred felt the instrument going inside her and she hardly believed what was happening, she had told Saruman that she didn't know anything and she couldn't understand why he was doing this to her. It hurt so much and she couldn't do anything to stop it. She tried to think of things that took her mind off it but she couldn't get rid of that terrible feeling. She knew that soon he would pull out the pliers and she hated to think what would happen. She wondered if she would ever be able to see again. This was when another disturbing thought came to her mind, would he take out the other eye as well?
She could see nothing in her right eye either, she knew that it wasn't damaged just drenched in blood.
Fred cried out in pain as she felt the pliers digging deeper inside her head and she wondered if this could kill her. The only comfort was that she knew Saruman didn't believe her and so would want her alive, however this didn't help with the terrible pain she was feeling or the thought that she would never see out of her left eye again.
The pain was overwhelming, she knew that torture was painful but she hadn't expected this. She cried out Bob and Ned's names hoping for the feeling that they were with her but there was nothing. After a few more minutes she felt herself slipping away and she welcomed the blackness that engulfed her. She was tugged away from this seemingly peaceful place by the sound of Saruman's voice.
"Are you sure you don't want to change your mind?"
She tried to shake her head but the single movement sent a wave of pain through her head.
Saruman sighed knowing that he should kill the girl but he still felt like there was something intriguing about her, she knew more than she was letting on and he wanted to know what it was.
"Take her back to the cell." He shouted at the Orc who was now examining Fred's eye that was on the end of the pliers. He had never had so much fun and hoped that Saruman would let him take the other one out soon.
Fred lay still on the table and wished she could see what was going on, she felt the bonds around her arms and shoulders being released. She instantly reached up to her face and tried to clear some of the blood from her right eye. Finally she dared to open her good eye and the first thing she saw was the Orc leaning over her holding a pair of blood-stained pliers. On the end of these was a round object that she recognised. She couldn't believe that she was looking at her own eye.
She felt the nausea rising in her stomach and resisted the urge to hit out at the Orc. She wondered whether she could sit up but this just made her feel even more ill and so she decided it would be best to stay where she was.
The Orc had other ideas though, on realising that Fred didn't want to see what had happened her grabbed her by the arm and dragged her roughly into a sitting position. She screamed at the amount of pain this produced. The Orc seemed pleased that he was hurting her.
"You know, my boss wouldn't mind if I had a little fun before I put you back into that cold, dark cell." The Orc sneered.
Fred looked questioningly and it suddenly struck her what it meant. She let out a cry, which was quickly stifled by the Orc's rough hand. She tried to call out, not that it would do any good, but she couldn't. In fact, she could hardly breathe. Tears rolled down her face as she tried to squirm out of his grip but every time she tried he just held her tighter.
She could smell his hot breath on her neck and wished she could get free but there was nothing she could do.
The Orc but his face against her neck and seemed to relish in the blood that was still pouring down her face. She still struggled to get away but it seemed impossible. The Orc began to sniff at her neck, she knew that he wanted the blood and wondered briefly if he would make it. She hoped not.
Just as the Orc was about to bite her and taste her flesh a booming voice came from down the hall and the room went dark. Fred didn't know what happened and she just sat there with the Orc still gripping her tightly. The room was completely silent except from Fred's heavy breathing. The door to the room swung open and the image of a man in a hat that reminded Fred of Gandalf appeared.
The Orc jumped down from the table and scuttled to a corner away from the shape. A great blast of wind blew through the room and Fred dived to the floor to avoid being hurt by it. She glanced over to the door and wondered who the man was, she was sure it wasn't Saruman but the figure looked familiar in some way.
The figure suddenly disappeared and the candles in the room seemed to grow a flame again. Fred closed her eyes quickly to check that she was awake. When she opened them again the room was the way it had been before except for the trembling figure of the Orc in the corner.
The Orc slowly got to his feet and roughly pulled Fred off the floor, this time she didn't struggle. The Orc pushed her towards the door and through the corridors until they reached Fred's cell. Neither of them could believe what happened but Fred was grateful to whoever it was. She wondered if Bob had anything to do with it but quickly dismissed the idea when she thought of the power Bob possessed.
Fred was thrown into her cell without any thought about whether it hurt her or not. She was still in terrible pain but for a second she almost forgot about it when she began to wonder who the mysterious man in the doorway was. For now she was just glad that she was alive and didn't have that vile Orc breathing down her neck.
David was in the cell still and he rose to his feet when he heard the door opening, he had been worried about what was happening to his newfound friend and was concerned about what the evil Wizard would do to her. When the door opened and he saw her with her eye missing and blood completely covering her face he couldn't believe that it was Fred. For a moment he was a little cautious but when he heard her whisper his name he moved towards her. As he did so Fred began to fall. David caught her before she hit the floor.
David couldn't believe what they had done to her; she was almost unrecognisable as the Fred he had gotten to know. Surprising he felt angry that someone had hurt her and he wanted revenge on the Wizard and the Orc that had done it. He wondered whether anything else had happened when she was being tortured.
He was amazed that this girl could stand up to someone as powerful as Saruman, she couldn't have told them anything otherwise she would either be dead or free and she was neither. He couldn't understand why she was here and why she didn't just tell Saruman what he wanted to know and be let go. David was beginning to understand that there was more to Fred than he first thought.
He held her tightly for some time thinking about what would have happened if they had met somewhere else. He was certain that they would have been good friends or something more. At least he hoped. There was no way that she would be thinking about that kind of thing when she was being tortured in a strange land.
There was still something that puzzled David even though Fred had told him a lot about herself. She seemed to know more than she was letting on, there was always something that he was trying to work out about her, whether it was about herself, her homeland or her friends. He wondered if she had someone else back at home that she loved, after all with someone this mysterious and intriguing he was sure she did.
David picked Fred up effortlessly. He placed her carefully on the stone bed and began to gently clean her face with his ration of water, it was worth going thirsty if it made her feel better. He didn't know whether to properly clean the wound or not but decided that it was the only thing he could really do.
He quickly examined the place where her eye had been and found that it was badly damaged but would probably not cause too much of a problem. The fact that she was now missing her left eye was a little worse. He wondered if she knew or understood what happened or whether she had been in too much shock to fully understand it. He hoped it was the latter for her sake, having your eye taken out must have been very painful and distressing for her.
Fred's breathing was shallow but he guessed that was from the massive shock she had, he knew that he would be the same if it were him.
**
A few hours later Fred awoke from a deep sleep. The first thing she saw was the handsome and concerned face of David staring down at her and asking her if she was okay. At first she didn't know what to say or do. He seemed very close to her. It was upon looking up at him that she remembered what happened. Her hand instinctively reached up to her face and she yelped in pain when it touched her left eye.
The horrors of what happened suddenly came back to her and she looked longingly at David to help her understand. Unfortunately he wasn't much help and he wanted to ask her what happened but on seeing the confused look on her still bloodstained face he decided to keep quiet.
"Are you alright?" He asked softly.
Fred thought this was a very stupid question and felt like telling him what it was really like to have your eye removed and then shoved in your face. Her self-control took over before she could say any of this and she came up with a far more civil answer.
"I think so. I'm still not entirely sure what happened. Apart from the obvious."
David laughed falsely and Fred couldn't blame him, it was a bad attempt at humour that obviously hadn't worked. It had just made the situation even more strained.
"I cleaned your face. I took the liberty of tending to your wounds as well, you were asleep, I didn't want to wake you to ask your permission." He said all of this very quickly as if he was defending his actions.
"That's fine. I'm glad you did. I think it was probably best that I was asleep when you did it. It hurt less." She smiled once again.
David couldn't help but admire her humour in such a distressing time, nothing ever seemed to bother her too much and he wished he possessed the same quality. He wondered whether she was like that at home with her friends.
"Is something wrong?" She questioned, seeing a far away look in his eyes.
"No. Of course not, Fred."
She could instantly tell he was lying. For years she had come to know what someone looked like when they were not being truthful, although the lies of her friend Ned still baffled her. David was far more innocent though. A real warrior she imagined. She could picture him fighting for his freedom and the freedom of his country. Fred wondered if he was well known for his skills as a warrior, although he hadn't said anything about his past or why he was in the dungeon. He had explained about his brother and family but she guessed that there was something more to it than that.
They both looked at each other and smiled awkwardly, neither knowing what to say or do.
Fred decided to break the uneasy silence.
"Thanks for cleaning me up. You shouldn't have used your water ration, you'll need it." She smiled.
"It was my duty to help you, although I fear I did not do a good job."
"No. No, it was fine. Thanks." Fred politely smiled, she realised that the uncomfortable speech was worse than the silence.
Fred's head still pounded even though she was sure she had slept for several hours, strangely she still felt weak and tired. She figured that it was because she had been trying to work out who the figure in the doorway was. She still had no idea. For a moment she thought about asking David but decided that she'd probably sound completely mad.
She had never really believed in angels or things like that but thinking of that figure made her wonder whether it really was some kind of angel. She quickly dismissed the thought as being ridiculous. Was being in Orthanc messing with her mind? It wouldn't surprise her.
David looked across at Fred to find her deep in thought, although he could not read her mind he knew she was thinking of something of great importance yet he was almost afraid to ask. He really didn't know her that well.
"Does something trouble you?" He asked quietly as if reluctant to disturb her thoughts.
"What? Oh, no nothings wrong. I was just thinking about something."
"Is it anything I can help you with?" He asked.
"I don't think so." She almost laughed.
David looked so hurt by this that she felt like she had to tell him what was wrong, after all he was very intelligent and seemed to be genuinely interested and concerned. The worst he could do was laugh at her, and that was nothing compared to what she had been through so far.
"It sounds so stupid now." She explained, "When I was in that room, after Saruman left, the Orc.he, well.you know." She tried to explain but it wasn't working.
"Did he hurt you?" David said angrily.
"No, well not like that. Something stopped him." She paused to see if David was following any of this, his attentive look told her to continue. "There was a blast of wind at exactly the time he was going to hurt me. It was as if it was planned. I fell to the floor and I thought I saw something, or someone, at the door. I can't describe it but it felt like he was helping me. When I went to thank him he just disappeared and everything went back to normal. Does that sound crazy?"
David thought for a second and finally replied, "No. Not at all. When I first came here and was put through my first torture session I thought I saw my brother coming to help me, when I reached out for him I was gone. Torture can do strange things to your mind Fred. You should not believe everything you think you see." He took her hand in his and squeezed it tightly for support.
"No. You don't understand, I wasn't imagining it. He was real, the Orc saw it too, he was really freaked out."
"Freaked out?" David said questioningly.
"You know? Surprised."
"Oh."
"You don't believe me do you?" Fred said quietly.
"Of course I do Fred." He said very sincerely.
David pulled her in close to him and she leaned on his shoulder pleased that she was no longer alone.
Ch 20 An eye for an eye
"Tell me, where is the Ring bearer?" Saruman leaned over Fred who was tied to the table in the great hall where she had first met David.
"I don't know." Fred insisted, she could tell that Saruman was getting increasingly impatient, after all she knew he had more important things to do than deal with a girl.
One of the Orcs came over to her and held a pair of what looked like pliers up to her face.
"Either you tell me what I want to know or I let my friend here perform a little surgery. I'm not a very patient person and you are beginning to test my patience. Now, one last time, where is the Ring bearer?"
Fred was even more intimidated than usual by the White Wizard, he had a look in his eye like he was going to kill her if she didn't tell him.
"I don't know. Please, don't hurt me."
Saruman let out and angry sigh and nodded to the Orc with the pliers. He bent down over her until they were touching her face. She didn't know what he was going to do, after all it was hard to perform surgery with just pliers.
"Tell me what I want to know or he'll stick that wonderful torture weapon in your eye and you'll never 'see' your friends again."
"I don't know where he is now. I saw him a long time ago but I don't know where he was heading. I promise. Please, you have to believe me."
Saruman smiled evilly. "I believe you."
Fred sighed in relief. Saruman nodded to the Orc with the pliers. Fred saw them coming towards her and she tried to squirm away from the Orc but she was bound too tightly. There was no way of escaping. She cried out and wished that David could hear her, although she knew it was hopeless.
The pliers touched her eye and she screamed in pain, everything went black in one eye and she felt blood trickling down her face. She wished she could push the Orc away and remove the instrument from her eye but there was no way.
Fred felt the instrument going inside her and she hardly believed what was happening, she had told Saruman that she didn't know anything and she couldn't understand why he was doing this to her. It hurt so much and she couldn't do anything to stop it. She tried to think of things that took her mind off it but she couldn't get rid of that terrible feeling. She knew that soon he would pull out the pliers and she hated to think what would happen. She wondered if she would ever be able to see again. This was when another disturbing thought came to her mind, would he take out the other eye as well?
She could see nothing in her right eye either, she knew that it wasn't damaged just drenched in blood.
Fred cried out in pain as she felt the pliers digging deeper inside her head and she wondered if this could kill her. The only comfort was that she knew Saruman didn't believe her and so would want her alive, however this didn't help with the terrible pain she was feeling or the thought that she would never see out of her left eye again.
The pain was overwhelming, she knew that torture was painful but she hadn't expected this. She cried out Bob and Ned's names hoping for the feeling that they were with her but there was nothing. After a few more minutes she felt herself slipping away and she welcomed the blackness that engulfed her. She was tugged away from this seemingly peaceful place by the sound of Saruman's voice.
"Are you sure you don't want to change your mind?"
She tried to shake her head but the single movement sent a wave of pain through her head.
Saruman sighed knowing that he should kill the girl but he still felt like there was something intriguing about her, she knew more than she was letting on and he wanted to know what it was.
"Take her back to the cell." He shouted at the Orc who was now examining Fred's eye that was on the end of the pliers. He had never had so much fun and hoped that Saruman would let him take the other one out soon.
Fred lay still on the table and wished she could see what was going on, she felt the bonds around her arms and shoulders being released. She instantly reached up to her face and tried to clear some of the blood from her right eye. Finally she dared to open her good eye and the first thing she saw was the Orc leaning over her holding a pair of blood-stained pliers. On the end of these was a round object that she recognised. She couldn't believe that she was looking at her own eye.
She felt the nausea rising in her stomach and resisted the urge to hit out at the Orc. She wondered whether she could sit up but this just made her feel even more ill and so she decided it would be best to stay where she was.
The Orc had other ideas though, on realising that Fred didn't want to see what had happened her grabbed her by the arm and dragged her roughly into a sitting position. She screamed at the amount of pain this produced. The Orc seemed pleased that he was hurting her.
"You know, my boss wouldn't mind if I had a little fun before I put you back into that cold, dark cell." The Orc sneered.
Fred looked questioningly and it suddenly struck her what it meant. She let out a cry, which was quickly stifled by the Orc's rough hand. She tried to call out, not that it would do any good, but she couldn't. In fact, she could hardly breathe. Tears rolled down her face as she tried to squirm out of his grip but every time she tried he just held her tighter.
She could smell his hot breath on her neck and wished she could get free but there was nothing she could do.
The Orc but his face against her neck and seemed to relish in the blood that was still pouring down her face. She still struggled to get away but it seemed impossible. The Orc began to sniff at her neck, she knew that he wanted the blood and wondered briefly if he would make it. She hoped not.
Just as the Orc was about to bite her and taste her flesh a booming voice came from down the hall and the room went dark. Fred didn't know what happened and she just sat there with the Orc still gripping her tightly. The room was completely silent except from Fred's heavy breathing. The door to the room swung open and the image of a man in a hat that reminded Fred of Gandalf appeared.
The Orc jumped down from the table and scuttled to a corner away from the shape. A great blast of wind blew through the room and Fred dived to the floor to avoid being hurt by it. She glanced over to the door and wondered who the man was, she was sure it wasn't Saruman but the figure looked familiar in some way.
The figure suddenly disappeared and the candles in the room seemed to grow a flame again. Fred closed her eyes quickly to check that she was awake. When she opened them again the room was the way it had been before except for the trembling figure of the Orc in the corner.
The Orc slowly got to his feet and roughly pulled Fred off the floor, this time she didn't struggle. The Orc pushed her towards the door and through the corridors until they reached Fred's cell. Neither of them could believe what happened but Fred was grateful to whoever it was. She wondered if Bob had anything to do with it but quickly dismissed the idea when she thought of the power Bob possessed.
Fred was thrown into her cell without any thought about whether it hurt her or not. She was still in terrible pain but for a second she almost forgot about it when she began to wonder who the mysterious man in the doorway was. For now she was just glad that she was alive and didn't have that vile Orc breathing down her neck.
David was in the cell still and he rose to his feet when he heard the door opening, he had been worried about what was happening to his newfound friend and was concerned about what the evil Wizard would do to her. When the door opened and he saw her with her eye missing and blood completely covering her face he couldn't believe that it was Fred. For a moment he was a little cautious but when he heard her whisper his name he moved towards her. As he did so Fred began to fall. David caught her before she hit the floor.
David couldn't believe what they had done to her; she was almost unrecognisable as the Fred he had gotten to know. Surprising he felt angry that someone had hurt her and he wanted revenge on the Wizard and the Orc that had done it. He wondered whether anything else had happened when she was being tortured.
He was amazed that this girl could stand up to someone as powerful as Saruman, she couldn't have told them anything otherwise she would either be dead or free and she was neither. He couldn't understand why she was here and why she didn't just tell Saruman what he wanted to know and be let go. David was beginning to understand that there was more to Fred than he first thought.
He held her tightly for some time thinking about what would have happened if they had met somewhere else. He was certain that they would have been good friends or something more. At least he hoped. There was no way that she would be thinking about that kind of thing when she was being tortured in a strange land.
There was still something that puzzled David even though Fred had told him a lot about herself. She seemed to know more than she was letting on, there was always something that he was trying to work out about her, whether it was about herself, her homeland or her friends. He wondered if she had someone else back at home that she loved, after all with someone this mysterious and intriguing he was sure she did.
David picked Fred up effortlessly. He placed her carefully on the stone bed and began to gently clean her face with his ration of water, it was worth going thirsty if it made her feel better. He didn't know whether to properly clean the wound or not but decided that it was the only thing he could really do.
He quickly examined the place where her eye had been and found that it was badly damaged but would probably not cause too much of a problem. The fact that she was now missing her left eye was a little worse. He wondered if she knew or understood what happened or whether she had been in too much shock to fully understand it. He hoped it was the latter for her sake, having your eye taken out must have been very painful and distressing for her.
Fred's breathing was shallow but he guessed that was from the massive shock she had, he knew that he would be the same if it were him.
**
A few hours later Fred awoke from a deep sleep. The first thing she saw was the handsome and concerned face of David staring down at her and asking her if she was okay. At first she didn't know what to say or do. He seemed very close to her. It was upon looking up at him that she remembered what happened. Her hand instinctively reached up to her face and she yelped in pain when it touched her left eye.
The horrors of what happened suddenly came back to her and she looked longingly at David to help her understand. Unfortunately he wasn't much help and he wanted to ask her what happened but on seeing the confused look on her still bloodstained face he decided to keep quiet.
"Are you alright?" He asked softly.
Fred thought this was a very stupid question and felt like telling him what it was really like to have your eye removed and then shoved in your face. Her self-control took over before she could say any of this and she came up with a far more civil answer.
"I think so. I'm still not entirely sure what happened. Apart from the obvious."
David laughed falsely and Fred couldn't blame him, it was a bad attempt at humour that obviously hadn't worked. It had just made the situation even more strained.
"I cleaned your face. I took the liberty of tending to your wounds as well, you were asleep, I didn't want to wake you to ask your permission." He said all of this very quickly as if he was defending his actions.
"That's fine. I'm glad you did. I think it was probably best that I was asleep when you did it. It hurt less." She smiled once again.
David couldn't help but admire her humour in such a distressing time, nothing ever seemed to bother her too much and he wished he possessed the same quality. He wondered whether she was like that at home with her friends.
"Is something wrong?" She questioned, seeing a far away look in his eyes.
"No. Of course not, Fred."
She could instantly tell he was lying. For years she had come to know what someone looked like when they were not being truthful, although the lies of her friend Ned still baffled her. David was far more innocent though. A real warrior she imagined. She could picture him fighting for his freedom and the freedom of his country. Fred wondered if he was well known for his skills as a warrior, although he hadn't said anything about his past or why he was in the dungeon. He had explained about his brother and family but she guessed that there was something more to it than that.
They both looked at each other and smiled awkwardly, neither knowing what to say or do.
Fred decided to break the uneasy silence.
"Thanks for cleaning me up. You shouldn't have used your water ration, you'll need it." She smiled.
"It was my duty to help you, although I fear I did not do a good job."
"No. No, it was fine. Thanks." Fred politely smiled, she realised that the uncomfortable speech was worse than the silence.
Fred's head still pounded even though she was sure she had slept for several hours, strangely she still felt weak and tired. She figured that it was because she had been trying to work out who the figure in the doorway was. She still had no idea. For a moment she thought about asking David but decided that she'd probably sound completely mad.
She had never really believed in angels or things like that but thinking of that figure made her wonder whether it really was some kind of angel. She quickly dismissed the thought as being ridiculous. Was being in Orthanc messing with her mind? It wouldn't surprise her.
David looked across at Fred to find her deep in thought, although he could not read her mind he knew she was thinking of something of great importance yet he was almost afraid to ask. He really didn't know her that well.
"Does something trouble you?" He asked quietly as if reluctant to disturb her thoughts.
"What? Oh, no nothings wrong. I was just thinking about something."
"Is it anything I can help you with?" He asked.
"I don't think so." She almost laughed.
David looked so hurt by this that she felt like she had to tell him what was wrong, after all he was very intelligent and seemed to be genuinely interested and concerned. The worst he could do was laugh at her, and that was nothing compared to what she had been through so far.
"It sounds so stupid now." She explained, "When I was in that room, after Saruman left, the Orc.he, well.you know." She tried to explain but it wasn't working.
"Did he hurt you?" David said angrily.
"No, well not like that. Something stopped him." She paused to see if David was following any of this, his attentive look told her to continue. "There was a blast of wind at exactly the time he was going to hurt me. It was as if it was planned. I fell to the floor and I thought I saw something, or someone, at the door. I can't describe it but it felt like he was helping me. When I went to thank him he just disappeared and everything went back to normal. Does that sound crazy?"
David thought for a second and finally replied, "No. Not at all. When I first came here and was put through my first torture session I thought I saw my brother coming to help me, when I reached out for him I was gone. Torture can do strange things to your mind Fred. You should not believe everything you think you see." He took her hand in his and squeezed it tightly for support.
"No. You don't understand, I wasn't imagining it. He was real, the Orc saw it too, he was really freaked out."
"Freaked out?" David said questioningly.
"You know? Surprised."
"Oh."
"You don't believe me do you?" Fred said quietly.
"Of course I do Fred." He said very sincerely.
David pulled her in close to him and she leaned on his shoulder pleased that she was no longer alone.