7-14-03
Hello everyone… a longish chapter here for you all. I know I promised to include part of Faramir and Eowyn's meeting here, but as it turned out my plans changed slightly so that'll come later. Sorry!
12. The Battle Cry of Mirkwood
"Ride now! Ride to Gondor!" The cry echoed through the Riders of Rohan. The trumpets of war sounded and the horses surged forward, bearing their riders to the battle on the horizon. Morning was just beginning to show itself and the warriors of Rohan rode to Gondor in the gray light that precedes the dawn.
When the battle was joined the Riders sang out in the joy of the fight. In the still morning all that could be heard was the fierce clanging of swords. When at last the enemy retreated a little the hopes of the fighters were lifted until they saw what came.
The lord of the Nazgûl swept down upon them on the back of a great lizardlike creature that soared through the air on massive wings. The horse of the King reared and Théoden was crushed beneath him. The winged beast used its great sharp claws and killed Snowmane, the loyal horse of the King.
Eleriel watched in horror. She had never before seen any of the Ringwraiths, but she had heard much about him. The lord of the Nazgûl... what was it that Glorfindel said? Something important, Eleriel was sure. But the words lingered on the edge of her memory and she could not recall what they were.
The Riders of Rohan were scattered; of those still remaining near the king, some had been thrown from their horses, others were frozen with fear. Eleriel herself was much too far to be of any use; the fighting had pulled her far from the rest of the Rohirrim, and she stood now with a group of men wearing the black and silver of the Minas Tirith guard.
Théoden struggled to rise, but the weight of Snowmane forced him back down. Eleriel watched bleakly, but her spirits lifted slightly when she saw that another still stood.
Dernhelm. The warrior that Eleriel had spoken to only the night before. "Éowyn," Eleriel whispered. The elf listened as the woman challenged the undead Ringwraith, a former King of Men. The Nazgûl laughed in her face before falling silent when Éowyn gave her true name. Eleriel gasped as Éowyn's sword cut the head from the Ringwraith's flying creature. The Nazgûl shrieked at her and lunged forward. Éowyn lifted her shield just in time; it shattered from the blow of the Ringwraith and Éowyn cried out in pain.
With her sharp Elven eyes Eleriel could see the Nazgûl clearly. In the depths of its black cowl over its head she could see the wraith's eyes shining faintly in the darkness as it prepared to kill the woman before it. Just before it prepared to deliver the killing blow, Eleriel noticed a tiny movement beside the towering dark figure: a hobbit.
The little hobbit wielded a sword taken from a barrow in the North; forged by Kings long since dead, the short blade had a magic worked into it that could be deadly even to the undead. The small squire of the King drove his sword into the back of the knee of the Nazgûl. The wraith shrieked and stumbled, missing Éowyn. Éowyn seized her chance and plunged her own sword right into the Ringwraith, right into the hood that hid whatever face it had. Its shoulders slumped and the wraith staggered forward before it collapsed. The crown upon its head tumbled away and the wraith vanished, its screams lingering in the air. Éowyn's sword shattered and she fell forward onto the empty cloak of the defeated wraith. Eleriel watched but the woman did not move.
Eleriel was startled into motion again by the sounds around her. It had seemed as if the battle had frozen, but in reality it had been raging around her all through the fight between Éowyn and the Nazgûl. The men around her started a little too; all those around the Nazgûl had been spellbound by the seemingly hopeless duel.
Flinging herself back into the fight, Eleriel sheathed her sword and pulled out her two long knives, the special weapon of the elves in close combat. The Rohirrim around her surged forward once again, pulled by the call of their new leader Éomer, who was crying into the morning, "Death! Death!"
But the enemy gained new strength, somehow, and the allies defending Gondor fell back a little. Black sails appeared on the horizon, and the sound of "Corsairs!" echoed through the sudden quiet. Eleriel thought she heard the sound of Éomer laughing wildly before she realized what she was seeing. Her eyes spotted it before the others, but she shouted when she realized who it was.
"Aragorn!" she cried. "Elessar!" The people around her heard her shout and took up the cry. "Elessar!" they shouted and renewed their efforts.
A host of men came from the ships. Eleriel could see her brothers fighting and she was sure she could hear the shouts of the dwarf Gimli. She sighed a little in relief; she had been worried about what would come of the travelers who took the Paths of the Dead.
Suddenly a new feeling of dread crept over her. Eleriel continued to fight as fiercely as she could but all the while she kept a sharp eye on the newcomers. There! A tall figure with dark gold hair, dancing gracefully from Southron to orc, felling all those that came in his way. The fight of the Prince of Mirkwood was flawless but he was quickly being surrounded.
Eleriel abandoned all rational thought. Long ago she had promised her life to that elf; the bonds and connections might have been dissolved but in her heart the promise still stood.
"Naman bar Calen Las!" she cried before she could stop the words. "Oropher!" For the blessing of the house of the Greenleaves!
It was the ancient battle cry of the House of Oropher. Legolas had taught it to her many years ago, in the middle of a battle defending the great realm of the wood elves. Even the warriors of Mirkwood did not use this particular battle cry; it was reserved for the royalty of Mirkwood and the captains of Mirkwood's army only. Eleriel was surprised to hear it come from her lips; after all, she was no longer really a part of Mirkwood.
Eleriel fought her way forward, no longer caring about anything else. The only thought in her head was Legolas.
I have to get to him. I have to. If he dies... The thought was more than she could bear.
Legolas' head shot up when he heard the battle cry. His eyes stared into Eleriel's before he too shouted the words: Naman bar Calen Las! Oropher!
Eleriel smiled grimly to herself as she cut, slashed and stabbed her way to the other elf. He didn't say a word when she finally reached him. Instead he just nodded to her and moved to stand back to back with her. Their motions were fluid and smooth together, working as one to fend off the enemies closing in around them.
As the men and orcs surrounding them slowly fell back, Eleriel felt a call in her mind. Eleriel! Denethor....!
"Gandalf!" she breathed. Legolas turned to look curiously at her, but she had already started to hurry away. As she left, Eleriel looked over her shoulder one last time to look at Legolas. Once again her eyes met his and something moved between them, a promise of something yet to come, before Eleriel hurried away into the melee of fighting humans and orcs.
Dodging past attacking orcs, Eleriel sprinted through the gates of the City and made a beeline straight for the Houses of the Dead. People stared at her, startled, as she roughly pushed them aside and flung objects out of her way. Heedless of the mess that she left behind, Eleriel ran for the tombs and opened its great door with such force that it ricocheted from the cold stone wall behind it. Eleriel essentially fell into the room before her. Denethor stood before another door, holding a round shining stone in his hands. He laughed and Eleriel wondered at the madness in his voice.
"...I say to thee, Gandalf Mithrandir, I will not be thy tool! I am Steward of the House of Anárion. I will not step down to be the dotard chamberlain of an upstart. Even were his claim proved to me, still he comes but of the line of Isildur. I will not bow to such a one, last of a ragged house long bereft of lordship and dignity!" Denethor noted Eleriel's presence and turned his glare on her. "And I know thee as well, daughter of Elrond of Imladris! Imladris! The manipulations of such a place has taken one son from me. I will not submit to the control of such creatures as the Eldar!"
"What would you have if your will could have its way?" Gandalf demanded.
"I would have things as tehy were in all the days of my life!" Denethor replied, the fire behind his eyes burning as he turned his gaze upon the wizard. "And in the days of my longfathers before me: to be the Lord of this City in peace, and leave my chair to a son after me, who would be his own master and no wizard's pupil. But if doom denies this to me, then I will have naught: neither life diminished, nor love halved, nor honour abated!" A/N: Conversation taken from RotK, Book V, page 130
Eleriel watched and listened in horror as Denethor tried to enter the room behind him, only to be stopped by one of his own men. She gathered all the presence of her mind and remembering the teachings of her father and grandmother, pushed her consciousness into the mind of the crazed Steward. She urged him to calm down. She reassured him that his son would live, if only he would have hope. For a moment it looked as if Denethor would heed her words; he paused and looked about him. But the moment passed when he looked down upon the palantír in his hands. He cried out lit a pile of kindling on an empty bed. Breaking his staff of Stewardship, Denethor flung himself onto the burning bed and clutched the palantír to his chest as he burned.
Later that day Gandalf admitted that he had known that the Stewards of Gondor kept one of the Seeing Stones in the White Tower, but at the moment all that he could do, all that anyone who had witnessed Denethor's suicide could do, was mourn and worry about the battle outside of the city walls.
Eleriel thought to return to the fighting around Minas Tirith but Gandalf held her back. "Your skills are needed here," he told her. "Your father trained you well in the healing arts."
Eleriel spent the rest of that long, bloody day in the Houses of Healing, tending the wounds of those who came in from the battle. Oddly enough Gandalf would not allow her to go to Faramir, Éowyn or Meriadoc.
"The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known," the old wizard quoted at her. "Their healing will be left to Aragorn." Eleriel stared at him in surprise but obeyed his words.
The battle lasted the full day, and did not end until the sun had disappeared over the horizon. The enemy had been driven back, for a time, and Aragorn entered the White City wearily. Gandalf pulled him to the Houses of Healing, and Éomer, Legolas and Gimli followed.
Aragorn first stopped in Faramir's room, where he healed the wounded son of Denethor.
Eleriel was waiting for them in Éowyn's room. She silently stepped back to let Aragorn tend the injured woman. When he looked at Eleriel questioningly, silently asking why she had not seen to Faramir, Éowyn or Merry, she shrugged. "Gandalf wanted you to tend them," she said simply.
Aragorn looked at Éowyn and shook his head. He spoke to Éomer about his sister, commenting on her bravery. "Her malady begins far back before this day, does it not, Éomer?" he asked.
Éomer shook his head. He told Aragorn what he knew, saying that perhaps it was because his sister had loved Aragorn, or so she had thought. He also hypothesized that it was partially the work of Saruman's spy Wormtongue.
Gandalf shook his head. "Perhaps that was some of the cause," he said. "But I doubt it.
"You have your lives before you: chances for valour and chances to prove yourself. But she was not offered such chances. Think, Éomer! Her skill in battle is just as good as yours, is it not?"
He blinked before nodding slowly.
"I think that if it were not for her love for you and the King, Éomer, she would have spoken of this long ago," Eleriel said softly. "Duty and expectations can be nasty traps at times, and some duties and expectations offer nothing in the way of fulfillment. How useful do you think someone feels who is fated to spend her entire life taking care of the household in the absence of the men, particularly if her heart is elsewhere?"
Aragorn and Éomer both shifted uncomfortably.
"Did you know?" Éomer asked finally. "I remember you speaking to 'Dernhelm.'"
"Of course I knew," Eleriel replied. "In my life I have done just what she did. Several times in fact. And I am sure that Éowyn and I aren't the only ones."
Legolas looked at her sharply and Aragorn gaped at her.
Eleriel just shrugged at them as Aragorn continued his healing.
Last of all he came to Meriadoc and healed the hobbit easily. Eleriel left him talking with the hobbits. It had been a long day, and although she had not been fighting all day as the others had, she had been working diligently in the Houses of Healing for the better part of the day.
Eleriel walked slowly to the chamber where she had been sleeping before she left Minas Tirith and collapsed onto the bed, not even bothering to undress.
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Eleriel woke several hours later feeling refreshed. Even at night the City was not quiet; guards stood everywhere in the streets, talking of the battle or making plans for possible future battles. Eleriel slipped quietly from the White City; no one made any effort to hold her back.
Silently she walked on the deserted battleground. Steering clear of the campsite where Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and the Dunedain slept, Eleriel walked under the silent night sky and tried to see the stars.
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The next morning Legolas and Gimli came to the City. Eleriel spotted them as she returned from her long walk around the city. She had been unable to spot any stars but the quiet time for reflection had done her much good. She joined the elf and dwarf as they strolled from the Houses of Healing with the two hobbits. The hobbits and the dwarf greeted her cheerfully, but Legolas simply looked at her and nodded his head. Eleriel fidgeted a little but smiled back at him, and surprised herself when she realized it was a genuine smile.
The friends wandered a little through the streets of Minas Tirith until Merry became tired. Eleriel gave him a little energy as well as she could with her training as a Healer, and the group sought a place where they could sit and talk a little.
They chose to sit upon the wall of the city, where they could see the Anduin. Legolas sighed as a flock of seagulls flew over the city.
"The sea calls?" Eleriel said softly. It wasn't really a question, because she had seen that look in the eyes of elves before.
Legolas nodded and told them of the gulls that had stirred the Sea-longing in his heart. Eleriel listened quietly but turned away when Gimli and the hobbits began urging Legolas to stay.
Eleriel turned her gaze to the river Anduin. She could not see the Sea from here; it was too far away. But she had seen the sea before, and she had seen the gulls fly overhead. Legolas might be a full-blooded Sindarin elf, an elf of Telerin descent, but the blood of the children of Elrond was mixed. From their father's side, they had the blood of the Noldor, a little of the blood of the Vanyar from their ancestor Indis, as well as the blood of the Edain (from Tuor and Beren) and the blood of the Ainur from Melian the Maia. From their mother's side, they had more Telerin and Noldor blood.
It was strange, but the children of Elrond all seemed to posess this blood in different amounts. It was said that Arwen obviously favored Luthien, elven yet turning towards the Edain in her heart, and the twins favored the Noldor. Eleriel was the only one to show a strange mix of it all. According to her grandfather, she strongly resembled Melian in many ways, but he also said that she seemed to have more Telerin tendencies in her than Noldor.
Because of this Eleriel understood what Legolas meant when he described the call of the Sea that could not be ignored. It was less powerful for her, but it was there.
Eleriel's attention returned to the others just as Legolas completed his account of what had happened since they had left for the Paths of the Dead. The others were sitting quietly with their own thoughts, but eventually they wandered away. Gimli professed a great wish to look at the masonry and stonework of the city a little more, and Pippin wanted to take Merry back to the Houses of Healing, because Merry was still weak.
Eleriel and Legolas sat together silently, staring at the Anduin and avoiding each other's eyes. Finally Legolas broke the silence.
"You remembered the battle cry." He said it softly, all emotion carefully hidden from his voice.
Eleriel allowed a small smile to creep onto her face as she turned to look at him. "I haven't forgotten anything."
He stared at her.
She shrugged uncomfortably. "I'm sorry," she said finally. "I don't know what came over me yesterday, but..."
"There is no need to be sorry. I am grateful for your... help. But why did you come?"
Eleriel hesitated. There was no taking back what she was about to say. "Legolas," she said. Something in the way she said it made him look at her and focus all of his attention on her words. "Legolas," she said again, "many years ago I made a promise to you. I might insist that all bonds are broken, all promises forgotten, but in truth, those words that we spoke to each other still linger."
He blinked, and blinked again. "But I thought you said that there was no hope for us," he said carefully, continuing to keep all emotion from his voice.
"I did. I lied."
Legolas stared at her a little before smiling slowly, finally breaking out into laughter. The men below looked up at the clear joyful sound. "Oh, Eleriel!" he said, putting his arms around her and pulling her into a tight embrace. "I have missed you terribly... you have no idea."
Eleriel returned the hug just as fiercely. "I apologize for being so stand-offish in Lothlorien," she said to him, while refusing to let him pull away. "But I was afraid... I still am, in many ways. Your father...."
"My father has always regretted what he did," Legolas said quietly. "I still don't understand his sudden need to develop that alliance, but..."
Eleriel shook her head. "Don't speak of it any more," she said softly.
"Eleriel, haven't you ever wondered about it?" Legolas asked.
She paused but decided to tell him. "Legolas, after the Fellowship left the Golden Wood, I...overheard...my grandparents speaking with Gandalf." Eleriel related the entire conversation back to Legolas, and went on to tell him what her father had said. "So there's something... something that they're not telling us."
He sat silently for a long while, staring at the Anduin. Finally he spoke. "I don't know what it is, but like you said... let's not dwell on it." He turned back to her and pulled her into their first real kiss in over a millenium, and all thoughts of war and worries and the evil of Mordor were forgotten.
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I am now going to politely remind you all to review if you have a moment. I didn't get many for the last chapter, and this chapter is pretty long so if you have the time to review it would make me VERY happy.