Chapter five
In which our Heroine draws closer close to her destination
Within the month, by the good graces of their elven steeds, Eowyn, Legolas and Mirghast reached the Grey Mountains, where they searched for any sign that someone had travelled the passes through the deep snow and jagged rocks that seemed to cover the entire land as far as the non-elven eye could see. Within another month, they had found the trail and followed it to the Withered Heath, then south to the Iron hills. In a journey that had taken almost two years, first north and now south, the Ranger estimated that the man they followed, if indeed he was who they sought, had travelled more than twice that distance, and was even now following the course of the great river Rhine that led to the Inland Sea, in the vastness of the mysterious Rhunland. That he would walk its course was undoubted. Only an Erhundai, as they called themselves, could have sailed that great rushing river in their strange boats, a mile or more from bank to bank and treacherously serpentine.
Mirghast told them that he had only seen an Erhundai boatman just once, many years ago beside this very river, had glimpsed him from afar. Dark of hair and pale skin that no amount of sun could change, he had heard, he had watched with amazement as this one man had caught some of the biggest fish he had ever seen, and with a whip! Eowyn though it a fanciful tale, yet it was the first time the Ranger had spoken voluntarily, and she could not but wonder what he thought of her mission. Did he think her a fragile female, she wondered? She knew that Legolas, who had fought alongside her, knew she was not. Several times she had found the Kingsman looking at her oddly, and could not fathom what his interest could be. The long journey had not changed her, she mused, as her brother had so obviously hoped. She knew herself to be the Ice Maiden now more than ever. She had looked inside herself many times on this journey and found her heart seemed black and carved from ice, and wondered if it had shown so much when the King Elessar had first met her. She had liked Aragorn very much, she knew, but had not known then that he had perceived her as ill tempered and changeable as the weather of her homeland, as she had thawed for him at times, yet chilled at others. The same conclusion had been reached by Faramir, to whom she had promised herself after Aragorn had refused her affections, and for whom she had felt only a passing fancy, sore as she was from Aragorn's rejection. That engagement had not lasted a month after the battle's end, whereupon he left to return to Gondor, to better serve his King.
She did not voice it, but her thoughts were always with Grima, where he might be and what he might be doing. She realised that she could indeed kill him when the Ranger discovered the remains of some strange type of deer, its horns massively misshapen, and found the remains of a cooking fire, and she felt furious that he had taken the time to cook his prey, that he did not know he was being followed. As the trail seemed to stop at that campsite, the party elected to set up camp in the same spot and search the area, as they were perplexed as to what might have become of Wormtongue's tracks, as all the Ranger could find was several more skinned carcasses, and ravaged scrub trees and reed beds. While they waited for the Kingsman to find the trail, Legolas and the Shieldmaiden set up their tents in the very spot that she was certain had harboured Grima some time earlier. As the Ranger could tell by the state of the animal corpses he had found, he told her that it had been six months or more since he had camped here, but that night Eowyn slept soundly, content to lie so near where Grima himself had rested, and felt content in what she was sure was the culmination of her mission.
The next morning Legolas returned and told her that he had found that the river they had followed this far joined the Inland Sea less than a day's journey away, and that he had found signs that might indicate that there were men living nearby. After a little breakfast of Lembas he left once more in search for a settlement. As the Shieldmaiden found herself alone again, as she had for most of the past few days the Ranger and the Elf had searched for Wormtongue's path, she got out her small copper mirror from her pack and regarded her appearance for the first time since leaving the Elven halls of Mirkwood. The sight that greeted her was not a pleasant one. Indeed, she felt she was almost unrecognisable. If, she thought, she was to meet Grima soon, it would not do for him to not recognise her. She threw aside her riding breeches and coarse woollen tunic and took out one of the long, flowing dresses she had worn in Rohan, white as usual, with a silver girdle, and hung it up to loose some of its creases. She also found her cleaning oils, and decided to take advantage of her solitude to bathe in the river, wash her hair, and even to use some of the ashes from the cooking fire to darken her eyelids and stain her lips with berry juice. Now feeling more like herself, she wrung out her still damp hair, braided it and pinned it up out of her was as she began to make a meal for the Ranger and the Elf when they returned from their wanderings. If her companions noticed her new attire, they made no comment upon it. Within the week Legolas returned jubilant, having ascertained that there was indeed a human settlement on the far banks of the inland sea, and Mirghast voiced his belief that Wormtongue's trail led in the same direction. Eowyn had never seen a Sea before, and the sight of such a large body of water took her breath away. The freshness of the water shocked her, as she had expected it to be undrinkable, but it tasted as pure as the waters of Loth lorien, and shimmered iridescently in the sunlight. It took the party nearly two weeks hard riding to circle the Inland sea before they reached a dense forest, its tall, slender trees like none she had ever seen; their leaves dark green, and shaped like needles, the ground underfoot dark, moist and soft. A path worn through the trees after many miles led them to a small village that at first sight looked ruinous and deserted, but there were signs that the strange, blocky houses were being rebuilt, and there was smoke coming from some of the chimneys. As the Shieldmaiden, Ranger and Elf entered the village, they were spotted by an old, haggard woman who accosted them loudly.
"Get thee away, ye be-whiskered beasts! Get ye gone from Rhun!" she shouted, he voice croaky and hoarse. Eowyn replied;
"We have travelled far. Does your village have an inn where we might stay?" Eowyn moderated her temper and changed her anger for coldness.
"Not for the likes of you. We don't want outsiders here!" she croaked, glaring at Eowyn and the others in turn with her pale blue eyes. Several scruffy children had heard the shouting from across the way and come running over to the strangers.
"Who are they, Grama Grawley?" they asked the old woman, who tried to shoo them away, but failed.
Eowyn had started when she noted that all the children had jet-black hair on their heads, and not a single hair on their faces. No eyebrows or eyelashes...just like Grima. Her heart thumping in her chest, she addressed the tallest child, who had been staring at her, grinning.
"Boy, have there been any strange men come here recently?" she said, smiling encouragingly. "Don't you say anything to them, Grizy." The old woman interrupted. The boy looked pleased to have a chance to defy the old woman, and told Eowyn;
"Only the healer. He's a boring-" Grizy managed to say before the old woman clamped her hand around his mouth and gave him a slap that sent him running away.
"We don't like your kind," she said furious, "but I sees you ain't gonna go too quick. What are you after? No one comes here now, not that many did before. There's none of your hairy-faces here; we're Erhundai." Eowyn looked to Legolas, unsure of what to say. The elf, understanding, stepped forward and addressed the hag.
"Good Lady, we seek a place to rest, then before long we will be on our way. We are searching for a criminal, a dangerous man whom we believe passed this way. If you can tell us anything that might help us, we shall be gone all the sooner." He said, his melodious voice seeming to soothe her and the anger left her eyes to be replaced with a resigned, weary look.
"There is no inn. No point as no one comes here. You can use one of the empty cottages while you're here, but please get gone quickly, and don't talk to the children. I'm gonna tell our men folk that you're only visiting." She said, and shuffled off.
The party soon found an empty dwelling on the outskirts of the tumble-down village and tried to make enquiries, but soon found that these people, the Erhundai, were more reclusive than the Wood Elves could be, and had many a door slammed in their faces when they knocked.
As Eowyn walked about, she noted how few people there actually were, and these mostly the elders or the children, with those in between either sick or lame, and all resembled Grima, somehow. Maybe this was the land he was from? She searched her memory but could recall no instance of his mentioning his life before joining her Uncle's Court.
As she pondered this she spotted one of the children she had met earlier that day, watching her from behind an old, broken cart. She waved to him, smiling, and he beckoned her to follow him. He was only a few summers old, she surmised from his height, guessing him to be less than ten. When she rounded the side of the cart she found the boy the old woman had called Grizy waiting for her. "We thought Grama Grawly had you frightened off!" he laughed, "We thought you were gone already!" "Who are you?" asked the other boy, wide eyed. "My name is Eowyn, daughter of Eomund." The Shieldmaiden replied carefully. She was sure these children could tell her if Wormtongue had been here, but was unsure how to get this information from them. In the end, she decided to be direct, and hope that this guileless ploy would work on their innocent minds. "That's a funny name. Mine's Griyzant, and this is my brother Mogram. What did you come here for? It's a boring place. All anyone ever does is build things and grow boring food. We're lucky, 'cos were too little to help."
"I'm looking for someone. Could you tell me if he came here?"
"There's only that boring healer came ages ago and there's been no one else, I think." Said Mogram, looking puzzled. Eowyn's suspicions grew. Just one more question should confirm them.
"Does the healer have and hair...here?" she asked, gesturing to her blonde eyebrows. The boys shook their heads. Their Healer must be Wormtongue. Eowyn asked the boys to play outside the Healer's cottage, and to tell her if he left. She chose a route back through the village that meant the Healer's hut was out of her sight and waited impatiently for the Ranger and the Elf To return from their own enquiries. While she waited she dressed in her white Rohirrim robes and buckled on her sword-belt. It was by her hand that Wormtongue was to die.
In which our Heroine draws closer close to her destination
Within the month, by the good graces of their elven steeds, Eowyn, Legolas and Mirghast reached the Grey Mountains, where they searched for any sign that someone had travelled the passes through the deep snow and jagged rocks that seemed to cover the entire land as far as the non-elven eye could see. Within another month, they had found the trail and followed it to the Withered Heath, then south to the Iron hills. In a journey that had taken almost two years, first north and now south, the Ranger estimated that the man they followed, if indeed he was who they sought, had travelled more than twice that distance, and was even now following the course of the great river Rhine that led to the Inland Sea, in the vastness of the mysterious Rhunland. That he would walk its course was undoubted. Only an Erhundai, as they called themselves, could have sailed that great rushing river in their strange boats, a mile or more from bank to bank and treacherously serpentine.
Mirghast told them that he had only seen an Erhundai boatman just once, many years ago beside this very river, had glimpsed him from afar. Dark of hair and pale skin that no amount of sun could change, he had heard, he had watched with amazement as this one man had caught some of the biggest fish he had ever seen, and with a whip! Eowyn though it a fanciful tale, yet it was the first time the Ranger had spoken voluntarily, and she could not but wonder what he thought of her mission. Did he think her a fragile female, she wondered? She knew that Legolas, who had fought alongside her, knew she was not. Several times she had found the Kingsman looking at her oddly, and could not fathom what his interest could be. The long journey had not changed her, she mused, as her brother had so obviously hoped. She knew herself to be the Ice Maiden now more than ever. She had looked inside herself many times on this journey and found her heart seemed black and carved from ice, and wondered if it had shown so much when the King Elessar had first met her. She had liked Aragorn very much, she knew, but had not known then that he had perceived her as ill tempered and changeable as the weather of her homeland, as she had thawed for him at times, yet chilled at others. The same conclusion had been reached by Faramir, to whom she had promised herself after Aragorn had refused her affections, and for whom she had felt only a passing fancy, sore as she was from Aragorn's rejection. That engagement had not lasted a month after the battle's end, whereupon he left to return to Gondor, to better serve his King.
She did not voice it, but her thoughts were always with Grima, where he might be and what he might be doing. She realised that she could indeed kill him when the Ranger discovered the remains of some strange type of deer, its horns massively misshapen, and found the remains of a cooking fire, and she felt furious that he had taken the time to cook his prey, that he did not know he was being followed. As the trail seemed to stop at that campsite, the party elected to set up camp in the same spot and search the area, as they were perplexed as to what might have become of Wormtongue's tracks, as all the Ranger could find was several more skinned carcasses, and ravaged scrub trees and reed beds. While they waited for the Kingsman to find the trail, Legolas and the Shieldmaiden set up their tents in the very spot that she was certain had harboured Grima some time earlier. As the Ranger could tell by the state of the animal corpses he had found, he told her that it had been six months or more since he had camped here, but that night Eowyn slept soundly, content to lie so near where Grima himself had rested, and felt content in what she was sure was the culmination of her mission.
The next morning Legolas returned and told her that he had found that the river they had followed this far joined the Inland Sea less than a day's journey away, and that he had found signs that might indicate that there were men living nearby. After a little breakfast of Lembas he left once more in search for a settlement. As the Shieldmaiden found herself alone again, as she had for most of the past few days the Ranger and the Elf had searched for Wormtongue's path, she got out her small copper mirror from her pack and regarded her appearance for the first time since leaving the Elven halls of Mirkwood. The sight that greeted her was not a pleasant one. Indeed, she felt she was almost unrecognisable. If, she thought, she was to meet Grima soon, it would not do for him to not recognise her. She threw aside her riding breeches and coarse woollen tunic and took out one of the long, flowing dresses she had worn in Rohan, white as usual, with a silver girdle, and hung it up to loose some of its creases. She also found her cleaning oils, and decided to take advantage of her solitude to bathe in the river, wash her hair, and even to use some of the ashes from the cooking fire to darken her eyelids and stain her lips with berry juice. Now feeling more like herself, she wrung out her still damp hair, braided it and pinned it up out of her was as she began to make a meal for the Ranger and the Elf when they returned from their wanderings. If her companions noticed her new attire, they made no comment upon it. Within the week Legolas returned jubilant, having ascertained that there was indeed a human settlement on the far banks of the inland sea, and Mirghast voiced his belief that Wormtongue's trail led in the same direction. Eowyn had never seen a Sea before, and the sight of such a large body of water took her breath away. The freshness of the water shocked her, as she had expected it to be undrinkable, but it tasted as pure as the waters of Loth lorien, and shimmered iridescently in the sunlight. It took the party nearly two weeks hard riding to circle the Inland sea before they reached a dense forest, its tall, slender trees like none she had ever seen; their leaves dark green, and shaped like needles, the ground underfoot dark, moist and soft. A path worn through the trees after many miles led them to a small village that at first sight looked ruinous and deserted, but there were signs that the strange, blocky houses were being rebuilt, and there was smoke coming from some of the chimneys. As the Shieldmaiden, Ranger and Elf entered the village, they were spotted by an old, haggard woman who accosted them loudly.
"Get thee away, ye be-whiskered beasts! Get ye gone from Rhun!" she shouted, he voice croaky and hoarse. Eowyn replied;
"We have travelled far. Does your village have an inn where we might stay?" Eowyn moderated her temper and changed her anger for coldness.
"Not for the likes of you. We don't want outsiders here!" she croaked, glaring at Eowyn and the others in turn with her pale blue eyes. Several scruffy children had heard the shouting from across the way and come running over to the strangers.
"Who are they, Grama Grawley?" they asked the old woman, who tried to shoo them away, but failed.
Eowyn had started when she noted that all the children had jet-black hair on their heads, and not a single hair on their faces. No eyebrows or eyelashes...just like Grima. Her heart thumping in her chest, she addressed the tallest child, who had been staring at her, grinning.
"Boy, have there been any strange men come here recently?" she said, smiling encouragingly. "Don't you say anything to them, Grizy." The old woman interrupted. The boy looked pleased to have a chance to defy the old woman, and told Eowyn;
"Only the healer. He's a boring-" Grizy managed to say before the old woman clamped her hand around his mouth and gave him a slap that sent him running away.
"We don't like your kind," she said furious, "but I sees you ain't gonna go too quick. What are you after? No one comes here now, not that many did before. There's none of your hairy-faces here; we're Erhundai." Eowyn looked to Legolas, unsure of what to say. The elf, understanding, stepped forward and addressed the hag.
"Good Lady, we seek a place to rest, then before long we will be on our way. We are searching for a criminal, a dangerous man whom we believe passed this way. If you can tell us anything that might help us, we shall be gone all the sooner." He said, his melodious voice seeming to soothe her and the anger left her eyes to be replaced with a resigned, weary look.
"There is no inn. No point as no one comes here. You can use one of the empty cottages while you're here, but please get gone quickly, and don't talk to the children. I'm gonna tell our men folk that you're only visiting." She said, and shuffled off.
The party soon found an empty dwelling on the outskirts of the tumble-down village and tried to make enquiries, but soon found that these people, the Erhundai, were more reclusive than the Wood Elves could be, and had many a door slammed in their faces when they knocked.
As Eowyn walked about, she noted how few people there actually were, and these mostly the elders or the children, with those in between either sick or lame, and all resembled Grima, somehow. Maybe this was the land he was from? She searched her memory but could recall no instance of his mentioning his life before joining her Uncle's Court.
As she pondered this she spotted one of the children she had met earlier that day, watching her from behind an old, broken cart. She waved to him, smiling, and he beckoned her to follow him. He was only a few summers old, she surmised from his height, guessing him to be less than ten. When she rounded the side of the cart she found the boy the old woman had called Grizy waiting for her. "We thought Grama Grawly had you frightened off!" he laughed, "We thought you were gone already!" "Who are you?" asked the other boy, wide eyed. "My name is Eowyn, daughter of Eomund." The Shieldmaiden replied carefully. She was sure these children could tell her if Wormtongue had been here, but was unsure how to get this information from them. In the end, she decided to be direct, and hope that this guileless ploy would work on their innocent minds. "That's a funny name. Mine's Griyzant, and this is my brother Mogram. What did you come here for? It's a boring place. All anyone ever does is build things and grow boring food. We're lucky, 'cos were too little to help."
"I'm looking for someone. Could you tell me if he came here?"
"There's only that boring healer came ages ago and there's been no one else, I think." Said Mogram, looking puzzled. Eowyn's suspicions grew. Just one more question should confirm them.
"Does the healer have and hair...here?" she asked, gesturing to her blonde eyebrows. The boys shook their heads. Their Healer must be Wormtongue. Eowyn asked the boys to play outside the Healer's cottage, and to tell her if he left. She chose a route back through the village that meant the Healer's hut was out of her sight and waited impatiently for the Ranger and the Elf To return from their own enquiries. While she waited she dressed in her white Rohirrim robes and buckled on her sword-belt. It was by her hand that Wormtongue was to die.