Notes to Readers:
Well, Jodancingtree sent me the chapter I was waiting for, and all I can tell
you is that you have a real treat in store. I started grinning halfway down the
email and by the time I got to the bottom, well, I can only say what's coming
is absolutely incredible! (And we haven't even reached the end, yet! What fun!)
Thank you for the comments! Reviews are very motivating and give me insights
into the stories that make me dig deeper in writing, which I probably wouldn't
do were I the only one reading these stories... (I am sending them on to Jo,
and she thanks you as well.)
Hai, don't you know about me and endings?
Bookworm, yes, Farry's crying out was extremely bad timing. Authors can be so
wicked sometimes. (That was my idea, and Jo ran with it.)
Xena, don't have a stroke! I'd miss your reviews, terribly! Goodness, I think
Merry and Pippin need you there to help straighten their thinking out...
Aemilia Rose, you are right. It is not good, and it is one big mess. And here's
hoping the Fanfiction.net catches up with SoA more quickly today. Thanks for
taking the trouble to come back and review!
FantasyFan, I left you a
long, long reply on SoA, and appreciate your reply to my reply. Ah, but
dialogue is fun! Some of my characters are very tradition-bound, and might fret
about the status quo (see Rosie in the latest chapter of the draft story), but
not feel they have the power to do anything about it, while others with power
judiciously make their own traditions while trying to maintain the underpinning
of the Shire...
Ff.net and other factors permitting, expect to see the next chapter two
days from this posting. If you cannot access ff.net, try www.storiesofarda.com. You can leave
reviews there, as well (thanks SoA reviewers! See replies at SoA as well), and
there is a "reply" feature where an author can reply to a review
right there rather than within the text of the story. I have also discovered
the "author alert" feature. Amazing place, that SoA.
The next chapter of "Truth" will be added on the morrow, if ffnet
agrees. We are getting very close to the end in "Truth". The next story in the
line-up features a character you've only seen briefly, if at all, in previous
stories: Fatty Bolger. It has been fascinating, getting to know him and hearing
his tale about the time of the Troubles. Hope you enjoy him as well as I have.
"Shire" continues to be written, slowly, and is not yet ready to post, and the
two sequels to "Truth" (Frodo's wedding, and Farry&Goldi's wedding) are in
the same condition. Think good thoughts and perhaps the Muse will deign to pick
them up again.
Enough admin notes. Let's get to the story.
***
Chapter 15. A Way of
Escape
It took Pippin and Rosemary both to calm Farry, but at last he fell into
exhausted sleep.
'Why is he afraid of you, Ferdi?' There was quiet menace in Pippin's voice.
'He's not afraid of me!' Ferdi struggled not to lose his temper. His head ached
fiercely from the growing strain, but while Hilly held an arrow on him he dared
not raise a hand to rub at the pain.
Merry's eyebrow went up, and Hilly muttered, 'Could have fooled me.' Surely
Ferdibrand had taken leave of his senses.
'I don't know how he managed to coerce the lad, but...' Hally began, and
Ferdi's shoulders sagged, though he continued to hold his hands away from his
sides, staring fixedly at Hilly's unwavering arrow. Ferdi's brother-in-love had
thought over the situation, and clearly had not decided in Ferdi's favour.
'What?' Pippin demanded.
'He never spoke a word to anyone, Farry didn't, I mean. Ferdi tried to pass him
off as some lad he'd found in the woods, knowing we hadn't seen Farry in some
time.' His tone was troubled, remembering what Rosemary had told him on his
return from the Stoat and Stout, how Ferdi had shouted for Farry, even risen
from his bed to search for lad, and spouted nonsense when he saw him.
'I wanted him to go home of his own accord,' Ferdi said evenly, having mastered
his temper. 'I struck a bargain with him, hoping I could trick him into
returning with me if he did not hold up his end of the bargain. I thought it
would be easy; I never imagined he could hold his tongue so well,' he finished
wryly.
'You must admit, brother, you've not been well, this visit,' Hally said. He
looked to the Thain, sorrow writ large over his face. 'He's not been himself;
it is the truth, I swear.'
'It is the truth,' Rosemary echoed.
'What are you getting at?' Ferdi asked.
'You've not been yourself,' Hally replied. 'I don't know how to say it more
plainly.'
Merry nodded thoughtfully. He had noticed that as well since he'd been
here. Ferdi didn't seem like the Ferdi
he'd known at all, and hiding here with Faramir wasn't the kind of thing he
would do, were he in his right mind. Not in his right mind, Merry mused,
anger slowly turning to sadness. It wouldn't be the first time, in Ferdi's
family...
There was a silence, broken only by the crackle of the fire and an occasional
fevered mutter from Farry.
'Put up your bow,' Merry said at last. Pippin lifted his head.
Hilly looked to the Thain. He didn't take orders from Bucklanders, not even the
Master.
'Merry, what are you about?' Pippin demanded.
'I've known Ferdi even longer than you have, Pip,' Merry answered, his resolve
growing. 'I do not believe he's a danger to anyone at the moment, and with all
of us here he'd never manage to take the lad away now.'
'Put up your bow, Hilly,' Pippin said, and Hilly lowered his arrow and eased
the tension on the string. Ferdi breathed a sigh of relief and lowered his
hands to his sides.
'I want to talk to Ferdi in private,' said Merry, finality in his tone, as if
he'd worked his way through a difficult puzzle and saw now clearly the solution.
'Put on your cloak, Ferdi, and we'll walk.'
'But...' Hilly protested.
'I know what I'm about,' Merry said. 'Come along, Ferdi.' The hunter rose
silently from the bed, took his cloak from the peg by the door, and followed
Merry outside.
A sullen dawn had arrived; thin rain was spitting fitfully out of a grey sky.
The storm's detritus of broken-off branches and an uprooted tree littered the
clearing, and other uprooted trees could be seen in the surrounding wood.
'Fine day for a walk,' Ferdi said. He shrugged deeper into his cloak, fingers
of wind plucking away at him, as he tried to keep pace with Merry's long
strides away from the house. Every step jarred his head, but he made no
complaint. He was concentrating so fiercely on walking that he missed what
Merry said next, only realizing when the other came to a stop some small
distance into the woods, the house barely visible through the trees, and stared
at him.
'Did you say something?' Ferdi asked.
'Go ahead,' Merry repeated. 'Walk.'
'I do not take your meaning.' Ferdi still felt shaky, and he wished he could go
back to the house, back to sleep. Back to sleep, and forget that the last hour
or so had ever happened.
'Walk,' Merry repeated patiently. Somehow he had to reach Ferdi through the fog
of madness, make him understand that this was a mercy, a way of escape, a
parting gift for the sake of old friendship. 'Go. Spare your family the pain of
a trial, and seeing you banished with a brand on your cheek.' He took a deep
breath. The air smelt of rain and leaf mould, and he wondered if he was doing
the right thing. 'Go on, Ferdi! Just be sure you keep going until you're over
the Bounds. If you're found inside the Shire, things will not go so well with
you.'
'I've done nothing to warrant banishment,' Ferdi protested. He didn't
understand why Merry was looking at him so. What was wrong with his old friend,
had he lost his senses? Merry's next words were even more confusing.
Merry shook his head. 'You really have gone mad,' he said. 'Nothing? You've taken
a child that doesn't belong to you – the only son of the Thain, no less! –
forty miles from his home. You've kept him hid from his parents the last week,
and who in the Shire can say what your intentions were?'
'He ran away!' Ferdi was nearly shouting in frustration. 'I wanted him to
return of his own free will – what would be the good of dragging him back, only
to have him run again the next chance he got? This time a fox nearly had him.
What might happen next time?'
'Ferdi, we've been friends a long time,' Merry said. 'I remember rubbing mud
into your hair the first time I met you. In Paladin's barnyard it was, when Pip
was just a babe in the cradle. I wish I could believe you.'
'My father whipped us both that day, for scaring the colts,' Ferdi said with a
distant smile, but then he came back to the present problem. 'Merry, what is so
hard to believe?'
Merry snorted. 'Look at the evidence! What would you think, if it were someone
else?'
'I am sworn to protect the Thain and his family,' Ferdi said reasonably. 'That
is what I was doing.'
Merry shook his head. It was no use trying to reason with Ferdi; he was mad,
quite mad. 'Go,' he said sadly. 'The way is open before you.'
'Abandon my family, Merry? Over specious charges?' Merry listened in silent
astonishment as Ferdi continued. 'Nell is waiting for me back at the Smials.
What would she think if I just walked off? It would be an admission of guilt,
and I have done nothing!'
'Nothing!' Merry said under his breath. He gritted his teeth in frustration.
'You could have sent a message to Pippin,' he hissed. Tooks were so stubborn!
'And what would he have done? Raced here to claim his son, swept him off to the
Great Smials, and no chance at all to change Faramir's thinking, to prevent him
running again.'
'So you say,' Merry muttered.
'Aye,' Ferdi said strongly. 'And so Farry would say, were he not fevered. And
Tolly will tell you the same when he gets here.'
'Let us hope for your sake he does,' Merry said, biting off each word. 'On the
other hand, if the two of you conspired together, I would only expect his story
to match your own.'
'You're accusing Tolly and me of hatching up some plan to steal the son of the
Thain?' Ferdi said in astonishment. 'Wherever would you come up with such an
idea?'
'Such things are common in the world of Men,' Merry said grimly. 'Pippin and I
had hoped to stop the contagion from spreading to the Shire... but then, you've
had a lot of contact with ruffians, Ferdi. You might have learnt this of them.'
He hesitated, then added, 'Tolly escorted several ruffians out of the Shire
just a month ago. Who's to say what they might have talked about?'
'Tolly? Conversing with ruffians? And you think I'm mad! All I learnt of
ruffians was how to fight them, Merry,' Ferdi said, shaking his head in
disbelief. 'You cannot think...'
'I do not know what to think,' Merry said slowly. 'All I know for sure is that
it's raining, and I don't care to be any wetter than I am already.' He added
soberly, 'This is your last chance, Ferdi. Take it, and go.'
'I'm not going anywhere, unless ordered by the Thain to do so,' Ferdi said
stoutly. 'Pippin has got to believe that this is all foolishness! Once he calms
down, he'll see reason.'
'Do not make me pronounce the sentence of banishment on you, Ferdibrand,' Merry
said softly. There was pain in his voice, and Ferdi gave him a sharp look.
'You?'
'Pippin cannot judge this case; he is an injured party,' Merry said. 'It's up
to me, or the Mayor, and I'm on the spot.'
'You... you believe me capable of such a deed,' Ferdi said slowly.
'I do,' said Merry, 'but if it is any comfort, I think you've gone mad, and
cannot see the wrong in't.'
'I am not mad.'
'You'd be the last to know if you were,' Merry said sadly. 'That's part of
madness. You think you're fine and it's everyone else who has the problem.'
'It will all come clear when you speak with Tolly,' Ferdi said. 'I will not
run, Merry! I've done nothing to warrant such a cowardly choice. Tolly will set
everything straight.'
'I hope I don't end up having to banish you both,' Merry said.
'You're not the only one,' Ferdi agreed, and they turned back to the house.
Merry pondered. Ferdibrand's refusal to go was undoubtedly another indication
of his madness. His story couldn't possibly be true. (Couldn't it? a
part of his mind still nagged.) What of the note and confession?
He shook his head hopelessly. Ferdi was out of his head, dangerously so. Merry
had tried to reach him, and failed. There could be only one outcome to this
case.
