LOTRlover – thank you for the review. Sometimes I don't even feel like I'm writing this – it's almost like I'm taking dictation and I, too, want to shout at Mikal "WAKE UP!"
Kendriun suspected I was hiding something but I did not want to burden him with my dreams. They were only dreams, I reasoned, and there was no need for me to lay them on him. He had so many other matters to attend to that were more important.
The King needed Kendriun's advice more than ever – strange events began to happen in the kingdom. Shepherds living outside if the town walls had reported several sheep had been slaughtered by what appeared to be werewolves. Giant bats appeared at midday during the fall equinox and rats infested the grain stores.
Kendriun confided that he took these unfortunate series of events as an ill omen. Some evil was stirring in the land and he was determined to put a stop to it.
Rumors of raiding parties soon reached our ears and the King decreed that anyone living outside of the city walls could not be guaranteed protection from the raiders. For the first time in many years, we had to post armed guards at the perimeter of our village to protect ourselves from the wolves and raiders.
It was a very dangerous time but somehow Annatar managed to continue receiving and bestowing his lavish gifts. It seemed that wherever someone was in need, he heard of it and ran to the rescue. I often wondered how his wares managed to make it past all of the raiders and bandits while many of our merchants were robbed or beaten or worse. But he never lost a man. Not a one.
It was at this time Kendriun began to suspect that Annatar was in league with these dark forces. Had either of us suspected that he was the cause of this mischief, we would have immediately set to work against him.
You see, he was still gathering his strength in those days. The wars against the Eldars had taken a terrible toll on his strength and had we but known who he truly was, together Kendriun and I would have been strong enough to put an end to him once and for all.
But, alas! I digress once again and that was not meant to be. For he was still strong enough to cloud our vision and obscure his black heart from even Kendriun's most penetrating gaze and we remained ignorant of his true designs.
The darkness of late winter was heavy upon the land but still the raiders continued unabated. The guards had killed several of them and they had never managed to break through our defenses but it was still unnerving nonetheless.
The King was understandably anxious for the welfare of his people and Kendriun and I spent many hours making protective talismans for the guards and trying to discover the source of this evil.
Both men showed the strains of their office. Kendriun, who was usually quite even tempered, had become more impatient and volatile. The King became more quick to anger and quarrelsome. I withdrew into myself and kept to the books and scrolls in the library, hoping to find some "cure" for this degeneration. It was like some rotting disease had infested our kingdom but the symptoms were vague so there was no definite treatment.
I was determined to treat this evil by whatever means necessary and began to pour over the ancient Quenya scrolls that Annatar had given Kendriun in the hopes of finding some answer. Of course, one always looks for the most complicated answers first instead of the simplest cures. As it turns out, I tried several rather complicated spells and counter curses in a vain attempt to banish the evil before I finally remembered mother's cure for everything.
I took several cloves of garlic from my stores and chopped them up very fine. Then I placed a bit of garlic in any container I could find – old pots, glass vials, cheesecloth, broken bits of armor or pottery – and set them about the perimeter of the town after I had warned the guards of my intention.
As if by some miracle, the evil that seemed to hang over our heads was soon on the run. The wolves would not dare venture near our walls and we were able to reduce the number of guards as long as the garlic stores held up and I had plenty.
We even placed garlic among the grain stores to deter the rats. Our stores had grown very low during the long winter and we had to protect what remained to keep the village from starving. Famine was always an unwelcome guest.
Kendriun was amazed but I should have known. Garlic has always been known as a very hearty deterrent to evil and it was mother's cure for whatever ailed me. Why it took me so long to remember this, I can only guess.
The smell of garlic permeated my herbarium for several weeks but I did not mind. I rather enjoyed the pungent odor. The garlic also had the strange effect of keeping Annatar from lingering too long in the vicinity. He did not completely stop coming around – that would have been too suspicious. He simply made his visits much shorter although he continued to press Kendriun about what he had learned from the scrolls.
Alas, we were too preoccupied at this time to notice this odd detail. Even though the garlic had banished the wolves and rats, we still had the raiders to contend with and they had grown bolder and more desperate as the winter wore on.
Kendriun spent much of his time scrying in an effort to find out who or what was behind the raiding. He felt that the attacks and raids were purposeful rather than random but he could not be sure. Each time he tried to see into the hearts of those devils, he was repelled. He began to believe that some great evil was working though the raiders whether they were aware of it or not.
All of the signs and omens were there but I was either too young or too naïve to see them. I had put my faith in Kendriun's knowledge and my own ability. Why we waited so long before we confided our suspicions in each other is still a mystery to me. Had I spoken up sooner about my nightmares and suspicions of Annatar, I would be a very different man today. Yes, a very different man. I would still be a man and not merely a shadow of my former self.