11. The Road to Lothlorien
They did not start as early as they had planned on the day of their departure, for Arwen lingered inside with Eldarion and her brothers, determined to leave and yet loath to say the final farewell. Canohando waited in the courtyard and a groom held the Queen's horse outside the entrance to the Citadel; they would travel mounted, of course, and the rest of the Company was assembled by the City gates.
"So, Orc, we have come to wish you safe journey." Canohando turned at Gimli's voice.
"I would be glad if there had been more time for us to know each other," Legolas said. "It will be a strange tale I carry to the Undying Lands, of an Orc who wears the black and silver and guards Arwen Undomiel at the last. There will be some who will not believe me, and I am not sure I understand even now, how such a thing came to be."
Canohando fingered the jewel at his throat. "Ninefingers," he said.
"That is the answer, yet it is passing strange," said Gimli. "Frodo Baggins – when I saw him first in Elrond's House, even when he stood forth to take the Ring, I thought he was too innocent, too soft, for the task he set himself –"
"He was," said Legolas. "He was gentle to a fault, but he knew what was at stake and he would not give in. I thought it had broken him beyond mending. When I saw him last I feared that I would hear next that he was dead, or driven mad." The Elf looked at Canohando curiously. "What did Radagast do for him, do you know? From what you have said, Frodo was hale and strong when you met him."
"When I met him he had fought his battle already, and won. I do not know if the old man freed him or he freed himself, but he was not soft. Gentle and courteous, but he would not back down - even Yarga could not break him; in the end Yarga fled rather than face Ninefingers..." The Orc sighed. "There is no one like him, but I would see his country, if I could."
Legolas smiled. "The Shire? Aragorn set a ban on that land many years ago; Men are not permitted there, but I don't suppose he thought of forbidding it to Orcs. Perhaps you will see Frodo's country one day, Canohando. He would like that, I think."
Canohando did not answer, but after a moment he turned to Gimli. "And what will you do now? The Lady says the Elf will go to Valinor, so will you return to your own land? Does your road lie with ours? I would not be sorry to have your axe on our side if we meet with enemies."
Legolas laughed. "No, Orc, you cannot have him! Gimli goes with me; our friendship is of too long standing to be broken now!" He looked down at the Dwarf with tender humor. "He has clung behind me on horseback, and now he will brave the Sea at my side, trusting his life to my boat-building."
"For the Lady Galadriel's sake, mind you," Gimli said gruffly. "Else you could as well come back with me to the Glittering Caves, and endure your sea-fever a while longer! But I will go with you to Elvenhome, if you are certain the ship will not sink to the bottom at having one of Durin's race aboard."
"It will not sink," Legolas said with certainty. "Permission has been granted, and Galadriel herself will rejoice to see you on the white shores. We are come to the end of many things, my friends, and this Middle Earth will be far different in the Age to come."
Gimli nodded, his face sad, and he reached up to grip the Elf's shoulder for a moment. But Canohando gazed around the courtyard at the fountain and the White Tree, reflecting that he had gained far more than he lost when the world changed. He grieved over his Lady and the good King he had served for so short a time, and there would always be an empty space in his heart for Frodo. But he was free to grieve, free to love…
The Queen came forth at last. She embraced her son and Elrohir, kissing them and stroking Eldarion's hair back from his brow.
"You will be a worthy King of Gondor, my son. Do not sorrow overmuch for me, but live gladly the years that are allotted to you. They are swift, the passing years; do not let them run through your fingers!"
"I will not," he said. He helped her to mount her horse, and then he walked beside her, through the twisting streets of Minas Tirith, all the way to the great Gates with their mithril images of the Tree that was the emblem of his house, and he stood there as the Company of soldiers surrounded her, fore and aft, a guard of honor and protection.
Finally all was ready; Elladan gave a shout and signaled with his hand, and the Company moved out. Arwen Undomiel rode with her head high, not looking back at the city where she had known her most poignant sorrow and her greatest joy, following the same road that had brought her here more than a hundred years before. Her face was calm and only Canohando close at her side saw the tears that ran down her cheeks and fell on her gloved hands, holding her horse's reins.
Canohando would not ride, but loped along beside the Queen, mile after mile, tireless and well able to carry on conversation while he ran. The Men were amazed at his endurance, but he shrugged it off. "It is the one good thing about Orcs: our hardiness."
Arwen spoke little, yet she did not close Canohando out as utterly as she did the others. To him she could speak her thoughts without holding back; he was as hardy of mind as he was of body, and nothing she said ever put him out of countenance.
"Your children would have had you stay with them, Lady," he said one day, when they had been traveling nearly a week.
"Yes." She sighed. "I could not stay and let them see how much less they are to me than he was," she said, and Canohando knew she spoke of the King.
"They know that, Lady, surely? For him you gave up your birh-right, the call to Valinor..." He ran for a little while without speaking, then added, "I would give much to have a son of my body." It was as if the words were torn from him; he had thought it often, but never spoken it aloud.
He glanced at her, half afraid of what she would say: he came of a cursed race; how dared he wish to perpetuate his kind! But she smiled down on him. "You must find a wife, then. I would be happy to know that you had a family; you would make a good father, and a devoted mate."
He snorted and looked ahead once more. "Who would have me, ugly as I am?"
Arwen stretched out her hand, brushing his shoulder. "You are not ugly, dear one, to anyone whose sight is clear." She murmured something in Quenya.
After a moment Canohando asked, "Will you tell me what you said, Lady? I do not understand the Elven tongue."
"It is time you learned, then. I said, 'The Valar grant that you find your mate, for your own sake and for the world's.' The Fourth Age will need your children."
After that Arwen took pains each day as they traveled, to teach him a few words. It was not Quenya she taught him, however, but the Sindarin of the Wood Elves. "You will not hear Quenya, soon, anywhere in Middle Earth," she said sadly. "Those who can still speak it will be all of them beyond the Sundering Seas." Her grief indeed was not abated and there was no light anymore in her lovely eyes; still, there was kindness.
They followed the Road as far as Edoras, stopping there for a week to rest and reprovision themselves for the second half of the journey. Arwen was gracious and gentle, accepting the proffered hospitality of the King of the Mark -- although it was Eomer's grandson who reigned in Rohan now, and he was a man of middle years, grey-bearded and somewhat over-awed to find himself entertaining Gondor's Queen. He gave one banquet for her, and Arwen sat dry-eyed at the table, trying to put the King and Queen at ease with pleasant conversation, but pale as death and eating next to nothing, crumbling her bread to bits between her fingers, to lie in a white mound on her golden plate.
Canohando stood behind her chair, watching, and the people of the court watched him as well, covertly from the corners of their eyes. No one would gainsay the right of Arwen Evenstar to keep whatever servitors she chose, yet it was past understanding to the folk of Rohan that she would have an Orc in her entourage. But after dinner was over and she had gone to the apartment prepared for her, Canohando sent one of the young soldiers of the Company to the kitchens.
"I will not leave the Lady's side in this strange place, and they might welcome me with their carving knives, if I entered the kitchens," he said wryly. "But she did not eat enough tonight to keep a bird alive, and she will be fainting by the side of the road if this goes on. Beg the cooks for a tray for her; tell them she eats but little, so send food that is light, but strengthening. And ask the Quartermaster for a skin of our own wine."
And when the food and wine were brought, the Orc went into Arwen's chamber himself, with her leave or without it, and knelt by her chair, where she leaned back with her eyes closed as if it were too much exertion even to allow her maid to undress her and put her to bed.
"Lady, you must eat. You must," he said.
She did not open her eyes. "Why must I? Go to your rest, Canohando. There is no danger in Meduseld, where the golden-haired giants of Rohan stand guard in every doorway."
"They are outside the door, Lady, and the danger lies here within the room. You will not reach Lothlorien if you do not eat; we will be digging your grave by the side of the road, and I will slay myself on top of it, for I swore to bring you home."
She sat up at that. "They would not bury me by the roadside; they would carry me back in state to lie in Rath Dinen beside my lord. And you shall not slay yourself anyplace at all, Orc, but live and journey on to see the Shire, your brother's land!"
"Not while I can serve you, Lady. My runt told me of the Golden Wood, and I would be glad to see it. Will you show it to me?"
He was pouring wine as he spoke and holding out the glass to her; she took it, and he held out the tray of little dainties from the kitchen: small pastries with a poppyseed filling, pieces of herbed beef sliced thin and rolled, and a fluted ramekin of custard, delicately browned. Arwen sipped her wine and took one of the pastries, biting into it and looking down at him in gentle exasperation.
"I chose mortality, dear one. You cannot stop death from finding me, and I do not wish you to."
And once again she saw the Ring-bearer in his eyes: the resignation to whatever pain must come, and stubbornness withal, to keep his promise.
"Under the mallorns, Lady, you said you would abide the Doom of Men. I think the King would be glad to know you came there safe, whatever happens after."
She sighed. "Have you got a spoon there? I will eat the custard, but you will have to finish that meat yourself."
He smiled, magnanimous in victory. "I will, if you will finish the pastries, Lady."
From Edoras they turned north across the wide plain of West Emnet, dotted with scattered villages each with its row of paddocks opening one into another, where the brood mares were confined till they should drop their foals. But out on the open range they passed large herds of horses, their caretakers boys near the edge of manhood who rode bareback and reckless, making their mounts rear and laughing over their shoulders, showing off for the soldiers of Gondor. Occasionally one of the boys caught sight of the Orc running in the midst of the Company, and that lad would stop his clowning suddenly, staring after them open-mouthed.
They made camp each evening well before sundown, for it took some time to pitch tents and prepare food for so many, and they were in no hurry.
"I would have the Queen travel in such comfort as we can manage, and if we do not reach Lorien till Mid-summer's Day, it matters little," said Elladan, and Canohando agreed.
The longer upon the road the better, he thought, for how long will she linger when she is once beneath the mallorns? He would not have her suffer and he could see in her eyes that she did, but yet his throat closed up at the certainty of the Queen's passing.
They forded the Entwash without difficulty; it was broad and shallow enough for the horses to wade without swimming in all but the very middle. Canohando clenched his teeth and walked into the river at Arwen's side, but when the water reached his neck he fell back a little and caught hold of her horse's tail, letting the animal pull him through the deepest part. No one said anything to him when they came out on the other side, but Arwen noticed his set face and drew her own conclusions. The next river they crossed, she would insist that he ride behind her.
The land grew wilder as they went north, and they came into a region of rolling hills. They would spend half a day climbing a long, steep slope, and reach the top only to find another hill rising on the other side of a narrow valley, and another beyond that as far as they could see. There were few trees, just the new grass of springtime pushing up through the dead straw of last year's growth, but there were flowers nestled in the sheltered hollows: violets, both white and purple, and fairy lilies of delicate pink with golden stamens.
Off to the west a dark smudge sat on the horizon. "Fangorn Forest," said Arwen, when Canohando pointed it out to her. "Two of the hobbits who traveled with Frodo went in there during the Ring War."
Canohando grunted.
"I know; Ninefingers told me. I do not understand how they came out alive, but he said they did. My father used to threaten us with the Ents, if we were not quick to obey."
Arwen glanced at him in surprise. It had never occurred to her that Canohando must have had a father, a family.
"Did you have brothers and sisters?" she asked.
He laughed without mirth. "Dozens," he said. "Orcs multiply like locusts. We were not like you and your brothers, Lady."
"No," she said softly. "I suppose not."
"No. The older ones beat the younger, and the weak ones ganged together to take revenge on the strong. When we got too raucous, my father beat us all, and my mother as well. Two or three did not live to go to war."
His voice was strained, and when Arwen stretched out her hand he caught hold of it, clinging to her fingers even as he ran beside her.
"What did you say, dear one?" He had muttered something that she did not catch.
"I killed one of my – brothers. He bound me to a tree for jest and left me without food or water for two days. I got free at last and then I lay in wait – I shot him through the heart."
He tried to let go of Arwen's hand, staring straight ahead with a face like iron, but she would not let go.
"You were not Canohando in those days, dear one. You have left that life behind."
He said no more, but he clung to her hand for another mile or two until they stopped to water the horses. When they camped for the night, after she had eaten, he came to sit by her in the firelight.
"Can you trust me, Lady, even now? Knowing what I did?"
She peered through the dim light, trying to read his face. "You are my Shadow," she said. "You are Frodo's brother, you are Commander of the Queen's Company, you are honored and beloved by Arwen Evenstar, as you were also by Elessar the King. And you did not seek vengeance on the Guardsmen who tried to murder you." She laid her palm to his cheek and he sighed, leaning against her hand, closing his eyes.
"I am your Shadow, Lady," he agreed.
Arwen decided against visiting Fangorn, when Elladan suggested it. "I doubt the Ents would be glad to see all this company of men and horses, though they might dissemble for courtesy's sake. And Canohando would not be welcome there."
The Orc snorted, and Elladan looked at him curiously. "What do you know of the tree-herders, Orc? Fangorn is a long way from Mordor!"
"My father's sire was from Moria. There was strife there among the different races of Orcs, and a band of them fled toward Mordor; they met Ents out on the plain north of Fangorn. My grandsire was one of the few who escaped, and he told tales ever afterward of the terrible Ents."
"We will not turn aside to Fangorn," said Arwen.
They crossed the Limlight, with Canohando mounted behind Elladan, at the Queen's command. The north side of the river was not as hilly as the country they had just passed through, but it was clothed in thick forest.
"Now we must be watchful," Elladan said, "for a troop of Orcs could hide easily among these trees, to take us by surprise."
The road through the woods was narrow and the Company was spread out in a long line, two or three abreast. They sent scouts to ride ahead and off to each side of the main party, but in spite of these precautions they did not really expect to meet enemies. They were near Lothlorien now, and for many years there had been peace. On the second afternoon when they heard shouts up ahead, some of them thought for a moment that the scouts had met up with Elves from the Golden Wood, coming perhaps to welcome the Queen and bring her home. Then they heard the screams of gored horses and knew better.
"Back, Lady! Turn back – out of her way, you men, and fall in behind!" Canohando had Arwen halfway to the rear of the column before Elladan had finished dispersing his men among the trees.
"We'll make our stand here," Elladan said as he spread them out, "that's better than marching on them in a narrow file, for them to cut us down at their pleasure. Whoever it is will come to us, and we'll be ready!"
They waited tensely. There was no further sound from the scouts who had been up ahead, and the men who had been riding outlier came in, alerted by the screams of the dying horses, but they had seen nothing. The forest was hushed as if a storm were about to break over their heads, and then there was a crash of underbrush just north of the road, and a monstrous figure stood among the trees.
Elladan, the tallest among them, might have touched the creature's belt buckle, if he stretched as high as he could reach. Not that he would have ventured any such madness, for the monster was as broad as three men and carried a club the thickness of a man's thigh. A mountain troll...
While they stood staring, their hearts nearly stopped, another troll appeared beside the first, and another. Elladan moistened his lips. He had fought a troll once, but it was long ago, in the war against the King of Angmar, and he had been part of a great host of Men. Even as he considered how to marshal his little Company against this threat, a fourth troll strolled down the path toward him. It held a bloody bone to its mouth; impossible to say whether it was from man or beast. There was an audible intake of breath from the men around Elladan and they began to back away, then to turn and run blindly, bumping into trees and into each other, tripping, but getting up at once to flee…
"Stand!" Elladan shouted. He grabbed the soldier nearest him and dragged him around to face the enemy. "Do not give in to fear; we have won against them before!" The man he had collared seemed to get control of himself; he squared his shoulders, drawing his sword, and Elladan turned to gather more of his scattered forces.
Some of the men had clustered in little groups, facing out with their swords ready; others yet hesitated between courage and flight, and Elladan ran among them, trying to hold them steady, all the time glancing over his shoulder at the trolls. They had gathered around the fellow on the path, jostling him and trying to snatch the bone away from him.
There was a shout from behind, and Canohando was hurtling toward the trolls, ducking in and out among the trees, followed by his archers.
"Let them have it!" the Orc roared. "In the eyes – aim for the eyes!" Fifty bowstrings sang, and a hail of arrows filled the air. Two of the trolls fell shrieking, but the others surged forward. The archers gave way to the left and the right, firing again and again, but now that they were not directly facing their enemies it was not easy to target their eyes. The arrows glanced off the trolls' thick hide or buried themselves in tree trunks, and the trolls left the path and charged.
"Axes!" Elladan called, his voice a trumpet over the clamor of battle, and a score of axemen ran forward. The Prince himself grabbed an axe from one of the soldiers and joined in the attack, and Canohando brought his archers around in a wide circle so they were facing the trolls again, ready to fire when the axemen should fall back.
Another troll fell to the axes, but the fourth slipped past them and lunged down the path toward where the Queen was surrounded by her horsemen. Canohando threw himself forward, crying, "Away, Lady! Get her away, you men!" and the horses turned as one and galloped off with Arwen in their midst. The troll lumbered around to face the archers once more, but he was wary now; he swung his great spiked club before him with one hand, but with the other arm he shielded his eyes. The axemen could not get near him, and the arrows bounced harmlessly off his muscled arm.
He came on for six or eight paces, and they could not stop him. Then he angled away, still swinging his club in a wide arc to hold off the axes, and started after the Queen. In spite of his bulk, he was fast, and they had to run to keep up with him.
Canohando barged ahead, outdistancing Elladan and all the rest. When he got close, he feinted to one side and the troll swung his club a mighty blow to crush him, but the Orc leaped the other way and flung himself against the huge body, dropping his bow and catching hold of the troll's garments, pulling himself up hand over hand as if he had been climbing a rope. He was on the creature's back and it could not get its arms back far enough to catch him; then he was clinging to the monster's shoulders and reaching around its neck with one arm. His hand came up and he drove his knife into the troll's throat. Dark blood spurted, and the creature clawed for a moment at the knife and then, even as it fell, it plucked Canohando from behind its neck and hurled him to the ground. The Orc lay for a moment without moving, stunned, and the troll pitched forward and fell with a crash directly on top of him.
The men of the Company had stood rooted to the ground, watching Canohando's single combat with the troll; now they gazed in horror at their fallen enemy. They knew their Commander lay beneath the corpse, but they could see no sign of him. There was no sound; even the hoofbeats had faded in the distance, of the horsemen bearing Arwen away to safety.