Folks, I'm disappearing for a few days (work-related). Yarrie, don't google me and come after me if the next chapter doesn't appear expeditiously!
Dragonfly : Yes, Edwen Nana is going to be highly indignant when she learns of Aragorn's 'escape'. She will be particularly upset that he ran off wearing damp clothes, and will no doubt go on and on about how he was going to catch his death running around like that!
Terreis: And I've obviously watched the movies too many times because I put lines like that in there in the first place! Thank you for your compliments about Legolas and Aragorn's conversation about how Edwen Nana would 'clean up' the Orcs, so to speak, as well as your comments on their conversation about Arwen.
Legosgurl: You've almost finished your chapter! Ah, good. Remember I said that I would be happy to give it a beta reading.
Chrys: Yes, you are right; that was an intentional reference to Monty Python and the famous 'Spanish inquisition' sketches. Yes, the fact that Aragorn's clothes were wet will particularly exercise both Edwen Nana's indignation and her tongue.
Beta Reader: Dragonfly
Chapter 66: Possessed
Aragorn had no difficulty in picking up Gandalf's trail. The wizard was not trying to hide his tracks, and even if he had been, he probably wouldn't have been able to do so. For all his years in Middle-earth, Gandalf still had not developed much in the way of wood-craft. Of course, Aragorn reflected, Gandalf had been given the guise of agéd wizard, not that of a Ranger far younger in years. 'And', said Aragorn to himself, 'as I have mastered little magic, I could hardly upbraid Gandalf if he has failed to master my trade'.
On Aragorn sped, taking full advantage of a trail that was plain to see. Only with the setting of the moon did Aragorn halt to rest for several hours. As soon as the sun arose, he resumed the hunt. He could not shake his fear that Gollum would do Gandalf an injury if the wizard encountered the creature on his own.
Aragorn would have been far less concerned if he had stopped to consider that, although Aragorn could follow Gandalf with ease, the wizard himself could not track Gollum with equal facility. In fact, Gandalf's progress had ground nearly to a halt. At the moment, the wizard was not very far ahead of Aragorn, and he was contemplating with dismay a sheer cliff. It appeared from the marks that Gollum had climbed straight up the escarpment.
"I suppose," muttered Gandalf, "that I could try to circle around and find an easier approach and then pick up the trail again at the top. But I should lose so much time! No good! I shall just have to ascend this cliff, that's all!"
Resolute, Gandalf tucked his robe into his belt and began the ascent. He had scrambled up about a meter when Aragorn came upon the scene, but the wizard didn't hear the Ranger's approach because he was too busy muttering in frustration whilst hunting out handholds. Relieved to have found the wizard, Aragorn stopped to enjoy the show. Gandalf was of course heavier than Gollum, and handholds that had served for the creature's ascent crumbled away as soon as the wizard grasped them. Gandalf had perhaps succeeded in inching up another foot when the inevitable happened: the cliff face crumbled completely away beneath him, and he slid back to the base, losing his balance in the process and falling flat upon the earth. He ended up sprawled on his face, his oaths muffled by the dirt in his mouth. Aragorn tried but failed to stifle a laugh, which forced itself out in a sound rather like a snort. Gandalf raised his dust-streaked face and looked about for the source of the peculiar noise.
"Aragorn!" he exclaimed. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Only a few moments—just long enough to see your display of mountaineering expertise."
"You try climbing in a robe and see how you like it! In fact, try doing anything in a robe. The only part of the wizard outfit I detest more is that ridiculous pointed hat."
"By the way, where is that ridiculous pointed hat?"
"Stuffed in my tunic, where it won't get in the way. I only wear it for effect, don't you know. If there's no audience to impress, I tuck it out of sight."
Both Aragorn and Gandalf were smiling as they bantered one with the other. Aragorn proffered his hand and helped Gandalf to his feet.
"Gandalf, you had better hope that Edwen Nana never sees your face in such a state. She will come after you with a brush of boar's bristles."
"You speak from personal experience, I'll warrant. But, Aragorn, you didn't come all this way just to subject me to your raillery. What brings you back from Rohan?"
"At first, merely to pass on news of that realm as well as of Gondor. But my search for you took on more urgency when I learned from Legolas that you had again gone off in pursuit of Gollum. Gandalf, for all his small size, that is a fell creature."
"Edwen Nana but lately encountered him, and he offered her no harm."
This brought a smile back to Aragorn's face, albeit a brief one.
"Gandalf, it would be a rare creature who ventured to do her a harm, but let us speak in all seriousness. This Gollum has left behind terrified folk wheresoever he has ventured. He slithers through the smallest embrasures and robs both nest and cradle."
Gandalf, for all his age and wisdom, could not suppress a shudder. Yet he recovered quickly.
"Whatever Gollum has done, there is still a Smeagol somewhere within his person. I suspect Edwen Nana caught a glimpse of that being. But even were that not true, it is still necessary that Gollum be captured. He knows much, and we must learn what he can tell us."
"True, but you are going about it the wrong way."
"I am no tracker," Gandalf retorted. "I never claimed to be."
"As that is the case, give over the task to someone who is."
Gandalf unwound a little when he realized what Aragorn was saying.
"If I understand you aright, you are offered to take on the task of tracking and capturing Gollum."
"I am."
"Excellent!"
Aragorn burst into laughter at the expression upon the wizard's face.
"Gandalf, you look as excited as a child who has been left unguarded in a pantry!"
"Well, and can you blame me? This Gollum has been the bane of my existence ever since I learned the truth about a Hobbit's acquisition of, well, his acquisition of something."
"Ah, once again the Great Mystery. Whenever am I to be trusted with it?"
Gandalf considered briefly and then plunged ahead.
"I believe that you will soon need to know what I have to say. All signs point in that direction. Estel, my boy—you do know why you were given that name, don't you?"
"To protect me from those who believed that the bloodline of Isildur's heir had utterly perished from the face of Middle-earth. Indeed, you have told me that some so hate the memory of Isildur that they would not hesitate to slay a female child if they believed her to carry even one drop of his blood."
"Yes, to protect you, but think on the meaning of that elvish name."
"'Estel'? It means 'hope'."
"Aye, and you understand why that name was chosen and not some other?"
Aragorn smiled.
"It is rather childishly obvious, isn't it? I am the 'hope' for the restoration of Westernesse, of Arnor as well as Gondor. It is so plain that is hardly needs saying."
"And what is the antithesis of 'hope'?"
"Despair, I suppose."
"Yes, and Gollum may be the servant of that Despair. He may carry with him knowledge of a tool that, if ever wielded by the Enemy, will cast all of us into a pit of darkness so deep that there will never be any hope of our clambering up from its depths."
Aragorn regarded Gandalf with deep astonishment and some skepticism.
"Come now, Gandalf, that is saying much for a scrawny creature that, while vicious, has no power beyond the length of his arms."
"You are wrong. He has power that extends far beyond his reach. He has a tongue. You must always remember, Aragorn, that the power of a voice is never to be underestimated. Gollum knows something. And should he speak and share his knowledge with the wrong sort—I fear he already has!—the results could blast your hope, my hope—the hope of all of Middle-earth!"
Aragorn was left speechless. He gazed wonderingly at the wizard, waiting to be told more. Gandalf calmed himself slightly and continued.
"It would seem a small matter to many, but Gollum once possessed a ring—or a ring possessed him. This same ring is now in the keeping of one Bilbo Baggins, a Halfling who happened upon it blindly as he sought for an escape from a cavern in the Misty Mountains into which he and his companions had been carried by goblins."
"A ring?"
"Yes, a ring. A ring such as you possess, the Ring of Barahir, has power of a sort—the power to remind its wearer of his heritage and duty. And it has power over those who see that is worn by one who has a claim upon their allegiance and their swords. But Gollum's ring—Bilbo's, I mean—may have power of another sort. Aragorn, I fear, I fear"—and here Gandalf lowered his voice—"I fear it is the One Ring."
Aragorn would have been incredulous had Gandalf's manner not been so fearful, for fearfulness had never before been betrayed on the countenance of the wizard.
"The One Ring," Aragorn repeated softly. "The Ring that seduced Isildur and then betrayed him to his death." Then louder he said, and almost angrily, "If you think so, then why have you not seized it?"
"Seized it?" said Gandalf pointedly. "Seized it! I hope you are not altogether Isildur's heir, to speak so!"
Aragorn lowered both his eyes and his voice.
"I am sorry," he said softly. "I spoke precipitously, without thinking."
"Aye, and that's the point, isn't it? We must do nothing precipitously, nothing without thinking. And nothing without being sure. Which brings us back to Gollum."
"But, Gandalf," interrupted Aragorn, "can you not go to the Perian, explain the situation, and beg of him the Ring?"
"Have you heard nothing I have said?" Gandalf chided him. "I am not sure that it is the One Ring."
"But what harm would it do, sure or not sure? If the Ring proved to be naught but a bauble, could you not return it to him?"
"And if it proved to be the One Ring, what then?"
"Why, it would be in good hands."
"I think not," said Gandalf, so quietly that Aragorn could scarcely hear him. Then louder, "Would you want to have the keeping of the Ring? The Ring possessed by you—and you possessed by it?"
Aragorn considered carefully. "No," he said finally. "No, I would not."
Gandalf had sat tensely, awaiting his answer. Now he exhaled, and his shoulders slumped a little.
"I am glad to see," he said wearily, as if he himself had been going through a struggle, "I am glad to see that you are not altogether Isildur's heir."
"And whose heir are you?" asked Aragorn, in an awkward attempt to force a touch of playfulness into a conversation that had begun in bantering and ended in serious self-reflection—deadly serious, and that literally.
"Sauron's, I hope," replied Gandalf, trying to reply with equal lightheartedness. His humor was no less forced than Aragorn's, however, and in response the Dúnadan once more grew serious.
"No, truly, whose heir are you?"
"You ask as if you think I should know."
"Don't you?"
Gandalf shrugged.
"I have some ideas on the matter."
"But you don't know?"
"One could argue that nothing can be known for sure if one is not present as a witness. As I was not present at my own begetting, then I can say that I do not know."
Aragorn was not put off by Gandalf's evasiveness.
"Yet you say with certainty that I am Isildur's heir. How can you make that claim?" he challenged.
"Ah, well, if witnesses were present—reliable witnesses—who could pass on the tale, then one might have reasonable certainty. But as I have been abruptly deposited upon Middle-earth—not my original venue, you may be sure!—I haven't access to any witnesses to, or tales of, my engendering and heritage."
"Doesn't that trouble you?"
Gandalf gave another shrug.
"Would it matter if it did?"
"I suppose it would make no difference in how you went about your business."
"No, it wouldn't, and as it makes no difference, I generally don't waste time thinking about it."
Aragorn noticed, but did not comment upon, Gandalf's use of the word 'generally'.
'So he does think about it occasionally', he said to himself. 'However, as he plainly prefers not to discuss it at the moment, I had better drop the matter for now'. At that point Gandalf himself introduced a new topic.
"How did you fare in Rohan?"
"I believe the name 'Thorongil' now commands some respect in that land—except in the case of Gríma son of Gríma."
Gandalf groaned.
"Will there be no end of the malign influence of that family? Every time I visit Edoras, I find a member of that family entrenched at the side of the king."
Aragorn nodded grimly.
"And from what I have been able to glean, Gandalf, the influence of this latest Gríma exceeds that of the last."
Gandalf's nod was as grim as Aragorn's.
"Ever has it been so. The power of that clan has grown greater over the years."
"I marvel that the king endures their obsequious ways."
"The family's connection with the royal family goes back many generations. It is hard to detach their claws from the person of the king. Moreover, those folk know how to file their tongues pleasingly. Truly, Aragorn, I fear lest the day come when a king will be bewitched by the words of a Gríma."
"Gandalf, it is true that Gríma possesses a sweet tongue, but I marvel that he has the wit to wield it as he does. I misdoubt that someone feeds him the words that he utters."
Gandalf looked gravely concerned.
"You believe him to be the mouthpiece of an outside force—Sauron, perhaps?"
"It must be considered. Certainly Gríma does not have the interests of Rohan at heart."
"I shall try to pay more frequent visits to Edoras," muttered Gandalf. "It would be a serious blow if Gondor could no longer count on Rohan for the defense of its northern frontier."
"Yes, it would indeed be a serious blow. I think Gondor soon will need all the allies it can muster."
"Why do you believe this to be so?"
"Whilst I was in Gondor, Orcs and their Haradrim allies were making increasing feints in order to test the land's defenses."
Gandalf looked even more gravely concerned.
"It is as I feared," he said. "It has awoken."
Aragorn did not ask what 'it' was, for he had a notion that he already understood.