NOTE: No matter how many times I proof something, there always just has to be at least one thing that gets by me. Call it my Persian Flaw. Well, they have been found and banished into the Outermost Void - I hope. My deepest apologies.
A/N1: Halgar's story of the Wainriders is paraphrased from the account of the Battle of the Plains as well as The Battle of the Camp in Tolkien's book, Unfinished Tales and will be in italics.
A/N2: Cermië is the seventh month according to the Númenórean calendar and is roughly the equivalent of July.
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The only cure for grief is action.
xox George Henry Lewis xox
Chapter 26
The Way of the Warrior
When Rahan laid a comforting arm around Anayah's shoulders, she turned towards him and just for a moment her eyes held a measure of indefinable sadness. Then she leaned her forehead against her Captain's chest and sighed and in turn, he wrapped his other arm around her and hugged her to him then gave her comfort as one weary warrior to another.
"To know life in every breath, every cup of tea, in every life we take."
She tapped him lightly over his heart with one black-gloved fist then sighed and took a step backwards.
"The way of the warrior."
"Indeed." Was the Captain's soft reply.
They both turned as Súrion walked up to them.
"Boss Lady, we've got to go before we start drawing a crowd."
"The twins?"
Anayah looked to where the two were standing by the horses, each supporting the other.
"They'll hold for a bit."
Anayah nodded then the three elves started walking back to the horses.
"Semoro, you take Elrohir on Orë and I'll take Elladan. Súrion take point and Saeros, you guard our back door, Rahan will take right flank and I will take left. Home is looking better all the time - let's do it!"
Elias and Orë knelt, the twins were helped aboard, then when the two stallions had once more risen to their feet and their riders had mounted, the five horses, their riders as well as their passengers, all turned to the compound gate and exited. Then, as silently as they had come, they were gone - swallowed up by the night.
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"Strider?"
Aragorn jumped slightly as Halgar sat down beside him. For some moments, the two men sat in silence, looking out the window at the night sky; each lost in his memories of better times and freedom. Lothur joined them, then sitting a pace away, his back to the wall so that he could better see what was going on behind his two friends - an act quite natural for anyone living the life of a quarry slave.
Halgar handed Aragorn a small flask of water, Aragorn smiled his thanks to the concerned young man, took a couple of sips and handed the flask back. He turned back to the window and continued his silent vigil, letting the beauty and serenity of the stars soothe his troubled spirit and turbulent mind. Finally, after some moments had passed, and still without turning to look at his two friends, he broke his silence.
"Lothur, you have been here for a bit."
Lothur nodded.
"Aye. I have been."
"I need to know how many slaves we can count on to fight as well as their condition and we need to establish a secure method of communication between us and the slaves."
"Every slave in Hoth?"
Though the man was whispering, his voice still almost squeaked.
"Yes, Halgar, every slave in Hoth."
Aragorn turned his attention back to Lothur.
"Is any of this doable?"
The big man thought for a moment before he answered.
"As to your first question … and keep in mind these numbers have not been verified in some time … There are six barracks for quarry slaves and at any given time, there are about 500 slaves in these barracks with another 500 working in the quarry - they interchange with the shifts."
The big man quit speaking for a few moments as guards walked by the window, pausing and looking inside at the sleeping and lounging slaves and after they had resumed their patrol, Lothur continued.
"There are two slave barracks attached to the Palace that house about 75 slaves each - that's 150 slaves. There are about 50 Chieftains who live in semi-permanent structures around the perimeter of Hoth and each of these Chieftains, depending on rank, owns about 10 to 20 slaves each. If we factor in only the smallest of these numbers, that would be about 500 slaves - 1,000 if we are lucky. There are about 100 slaves owned by different merchants - these slaves do not live all in one place but are scattered all over the city."
Lothur looked at Aragorn seriously.
"Strider, that's less than 2,000 slaves - and most of those are half-starved and weak, some of them are women, some are elderly and some live with their spirits so greatly diminished that they barely cling to life."
The big man looked over his friends' shoulders at the other slaves in their barracks.
"And then, there are those we cannot trust."
"We will deal with those when we find them."
There was a cold, hard edge to Aragorn's voice that neither Halgar nor Lothur had heard before and it raised the hair on the back of their necks.
Aragorn sighed deeply, almost afraid to ask his next question.
"How many Wainrider warriors would we face?"
The look on Lothur's face was grim.
"In the space of time between one sunrise and the next, the High Chieftain could have 5,000 warriors arrayed in the battlefield next to the city. Strider, that's 200 chariots, 500 archers, 500 spears, 1,000 horse and about 2,800 foot soldiers."
Halgar shook his head sadly.
"I get the impression that these people have been planning a comeback."
"A comeback? How so, Halgar?" Lothur asked the man.
Halgar settled himself a little bit more comfortably before he began his tale.
"The forces of Gondor had been decimated by the Great Plague which began in the winter of 1635 of the Third Age as had been their 'allies,' the Northmen of Rhovanion, part of whom we know today as the Rohirrim - the men of Rohan. After the plague had run its course, it was chiefly the people of the south that tested the weakness of Gondor and her armies and when the Wainriders finally began their invasion of Gondor, the wars lasted for 100 years.
The battles were fierce but at last, in 1856, King Narmacil II took a great army north onto the plains south of Mirkwood, gathering all that he could of the scattered remnants of the Northmen as he went. He was defeated, and himself fell in battle, after which the remnant of his army retreated over the Dagorlad into Ithilien, abandoning all lands east of the Anduin save Ithilien, itself. The escape of the armies of Gondor and their deliverance from total annihilation was due in part to the courage and loyalty of the Horse Lords of the North who acted as rearguard for the retreating survivors.
Though sorely pressed, the forces of Gondor and their allies inflicted such losses on the Wainriders that they had not strength enough to press their invasion until reinforced from the East, and were content for the time to complete their conquest of Rhovanion."
Halgar paused in his tale to take a few sips of water from his flask, then continued.
"At last King Calimehtar, son of Narmacil II, decided to avenge the defeat of his father and his people at the Battle of the Plains, as it had come to be called. When a message came from Marhwini, at that time the leader of the Éothéod - the Northmen - that the Wainriders were plotting to raid Calenardhon over the Undeeps - the westward bends of the Anduin east of Fanghorn Forest - King Calimehtar knew the time had come to take action.
The King lured the forces of the Wainriders onto the plains of the Dagorlad and when the Wainriders came down on them with all the strength they could spare - the two armies engaged and fought a fierce battle. Joined by Marhwini and his éored, Gondor and its ally soundly defeated the enemy though Gondor left a third of its own forces on the Dagorlad. The Wainriders had been defeated, yes, but it was not a decisive victory. The remnants of the Wainriders retired to their homes near Rhûn and gathered what was left of their people and multiplied."
Their conversation stopped as two slaves entered the barracks then walked to their palettes and laid down and after making sure the two had fallen asleep, Halgar continued his tale.
"On the ninth day of Cermië in the year 1944, war again returned. King Ondoher led his Northern Army north through Ithilien and deployed them on the Dagorlad, a field that had become an ill-omen for Gondor, and Eärnil, a member of the royal house and a descendant of King Telumehtar, encamped his Southern Army 40 miles north of Ithilien.
The Wainriders, strengthened by remnants of their kinfolk in Rhovanion and their new allies in Khand, headed towards the two armies. And so it came to pass that the head of the army of Gondor had only drawn level with the Gates of Mordor when the enemy finally engaged Ondoher and his army. Not only did the Wainriders have their great war-chariots but also a force of cavalry far greater than any that had been expected. Ondoher only had time to turn and face his enemy and send word to one of his Captains before the Wainrider forces crashed into them.
Ondoher and his eldest son, Artamir, fell during the fierce fighting as did the king's only other son, Faramir, during the same battle, although it was only the bodies of Ondoher and Artamir that were never recovered. The assault of the enemy passed right over the Northern Army and on both sides, decimating the Gondorians, scattering them, while many of the survivors were pursued westward into the Dead Marshes.
The first triumph of the Wainriders was the beginning of their undoing for they were ignorant of the real numbers of the defending army. After their first success, they believed that they had overthrown their enemy, and that their own main army had little more to do than advance to the invasion and occupation of Gondor. They came on in little order, singing songs of victory and seeing no signs of any defenders to oppose them. They stormed into Ithilien and late on the thirteenth day of Cermië, destroyed what was left of the Northern Army. The chief commander of the Wainriders then called a halt to their advance and held a feast.
Then Eärnil, Captain of the Southern Army hastened north, gathering what he could - what was left - of the Northern Army and came up against the main camp of the Wainriders, while they were feasting and reveling, believing that Gondor was overthrown and that nothing remained but to take the spoil. Eärnil stormed the camp, set fire to the wains, and drove the enemy in a great rout out of Ithilien and a great part of those fled before him and perished in the Dead Marshes."
There was a period of silence, during which the men thought of those who had died valiantly defending their people from the very race that now held the three of them captive. Finally, after a final, heavy sigh, Aragorn turned to his two companions.
"Lothur, I want you to set up a system of communication between us and the other barracks then find someone from each barracks that you are sure you can trust and appoint them as Captains. We will then coordinate any of our plans with those Captains who will then relay that information to the slaves in their particular barracks. We must also implement some method to contact the slaves that live outside the barracks of the quarry slaves which would also include the Palace slaves."
He turned to Halgar and laid a hand on the man's shoulder.
"As Master of Lore, my friend, you will be an invaluable resource to me as far as military tactics that were used in the past as well as general knowledge of the Wainrider people. It may very well be from the past that we will find our greatest weapon to use against these people."
He looked back out the window.
"Now we must wait for my brothers to contact me again. Until that time, my friends, we have a lot of planning to do."
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"HE'S WANTS TO WHAT?"
Elrohir grimaced in pain as Anayah accidentally jerked the bandages she was placing around his ribs in response to what Elladan had just told her. The youngest twin turned his head toward his brother with a pleading look in his eyes.
"Brother, perhaps it would be better if you waited until my dear sister finishes binding my ribs before you tell her anything more - I don't know if I can survive much more of her tenderness."
Gently cuffing Elrohir's head, she then tenderly kissed his temple, and after she had finished what she was doing and had settled the youngest twin back against a tree, began to pace up and down in front of them, mumbling and occasionally gesticulating with her hands. After trying to follow her movements for a bit, but finding his efforts were only worsening his headache, Elladan finally managed to get her attention.
"Sister. Anayah!"
She turned to Elladan finishing the last of her thought verbally as she did.
"The numbers don't add up right so there will have to be something done to equalize strengths."
When she saw her brother's mouth opening and closing soundlessly, she walked to where he was reclining on his palette and sat beside him.
"I'm sorry, Elladan, but I was just finishing my thought." She brushed the hair out of his eyes and checked the stitches on his head. "What did you want?"
He smiled.
"Anayah, this cause of Estel's, to end the slave trade in this city is one that he is holding close to his heart, and we both know just how tenacious he can be once he sets his mind to something - please consider supporting him."
She placed a hand on her brother's shoulder and leaned in closer.
"My brother, there was never a moment when I was considering any other course of action. I was just starting to make a mental list - trying to anticipate what information my dear brother will need to accomplish what he is planning. There is nothing that I would like more than to jerk him out of that slave barracks, do the same with Legolas from the Palace and go home, however, Estel is my kin and I will support him fully in whatever he plans to do."
She got up and began to pace again although she was a bit slower, not wanting to cause her twin brothers more pain than they were already in.
"I am assuming, for the moment, that Estel doesn't know what happened to you so he is going to be expecting the two of you to contact him again. Realistically speaking, both of you are going to feel like warg spit for the next two to three days so one of my elves is going to have to contact him in your stead. I must go to the Palace tonight to check on Legolas and cannot do this thing myself, so I am going to send Saeros and Súrion to make the contact."
Anayah turned and scanned the camp until she saw her Captain. When he felt her eyes and looked up from sharpening his sword, she pointed to him, the other three Guards and waved all four to come to where she was standing. When everyone had finally gathered around her, she explained what she wanted everyone to do.
"Estel wants to help the slaves free themselves."
She had been expecting arguments from her Guards and was somewhat surprised with what Rahan said next.
"What can we do to help?"
This time it was her turn to open and close her mouth soundlessly. There was a definite twinkle in her Captain's eyes.
"Anayah, you are our Commander and we follow your lead without question or hesitation although upon a occasion we might advise an alternate course of action. If supporting your brother's cause is something you want to do then do it - we will gladly follow you."
"Lead us, Anayah." Súrion said with a wink.
After thinking about things for a moment, and with her hands on her hips, she turned to her Guards and her brothers once more, as her mind once again turned itself to the matter-at-hand.
"I want Súrion and Saeros to make contact with Estel as soon as it gets dark, at which time you will pledge our support and explain what happened to the twins. Until it gets dark, I want you two to start a very thorough recon of Hoth's military - strengths, armories, horses - that kind of thing. The better we know our enemy the greater the chance that this rebellion will be successful. I know logistics will be on Estel's mind and in anticipation of that, we will start to gather as much current information for him as we can."
She looked down at the twins as they sat on their palettes.
"I want the two of you to take this time to rest and regain your strength. However, if both of you find yourselves awake at the same time and are bored and want something to do, then I want you to brainstorm on ways for a small rag-tag army to engage a much greater force. The odds are going to weigh heavily in the Wainriders' favor, but because I know what devious minds the two of you have, I have every confidence that you will think up many extremely interesting ways of engaging the enemy."
She sat on her heels and looked at her brothers seriously.
"It is a given that we will eventually have to pull Estel out of his slave barracks, and I know he will want to get right to the planning of this rebellion, so let's get as much of his footwork done for him as we can. That way, when he finally does come 'home' to us, he will have that much less that he has to do. I don't know about you two, but I want to go home - I don't like it here - so let's all do our job so we can go home and put all this behind us."
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Later that evening, Anayah rode to the Palace to check on Legolas. Most of the staff had retired for the evening and the halls were dark as she started to descend the stairs to the slave "accommodations" on the lower levels. Her senses told her she was not alone but since she knew who her "tag-along" was, she just smiled to herself and paid him no mind - nor did he expect her to - it was just a short "hello."
She slowed her steps as she approached the jailer, lowering her head slightly and drawing her cloak closer about her. Anayah had discovered on her previous visits that if she was not quite as aggressive as she normally was around idiots, that she didn't have as big a problem with the two "warts" who were responsible for the slaves on this level of the Palace.
"Master jailer, I am here to see to the needs of the elf."
The jailer looked her up and down.
"You can't see him tonight."
She looked the man in the eye with a look of warning in her own.
"And why, exactly, can I not see him?"
The jailer began to shift his weight from one foot to the other.
"He was bad."
She paused and for a short moment, considered taking the stupid human by the throat and squeezing it so hard with her hands that his eyes popped like a couple of grapes. That thought was quickly discarded as unrealistic although entertaining the notion in the first place, served to calm her and when she finally did say something, it was not a death threat or even an explanation of his lineage and its relationship to pigs.
"Ostara has given me permission to bring the elf back to health, Master Jailer so it is with that in mind that I once more politely ask you to unlock his cell for me, and this time I fully expect you to do what I am requesting."
Mumbling to himself, the thin and pallid-complected human took his keys from the peg beside his workstation and walked down the walkway to Legolas's cell. After unlocking the door and pulling it open, he stepped back and allowed Anayah to go inside. She froze - the cot was gone and a naked and bloody Legolas lay in the middle of the bare, little room on the hard, cold floor.
Quickly kneeling beside him, she felt for a pulse and found one although it was quite weak, then after looking at him closely and seeing the bruises and cuts that covered most of his body and head she stood and whirled on the jailer. Her right hand came up and there was a flash of bright, white light, after which the jailer found himself immobilized against the wall outside the cell. She slowly walked toward the frightened man and stared into his eyes with the jailer not having the will to look away.
"What in Mordor's unholy name did you do to him?"
"He was bad. I had to punish him."
"Does Ostara know you did this?"
The jailer lowered his eyes but otherwise remained silent and from that simple act, Anayah got her answer. She started to close her right hand into a fist and even though her hand was not touching him physically, he still began to have difficulty breathing as her ethereal touch started closing off his windpipe. Then the hand of another was laid on her shoulder and a soft voice spoke close to her ear.
"You will do your friend no good if you do this, Anayah. Do not kill this worthless piece of meat, just wipe his memory then leave him to me - please."
Closing her eyes then imagining the jailer's mind as a void from the moment she had whirled on him to the moment he next opened his eyes, she disconnected the light and looked at him as if that particular moment had just begun. The human stood in front of her dazedly blinking his eyes.
"I asked if there was a problem here. Jailer - answer me immediately!"
The jailer turned his head and looked at Greyfell.
"No sir, their ain't no problem - I was just letting the lady into the elf's accommodations."
"If there is no problem jailer, then why is the slave lying naked, bloody and unconscious inside his cell? What exactly did he do to deserve such treatment, especially when you know it is the High Chieftain's express order that he be brought back to health?"
The jailer mumbled and this time it was Greyfell's turn to slam the man up against the wall.
"What did he do? I asked you a simple question and I fully expect an immediate answer!"
"He wouldn't answer my questions - he won't talk."
The tall man tightened his hold on the front of the jailer's tunic.
"And for this you would go against your High Chieftain's wishes - because he wouldn't talk to you?"
He released his grip on the jailer then stepped back from the man.
"I want the cot put back in this room immediately then you are to go get water for cleaning as well as drinking, bandages, a full healer's kit, broth and whatever else the lady requests. You will then remove yourself to your station where you will remain. If I receive word that you harm this prisoner again, I promise you that you will never leave this Palace alive - on that you have my vow - now move!"
After the jailer had run down the hall, Greyfell turned to Anayah.
"Make plans to get him out of here as soon as you can - I fear for his life."
With that being said, he turned and disappeared down the hall.
TBC
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Purduegirl: Thank you very much for your review. I am still trying to figure out how I'm going to frame it! Everything that I go through, the writer's block, agonizing over what to write and how to write it, the stress of self-imposed deadlines that aren't going to work … after all these things, when I get a review like yours, well … all I can say is that it makes everything worthwhile. Hannon-le!
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Karone Evertree: No, Greyfell didn't cut his ears - he was born that way. One of the reasons that he wasn't accepted by the elves was because of his rounded ears. There is intolerance towards "differences" and I cannot believe that it was any different for the elves. Elrond didn't think all that highly of the race of men, mainly because of what Isildur had done. Being half-elven has been Greyfell's bane his whole life but just maybe he has at last found a kindred spirit in both Lord Elrond as well as Anayah.
When Greyfell talked about pain, it was the pain of having to hide his glow. Such an act runs contrary to an elf's nature and therefore it is psychologically painful to have to do it.
Why do they like to torture Elrohir more? Though many writers portray Elrohir as having a gentle nature, of being a gentle soul, and while this is probably a pretty accurate portrayal by fanfiction standards, I believe that by his gentle and reserved demeanor he is actually showing a great emotional strength. Bullies are not capable of looking beyond the surface - they don't look into a person's heart - and they often mistake softness for weakness. Elladan is the balance for he and Elrohir ,and possesses the more fiery temperament. Just remember that in everything there is duality - balance.
How can they tell them apart? Again, according to Fanfiction portrayals, the twins are identical and those who haven't known them for long have trouble telling them apart. It is in emotional displays that they show their differences.
I call this series of stories I am in the process of writing the Black Rider Chronicles and I'm glad you liked the appearance of the black riders. I think if somebody or something scared me like the compound guards were scared that I would probably have dropped dead on the spot.
Thank you for your review on this chapter as well as for the reviews you have done on Possession - you're the best!
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Horsiegurl: Yes, our favorite twins have been freed and their treatment has been avenged. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.
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CapriceAnn Hedican-Kocur: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and it was also so nice to hear from you in the email. Any time … I sure hope you enjoy this chapter as well.