A/N: Alright I'm back! I don't know what happened, but truthfully, I kind of forgot to update… but I'm not the only one who forgot. Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountains. Okay come on guys, really, that was my favorite horse! But more importantly, where are my faithful reviewers? On ellfine, foxhei, lynx yamato, blueeyedelf, shadowfaxgal and redwind730! I summon thee to me! Oh and hyperactiveforever, thank you for your antics! It cheered me up!
Chapter 9
Camouflage
They were coming. Finally, the moment that would turn the tide. They were the key to his wildest dreams, the ones that had played feverishly within his mind in the deep hours of the night, intensifying with every step they took towards his stronghold. For indeed it was a stronghold; Isengard was at it's strongest. His eyes glittered like scarabs, sunken in a mass of wrinkles and flesh, observing the obscure smudge on the stark wasteland that surrounded him. Saruman turned to the swirling orb which was placed on a handsomely carved stand of sable stone. Each footstep echoed endlessly in the many dark and secret halls and chambers of Orthanc. Each snow white boot rose slowly and fell purposefully, closely followed by the hem of pristine robs that dragged slightly.
He had reached his goal and he stretched a boney hand above the palantir with lengthy nails encircling the misty vision that began to form in it. A bushy eyebrow twitched slightly in concentration. The vision began to sharpen and he clearly saw the two individual nets dragged by the merciless orcs. One was bulkier than the other. Good. The vision faded as he released it and he crossed the sparkling floor, with the same leisure as before and reached for a decanter. He gazed lovingly at the rich red colour of the wine as it arced from the decanter to the goblet; it was his favourite colour. Crossing the floor once more, this time with the goblet in hand, Saruman settled himself on his cold throne. He would have a much bigger one when he ruled Middle Earth; it would only be fitting after all. He was an image of debonair knowledge, a sleek vision of cruel intelligence. He raised the goblet to his thin lips and drank. Upon lowering it, a stray trickle of liquid wound its way down from the corner of his mouth and stained the pale skin a deep red, revealing what lay behind the enchanting exterior.
The spiked gates loomed before Gorlak and his crew in the distance. Gorlak called Furnash to his side. "We made et ta Sharkey. Now I know tha' I'm theh boss aroun' here, but I hafta say, yew did well with 'em elves; yew really show'd 'em who was boss." Gorlak commented. Furnash's chest puffed with pride, but unfortunately so did his bad leg, but with pain and not pride. It had been hurting him a lot recently because of the many miles of travel.
"Well I jus' foller'd yer orders, captain, an' et worked out jes as yew said!" Furnash admitted with a little more than good humour. Gorlak replied with a chuckle that sounded as if it were scraping his throat.
"They didn' put up much 'o a fight, but you can be shur tha' one 'o my boys woulda taken care 'o em gladly, if they had - ".
"One 'o yer boys?" Gorlak questioned, with eyes that were reducing to slits. But Furnash took no notice and prattled on nonchalantly, his tongue loosened by pride.
"Of course they would 'ave! In fact, I caught one 'o 'em in theh act sayin' et was Sharkey's order - ". Furnash stopped mid sentence, knowing the seriousness of what he had just said.
"So. Someone decided ta 'ave a little fun, did 'ee?" Gorlak whispered, venom on his breath.
"Nah, of cours' not… well, they uh… see wha' happen'd was…" Furnash stuttered.
"So yew betray'd me too? An' I thought yew coulda bin my backup. But instead yew went an' enjoyed yerself, by doin' exactly as I said not ta! Then yew lied ta me in yer report and even now yew lied ta me right ta my face." Gorlak was strangely subdued and this worried the quivering Furnash. He wondered how long his leg would hold him. By now the company had stopped and formed a ring around them instinctively. Even the sack carriers had dropped their burdens in order to get a closer look at what was happening. Gorlak hung his head, stared at the ground and sighed, like a disappointed father. Then his hand darted out and ripped the rusty chain that hung from Furnash's ear and was attached to his mail, out. Furnash screamed in pain and clutched at the remainder of his ear. Gorlak threw the chain to the ground carelessly and turned away, intending to continue their journey. 'Wha' a stupid place fer a chain anyways' he thought. But Furnash's pride (and body) was injured and he stupidly would not stand for that. Little did he know Gorlak was making an exception and letting him off easy. Furnash lunged at him and tackled him from behind. But Gorlak was bigger and was not knocked over, so he merely shook him off and began to lay into him with his fists and when he decided that was not enough, his feet. Furnash's armor did nothing for him and his fighting skills didn't do much either, compared to Gorlak. Gorlak walked away from the mess that used to be Furnash with a smile of his face. Now he would have someone to blame for the arrow wound on the blond elf. That's when he noticed the two sacks a couple of meters away and slowly progressing. He gave death glares to the two guards and they quickly retrieved them and dropped them in front of his feet. Gorlak gave a barking laugh to the sky and a sharp kick to each sack, two for the bigger one. They continued.
Legolas grit his teeth in anger, but mostly in pain. 'What an idiot that Gorlak is, he didn't even notice that he kicked me in the chest. Well, if I die, I hope I die from this wound' Legolas decided mentally. 'The netting is very thick, so that probably contributed to his lack of interest'. Since the net was very thick, he was unable to see who was in the other net, but he knew that he was wounded as well, due to his constant coughing. He was also very large and seemed to have a hard time moving. Legolas wondered at his fate, but not his destination; he caught a glimpse of the crumbling tower in the distance.
Saruman hobbled down the paved path that lead from Orthanc's only entrance (that was known of) towards the rabble of orcs that was waiting impatiently at his gate. He had disguised himself using his powers to resemble a stunted old man with short grey wispy hair and yellowed teeth. This way, if one managed to escape in the end, they would be looking for someone who did not exist. He had also prepared a spell beforehand that would hide the true appearance of Isengard – it would only appear as a single nondescript tower. It was well that he had achieved this several nights before, for it had taken all of his knowledge of the dark arts and had been quite draining. He spotted the largest orc at the head of the group who was grasping two sacks like trophies. And that they were. "Welcome to Isengard, the mighty fortress of Sharkey!" he cackled rubbing his knobby and liver spotted hands together as he reached the host. Gorlak gave a second glance at the crumbling tower and forced himself to keep a straight face.
"I am Gorlak, theh one yew 'ave sent all yer messages ta."
"Ah, it's a pleasure to meet you then! I see you have brought my items of request. Well come in, come in! Let's go to a place where we can talk." Gorlak stared stupidly at the retreating back of the crippled man.
'Who does 'ee think 'ee's talkin' ta? A bunch 'o old ladies who 'ave been invit'd fer tea?' he thought. He scowled inwardly and dragged the sacks along with him as he motioned for the rest of his troupe to follow. They were almost at the entrance when the rumor of this fallen wizard came floating back to him. "Out of his mind he is, it happened when he attempted to overthrow the dark lord. Some say the dark lord decided that such a worthy adversary deserved to stay alive. But of course he would never let anyone like that ever trouble him again and really thought it would be quite amusing to see someone that intelligent turned into an idiot. So instead he corrupted his mind and delved through his thoughts, changing everything he thought he once knew. Now he's reduced to a blathering old man, still talking about gaining power; the dark lord's own private joke". Gorlak suddenly wondered why he had put this rumor out of his mind when he had accepted the job.
"Well, here we are!" the old man beamed, "now If you'll just step inside here with your erm, packages.." he cackled at his last comment. Gorlak sudden wondered why he would want three elven princes anyways. Saruman turned once more and starte dup the steps, but grit his teeth halfway up with the effort of keeping his façade up. 'This had better not take long' he hissed inwardly. Gorlak followed the old man and was quite cheerful at the groans that came from the semi-conscious inhabitants of the sacks. Turga, who was put in charge in the place of Gorlak, sat down on the weathered stairs and contented himself with glaring at the rest of the orcs menacingly.
Inside the tower, Gorlak dumped his burdens and sat on the offered wooden chair. "So 'ere theh are" Gorlak stated expectantly, "I 'eld up my end an' now et's time fer yeh ta hold up yers." 'Thur's no use in tryin' ta make small talk with dis idiot' was Gorlak's reasoning. The old man chuckled.
"You're one to get to business aren't you?" he said, taking a knife and slicing part of the nets open and prodding the mostly unconscious elves. "Well everything seems to be in order, now what do I owe you? What was it that we decided on?" Gorlak was surprised that he had taken the matter of such a large sum of money so lightly. The old man shuffled to the closet and began rustling about.
Turga picked at his dirty nails in boredom. 'All tha' work an' dis is my reward? Gorlak better pay up' he grumbled to himself. Suddenly he caught a flickering out of the side of his eye. 'Was theh building growin'!' he thought in alarm. Indeed it was, as Saruman had released his spell. Turga jumped up and gasped in amazement, as did the rest of the orcs, at the vision that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Gaping pits appeared all around the fortress that had taken the place of the single tower, and a steadily building roar seemed to be coming from those pits. The rest of the orcs were all shouting with bafflement by now and anxiously clashing their weapons together. Turga wished he could be doing the same instead of trying to figure out what had just happened. "Wha' sorcery is this!" roared Turga, in what he hoped was a convincing tone. But no one had time to answer him, as the roar emitting from the smoking pits rose to a tumult and poured forth millions of swarming orcs and most dominantly, uruk-hai. Turga's blood froze and his eyes were stuck on the unbelievable scene before him. Then he turned and ran without a second thought. Gorlak could deal with that on his own. 'Who knows if he didn' make a bargain with tha' old crone anyway?' he thought as he focused the rest of his mind on his target, which was the nearby forest; going out by the great gate (for it had indeed grown, in strength and size) would be suicide.
"Ah yes, here it is…" Sharkey announced as he turned with Gorlak's "reward" in hand. Gorlak smiled inwardly at his brilliance. But what was even more brilliant was the blinding flash that was emitted from a staff that Sharkey had retrieved from the closet, instead of his payment. Gorlak was thrown across the floor and didn't make a sound as his body was crushed against the adamantine black walls that had suddenly transformed itself from the previous shabby stones. He instantly regretted having taken off his helmet, as a trickle of black blood seeped into his eye. He laid there and did not move, because of the shock of several things happening at once, but in the end that is what saved him. Saruman surveyed his handiwork with pride. Apparently those new walls did the job, with the help of his staff. Gorlak still wans't sure what had happened exactly, but his shrewd mind was able to realize that this wizard was definitely not what he had appeared to be – the same went for his "tower".
'It must 'ave been some sort o' bewitchment… 'dis wizard must 'o been hidin' the entire time" Gorlak guessed. Saruman walked by the still orc and gave him a reassuring kick and continued on his way out to see how his minions were faring. But when he reached the door he paused and called for Grima. Grima obediently scuttled out for a hidden passage.
"Get that filthy orc out of here and show our guests to their quarters" he ordered coldy, once more his usual self. Grima scowled in contempt at the orc on the ground. He hated them.
"Shall our… guests, be staying in the usual barracks, Saruman?" Grima sniffed.
"Yes… for now anyways. Make sure you separate them all" Saruman finished and whisked out of the room. Gorlak took all of this in and expected to be taken care of first. Well if "Sharkey" could play his little game of illusions, so could he. He hoped his wound would still allow him to rise quickly, but his broad shoulder had taken most of the blow as his head had only been able to connect with the wall shortly because of the angle at which he was thrown. But his chest was scorched from the staff's power as well. Grima, as expected, stalked angrily towards the fallen orc.
Turga was panting by the time he reached the border of the forest, but it was just as well, for the old man who had been formerly bent and dirty was now standing tall and gleaming in white at the head of the entrance. 'If tha' is theh old man, but who else could there 'ave bin?' Turga thought, frustrated at his current predicament. But then again, he was better off then… well actually all of the other orcs. They had all been obliterated by the hulking mass of uruks and orcs that had issued out of those accursed pits. Deciding not to stay and find out if there were any more, Turga turned and ran deeper into the forest and planned on eventually turning east and running lengthwise to the fortress. But right now he needed the safety of denser wood.
A/N: Hooray! It's done! And it was pretty long too. So now you have no excuse to not review because there was plenty that happened! Oh and one more thing, I plan on having this story finished roughly around the end of March (hopefully), so look forward to some major plot twists.
