Back in her car, Hannah pulled out her cell phone. She had put Mark's number in after he gave it to her, and dialed it now.
"Hello?"
"Mark? It's Hannah. Listen to me." She pulled out onto the highway, driving one-handed. "Amondaur is telling the truth. I went through the woods to the place he said he came through to our world, and there is a…a portal or something there. I swear I am not making this up. But I think the portal might be closing soon. We have to get him through it, fast!"
There was a long pause on the other end. "Hannah—" Mark began slowly. Hannah could tell by the reverberation of his voice that he was in his office.
"Mark, I know it sounds nuts. But I swear, I'm telling you the truth!"
"I believe you."
"It—You do?" Hannah was brought up short.
"Yes, I do. But Hannah, I don't know if we can get him out!"
"What do you mean?"
"My article sparked some interest, and there are some experts coming in half an hour to interview Amondaur. They want to take him to their own institution, and Ron Keller has agreed."
"What?"
Mark sounded miserable. "They're taking him away tonight."
"Then we have to get him out before they come!"
"Where are you?"
"Just left the park."
"Then it'll take you half an hour to get here, and they'll be here by then!"
"Then you have to distract them while I go in and get Amondaur! And his sword, if possible."
"Hannah, you know as well as I do that there are surveillance cameras all over the building!" Mark exclaimed. "And we can't have you being blamed for breaking him out—or me either, for that matter," he added.
Hannah was silent for a long moment, thinking. "He could sneak out a side door himself," she said slowly, "if he had a key."
"He doesn't."
"But I do." She thought hard. "Tell the people on duty on the front door and the ward that I lost my key, and to let me through to your office. Tell them I'm borrowing some of Amondaur's gear to examine it a little more closely. If they mention that the experts might want to see it… Well, just hope they don't think of it. When the experts get there, give them a tour of the facilities or something—keep them away from your ward. I'll be there as soon as I can."
000
It was getting dark by the time Hannah reached the psychiatric hospital. There were more cars than usual parked outside. The experts were there already, then. Hannah prayed that Mark would be able to distract them long enough.
The guard who usually stood near the front door let her in when he saw her coming. "I hope you didn't lose your key inside the facilities," he said disapprovingly. "We can't have any of the patients picking it up!"
"Oh, I don't think I did. I probably accidentally kicked it under the bed or something," Hannah said as blithely as she could. Erica always said she was a terrible liar, but the guard didn't look suspicious, only gave a condemning sniff.
A more courteous ward orderly let her into Amondaur's ward. "I'm sorry to put everyone to so much trouble!" Hannah said, thanking her. She didn't have to lie about that. She really was sorry, and hoped no one would get in trouble for her actions tonight.
She went to Mark's office first, trying to move casually and not too quickly. She felt like everyone was staring at her, and it suddenly seemed very hard to walk normally.
Mark had left his office door unlocked for her, and had laid out the bags of Amondaur's clothes and weapons by his desk. Hannah picked them up, and then headed to Amondaur's room, as if she were just going to a quick hello.
"Amondaur?" she said at the door, and he looked up from his magazine in surprise.
"Hannah? I thought today you do not come," he said, putting down the magazine and rising to greet her.
"Amondaur, listen to me," Hannah said, trying to keep her voice low and make it sound to anyone passing as if she were just having a normal conversation with him in Sindarin. "I found the door to your world. It is still open." Amondaur's eyes grew wide and he opened his mouth to speak.
"Do not speak! We must not let anyone else know. You have to escape before those men come to take you away. Here—" She dug in her pocket and quickly handed him her key. "Put that in your pocket, quickly." He complied. "Now here is what you need to do."
000
Two minutes later, the guard at the front door let her out. Calmly and casually, Hannah put her two bags in the back of her car, got in, and drove away. She went around the corner and pulled into the parking lot by the service entrance. Most of the doors here led to the cafeteria, but one opened off of the ward next to Amondaur's. She parked close enough that Amondaur would immediately see her in her car, but far enough away that the surveillance cameras wouldn't catch her car on film.
Hannah waited anxiously, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel and constantly looking around for any witnesses. But the place was quiet.
After several minutes, the door opened suddenly, and Amondaur slipped out swiftly and silently and climbed into the back seat of Hannah's car. As fast as she could manage without making a ruckus, Hannah drove out into the alley and onto the highway, heading toward the state park.
"How did it go?" she asked Amondaur, who had discovered his personal effects in the bags and was putting on his weapons, cloak, and boots.
"I think that none saw me. After waiting for five minutes as you told me, I waited in our hall until the healer was not looking, then went through the door into the next hall. By a great stroke of luck, there was no one watching that ward, and I managed to get out."
Hannah knew that his departure would be noticed quite soon, and that the surveillance cameras had taken footage of him using a key to get through the ward doors and the side door by the service entrance. With any luck, they would decide that Hannah had indeed somehow lost her key while in Amondaur's ward, or that Amondaur had managed to sneak it out of her purse. That way, neither Hannah nor Mark would be incriminated. The hospital would be quite upset with Hannah, of course—but then, she wouldn't be working there anymore, with her one client escaped and gone! And no one would suspect Mark was in on the jailbreak. He had taken her phone call in the privacy of his office.
Hannah's cell phone rang, and turning on the cab light, she looked to see who was calling. It was the psych hospital. Hannah put the phone back down without answering. If it had been Mark calling to warn her, he would have used his own cell phone. That had been the arrangement.
"Did you see Mark or the healers with him?" Hannah asked suddenly.
"No; he must have kept them away in another hall," Amondaur answered, pinning the Star of the Dúnedain on his shoulder.
Hannah silently blessed Mark and his people skills, and hoped that none of the experts would be upset with him when they found their patient gone. She thought they wouldn't be, only annoyed and disappointed.
"Hannah," Amondaur suddenly said from the back seat, "What does 'Hannah' mean?"
Hannah glanced up at him in the rearview mirror, surprised. "Grace—galu," she translated. "Tolkien translated it 'Eruanna' in Quenya," she added.
"Eruanna," Amondaur repeated quietly. It literally meant 'God-gift'.
They were both silent until they reached the state park.
000
Hannah parked along the highway by the end of the fencerow rather than in the parking lot, hoping no one would notice them. She grabbed a flashlight out from under the front seat, and she and Amondaur headed into the trees in the dark, Amondaur carrying his bag of clothes, and Hannah with her compass.
Hannah worried that they wouldn't find the way back to the portal. And in fact, they walked longer than she thought they should have. She began to grow anxious.
"What is that?" Amondaur suddenly asked, pointing through the trees.
Hannah shone her flashlight in the direction he had pointed and stared. "I see nothing," she answered.
"Blow out your light," he said, and Hannah turned off the flashlight. When her eyes adjusted to the pitch darkness around her, she realized what it was he had seen. A faint white glow was coming from somewhere off to their left. It looked like a beam of moonlight—but the clouds were so thick overhead that no moon shone through.
It was the portal.
Without a word, Amondaur and Hannah hurried toward the glow. Eventually, Hannah had to turn her flashlight on again—she was getting caught in the undergrowth. She couldn't move through the woods nearly as swiftly or smoothly as Amondaur. He patiently helped to untangle her.
In a few minutes, they were standing before the tree, which glowed in the summery moonlight of Middle-earth. The lovely scent of honeysuckle wafted from it.
"Eruanna," Amondaur repeated, as he had in the car. "Anna—Hanna. Gift. You have been a gift to me, Anna."
Hannah bit her lip and felt tears jump into her eyes. "You have given me gifts and do not even realize it," she answered quietly. "I believe again."
Amondaur did not ask her what she believed, but he seemed to understand that he had given her Hope. He pulled her into a tight hug. Hannah felt one of the tines of the Star of the Dúnedain poke into the back of her head.
"Thank you," he whispered, and kissed the top of her head.
"Le hannon," she replied.
He released her. "Are you sure you can find your way back to the road in the dark?" he asked concernedly.
"Yes. Now go, quickly!"
Amondaur took a deep breath, and picked up his bag of clothes again. Then he strode purposefully toward the tree, barely pausing before he stepped into the moonlight.
It fell brightly on him, making the Star of the Dúnedain spark with sudden flame. He turned one more time to look back at Hannah, and she caught her breath at the sight. A Ranger, with cloak, brooch and sword, standing in the moonlight and the starlight—how could she ever have doubted that he was what he said he was? He smiled at her, his eyes twinkling with joy, and raised a hand in farewell.
Hannah waved back. "Namárië," she whispered impulsively.
The air between them shimmered, and Amondaur and the moonlit tree vanished from view. Hannah stood in the middle of the state park in the cold and the dark, with a heart warmer than it had been in years.
TBC
AN: Huge thanks to lathalian for filling me in on psych hospital security! It was a great help!
Jaffee Leeds: Right on time! How's this for service? lol