In An Age Before

by Phantom Bard

Part 298 posted, in which Helluin and the Riders of Norðr-vestandóttir Bý aid the Third Marshal Haleth in Rohan's defeat of the Easterling invaders. Brutal weather, disease, and failing morale play a part. Aldburg is no sooner freed of the eastern threat when tidings come of the Dunlending's invasion from the west. OCs galore as usual.

14. In An Age Before Chapter 14

In An Age Before - Part 14

Chapter Twelve

The Brown Lands and the Black - The Second Age of the Sun

Down into the lands of Rhovanion Helluin had come, issuing from Azanulbizar Gate, having journeyed the 40 miles through Hadhodrond. After passing into Nanduhirion she walked down Celebrant as she had a millennium aforetime, finding at its confluence with the future Nimrodel, a battle in progress. Through the trees she heard the sounds of steel clashing, screams of pain, the whiz of arrows, and the thud of their impacts. She drew Anguirel and hastened forward. The screams had been voiced in the guttural timbre of Yrch.

What she found made her pause a moment ere she came to the battle. Glam there were and many, arrayed in two companies and contesting o'er some squabble that had progressed to bloodshed 'twixt them. From the forest came the flight of Elven bolts, indiscriminately dropping an Orch here and another there, taking lives from each company at will. Helluin realized that 'twas a three-sided battle, a fight 'twixt two Yrch companies that had drawn the attention of the Nandor of King Lenwin. The northern border guards were now picking off what Glam they could as all were equally their enemies, but their opportunistic shooting had been noted by the commanders of the two companies. These were warily circling each other, swords at the ready, as they argued for suspending their own hostilities in order to fight the Elves hidden about them in the woods.

Now Helluin estimated the Yrch companies at about 90 soldiers still living, but from the bow song and arrow flights she guessed that the Elves numbered but two dozens. 'Twas a potentially bad situation in which the odds would soon shift. Even as she thought this the two Orc captains were stilled, no longer circling, and they were lowering their swords. They had quit their bickering and reached an agreement. The tide would soon shift from a three-way free for all into a slaughter of two companies against a much smaller one.

Helluin raised the Sarchram and whipped it into flight. The Grave Wing flew with a warbling whistle, deflected as it clipped the blade from an Orch soldier's scimitar, and found a new course without losing any speed. 'Twas but a blur in the afternoon air, scarcely to be seen but for a glimmer of its reflections. Just as the Orc captains prepared to order their troops to stand down, their faces were hewn clean from their skulls without even a change of expression. The Grave Wing had laid them low with no warning. It ricocheted a final time, slicing through the leather cuirass of another Orch soldier, and then it returned from whence it came, seeking its place in Helluin's hand. She snatched it from the air and its whine was silenced. The Yrch stood indecisive, staring in shock and amazement at the bodies of their fallen commanders, who lay now with their skulls cloven in two.

Into their stunned midst Helluin charged, Anguirel in one hand, the Sarchram in the other. The blue fire blazed in her eyes and her black hair flew from 'neath her coif as she slashed and spun. Ere they came to their senses and began to move, six had already died upon her blades. The old familiar bloodlust from the wars of Beleriand revisited the warrior of the Host of Finwë, and her battle cry of "Beltho Huiniath!" rang through the woods as it had in the Elder Days.

At first the Yrch gave battle, seeing but a single foe. Helluin cut down any that approached. In her eyes was the Light of Aman, but on her face lay a twisted and reckless smile. She sneered at the Yrch, reveled in shedding their blood, and goaded them to deliver themselves to their deaths, calling them craven, slave, and doomed. Tirelessly she swung and slashed, slaying them with little effort. Very soon the Yrch came to fear her and they shied away from her face. She pursued them mercilessly, whilst from the opposite side of the battle, a continuing hail of deadly arrows flew from the trees.

Even the Yrch have their tales and lore, told in a perverted version of the Common Tongue, or in the Black Speech of their new master, who of old had been the lieutenant of their maker. There were half-forgotten epics of woe and horror, and the muddled chronicles of battles won and lost ere the world had changed. Amongst the lies and braggery were a few references to the Elf with the Blue Fire Eyes, a bloodthirsty demon, undying and terrible, untouchable in battle, and a scourge upon their people. Rumors and superstitions told that she was like unto their master in her limitless hatred and lust for blood. She was a terror not seen in o'er a thousand years, yet now she was come amongst them in a frenzy of mayhem! Shrieks of "Dâgalûrbûrz!¹" rent the air, and the same despair gripped them as would sap the courage of a Man suddenly facing a Balrog. The last dozens actually fled towards the hidden archers, and she chased them o'er the precipice of the gore and into the rushing waters of Celebrant, where they were battered on the rocks and drowned. ¹(Dâgalûrbûrz, Demon Black Homgoth Orkish)

Then through the sounds of her thumping heart, her racing breathing, and the pounding waves of blood in her veins, Helluin heard the command, "Daro i-npengath!¹" She recognized the voice of Haldir calling the order to cease firing. And at last the only sounds were the rushing of water and the wind shifting the branches o'erhead. ¹("Daro i-npengath!", lit. trans. "Stop all the bows!", ver. trans. "Cease fire!"= Daro(imp. -o) + peng(bow for shooting), + -ath(coll. pl) + in(def. art. pl), i-npengath. Sindarin)

Helluin stood still, smelling the spilt blood of the Yrch, splashed by it, wet with it, and surrounded by corpses. In one hand she grasped the black sword Anguirel, and it rejoiced in the slaughter. In the other she held the Ring of mithril alloys that Celebrimbor had made, and it spoke with a voice lilting and musical, but also deathly cold.

"Hail to thee, O Helluin, Spirit of Battle's Fire. Hail to thee, O Anguirél, Steely Daughter. Proud am I this day to shed the blood of our enemies in thy company."

And Anguirél replied, "thou art indeed of our kindred, O Grave Wing, hail and well met."

Now Helluin was still recovering from the bloodlust of the battle, but the words she marked and pondered, for the Sarchram had pronounced the name of her sword slightly differently. Anguirel, as she had always thought, meant Eternal Star Iron, for of celestial ore had that sword been forged by Eöl…it and Anglachél, its mate…or more rightly, Helluin now realized, she and her brother, for they were both the children of the Dark Elf's forge. Now at last, Helluin was aware that Anguirel, or rather Anguirél could be better translated as Steely Daughter, being Ang + (-ui) + rél. It made sense. Neither sword had favored the hands of doomed and ill-fated masters. Both sought the hand of a warrior of their own gender, and a spirit of complimentary darkness. Thus had noble Beleg been as unsuited to Anglachél as was Maeglin to Anguirél. Instead Anglachél had accepted Túrin and Anguirél had accepted Helluin. In this the swords were as siblings and the offspring of their father, alike in temperament, dark in character, willful and unforgiving like their maker. She filed the knowledge away for later contemplation as she cleaned her weapons.

This time, Haldir was leading a company of twenty-two border guards that included two of his brothers, Rúmil and Orophin. None of them had e'er been present when Helluin had fought an enemy, though Haldir clearly remembered the arrows that had bounced off her armor at their first meeting long aforetime. After a thousand years and more he was happy to see her again, for, he told her as they walked toward King Lenwin's Halls, Yrch had multiplied and were now seen increasingly oft 'nigh the Hithaeglir. Indeed the southern border guards reported them as well, and the occasional refugee fleeing in terror from the east. Some of these were Men of Rhovanion, uprooted from their homes just north of the Emyn Muil, who spoke the rumor of a dark power growing in the land of Mordor. Indeed because of this they had fled north into unknown lands, rather than south down Anduin to the coast. In the realm of Lindórinand 'nigh Celebrant, all were eager for tidings of the world beyond the forest, and all were apprehensive of what those tidings would tell.

The next morning Helluin came again to the high talan and the hall of King Lenwin and the Lady Calenwen, and there spoke of those things she had seen. In her tidings of the realm of Belfalas, the Nandor of Celebrant had the greatest interest, and King Lenwin was indeed glad to hear of his grandsire's continued prosperity and his renewed quest for the West. The years Helluin had spent amongst the Dúnedain of Númenor was regarded with curiosity, but little understanding. The Nandor had only minimal contact with Men, and those mostly the kin of Berlun, shape shifters, and always few in number. Lenwin's people had absolutely no understanding and little interest in her tales of her voyages of discovery; the wider world simply wasn't real to them. They had nodded in irritation when she'd spoken of the flourishing city of Noldor and Sindar that lay but 95 miles west beyond Hithaeglir, and that these Eldar were in close friendship with the Naugrim of Khazad-dûm. The news brought forth some griping on Lenwin's part, for Ost-In-Edhil was the origin of Oropher's band, which had passed through on their way to Greenwood and lured off no small number of his own people. Long ere she finished, Helluin had come to realize just how isolationist, provincial, and grossly out of touch the Nandor of Celebrant were. They had walled themselves within their forest home, admitting almost no one, seldom venturing forth, and trusting none but kin. In some ways, they were more withdrawn than the Dwarves, but also, she had to admit, still less isolated than her old home of Gondolin.

"Many things now move in the world, O King," Helluin concluded, "and sooth, some great doom draw'th 'nigh. Evil arises, I deem, such as has not been seen since ere the War of Wrath. Be ye ware, for dark shalt be the coming days."

"Helluin, I do fear such may be just as thou say, for omens and tidings portend much strife ahead," King Lenwin said. "Two centuries and more ago did some of the Sindar come down from the high way o'er Caradhras and passed amongst us ere they made their way to Greenwood, yonder 'cross Anduin, and of them some tidings came. Still, little beyond our borders do I know, but e'er aforetime has such great evil indeed passed us by. Think thou that soon it shalt find us at last?"

"O King," Helluin answered, "if Mordor be home to some great enemy who marches west with war, than of a certainty shalt thy realm be afflicted, for thou liest 'twixt east and west. Khazad-dûm and all Eriador lie past thy borders, and through thy land might spies and companies of the enemy come to the Caradhras Pass as down a road to a castle yonder."

The King's eyes darted nervously to the east. What Helluin said was true. If an invader sought a way into Eriador without marching far to the south, then the lands before Nanduhirion were as the doorstep to both the tunnels of Hadhodrond and the pass o'er Caradhras. His realm lay astride their path and would not be ignored.

"Speaking such doom may be in vain, O King," Helluin added, "for were the enemy numerous, neither way would suffice for the passage of his arms. Indeed a great army would favor the passes south of Methedras, and thou may for a time be left in peace."

Just as the king began to relax with a sigh of relief, Helluin finished her statement.

"Yet once triumphant in the west, he, returning to consolidate his subjugated holdings, shalt for certain come against thee who would then stand alone. If thou were of a mind to resist, then the time to offer battle would be just after his armies pass, leaving thee free to assail that forces' rearguard whilst they engage others to the fore."

"To do thus we would of needs be forced to leave our forest, the land we best know how to defend," Lenwin tried to reason, being viscerally repulsed by the thought of leaving home to go to war. "Of lessened use would our tactics be in open lands."

"Thou hast yet another choice, O King," Helluin said, knowing her suggestion would be greeted with even greater dismay. "In alliance and through yonder realm of Khazad-dûm might thy forces pass to battle in Eriador. T'would be then but a march of 40 miles."

As expected, the king's eyes bugged out and he very nearly gagged. Make friends with the Dwarves? 'Twas inconceivable. Pass through 40 miles of tunnels far beneath the surface, with all the endless weight of the mountains pressing down o'erhead? 'Twas unthinkable! No sun, no moon, no stars, no breeze, no trees. T'would be unbearable! He would rather die than even consider it. Surely Helluin was joking, and yet she stood before him with a questioning expression upon her face. Beside him, Lady Calenwen bore a look of unconcealed horror. Helluin suppressed her laughter with effort. 'Neath Lenwin's leadership, the Elves of Lindórinand would be well 'nigh worthless as allies. They would fight only when driven perforce to defend their own woods, and in their own woods they would be slaughtered.

Helluin spent two years amongst the Nandor of Celebrant, taking up again her post as a Hunter of the King. In those days she roamed the forest at will, but mostly she came to the southern border, or to the east 'nigh Anduin. Thither she kept watch, and oft she found need of her sword. Evil men were more plentiful now, especially to the south, and from time to time, refugees too appeared. Oft enough in those days, Helluin joined with the southern border guards in repelling incursions, and amongst those she slew she marked many that bore the badge of an eye of fire encircled in red embossed upon their flesh. Others bore a serpent tattoo in red and black. Most were Easterlings out of South Rhûn, who had come west 'round the southern end of Greenwood. She heard tidings too of increasing numbers of Yrch companies, waylaid by the northern border guards, and these were invariably making their way south 'neath the eaves of the Hithaeglir.

In that time Helluin realized that all she was seeing was part of some great strategy, some vast plan. Evil forces were being gathered, marshaled 'neath the hand of a master of surpassing influence. The Yrch were surely come from the lands about Mt. Gundabad, which stood upon the farthest north of the Hithaeglir. From those same foul caves and warrens that had housed them since the First Age had come the force she had defeated with the Avari in Greenwood back in S.A. 422. For a moment she wondered what the Onodrim were doing, and whether the Yrch had infiltrated the forest, or whether they were too constrained in following the orders of their new master to do 'aught but march south.

'Twas with this question foremost in mind that Helluin finally left the realm of King Lenwin in S.A. 1125. Ere she departed she came to the king and again gave him counsel.

"In all good conscience must I warn thee, O King, for in the past have I battled large companies of Yrch in Greenwood such as harry thy borders now. Thither, with the Avari of King Telpeapáro, did we essay to clear the forest of their filth, and so gave them battle. Like thine own, those troops, lacking store of iron, fought mostly with the bow and the spear, and to great profit did their strategy fare. Yet in the final battle, ere all the Yrch were slain, the enemy charged the archers' lines. Thence, coming amongst them, they did great hurt with their swords, for the Avari had but spear and bow and a few knives, and they stood ill prepared for battle at close quarters. Surely thou can imagine the loss and the slaughter.

In the deeds of the days to come I foresee this same road perhaps appearing before thy people. In preparation for that day I must counsel thee, by any means, conventional or not, to lay thy hands upon such store of arms as can be used against an enemy face to face. Swords would be best, but foregoing these, then studded clubs and axes of light head would suffice. Bucklers or light shields would be of aid as well. Send not thy soldiers to war unprepared, O King, for thy losses in blood shalt be dismal to count."

"But where shalt such be found, Helluin, for in the forest there is scant ore and none hither proficient at the forge?"

"Then O King, in despite of the practice and prudence which thy history teaches, thou must come at last into friendship with the Naugrim of Khazad-dûm. In their realm, so close by thine own, art the greatest mines and forges, and the subtlest craftsmen of weapons upon Middle Earth. Indeed in the shadow of this Age's greatest western army doth thy kingdom lie. In league with them can thou increase the fortunes of thy people."

For long moments King Lenwin regarded Helluin in silence, and hard did he ponder upon her words. Far more of war had she seen, and so he harkened to her though she was a commoner amongst her people. He could see in his mind's eye the battle she described. Indeed for his people, flight before the enemy would be the only choice. Their lands would be o'errun. Yet in all the years since they had come to the mellyrn forest, his people could count on the fingers of one hand how many times one of Durin's Folk had walked in their realm. None of his people had e'er strode the deeps of the Dwarrowdelf. But Helluin had walked those halls and seen those smithies and mansions. She wore armor forged by the hands of their craftsmen. She held their people in high honor and league of friendship; they were not monsters, only unfamiliar and strange to his eyes.

"O King, in warning shalt I tell thee what thou forgoes," she said sadly. "With a company from Khazad-dûm numbering but one hundred men at arms, I could take thy kingdom and rule thy realm, for not a single weapon thy people possess can bite upon me and few amongst their soldiery would fall. And none of them bear bows, but rather the axe and the sword. Within Hadhodrond stands an army of 'nigh thirty thousands, clad in mail and plate, helmed and masked with steel. They art warriors fell, of a fell race, and they art the bitterest foes of the Glamhoth¹. And they art not thy enemy. Were thou to ally with them, then in battle could thou stand together, slaying thy enemies both close and far. Of them thou could learn strategies unknown to thee and find weapons to arm thy warriors. I shalt say no more." ¹(Glamhoth, yrch-horde, ., lit. trans. "Din Horde" Sindarin)

Two months later Helluin sat upon a fallen trunk 'neath the leafy canopy at Laiquadol. She was waiting there for Oldbark, just outside the entrance to his halls where 'twas safe for her to drink the water from the stream. He hadn't appeared yet. Indeed, since coming to Greenwood she had not seen any of the Onodrim. What she had seen of the forest had been quiet, possessed of a tense and waiting silence that felt oppressive without visible threat or proof of danger. She knew that feeling, but now 'twas stronger than in the past. 'Twas the anger of the trees. Now none of them would speak to her as they had of old, instead remaining still, rooted and unresponsive, but she suspected, hardly unawares. In deference to this, she had not wandered, but instead stayed close by Laiquadol, and she had made her way straight thither from Anduin.

Yet another month did she wait, and by then her patience was wearing thin, and she had thoughts of leaving for a time. But in the evening of 26 Nórui, (June 26th), a rustling footstep did she hear and suddenly Oldbark stood before her. He appeared weary, with drooping branch and sad, tired eyes, but now he greeted her "hastily" in Sindarin, as if displaying some newfound knowledge.

"Oooooo-hooooom, the wandering Elfling, returned to the forest in dark times," he told her as he led her within his halls. He set both feet into the stream and gave a great sigh. "Ahhhhh, I have needed such refreshment. Soooooo, what brings Helluin of the Noldor, called also Maeg-mórmenel an explorer of the Host of Finwë, again to Greenwood? This new realm of Sindarin Elves? More Yrch perhaps? Or Evil Men? Or maybe the Great Enemy who arises in the east?"

"Indeed all of those and then some," Helluin replied so hastily that Oldbark gave her a quick look. "I have been of late in the mellyrn forest whilst evil has grown about the borders, and I had thought to ask if such was the same hither, particularly in the north."

"Such is the same everywhere these days it seems, and indeed I have just returned from the north. Glam have attempted to enter but not to stay. They are traveling south from Mt. Gundabad…always south, and mostly on the west side of the river. Still some stray into the forest and I have left Huorns upon the borders," he announced with a smile in his voice. "Huorns shall guard the forest." He stood looking down at her for another moment and then offered, "oh, and the answer to your earlier question was yes, it seems to be contracting."

Upon his last sentence, Helluin had to concentrate. Oldbark had given her an answer and she wracked her brain to recall the question. It took a while but finally she remembered the day they had met in S.A. 264. She had asked whether the forest was expanding, contracting, or remaining stable in its borders. Now, after 861 years, he had answered. The forest was shrinking. She nodded in appreciation of his efforts. Coming to a conclusion about his observations hadn't taken him a millennium as he'd originally suspected. Helluin wondered if he was becoming hasty. She was preparing to ask further about the Evil Men and the Great Enemy that he had mentioned, but when she focused on Oldbark again she discovered that he had become immobile and was fast asleep.

Helluin went to the stream and drank of its waters from a cupped hand. She felt the strange sensation o'ertaking her again and she smiled mischievously. Carefully she nursed it with sip after sip 'til she felt her armor tighten apace. Someday she would again meet with Galadriel, and this time, if she had calculated aright when she'd had Grimis alter her mail and plate, she would stand just a finger's width taller than the daughter of Finarfin.

In a 'hasty' aside the next afternoon, Oldbark had mentioned the new enclave of Sindar and Nandor who had arrived in Greenwood two hundred-odd years aforetime. Someone named King Oropher? Did she know him? Or maybe his son, Prince Thranduil? They had taken up residence south of the Emyn Duir, and so far had stayed out from underfoot. He was currently worried that the Huorns might 'eat' them by mistake. The Huorns were notoriously indiscriminate about those that went upon two legs, he told her gravely, and Elves had always been more curious than was sometimes good for them. Still, they had been helpful in controlling the spiders.

Helluin had little knowledge of Oropher or Thranduil, but guessed that they led the contingent of Sindar that Galadriel had mentioned as, a large group of them (that) went thither recently o'er the Hithaeglir, when Helluin had first arrived in Ost-In-Edhil in S.A. 992. The timing was about right. They were certainly the same as those King Lenwin had griped about. She told Oldbark only that they might have originally come from Lindon, at least the Sindar, that is.

"Didn't they all these days?" Oldbark had observed, meaning, come from Lindon.

Thereafter, Helluin spent several days speaking with Oldbark. From his very precise answers, she gleaned that many kindreds of evil kind were heading for the southern land of Mordor. This was a place she had ne'er visited, lying as it did, hemmed in 'twixt the Ered Lithui and the Ephel Dúath. Oldbark knew little about it either beyond its location, since it had ne'er been a part of his forest. In the Eldar Days, it had been mostly located 'neath the Inland Sea of Helcar, and had only come into being after the new sun had begun drying up that body of water. By then the forest had retreated and the intervening Brown Lands lay between. All she was sure of was that this parched and bitter land lay south of where she had taught the Men of Rhovanion, and east 'cross Anduin from the realm of Belfalas. 'Twas a start.

Helluin went south, and she saw that indeed the Greenwood had retracted. There was now a wide land of hill and plain. At some time during her absence this had been sewn with gardens and fields, rich with tillith and orchards and vines, yet now 'twas abandoned to weeds and weather. Many homesteads could once have thrived hither, she thought, peopled by Men, most likely the descendants of those she'd once taught somewhat to the south. For a while they had thrived and moved north as the trees had receded. From this land had no doubt come the refugees she had seen 'nigh Celebrant, fleeing north and west, away from the growing evil. She passed through quickly on the remnants of tracks and roads o'ergrown with weeds.

Now she came to the lands where she had spent decades with the herders, farmers, and fishermen. All that country lay deserted. Towards the south she came upon the remnants of homesteads that had been put to the torch. She was reminded of the destruction of the lands about Eglarest and Brithombar in the Falas of Beleriand long ago. The sight raised her anger apace. In that once familiar land she noted paths that had been used repeatedly for the passage of companies, Yrch and Men most likely, bound in haste southwards.

By the last days of Urui, (August), Helluin had struggled through the Emyn Muil, a dismal landscape of ridges and slot canyons, dry washes, gulches, and precipices, populated by dust devils, scouring winds, and little water. The land was contorted into curved ridges and eroded into curved ghylls, all of which served to encircle the Falls of Rauros upon Anduin. About the river the slopes were steepest and least easily traveled. At least 'nigh the river there had been many small becks, and forests of dark pines growing right down to the water's edge. Further east where Helluin had traveled, the land took on a parched character, giving rise to little more than dry scrub, tough grasses, and lichens.

When she finally emerged from the Emyn Muil, she was forced east some thirty miles out of desire to avoid the wide marshlands that she had viewed for several days from the higher ground to the north. In this way, Helluin approached Mordor 'cross a wide and flat, a parched land that stretched without pause into the distant east. This was the south westernmost corner of South Rhûn, a place that in latter days would come to be called Dagorlad, the Battle Plain. Helluin coated her green cloak with the brown dust at her feet and proceeded warily.

Ahead to the south she could see the faces of the Ered Lithui, the Mountains of Ash, stretching out to the east for 'nigh on 450 miles ere trailing off into Khand. To the west but a short spur of the Ephel Dúath was visible. A dark gap like a narrow, jagged wound divided the Ered Lithui from the Ephel Dúath that ran southwards, but was mostly hidden from her sight. Further west lay a forested, sloping land that led down to the great river, whilst 'cross that distant bright ribbon marched the eastern end of the Ered Nimrais and the snowcapped peak of Mindolluin.

As the miles passed and the Noldo skirted the great fen, she continued straight south, for this would bring her to the slopes of the Outer Fence of Shadows, at a spot some miles west of that dark gap into which she saw that many tracks now led. The landscape took on the character of moors, gently rolling, with low hills poorly covered in short, coarse grasses and heather, and bottomlands soggy with peat. At night, fogs rose and swirled in an almost constant breeze from the east. It created a low moan, unending, as if the land suffered in a ceaseless pain that it had finally come to accept. During the days, the absence of trees translated into a lack of cover for her approach. Helluin moved warily, but went unchallenged. She could only guess that any activity going on amidst this forbidding land lay far within, and so none stood sentry at its borders.

A week later Helluin had climbed the jagged black slopes of the Ephel Dúath somewhat less than thirty miles west of the gap of Cirith Gorgor, the Haunted Pass. She detected no spirits or haunts anywhere 'nigh, but the land was desolate. No growing thing showed itself on those slopes. The rock was hard and crystalline, 'twas the tortured up thrust from some violent birth that had forced its way through the surrounding earth like a spear point. She had climbed with care, for the incline was steep and a fall could be deadly. Upon finally reaching the top she surveyed the inner lands and what she saw made her cringe.

Looking down upon the plain of Udûn¹ was like peering into a vast o'erturned skullcap, hewn off and burnt black, as if taken as a trophy from a funeral pyre. Magma had formed sheer walls that fell hundreds of feet, forming the edges of a barren, bowl-shaped depression 40 miles 'cross, above which the inner walls of the Ephel Dúath and the Ered Lithui stood like splintered bone. The two ranges met at the Cirith Gorgor in the north and at yet another narrow gap, the Isenmouthe, in the south, almost as if Udûn's walls had been cloven north and south by the stroke of a great axe. Indeed, spurs of the two ranges completed the bowl shape, and separated it from a broken volcanic plateau further south. The o'erall impression was of imprisonment, desolation, and despair. Udûn was to the Black Land as a condensation and herald of its menace, a foyer wherein many could be constrained and few could escape, ere all were sapped of their spirit by the dismal surroundings and their master's torment. This was Helluin's first glimpse of Mordor. Nothing grew within her sight. She could nearly hear the very rocks crying out in anguish. So ugly and tortured was this land that looking upon it made her feel ill. For some time she was forced to turn her back on it and stare off into the distance, into the green lands of Anduin far to the south. ¹(Udûn, Hell. Sindarin)

When she returned her eyes to Mordor she looked more carefully, mapping the land into her memory and noting any details she could espy. First to draw her attention was the smoldering cone of Orodruin. It rose 4,500 feet above the rocky plain, indistinct 'cross a hundred miles of smoggy air, but still the most notable feature of that land. Next she noted tracks crossing the pumice fields, crude roads leading from the mountain to the Isenmouthe that opened into Udûn. She followed a second road that ran east from the mountain to a projecting spur of the Ered Lithui, and there her eyes stopped.

A massive foundation had been gouged into the tumbled rock. From where she stood it was 125 miles away, and only with her Elvish sight could she make out anything of its details at all. She saw that there would be pits and dungeons deep, and warrens of tunnels that would someday be roofed o'er, ne'er again to see the light of day. The populations of whole cities could be held in thrall in such a vast prison, and there slowly broken in mind and spirit through countless years of suffering. Already upon the perimeter of the excavation the first evidence of future walls were rising. She estimated the bottom course of blocks to be 'nigh twenty yards thick! Someday there would be a building standing here greater than any she had e'er imagined. Even the works of Valinor would be dwarfed by the structure that grew here. If t'were to be a tower, then t'would rise to the very heavens, three furlongs and more in height, from which a watch could be kept o'er all that land. And like everything else she saw, the blocks and posts that would rise from that foundation would be monoliths of black stone. A great black tower t'would one day be; indeed greater in size than fair Mindon Eldaliéva, Ingwë's white tower in Tirion 'cross the sea. T'would take centuries to raise even with all the slaves of many lands to toil and die in its building. She guessed that the work had been underway already for 'nigh on a century, and they hadn't known…they hadn't even truly suspected.

Helluin sat down and shivered. 'Cross the great distance separating her like a blessing from that horror, she had seen minions and thralls at hard labor, numerous as ants, moving, moving, e'er in motion unremitting, and whether driven by broken minds or the lash of whips she couldn't tell. And in the broken land about the feet of the fiery mountain, she had seen tents and huts, and marching formations drilling on the Plain of Gorgoroth; a vast army to support the cause of their lord, the Master of the Dark Tower.

'Cross the intervening distance she could sense a great and malevolent spirit. It shrouded all that land, but upon the foundations of the rising tower it sat concentrated as a black fume or stench. Helluin felt the reek of darkness upon her soul; the emanation of one so founded in malice and lust for power that avarice enshrouded it as a miasma of cruelty and putrefaction. It might take any guise before the eyes, but unless that guise was consciously focused to dissemble its true nature, none whose eyes had seen the Light of Aman could be fooled to think it fair. 'Twas not cloaking itself now, for in its own land it had no need of disguise. Rather, she sensed that it reveled in its wonton nature. And 'cross the long miles 'twixt them, Helluin perceived it clearly, and the sheer volume of its grasping need to debase and rule else all struck her like a blow. 'Twas something she had not felt in an Age and had ne'er expected to feel again.

In her heart she knew only one could command such power as to bring these nightmare horrors into the waking world. No Orch or Valaraukar, no captain of Men or ruined Elf was this. Once he had been a Maia of Aulë blessed, then a lieutenant, after giving up his free will to do the bidding of a darker and greater master. He had been a shape shifter, sorcerer, general, tormentor, and the master of countless slaves. Now it seemed he had arisen again to build a realm in imitation of his defeated o'erlord. Surely it must be Mairon, Sauron, who of old had been called Gorthaur, the Abhorred, Melkor's right hand and the dreaded Lieutenant of Angband. In all the long years since the War of Wrath she had thought him so cowed as to be little more than a whisper of menace and a shadow of evil. This was worse than any rumor that Gil-galad had hinted at when she'd set out from Lindon. And now, having discovered the enormity of the true threat upon Middle Earth, Helluin descended the Ephel Dúath, staggering as one in shock from some great and o'erpowering trauma.

She soon came to the lands of Ithilien and thence to Anduin, walking as one asleep upon her feet. 'Nigh Cormallen she crossed o'er the water at Cair Andros, and then made her way south along the great river to the realm of Belfalas. Helluin was still not herself though a fortnight had passed. In a daze she entered a tavern upon the South Road 'nigh Pelargir, and there she sat with a goblet of wine, slaking her thirst and summoning her wits. Eventually she began to notice the company all about her in the common room. There were Elves of Belfalas, Men of the riverlands and shores, and a few others of mortal kind, taller and more fair, lordly yet honoring those about them, and bearing bright longswords 'neath cloaks of blue and white.

Here upon Anduin, Helluin saw a group of mariners who could have come from no place other than Númenor. As a mirage wrung from her memories they seemed, yet obviously real, for they spoke and jested with those at the tables 'nigh them. All seemed to hold them in high honor, Elves and Men alike. Unable to resist, Helluin found herself on her feet, mug forgotten in one hand as she made her way to their table.

There she drew their attention immediately, for unlike the others of Elven kind they had seen in that land, she was taller, stronger, clad as a warrior yet more beautiful, and surrounded by a subtle aura of immortal Light. Some of her kind a few of them had met at the haven of Eldalondë in their own land, mariners of the Eldar come from Tol Eressëa. They had ne'er expected to find one such as she in these Mortal Lands, save perhaps at Lindon or Mithlond, for as different from the Nandor of Belfalas was she as were they from the local Men. More than this even, her appearance was eerily familiar, like unto one now highly placed in their own land. As one they rose and bowed, and Helluin, standing a yard away bowed to them in return.

"Long it hath been since last I laid eyes upon the sons of Westernesse," Helluin said. "Hail and well met, mariners fair and bold."

"Hail and well met," the tallest of the Men of Númenor said in return, "for surely thou art one of the Noldor. Thy like only have I seen in Lindon, or come upon ships to us out of the Lonely Isle. I am Falmandil¹, a Captain of the Guild of Venturers of Númenor, and these art the officers of my ship, Linte Eari² out of Rómenna. Pray tell me thy name, noble warrior, for unexpected in this place is thy appearance."

¹(Falmandil, Wave Lover, = falma(crested wave) + -ndil(agent in names, lover of) Quenya) ²(Linte Eari, Fast Seas, Quenya)

"Hail and well met, Falmandil, Captain Venturer of Númenor, I am Helluin Maeg-mórmenel of the Host of Finwë, a wandering explorer in these Mortal Lands."

Then as one the Men of Númenor bent upon one knee before her on the floor of the common room, and all those 'round them were amazed, for amongst their kind, these mariners were as kings from 'cross the sea. Indeed, few were more surprised than Helluin. After a moment, Falmandil raised his head and spoke.

"Númenor is now ruled by Tar-Ancalimë, first sovereign queen and daughter of King Tar-Aldarion, son of King Tar-Meneldur and Queen Almarian, thy daughter. Thou art as a mother to our people, Helluin of the Noldor, and we do thee reverence."

For a moment Helluin was struck dumb by these tidings. Her great-granddaughter now sat upon the throne of Númenor. Though the House of Elros enjoyed long life, two generations had passed in her absence. Her daughter and grandson were gone to their tombs, but the line she had added her blood to almost 600 years aforetime continued. Finally she regained her wits and gestured the Men to their feet.

"Thy tidings took me by surprise, for to me the time seems not so long," she said in apology, "please, sit, resume thy ease. I would join thy company, for tidings recent and grave have I to share that should come to the ears of thy Queen, and it seems fortune favors me in this meeting."

Falmandil nodded and pulled a chair from another table, and setting it at their table's head, beckoned Helluin to sit. Even as she did, she marked the relative youth of this captain and his officers. Not yet far beyond their first half-century, I deem, she thought.

"We art honored to enjoy thy company, Helluin Maeg-mórmenel," he told her, "and indeed even this meeting alone would be tidings welcomed by many in Armenelos. Yet thou hast somewhat to report of the doings upon these Mortal Shores?"

"Indeed so," Helluin agreed after taking the offered seat and sipping of her wine, "and grave art they such as none I have borne aforetime. Hear me and harken to my warning."

Then for some time Helluin reported to Falmandil and his officers on all she had seen in the land of Mordor, and all she had come to know of the current trends of events in Middle Earth. The Númenóreans were horrified, and indeed they were struck speechless for many moments. The reality was far worse than what their experiences in recent years had suggested.

"Helluin, thy words speak of dark days to come," Falmandil said gravely, "and yet they but make clear what we at times have seen. See thou that now we come bearing swords? For many years such was not the case, for we were received at all times with friendship. Yet of late upon several occasions violence has indeed been visited against our people, and this mostly to the south in the lands about our new haven at Umbar that is still abuilding. The days darken upon the Hither Shores, but not so dark did we deem them as thy words report."

"Indeed the days grow dark, Falmandil, and darker still shalt they become ere the end is revealed," Helluin said. "Much would I say to thy monarch, for in Middle Earth folk have grown weak and used to peace. Soon Sauron may offer war, soon at least shalt it seem to those of my kindred, though in fact many years may pass ere his power is full wrought. Yet still I know the Men of Númenor love these lands from whence they once came ere Elenna rose from the sea, and for the plight of thy brothers on the Hither Shores do they feel sympathy."

"Such is true, as thou say. For the sake of that love and sympathy do we yet come amongst these folk with such aid as we can bring." Here Falmandil sighed and took a deep breath as were he preparing for a plunge into waters deep and unknown. He then continued, "in Númenor for many years did thy grandson Tar-Aldarion sail regularly to Lindon, and there took counsel with the High King. Yet now his daughter rules, and Tar-Ancalimë cares little for ships or sailing, or the doings upon the Hither Shores. She hath withdrawn from the counsels of Gil-galad and concentrates her policies solely upon our own people…and some say that even at home she is not so engaged or forethinking as our late king."

Helluin heard the reservation in Falmandil's voice. He was loath to criticize the wisdom of his monarch, for e'er had the Men of Númenor reverenced their rulers. Even more so was he reticent to speak in doubt of Tar-Ancalimë to one of her ancestors, and a High Elf at that. There was surely more he had not said. Yet what his words implied was that to Middle Earth, Tar-Ancalimë gave little thought, and to the aid of those upon the Hither Shores as their need grew, perhaps none at all. Indeed, looking into his heart Helluin detected a reservation in him that was indicative of real doubt in his ruler. She recalled the love in which Vëantur and his men had held their king, Tar-Elendil, and the devotion that Tar-Meneldur had been accorded. She was shocked. This would ne'er do.

"Falmandil, in what time wilt thou complete thy missions in the Hither Lands, and doing so, shalt thou return thither, to Númenor?" Helluin asked.

Falmandil met Helluin's eyes and a hope began to grow in his heart. 'Neath Tar-Ancalimë the Guild was held in low esteem and all that had to do with ships had fallen from favor. It saddened him, for to the seas and to Middle Earth e'er had Tar-Aldarion's energies been directed. Linte Eari had been from home three years, having called at Lindon, Mithlond, Vinyalondë, and Umbar ere Pelargir, and her holds were filled with timber, for by royal decree none was now harvested in Númenor from the groves Tar-Aldarion had planted. Now she was taking on provisions at Pelargir ere she sailed for Rómenna.

"Two days hence shalt we sail from these shores, and by the grace of the Valar shalt we see a fortnight later, the Pillar of Heaven rising from the sea. We art going home at last."

Helluin nodded, and for some moments sat in silence. What she had seen should be reported forthwith to Gil-galad in Lindon. Yet it seemed to her the more urgent errand was to Númenor, to discover in what state stood that realm and her queen. In days to come, the aid of the Men of Westernesse would be vital to the free peoples of Middle Earth, and whilst she yet commanded some status there, perhaps she should indeed go thither. Sauron would not strike for many years, she deemed, and from Númenor, aid could not come 'cross the sea with any speed if its necessity were not recognized in the policies of her sovereign long aforetime. A fortnight at least for sailing time alone, and what time for the raising and mustering of an army? Too long to be of any value if it fell into debate.

"Falmandil, if thou would, I pray thee grant me passage to Númenor in thy good ship, for I feel a desire to see my great-granddaughter and learn her counsels."

Here the young Captain smiled broadly for his hopes were uplifted at her words.

"With honor and welcome do I offer thee passage, Helluin of the Noldor."

To Be Continued