Chapter 28:
Sauron opened his eyes slowly as Siraaj approached the throne, his two children trailing a few feet behind him. The man bowed, his son and daughter both going completely to their knees for a few moments, standing as their father straightened.
Sauron gestured for the war minister to speak, though he barely paid any attention to what Siraaj was saying. His performance had been rather… lackluster of late, though the latest campaign he'd been heading in Ithilien was at last bearing some signs of fruit; the Rangers in the region had been forced to retreat almost all the way to Osgiliath, a boon to supply trains heading to the Black Gate from the south. Minas Morgul could only provide so much protection; he'd instructed Murazor to focus his efforts on getting the citadel ready as a base of military operations as their forces expanded, a fortress that would serve as the primary overseer of Mordor's invasion of Gondor. With all the demand for workers and the training of soldiers, it wasn't often the Witch King could spare troops to provide extra protection for traders coming up from Harad. Not that the orcs were much interested in such work, anyway.
Siraaj had proposed sending for Mordor's allies in Harad and what people of Rhûn still stood with them, but Sauron wanted to avoid a full call-to-arms until they had more of a feel for Minas Tirith's strength… and wait until they'd eliminated the spies and scouts in Ithilien. It wouldn't do for Gondor to get news of how much reinforcement Mordor was receiving from her allies.
Currently, Siraaj was rehashing the report Sauron had read earlier this morning; there was a smattering of extra details thrown in, but overall nothing relevant. Sometimes he did wish he could have the man whipped for wasting his time like this, but that would not be the best idea in the long run if he wanted to maintain the grip he had over his human courtiers.
Ah, well. He'd just wait until the man monumentally screwed up. Maybe it wouldn't even have to be monumental; it could be moderate, and he'd just make a show of being irritated for the crowd.
Honestly, why did the man…?
When Sauron's gaze fell to the daughter… Azeema, if he recalled correctly… things made much more sense. Especially given her dress; not overly flamboyant but embroidered with enough red and gold thread to be eye-catching in the correct light. Her headpiece was also on the more elaborate side today.
It had been common a few centuries ago for Sauron's human ministers to attempt to get their daughters to… curry favor with him. Marriage contracts were common among the nobles of Harad and Rhûn. They had been among nobility in Gondor as well at one point, though the practice had fallen out of favor there far more than it had in the southern and eastern kingdoms of Men.
Sauron had found it curious, thousands of years ago when he'd first heard of the practice; men of power essentially selling their daughters to the highest bidder, to another noble or foreign dignitary or monarch who would help them and their male heirs maintain their own position. Or raise it, in some cases. The woman's wishes were rarely, if ever, taken into account.
The female slaves had it far worse, of course, but sometimes there was little difference, Sauron thought.
Siraaj did like to trot his daughter out for his Lord now and again, though, and it was getting a bit more frequent as the child aged. Siraaj also didn't seem to mind the fact that Azeema was terrified of the Maia, though Sauron did have to give her some credit for getting better at concealing it as quickly as she had. The first time her father had brought her into court with him a couple of years ago the girl had almost fainted upon coming close to the Dark Lord. She still went pale in his presence, and she couldn't look at him for more than a few seconds, but she could stand and speak to him now.
Undoubtedly against Siraaj's intentions, Sauron's thoughts were turned shortly to another girl child, making his jaw clench and his hands to tighten visibly on the arms of his throne.
It had been nearly fifteen… no, sixteen months since Irideth's escape. Over a year and still no sign of her. Khrosh and the Nine had not been able to track the girl from the camp by Carach Angren. Sauron had sent spies to Rohan and Gondor, with strict orders to be as discreet as possible, to get any information they could.
There had been no news of a child matching Irideth's description in Gondor, which was… rather puzzling. She would have had to pass through Gondor to reach her home, and a lone child wandering the roads was bound to draw at least some attention; war orphans were often taken to homes in Minas Tirith or the surrounding villages and were usually taken in by local families, but a thorough search had turned up nothing.
His spies had had little more luck in Rohan. Irideth's family had left their home village shortly after Irideth's initial disappearance from Mordor, as had many of their neighbors. With the situation in Gondor worsening, trade was almost nonexistent, and anyone not working to breed the horses for which the Horse Lords were so famous was having trouble finding work, the village being as small as it was. With so many people leaving, the woodsmith had apparently been unable to get enough business to support his wife and his two remaining children.
According to the spies' reports, the family had moved to Edoras, to live with the wife's sister, whose husband had died of a respiratory infection several years earlier. The sister, Svala, worked as a servant in the Golden Hall and made a decent living for herself, selling fruits and herbs from a small house garden to generate an extra income. She had one child, also adopted; a blonde girl who went by the name Astvi, who had been orphaned recently when her parents had been declared missing after a raid on their farm in the Westfold. Svala had welcomed her brother and his family into her home; it was large enough to hold them all, barely.
Sauron had ordered his servants to keep watch on the family, and they had been dutifully reporting in every two weeks.
Still, there was no sign of Irideth.
And then there was the matter of the… creatures that had attacked Angren, apparently the only thing that had allowed the child, along with dozens of other slaves, to escape. Had the reports come from anyone other than the Nazgûl and Khrosh, Sauron would have been seriously reducing the fort's grog rations. They had appeared out of nowhere, literally, killing nearly thirty orcs and burning down half the camp before just… vanishing.
The wraiths, Murazor and Hoarmurath most prominently, had spent weeks investigating the camp afterward (much to the discomfiture of the resident soldiers). There had been some traces, barely detectable, of an energy Murazor, Akorahil and Morgomir said they had sensed when one of the creatures had appeared in the command tent; aside from that, there was little evidence of the source of the attack.
Sauron had analyzed the wraiths' memories, and what he had seen was very disquieting. Not the least because the Nine had barely managed to hold their own against the creatures, and anything that worried his Nine that much Sauron was certainly going to be playing close attention to as well.
The number of soldiers posted to the fort had been tripled in short order, and a few Black Numenorean priests and minor sorcerers from the human regiments had been transferred in as well (both they and the orcs were less than thrilled with the arrangement, but no one dared argue when orders came from that high up). So far, they'd had even less luck than the Nazgûl in discovering anything about the aggressors.
To say the Dark Lord was disappointed in this news would be quite the understatement, as evidenced by the Nazgûl finding this or that reason to spend more time at Minas Morgul of late. Occasionally they would go out in teams of three or four to search for Irideth themselves, or keep watch on Angren and the surrounding area, but with the war effort ramping up Sauron couldn't afford to spare them as much as he'd like.
He needed to get Irideth back; the experiments he'd run with the last few vials of her blood he'd had had shown promise. Nowhere near the breakthrough he'd been hoping for, but promising nonetheless.
Sauron sighed inwardly, allowing his chin to rest on his knuckles as he continued to pay only half a mind to Siraaj's words.
Who would have thought the girl would have proven this much trouble?
"Ow! Cevin, would you stop that? It's fine!"
"It was slipping again while we were walking across the plaza!"
"My hair covers it just fine from the back! It was you tugging at my jacket that was getting people's attention!" Irideth snapped quietly as she and her siblings ducked into the cellar to deposit the vegetables from their trip to the market.
Cevin muttered something under his breath while he took the top off a barrel and began depositing the apples from his sack. Adina glanced uneasily between her two elder siblings before moving to the far side of the room and putting the sack of flour she'd been carrying onto a shelf.
Irideth sighed, pulling her scarf tighter around her neck, pulling the edges further up in a gesture that was almost unconscious at this point.
She, Irianna and the other mages at the College had been meeting fairly regularly ever since her escape. Despite a lot of research and several experiments, they had been unable to find a way to remove Irideth's collar. Since Irideth was certain Sauron had spies looking for her, and thus likely keeping an eye on her family, it meant keeping the collar hidden. Her hair, thankfully, was long enough to do most of the job, but she was getting really sick of having to wear high-collared dresses and shirts even in warm weather.
Then there was the need to keep dyeing her hair blonde; it had to be done about once a month. Thankfully Aunt Svala had been familiar with some recipes. The one she'd taught Irideth to make used honey, ale, and a mixture of oils and herbs. The application and setting process together took over three hours, and that didn't include the occasional touch-ups that had to be done to prevent her real hair color from showing at the roots. Irideth had also taken to wetting and braiding her hair every night to add a slight wave to it.
She also never took off the bracelet Colette had made for her; she didn't dare risk Sauron accessing the link to discover her location, though the distance between them seemed to have greatly weakened it.
Irideth thought she sensed him sometimes, trying to call to her; she felt that… warmth she remembered when Sauron would use the bond to speak to her in Mordor, though now it was more like a burning sensation. Likely due to Sauron's anger, Irideth would bet, though she shuddered to think of it.
The dreams certainly weren't helping things. She remembered more of them now, perhaps thanks to the increased visits with the Winterhold mages. Oftentimes she wished that wasn't the case; creeping monsters, rotting bodies and raging dragons weren't the types of things she wanted to recall.
"Astvi!"
Irideth's head jerked up as she set her pack down by the cellar stairs. Someone had come calling, then.
"Yes, mother?" Irideth called up to Aunt Svala.
"Would you and your cousins come up here? Rodmar needs some help up at the hall."
The children, Svala and Dea were all practically dead on their feet when they came through the door later in the evening. Seldor, who had been tending the stewpot and the fire it hung over, stood immediately when he saw their state to help set baskets and cloaks aside.
"There's been another attack," Svala said, accepting her brother's offer to set her basket of bandages, rags and old clothing on the table. She sat heavily on a chair a second later, Dea and the children following suit on other chairs or convenient bags of wheat. "It looks like the goblins in the mountains have been working with the Mordor orcs more and more these days. They came down following the Entwash and raided two villages in the Westfold. Thankfully some of Lord Erkenbrand's men were patrolling the area and were able to help evacuate the villagers, but the orcs were so many and came so quickly the defense was overrun almost before they'd even made their stand."
Svala paused, running a hand over her eyes. "Both villages were all but completely destroyed, and their herds were either stolen by the monsters or scattered in their terror. The refugees and the worst of the wounded arrived at Edoras late this afternoon. They intend to entreat the King to send some of our own men to help defend the northern borders, before our people are pushed even further south."
Seldor, whose expression had been blackening slowly over the course of Svala's explanation, was positively stony at this point. "What do you believe the king's decision will be?"
"It is… difficult to say," Svala said, letting her head drop back to rest against the back of her chair. "Many of the Rohirrim already actively lead our own patrols, particularly with the trouble in Gondor. There has been concern about the potential of a force being led out of Mirkwood, from the Enemy's old stronghold there, to join with one from the mountains, though King Theoden has been hesitant to send scouts to ascertain the merit of these rumors."
"Aren't there still Elves in Mirkwood?" Adina asked quietly. "Wouldn't they be able to stop the orcs?"
Cevin snorted. "Not if there're too many of them."
"The Woodland Elves wouldn't be able to hold up under a sustained attack for very long," Irideth said, before really thinking about it. "Dol Guldur is technically outside their realm's borders, and their King tends not to concern himself much with outside matters; if Sauron is able to get a big enough force together in the old fortress without the Elves noticing, he could wipe them out without much trouble. With them out of the way, Mordor would be able to build a combined force with the orcs of the Misty Mountains and Gundabad to form a sort of extended blockade to keep people from both Rohan and Gondor from fleeing into Eriador. If Sauron could use Mirkwood and Gundabad as bases to attack the northern kingdoms like Dale and the realms of the Dwarves, so much the better for him; we'd be surrounded, and he could close in at his leisure."
Irideth had been speaking to herself more than anything in the latter half of her dialogue, but she noticed the horrified looks her family was giving her when she glanced away from the fire she'd been staring emptily at.
"Is… that what… he's planning to do?" Dea asked, voice thin in a way that made Irideth's heart jump.
"I don't know," Irideth said quickly. "I just… I was able to read a lot of books and maps, and a lot of the things in the library were on military strategy. I wasn't allowed to accompany him to war councils for obvious reasons, and I would always be sent out of the room when anything related to the war was being discussed."
Tense silence reigned for what seemed like an age after Irideth went silent again. Then a significant look passed between the adults, which was not missed by the children.
"Father, what is it?" Cevin asked. The adults shared another look, then Seldor sighed, leaning against the doorframe.
"Your mother and I… and your aunt… have been discussing moving further west."
The room's smaller inhabitants stared for a few moments.
"And go where?" Adina asked, voice rising an octave or two in either alarm or astonishment, Irideth couldn't quite tell.
"Almost all of Eriador just past the Gap is uninhabitable," Irideth said. "I don't think the Dunlendings would be too happy with refugees from Rohan settling in their lands."
"We would have to go much further north, along the Greenway," Dea said. "Towards Imladris; there are still small settlements of Men to be had around there. We were… thinking about the southern tip of the Blue Mountains."
Silence again as the words settled in everyone's minds. Then Irideth said, quietly, "that won't work."
When all eyes snapped to her again, Irideth went on, a bit more sharply than she'd meant to. "Oh, come on! We all know this comes down to me. It's because of me you're all being watched as you are, why we've all had to walk on eggshells for over a year, looking over our shoulders and wondering who's telling what to who. Moving further west won't stop that; he'll have us followed, no matter where we go. It might even make him more suspicious, since we've already moved once and as far as anyone watching knows, I'm not your daughter!"
Irideth wiped angrily at her cheek to remove a stray tear. "I should never have come back," she whispered. "I've put all of you at risk. I should've gone to Dale or Dol Amroth or the Iron Hills, somewhere he'd never think to look. I was so selfish, returning to you."
"Don't say that!"
Irideth's jaw almost dropped at the vehemence in Adina's voice. She looked over to her younger sister, meeting a furious blue gaze in a face that was red and covered with Adina's own tears.
Adina stood from her wheat-bag seat and marched over to Irideth's chair, hands forming small fists she pounded against her elder sister's knees when she reached her.
"Don't say that! I'm happy you're back! I don't care that we can't call you by your name anymore or that your hair looks funny or that we have to be more careful. I have my big sister back safe, and I don't want you going away ever again!"
Adina was breathing so hard Irideth wondered how she'd made it to the end of that rant. Ignoring the tears on her own cheeks, Irideth pulled her little sister into a hug that was probably just this side of painful.
Cevin joined them less than a second later, and Irideth unwound one arm from Adina to wrap it around her brother.
After several seconds of heavy silence, Seldor suddenly said, "there may be another way…"
To say Gandalf had been surprised when one of the servants in the Golden Hall had come up to him and requested his help with an urgent matter would have been a… large understatement. The woman had been hesitant to say much; he'd learned that her name was Svala, and she and her brother's family were in some trouble that they felt required his assistance.
What was most concerning was how determined the woman seemed to be that no one, no one, see, much less hear, them speaking. She had told him where her house was located and asked that he meet her and her family there after dark, and to be careful to make sure no one saw him enter; she seemed certain the house was being watched.
So it was a curious (and by now slightly worried) wizard who knocked on the back door of a small house close to the wall of Edoras. After a moment the woman he had spoken with earlier, Svala, opened it, joined by a man with dark brown hair and a beard to match; her brother Seldor, Gandalf guessed.
The two were barely visible by the light of a single candle burning on a table behind them. Svala, without a word, stepped aside and gestured for Gandalf to enter.
It was only when he'd stepped through the door that Gandalf noticed the other people gathered in what appeared to be a combined kitchen and dining area; another woman, as well as three young children. All eyes were fixed on him, the children's more nervous than anything. The wizard smiled to put them more at ease.
Except… the girl who stood by the woman's side, behind the other two, the one Gandalf surmised to be the eldest of the bunch. She appeared more curious than afraid, but nonetheless kept a hand on the shoulders of each of the other two. Siblings, perhaps? Was this other woman their mother? Svala had said her brother and his family were staying with her; this must be his wife and children.
"Thank you for coming to see us, my lord," Seldor said after his sister had closed and bolted the door behind the wizard. "Especially given how odd our request must have seemed."
"I will admit to no small level of curiosity," Gandalf said, removing the hood of his gray cloak as he turned back to look at the man. "I gathered from your sister that you and your family have found yourselves in some danger?"
There was a heavy silence, punctuated by several looks passed between the family.
"It is… difficult to explain," Seldor said after a few moments. "What happened is…"
Another pause; the man did not seem certain how to continue.
After a moment, a voice spoke from behind Gandalf. "Perhaps it would be better if I just showed him, Papa."
Gandalf's eyes moved to the girl he'd noticed before. If she hadn't appeared nervous then, she certainly did now. Her siblings were even more so, the younger girl looking sharply up at her sister and gripping the skirt of her dress. The elder sister glanced down, giving the younger girl's shoulder a gentle squeeze.
"Irideth, are you sure…?" Seldor said.
"I think he's one of the few people we can be certain isn't working for Sa… you know," the girl… Irideth… answered quietly.
Stepping away from her siblings, Irideth raised her eyes to meet Gandalf's. Slowly, she raised her hands to the scarf that was wrapped around her neck and began unwinding the cloth.
It took a great deal of effort on the wizard's part to keep from looking too shocked when he saw what it had concealed.
A silver collar, studded with gemstones, made with a workmanship Gandalf would recognize anywhere. And that was without taking into consideration the power he could feel woven into the work.
Sauron. This girl was Sauron's slave. Or at least she had been.
Valar, this child had escaped the Dark Tower; she had escaped the Dark Lord himself!
"Well," Gandalf said after a moment, his mouth forming the words almost without his command. "It is suddenly much clearer to me why you asked for my help."
Irideth could feel the wizard's searching gaze on her as she stared blankly into her teacup.
"And you're not certain why he decided to… keep you?" Gandalf asked.
"No," Irideth said, glancing up briefly before her gaze fell back to the cup. "He... the tests I told you about… I have no idea what they were supposed to test for, other than maybe getting some idea of my magical ability and how it works."
"You don't know yourself?"
"No," Irideth answered. It was technically true; she didn't know how the magical core worked, or why humans in Nirn had them and the people of Middle Earth didn't.
"It is curious that he kept you so close to him," Gandalf said. "That does seem to indicate that he considered whatever he was trying to discover quite important. The link is… quite troubling as well. I would not be at all surprised if he was having your family watched."
"He was watching them even before I ran," Irideth said. "I'm… not certain why, but he showed me a memory of them in the Palantír."
"Did he threaten them?" Gandalf asked, voice suddenly tense.
"No," Irideth answered. "He… I'm not sure why, but I think he was… I think he was trying to make me feel better."
That sounded absurd, now that she'd said it out loud.
"Do you have any idea who the Dark Lord's spies in Edoras might be?" Gandalf said after a silence Irideth, for her part, had found uncomfortably long.
"I'm… sorry, no," Irideth answered. "He could be using animals, for all I know. With so many people fleeing raids, it's impossible to tell who may be entering the city under false pretenses. Or he could just be paying someone off."
"Yes, that is the trouble, isn't it," Gandalf said, voice pensive and a shade darker. He stood abruptly, nearly making Irideth jump.
"I have much work to do," he said, grabbing his hat from the back of his chair and his cloak from the door as he swept back out into the main room.
"Keep doing as you have been doing," the wizard said to the familial assembly in the other room. "If you can discover who is watching you, that would give us some advantage, but do not do anything to arouse suspicion! I will return as soon as I can and will do my best to send a message ahead. Be ready to move when you next hear from me."
