Travel to Isengard

Author note: Tolkien himself wrote the characters speaking a lot in canon, it is not my fault that there is a lot of talking here and taking up text in this chapter! / Rogercat

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Everyone in the Golden Hall was very unnerved by what Rhaenys told them, about what Khamûl had promised her before departing.

"What worries me the most, is that he somehow found out who you once was, sister…."

His whole body language spoke of how scared Aegon actually was for his sister. And he had a very good reason for worrying about her:

People would always talk about the burdens of kingship and how he would always have to try escaping the shadow of the deeds done by Aerys and Rhaegar, but what was the feeling of an iron ring around your head, compared to the horror of knowing that your previous self was the reason for your past-life father joining a Dark Lord and now posed a mortal danger to everyone? The burden of trying to defend your own descendants, among whom you had been reborn? And the unspoken guilt of bringing said descendants into this very danger that was the ongoing War of the Ring?

"Aegon. He would have found out my current identity sooner or later, it was inevitable he would find enough clues to that mystery eventually. But if that means I have to act as a bait, so be it, to defend you all and my reborn siblings from my life as Mara."

Rhaenys spoke the blunt truth, and no one could disagree.

On the other hand, a far more peaceful meeting between relatives had just happened in the Old Palace;

Even with the agreement to ride to Isengard to see what exactly had happened there the following day, Théoden still took some time to enjoy the first meeting with little Elfhilda, his great-niece. Just as his son had said when hearing her given name himself, the former King of Rohan felt very touched over that Éomer and Lothíriel had named their daughter after his late wife.

"She is lovely, already at this tender age."

Seeing the newborn girl with her little face as she slept peacefully inside her comfortable blanket, and feeling the weight of her in his arms, reminded Théoden once again about his personal desire to keep Rohan safe. His son may be the King now, but he wanted to do his share as a protector of their people.

"I will return to Dunhollow with her at dawn, but I am afraid that this husband of mine must come with you because as the Third Mashal, he must think of Rohan and not be selfish."

Lothíriel poked her sleeping husband with her foot against his arm, where he was sleeping across the end of her guest bed in order not take up too much space for her, no doubt trying to recapture as much as possible of the sleep he was denied at Helm's Deep the previous night due to the battle. Elfhilda had fallen asleep with her little fist closed around his finger, but the infant girl had let go of the finger earlier and not woken up when being placed in the arms of her great-uncle.

"Unfortunately, you are right, Lothíriel, we must see the full scale of damage done to the villages nearest Isengard and muster as many Rohirrim warriors as possible for riding to Gondor. We have agreed that the youngsters below the age of 18 shall remain in Rohan to help defend their homeland, and try to not take too many old men away from their families."

Lothíriel caught the meaning. Théoden knew that there was a risk that he would not return to Rohan alive if he led the army towards Gondor and aid her homeland against Mordor, only his body for burial, but he had lived with this his whole life and refused to back down.

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For all that were not hurt or wounded after the nightly battle at Helm's Deep, began a great labor; for many among the Rohirrim and Dornishmen had fallen in the battle and lay dead upon the field or in the Deep. No Orcs remained alive; their bodies were uncounted. But a great many of the hillmen had given themselves up when seeing how they were outnumbered; and they were afraid, and cried for mercy. The Men of the Mark took their weapons from them, and set them to work on digging.

"Help now to repair the evil in which you have joined," said Erkenbrand with kindness because many of those hillmen, especially the younger ones who barely had reached manhood, had probably thought that battles were as in songs, glorious and not a single mention of the terrible scenes that reality would show; "and afterwards you shall take an oath never again to pass the Fords of Isen in arms, nor to march with the enemies of Men; and then you shall go free back to your land. For you have been deluded by Saruman. Many of you have got death as the reward of your trust in him; but had you conquered, little better would your wages have been."

The men of Dunland were amazed over this mercy, unaware that this once again was the command of Queen Elia as a reminder that most soldiers were common men who paid the highest price when lordings wanted to play war like a game, for Saruman had told them that the men of Rohan were cruel and burned their captives alive.

In the midst of the field before the Hornburg two mounds were raised, and beneath them were laid all the Riders of the Mark and Dornishmen who fell in the defense, those of the East Dales upon one side, and those of Westfold upon the other. In a grave alone under the shadow of the Hornburg lay Háma, the chosen bodyguard of Théoden on the request of his son in order to keep the former King safe from harm. He fell before the Gate.

On the other hand, the Orcs and Uruk-hai were piled in great heaps, away from the mounds of Men, not far from the eaves of the forest. And the people were troubled in their minds; for the heaps of carrion were too great for burial or for burning. They had little wood for firing, and none would have dared to take an axe to the strange trees, even if Gandalf had not warned them to hurt neither bark nor bough at their great peril.

"Let the Orcs lie where you have placed them," said Gandalf to those who spoke of their worries to him, "The morning may bring new counsel."

In the afternoon the chosen company for Isengard prepared to depart. The work of burial was then but beginning; and Théoden mourned for the loss of Háma, his protector, and cast the first earth upon his grave.

"Great injury indeed has Saruman done to me and all this land ruled by my son," he said; "and I will remember it, when we meet."

The sun was already drawing near the hills upon the west of the Coomb, when at last Théoden and Gandalf and their companions rode down from the Dike. Behind them were gathered a great host, both of the Riders and of the people of Westfold, old and young, women and children, who had come out from the caves. A song of victory they sang with clear voices; and then they fell silent, wondering what would chance, for their eyes were on the trees and they feared them.

The Riders came to the wood, and they halted; horse and man, they were unwilling to pass as the first one. All of the trees were grey and menacing, and a shadow or a mist was hanging about them. The ends of their long sweeping boughs hung down like searching fingers, their roots stood up from the ground like the limbs of strange monsters, and dark caverns opened beneath them. But Gandalf went forward, leading the company, and where the road from the Hornburg met the trees they saw now an opening like an arched gate under mighty boughs; and through it Gandalf passed, and they followed him. Then to their amazement they found that the road ran on, and the Deeping-stream beside it; and the sky was open above and full of golden light. But on either side the great aisles of the wood were already wrapped in dusk, stretching away into impenetrable shadows; and there they heard the creaking and groaning of boughs, and far cries, and a rumour of wordless voices, murmuring angrily. No Orc or other living creature could be seen.

Legolas and Gimli were now riding together upon one horse; and they kept close beside Gandalf, for Gimli was afraid of the wood. Dwarves held a great respect for trees thanks to Yavanna being the Consort of Aulë, their Creator, and woe the fool who showed disrespect for the Earth Mother, as she was called among them.

"It is hot in here," said Legolas to Gandalf with a slight twitch in the pointed tip of his ears, "I feel a great wrath about me. Do you not feel the air throb in your ears?"

"Yes," said Gandalf with calmness, making Boromir ask from his place in the group:

"What has become of the miserable Orcs?"

"That, I think, no one will ever know," was all Gandalf said as answer.

They rode in silence for a while; but Legolas was ever glancing from side to side, and would often have halted to listen to the sounds of the wood, if Gimli had allowed it.

"These are the strangest trees that ever I saw, 'and I have seen many an oak grow from acorn to ruinous age back home in the Greenwood Realm. I wish that there were leisure now to walk among them: they have voices, and in time I might come to understand their thoughts."

"No, no!" protested Gimli behind his back, "Let us leave them! I guess their thought already: hatred of all that go on two legs; and their speech is of crushing and strangling."

"Not of all that go on two legs!" Legolas hurried to try to calm his friend, "There I think you are wrong. It is Orcs that they hate. For they do not belong here and know little of Elves and Men. Far away are the valleys where they sprang. From the deep dales of Fangorn, Gimli, that is whence they come, I guess."

"Then that is the most perilous wood in Middle-earth," said Gimli nervously, "I should be grateful for the part they have played, but I do not love them. You may think them wonderful, but I have seen a greater wonder in this land, more beautiful than any grove or glade that ever grew: my heart is still full of it. 'Strange are the ways of Men, Legolas! Here they have one of the marvels of the Northern World, and what do they say of it? Caves, they say! Caves! Holes to fly to in time of war, to store fodder in! My good Legolas, do you know that the caverns of Helm's Deep are vast and beautiful? There would be an endless pilgrimage of Dwarves, merely to gaze at them, if such things were known to be. Aye indeed, they would pay pure gold for a brief glance!"

"And I would give gold to be excused," said Legolas in slight humor; "and double to be let out, if I strayed in!"

Their chance to talk about something else, seemed to ease the worries of the Dwarf and both Aragorn and Boromir nodded in silent agreement that they may be an unlikely pair of friends but had grown close over their journey so far.

"You have not seen, so I forgive your jest," said Gimli in a better mood than before, before adding on;

"But you speak like a fool. Do you think those halls are fair, where your King dwells under the hill in Mirkwood, and Dwarves helped in their making long ago? They are but hovels compared with the caverns I have seen here: immeasurable halls, filled with an everlasting music of water that tinkles into pools, as fair as Kheled-zâram in the starlight. And, Legolas, when the torches are kindled and men walk on the sandy floors under the echoing domes, ah! then, Legolas, gems and crystals and veins of precious ore glint in the polished walls; and the light glows through folded marbles, shell-like, translucent as the living hands of Queen Galadriel. There are columns of white and saffron and dawn-rose, Legolas, fluted and twisted into dreamlike forms; they spring up from many-coloured floors to meet the glistening pendants of the roof: wings, ropes, curtains fine as frozen clouds; spears, banners, pinnacles of suspended palaces! Still lakes mirror them: a glimmering world looks up from dark pools covered with clear glass; cities. such as the mind of Durin could scarce have imagined in his sleep, stretch on through avenues and pillared courts, on into the dark recesses where no light can come. And plink! a silver drop falls, and the round wrinkles in the glass make all the towers bend and waver like weeds and corals in a grotto of the sea. Then evening comes: they fade and twinkle out; the torches pass on into another chamber and another dream. There is chamber after chamber, Legolas; hall opening out of hall, dome after dome, stair beyond stair; and still the winding paths lead on into the mountains' heart. Caves! The Caverns of Helm's Deep! Happy was the chance that drove me there! It makes me weep to leave them."

"Then I will wish you this fortune for your comfort, Gimli," said the Elf, "that you may come safe from war and return to see them again. But do not tell all your kindred! There seems little left for them to do, from your account. Maybe the men of this land are wise to say little: one family of busy dwarves with hammer and chisel might mar more than they made."

Their talk helped to distract the other riders as well, bringing some welcomed chatter among the trees.

"No, you do not understand," said Gimli, muttering under his breath about how dense the Elvish Prince was about beauty in front of him even with the use of his good eyesight, "No dwarf could be unmoved by such loveliness. None of Durin's race would mine those caves for stones or ore, not if diamonds and gold could be got there. Do you cut down groves of blossoming trees in the spring-time for firewood? We would tend these glades of flowering stone, not quarry them. With cautious skill, tap by tap - a small chip of rock and no more, perhaps, in a whole anxious day - so we could work, and as the years went by, we should open up new ways, and display far chambers that are still dark, glimpsed only as a void beyond fissures in the rock. And lights, Legolas! We should make lights, such lamps as once shone in Khazad-dûm; and when we wished we would drive away the night that has lain there since the hills were made; and when we desired rest, we would let the night return."

The Elf took some moments of deep thinking.

"You move me, Gimli," he finally said, "I have never heard you speak like this before. Almost you make me regret that I have not seen these caves. Come! Let us make this bargain-if we both return safe out of the perils that await us, we will journey for a while together. You shall visit Fangorn with me, and then I will come with you to see Helm's Deep."

"That would not be the way of return that I should choose," said Gimli behind his back, "But I will endure Fangorn, if I have your promise to come back to the caves and share their wonder with me."

"You have my promise," Legolas smiled, "But alas! Now we must leave behind both the cave and the woods for a while: See! We are coming to the end of the trees. How far is it to Isengard, Gandalf?"

"About fifteen leagues, as the crows of Saruman make it." said Gandalf at the front: "five from the mouth of Deeping-coomb to the Fords: and ten more from there to the gates of Isengard. But we shall not ride all the way this night."

"And when we come there, what shall we see?" asked Boromir, "You may know, but none of us cannot guess."

'I do not know myself for certain," answered the wizard, "'I was there at nightfall yesterday, but much may have happened since. Yet I think that you will not say that the journey was in vain - not though the Glittering Caves of Aglarond be left behind."

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At last the company passed through the trees, and found that they had come to the bottom of the Coomb, where the road from Helm's Deep branched, going one way east to Edoras, and the other north to the Fords of Isen. As they rode from under the eaves of the wood, Legolas halted and looked back with regret. Then he gave a sudden cry.

"There are eyes!" he said in a loud voice, "Eyes looking out from the shadows of the boughs! I never saw such eyes before."

The others, surprised by his cry, halted and turned; but Legolas started to ride back.

"No, no!" cried Gimli in alarm, "Do as you please in your madness, but let me first get down from this horse! I wish to see no eyes!"

Thankfully Gandalf came to the rescue:

"Stay, Legolas Greenleaf! Do not go back into the woods, not yet! Now is not your time."

Even as he spoke, there came forward out of the trees three strange shapes. As tall as trolls they were, twelve feet or more in height; their strong bodies, stout as young trees, seemed to be clad with raiment or with hide of close-fitting grey and brown. Their limbs were long, and their hands had many fingers; their hair was stiff, and their beards grey-green as moss. They gazed out with solemn eyes, but they were not looking at the riders: their eyes were bent northwards. Suddenly they lifted their long hands to their mouths, and sent forth ringing calls, clear as notes of a horn, but more musical and various. The calls were answered; and turning again, the riders saw other creatures of the same kind approaching, striding through the grass. They came swiftly from the North, walking like wading herons in their gait, but not in their speed; for their legs in their long paces beat quicker than the heron's wings. The riders cried aloud in wonder, and some set their hands upon their sword-hilts, especially the Dornish, who were used to their homeland and not exactly feeling at home with so many trees.

"You need no weapons," Gandalf hurried to say, "These are but herdsmen. They are not enemies, indeed they are not concerned with us at all."

So it seemed to be; for as he spoke the tall creatures, without a glance at the riders, strode into the wood and vanished.

"Herdsmen!" said Théoden in wonder, "Where are their flocks? What are they, Gandalf? For it is plain that to you, at any rate, they are not strange."

"They are the shepherds of the trees," answered Gandalf, "Is it so long since you listened to tales by the fireside, or telling them to your own grandchildren? There are children in your land who, out of the twisted threads of story, could pick the answer to your question. You have seen Ents, O Lord, Ents out of Fangorn Forest, which in your tongue you call the Entwood. Did you think that the name was given only in idle fancy? Nay, Théoden, it is otherwise: to them you are but the passing tale; all the years from Eorl the Young to Théoden the Old are of little count to them; and all the deeds of your house but a small matter."

The head of the House of Eorl was silent.

"Ents!" he said at length, "Out of the shadows of legend I begin a little to understand the marvel of the trees, I think. I have lived to see strange days. Long we have tended our beasts and our fields, built our houses, wrought our tools, or ridden away to help in the wars of Minas Tirith. And that we called the life of Men, the way of the world. We cared little for what lay beyond the borders of our land prior to the arrival of my daughter-in-law and growing connections with the land of her birth. Songs we have that tell of these things, but we are forgetting them, teaching them only to children, as a careless custom. And now the songs have come down among us out of strange places, and walk visible under the Sun."

"You should be glad, Théoden King," Gandalf said, adressing him with his former title, "For not only the little life of Men is now endangered, but the life also of those things which you have deemed the matter of legend. You are not without allies, even if you know them not."

"Yet also I should be sad," Théoden said in a thin voice, looking towards the direction of Edoras where his family was gathered in this moment, "For however the fortune of war shall go, may it not so end that much that was fair and wonderful shall pass for ever out of Middle-earth?"

'It may," said Gandalf, "The evil of Sauron cannot be wholly cured, nor made as if it had not been. But to such days we are doomed. Let us now go on with the journey we have begun!"

The company turned then away from the Coomb and from the wood and took the road towards the Fords. Legolas followed reluctantly. The sun had set, already it had sunk behind the rim of the world; but as they rode out from the shadow of the hills and looked west to the Gap of Rohan the sky was still red, and a burning light was under the floating clouds. Dark against it there wheeled and flew many black-winged birds. Some passed overhead with mournful cries, returning to their homes among the rocks.

"The carrion-fowl have been busy about the battle-field,' said Éomer with displeasure, sending a mental prayer to the Valar that Elfhilda would be spared from a life where she would have to see the aftermath of a battle.

They rode now at an easy pace and dark came down upon the plains about them. The slow moon mounted, now waxing towards the full, and in its cold silver light the swelling grass-lands rose and fell like a wide grey sea. They had ridden for some four hours from the branching of the roads when they drew near to the Fords. Long slopes ran swiftly down to where the river spread in stony shoals between high grassy terraces. Borne upon the wind they heard the howling of wolves. Their hearts were heavy, remembering the many men that had fallen in battle in this place.

The road dipped between rising turf-banks, carving its way through the terraces to the river's edge, and up again upon the further side. There were three lines of flat stepping-stones across the stream, and between them fords for horses, that went from either brink to a bare eyot in the midst. The riders looked down upon the crossings, and it seemed strange to them; for the Fords had ever been a place full of the rush and chatter of water upon stones; but now they were silent. The beds of the stream were almost dry, a bare waste of shingles and grey sand.

"This has become a dreary place," said Éomer with worry over the small amount of water in the stream, knowing how a drought would bring disaster to Rohan even if the winter had been generous with snow to melt into water for the soil, "What sickness has befallen the river? Many fair things Saruman has destroyed: has he devoured the springs of Isen too?"

"So it would seem," said Gandalf, and Théoden pretended to not hear Oberyn swearing the pains of a thousand poisonous scorpions stings upon Saruman over robbing Rohan of valuable water worth far more than gold and silver, as he commented:

"Alas!' Must we pass this way, where the carrion-beasts devour so many good Riders of the Mark?"

"This is our way," Gandalf insisted but with understanding for how it must feel for the former King, "Grievous is the fall of your men; but you shall see that at least the wolves of the mountains do not devour them. It is with their friends, the Orcs, that they hold their feast: such indeed is the friendship of their kind. Come!"

They rode down to the river, and as they came the wolves ceased their howling and slunk away. Fear fell on them seeing Gandalf in the light of the moon, and Shadowfax his horse shining like silver. The riders passed over to the islet, and glittering eyes watched them wanly from the shadows of the banks.

"Look!" said Gandalf with joy, "Friends have laboured here."

And they saw that in the midst of the eyot a mound was piled, ringed with stones, and set about with many spears.

"Here lie all the Men of the Mark that fell near this place," explained Gandalf.

"Here let them rest!" said Éomer in honest relief that his countrymen had received a proper funeral, 'And when their spears have rotted and rusted, long still may their mound stand and guard the Fords of Isen!"

"Is this your work also, Gandalf, my friend?" wondered Théoden, dismounting Snowmane to take up a fistful of earth and toss it upon the mound as a sign of respect from their former King, his sister-son doing the same on behalf of his cousin, "You accomplished much in an evening and a night!'

"With the help of Shadowfax - and others," Gandalf explained, putting extra weight on the last word, "I rode fast and far. But here beside the mound I will say this for your comfort: many fell in the battles of the Fords, but fewer than rumor made them. More were scattered than were slain; I gathered together all that I could find. Some men I sent with Grimbold of Westfold to join Erkenbrand. Some I set to make this burial. They have now followed your marshal, Elfhelm. I sent him with many Riders to Edoras. Saruman I knew had despatched his full strength against you, and his servants had turned aside from all other errands and gone to Helm's Deep: the lands seemed empty of enemies; yet I feared that wolf-riders and plunderers might ride nonetheless to Meduseld, while it was defended only by the old and shieldmaidens under the command of your sister and mother. But now I think you need not fear: you will find your house to welcome your return."

"And glad shall I be to see both the Golden Hall and my gathered family again," said Théoden and closed his eyes for a moment with the memory image of them, "though brief now, I doubt not, shall be my abiding there."

With that the company said farewell to the island and the mound, and passed over the river, and climbed the further bank. Then they rode on, glad to have left the mournful Fords. As they went the howling of the wolves broke out anew.