Chapter 6 - Defending the Deep
Reaching the king's station, Vezely nodded in deference to the king and quietly took her place next to Gamling. All eyes were fixed on the approaching Uruk-khai, a great black mass on the landscape. The sound of their footsteps and rustling of their armor grew louder with each passing moment. The surrounding soldiers were silent for the sight in front of them was surreal and many needed to remind themselves to continue breathing.
Vezely felt eager anticipation of the impending battle, her hand aching to swing her blade, her mind desiring to outpace and outmatch her opponents. As the crescendo of Uruk war cry overwhelmed the Deep, it was met with fear. She detested it; for Easterling militia such fear was not acceptable. Instead, her men would be producing an equally powerful presence. But she had to remind herself, most of these men had never seen war, had never held a weapon, or seen a man being violently killed.
The rain burst from the clouds above, soaking all and muffling the sound of the Uruk-khai with the splatters and dings of water hitting stone, shield, and flesh. Upon command, she stepped forward with her long bow, grateful she had chosen this weapon over the shorter versions, since her distance was considerably farther from target than where she thought she'd be positioned. She awaited Theodon's orders, while overhearing Aragorn cry orders in Elvish down below.
An older man below her released his arrow before the command, killing an Uruk and causing an angered roar from the horde; instantly sending chills down the spines of the defenders in the Deep. They began charging the wall. Gamling cried out a resounding "Fire!"
As she continued to rain arrows, she noticed how each release increased in precision and speed, finding her remembrance of the weapon slowly return. But as the ladders began rising and Uruks poured over the Deeping Wall, her desire for hand-to-hand combat also increased.
A mass of shielded Uruks were encroaching on the gates below. "The gate, focus on the gate!" She cried down to the nearby bowmen, who promptly turned their attention that way. Aragorn followed her cries, turning some of his bowmen to the task.
At the Deeping Wall, the Elves were holding back the incoming Uruks, who were being cut down one by one; many were meeting Gimli's axe before they had even descended the ladder.
Vezely overheard Theodon murmur, "Is this it? Is this all you can conjure, Saruman?"
If it was, surely the battle would be won, for they would be able to maintain a steady demolishing of Uruks, evening the odds for when they would inevitably breach the fortress.
But suddenly an explosion rocked the Deeping Wall, causing stone, dust, and flesh to blow meters into the sky only to come crashing down on those below. The shock wave traveled fast through the air, knocking other sounds away and throwing people on the Deeping Wall off their feet. The Uruks were only momentarily set back and it took a matter of seconds until they began filtering through the gaping hole left in the wall. Behind it the Elves stationed as reserves regrouped to meet them, but their numbers were few compared to the mass of Uruks that stood beyond the gate.
The situation below had turned dire. "Permission to go below," Vez called to Theodon, who had remained stunned by the blast.
"Granted," he replied beside himself.
Vezely took off for the closest entry to the warzone. At the same time, Uruks began battering the gates, snapping Theodon from his shock, "Brace the gates!"
The entire wall above the culvert was blown through, and the blast blew into the ground, causing water from the Deeping Stream to form a muddy lake that would soon be filled with bodies. The mass of Uruks charging through would meet Aragorn, Gimli, and a horde of Elves. Legolas was also quick to join his friends down below, finding a shield to coast down the stairs on.
Her sword could easily manage the Uruks on the Deeping Wall before the blast site, but it was below that the flow of Uruks was heaviest and growing. Reaching the edge, Vezely gauged she could make a straight trajectory to the ground below. She sheathed her sword and grabbed two fallen Elven blades. With one sword in each hand, she took a brief moment to gauge the right timing. Pointing the blades downward she lept into the middle of a mass of Uruks, two of which she quickly dispersed per the swords in her hands. She softly landed in a lunging position, her boots and knee feeling the squish of the muddy pond that had formed. A split second later her sword had been unsheathed and she turned to skewer the oncoming Uruk behind her.
"Nice of you to drop in," Gimli joked, swinging his axe at an Uruk's gut.
"Like I said, I don't like waiting," Vez replied, smirking at the dwarf who enjoyed fighting as much as she did. She felt fully energized being in a thick of real battlefield where a steady flow of opponents offered her opportunity to practice her trade. She used her quickness to her advantage, for what Uruks gained in size and strength, they lacked in agility. Quickness and precision, for every blow she struck counted so much so that perhaps she was only Elvish while fighting.
Regardless of the skills amassed on their side, the flow of Uruks was not going to slow. She crossed paths with Legolas, who had resorted to fighting with his two Elven short blades. They nodded to each other upon first look; she was relieved he was also unharmed from the blast.
Vezely upped her kill count by finding moments between blows to hurl discarded weaponry at oncoming Uruks, testing her targeting skills by aiming at their face. A quick toss of one of her sai saved a Elf bowman from being back knifed by a charging Uruk.
Close to being overwhelmed at the gates, Theodon ordered everyone back to the keep, to help defend it.
Aragorn hailed the orders in elvish to those in the Deep, "Am Marad!" (To the Keep!)
Vezely held out for a moment longer, as did Gimli, not wanting to give up the flow of flesh ready to meet their blades; though for the Elves heeding the call they may have assumed their ignorance of Elvish.
"Gimli, Vezely, to the Keep!" Legolas yelled. Vezely began to move, but Gimli tenaciously charged back the other way adamant to keep fighting. If not for Legolas and another Elf who started to drag him off, he would have certainly been overwhelmed as all defenders were quickly exiting the area.
The battlefield was being relocated to the keep's outer walls, as Uruks continued to encroach onto the fortress. Aragorn and Gimli relocated to the gates, Legolas and Vezely continued to fight on the walls along with the other Elven fighters.
Huge ladders full of traveling Uruks were being catapulted to the walls where they fought. Legolas swiftly arrowed one's rope sending it crashing down; for the others it was too late and a new stream of Uruks had a new path to the keep. Meanwhile, Aragorn and Gimli infiltrated the causeway, giving Theodon and his men enough time to reinforce the gates with wooden boards. Needing a way out, Legolas complied by throwing a rope from above them, planning to hoist them up.
"I have your back," Vezely told him, knowing he didn't need help in terms of strength. She kept the area clear of any interference from Uruks, and gave a hand when pulling Gimli over. It was only moments after that Theodon called a retreat to the inner fortress where they would hastily brace the door from the battering ram of the Uruks.
"The fortress is taken, it is over," Theodon declared to his men, noticeably dejected.
"You said this fortress would never fall while your men defend it. They still defend it. They have died defending it," Aragorn cried back as the battering ram began slamming the door.
Legolas perched himself meters from the door, bow and arrow readied for any crack that would allow release to a target. Vez found two spears perched along the side wall and did the same.
Concerned for the women and children, Aragorn rested command from Theodon to send Gamling to have them leave through the mountain passage and to take men to barricade the entrance to provide them more time.
Then, another feat befitting his claim to Gondor's throne, Aragorn convinced Theodon to ride out and meet them, to a certain death.
Horses were brought from the side stables, Gizik among them.
Vezely ran her index finger along the black blood that soaked her sword and lined the ridge of her nose and horizontally marked a line under each eye, transforming her look into one more reminiscent of a Haradrim.
Speaking to Gizik in Easterling, she said, "Strength, Gizik," The horse responded to the intensity in her eyes, shaking her head and clacking her front hoof.
Legolas climbed Arod aside her, looking upon Vez momentarily, finding the presence of another Elf reassuring in what could be their last charge on earth.
At the sound of the horn of Helm Hammerhand, the breaking of the doors, and Theoden's cry, "Forð Eorlingas!" the company road out onto the causeway, swords ready to quickly slash down the Uruks met along the way. Though it was not the causeway that concerned them; there they had the advantage of minimal resistance, for it could only accommodate so many Uruks. It was reaching the standing reserves that they would find the overwhelming numbers remaining.
The sun was rising, and slowly starting to creep over the Eastern Ridge. Seconds before the sun's appearance, there on the ridge's crest stood Gandalf upon Shadowfax, followed by a mass of Rohirrim who rained down the hill towards the Uruk-khai. The horde regrouped with pointed spears but were blinded by the rising sun and quickly cut into by the horsemen. The Uruks on the causeway, blinded and fearful, quickly turned from their prior task and fled with their company into the surrounding forest.
Vezely followed the other riders, filing into the line of Rohirrim who had just ascended the ridge; their armor and blades glinting in the bright light of the morning's sun.
Eomer, the king's nephew cried loudly to all, "Stay out of the forest! Keep away from the trees!"
Horrible sounds of creeks and groans accompanied undulating sways of the foliage; the trees would finish what the fighters at Helm's Deep started.
Victory after almost certain defeat…the cheers from the Rohirrim filtered through the canyon and Theodon cried victory along with them. Aragorn kept a solid composure, as did Legolas and Gimli, and they each greeted Gandalf and expressed their gratitude for his arrival. Vezely did the same, and Gandalf gave her a knowing look, seeing she had indeed found the right moment to reveal her identity to Theodon.
They would ride their horses back up the causeway to the fortress where the women and children began pouring out from the mountain passageways into dawn's light with hopes of finding their loved ones among the living. The mass of people led to Vezely getting separated from her companions.
The Rohirrim, being less battle weary, immediately began the clean up, searching for any wounded and piling up bodies - Uruks for mass burning and Elves and Men for their respective burial practices.
Preferring not to be around wailing women, Vezely decided to look for her missing sai, which she had thrown during her fight in the Deep. During this time, Gimli had already found the perfect seat to smoke his pipe, perched atop one of his kills as if showing off an accomplishment; the Uruk had his axe embedded in its skull.
Legolas also went to the Deep in the hopes of querying Gimli about the final body count; the two were constantly competing with each other, mocking each others race as often as they could, and finding ways to make jokes at the others expense. Vezely knew little of the quarrelsome history between Dwarves and Elves, but found herself amused by what she could gather was an unlikely friendship.
She quietly paced through the broken bodies, turning them over with her muddied boots as needed. Soldiers were focusing on clearing the bodies of Elves and Men, leaving mostly Uruks to look through.
Having exchanged numbers into the forties, and fleshing out the discrepancy of one, Gimli, noticing Vez in his periphery called, "Lass, how about yourself? What's your count?"
"I stopped counting long ago," she replied indifferent, continuing to scan for her lost sai. Part of her looked almost solemn, a demeanor that would continue for some time after the battle. It was simply the culture of the Balchoth. A battle's completion required reflection, contemplation on lives lost and mistakes made for redress next time. Pacing another meter, she found it, lodged in the skull of an Uruk near the steps.
"She goes from cheer before certain death to solemn after victory, not easy to figure her out," Gimli mumbled quietly to Legolas, taking another puff of his pipe.
Legolas who had just been scanning his Galadhrim bow for any signs of wear, now had his eyes fixed on Vez. He watched bemused as she pulled her sai from the Uruk's head and inspected the mess on its blade. He was curious as well to her thoughts, finding a desire to unravel her complexity.
Gimli noticed his interest and chuckled, adding "Aye, you might want to figure her out though."
Legolas's eyes shifted and narrowed back onto his compatriot who smugly smoked his pipe wondering what he was insinuating. He could not easily deny it nor admit forthright to being curious. But before he could reply with an equally smarmy comment, Vez made her way over to the two, bloody sai in hand.
"I am still not use to the color," she remarked, as she touched the black blood on her blade and observed it on her fingertips. She calmly smiled at both of them, breathing in the damp air and momentarily reflecting on the feeling to have fought amongst her former enemies; amongst honorable warriors. She did not consider herself one, however.
Legolas smiled for he could sense her reflection on these changes and there was some peace to her thoughts.
"Might as well get used to it, there's plenty more to spill," Gimli scoffed with a puff of smoke.
"How did that bow work out for you?" Legolas asked, slightly changing the topic from the unforeseeable future to the near past.
"More than adequate," she replied politely, "Gratitude again."
"An axe is always more than adequate," Gimli declared proudly, "It's simplicity makes it reliable."
"I have not had the opportunity to fight with an axe," Vezely replied considering the weapon, as she started cleaning the blood from her sai with a rag, "But with the strength of these Uruk-khai, I can see the preference for a weapon that can create more force with its swing."
Gimli smiled proudly at her remark, noting that Legolas would never admit to such a truism.
"But with a bow, as long as you have constant precision, there are enough weak spots in their armor to take them out. I have not seen such precision and speed in a bowman before, as I saw in you," she added, while looking at Legolas admiringly.
Legolas had not expected the compliment and knew not how to respond, but Gimli interrupted, not satisfied that Legolas's compliment seemed better than his own, "And what do they call these weapons in the East?"
Vezely removed her admiring eyes from the Elf back upon Gimli, "They are called sai," forgetting that they were not a common weapon West of Rhun, "They are good for hand-to-hand combat, for depending on how you hold them," she twirled the weapon between fighting stances effortlessly, "The hilt can be used as well as the blade." She quickly put it back into its holder on the side of her boot, and then added while gripping the handled of her sword, smiling, "But I will always be first and foremost a swordsman. The Easterling blade is slightly curved, as Elvish swords are," she briefly looked at Legolas for confirmation, "This one's a single edged blade. It requires precise footwork to avoid your opponent's weapon before quickly retaliating."
"Looks like Elves and Easterlings like their fancy precision," he joked, poking fun at them both.
"It is another skill weapon, unlike the axe which requires just brute force," Legolas added amused at the opportunity to smite him.
Gimli suddenly looked a bit angered at being ganged up on by two Elves, but quickly started laughing, causing Legolas and Vez to crack up as well. "Elves," he blurted out, amongst his laugh.
"I admit to not knowing well the history of Dwarves and Elves," Vezely chimed in, "Perhaps someday you should each tell me your version of it and I will have a better sense of this rivalry."
"Aye, but don't believe anything the Elf says," Gimli quipped.
Vezely looked at Legolas, smiling and amused by Gimli's comment; for Legolas it was good to see her so. There was still life in her, and the light of his people even if it was dim. Instead of using this as an opportunity to retort Gimli's comment, Legolas offered, "There are many stories that I could tell you and hope I get the opportunity to."
Gimli puffed his pipe, hoping his beard hid the smirk that had formed as he watched the Elf prince profess such a heartfelt desire, one which made Vezely stall for a moment.
"I would like that," she replied warmly before adding, "I would like to hear more about the stars, the first Elves, about Elrond…"
"How do you know Lord Elrond?" he asked curiously but with care, having remembered her response to Haldir's greeting.
"That is a story with few details," she explained calmly, "He knew of me though I knew nothing of him. I found out he sought Morinehtar and Romestamo about aiding in my release and recovery from Dol Guldur, so that I would not also be destroyed with it. I know I am related to him by blood, though I know nothing of my bloodline," she smiled slightly, "As you see, there is not much to tell."
"Your bloodline is legendary," Legolas added, wondering if she knew the story of the half-Elven, and that she held Maiar blood.
"Is it?" She replied unconcerned, "I can only assume so by acknowledgement of my relation. Though I am an unexpected addition," she shrugged, referring not only to the survival of her lost father, but to her role as Sauron's pawn.
"Yes, undoubtedly unexpected," Legolas replied considering.
Having finished his pipe weed, Gimli stood up from his Uruk throne and not to delicately dislodged his axe from its skull. "If you want unexpected, let me tell you of the time Legolas's father imprisoned my own, but do so from behind a hot bowl of stew," he took Vez by the arm to lead her out of the Deep, "They should have prepared some food by now," referring to the kitchens in the fortress.
Vezely smiled back at Legolas as he added, "You mean after your father trespassed into my realm?"
"I have done this myself," Vezely told Gimli by her side, "It did not go well for me either."
Gimli laughed gruffly, "Ha, that's the hospitality of the Elves. They don't even treat their own kindly!"
Entering the fortress, they came upon Gandalf and Aragorn holding council with the king and his nephew Eomer.
"I see you have discovered my minor secret," Gandalf spoke to Theodon in Vezely's presence. "I did not want to burden you with it at the time, but am grateful for your acceptance of her sword."
"She fought bravely for Rohan," Theodon added politely.
"And she will continue to do so," Gandalf added, "As long as you will have her."
Vezely nodded in deference to the King, as his nephew, Eomer, stood next to him, brows furled as he waited curiously for an explanation of this secret in the form of an oddly clad, Elf woman warrior.
Theodon took notice to his nephew's confusion and their lack of an introduction, "Eomer, this is Vez of Rhun, known also as the slayer of Eorl the Young."
Eomer's eyes noticeably widened to this knowledge, finding it an impossible occurrence.
Vezely's appearance was perhaps even more fitting to her historical baggage, covered in dirt and painted in Uruk blood, she looked as one of Rohan would imagine. She respectively nodded to the horse master, noting his obvious physical relation to Eowyn.
"It's good you all are here," Gandalf spoke pleased, "We will be taking a riding party to visit Sarumon at Isengard. He is his own prisoner at Orthanc. Prepare to leave at noon."
Knowing there was little time to rest and with his stomach not interested in being detoured, especially when he could smell food cooking, Gimli took off, "Fine, as long as I get something to eat." Legolas would go to converse with Aragorn.
Vezely, on the other hand, was concerned, "Gandalf," she approached the white wizard apprehensively, trying to keep her voice low for fear of being overheard, "Are you sure it is wise that I go?" She was concerned about Saruman's power over the minds of others, that even in defeat he could still do damage.
Gandalf smiled at the young Elf before him, "You need not to worry about Saruman playing with your mind, my dear. You have moved past such dangers." Vezely hoped he was right.
She noticed Eomer had his eye on her from across the room, yet unused to her presence. Eowyn would enter that moment, seeing Vezely for the first time since before the battle. Vezely smiled kindly at her, and Eowyn returned the smile, feeling slightly jealous that she also could not be covered in the blood and sweat of defending her loved ones.
"I kept my sword close," she told Vez quietly after approaching her.
Vezely smiled at her wanting to share her courage, replying, "You may yet yield it, the war is not over."
Eowyn nodded, and remained positive.
"Eowyn!" Eomer called over to her, his eyes full of suspicion of his sister's conversation with this harlot.
"Until later," she nodded politely, leaving her side to attend her brother.
Vez was not interested in eating, and instead returned outside, her eyes glancing at Legolas as she left perhaps unknowingly asking him to accompany her.
Legolas's eyes caught her glance and smiled to her through them; he watched her leave through the tall doors wondering if he should follow; it did not go unnoticed by Aragorn.
"Your eyes linger my friend," Aragorn stated calmly, hoping afterwards that he had not misjudged and offended him.
Legolas smiled, slightly concerned for his own sake and embarrassed that Aragorn noticed. "They do. Quite unexpectedly," he replied sounding slightly disheartened by it.
Aragorn smiled warmly, "It is a good thing, the unexpected."
"It can be," though Legolas wondered if such an interest to get to know her better was appropriate to have, considering the darker deeds of her past.
Sensing his doubts, he placed his hand on his shoulder, "Sometimes it is better not to over think your desires."
Legolas considered this and saying assuredly, "I will see you at noon then." He followed the young Elf outside feeling both slightly elated and unsure by his decision to. He was simply curious, he told himself, nothing more.