"During exercises I was always intrigued to discover that large numbers of Marines used to queue up outside my helicopter, presumably hoping to be transported in my aircraft. I used fondly to imagine that they had instinctively recognised my talents as a pilot, until it was eventually revealed to me that the reason for my apparent popularity was that they thought my helicopter was better maintained than everyone else's!" – HRH Prince Charles on Marine Commandos
Chapter 47 – A Bird in the Hand…
Somewhere in Beleriand…
Eonwe was confused. He should have been delighted that Gary and Kim were united at long last. Instead all he felt was a deep ache in his heart, although he didn't envy Gary the ear-bending he was about to get from Kim. The only comfort the Herald could derive from the whole fiasco was from his link with his unborn daughter. It was the only thing in this whole dreadful mess that gave him any kind of hope.
Gil-galad's merry little band had been riding hell for leather on the heels of their scouts. They had looked for their return for the past hour at least and had seen no sign of them yet. The High King was worried and his counselors and commanders no less so. Eonwe was not so worried. He had sensed the two elves and the dwarf were certainly still alive but not their location. Something had obviously happened to delay them.
They live my brother. A familiar and much loved voice broke into his thoughts. They were delayed by a device from the same Age that your future self and his companions come from and their mounts fled in fear. Even now they ride towards you with a warning. They believe the device may be from Thangorodrim, but it is not. It seeks one of the mortals, the one whose body is currently occupied by Olorin.
A device? What kind of device? Eonwe felt out of his depth, a very unusual situation for him, and his irritation was beginning to rise because of it.
They call it a tracking device. I do not know the details of the magic involved. Ilmare's tone sounded regretful. However this is not all. Warriors from their time have also now passed through the portal between our times and according to Lord Namo's guest, they are not just any kind of warrior, but the cream of their armies. They move in small numbers and carry out their missions with single-minded ruthlessness.
Eonwe sighed deeply. And this mission, what else are they here to do apart from seeking contact with their own kind?
They are here to retrieve their people nothing more. Chief Knowles assures us that this is all they will do, although if they are challenged they will fight and fight to the death. Ilmare replied calmly. Olorin already knows they are here in Ennorath, Chief Knowles awaits the signal from him that will initiate his return to his body.
Their people are now scattered. Eonwe was filled with frustration, an emotion which was usually alien to him. Gary, Kim and the other mortal Alun Davies are with my armies. Chief Knowles and Jim are here with the young High King.
There was a brief silence, as if his sister Maia was seeking counsel, then she finally answered.
Then you must bring them together now. I know the risks involved with you and your other self, but there is no other way. Those whom you now seek are approaching and they know where the orc Thadak is. Find him, do what you must and then you must go back to the Host taking Ereinion Gil-galad and his warriors with you. There he will also find the Peredhel, the children of Elwing and Earendil the Mariner. They are meant to be with their kin.
This is the wish of those we serve? Eonwe asked. He was wondering why these instructions came from his sister Maia and not directly from Lord Manwe.
It is. She answered. Lord Manwe thought that this might be better coming from me, it is not an order, it is a suggestion.
Then I will see it done. Whatever befalls Gary and myself, Eru's and the Valar's will must be done. His voice held a tinge of sadness and resignation. I had hoped to send Gary back with Kim. She needs his protection on the other side. In their time.
As to that, I have been told to tell you to seek counsel from the mortal Alun Davies. He may have a solution to this problem. You must also ensure that he knows his family is now safe.
I will. Eonwe promised. And the warriors from the other time? How many do they number?
Again Ilmare hesitated. They are few in number, a mere half dozen, but what they lack in numbers they make up for in expertise and weaponry. They also have the ability to conceal themselves from any enemy and they move swiftly. They will reach your position in a few hours. They have already detected Chief Knowles's presence and are homing in to him.
Eonwe was dismayed. In hours only? Then we must hurry. Farewell my sister, may the Valar be with you always.
May Eru and the Valar grant you speed and fair winds brother. Ilmare said softly in farewell. Make haste and bring this to a speedy end. You are greatly missed here in Aman.
Eonwe knew full well that his sister was referring to both the war and the situation with the mortals. His heart was full of sorrow and concern but he could do nothing more than wish Ilmare farewell for the moment. His eyes, silvered over up to now in communication, returned to their usual dark blue and he found Jim's curious gaze leveled at him as they rode along after Gil-galad and the others.
"What's up?" Jim asked quietly. "You were out of it for a while there."
Eonwe smiled at him. "The British are coming." He said simply.
Olorin spurred his horse over to Eonwe's side. "Did I hear you aright? Who exactly are coming?"
"The cavalry are coming over the hill or rather through the woods. In the form of Special Forces soldiers armed to the teeth and complete with orders to find you." The Herald said wryly. "We need to find Celebrimbor, Bausi and Erestor. Apparently some sort of tracking device is also here."
Enlightenment flooded Olorin's face. "Ah yes, the UAV. My host has something he calls a 'chip' in his body, the device can track his whereabouts with it." He stopped and shaded his eyes while looking up to the sky. "And if I am not mistaken, there it is." He pointed to a small determined shape which appeared to be heading straight for the party of elves. Even as he spoke the others had already seen what he had seen and were also pointing at it.
Gil-galad called a halt and followed by Cirdan and Celeborn, urged his horse back to where Eonwe, Olorin and Jim were at the rear of the main party. The young High King was frowning; Cirdan and Celeborn just looked both bemused and concerned. Glorfindel and Gildor were busy deploying the rest of the warriors in order to deal with this newly perceived threat. Archers were busy taking up strategic positions in preparation for the order to shoot the strange flying thing down, but as yet the order had not been given.
Ereinion drew up beside Eonwe. "We appear to have some mysterious flying creature heading right for us. What do your Valar tell you of this? The tales tell us that the Lord of the Breath of Arda can see much from his towers on the summit of Taniquetil and that he has unlimited sight if the Lady Varda is by his side. He must be seeing this and it is clear to me that you have been in communication with him. What sorts of magicks of the enemy are now ranged against us?" He demanded. "Speak quickly Herald or I shall order the archers to shoot it from the sky."
Eonwe sighed in resignation and leant briefly against his horse's neck. Leading the Host wasn't anywhere near as complicated as coping with the dark Elves of Ennorath. They seemed to constantly see slights where there were none. It was rapidly becoming clear that he needed to address these elves of the East, explain his mission and listen to their issues. Something he should have done ere he landed on these shores and would have done had it not been for the urgent brief to march given to him by the Valar. As for the flying device he rather doubted that they could shoot the damn thing down anyway.
"My sister Ilmare was the person I was in contact with, not Lord Manwe or any of the other Valar. The 'creature' you see flying towards us is a device of the mortals from the other time. It is designed to track warriors…a certain kind of warrior, one of whom we have with us." He nodded towards Olorin. "It will do us no harm; your warriors can stand down."
Ereinion glanced at Cirdan and Celeborn who both looked perplexed at this turn of events. They all stared accusingly at Olorin who bit back a smile and surveyed them with the best look of innocence he could conjure up. He said nothing and waited for the inevitable interrogation.
"Well?" The High King demanded again. "What do you say to this Chief? Is this device harmless to us?"
"It certainly can't actually hurt you, it has no weapons capability." Olorin replied cheerfully as he dredged the Chief's memories once again to come up with a simple explanation that everyone would understand. "It's tracking me because I have something called a tracking chip inside my body, put there by the military when I was in a war in a place called Afghanistan. I was part of a small covert team sent in to gather intelligence from the enemy. By means of this very small device they placed under my skin, the flying device you see now, which is called an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and which is controlled from very far away, can find me. It sends out a signal which my chip answers. They needed to know where their personnel were so that they could retrieve us if things went bad."
The expressions on the faces of the Elves surrounding him were priceless to say the least. They ranged from outright disbelief right through to total incomprehension. Ereinion actually felt his jaw drop and he wasn't the only one.
"H…how?" He stuttered, then he flapped a hand at Olorin. "Never mind, I am not sure I wish to know." He beckoned to Glorfindel who rode over to him.
"My Lord?"
"Stand them down Lord Glorfindel." The High King said. "We are told that this device is not from the enemy and is here to find the mortals who travel with us, not to harm us. We will allow it to approach unchallenged."
Glorfindel looked disbelievingly at the High King. His golden brows were knitted together in confusion. "Indeed? Very well my Lord, I will stand them down, but…"
Ereinion frowned at him. "No buts Glorfindel. My head aches enough from the explanation Chief has just given us, I have no wish to hear it again, nor do I wish to make sense of it. Let the thing approach. We will continue our journey notwithstanding. We have an orc to find… and where are those dratted scouts? Eru's balls, must I send another scouting party to scout the scouts? This is getting ridiculous. Let us just find this damnable orc and have at him."
Olorin winked at Jim and Eonwe. "Apparently they can't get the staff these days…" He said with a completely straight face.
Eonwe let out a very undignified and un-Herald like splutter of laughter which was echoed by a series of manic snorts from Jim.
The beleaguered young High King ignored the hilarity, gathered up the tattered remnants of his dignity and rode back up to the front of his warriors, head high and back ramrod straight. A suitably outraged Celeborn followed him with his wife's distant silvery laughter ringing in his ears. Cirdan merely raised an eyebrow at Eonwe and Jim who were both cackling maniacally as they rode and received a totally disarming smile from Olorin. He shook his head in mock despair and spurred his horse back up to where Ereinion had taken his place at the head of his small army. A small smile twitched at the corners of his mouth.
ooOoo
Eonwe's tent, The camp of the Host of the West, northern Beleriand
"She doesn't love me you know." Gary said quietly.
He, Tulkas and Alun Davies were sitting outside Eonwe's tent in the late evening. Maedhros, Maglor and the two Peredhel had excused themselves around the same time as Kim had stated that she was too tired to sit any longer.
It had been clear all night that she was bursting to have some sort of confrontation with Gary, but at the same time something had held her back from doing it before or during dinner. Gary had braced himself for the onslaught only to find her eyeing him with speculation instead.
She had calmly accepted his explanation of the situation between himself and Eonwe, rather too calmly in fact for his liking. She seemed to take on board that they were currently two separate entities and did not question the fact that Eonwe had remained with Gil-galad and Gary had remained as the Captain of the Host. Neither Tulkas nor Gary had any explanation for her apparent acceptance of it all, but both suspected that the presence of Alun Davies acted as a calming influence. If she began to sound the least bit demanding or querulous in her comments, he immediately stepped in with a calm comment of his own or a joke.
Gary wasn't sure whether to be pleased that he was being spared the histrionics he felt were bubbling under the surface or not.
When Maedhros and Maglor arrived with Elrond and Elros she was almost pathetically pleased to see them. The subsequent dinner conversation was in a mixture of halting Sindarin and English. Many things had to be explained to either Kim or the Feanorians. Still the evening went well. Maedhros even overcame his natural suspicions to be pleasant to Gary in his guise as the Herald of Manwe. Elrond and Elros were far too much in awe of the Vala and the Maia to add much to the conversation. However they did ask a few questions about their parents which Gary was able to answer with a little help from Eonwe and Tulkas much to his relief.
Tulkas was just himself through the whole thing. Amiable, good-natured and booming; it was obvious that Kim took to the Vala immediately and he to her. He teased her affectionately and made her laugh and Gary envied him the ease with which he did it, as he envied the friendship that had grown between her and the Peredhel. Hell, he even envied Maedhros his ease of conversation with Kim. Would that his own relationship with her was as friendly.
And Maglor sang. All he had to do was sing and many drew near to the Herald's tent to listen to his incomparable voice. When Gary, Tulkas and Maedhros joined in the song to Elbereth it moved those listening outside to tears.
Once Maedhros and his companions had taken their leave and Kim had stated how tired she was, Gary had stood up and was on the point of suggesting that he escort her to the quarters that had hastily been organized for her. However before he could say anything, she forestalled him by giving Maedhros a radiant smile and asking very prettily if he and his brother would escort her to her tent. Maedhros offered his arm, glanced over at Gary apologetically and raised an eyebrow whereupon Gary shrugged and stepped back. Kim said her goodnights and left clutching onto Maedhros' good arm.
Neither Maedhros nor Maglor or the twins missed the slightly bitter look in Gary's eyes, nor did they miss the comforting arm Tulkas draped around his shoulders as they walked away. Alun Davies watched with his sharp gaze and said nothing at all. His relief at hearing that his family was safe and well was palpable, yet for some reason part of him was still on alert and his unease was shared by Tulkas and Gary. Sauron still had a link with him and the corrupt Maia was still waiting not so many leagues away for a report that would not now come. That alone could precipitate some trouble.
With that in mind Gary had spoken with Finarfin and Ingwion and with the blessing of the Valar they had decided to send a large war party of warriors to rout the corrupt Maia and his group the following day. Hopefully that would sever whatever link existed between Alun and Sauron.
For that reason Gary and Tulkas had, of course, avoided any kind of strategic discussions and Gary had heard Maedhros' report in private. There was no reason to give intelligence away willy-nilly.
So here they were, the three of them, sitting outside the tent in the late evening drinking the last of the wine and discussing many surface things, not least of which was General Sheldon and the doings on the other side of the time portal.
"Why do you say that?" Tulkas asked gently after Gary had made his bleak statement.
Gary shrugged and took a sip of wine. "Because she doesn't. I can feel she doesn't. She loves him. The child she carries is his, not mine."
"But you say that there is no difference between yourself and Lord Eonwe other than the fact that you are a future version of him." Alun was puzzled. "Are you saying that there is a difference?"
Gary pursed his lips. "Yes…and no. We are intrinsically the same. I feel his emotions and I think his thoughts. He feels my emotions and he thinks my thoughts, yet we operate separately. His daily experiences are different to mine and they shape his thoughts, then I will experience something which might contradict what he is thinking." He dropped his head in distress. "I don't know. I'm not explaining it very well at all. What I do know is that the more time we spend in the same timeline, the more my thoughts begin to meld in with his but not the other way around. His thoughts do not meld with mine. I find myself constantly thinking like someone from this Age and not as someone from 2007."
"And what has this got to do with how Kim feels or perceives you both?" Alun persisted. "She seems to have accepted that there are two of you…" He hesitated. "Or is that the problem? While she only thought that one of you existed, there was no problem. She accepted that you were just who you said you were. Now she knows that there are two of you, that the man who made love to her is not you and her choice automatically rests with the one she was intimate with."
Gary looked miserably at him. "Yes, that's it. I am not the man she fell in love with. I just look like him. She is thinking of it as though Eonwe and I are twins, not one and the same person and the differences are still strong enough for us to seem like two different people."
Tulkas rested his long legs comfortably on a carved box which held dispatches. "That will alter soon enough if Eonwe and Gil-galad cannot resolve the situation quickly. You will become one person."
"That will solve nothing. Once we are one, I…we…will have to stay here. I will still have my duty to perform by bringing the reign of Morgoth to a close and him in irons back to the Valar. That will not alter. What it will mean for her is that she will go back alone and have our child in a modern Age. She has no family to support her and my estates will not revert to her since my Will is not made out in her favour. She does not even know that she is pregnant. She will be without help and will have to bring our child up alone. I have no guarantee that Eru will send me back. The whole idea was for me to be the presence and the force for good that Middle Earth lacks."
Tulkas tapped his teeth with his forefinger thoughtfully. "What would it take to secure hers and your child's position in that future age?"
Gary stared into the night. Before him a panorama of twinkling lights was laid out. It seemed as though the whole of the camp area was carpeted with precious jewels just waiting to be plucked from the earth. He sighed to himself and wished he could enjoy the beauty without the nagging worries.
"I would have thought that marriage would have been the answer." Alun said quietly. "A legal marriage would secure Kim's position as your wife, or widow if you were declared missing in action and then I imagine dead after a suitable period. It would also legitimize your child as your legal heir with rights to your estate and Kim would be entitled to your army pension."
Gary laughed shortly. "Nice idea Alun, but where would I find a vicar here in the middle of Middle Earth on a battlefield." Utter despair tinged his voice. "I doubt that any ceremony performed by anyone here including by Lord Tulkas would be considered binding in 2007."
Alun steepled his hands together and looked through his fingers at Gary. He laughed. "Well, there's always me of course."
Tulkas glanced sharply at the policeman and a glimmer of hope appeared in his eyes.
"You're a police officer Alun not a Registrar of Marriages." Gary countered with a faint smile.
Alun nodded. "Yes I am indeed, but I was…am also a Presbyterian Pastor in my home village. I practiced there before I was moved to the Mendips with the Police Force. It was just a tiny village. I also ran the Post Office. I am still licensed to perform marriage ceremonies. I had to be the long arm of the law, religious leader and civil servant."
Gary sat up hopefully. "You could marry us? Here?"
Tulkas glanced from one to the other.
"Why not here?" Alun's expression was quizzical. "If I am right in what I am thinking it is not so far from here that the west of England and Wales will be in thousands of years. It's still the same land."
"It's Beleriand in Middle Earth, Alun." Gary dared not hope in his heart of hearts that this could be achieved.
Alun waved a nonchalant hand at him and exchanged grins with Tulkas. "Beleriand Schmeleriand." He said airily. "Bit of a technicality is what I call it. Besides, who is going to question me if I say that you were legally married by me in the United Kingdom?"
"I need to speak to Kim." Gary said worriedly. "Somehow I need to make her see that this is the right thing to do. In spite of her being in love with the wrong me." He groaned suddenly in despair and buried his head in his hands. "Dear heaven, I cannot believe I am trying to sort all this mess out in the middle of a war."
Tulkas refilled Gary's glass and pushed it over to him. "Drink and breathe." He said firmly. "You cannot speak to her because she is not yet aware that she carries the child. It would be best if I or Alun here or even perhaps Maedhros spoke to her of this and convinced her that it is necessary. Even then I am not sure she would comply. Of course that would mean taking him and Maglor into our confidence."
Gary looked up at him. "Do you trust him? I mean given the kinslaying thing and everything that's happened with his family." He sounded doubtful.
"Strange as it may seem, yes I do trust him. I trust him with anything as long as it has naught to do with that damned oath or the Silmarils. And so does Eonwe. Why else would he use Maedhros and his band for scouting and courier purposes? Maedhros is an honourable Elf, he will keep your counsel. Besides, he has a soft spot for Kim. He respects her and I suspect that it is his influence and that of those around him which has tempered your Kim's behaviour. If we ask him to speak with her, he will." Tulkas settled back and took a long draught of his wine. "I believe that even those young Peredhel Elflings would be able to convince her. Nice young lads."
Gary smiled. "Yes they are, but they should be in a home with parents and those who would love and protect them, not trailed around battle camps like unwanted baggage. They would be far better off with Ereinion Gil-galad. Perhaps we should then discuss the matter of Kim and marriage with Maedhros and Maglor and tentatively broach the idea that Elros and Elrond will be far better off in the High King's court with Gil-galad at the same time. Diplomatically of course."
"Indeed." Tulkas assented. "But not at this late hour. We will have time before the daily command briefing tomorrow morning."
Gary nodded. "Yes, tomorrow is another day." He turned to Alun. "Your being brought here might be providence after all. Now, I have to get Eonwe to come back here with Chief Knowles and Jim."
Tulkas twinkled at him. "That matter is already in hand."
He was rewarded by Gary's rather startled look, but would say nothing more when pressed further.
ooOoo