The Wild Westfold
By: Lauthica Green Clinkenbeard
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Way is Shut
The Dimholt road was cruel and grueling. The ground was dry and grey and every little breeze shot dust into my eyes. The rocks were jagged and jutted up toward the sky like knives. One could not afford to trip here. I barely clipped one in a narrow passage and when I held up my hand a trickle of bright red blood ran down my wrist. A trip would mean certain death. The sun was already high in the sky. We trotted along for the rest of the night and most of the morning stopping only to nibble on dried beef and stretch our legs. The road was as quiet as it was gloomy.
"What kind of army would linger in such a place?" Gimli asked looking around at the rocks and cliffs that surrounded us.
"One that is cursed," Legolas answered, "Long ago, the Men of the Mountains swore an oath to the last king of Gondor. To come to his aid to fight. But when the time came, when Gondor's need was dire, they fled…vanishing into the darkness of the mountain. And so Isildur cursed them, never to rest until they had fulfilled their pledge."
Legolas's words were making everyone uneasy. I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and on my arms. Even Aragorn was looking around and over his shoulders as if there were something creeping up behind us.
"Who shall call them from the grey twilight?" Legolas asked the air, "The forgotten people…The heir of him to who the oath they swore…From the north shall he come…Need shall drive him…He shall pass the door to the Paths of the Dead…"
I glared over at Legolas. Damn elvish bastard! I had half a mind to pretend to accidently whop him in the head and make him shut up. The further we trotted down the road the colder the air seemed to grow and it grew thin and clammy. Then, as we rounded a corner the side of the mountain came into our view. A handful of dead trees covered in black mold stood guard at the door to the mountain. Aragorn dismounted. Legolas, Gimli, and I followed suit. We followed him leading our horse by hand taking slow, half reluctant steps toward the doorway.
"The very warmth of my blood seems stolen away…" Gimli said barely above a whisper. He stood in front of us horseless staring up at the door frame. It was made of stone with crude ancient writing carved into it. Legolas took a few steps forward.
"The way is shut." he said as he read the writing, "It was made by those who are dead, and the Dead keep it. The way is shut."
Suddenly the very mountain itself moaned at us as a blast of chilling air blew from the door. The horses reared up and pulled their ropes from our hands. They whinnied and turned fleeing back down the road. Even my brave Thenhines turned away from the mountain.
"Brego!" Aragorn called out. Gimli was so shaken that he looked as if he was dancing around gripping his axe tightly as he stared at the doorway as if expecting a monster. Even Legolas was glancing around like he was chasing shadows. Aragorn turned and face the door. His expression was stern, and he tightened the grip on his sword.
"I do not fear death!" He said proudly.
Legolas followed behind him. I entered after him but I stopped in the doorway waiting for Gimli.
"Well, this is a thing unheard of!" Gimli exclaimed, "An elf will go underground where a dwarf dare not? Oh…" he sighed, "Oh, I'd never hear the end of it!" he grumbled as followed behind me.
"This mountain is full of tricks, Gimli. Nothing more. Our minds our playing at us, friend." I said as we followed behind Aragorn and Legolas through the caverns. It was very dark until suddenly a light was struck. It was Aragorn. He found a torch.
"Thank goodness." I said walking over to him. "I had not thought to bring a flint."
He looked at me and I realized that his face was worried.
"I did not light it…" he whispered. I gulped and looked around. The walls of the caverns were covered in an eerie, blue-green moss and seemed to glow from the light of the torch.
We continued on. The passage was mostly straight until it widened and other passages appeared. Aragorn paused looking around. He stepped to the right and held out the torch into one of the passages. My eyes widened and a shiver went down my spine. The passage was blocked by hundreds upon hundreds of skulls…even skulls that looked like children and babies. Aragorn looked back at us and then he continued on down a clear passage.
Legolas lingered at the entrance of the skull passage.
"What is it? What do you see?" Gimli asked him.
"I see shapes of men…and of horses." Legolas said and he gazed around the caverns.
"Where?" Gimli asked. I glanced at them and looked around thankful that I did not have the sight of elves.
"Pale banners like shreds of cloud…" Legolas said. "Spears rise like winter-thickets through a shroud of mist."
Even Aragorn looked back and gave Legolas a 'quiet your voice' look. Legolas looked confused for a moment and then he looked up at Aragorn.
"The Dead are following. They have been summoned." He said.
"The Dead?" Gimli asked stopping and turned around. "Summoned?" he gripped his axe nervously. "I knew that." He said and then he chuckled and turned around. "Very good." I raised my eyebrow to him. He looked ahead and realized that Aragorn and Legolas had already moved ahead. "Very good…Legolas!" he called out and took off down the passage. I followed behind him trying to stifle my own chuckle.
The next passage was the widest yet and a thick fog settled on the bottom. The moment I set foot into the mists it parted and long tendrils rose up. The tendrils turned into hands of mists with slim, slender fingers. They grabbed at my arms and legs and felt like ice. Legolas dodge the hands around him and moved gingerly through the passage. Aragorn looked uneased but he did his best to ignore it.
Poor Gimli…Where the misty hands were grabbing us at our arms and legs, they were rising to his eye level. He turned his head to them slowly with a nervous look on his face. As the hand reached for him he blew it away and blew and blew until the hand was gone. Then another hand rose up and he blew again but when that did not work he simply waves his hand through it until it was gone. When he turned back around toward Aragorn and Legolas he nearly walked right into the next hand and he blew and waved his hands around wildly.
As we made our way down the passage the ground seemed to shift and crunch underneath my feet. Aragorn noticed it first and he looked down, but only briefly. He quickly looked back up and then he looked back at us.
"Do not look down." He said as calmly as possible.
Of course the moment Aragorn had said it Gimli's foot crunched on something loudly. He paused and he slowly casted his eyes down to the floor. The mist was thinning and was rising from the eyeholes of more skulls and several other bones that lined the floor of the cavern like tile. Gimli closed his eyes and slowly he took another step.
CRUNCH!
Gimli grimaced and took another step more slowly.
CRUNCH!
Another step
CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
He finally gave up and soon was running on his tip toes across the bones behind Aragorn, Legolas, and Myself. Aragorn was leading us and with every passaged we turned down his pace grew quicker and quicker. This place was hell.
The passage gave wave to a massive cave. When Aragorn entered his eyes drifted all around. Though the cave was huge, the floor over covered half of it and then gave way to a steep drop off into the dark abyss of the mountain. The torch illuminated what looked like another door but to a castle that was carved directly into the stone. I felt uneasy about this place and drew my sword.
"Who entered my domain?"
The voice made me feel as if my blood froze within my heart. It wasn't a normal voice. It was light as it was deep and it was scratchy and seemed to be coming from all directions. Aragorn turned around to the door of the castle. I felt as if my flesh would melt away from my body as a man manifested from the mists. He was tall, and bore a crown on his head. His flesh was torn and decayed and it looked as if it was attached one moment and gone the next.
Aragorn faced him, "One who would have your allegiance." He said sternly.
The dead king of the mountain glared at Aragorn. "The Dead do not suffer the living to pass.
"You WILL suffer me." Aragorn said glaring right back at him. I gulped and made sure I had a firm grip on my sword should anything go amiss. But I couldn't help but wonder…How do you kill a man that is already dead?
The dead mountain king only laughed at Aragorn, and as his laughed echoed off of the cave walls the mists began to swirl around and formed into stairs and doorways of a massive city of the Dead. We all turned and watched in horror as thousands of dead soldiers began to march from the misty city. Every single one of them more horrifying and grotesque than the last.
"The way is shut." The dead mountain king said. We turned back around to face him as the legion of the Dead continued to march around us. "It was made by those who are dead…and the Dead keep it."
As the dead mountain king finished his sentence even more soldiers emerged from the very walls and out of thin air around him and around us. We were completely surrounded…
"The way is shut," said the dead mountain king again, "Now you must die." He said and he started to walk toward us.
Legolas had had enough and he let an arrow fly, but the arrow passed right through the dead mountain king's forehead square between his eyes. Gimli gulped and gripped at his axe.
Aragorn stared the dead mountain king down and he too began to walk forward. "I summon you to fulfill your oath." He commanded.
"None but the king of Gondor may command me!" the dead mountain king said as he continued toward Aragorn. Aragorn held Anduril firmly in his hands to the dead mountain king.
"URGH!" the dead king exclaimed and he drew back his own ghostly sword. As he brought it down upon it Aragorn met his sword…and they clashed! Anduril did not pass through the dead king's sword. Aragorn knocked the ghostly sword to the side.
"That line was broken!" the dead mountain king exclaimed in shock.
Aragorn reached out and grabbed the dead king by the throat. He gasped as Aragorn held the blade against his dead flesh. "It had been remade." He said letting the dead mountain king go. The entire army stared in disbelief. Aragorn stood proudly and he looked around at the dead soldiers.
"Fight for us…" he said. "And regain your honor. What say you?" he asked. He held up his sword and began to walk through the crowd of the Dead. The dead men parted immediately for him. "What say you?" Aragorn asked again with more force.
"You waste your time, Aragorn." Gimli said, "They had no honor in life they have none now in death."
"I am Isildur's heir." He said and he held out his sword. "Fight for me, and I will hold your oaths fulfilled." He spun the tip of the blade around until it was aimed at the dead mountain king. "WHAT SAY YOU?!" Aragorn yelled out at him lowering the sword.
The dead mountain king only laughed at him again and the soldiers began to vanish from thin air.
"You have my word!" Aragorn yelled out desperately. "Fight and I will release you from this living death! What say you?!"
The army continued to disappear back into the mists until they were almost completely gone.
"Stand you traitors!" Gimli yelled out.
Suddenly another gust of chilling wind blew into the cave. A rumble came from the bowls of the mountain and rubble began to fall from the ceiling as skulls rolled out of the passages toward us and fell from the walls. The stone around the castle began to break free from the cave wall. Aragorn stared in utter shock and disbelief. An avalanche of skulls pours from the cave walls like flood water.
"OUT!" Aragorn screamed and sprinted for the passage at the other end of the cave. I felt as if I was going to regurgitate my heart and stomach. The skulls smashed into us as we crept along the very edge where the floor gave way to the abyss. The skulls were burying us and nearly claimed Gimli until Aragorn reached out and grabbed hold of him.
"Legolas!" Gimli screamed out.
"Run!" Aragorn yelled.
I felt my foot slip on a skull and I began to fall back toward the abyss. I screamed out and as I reached out for anything to hold onto to my sword flew from my hand.
"DEYA!" Aragorn called out reached out as far as he could for me. His fingertips only brushed barely against mine. I continued to fall. I shut my eyes tight. This was the end! All that hard work and that stupid prophecy was for naught! Eomer! Good god! I want to hold onto my Eomer!
SWOOSH!
I felt a pressure go through the loose fabric of my breeches and I stopped falling. Legolas shot out an arrow attached to a bit of rope. He, Gimli, and Aragorn all heaved and pulled me back to safety. I practically fell into Aragorn arms and clutched him trembling from fear.
"Come, Deya!" he yelled and he threw me toward the entrance of the passage. Boulders began to fall as the skulls felt as if they were right on our heels. It felt as if an age had passed when we finally emerged back into the sunlight. Gimli leaned on his axe and caught his breath. Aragorn took a few steps forward and stared at the river. I followed his gaze and felt my heart sink.
At least twenty Corsair ships were coming up the river. There were two towns on the opposite side of the river in flames from their pillage. Aragorn's eyes became glossy. The sword tumbled from his hands as he fell to his knees. Legolas hurried over and put his hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him. Aragorn closed his eyes as a few tears fell down his cheeks. I had never seen him so weak and vulnerable before, but I knew what he was feeling. We failed Elrond…we failed Gondor…and failed Middle Earth.
Aragorn's head fell in despair. Legolas stared out onto the ships and for once he looked like he had no idea what to do. Would we face these pirates alone? Even Gimli looked near tears and he stared down to the ships. Aragorn leaned against Legolas. The Fellowship was over…
The mountain face at our backs suddenly grew very cold. Aragorn turned around and rose to his feet quickly. The dead mountain king emerged from the rock face and walked right up to Aragorn.
"We fight!" the king said.
Aragorn stared in shock at first and then…he started to laugh and cry at the same time. He embraced the dead king. The dead king only gave us funny looks and when he noticed my breastplate he raised…what was left of his eyebrow.
"Is that a woman?" the dead mountain asked.
"Haven't seen one in a while I take it?" Gimli asked. The dead mountain king burst out in laughter as I casted Gimli a less that amused glance.
"What do you want us to do, Great King of Gondor," the dead mountain king said as he bent his knee and bowed to Aragorn.
Aragorn looked back down to the ships on the river and then back to the dead king, "I think we can spare a jest on this foe." He said and he leaned in and whispered something in the dead king's ear. The dead mountain king laughed again and he vanished back into the rock face.
"What? Where is he going?" I asked. Aragorn picked up his sword from the ground and the he started to jog down the side of the hill toward the river.
"Come Deya! Come Friends!" he called out. Both Gimli and Legolas looked at me and I at them. I shrugged my shoulders.
"He is the king, me must obey." I said and I followed him down the hill. There was a small sand bar that was right next to a side of the mountain. We stood proud with weapons drawn glaring at the ships as they glided through the water closer to us. The decks were busy as nasty looking men with thick unruly black hair and greasy looking leather clothes ran around reloading their weapons and talking among themselves.
"You may go no further." Aragorn said sternly as the nearest ship drew within ear shot. The captain of the ship stood from his seat. I cringe. His face looked like it had been smashed with a mace. Once Aragorn had the captain's attention he continued, "You will not enter Gondor."
The entire ship broke out in rolling laughter. I didn't blame them. A grungy ranger, a pretty elf prince, a dwarf, and a woman challenging an entire fleet alone. I would have laughed myself.
"Who are you to deny us passage?!" The captain yelled out.
Aragorn kept a solid and stern expression on his face. "Legolas, fire a warning shot past the bosun's ear." He commanded.
Legolas quickly drew an arrow and secured it in his bow. He drew back the string.
"Mind your aim." Gimli said, but then just as Legolas was about to release his arrow Gimli bumped the bottom of his bow with the handle of his axe. The arrow flew wildly through the air and found its way into the chest of one of the pirates. The fat, bulbous Corsair man screamed and fell dead to the deck of the ship.
Gimli raised his hand to his mouth, "Oh! Right! We warned you!" Aragorn casted him a less than approving glare. "Prepare to be boarded!" Gimli shouted out.
Another roar of laughter exploded from the ship.
"Boarded?! By you and whose army?" the captain asked.
Aragorn half smirked, "This army." He said calmly just as the dead mountain king charged out of the mountain and passed right though Aragorn. He was followed by his entire army and they charged through us and across the water. The corsair men screamed in fear and the air was filled with their cries and smelt of their blood. A few of the cowards that had jumped ship and swam toward shore were arms. I thoroughly enjoyed stabbing my dagger through the face of one extremely ugly, skinny pirate.
When the pirates were defeated the dead soldiers guided the main ship toward the shore for us to actually board. I stole a nice curved sword from the body of the pirate. It was smaller and lighter than what I was used to but it was very sharp and made of a steel that glittered like a rainbow. I rushed to the bow of the ship. I was excited. We did not fail! We are the Fellowship again! By this time tomorrow we would reach Gondor. The orcs would think reinforcements have come for them but instead we would slaughter them and we would break the siege of the city. Suddenly my excitement faded. I would have to face Théoden…I would have to face Eomer...