Chapter 15: The Clouds Burst
The banners of the Forest and the Lake were seen to be borne forth again. A company of twenty was approaching. At the beginning of the narrow way they laid aside sword and spear, and came on towards the Gate.
"Hail Thorin!" said Bard. "Are you still of the same mind?"
"My mind does not change with the rising and setting of a few suns," answered Thorin.
"What of the Arkenstone?" Legolas asked as he held up the Arkenstone. "Would you buy peace for its return?"
Thorin's voice was thick with wrath. "That stone was my father's, and is mine," he said. "Why should I purchase my own? When did you take it? I was with you all the time."
"Your own we will give back in return for our own," Bard said.
"I did not take it," Legolas said. "Ariel, daughter of Elrond, daughter of Buffy, gave me the Arkenstone. She found it."
Thorin turned on Dawn and grabbed her with anger. "By the beard of Durin! I wish I had Gandalf here! Curse him for his choice of you! May his beard wither! As for you I will throw you to the rocks!" he cried and shoved Dawn to the edge of the rampart.
"Stay! Your wish is granted!" said a voice. The old man with the casket threw aside his hood and cloak. "Here is Gandalf! And none too soon it seems. If you don't like Ms. Summers, please don't damage her. Listen first to what she has to say!"
"You all seem in league!" said Thorin stepping away from Dawn. "Never again will I have dealings with any wizard or his friends. What have you to say, you descendant of rats?"
"It is simple," Dawn said. "I saw the look in your eyes when you spotted the gold and spoke of the Arkenstone. I knew that should worst come to worst that little would stay your hand from war. If you want to, you can think of it as my share."
"I will," said Thorin grimly. "And I will let you go at that—and may we never meet again!" Then he turned and spoke over the wall. "I am betrayed," he said. "It was rightly guessed that I could not forbear to redeem the Arkenstone, the treasure of my house. For it I will give one fourteenth share of the hoard in silver and gold, setting aside the gems; but that shall be accounted the promised share of this traitor, and with that reward she shall depart, and you can divide it as you will. She will get little enough, I doubt not. Take her, if you wish her to live; and no friendship of mine goes with her."
"Get down now to your friends!" he said to Dawn, "or I will throw you down."
"What about the gold and silver?" asked Dawn. "What about peace?"
"That shall follow after, as can be arranged," said Thorin. "Get down!"
"Until then we keep the stone," cried Legolas.
"You are not making a very splendid figure as King under the Mountain," said Gandalf. "But things may change yet."
"They may indeed," said Thorin.
And so Dawn was swung down from the wall, and departed with nothing except the mithril shirt she still wore, her sword and the ring. More than one of the dwarves in their hearts felt shame and pity at her going.
"Farewell!" Dawn cried to them. "We may meet again as friends." Then she turned and joined Legolas.
"We will give you until tomorrow," Bard said. "At noon we will return, and see if you have brought from the hoard the portion that is to be set against the stone. If that is done without deceit, then we will depart, and the elf-host will go back to the Forest. In the meanwhile farewell!"
"Also," Dawn yelled. "Remember your promise to Legolas. Return what Smaug stole from his people."
With that they went back to the camp.
The next day the wind shifted west, and the air was dark and gloomy. The morning was still early when a cry was heard in the camp. Runners came in to report that a host of dwarves had appeared round the eastern spur of the Mountain and was now hastening to Dale.
"It would be Dain," Dawn said. "Thorin had sent word to him to come posthaste."
Trumpets called men and elves to arms. Before long the dwarves could be seen coming up the valley at a great pace. They halted between the river and the eastern spur; but a few held on their way, and crossing the river drew near the camp; and there they laid down their weapons and held up their hands in sign of peace. Bard went out to meet them, and with him went Dawn, now representing the elves.
"We are sent from Dain, son of Nain," they said when questioned. "We are hastening to our kinsmen in the Mountain, since we learn that the kingdom of old is renewed. But who are you that sit in the plain as foes before defended walls?"
Bard, of course, refused to allow the dwarves to go straight on to the Mountain. He was determined to wait until the gold and silver had been brought out in exchange for the Arkenstone; for he did not believe that this would be done, if once the fortress was manned with so large and warlike a company.
Bard then sent messengers at once to the Gate; but they found no gold or payment. Arrows came forth as soon as they were within shot, and they hastened back in dismay. In the camp all was now astir, as if for battle; for the dwarves of Dain were advancing along the eastern bank.
"Fools!" laughed Bard, "to come thus beneath the Mountain's arm! They do not understand war above ground, whatever they may know of battle in the mines. There are many of our archers and spearmen now hidden in the rocks upon their right flank. Dwarf-mail may be good, but they will soon be hard put to it. Let us set on them now from both sides, before they are fully rested!"
But Thranduil said: "Long will I tarry, ere I begin this war for gold. The dwarves cannot pass us, unless we will, or do anything that we cannot mark. Let us hope still for something that will bring reconciliation. Our advantage in numbers will be enough, if in the end it must come to unhappy blows."
"We must strive for peace," Dawn said. "Not war." But her pleas met deaf ears for both Thranduil and Bard were readied for war. She looked to Legolas. "Can't you …"
Legolas shook his head as he pulled Dawn aside. "My father will not listen to reason here as long as they hold the gems stolen from us by Smaug."
Suddenly without a signal the dwarves sprang silently forward to attack. Bows twanged and arrows whistled; battle was about to be joined.
Still more suddenly a darkness came on with dreadful swiftness! A black cloud hurried over the sky. Winter thunder on a wild wind rolled roaring up and rumbled in the Mountain, and lightning lit its peak. And beneath the thunder another blackness could be seen whirling forward; but it did not come with the wind, it came from the North, like a vast cloud of birds, so dense that no light could be seen between their wings.
"Halt!" cried Gandalf, who appeared suddenly, and stood alone, with arms uplifted, between the advancing dwarves and the ranks awaiting them. "Halt!" he called in a voice like thunder, and his staff blazed forth with a flash like the lightning. "Dread has come upon you all! Alas! it has come more swiftly than I guessed. The Goblins are upon you! Bolg*of the North is coming, O Dain! whose father you slew in Moria. Behold! The bats are above his army like a sea of locusts. They ride upon wolves and Wargs are in their train!"
Amazement and confusion fell upon them all. Even as Gandalf had been speaking the darkness grew. The dwarves halted and gazed at the sky. The elves cried out with many voices.
"Come!" called Gandalf. "There is yet time for council. Let Dain, son of Nain, come swiftly to us!"
So began a battle that none had expected; and it was called the Battle of Five Armies, and it was very terrible. Upon one side were the Goblins and the Wild Wolves, and upon the other were Elves and Men and Dwarves.
Their only hope was to lure the goblins into the valley between the arms of the Mountain; and themselves to man the great spurs that struck south and east. Yet this would be perilous, if the goblins were in sufficient numbers to overrun the Mountain itself, and so attack them also from behind and above; but there was no time to make any other plan, or to summon any help.
Soon the thunder passed, rolling away to the South-East; but the bat-cloud came, flying lower, over the shoulder of the Mountain, and whirled above them shutting out the light and filling them with dread.
"To the Mountain!" called Bard. "To the Mountain! Let us take our places while there is yet time!"
Dawn moved to the gates of the mountain. "Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror. Listen. Goblins are coming. Lay down your differences and remember our friendship. I speak now as your friend. Stand with us or we will all fall to the goblins. "
Thorin did not answer.
It was a terrible battle. The elves were the first to charge. Their spears and swords shone in the gloom with a gleam of chill flame, so deadly was the wrath of the hands that held them. As soon as the host of their enemies was dense in the valley, they sent against it a shower of arrows, and each flickered as it fled as if with stinging fire. Behind the arrows a thousand of their spearmen leapt down and charged. The yells were deafening. The rocks were stained black with goblin blood.
Just as the goblins were recovering from the onslaught and the elf-charge was halted, there rose from across the valley a deep-throated roar. With cries of "Moria!" and "Dain, Dain!" the dwarves of the Iron Hills plunged in, wielding their mattocks, upon the other side; and beside them came the men of the Lake with long swords.
Panic came upon the Goblins; and even as they turned to meet this new attack, the elves charged again with renewed numbers. Already many of the goblins were flying back down the river to escape from the trap; and many of their own wolves were turning upon them and rending the dead and the wounded. Victory seemed at hand, when a cry rang out on the heights above.
Goblins had scaled the Mountain from the other side and already many were on the slopes above the Gate, and others were streaming down recklessly, heedless of those that fell screaming from cliff and precipice, to attack the spurs from above. Each of these could be reached by paths that ran down from the main mass of the Mountain in the centre; and the defenders had too few to bar the way for long. Victory now vanished from hope. They had only stemmed the first onslaught of the black tide.
Day drew on. The goblins gathered again in the valley. There a host of Wargs came ravening and with them came the bodyguard of Bolg, goblins of huge size with scimitars of steel. Soon actual darkness was coming into a stormy sky; while still the great bats swirled about the heads and ears of elves and men, or fastened vampire-like on the stricken. Now Bard was fighting to defend the Eastern spur, and yet giving slowly back; and the elf-lords were at bay about their king upon the southern arm, near to the watch-post on Ravenhill.
Suddenly there was a great shout, and from the Gate came a trumpet call. Part of the wall, moved by levers, fell outward with a crash into the pool. Out leapt the King under the Mountain, and his companions followed him. Hood and cloak were gone; they were in shining armour, and red light leapt from their eyes. In the gloom the great dwarf gleamed like gold in a dying fire.
Rocks were hurled down from on high by the goblins above; but they held on, leapt down to the falls' foot, and rushed forward to battle. Wolf and rider fell or fled before them.
Thorin wielded his axe with mighty strokes, and nothing seemed to harm him. "To me! To me! Elves and Men! To me! O my kinsfolk!" he cried, and his voice shook like a horn in the valley.
"To Thorin," Dawn yelled and Thranduil nodded.
Down, heedless of order, rushed all the dwarves of Dain to Thorin. Down too came many of the Lake-men, for Bard could not restrain them; and out upon the other side came many of the spearmen of the elves. Once again the goblins were stricken in the valley; and they were piled in heaps till Dale was dark and hideous with their corpses. The Wargs were scattered and Thorin drove right against the bodyguard of Bolg. But he could not pierce their ranks.
The bodyguard of Bolg came howling against them, and drove in upon their ranks like waves upon cliffs of sand. Their friends could not help them, for the assault from the Mountain was renewed with redoubled force, and upon either side men and elves were being slowly beaten down.
Dawn, Gandalf, Legolas and Thranduil stood among the Elves. The clouds were torn by the wind, and a red sunset slashed the West. Dawn looked around and then smiled and nudged Gandalf. "I believe our friends have come."
Gandalf nodded. "Yes."
The eagles were coming down the wind, line after line, in such a host as must have gathered from all the eyries of the North.
Author's Note: One Chapter Left and then we start into Middle Earth 2: Return to Middle Earth.
Right now I don't expect to start into Middle Earth Interlude (which chronicles the events between Middle Earth and Middle Earth 2) till after Middle Earth 2. That could always change of course and if it does I will let you know. But right now don't expect Middle Earth Interlude any time soon.