Saruman Insults Our Accomplishments and Plans and Is Overthrown by His Servant
3 March 3019, of the Third Age
13 Rethe 1419, Shire-Reckoning Time...
We sat ourselves on a broken gate and ate our fill, joking about everything in general. After a few sips of ale I felt a light and fuzzy feeling, like all my cares were gone, and I felt a tendency to laugh at everything.
"I feel like I'm back at the Green Dragon," Pippin said, blowing smoke rings. "After a hard day's work."
"Only…" Merry said. "You've never done a hard day's work, Pippin."
We burst out giggling. I pet Pippin's head and took another swig of ale. "Pip-Pip is a lazy one," I slurred and immediately started giggling again while Merry slapped me on the back and puffed on his pipe.
Pippin shook his head and rested against the stone, propping his foot on his knee and closing his eyes. I enjoyed the feeling of drinking like a boy and patted Pippin's foot before resting myself.
After a few moments I heard a horse's neigh in the distance. Merry, a little tipsy, stood up and swayed a bit, holding his pipe up high while Pippin kept giggling.
"Welcome, my Lords," Merry shouted. "To Isengard!" He waved a finger in Orthanc's general direction.
I was overjoyed to see Gimli among the men, and I waved excitedly to him. He angrily shook a fist at us. "You young rascals! A merry hunt you've led us on, and now we find you feasting, and…and smoking!"
"Not I," I said, raising a finger. "Too young to smoke and drink." I held up my mug to show 'twas only a joke.
Pippin stuck his pipe between his teeth so that when he spoke, he had a light lisp. "We are sitting on a field of victory, enjoying a few well-earned comforts." He nodded once. "Oh, and the salted pork is particularly good," he added with a grin. Merry and I nearly collapsed with laughter.
"Salted pork?!" Gimli squeaked.
"Hobbits," Gandalf muttered.
I attempted to sit Merry down, but he kept leaping and jumping away. "We're under orders from Treebeard, who's taken over management of Isengard," he said with a giggle.
"Come down now," Aragorn sighed, and we leapt from the wall to be pulled onto horses. Merry rode with one of the Rohirrim (the Horse-Lords from Rohan) named Éomer, and Pippin and I mounted Aragorn's horse. Where they had been while we were riding with Treebeard, I did not know. All I knew as I clutched Pippin's waist was that the Fellowship was together once more.
We rode through the flooded ruins of Isengard to the foot of Orthanc, where Treebeard stood.
"Hoom, young Master Gandalf, I'm glad you've come," He said. "Wood and water, stock and stone I can master. But there is a wizard to manage here -- locked in his tower."
"Young Master Gandalf," I mimicked, making Pippin laugh softly.
"Show yourself," Aragorn said quietly.
"Be careful," Gandalf warned him. "Even in defeat, Saruman is dangerous."
"Well let's just have his head and be done with it!" Gimli growled, and I couldn't help but agree. Saruman was the one who had given orders for Merry, Pippin, and I to be captured and taken to Isengard in the first place. I could not feel sorry for the wizard who wished to torture and kill us in the end. I shivered, thinking of what could have happened in this place if we had not been rescued.
"NO!" Gandalf boomed, making Pippin and I jump. "We need him alive. We need to talk."
Everything was still; the only noise heard from the rippling of waters around Orthanc and the grinding of some broken machinery. Eventually a figure made its way to the very top of Orthanc. I turned my head and squinted against the sun to see white robes. It was Saruman.
"You have fought many wars and slain many men, Théoden King, and made peace afterwards. Can we not take counsel together as we once did, my old friend? Can we not have peace, you and I?"
Théoden was King of Rohan, and he spoke up now. "We shall have peace. We shall have peace when you answer for the burning of the Westfold, and the children that lie dead there! We shall have peace when the lives of the soldiers, whose bodies were hewn even as they lay dead against the gates of the Hornburg, are avenged! When you hang from a gibbet for the sport of your own crows, we shall have peace."
I squirmed and held Pippin's waist very tightly. I did not know of what this Théoden, King spoke of, but it sounded like Saruman had attempted to destroy his kingdom of Rohan and now wanted peace because he knew he was defeated. I did not yet know the stories of the Fellowship after our kidnapping by the Uruk-kai, so the debating was unfamiliar to me.
"Gibbets and crows? Dotard! What do you want, Gandalf Greyhame? Let me guess…the Key of Orthanc? Or perhaps the Keys of Barad-dûr itself, along with the crowns of the seven kings and the rods of the Five Wizards!"
"Gandalf does not want to rule Middle-Earth as a tyrant," I heard Merry fuming, turning slightly. "He only wants to save our world!"
"Your treachery has already cost many lives. Thousands now are now at risk. But you could save them, Saruman. You were deep in the enemy's counsel…" Gandalf did not relent. He wanted to make an alliance with Saruman.
"So you have come here for information. I have some for you." He pulled a dark, swirling glass ball from the folds of his robe and gazed at it. "Something festers in the heart of Middle-earth. Something that you have failed to see. But the Great Eye has seen it. Even now he presses his advantage. His attack will come soon. You're all going to die. But you know this, don't you, Gandalf? You cannot think that this Ranger will ever sit upon the throne of Gondor. This exile, crept from the shadows will never be crowned king. Gandalf does not hesitate to sacrifice those closest to him, those he professes to love. Tell me, what words of comfort did you give the Halfling, before you sent him to his doom? The path that you have set him on can only lead to death."
Pippin gasped and squeezed Aragorn so hard that he grunted. "He cannot mean that," He whimpered. "Gandalf does not seek to kill us all as his pawns."
"This is not a game of chess, and we are not pawns," I said. "We are his most trusted knights and rooks. There is nothing that Gandalf wishes to sacrifice, especially not us."
"Thank you," Pippin whispered.
Gimli roared. "I've heard enough!" He looked up at Legolas. "Shoot him! Stick an arrow in his gob!"
Legolas, infuriated with Saruman's assumptions, reached hastily for an arrow, but Gandalf stopped him. The Rohirrim's horses pranced and neighed, fetlock-deep in water.
"No," Gandalf said softly. "Come down Saruman, and your life will be spared."
"Save your pity and your mercy," Saruman spat back. "I have no use for it!" He paused and then gave a tremendous shout as a bolt of fire slammed down on Gandalf. Aragorn's horse reared and whinnied, and Pippin gave a shout.
"Look!" I cried, pointing. Gandalf stood in the fire, holding it back, unharmed.
"Saruman, your staff is broken!" He cried, and Saruman's staff shattered. Pippin murmured a cry of awe as Saruman was overthrown by the true White Wizard. I myself had nothing to say that could satisfy my wonder at seeing Gandalf in his power.
A grimy-looking, greasy-haired and pale man appeared behind just then.
Théoden cried out to him. "Grima, you need not follow him. You were not always as you are now. You were once a Man of Rohan. Come down!"
"What did Grima do?" I asked in a hushed whisper.
"Not now," Aragorn whispered back. "Much has happened since the Fellowship had broken."
"And to us as well," I shot defiantly back, earning a weak smile from Aragorn.
"Man of Rohan? What is the house of Rohan, but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek and their brats roll on the floor with the dogs? The victory at Helm's Deep does not belong to you, Théoden, Horse-Master. You are a lesser son of greater sires." Saruman spat on the edge of the tower.
I fumed at Saruman's ability to shove salt in all our wounds. Whatever Helm's Deep was, I was sure I would know soon, but angry lines etched themselves in the king's face and he appeared stung by the words. But still he ignored the wizard and spoke to Grima.
"Grima, come down!" He called desperately. "Be free of him!"
"Free? He will never be free!" Saruman shrieked with laughter.
"No," Grima said in a low voice, looking terrified and hurt.
"Get down, cur!" Saruman screamed, and delivered a sharp blow to his face. Grima vanished from sight. Still, Gandalf tried to get information from him.
"Saruman! You were deep in the enemy's counsel. Tell us what you know!"
Behind Saruman, Grima stood up, with a knife in hand. Pippin gasped.
"You withdraw your guard, and I will tell you where your doom will be decided. I will not be held prisoner here!"
In an instant, it was all over. Grima stabbed Saruman in the back and Legolas fired an arrow into Grima's chest. Saruman stumbled forward and fell from the tower and I shut my eyes when I saw his landing place below; a spiked wheel machine, and soon after heard the sickening noise as body hit spear. Pippin shook in front of me, and Aragorn just sighed.
"Send word to all our allies, and to every corner of Middle-earth that still stands free," Gandalf told us all. "The enemy moves against us. We need to know where he will strike."
A sudden creaking alerted us. The wheel with Saruman's impaled body was turning, and the glass ball fell from his sleeve into the water. We watched until Saruman was completely submerged. Then, Treebeard spoke.
"The filth of Saruman is washing away. Trees will come back to live here," he said softly. Hope for Isengard, at least, had been restored. And it had also for Pippin, Merry, and me. We had destroyed Saruman and his keep.
Pippin, spotting the ball suddenly, grew inquisitive and leapt from Aragorn's steed to retrieve it. I saw the curiosity in his eyes as he rushed towards it.
"Young trees, wild trees," Treebeard sighed happily.
"Pippin!" Aragorn scolded. I remained mounted.
Pippin picked up the heavy ball and held it carefully, not letting his eyes wander to anything else.
"Bless my bark," Treebeard hoomed.
"Peregrin Took!" Gandalf said sternly, walking his beautiful white mount to Pippin, who glanced up guiltily at Gandalf. "I'll take that, my lad."
Pippin reluctantly looked back at the ball in his hands.
"Quickly now!" Gandalf ushered.
Pippin handed it to him, and then looked quickly away. Gandalf wrapped the ball in his cloak, and looked around at all of us, nodding to go. With some assistance, Pippin remounted behind me, and we were off.
Edoras Throws a Great Party where Reminiscing is Hot and Curiosity Kills the Cat
It's all coming back to me now.
-Celine Dion
4 March 3019, of the Third Age
14 Rethe 1419, Shire-Reckoning Time...
We galloped across the plains to Théoden's capital of Edoras, a gallop that lasted two days. When we got there, on the 4th, there was a tremendous roar of laughter and celebration which, Aragorn explained, was due to the events that I did not know. Yet.
Before he began his long story, however, he asked me precisely what had happened under the cruel regime of the Uruk-kai.
"I slept, mostly, and they made us run," I said. "There wasn't much to eat, and they handled us roughly..." Aragorn unsheathed his sword and tapped my leg gently with it, lifting the hem of my skirt a bit to see the whip scars that had been given to me from the Uruk-kai, the ones that littered my calves. I blushed when he accused me of understating their cruel power.
"There's more than just this, isn't there?" He said slyly, eyeing my purple arms and wrists, where I'd pushed the sleeves up to my elbows and allowed everyone to see the bruises and scars I received in the short time I was prisoner of the Uruk-kai. He glanced again, at the angry raw sore which wound its way around my wrists from my bonds.
I didn't say anything, except I made sure to keep my left arm away from his sight, which leaked with blood (though I strongly suspected he knew I had been injured) and he shrugged and continued with his recollections.
After our capture, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli tracked the Uruk-kai party until they met Éomer and the Rohirrim, who updated them with the news that Théoden, King of Rohan was being controlled by Saruman through Grima Wormtongue, who was once a man of Rohan. Éomer, realizing that Rohan was being defeated by Saruman, had attempted to tell the king and confronted Grima, who in response banished him and his Rohirrim on pain of death. They fled, tracked down, destroyed the Uruk-kai pack, and the next morn informed Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn of it. Thinking we were dead, Aragorn found our trail, tracked it into Fangorn and met the reincarnated Gandalf, who introduced them to the Lord of Horses, his beautiful white stallion Shadowfax. They rode to Edoras and freed Théoden from Saruman and Wormtongue's control. Wormtongue escaped to Isengard while Théoden, along with his niece Éowyn and nephew Éomer, decided to march the people of Rohan to Helm's Deep, the last fortress in Rohan, to defend their kingdom from Isengard's forces. On the way, they were attacked by the orcs of Isengard and their mounts, the Wolves of Isengard. Aragorn was thrown over a cliff and drifted to a shore where his beloved horse, Brego, rescued him and they rode to Helm's Deep. Later that night, the fortress was attacked by ten thousand of Isengard's forces, the forces we'd seen marching earlier in the day, and with the only defense being three hundred men and two thousand elves. The battle lasted until morning, and when it seemed Rohan was lost, Gandalf and Shadowfax arrived with the Rohirrim, and the battle was turned over. Finally, with the Rohirrim and King Théoden, Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn traveled to Isengard and thus met Merry, Pippin, and me there.
As Aragorn finished his story, Théoden, at the head of the hall with Éowyn and Éomer, raised his hands to the crowd, and we were silent.
Théoden looked proudly on us all before he offered us his goblet. "Tonight," he said triumphantly, "we remember those who gave their blood to defend this country. Hail the victorious dead!"
There was a roar and the men cried "Hear, hear!" Before raising their own cups and drinking, and finally returning to whatever activities had before occupied them.
Aragorn paused a moment, looking solemnly at Théoden, who gave him a returning nod, and he too took a small sip of his cup.
Éowyn left her uncle's side then, and approached, as Aragorn and I looked around at the laughing and drinking Rohirrim men. Looking intently at Aragorn, Éowyn shyly handed him a goblet.
"Westu Aragorn hál!" She said with a smile.
Aragorn smiled weakly back and took the goblet from her hands with a slight nod, taking a sip to please her. He then stood up and walked away, leaving me alone with Éowyn. She looked at her hands and then brushed some hair out of my face.
"You are very brave," she said. I beamed. "I have heard great things about you."
"I have not done anything half as worth the others," I said humbly.
"Not in your eyes, perhaps," Éowyn smiled. "But in ours, you are as worthy as any one of our soldiers. A shieldmaiden of Rohan, or wherever you have been."
I blushed and turned away. "I will join the others," I said quickly, and picking up my skirts, I followed Aragorn's trail and stood beside him and Gandalf. Behind me, Éowyn stood silently, as her uncle, the King, joined her.
From a tabletop nearby, Merry and Pippin danced with their mugs, singing of their loyalties to the Shire. Men around them laughed and pointed as they kicked up their feet and leapt, swinging their ale. My heart yearned to be with them. I stayed where I was, the words of the familiar song on my tongue.
"Oh, you can search far and wide; you can drink the whole world dry!
But you'll never find a beer so brown as the one they drink in my hometown!
You can keep your fancy ales; you can drink them by the flagon!
But the only brew for the brave and true…"
Merry turned to me and winked, and Gandalf, with a chuckle, shook his head.
"…comes from the Green Dragon!"
The crowd cheered around me, but I stared blankly ahead, thinking of the Green Dragon and the wonderful times we had there. Homesickness overtook me, and I was silent.
"Thank you!" Merry and Pippin grinned and bowed, taking deep drinks from their mugs.
"No news of Frodo," Aragorn sighed above me. I pretended I was watching Merry and Pippin when I actually was listening to Aragorn and Gandalf's conversation. The words had startled me, when I heard "Frodo." I imagined Aragorn had brought the subject up on purpose, to make me blush. Or mourn.
"No word. Nothing," Gandalf replied.
They seemed to ignore my presence. I don't know if they noticed I had reappeared at all; I was being very quiet and was very small.
"We have time," Aragorn continued. "Every day Frodo moves closer to Mordor."
Gandalf seemed to wake up. He looked straight at Aragorn. "Do we know that?"
Aragorn turned his head too and placed a hand on Gandalf's shoulder. "What does your heart tell you?"
Gandalf was silent. My own head was filled with worry and I thought of Frodo, of his face and his touch and his eyes and of the warmth that filled the air when he laughed, and the smell of sausages cooking in Bag End, and the joyous laughter of Sam and Merry and Pippin…and sitting in the meadows reading and writing and doing hobbit-like things. Of Frodo's determination as he stepped forth and as the Fellowship formed around him, and Sam pledged undying loyalty, as did Merry, Pippin, and I as we stood with him. Of everything we had left behind, back home.
"That Frodo is alive," I said softly. Surprised, Gandalf and Aragorn both locked eyes on me, and I turned my head upwards to meet their eyes. Gandalf's gaze fell for a second. He looked so aged, so wise.
"Yes," Gandalf whispered, and then a smile grew on his face. "Yes, he's alive."
After the party began to quiet and darken, my fellow hobbits and I helped Gandalf, Aragorn, and Legolas set up makeshift beds on cots waiting in one of the rooms of the great golden hall of Meduseld. As we climbed in the soft pallets, sighing with happiness after sleeping on nothing but rough ground for almost a moon, Aragorn and Legolas left the room.
"Where are you going?" Merry asked.
"Outside, for a spell," Legolas replied from under his hooded cloak.
Merry shook his head but said nothing more.
I was drifting off when Pippin stirred in his sleep. It startled me at first, until I realized he was just turning over, although it happened again and again after. Pippin groaned and kicked his blankets before sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
"What are you doing?" Merry murmured, half asleep.
Pippin didn't answer. I was wide awake now, watching him as he pushed his blankets aside, tiptoeing towards Gandalf's pallet.
"Pippin!" I whispered warningly.
Seeing Gandalf's face, Pippin took a step backwards, but his gaze remained on something Gandalf held wrapped in cloth, keeping it close to him.
"Pippin!" I said again, and Merry glared at him behind his back.
Pippin waved his hand in front of Gandalf's face. When he didn't react, he reached for a pitcher. As he turned back, Gandalf began muttering in his sleep, his eyes staring blankly ahead.
"Pippin! Pippin, don't!" Merry growled. "Are you mad?!"
His little cousin took the thing in Gandalf's arms and quickly put the pitcher in its place.
"I just want to look at it," Pippin said excitedly. "Just…one more time…" He unwrapped the thing and revealed the dark crystal ball that he had picked up earlier that day and barely given up.
"Put it back!" I hissed. "Quickly, come now!"
Pippin did not look up from the ball. He knelt on the ground with the ball between his palms and gazed, as though in a trance, as lights swirled from its depths.
Suddenly, the Eye of Sauron appeared, scaring Merry, Pippin and I. "No, Pippin!" I cried, as his hands became fixed to it and he gave the Eye a frightened glare. His breath came in gasps as the Eye laughed loudly, the voice deep and cracked as it sounded like a bell, words in the black language that seemed to shake my very bones and churn my blood to dust, and set shadows in every place that still had light.
"I SEE YOU!" The voice suddenly boomed, and Pippin jumped up, holding the fiery ball, his mouth opened in pain. He shook it and struggled before collapsing to the floor, shaking and screaming silently, as though he was having a seizure.
"Pippin!" Merry and I cried. I clenched my blankets, frozen in position on the pallet, watching Pippin's torture with the ball of fire. "Gandalf!" Merry continued to cry out. "Someone, help him!"
Finally, I jumped from the bed and ran to Pippin's side, reaching my hands to take the ball from him. Immediately, he released it and fell over, and Sauron's Eye etched itself in my thoughts. He laughed at me and instant, white-hot pain burst through my body. I screamed and shook, attempting to let go of the thing in my hands, but it could not be done. I could not see anything but a fire burning throughout my body, blistering it and destroying it. It was over in just ten seconds…I had not seen Aragorn or Legolas in the room as I wrestled the ball from Pippin, but they had taken it from me, and finally, dropped it to the floor, where it rolled away. Gandalf threw a blanket over it.
"Fool of a Took!" Gandalf boomed.
"Pippin!" I cried weakly, falling to my knees and nearly keeling over. I looked at my palms, still stinging from the feel of the ball, and with a cry of relief I realized my body had not been burned to cinders. Pippin was laying on the floor, lying with his unaware eyes open, his face contorted in a slightly aghast expression.
Gandalf crouched over him as Merry crawled to me and rubbed my shoulders. "Are you alright?" He mouthed, holding me close.
As I nodded and shivered, Gandalf touched Pippin's forehead gently and he startled awake, shaking and gasping and crying.
"Look at me," Gandalf said gently, holding his face in his large palm. Pippin's small hands clutched it. They were ashy and pale.
"Gandalf…" He stammered weakly. "Forgive me…"
"Look at me!" He shook Pippin's cheek. "What did you see?"
Pippin closed his eyes painfully. "I saw…" he began, and then opened them again, wide. "I saw a tree…a white tree…" Then he grew sorrowful and looked away. "In a courtyard of stone…
"It was dead."
Gandalf's eyes widened also.
"The city was burning," Pippin explained.
"Minas Tirith," Gandalf told him. "Is that what you saw?"
This seemed to startle something inside Pippin's head, for he shook and began to cry again. "I saw…I saw him!" He cried hoarsely, and then his voice softened. "I could hear his voice in my head."
"What did you tell him?" Gandalf was anxious. He looked at me; I was breathing heavily still, and tensed when Pippin mentioned Sauron. "Speak!"
Pippin flinched, took a deep breath, and licked his lips. "He asked me my name. I didn't answer. He hurt me…"
"What did you tell him about Frodo and the Ring?"
Pippin stared at Gandalf, looking perturbed and scared. "Nothing," he said.