The Last Ringbearer (45 page)

Twilight fell, and the gloom deepened rapidly. The landlord’s men were very cautious now, moving along in pairs; when they finally spotted Runcorn in the bushes, they showered him with arrows from twenty yards away rather than risk a close approach. Alas, when they did approach the supposed corpse (right in the path of a five-hundred-pound log that dropped from a nearby treetop), they found only a roll of bark dressed in some rags. Only then did the landlord realize that even simply getting away from Eggy’s forest stronghold where this damned
wos
had so expertly lured them would be very difficult: the night forest around them was chock-f of deadly traps, and their four wounded (not to mention two dead) have robbed their company of mobility. Another thing he understood now was that their overwhelming numerical superiority was of no consequence in this situation and the role of prey was theirs at least until dawn.

CHAPTER 56

T 
hey set up a defense perimeter in what was the worst possible location – an overgrown dale with zero visibility – because moving elsewhere was even more dangerous. There was not even a suggestion to light a fire, they were afraid to even talk, much less expose themselves to light. Even the wounded had to be tended to by touch in pitch-black darkness. Gripping their bows and swords, the lord’s men stared and listened to the moonless night, shooting at every rustle and every suggestion of movement in the fog rising from rotting leaves. It ended with someone losing his nerve at about two in the morning: the idiot yelled “
Woses
!” and sank an arrow into his neighbor, who had only gotten up to stretch his numb legs; then he ran inside the perimeter, crashing through the bushes. The worst thing that can happen in a night battle happened then: the perimeter fell apart and everyone ran around in the dark shooting blindly, every man for himself.

This was no accident, though: the ‘someone’ who caused the free-for-all with a shot at his comrade was none other than Runcorn. The forester had appropriated the cloak of one of the dead (who were left unguarded), blended in with the lord’s men as they were setting up their defense, and waited. He certainly had a hundred opportunities to put an arrow into the landlord and vanish into darkness in the ensuing chaos – but in his judgment the man did not deserve such an easy death, so he had other plans.

Only at dawn did the outcome of the fight become clear to the hapless hunters – they had lost two more men and, most importantly, the landlord himself vanished without a trace. Supposing that he got lost in the night scuffle and secreted himself in the dark (which is the correct solution: only a total idiot would run headlong through the night forest; a thinking person would hide quietly under a bush until someone trips over him), the fighters started combing the forest, calling on their lord. They found him a couple of miles away, guided by the cackling of crows. The young lord was tied to a tree, his genitals sticking out of his bloodied mouth – “choked on his balls,” as the serfs later whispered in relish.

The entire local population joined in the hunt for the evildoer with gusto, but they might as well have been trying to capture an echo. The former royal forester’s career had only one possible direction now – a life of robbery and death at the hands of the law. Wounded in a fight with the sheriff of Harlond’s men, broken on the rack, Runcorn was about to grace the local gallows when Baron Grager rode into town looking to recruit reinforcements for the decimated Ithilien regiment. “Oh, this one’ll do,” said the baron in approximately the tone of a housewife picking out a cut of ham at the butcher’s (“… and slice it thin!”); the sheriff could only grit his teeth.

The war beyond Osgiliath was going so-so; the Ithilien regiment fought noticeably better than any other unit and, as is customary, was the last one to be replenished. In general reinforcements were hard to come by (the folks at Minas Tirith who screamed the loudest about the ‘need to free Middle Earth from the Eastern darkness once and for all’ have all suddenly developed pressing business on this side of the Anduin, whereas the common folk had never cared for the War of the Ring to begin with), so the special dispensation that Faramir had bargained for – ‘even right off the gallows’ – had to be used very frequently. Grager himself was walking in the gallows’ shadow, but the reach of the courts of Gondor was too short to grab a front-line officer in wartime.

The regiment’s physician had to expend a mountain of effort to turn the bag of bones Grager had extracted from the Harlond jail into a semblance of a man, but the famous outlaw was worth it. Runcorn could no longer shoot a bow like he used to (his mangled shoulder joint had forever lost flexibility), but he remained an excellent tracker, and his experience with traps and other forest warfare tricks was truly priceless. He finished the war with the rank of sergeant, then participated under his lieutenant’s command in freeing and elevating Faramir to the throne of Ithilien, and was just about to start building himself a house – somewhere far from people, in the Otter Creek dell, say – when His Highness the Prince of Ithilien invited him over. Would he kindly agree to accompany two of his guests north, to Mirkwood?

“I’m no longer in service, my Captain, and charity is not my business.”

“That’s exactly what I need – a man not in my service. Nor is this charity, they’re prepared to pay well. Name your price,
Sergeant
.”

“Forty silver marks,” Runcorn blurted out off the top of his head, just to get them off his back. But the wiry hook-nosed Orc (who seemed to be the leader) only nodded: “Done,” and undid the money bag with Elvish embroidery. When a handful of assorted gold coins appeared on the table (Haladdin had long wondered where Eloar might have gotten the Vendotenian nyanmas or the square chengas from the Noon Islands), the ranger could no longer back out gracefully.

Runcorn took all responsibility for preparations for the trip to Dol Guldur, so Haladdin and Tzerlag enjoyed a total lack thereof. The scout tried the leather
ichigas
bought for them with obvious anxiety (the Orocuen did not trust any footwear without a hard sole), but he really liked the
ponyagas
the locals used instead of rucksacks. Those rigid frames of two bird-cherry arcs conjoined at a straight angle (the wood is bent right after cutting and becomes bone-hard when it dries) allow one to carry a lumpy hundred-pound load without worrying about fitting it to one’s back.

To the doctor’s mild surprise the Orocuen decided to move from Emyn Arnen’s guest quarters where the prince had put them to the barrack of Faramir’s personal guard for the duration. “I’m a simple man, sir, I’m like a fly in honey amidst all this luxury. It’s bad for the fly and bad for the honey.” He showed up the next morning sporting a large shiner but quite pleased with himself. It turned out that the Ithilienians, who had heard tell of the sergeant’s exploits on the night of the prince’s escape, prodded him into challenging the two best hand-to-hand fighters they had. Tzerlag won one fight and lost (or, perhaps, had the smarts to lose) the other to complete satisfaction of all involved. Now even the Orocuen’s dislike for beer, uncovered during long evening bull sessions, met with the rangers’ understanding: a competent man within his rights. What’s the drink you got over there –
kumiss
? Sorry, man, we’re fresh out of the stuff … One day Haladdin visited the barrack to talk to his companion and noted how a lively conversation in Common died down the moment he showed up and an awkward silence reigned – the learned doctor was nothing but a hindrance to farmers’ sons finally free of the necessity to shoot each other, a boss.

Since they did not know who was in charge in the Brown Lands on the left bank of the Anduin, they chose a water route. They sailed all the way to the Falls of Rauros (about two-thirds of the trip), helped by the strong even south wind that blows throughout the valley of the Great River at that time of year. From there they had to use light dugout canoes. Haladdin and Tzerlag spent that part of the journey as cargo: “You don’t know the River, so the best you can do for the company is keep your asses glued to the bottom of the boat and make no sudden moves.” On June 2
^nd
the expedition reached the North Undeep, a twist of the Anduin right before the mouth of River Limlight originating from Fangorn. The Enchanted Forests began here – Lórien on the right bank, Mirkwood on the left; that left just a tad over sixty miles to Dol Guldur as the crow flies. Faramir’s men remained behind to guard the boats (on the Rohan bank, just in case), while the three of them reached the jagged black-green wall of Mirkwood firs the next day.

This forest was completely unlike the sun- and life-filled groves of Ithilien: complete absence of undergrowth and bush made it resemble an endless colonnade of some mammoth temple. Silence reigned under its ceiling, as the thick carpet of acid-green moss, dotted here and there by little whitish flowers that resembled potato sprouts, swallowed all sound. This stillness and the greenish twilight made for a perfect illusion of being under water, further enhanced by ‘seaweed’ – unappetizing hoary beards of lichen hanging off fir branches. Not a ray of sunlight, not a breath of a breeze – Haladdin physically felt the pressure of a thick sheet of water. The trees were enormous, their true size given away only by the fallen ones; these were impossible to climb over, so they had to go around them anywhere from a hundred to a hundred fifty feet in either direction. Larger patches of storm-felled trees were completely impassable and had to be circumvented. The insides of those trunks were carved out by huge palm-sized ants that fiercely attacked anyone who dared touch their abode. Twice they came across relatively fresh human skeletons; graceful coal-black butterflies swarmed noiselessly over the bones, and this was so scary that even the jaded Orocuen made the sign of the Eye.

Packs of werewolves and cartwheel-sized spiders turned out to be fairy tales: this forest did not deign to actively oppose Man, being absolutely alien to him, like the expanse of the ocean or the cold fire of Ephel Dúath glaciers; the forest’s power expressed itself in alienation and rejection, rather than confrontation, which is why forester Runcorn felt it most acutely. It was this power that Dol Guldur had been gathering inside its charmed stones over the ages, century after century, drop by drop. The three magic fastnesses – Dol Guldur in Mirkwood, Minas Morgul by the Cirith Ungol pass, and Ag Jakend amidst the lifeless high mountain plateau called Shurab in northern Khand – enclosed Mordor in a protective triangle fed by the ancient power of the forest, the light of mountain snow, and the silence of the desert. The Nazgúl that had erected those magical ‘resonators’ made them look like fortresses in order to conceal their true purpose; one supposes that they must have had a good laugh watching yet another Western general dazedly wander the cracked flagstones of Dol Guldur’s courtyards, futilely trying to locate any trace of a garrison that had been battling his soldiers. (This trick was last used two months ago: the ‘mirror garrison’ had distracted the Elves and the Esgaroth militia for nearly two weeks, allowing the real North Army to retreat to Morannon almost without casualties.) Only the castle’s dungeons were unhealthy for anyone to get into, as indicated by clear warnings in Common chiseled into the walls.

The discussion on the path was becoming protracted. Haladdin took down his
ponyaga
(as usual, the first sensation was an illusion of blissfully floating on air, quickly replaced by the accumulated weariness of the march) and approached the rangers. Both sergeants looked worried: they have been walking paths through deep forest, avoiding the road joining Dol Guldur to Morannon, and yet the scouts constantly felt human presence even in these enchanted thickets. And now this: fresh bootprints of a Mordorian infantryman … yet Sharya-Rana had mentioned no Mordorian forces near the fortress.

“Perhaps deserters from the North Army back then?”

“Unlikely …” Tzerlag scratched his head. “Any deserter would’ve fled these parts immediately, anywhere’s better than here. This one is stationed somewhere nearby: judging by the depth of the print, he’s carrying no load.”

“Strange tracks,” Runcorn confirmed, “the soldiers of your North Army ought to have worn-out boots, but these look like they’re fresh from the warehouse. Look how sharp the edge of the print is.”

“How do you know that these are Mordorians?”

The scouts traded slightly offended looks. “Well, the height of the heel, the shape of the toe …”

“That’s not what I mean. Tzerlag and I here are wearing
ichigas
– so what?”

There was a brief silence. “Damn … Yeah, that’s true, but why?”

There was, indeed, no sense to it, and the decision Haladdin suddenly made was totally irrational – a stab in the dark. Strictly speaking, it was not even his decision; rather, some unseen power ordered him to go ahead. When this happens, you either obey or quit the game.

“All right, here’s what we’ll do. As I understand it, it’s less than a dozen miles to Dol Guldur. We’ll go to the road now, where you will camp and I’ll continue to the fortress alone. If I’m not back in three days, I’m dead and you’re to go back. Do not approach the fortress under any circumstances. Any circumstances, understand?”

“Are you crazy, sir?” the Orocuen piped up.

“Sergeant Tzerlag,” he had never even suspected himself to be capable of such a tone, “do you understand your orders?”

“Yeah …” the man hesitated, but only for a second. “Yes, Field Medic Second Class, sir!”

“Wonderful. I need to have some sleep and a good think about what I’m going to tell these guys in brand-new boots, should they be in charge of the fortress. Who I am, where have I been all these months, how did I get here, and all that … why I’m shod in
ichigas
– no detail is too small.”

CHAPTER 57

K 
umai turned the rudder and the glider hung motionlessly in the sky, resting its widespread wings on empty air with ease and confidence. One could see all of Dol Guldur plainly from up here, with all its decorative bastions and battlements, the central donjon (all workshops now), and the thread of the road winding between heather-covered hillocks. He scanned the environs and grinned contentedly: hiding their ‘Weapon Monastery’ here in the boonies, right under the Lórien Elves’ noses, was a brilliantly impudent undertaking. Many of the colleagues gathered under the roof of the magic fortress were unsettled (some had constant nightmares, others developed strange ailments), but Trolls are a thick-skinned phlegmatic people who believe neither dreams nor signs, so the engineer felt great here and worked day and night.