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SamJCharlton
Bree
Jan 24 2014, 11:57am
Post #1 of 7
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LOTR fan fiction: The Witch of Angmar - Part #16
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A big thanks to all who sent in a nomination for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards - I have received confirmation that THE WITCH OF ANGMAR is now in the running for 'best fan fiction'. :-) They will announce the finalists in a month's time - so I will keep you all posted.
And for those of you who have been waiting patiently for the next episode.... here it is!
The Witch of Angmar
Legacy of the Fellowship
Part Sixteen
Captives and Choices
Salrean stumbled forward and fell to her knees as a whip lashed against her back. Peri heard her breath hiss between her teeth in agony, but she did not cry out. Instead, the ranger struggled to her feet and threw a vicious look over her shoulder at the hill man behind her.
“Faster!” the man, a huge individual made even more imposing by the ragged fur cloak he wore around his broad shoulders, snarled.
A sea of hill-men, all traveling north, surged around the captives. There was no escape from them. Even if Peri and Salrean had been able to slip the bonds pinning their arms behind their backs, they could never have fought their way out through the press of humanity around them.
Even Salrean, with her warrior’s heart, had conceded defeat. She had fought off as many as she could in the woods – they both had – until there were just too many assailants. At that point, Salrean had thrown her sword to the ground and raised her hands in surrender. Peri had done the same – it was either that or perish.
“I did not travel all this way to die upon a hill-man’s blade,” Salrean had whispered to Peri, moments before they were taken captive. “If they don’t kill us now, they’ll take us north to Carn Dûm. That’s where we want to go.”
“But we’ll be her prisoners,” Peri had hissed back, icy terror seeping into him. “She’ll torture us – turn us into her servants!”
Salrean’s face had turned fierce at that. “She can try.”
Peri moved forward with Salrean, jogging to keep up with her long stride. She knew better than to insult the whip-wielder; he had the look of a man who was just waiting for an excuse to beat someone to death. Peri had felt the touch of that whip earlier; and his shoulders still burned from it. He was exhausted, but still he jogged on, terrified of hearing that tell-tale whistle cut the air behind him.
It was a cold, sunless afternoon; the world was grey from one horizon to the other. Little seemed to grow this far north and the few plants that did were spiny and stunted. The wind blew in Peri’s face, causing his eyes to water. He had long lost all sensation in his cheeks and nose.
All the while, as he marched north surrounded by the hill-men horde, Peri thought about Rose.
Where was she – and where was that sly goblin who had led them straight into danger?
Terrifying thoughts about what might have happened to her distracted him from his own plight, from the fatigue in his limbs and the raw wind the chilled him to the bone. He could not stand the thought of being parted from her; could not bear to think that she was hurt, lost – or dead.
Curse Azil, he thought bitterly. This is all his doing. If I ever set eyes on the ferret again, I shall wring his deceitful throat.
***
Rose slumped onto the leafy ground and fought the urge to lie down and close her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to block out the world. After leaving Peri and Salrean to those hill-men – where they were likely to have met their deaths – a terrible sense of hopelessness had consumed her.
Azil, who had carried her all this way without rest, sank down next to her. His breath rattled in his chest.
“We outran them,” he wheezed, triumphant despite his exhaustion. “We lost them, she-hobbit.”
“Yes,” Rose looked up at him, her face bleak, “but we left Salrean and Peri behind.”
Azil returned her gaze steadily. He did not pretend to look sorry, for he was not. He was a creature that would do anything to survive, even if it meant leaving others to die. Frankly, Rose was stunned that he had risked his own neck to save her; even if there was part of her that wished he had left her behind.
“I can’t go on without them,” she whispered, fresh tears stinging her eyes. “We were companions; the quest depended on us staying together.”
Azil continued to observe her, before shrugging. Around them the shadows were lengthening; turning the grey, skeleton woods even gloomier.
“It will be night soon,” he observed. “I have taken us west, almost to the edge of the woods. We should be safe here till morning.”
“And what then?”
Azil met her gaze, his pale eyes frighteningly intense. “I made you a promise, she-hobbit,” he told her, although the regret in his tone was evident. “And Azil is true to his word. I will take you north to Carn Dûm if you wish it – to the secret way in the ranger spoke of – but no further.”
Rose stared back at him, stunned. She had not expected this.
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him it mattered not, that she would not go a step further north without her companions at the her side, but she held her tongue. Such an offer was generous – and would not be made twice.
“I’m not sure I can continue,” she finally admitted hesitantly. “I don’t think I’m strong enough to do this alone.”
“That is for you to decide,” Azil replied with another shrug, before heaving himself to his feet. He was so tired that he swayed slightly. “The offer is there. You have tonight to decide. In the morning I will take you on to Carn Dûm, or back the way we came – the choice is yours.”
Azil looked away from Rose then, his gaze darting around the darkening woods. “Let us find somewhere safe to rest,” he told her. “For it is not safe out here in the open – it is not safe anywhere this far north.”
Rose nodded numbly before stiffly climbing to her feet. She followed the goblin through the trees while he searched for a suitable spot to camp. They walked for a while, and it was nearly dark by the time Azil found a place he was happy with. It was a small hollow, under a bank full of tree roots. There, they wedged themselves in like two badgers and watched as the last rays of light disappeared from the world and darkness fell.
They had little in the way of food – for Peri had been carrying the bulk of their supplies – so supper was one stale piece of wafer bread shared between them.
“I will hunt for rabbits tomorrow,” Azil promised her, “juicy and sweet ones.”
Rose nodded and gave him a weak smile, although misery had robbed her of an appetite. She was so hungry that her stomach felt knotted and painful – yet the thought of Peri dying at the hands of those hill-men made it difficult to swallow the dry wafer bread.
After their meagre supper, the pair lapsed into silence. Azil, used to solitude, was not a chatterer. Rose was relieved that he left her alone; even if her thoughts were bleak and painful.
She lay awake for many hours, on her back, listening to the night. Sleep did not come easily. She had too much on her mind – and an important decision to make.
***
“I have decided,” Rose told Azil the next morning. They had just climbed out of their burrow and were stretching their stiff, cold limbs. “We shall go north to Carn Dûm.”
Azil nodded, his expression giving nothing away. Rose knew he loathed the thought of going anywhere near that ruined fortress, yet this morning he hid his feelings.
“And why?” he queried, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Now that your companions have gone, what do you hope to gain from entering the Witch’s lair?”
“I don’t know they’re dead,” Rose voiced the thought that had plagued her for most of the night. “In fact, I imagine Morwyn has instructed her servants to bring anyone trying to reach Carn Dûm directly to her. I believe Salrean and Peri are still alive – and even if there’s but a glimmer of hope, I must try to rescue them.”
Azil regarded her silently for a moment, an odd expression on his wizened face.
“I do not understand hobbits,” he admitted eventually. “You look soft and foolish, like children, and yet you have a core of iron. The stories really are true then…”
“What stories?”
Azil hesitated a moment, as if unwilling to explain further.
“I grew up in the dark of Moria,” he said eventually, “and heard many a tale of hobbits, and how they defeated the great Sauron. I expected fierce creatures, wily survivors like we goblins – instead you appeared bumbling and innocent. I can see I was deceived – you are like the stories.”
Rose smiled at that. “Indeed you were deceived. Although not all of us are made of the same mettle as Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin. Most of us are as unadventurous as we look.”
The goblin snorted at that. “Not you though. Come, we still have at least three days hard travel ahead of us – and many a servant of Morwyn to slip by. The days are shorter this far north, we must make the most of the daylight.”
Rose nodded and, wrapping her cloak tightly about her to ward of the morning’s chill, followed Azil into the trees.
***
“We are nearing Carn Dûm.”
Azil’s announcement, mid-afternoon on the third day of travel, caught the hobbit by surprise. He had not spoken more than a handful of works since daybreak; the further north they travelled through the bleak woods, the more morose he had become. Rose sensed it took his entire will not to abandon her and flee south. Only the fact that he had given her his word kept him going.
He looked nervous now, his eyes darting around as if he expected goblins to erupt from the trees at any moment.
“I have taken you west,” he explained, his voice a low whispering hiss, “to the rocky slopes just beyond the towers of the stronghold. Very soon we shall see it.”
Rose nodded, remembering Barandur’s words. It seemed like an age ago now – yet she was glad that she had, indeed, memorised his instructions – for there was no one else present to remind her of them.
"To the west of the towers of Carn Dûm, there is a collection of jagged rocks that climb the mountainside. Make your way into the centre of them, and under a sharp rock, darker than all the others, you will find a tunnel. It will take you deep under Carn Dûm, into the dungeons; from there you can make your way up into the fortress itself."
As Azil had warned, the bare trees gradually grew sparser, and the landscape rockier. A chill mist crept across the ground, its thin tendrils snaking around their legs as they walked. The earth was parched and bare; what little grass grew was pale, wispy and dry. It was a barren, lonely land and Rose would have given anything to be back in her parents’ hobbit hole at that moment. Still, she forced herself on, following the goblin up an incline.
There, at the top, she had her first glimpse of Angmar’s infamous fortress.
Carn Dûm was even more forbidding than she had expected, and even at this distance she could feel malevolence radiating out from it. She and Azil stood on the edge of a rocky valley. On the side nearest to them, Rose spied the jagged rocks that Barandur had described, where she would have to venture to find the secret way in. The fortress sat to the east, partly obscured by rocky outcrops and swirling mist. Austere, black towers – some completely ruined, others less so – and topped with horned turrets, rose into the pale sky. Crumbling walls and fortifications snaked along the rocky outcrops around the fortress, making Carn Dûm look as if it was part of the landscape. Rose had expected the ancient citadel to be more of a shell, however it appeared that the Witch of Angmar had been industrious of late. The Witch Tower rose high above all the others, its obsidian surface pitted with age.
Rose’s gaze seized upon the great tower and she shuddered. She could not imagine taking one step further, yet it was to that evil place that she must journey.
She only hoped that, if she indeed managed to reach it, that she would find Salrean and Peri alive when she arrived.
'All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'
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KasDel
Rivendell
Jan 24 2014, 6:02pm
Post #2 of 7
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I am dearly loving the story! Best of luck with the contest!
Eddie
KasDel the Last
"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger." Gildor
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SamJCharlton
Bree
Jan 24 2014, 7:29pm
Post #3 of 7
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Thanks for your kind words and support
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Glad to see you're still following the story Eddie! :-)
'All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'
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elaen32
Gondor
Jan 25 2014, 8:15am
Post #4 of 7
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and good luck with the award.
I like your description of Carn Dum, I've pictured it as being a bit like Malifecent's castle in Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Mind you, that image also springs to mind with Dol Guldur too. I think SB had a big effect on my imagination as a child!!
Is there a Tolkien topic that you have wanted to look into more deeply and write about your thoughts on it? If so, we'd like to hear from you for the next TORn Amateur Symposium- coming in November. Happy writing!
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SamJCharlton
Bree
Jan 25 2014, 8:24am
Post #5 of 7
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Thanks! I was looking forward to
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describing Carn Dum - it's the turning point of the story! :-)
'All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'
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Fili-ingFine
The Shire
Jan 25 2014, 6:16pm
Post #6 of 7
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And Azil is creeping me out.  
Keep the chapters coming! 
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SamJCharlton
Bree
Jan 26 2014, 8:49am
Post #7 of 7
(188 views)
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'All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'
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