Ferdi felt a hand on his shoulder, and looking up, he recognised a cousin who'd been assigned to guard the main entrance to the Great Smials. The other was breathing shallowly, though the handkerchief over his mouth didn't seem to be doing much good; he began to cough so violently that for a moment he could not speak.

'Healer,' Ferdi managed to gasp, and the other nodded and stumbled away.

Ferdi bent over Pippin again, tears rolling unheeded down his cheeks. He'd failed in the first duty of the head of the escort... to protect the Thain. Pip was dead, and it was his fault. If he'd got him away sooner, before they'd touched off the black powder...

He felt other hands on his shoulders; someone tried to pull him away from Pippin and he tightened his grip. There were hoarse voices speaking to him, hobbits whose faces were streaked black with soot, but none of the words made sense. Behind him, he heard Penny coughing. He wanted to cough, himself, but his lungs felt too full; he was afraid that if he started, he wouldn't be able to stop again until he'd coughed all his insides out onto the stones of the yard.

A clearer voice broke into his confusion. 'What have we here?' Ferdi raised his head, to recognise Mardibold Took. If only it were not too late. If only the healer could make things right again.

'Please,' he whispered. 'Please.'

Mardibold knelt beside him, gently prying his arms away. 'Let me take a look, lad,' he said. The healer turned the limp figure towards himself, and Ferdi saw his shock as he recognised the Thain.

'Please,' Ferdi said again. He felt numb; yet a sense of urgency kept him blurting out the only word that his brain could form at the moment. Mardibold looked to his daughter, next to him... Regi's bride-to-be, some detached part of Ferdi's mind reminded him, and also a healer. Two healers, then. Could two help where one was hopeless?

Rosa immediately said, 'We need water, here, cups for drinking and cloths for wiping.' One of the Tooks nodded and left the group.

'Let me take a look, lad,' Mardi said again.

Ferdi shook his head. 'Too late,' he whispered. 'Too late. We rode like the wind, but the smoke caught us anyway.' He coughed, and could not speak further.

'It's not too late. I do not know how it is, but he's breathing, somehow, not much, but while there's breath, there's life.'

The water was brought, and Rosa held a cup to Ferdi's lips, urging him to drink. Mardi dipped a cloth in a basin and carefully wiped the Thain's face, noting the black smudges around the nostrils that told of smoke in the lungs.

'Is there any clear air inside the Smials?' he asked. 'A closed-off room, perhaps? We've got to get him out of this smoke.'

A Took nodded. 'The Thain's personal apartments were kept closed off,' he said. 'We can take him there.'

'Good,' Mardi nodded. 'We'll get him into his bed at the same time. I'm going to need boiling water, basins, and a large blanket when I get him there.'

'Right,' the same Took said.

The numbness was spreading to Ferdi's arms. He could no longer resist as they carefully lifted the Thain away from him, and bore Pippin into the Smials, past the thinning crowd of bewildered hobbits who were emerging into the smoky courtyard.

'Stay here!' one of the Tooks was bellowing. 'The fire is out, we hear, but we want to be sure before we send anyone off home again!'

Rosa still knelt by Ferdi's side, and then Ferdi heard another familiar voice.

'How is he?' Pimpernel said, kneeling down on his other side.

'He's taken in a lot of smoke,' Rosa said. 'I need to get him into a bed.' Looking about she called sharply, 'Hilly!'

One of the smoke-blackened hobbits jerked around at her call and approached. 'Uncle Hilly,' Rosa said. 'I need to get cousin Ferdi inside, into a bed. Is Uncle Tolly with you?'

'No, he was in the woods with the Thain,' Hilly answered hoarsely.

'The Thain is here,' Rosa answered. 'Ferdi brought him just now.'

'That was the Thain?' Hilly said, and swore, then begged pardon. Bending down, he slipped Ferdi's arm over his shoulders. 'Come, lad,' he said. 'I've orders to get you to a bed.'

'Penny,' Ferdi whispered.

'They're taking care of her now,' Hilly said. 'Old Tom's taken charge, and he's forgotten more about ponies than most hobbits will ever learn.' He straightened, taking Ferdi's weight, and Pimpernel came up on his other side.

'You'll be needed here,' she told Rosa. 'More hobbits will be coming in from the firelines, I think.'

Rosa nodded, Pimpernel had the right of it. She couldn't spend herself recklessly on one patient when many more were undoubtedly on the way. 'Get him to bed, prop him up sitting, and make him drink as much as you possibly can,' she said rapidly. Hilly and Pimpernel nodded and half-carried Ferdi into the Smials.

When they reached Ferdi's room, Pimpernel said, 'I will fetch the water, cousin, while you get him into the bed.' Hilly nodded, taking Ferdi's full weight, and eased him onto the bed, propping him into a sitting position. Lighting a lamp and then closing the door, he quickly stripped off Ferdi's smoke-saturated clothing, dropping it into a crumpled pile, kicking it towards the door. Ferdi had begun to shiver with chill, and Hilly recognised early signs of shock. Grabbing the nightshirt from its peg on the wall, he quickly mantled Ferdi and then pulled up the coverlet over him, adding a thick blanket from the shelf for good measure.

A kick came at the door, and Hilly left Ferdi long enough to open the door to Pimpernel, who carried a tray. He quickly bundled up the clothes and threw them into the corridor, to be dealt with later. He could do nothing about the smoke-smell still emanating from himself and Ferdi, but at least the clothing would no longer contribute to fouling the air of Ferdi's room; the other was gasping for breath as it was.

Pimpernel put her tray down, distributing the contents. A bowl of vinegar went onto the chest, and she placed several candles about the room, lighting them. 'To absorb the smoke,' she said at Hilly's questioning look. 'Any holekeeper worth her salt knows that trick.'

She looked at Hilly sternly. 'You go change out of those smoky clothes,' she said, 'and come right back, or send another watcher. You know it's not proper for me to be alone with him.'

Hilly snorted lightly, but far be it from him to comment on the niceties of the behaviour of the Thain's sister.

Surprisingly, Pimpernel did not bristle, but simply said, 'Go on with you, Hilly.' He nodded and went, as she uncovered the mug on the tray and held it to Ferdi's lips. 'Come, cousin, drink. It's to help your breathing. Just a little sip, now...'

She was able to coax him to take the entire mugful of herbal mixture by the time Hilly returned. He'd quickly scrubbed his hair, for good measure, and the curls atop his head and feet still curled tight in their dampness.

Pimpernel poured a glass of water next, and Hilly raised an eyebrow. 'You going to drown him?' he asked.

'The healer said to force fluids,' she said absently, 'lest he drown of fluid in his lungs from the smoke he breathed. I don't know how it works, but I am very good at taking orders.'

At Hilly's frozen silence, she looked up. 'O but I am, cousin,' she said, 'when I am in my right mind. Which,' she added wryly, 'I must admit has not been the case for the most part, these past few weeks.'

She held the glass to Ferdi's lips. 'Come, cousin,' she said softly. 'One sip at a time...' Hilly was encouraged to see the sip taken, and another, and then Pimpernel spoke again. 'It was like feeling my way in a dark tunnel, and all the doors were closed, locked, and then one day suddenly, a door was open before me and the light was streaming through... It was Pip, you know, who helped me the most...' She stopped, seeming surprised at the moisture that appeared on her extended arm, tears that had fallen without her notice.

'Just when we had reached an understanding,' she whispered. 'I cannot believe he is gone.'

'He's not gone,' Hilly said quietly. 'Not yet, anyhow.'

Hope unlooked-for brightened her face, only to be replaced by apprehension. 'Not yet,' she echoed. 'What does that mean? He's to die, but is too stubborn to give in quite yet?'

'I do not know,' Hilly admitted. 'The talk is...' and he stopped, remembering Pimpernel's opinion of Smials gossip.

Ferdi's eyes opened and he pushed the glass away, croaking, 'What?'

'Tell us,' Pimpernel agreed.

Uncomfortably, Hilly said, 'The talk is that they don't know what's keeping him going, but if they can just get him through the next few days he has a chance.'

'Who's watching with him?' Pimpernel asked.

'Diamond and Mardibold. The Mistress,' meaning Eglantine, of course, 'was fit to be tied, but Mardi banned her from the room, as she's got a bit of a cold, and Pip doesn't need that on top of everything else.' Pimpernel nodded as Hilly continued, 'It might be Woodruff by now; they sent to the firelines for her.'

'They don't need me at the moment, then,' Pimpernel said, as if to herself. 'I'll watch here.' She settled in the chair next to the bed and lifted the glass again. 'Come, Ferdi, drink. You said once when we were little hobbits that you'd do anything I asked, so now I am going to take you up on your offer. Drink.'