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All That Glisters  by Lindelea


Chapter 36. Spilling  Forth

The Baranduin spilled in wild abandon here, wild and free, swift-running, leaping over rocks and rapids, throwing spray into the air, its voice a steady roar—very different indeed from the powerful yet deceptively quiet beast slipping majestically by Brandy Hall, leagues to the south.

Estella kept shaking her head in wonder. ‘This is the Brandywine?’ she asked again.

Merry stroked his pony’s neck as the beast tossed its head. ‘It’s young, here,’ he said, ‘and feeling its oats!’

Pippin rode silently at Diamond’s side, his thoughts far away as his eyes scanned the hills of Evendim rearing up before them. A small voice broke into his thoughts: Pip-lad Gamgee, sharing a saddle with him while the lad's father rode on the Thain's other side with Merry-lad before him. ‘...mountains!’ 

Frodo rode on a pony of his own beyond, and the King smiled as he walked on Frodo's far side, pointing out landmarks.

 ‘Not mountains, not quite,’ Pippin said with a smile for the lad. ‘Little brothers of mountains, rather.’

Pip-lad grinned and shouted to his older brothers. ‘D’you hear? Those are my hills!’

 ‘Pippin,’ Sam remonstrated. Which Pippin he addressed was not immediately clear, as happened often when the two sharing the name were together.

 ‘Actually, they’re the King’s,’ the Thain said with a conspiratorial wink, ‘but if you ask him he might let you borrow them some time.’

Rounding a bend, they stopped in wonder at the sight of the great falls spilling from the Lake. ‘There it is, my love,’ Merry said, raising his voice to be heard above the water’s shout. ‘The birthplace of the Brandywine!’

 ‘Little brother to Rauros,’ Pippin added with another wink for Pip-lad. ‘So you might lay claim to these as well.’

Diamond’s arms tightened about Faramir as she remembered Rauros. ‘D’you remember, Farry?’ she said. He’d been little more than a babe when they’d travelled to Gondor.

Farry stared at the falls with a look of wonder. ‘I ‘member, Mum,’ he said. ‘The Falls of Rauros were much bigger, but I think these shout with a louder voice!’

 ‘We’re much closer to these,’ Diamond said, ‘than we ever came to Rauros.’ Thankfully. Even at a distance, the great Falls in the southlands had stunned her to silence, made her feel... made her feel small, and insignificant. Seeing the hobbit’s face as they'd turned from the view of Rauros, Arwen had taken Diamond onto her saddle and told her quietly of the small, insignificant creatures who'd crossed the Anduin above the Falls, creeping into the land of the Dark Lord to free Middle-earth from his encroaching Darkness. Pippin had told his wife parts of the story before, but the Queen brought the tale to life, almost as if she’d been watching every agonising step of that epic journey, as if she’d felt the very pain and determination of the travellers.

 ‘I’d like to stand up top and see the waters tumble down,’ Faramir said.

 ‘You’d likely tumble down yourself,’ Diamond retorted. ‘If your father takes it into his head to climb the falls, don’t you go with him!’

Faramir turned in the saddle to give her a pained look, and she laughed, squeezing him again. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘If he took it into his head to climb the falls, you’d be right at his side as you always are!’

 ‘Someone’s got to look out for him!’ Farry said stoutly. ‘Especially since Uncle Merry’s arm is hurt, and Uncle Ferdi isn’t here!’

The courtiers and nobles and most of the guardsmen had continued moving along the trail that branched off from the new road leading to the rising City. Ahead of them white towers rose upon the hills to the east of the falls, shining in the morning sunlight.

 ‘Annuminas?’ Elanor said, craning to look up at the Queen who walked alongside her pony.

 ‘The old ruins are to the west of the falls,’ Arwen said. At the young hobbit’s shiver, she hugged Elanor and said, ‘Evil no longer slips through the shadows there; all dark things have been driven away. We’ll have a picnic there upon sun-bathed rocks, and tell you great tales of the old days.’

 ‘I’m not afraid of shadows,’ Pip-lad declared, overhearing the Queen’s reassurance to his sister, but the Thain did not laugh at his saddle-mate’s bravado, and Samwise gave him a quelling look.

Estella reached a hand to Merry, and he took her hand in his good one and gave it a gentle squeeze.

***

Shadows hid the two men crouching nearby behind a tumble of rocks, watching the procession pass. They ducked farther under cover as the guardsmen marched by, and stared fascinated at the rich procession of nobles and courtiers. ‘We ought to have watched the Road instead,’ one grumbled to the other. ‘All the coaches and waggons took that way when the people got out to see the sights.’

 ‘Some sights are worth seeing,’ the other growled. ‘Look there, for instance.’ He nodded towards the King and Queen, surrounded by hobbits on ponies.

 ‘So?’

 ‘That one, there, in the yellow cloak, just past the King—that’s the Prince of the Halflings. He has more gold than he knows what to do with.’

 ‘What good does that do us?’ the first man said.

 ‘He brought his son with him; don’t you see?’ the second said. ‘There’s to be picnics and outings and sight-seeing in the old ruins, hunts in the forest, fishing along the Lakeside. Any number of opportunities... we take the lad and leave notice. They’ll never find us in all these wild hills! Theyll leave a fair quantity of gold where we tell them to, in hopes we’ll give them the lad back.’

The first man stared at Pip-lad, sharing the Thain’s saddle. ‘It’s an awful risk,’ he said slowly.

 ‘They’ll never find us,’ the second hissed. ‘I know these hills better than any upstart king from the southlands, or any of his fancy guardsmen. They can fight a battle, certainly, but with all that mail we’ll hear them clinking through the forest from a mile away, and slip off quiet-like before they even know we were there.’

The first man nodded. ‘But if the lad sees our faces...?’ he said. ‘What if, after we give him back...?’

 ‘Give him back?’ the second said in amazement. ‘What kind of fool do you take me for? Of course we’re not going to give him back! We’ll drop the lad off the top of the falls as we’re creeping away, or toss him to a passing wolf, or when we get a chance to stop we’ll bury him so deep they’ll never find him... you don’t really think we ought to keep hold of him while we’re evading the Kingsmen? If they only think we have the lad, they’ll pay! No need to make things any harder for ourselves.’

 ‘It might work,’ the first man said slowly.

 ‘Of course it’ll work,’ the second man said. ‘I’ve done this before, and it’s never gone wrong yet. You just do as I say and you’ll end a rich man.’

***

Pimpernel had fallen asleep; she’d caught a few winks here and there over the course of the last ten days, since Ferdi’s coughing fit on the day he arrived, but really, most of her time had been spent sitting in a chair next to the bed, or curled beside her husband on the bed, her head upon his breast, listening to his heartbeat. Several times a day the healers chased her from Ferdi’s side, and she would take a meal with her little ones, or walk in the blooming meadow with them, gathering flowers, or play a game or tell a story, and when she returned she would tell Ferdi all about the children and their antics, their quaint sayings, their asking about him. Ever he smiled as he slept.

The healer on watch had stepped out for a "moment", leaving when Pimpernel was still awake, and been detained, and so no one saw Ferdi’s awakening.

His breathing changed; he stretched slowly and luxuriously; he yawned widely, first squeezing his eyes tight shut and then opening them. ‘Nell, my love?’ he said, and then looking over saw her beside him, sound asleep.

Of course he eased himself from the bed without wakening her, gently removing her arm from his chest, stretching muscles stiff from sleep. She looked exhausted: probably had been up in the night with one of the little ones.

He’d evidently slept off the cold that had caused him to cough so violently at tea a day—or was it two?—ago. Automatically he massaged his ribcage; still a bit tender but not near as sore as it had been after the coughing fit. Healers! Woodruff swore he’d broken a rib, but it was likely just a muscle pulled wrong, and now settling nicely into place.

He was more thirsty than hungered, really, but in any event he thought he’d go down to early breakfast in the great room. It was very early, if Nell and all the children were still asleep. Often when he wakened one or more little ones would be snuggled between them in the bed, waiting for Ferdi and Nell to waken, but none had appeared as of yet this morning, and all was dark and quiet.

By the dim light of the watchlamp he selected his clothes and dressed, and laying a kiss upon his beloved’s cheek he tiptoed from the room in search of breakfast.





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