Author’s Note: For the purposes of this story, let’s imagine that the time period is late August-early September. It works with the setting of the story. Please forgive me my liberties. Thanks to Pipwise for the beta.

Chapter Two: Unlit Windows

The first ball was a resounding success. The great hall of the Citadel was decorated with all manner of tapestries, and garlands of flowers were strung around the pillars. The entire city turned out in their finest apparel, and the ball spilled out into the streets.

“I’m rather wishing for a few good hobbit-lasses right now,” Pippin sighed, leaning back in his seat. “It’s boring having no one to dance with.”

Frodo smiled at his cousin, balancing a goblet of wine in one hand. “I daresay you’ll be raising a ruckus in the Shire soon enough, Pip. Enjoy Gondor while you can.”

Sam snorted. “Right enough, Mr. Frodo. We’ll likely be missing the harvest festivals, though. I wonder if they celebrate harvest here?”

“Of course we do.” The hobbits looked up as Aragorn joined them, seating himself in one of the abandoned chairs nearby. “What do you think these balls are in honor of? It is almost harvest time; this is likely just the start of the festivities,” the King said.

Pippin grinned and took a bite of cake. “I daresay they’re doing things correctly, then. Or maybe we’re a bad influence on them.”

“I daresay it’s the latter option, Pippin. Hobbits are a very, very bad influence,” Aragorn said gravely, and basked in the hobbits’ laughter.

*****

It was a long time after midnight when the final guests left the Citadel. The tired royals drifted back to their rooms, and the hobbits made their way to their own house. There were still revelers in the streets outside the Citadel, and Pippin retired to his bed listening to their dim celebrations. He lay curled up in his soft, thick blanket, drowsiness creeping over him, but sleep still at bay.

Merry shuffled around the room for a bit and finally ended up at the window with a lighted candle. He could see much of the City from this vantage point, gazing northwest towards Rohan and the Shire. He could also see a portion of the Citadel itself, dark against the starry sky. Merry frowned, leaning out of the window for a better view.

“Pippin,” he said. “Come and look at this.”

Pippin groaned and rolled over, pulling the blanket over his head. “No. Go to bed, Merry,” he groused.

Merry glanced back at him, frowning. “No, you come here and have a look. It’s the Citadel - there’s something strange about it.”

Well, that did the trick. Pippin sighed and climbed out of his soft bed, sullenly joining Merry at the window. Curiosity was a deadly danger for the Tooks.

“What is it?” he asked, looking out of the window. “I don’t see anything strange.”
Merry pointed. “Look. The upper floors at the back of the Citadel are all dark. I can’t imagine why; I thought we had seen all there was of it.”

Pippin looked, craning out of the window. Sure enough, the back two floors of the Citadel were dark, in stark contrast to the brightly lit front rooms.

“I guess that’s the part they don’t use yet,” he said. “Too much for the Stewards to keep up.” He suddenly yawned hugely, and covered his mouth with his hand. “I’m too sleepy to care right now, Mer. Let’s think tomorrow.”

Merry nodded and turned away from the window. Blowing out his candle, he climbed into his bed and curled up. The dark windows and silent balconies would not leave his mind, however, and he lay awake for a long time after Pippin had dropped off to sleep. It was a mystery.

*****

“That part of the Citadel has not been used for a very long time, Meriadoc.”

“Why not?”

“Because, Peregrin, it has fallen into disrepair. Now, are the two of you going to let me finish my breakfast?” Aragorn gave the two hobbits in front of him his sternest glare. It had no effect. .

“It seems to me,” Merry said, leaning on his elbows, “That a line of rulers as rich as the stewards were would have been able to keep one wing of their house in the same state of repair as the other wings. What do you think, Pip?”

Pippin nodded, helping himself to one of Aragorn’s pastries. “We aren’t nearly as rich as the stewards at home, and we manage to keep everything in decent repair. It doesn’t make sense.”

Aragorn sighed and looked away. When it came to matters such as this, Merry and Pippin were very good at sniffing out misdirection. And yet, he did not want to tell them anything he knew about that part of the Citadel. Not now, when things were so happy.

“The past is hidden in that part of the house,” he said. “Things that are long forgotten. I do not think that the two of you would like it much.”

Merry and Pippin stared at him, than glanced at each other. Aragorn felt for a moment that he had aroused even more of their curiosity, and attempted to drown it with a fierce look at them both. “Don’t go digging in the past unless you have a very good reason for doing so,” he said. “Know when to let things lie, please. I once knew a young woman who refused to do so, and she could not bear the knowledge of what she found. I do not wish that to happen to you.”

Merry frowned. “Who was she?”

“That is none of your concern,” Aragorn replied evenly. “Do you both understand me?”

“Yes, Strider,” both hobbits murmured together.

Aragorn nodded at them. “Good.”

*****

The hobbits left Aragorn alone and went out to the garden, pastries clutched in their hands. Late summer sunlight shone down on them from behind the low gray clouds that had blown in overnight; Pippin thought that the air smelled like rain. He hoped that it would not be raining for the next night’s ball. Arwen had scheduled the balls to fall every other day -this would allow anyone who had become drunk to sleep off their subsequent malady and recover in time for the dancing. It would also afford the city’s tailors extra time to make the costumes.

“Strider isn’t being fully honest with us,” Merry stated, breaking into Pippin’s thoughts. “He’s treating us like children again.”

Pippin sighed. “Really, Merry, if he wants us to ‘let the past lie’, whatever that means,

then maybe we should. It really doesn’t concern us.”

Merry shrugged. “I suppose, Pippin. I suppose.”

They sat munching in silence for a few minutes, until the clouds decided to overturn their buckets upon the world, and rain fell sweeping to the earth. Then the lads leapt up and ran indoors, and so began their new adventure.

TBC