Chapter 32. You Are Torn Loose

The Five arose before the dawning. The innkeeper had a hot breakfast ready, for many of those who'd come to Michel Delving for the Litheday Fair would be looking for an early start.

The hobbits and dwarf rode ponies; the elf strode along on his long legs, easily matching their pace. Legolas noticed that Pippin was preoccupied, and from the glances he caught passing amongst the other hobbits, the others had noticed as well, but after the fashion of hobbits, were too polite to comment.

Gimli was riding along beside the Thain, making conversation about the building of the New Smials, the collapse of the roof during construction which had jeopardised not only the project but the Thain himself. Legolas caught a keen glance from the dwarf, and nodded to himself. Gimli had noticed, as well. Something about this journey was worrying his young friend, and it looked as if it would come out later rather than sooner.

They rode through the day, across the sweep of the West Farthing, arriving at Greenholm just past teatime. Pippin was greeted enthusiastically by his hobbits, though Ferdibrand was not there, nor did Samwise find his son Frodo. Word was waiting to the effect that the King, however, was awaiting them at the outpost near Greenholm and had sent a guardsman to the border, to pass the message to a Shirriff for conveyance to the Thain.

'I thought Ferdi would be here; we'd agreed to meet this day,' the Thain said to one of the Tooks as they walked to the great room in the smials at Greenholm. 'The King is expecting us the day after tomorrow, and I wanted a chance to go over your findings.'

'They're out on a last survey; we're expecting them back on the morrow,' Hildivard Took said in answer to the Thain's question. 'Just gathering a bit of ribbon bow to top off the present, you know.' ...and that was all they could get from the Tookish surveyors, for the residents of Greenholm were escorting them to the great room, where a banquet was being served.

'Not like Ferdi to miss a banquet,' Pippin said as they sat down.

'Ah, well,' Hildivard answered. Being the highest ranking Took present, next to the Thain, he had to sit next to the Thain as well, at least until Ferdibrand showed up again. 'He probably just got tied up.'

***

The explorers were up early as the rising Sun struck the western faces of the Tower Hills before them, turning the white elven tower, visible from their camping spot, into a finger of bright flame. The survey party were able to ride for a part of the time on the winding path, though there were some narrow or steep parts where they got off and led the ponies, for safety's sake.

By midday, they had reached the base of the tower, and stopped to see the plain spread out before them to the East, hills to North and South, with the other towers, one to each side of them; and in the West they thought they might discern the Sea. The rocky hills were not bare, as the hobbits had first thought them, when they were approaching from the plain, but covered with heathers and bracken and low, thorny bushes, gorse and blackberry, mostly. The early heathers bloomed, bright pink against the green of burgeoning gorse, and the ponies snatched eagerly at the treat, velvet lips stripping the bark from the gorse without disturbing its thorns. The area around the base of the tower was bare rock, and the hobbits walked all the way around, wondering at the smooth face, no sign of a door.

'Must be one of those magical things the Thain tells about,' Ferdi muttered, running his hands over the surface. 'Some sort of elvish trick to keep the riffraff out.'

Leaning against the tower was a crude shack constructed of boards, looking ready to fall had not the tower propped it. The door hung from one hinge, and cautiously pushing it open enough to peep inside, Ferdi saw nothing but dust and broken boards. 'Abandoned,' he muttered, 'but I'll warrant this is not elvish work.'

Fastred found the remains of a campfire roughly ringed with stones. 'Less than a week old,' he said.

'I wonder who made it?' Frodo mused. 'Elves?'

Ferdi shook his head. 'Elves leave no sign of their passing,' he said absently. He did not like where his thoughts were taking him. Abruptly he arose from his consideration of the ashes of the campfire. 'Let us make our way back,' he said. 'We'll take the direct route down, let the King's guardsmen know what we've seen here.' There was no leisure in his movements now; he was all business.

They mounted and started down the more direct trail to the bottom, riding single file on the narrow track, not talking now, each deep in his own thoughts. Had they found more ruffians?

Ferdibrand rode a little ahead of the others. He of all hobbits should have paid more attention to the trail, but he missed the subtle signs until it was nearly too late. The track was running along the side of a steep rock face; he passed the bent sapling with barely a glance, then suddenly pulled his pony to a stop, shouting, 'Stay back! There's a trap here!'

There was no room on the trail to turn around, and he kneed the pony hard, pulling back on the reins to urge it backwards, but the trap had been sprung; the trail began to slide out from under their feet and suddenly Ferdi and his pony were falling, as well as Frodo, next in the line, sliding down, part of a rock fall, quantities of rock and sand sliding with them as Fastred and Leotred watched in frozen horror.

When the rumbling stopped, Fastred had enough presence of mind to back his pony, calling to his brother to do the same. They backed until the track widened enough to dismount; then Fastred tossed his reins to Leotred and ran back to the crumbling edge of what remained of the trail.

Throwing himself down, he looked over, calling, 'Ferdi! Frodo!'

'Here,' came a reply below and somewhat to his left. Looking down, he saw a dust-covered Frodo, partway down the slope, clinging to some stubborn woody plants that grew out of a crack in the rock.

'Wait, I'll get a rope to you!' Fastred shouted.

'I'm not going anywhere,' came back the reply, and Fastred grinned in spite of himself. That Frodo! He'd be a good friend if he weren't such a Took about his sisters...

Leot had already dug a length of rope out of one of the saddlebags. Fastred fastened the rope to his saddle, took his pony's reins, led him nearly to where the track had broken, and threw the rope towards Frodo.

'Can you get it?' he called.

'I see it,' Frodo answered. 'Don't pull me up.'

'What do you mean?'

Frodo looked up. 'Do you see Ferdi?' he said.

Fastred swept the bottom of the cleft once, twice. He shook his head. 'No.'

'All right, then,' Frodo went on. 'He's got to be below me. Keep the rope steady; I'm going to lower myself to the bottom and have a look about.'

Leotred came up behind Fastred; he had tied his own pony to some roots protruding from the cliffside. Now he said urgently to Fastred, 'Ferdi called it a trap. Don't you think we ought to be a bit more circumspect? Maybe leave off the shouting?'

Fastred nodded. 'Just one more shout,' he said, and looking over, he called, 'Frodo!' The other looked up again, and Fastred made the hand signal Ferdi had taught them, repeating it for good measure until he saw the other nod.

Frodo reached over to grasp the rope. Fastred steadied it as it took his weight, while Leotred soothed the pony, so that it would stand fast and not pull against Frodo's weight, as its instincts urged.

Frodo lowered himself down the rope, landing nearly atop his dead pony, hardly visible, covered with dust as it was. He could feel the grit in his own hair, coating his skin. Ferdi would be difficult to find at best. He risked a low-voiced call. 'Ferdi!'

No answer came, and he began to work his way along the rockfall, finding Ferdi's pony next, or at least one of its legs protruding from the rubble. He'd started to clear away some of the debris, looking for the rider, when he heard a moan a few feet away.

Following the sound, he found the dust-covered chancellor, well-buried in the slide. Launching himself to his feet, he waved both arms, receiving an answering wave from above.

He had half-uncovered the unconscious hobbit when Leotred came up to him, having slid down the rope after taking his bag of supplies from his saddle.

'He's alive,' Frodo muttered, and as Leotred bent to check his patient, he kept pulling away the dirt and rock with his hands. As he uncovered Ferdi's legs, he gasped and fell back, whispering 'Leot!'

The healer hobbit looked over and exhaled sharply as if he'd been punched in the stomach. 'No,' he said softly, pain in his tone. One of the legs was badly broken, bone showing plainly through the skin.

Leotred straightened abruptly. 'Keep digging,' he said to Frodo, and turned to rummage in his bag, bringing out a stub of a pencil and a piece of crumpled paper. Smoothing it out, he wrote quickly. He scouted the ground for a rock of the right size and shape, wrapped the paper around it, tied it with a short length of bandage, and stood to wave to Fastred.

At his brother's answering wave, he threw the stone upwards, narrowly missing Fastred's head. 'He'll go around to the tower, grab some boards from that shed--they'll do for splints--and come down the other trail,' Leotred explained to Frodo.

Ferdi moaned again, and Leotred said, 'Ferdi? Can you hear me?'

'I've ears, haven't I?' muttered the chancellor.

'Do you know who I am?' the healer pressed.

Ferdi opened one eye. 'Don't you know who you are?' he demanded. 'Did you hit your head?'

'No, I'm well,' Leotred said. 'What we're trying to determine here is if you hit your head.'

'Damned funny way of determining it,' Ferdi muttered, closing the eye again.

'Do you know where we are?' Leotred asked.

'Don't start that again,' Ferdi said truculently. 'I know where we are, I know what happened, I'm calling myself twenty kinds of fool for walking into this with my eyes open.'

'That's a relief,' Frodo said.

'Glad you think so,' Ferdi grumbled. He started to try to pull himself up on his elbows, only to collapse again.

'Don't try to move,' Leotred said belatedly.

'Now he tells me,' Ferdi said to the sky, then to the healer, 'Do you want to give me the rest of the news now? ...or are you saving it to savour over tea and crumpets?'

'Your leg is badly broken,' Leotred said.

'I'd guessed that,' Ferdi began, but the other interrupted him.

'Will you stay quiet long enough for me to finish?' the healer said, uncharacteristically sharp.

The chancellor subsided.

'That's better,' Leotred said. 'It's going to have to come off, I'm afraid, but this is neither the time nor the place.'

'You're right about that,' Ferdi said. 'We walked into a trap, and we need to busy ourselves making sure we're not in it when the trappers come back to see what they've caught.'

'I'm going to splint the leg for now,' Leotred said. 'I figured as much; we've got to move you out of here as soon as we can. Fastred ought to be along with some boards from that shed in an hour or three; he'll be taking the long way down.'

'At least going down will be faster than the climb,' Frodo said.

'Yes, but he'll be taking care, watching out,' Leotred said. 'If someone wasn't alerted by the noise, well, they might come along and notice that the trail is gone and start looking about.'

'Which brings me to my point,' Ferdi said. 'How many ponies fell?'

'Two, yours and mine,' Frodo answered.

'Find them, dig them out enough to get the harness off, bury them again. If they're found it might appear they strayed and set off the slide all by themselves.'

Leotred completed his examination. 'Looks as if the leg is our worst trouble,' he said. 'You're breathing well, and not losing much blood.'

'Such reassurance,' Ferdi said. 'Pardon me for not dancing in delight.'

Leotred dug a bottle from his bag, unstoppered it, and held it to Ferdi's lips. 'Drink,' he said.

'It's not Ent draught, is it?' Ferdi said.

'You know we used the last of it on Regi,' Leotred answered.

'That's a mercy,' the chancellor said, and drank. He sighed, and said, 'Water from that spring. Very refreshing. Now you lads go dig out those ponies whilst we're waiting for Fastred.'

Their hands were scraped and bleeding by the time the task was done, but they gathered the tack and saddle bags and scraped away their tracks to and from the bodies, leaving the ponies half-buried as if the slide had left them that way.

Shortly after they'd finished, Fastred arrived. He left the two remaining ponies tied at the edge of the slide and worked his way across the loose rock and dirt to them.

'How is he?' he asked, handing his brother a board he'd chopped out of the door to the shed.

'I've seen better days,' Ferdi answered for himself.

'Bite this,' Leotred said, giving him a wadded piece of cloth, and Ferdi lifted it to his mouth, gritting his teeth into the cloth as the board was placed under him and the leg bound securely to it.

'There,' Leotred said, 'that's the best I can do for the present.' He met Ferdi's eyes. 'It'll have to come off,' he repeated.

'You said that already, but I don't fancy your chopping away at it with our little hatchet, so I shall await your pleasure,' the chancellor answered, face pale and beaded with perspiration. 'Now we must needs get under cover.'

'How about the cave?' Frodo asked. 'It is out of the way, and not too far from the spring.'

'Good thinking, Frodo,' Ferdi said. 'And once you get me there, one of you can ride for help.'

They eased him onto a blanket and carried him to the spring, then while Leotred flooded the open wound with the icy spring water, Fastred went back to the slide to brush away any tracks they might have left.

With Ferdi's wounded leg as clear of dust as could be, under the circumstances, Leotred and the others took Ferdi the rest of the way to the cave, laying him gently down on a double layer of blankets.

'Now you worry about chills,' Ferdi said, still shivering from the spring water. Leotred ignored him, busy wrapping the last of their blankets around him.

'Prop me up,' Ferdi said.

'I don't want to move you again,' Leotred answered.

'I'll move myself if I have to. Prop me up,' Ferdi insisted.

Leotred rolled his eyes at the others, but they carefully pulled the blankets back until the chancellor was sitting propped against a rock.

'Thanks,' he breathed. 'Makes me feel less helpless, somehow.' This was quite a confession, from him, and the others made no answer in order to spare his feelings.

'All right, now,' Leotred said. 'Fas, you ride back to Greenholm, I'll give you a list of what to fetch back...'

'No,' Ferdi interrupted. 'Fastred needs to stay, he's the best shot of you three.' He shifted uncomfortably. 'There's going to be trouble sooner than later, I'll warrant.'

'Frodo, then?' Leotred said uncertainly, but the chancellor shook his head.

'What all do I need you for?' he demanded of the healer. 'You've washed the wound, you've splinted the leg, there's naught more to do but wait. You'd be better served to ride to Greenholm yourself, gather your supplies.

'Stop by the guardsmen's outpost, bring them back with you. Tell them we've ruffians about, I'm sure they wouldn't mind a little excursion to the hills with the prospect of some hunting in the offing.' He didn't care which young hobbit rode off to Greenholm, really, but he did not need the healer hovering over him for the next two or three days, a constant reminder that the leg would "come off" as soon as the rescue party arrived.

'I...' Leotred began, but Fastred pulled him aside. 'He's right,' he whispered. 'You'll know best which supplies to get, and there's naught to be done but watch for fever and keep him drinking, true? Even I know that much.'

'Take both ponies,' the chancellor broke in. 'You can ride one and lead the other, and switching every hour or so, they'll go better for you, stay fresher.'

Somehow, without his quite knowing how it happened, Leotred found himself not long after, astride one pony, leading the other, setting off across the wide plain towards home.

***

A/N: Notes from original posting:

Note to Readers:

The Muse is plugging along at Merlin. We have broken through to already-written material, half a dozen chapters' worth, so you may look forward to regular updates for the next two weeks (every other day) as long as ff.net cooperates.

Dana, I'm starting to smell violets, myself. Rather a nice scent, actually.

runaround, perhaps the reason is because you are an astute reader.

LadyJea, good to see you! Don't die, please. There's altogether too much dying...

Xena, we've turned the corner. The roller coaster is starting to descend the first big hill now. Are you buckled in?

FantasyFan, the Muse thanks you for topping off her pina colada. No wonder she's humming sad songs and looking smug. Is Pip feeling the weight of responsibility so much? Yes.

Aemilia Rose, yes, poor Rose... but it could have been much worse.

Look for a new chapter to this story, if ff.net agrees, in two days. Warning: we have entered rough waters, and more breakers are ahead!

Look for the newest chapter to "Flames", in case you are following that story, on the morrow. And thank you for your patience.

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