Chapter 10: Traps Sprung

“Gandalf!” Radgast the Brown whispered urgently from his cell in Isengard.

“Yes, I’m here,” the elder wizard said. “And you should not be.”

“I’m sorry, Gandalf, truly I am. The attack came so suddenly.” He hung his head, then said, “I grieve for Saruman.”

Gandalf smiled. “As do I, old friend, as do I. But perhaps a second chance will not be overlooked.”

“I hope not by you, either, my old friend,” came the voice of the corrupted white wizard behind him.

Gandalf turned to see his former master with unbroken staff come toward him. The cold fire in Saruman’s eyes confirmed to the ancient Maia that a second chance would indeed be overlooked. He closed his eyes just a moment in sorrow, then brought out his own staff.

“Saruman, must you bow to capturing the innocent to bring me back?” Gandalf asked. “Release those that have no quarrel with you.”

Saruman walked closer and bared his teeth in would have once been a smile had not Sauron twisted his heart and soul. “You came as though I had called you by name, Gandalf. I know you would. You are too easily led by your heart.”

“And you no longer have a heart to be led by,” Gandalf the White said. “Your reason has fled as well. Do you not see, Saruman, that Eru is granting you another chance? Why waste it and become once again the victim of a murderous servant and even worse master?”

“You also are given another chance. Will you also throw away so lightly what you denied yourself before? We could reign supreme, my friend, you and I. Supreme! Or do you want to go through another death?”

The power of Saruman’s voice held no power over Gandalf. “I am happy to be but a servant of the One who created me. I have no desire to reign. You are but a servant as well, Saruman, and even a lower class than I, a servant of a servant of the darkest evil. Don’t labor any longer under the delusion that he would give you his power or even share it with you.”

Saruman roared with anger. A flash of light from his staff that struck out toward Gandalf. The latter countered it with his own staff, angling it back toward his former master, purposely over his head, to shatter the chair behind him. “So goes your power if you choose to follow the dark. All else will fall and finally you, into the pit designed for ones such as yourself.”

Saruman’s features contorted into a death’s head smile. “Darkness and death await you as well, my old friend. Sauron will not lose this time. The halfing will not survive a second test. No creature could.”

Gandalf hid his own fears that his former master may be right. “That is not for you to decide. You’d best be concerned about your own future, not his.”

“And you with yours.”

Radgast was helpless to help his friend in the battle that ensued. He was nearly blinded by the lighting flashes between the two. It was a horrible battle that no mortal could have long survived. He was grieved to see Gandalf thrown down at the last, both wizards bleeding from various wounds. An orc came to drag the fallen one away. Saruman smiled grimly in triumph.

* * *

When consciousness returned to Gandalf, he looked out from his extremely cramped prison at the very bottom of the deep cavern at Isengard. He was stooped, chin hitting his upraised knees, back hard against the ceiling of his cell, forced to watch through the bars as Saruman’s orcs again worked their monstrous acts.

Saruman placed Gandalf’s staff at the base of the cell, just outside the bars. So close, so far away. “No eagle will reach you here, my friend,” Saruman said and walked away. “You can’t even reach your staff.”

Gandalf didn’t respond. His straits were dire indeed, but despair hadn’t even begun to be thought of. He knew he would saved. Orcs approached, leering, taunting, wanting to have their fun at poking at him through the bars. A few brief words of Warding stopped that, but not before a gash had been cut open over the wizard’s left eyebrow.

“Oh, Gandalf, I am sorry,” Radgast said in the cell next to him.

“It is no concern, my friend,” the elder wizard assured.

He looked toward the small messenger that flitted around in the cavern and Called it toward him. He gave it his message and watched it fly away. Then he waited. He didn’t sleep through the din of the machines and the harsh jeers of the orcs.

Then finally the sign he had waiting for. He could not move, he could barely breathe, but he readied himself the best he could.

The eagle as it came down toppled many orcs by the spread of its great wings and the force of its passage. Several of the braver or more foolish orcs aimed their arrows at the outstretched wings, but those felt like pinpricks if they were felt at all. The eagle was not deterred from its course. It hovered at Gandalf’s cell and pulled at the bars of his cell with its mighty talons and beat it wings.

The bars protested loudly, then with a sharp, rending clang fell aside to the ground. Gandalf crawled out, barely able to stand at first his muscles were so cramped. The bars on Radgast’s cage were broken next.

Gandalf reached out his hand to help the other wizard. “Come along, my friend. Gwaihir can take us both.”

The eagle landed for a moment. More arrows found their marks on its wings and body and it snorted angrily. Its talons tore deep into any orc unfortunate to be too close. The rest fled, firing their last shots before running away. Gandalf picked up his staff and pulled himself onto the eagle’s back, already feeling better. He reached down to help Radgast up. Soon they were flying toward Rivendell. Radgast was dropped off in the woods with the birds and animals he loved so well and then Gwaihir continued onto the Elven haven.