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The Thrum of Tookish Bowstrings, Part 1  by Lindelea

Chapter 14. Difficulties 

In the interest of historical accuracy, Ferdi and Farry set out from the Great Smials in the middle night on pony-back. They led their saddled ponies on foot out of the courtyard of the Smials, hoofs wrapped in cloth to minimize the noise of their leaving, only mounting after they reached the soft grassy verge. Instead of riding through the streets of Tuckborough, they skirted the town and headed into the surrounding hills to pick up a thin, wandering path through desolate sheep-country that trended generally eastward, even as Ferdi had in the time of the Troubles, for secrecy had been a key to his safety in those days. 

Of course, their departure was hardly secret! – Pippin had made sure that Hilly spread plenty of Talk throughout the Smials about Farry’s history lessons, and how the lad wished to see at first hand how the courageous efforts of the Tooks had kept their homeland free of ruffians. The Tooks in their pride found this attitude eminently sensible on the part of the son of the Thain. In addition, Ferdi had sent word to Hally and Rosemary Bolger to expect them in five days’ time. ‘Give her a chance to bake up some marvellous treats to welcome us to her doorstep,’ Ferdi had said with a grin. He considered his sister to be one of the finest bakers in the Shire.

Farry, having tasted her cooking, agreed.

They followed the wandering track up hill and down, splashing through small streams and skirting rock falls, talking together when their way allowed them to ride side by side along a grassy stretch. It helped to pass the time, and kept young Faramir awake as the stars wheeled in the sky above them. 

The Sun was throwing her promise into the eastern skies when their ponies reached a sheltered hollow near the top of a great hill. Ferdi slipped from his saddle and told Spatter to stand, and Farry did the same with his pony, Spatter’s half-sister. Since they were both Ferdi’s, and he’d trained them himself, their riders could be confident of finding them where they left them, without the need for hobbles or ties. ‘Come, Farry,’ the hunter said now, shouldering his quiver and bow. ‘Not far now.’

Though he was tired from the sleepless night, Faramir nodded and checked his own weapons. Though he was not much of an archer these days, he could hit a mark at close range. Thus, Ferdi had insisted that they go armed on this journey, and the Thain had agreed.

‘I still don’t understand why we’re armed now, when you weren’t then,’ Farry returned to an earlier argument as they trudged the rest of the way to the top of the hill, careful not to slip on the frosted grass. Away from the warmth of his pony, the icy air felt bracing, bringing him to sudden wakefulness and leaving him feeling as if he could keep on through the day without need for sleep.

‘Remember, Lotho had claimed all the deer for himself not long after the turning of the year, saying he was “protecting” them from the depredations of over-hunting, and so it was his view that only a renegade hobbit would carry a bow,’ Ferdi said. ‘Not to mention, his ruffians were gathering all the weapons they could lay their hands on at the time. Those Men, once they had felt the sting of Tookish arrows, believed that any hobbit with a bow was a Took or under Tookish influence. Thus, it was less dangerous to slip through the wilderlands unarmed than to arouse the suspicions of Lotho’s louts and be thrown into the Lockholes on sight.’

‘But now...’ Farry said.

‘But now, young hobbit,’ Ferdi answered, ‘we are travelling through wild country...’

‘It was just as wild back then,’ Farry countered.

‘Ah, but I was not travelling with the son of the Thain back then,’ Ferdi said. ‘Had Pippin not already slipped away to follow Frodo, I doubt his father would have let him anywhere near the borderlands, where ruffians might seize him and Lotho might use him to turn Paladin to his will.’ He levelled a serious gaze at Faramir. ‘But I am travelling with the son of the Thain now, and I am pledged to keep you safe, young master.’

‘You haven’t called me that in years,’ Farry said.

Ferdi snorted. ‘Perhaps there’s a reason for that,’ he said, then changed the subject. ‘Be that as it may,’ and he stopped and waved a hand to encompass the view, ‘behold – the Eastern borderlands of the Tookland. Or, as we liked to call it then, “No Man’s Land”.’ He chuckled. ‘You cannot see the traps now, of course, but you could not see them then, either. They were well hidden, though old Brockbank told me that sometimes they might notice movement in a copse and, looking closer, see one of Lotho’s Big Men dangling by one foot from a tree, wildly waving and likely shouting for help. His eyes were far-seeing, that hobbit’s were.’

Farry caught his breath at the sight of lower hills rolling away before him, dotted with copses that rose above the icy mists in ever-growing numbers until they merged together into the unbroken forested mass of the Woody End. He thought he could imagine the sparkle of the distant Brandywine on the horizon, though he knew that in reality the river was much too far away to be seen even from this high vantage. 

As they watched, the Sun rose above the horizon, at first red and rosy but soon dazzling to the eyes. Ferdi pointed to a spot where smoke was serenely rising on one side of a nearby hill. ‘That’s the farm where I’ve arranged to leave our ponies until we return to claim them.’ He turned his head to note Farry’s nod and continued, ‘As we talked about, my pony threw a shoe, that trip where I ended up bringing Estella with me as I returned to the Tookland, and so I left her here with old Brockbank and his assistants and went forth on foot.’ He paused. ‘O’ course, we won’t be leaving the ponies here, with no one to watch over them.’ One side of his mouth lifted in a grin as he added, ‘If you prefer, we can go down to the farm a-foot, leading the ponies.’

‘No need for that,’ Faramir said. He was not so committed to accuracy as to insist on walking when he could ride. He’d be doing a lot of walking over the next fortnight as it was, more than ten leagues each way. Perhaps double that distance, or even more than that, considering they’d be winding about, avoiding encounters with anyone, just as Ferdi had done in the past. He had not only worked to avoid Lotho’s Big Men but had also avoided contact with hobbits so that no one might mention their seeing him to a ruffian, either on accident or a-purpose, and set Men on the hunt for him. 

‘So,’ Ferdi said. ‘Not much more to see here.’ Still, he turned and began to walk down the eastern slope, and Farry followed. They came to a small opening in the hillside that was guarded by a large rock. ‘It is well-hidden, even today,’ Ferdi said, ‘though not quite so cosy inside as it was back then.’ They pushed their way past some brush that was growing up around the entrance, pulled a battered door open wide to let in light and air, and stopped to look into the gloom beyond. Ferdi’s voice echoed as he added, ‘The Watchers had to be able to easily see the Eastern borderland without being seen themselves. Aldebrand considered digging their shelter on the western side, but then the ruffians might have spotted movement over the hillside as they took turns taking up the Watch. So when the Chief Engineer found this great rock in his survey of the hill, he hollowed out a cavern behind it, to give them cover.’

The door creaked on its hinges as Ferdi swung it to and fro. ‘Of course the hinges were well-oiled in those days,’ he said. ‘Silent as a swooping owl.’ He turned Farry back away from the doorway and gestured at the concealing boulder. ‘D’you see how the rock would have blocked any sight of the door opening? Even so,’ he said, ‘it was only open during the daylight, that no lamplight might betray the Watchers’ presence, and they kept warm with cloaks and blankets and ate cold food brought in by night.’

Farry shivered, and his uncle gave him a sympathetic grin. ‘Aldi put in a hearth – he was always thorough in his work, that one, may his dreams ever be peaceful ones – but I don’t think they ever used it. The smoke might have given away their location to Lotho’s louts, and knowing those Men, they would have been determined to hunt down the Watchers and wreak their revenge.’

Farry shivered. ‘That’s why you called this place “the post of greatest danger”, when we were talking in the study,’ he said.

‘Aye, lad,’ Ferdi answered. ‘Only the bravest and steadiest Tooks held the Watchers’ posts – they had to deal with endless boredom as they exercised unblinking vigilance. And they’d be the first to fall in any large-scale attack, or if the ruffians were able to discern their hiding place.’ He employed an old Tookish phrase of welcome now as he propped the rickety door open and beckoned to the lad. ‘Come ben.’

Farry thought he could distinguish some shapes in the deepening darkness. These sprang into solid reality as the hunter sparked a torch to life: a rustic table and chairs, broken bed frames lining one wall, a small hearth. The walls and floor were rough-hewn dirt and stone. ‘This was old Brockbank’s post, along with his assistants,’ Ferdi said, moving the torch to illuminate the small room. ‘He’d worked as a shepherd, watching your grandfather’s sheep, but as he’d grown too old to wander in the time of the Troubles, he volunteered to take this dangerous position.’

‘It seems cosy enough,’ Farry said dubiously.

‘I slept away the daylight hours here, the times I slipped across the borders into the Outer Shire,’ Ferdi said, ‘and set out again after the Sun sought her bed, that our movement down the hillside, my pony’s and mine, would not be seen by any lingering ruffians.’ He laughed at the face Farry made, seeing the dusty ruin left by years of neglect. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘We’ll take a few hours’ sleep at the farm where we leave off the ponies, and then we’ll continue. We can walk by night if you wish,’ and he aimed a calculating glance at Faramir, ‘or we can walk at least some of the time, or even all of it, by daylight so that you can see the countryside.’

‘While I would like to walk by night,’ Faramir said slowly, ‘as that is what you did...’ His brow furrowed as he considered. ‘I suppose we could do the journey a second time by daylight, so that I can see the countryside...?’

He could swear Ferdi sighed, though the hobbit turned a blank, polite face to him as he said in an even tone, ‘Whatever you wish, young master.’

‘Ha,’ Farry said, though he didn’t explain. He thought he’d worked out why the Thain’s archers used the honorific with him sometimes, and Ferdi had just confirmed his private theory. Instead, he said, ‘We don’t have to make the journey twice, I think. It will be enough to travel part of the distance by night, and the rest by day, and have the best of all worlds.’

He looked around the room again. ‘You slept here?’ he said. ‘And Shepherd Brockbank and his assistants lived here?’ The dismay in his tone communicated his opinion of this “smial” that was little more than a hole in the hillside.

Ferdi laughed, but it had a grim sound. ‘As I mentioned, he was a Watcher,’ he said. ‘He and a few others took turns watching for signs of ruffians to the East. If they saw movement below, they’d send a messenger to the archers to let them know that Men were testing the defences again.’

‘Didn’t the traps and archers keep them out?’

‘He was also watching for a mass of many Men marching together, Farry,’ Ferdi said more quietly. ‘Lotho fumed and fretted about the Tookish resistance, and his Big Men boasted that they were going to march upon the Tookland in overwhelming numbers and make an example of the Thain and his family.’ He nodded, his eyes sober. ‘We took that kind of talk seriously, and even more so after word came to us that a new Boss had arrived, named Sharkey, and things were growing ever-worse in the Shire proper.’

‘And did they...?’ Farry asked.

Ferdi shook his head. ‘Thankfully, the Travellers returned and stirred the Shire-folk to action,’ he said. ‘But I’ve no doubt it was coming, Farry. I heard some of the ruffians’ plans myself, from their own mouths, and their boasts had the ring of Truth to them.’ His eyes were haunted with shadows from the past. ‘Your father, and your Uncle Merry, and Mayor Sam with them, saved many lives of Tooks and Tooklanders, coming when they did.’ His gaze bored into the younger hobbit. ‘The lives of all your family among them.’ He took a shuddering breath. ‘To make an example of Pippin’s father, mother and sisters,’ he repeated. ‘Farry, you’ve seen something of the evils of Men.’

‘I have,’ Faramir said. But he was bothered that his uncle had seemed to leave out one name from his narration. ‘And Frodo...’

Ferdi shook his head. ‘I don’t see that Frodo saved all that many lives,’ he said, ‘except, of course, for the lives of the ruffians that threw down their weapons at Bywater.’ He held up a staying hand when Farry would have answered him indignantly. ‘I’m not talking about what he did in the Southlands, Farry,’ he said. ‘That was a wonder, and a marvel, and though it is difficult to grasp even now, after hearing Pippin’s stories, I know that Frodo saved all the free peoples at great cost to himself – Hobbits and Dwarves, Men and Elves alike.’

He took a deep breath and shrugged tension from his shoulders before continuing, ‘But when he returned, I think, from what your father has said, that he was too weary and sick at heart and had seen too much death and pain in his travels. He told your father and the others that he wanted no more killing.’ Ferdi sighed. ‘And in the end, he saved the Tookish archers from the shame of shooting down unarmed opponents. He knew, somehow, the terrible harm that it would do to our very souls... and he saved us from that...’ (he was speaking of his fellow archers, such as Reni and Tolly and Hilly, for he himself had been struck down and left for dead earlier in the battle) ‘...and so that is what we choose to remember him for.’

With an air of finality that told Faramir the discussion was at an end, Ferdi turned back towards the entrance. ‘Come along.’ Farry took a last look around before the torch was extinguished, thinking of the brave hobbits who had guarded this approach to Tookish lands.

‘One more thing to see here, I think,’ Ferdi said as they walked back up to the top of the hill, to reclaim their waiting ponies on the other side of the crest. He stopped and gestured at a jumbled outcropping of rocks on the western downslope immediately below the crown of the hill. ‘Here is where the bonfire was laid,’ he said.

‘Bonfire?’ Farry said, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

Ferdi laughed. ‘O aye, young hobbit,’ he said. ‘Biggest bonfire you ever saw! The wood was piled higher than a hobbit’s head, it was, soaked in oil and ready to light at a moment’s notice. If a Watcher saw an army of Men approaching, he was to pour more oil over it and throw on a torch. There,’ he said, pointing to a distant hilltop, ‘and there, and there... more hobbits waited to light their beacons, to spread the news into the heart of the Tookland and to the bounds, to Muster for the fight of our lives.’ He smiled. ‘Your da told me of seeing the beacons of Gondor,’ he said, ‘calling neighbouring lands to her defence. But our beacons were only for the Tooks,’ he added. ‘We knew all too well that there were no others to come to our aid.’

***  

(Next update: Friday)   





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