Chapter 27. Convocation

’Rusty – said all that?’ Ferdi said, sounding humbled. ‘I – I never knew...’

’He did,’ Farry responded simply. The two sat in silence for a few more moments, and then he continued the tale. ‘The next thing I knew, Sandy was bending over me, his hand on my shoulder, and I’d fallen asleep for true, and Fortinbrand was standing in the doorway, and he was different somehow.’

‘Different – how?’

‘I don’t know how to describe it,’ Farry said. ‘He – it was as if he’d been filled with energy and purpose. ...not that he wasn’t purposeful before, but it was different. In the time before, it seemed to me as if he knew the answers to all the questions before he even asked them of me –‘

‘Which he most likely did,’ Ferdi agreed.

‘– and he expected me to answer a certain way, and then when I didn’t, it had surprised him. Surprised him so much,’ Farry added slowly, ‘that he went away for a time.’ Speaking more quickly again, he went on. ‘And now, he fairly crackled with energy, like – like Cloudtail, before a race, how he dances under the saddle and seems eager to be off and running.’

‘Off and running,’ Ferdi mused.

‘He told Sandy to make sure I was properly dressed for company, and to brush my hair and properly brush up my toes... which was puzzling indeed, for it was just us, after all, Sandy and myself and the Querier – and Rusty, who could pop out of the wall at any moment, it seemed, though nobody was supposed to know that.’

The moment Sandy straightened up from brushing the hair on Farry’s feet into some semblance of order, Fortinbrand took the lad’s hand. ‘Well now, Farry-lad,’ he said. ‘We must hurry. The Convocation will be starting all too soon, I fear, and we have business.’

‘Business? For the lad?” Sandy said in startlement, and then he quickly assumed his emotionless mien and gave a slight bow and murmured apology.

‘No harm done,’ Fortinbrand said. ‘Indeed, Sandy, I thank you that the lad is fed and rested and ready to face what lies before him.’

And Farry had a vision of Sam and Frodo, toiling up the side of the Fiery Mountain, though they’d hardly been fed and rested. He shivered.

Fortinbrand noticed. ‘Is it well with you, lad?’ To Sandy, he said, ‘Does he need a jacket or jumper?’

Farry was glad in that moment that Sandy was not a minder. He was able to evade smothering layers with a quick, ‘No, I’m fine, really – I just had a tickle go up my back.’

‘Fine,’ Fortinbrand echoed with a squeeze for Farry’s hand. ‘We’ll just be going, then.’

He propelled them rapidly out of the Thain’s apartments and down the corridor, barely acknowledging the escort standing ready outside the Thain’s study as they went, though Farry, looking back over his shoulder, saw Isenard staring after them, perhaps curious, though the hobbit’s expression was overall bleak. They turned a corner, down another corridor – quickly enough that Farry began to be out of breath as they pulled up in front of an anonymous door. 

The Querier bent down to address the panting lad. ‘Farry,’ he said seriously. ‘No matter what happens today, we will see justice done.’

‘No matter what...?’ Farry said, curiosity warring with worry at the older hobbit’s words.

‘No matter what,’ Fortinbrand said firmly. He stood up straight then, rapped twice at the door, and then opened and entered.

An older hobbit rose to greet them. ‘Come in,’ he said. ‘Shut the door. Now, what is all this about? I thought you had collected all the information necessary for the Tooks to administer justice!’

‘Not justice, Erlingar, not from what I’ve found out from the lad, this morning, whilst asking my final questions,’ Fortinbrand said. ‘And for that, I blame myself. It seems I ought to have started with the lad himself, in this case. As it was, I nearly didn’t question him at all...!’ And then he stopped, as if suddenly remembering his manners, and said, ‘Young Master Faramir, if I may present to you Erlingar Took.’

So Farry knew that, by protocol as he understood it, he outranked this elderly hobbit. At least for the moment. At least so long as his da remained Thain. He bowed properly, adding a shade more to the bow to convey respect, and said, ‘At your service.’

He did not say, ‘and at your family’s service,’ for they were both Tooks, after all.

Erlingar’s eyebrows went up at that, and Fortinbrand nodded in confirmation. ‘As I told you,’ he said.

‘Well then, lad, sit down,’ Erlingar said, indicating one of the chairs. Farry perched on the edge as the adults took chairs of their own. Then he waited. If he waited long enough, one of the adults was likely to speak and perhaps provide more insight into what was happening than if Farry were to prattle on like a child.

Erlingar exchanged a few glances with the Querier as the silence stretched out, and he said at last, ‘I see what you mean.’ And then he sat forward on his chair and rested his hands on his knees. ‘Begin,’ he said to the Querier.

‘Farry,’ Fortinbrand said, and Farry turned a face full of polite inquiry towards him, which for some reason made the hobbit smile. ‘It is very important that we are clear on this next point.’

Farry nodded, though he hadn’t an inkling what the hobbit was talking about.

‘Have I influenced you in any way?’ Fortinbrand said.

‘Influenced?’ Farry said, puzzled.

‘Have I filled your mouth with words to say, or your ears with my thoughts, that you might think them after me?’

Farry considered these questions seriously, aware of the slight frown on Erlingar’s face, a frown that grew in intensity as the silence stretched out. And was that anxiety he saw in Fortinbrand?

Truly, Fortinbrand had given him some serious food for thought, but... Farry shook his head at last. He didn’t feel influenced at all, if he understood the term. ‘I can think my own thoughts,’ he said, though it sounded odd to his ears, so he tried again. ‘I have enough of my own words to say, I don’t need anybody else’s.’

He thought old Erlingar stifled a chuckle at that, but all the old hobbit said was, ‘Do you find him a truthful child, Fortinbrand?’

‘I have found no deceit in him,’ the Querier replied, ‘except, perhaps, when he was laying his plans to run away.’

‘So you did run away?’ Erlingar said. ‘There’s been some doubt about that, whether your parents were to blame for you choosing to go off without a word to anyone, or whether Ferdi and Tolly actually were in league together to carry you off for whatever nefarious purposes they might have been entertaining. Even collusion with ruffians, which went wrong when their plans were foiled by Regi, intercepting Ferdi’s note to Tolly. So the ruffians retreated, to lick their wounds, and returned in force to take their revenge on Ferdi for failing them, and to take the son of the Thain in truth, to move the Tooks to their will...’

Farry’s mouth had opened as this recitation went on, and as Erlingar came to the end, he gulped and said, ‘No! No, that wasn’t the way of it at all!’

Fortinbrand got up from his seat and came to place a steadying hand on Farry’s shoulder. ‘No, lad, but that is only one of the threads of the Talk that is running wild in the Smials, and beyond.’

‘The Talk,’ Farry whispered. He took a shaking breath, gathered the scraps of his courage, and looked Erlingar straight in the eye. ‘I ran away,’ he said clearly. ‘It was the only thing I could think to do. They... they forced me to it...’

‘Who forced you to it? Your parents?’ Erlingar said, his gaze penetrating.

‘Leading the witness,’ Fortinbrand said under his breath, and colour rose in Erlingar’s cheeks, though the older hobbit had the grace to acknowledge the Querier’s correction with a nod. 

To the lad, Fortinbrand added, ‘Steady, Farry.’ His hand gave a squeeze to Faramir’s shoulder. I have confidence in you. You can do this thing. Whatever it was he was supposed to be doing.

Farry took a deep breath now and sat straighter. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I love my parents, and they love me, I know they love me, and that’s why I had to run away, because the Talk was hurting them... I didn’t want the Talk to hurt them anymore!’ There. He’d said it.

Erlingar made a gesture of some sort to Fortinbrand, though he spoke no further, and the Querier said quietly, ‘Tell us, Farry. You must have overheard something, then, did you? Was it your parents you heard, talking about how hurtful the gossip was? Or was it someone else?’

‘It was Tooks,’ Farry said bitterly, shaking his head. ‘O, they say, little pitchers have big ears, though I don’t think they really believe it, the way they talk so freely, about things they have no knowledge of. And it seems to me...’ he trailed off and bit his lip.

‘Go on,’ Erlingar said quietly, and Fortinbrand gave Farry’s shoulder another gentle squeeze.

So Farry finished the thought. ‘It seems to me that the less they know about a matter, the more they think they have to say!’

The adults were silent at that. Erlingar’s eyes went wide, and he looked from Farry’s face to the Querier, and evidently the two grown-ups shared a long glance. And then Erlingar gave a nod, and Fortinbrand asked the next question. ‘What sorts of things did you hear them say?’

Farry was breathing shallowly now, and trying not to break down in tears. ‘Worthless,’ he whispered.

‘What was that?’ Erlingar said, leaning forward more.

A little louder, Farry repeated, ‘Worthless boy. He’s a trial and a plague to his mother! Why, how can the Thain manage the Tookland, when he cannot manage even one small lad, I ask you? Better off without him! Worthless, trouble-making, ne’er-do-well, he’ll end a wastrel, just as his father was as a tween... best thing he ever did was to run away to the Buckland... why in the world did they bring him back again?’

‘Enough,’ Erlingar said, his voice still quiet, but his eyes were snapping with anger. He looked to Fortinbrand again. ‘I believe I understand now.’ He shook his head. ‘There is so much more to this than we’d ever imagined.’ 

‘I thought you ought to know,’ Fortinbrand said, sounding humble, and even... somewhat less assured than he’d seemed to Farry’s senses, up to this point.

‘You were right to bring this to my attention,’ Erlingar said, and he rose from his chair. ‘I must speak to Rudigrim before the convocation begins... This changes the entire face of the matter that has been set before us...’

Somewhat creakily, he crouched before Faramir and looked the young hobbit in the eye, but it seemed he was still speaking to Fortinbrand as he said, ‘I have never – never, mind you! – heard of a child called as a witness in a convocation of Tooks.’ He looked up over Farry’s head to the Querier. ‘Do you think he can be a creditable witness?’

‘I hope so,’ Fortinbrand said. ‘For all our sakes.’

Erlingar nodded and looked back to Farry. ‘Very well, then,’ he said. ‘Put him behind one of the service doors to the kitchen... have one of the escort stand with him there, after they’ve escorted the accused to the front of the hall, until it’s time to call him forth. The Tooks will likely take a dim view of us springing him on them like this... But Rudi and I will do what we can to blunt their ire enough that he may be heard...’

’And so, you know the rest, after the Convocation started,’ Faramir said. ‘Fortinbrand brought me back to Sandy, and asked him to wait with me until I was sent for, and to make sure I had something more to eat and kept my clothes clean. Adelard came for me after he and Haldi and Isen had escorted my da and Tolly and... and you to the great room, and he and I stood listening behind one of the service doors to the kitchens to the preliminaries. And he squeezed my shoulder when he saw me trembling, and told me he didn’t want me to get it into my head to switch the labels on the spice jars, what with the kitchens so dark and deserted at that moment. All the cooks and helpers who were Tooks were seated in the great room, and all the ones who weren’t Tooks were confined to their quarters until the convocation should be over...’

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