Fellowship
Recaptured!: 11. The Council
Aragorn lifted Pippin from the floor and put him back on the
table to finish bandaging his arm. The splint reached from the palm of his hand
to his elbow. Then the ranger bound the hobbit's arm to his body to further
immobilise the injury.
"Do you think we should let him sleep?" Legolas
sat on the table and stroked Pip's hair. "I fear what torment or evil
dreams he may be suffering."
"He is restless and pained." Gimli leaned forward
on his axe to look at the small quivering form. "But perhaps we should
wait for Gandalf."
"Let him sleep for now." Aragorn took a warm
blanket from his pack to wrap around Pippin. "There is the opium I gave
him, that may help somewhat."
Théoden and Gandalf, with Merry asleep on his shoulder,
arrived in the guardroom and Aragorn carefully looked over the other hobbit's
injuries without awakening him. Finding nothing immediately life threatening he
opened Pippin's blanket and carefully placed Merry beside him and wrapped them
up together for warmth.
Gimli had lit a fire in the hearth and found a store of food
that was wholesome and unspoiled and so the strangest mixture of peoples, king,
wizard, dwarf, elf and ranger, sat down to discuss two small hobbits.
They moved the sleeping pair to a cot that had obviously
been used for off-duty guards in the corner of the room, then sat around the
table.
"I fear for them both." Gandalf had given the
others an account of what happened on the Orthanc tower and listened with
growing gravity to Legolas's description of the terrifying mind or vision he
had met inside Pippin's memories.
"Can you not enter Pippin's mind and confront whatever
dwells there?" Legolas suggested. "I would do so myself, but I am not
sure what it is or how to deal with it."
"I am not too certain either, Legolas." Gandalf
shook his head. "But from your description I believe Saruman cast a dark
spell upon Peregrin that opened a path into his mind enabling Sauron to place
his claim. This path was used when he was made to look into the palantír."
"Then does this not endanger the whole
Fellowship?" Aragorn asked. "Frodo's mission would be in Pippin's
mind for Sauron to read."
"No. Saruman had robbed Peregrin of speech and hearing,
as he robbed poor Meriadoc of his sight." Gandalf continued. "A poor
spy that would make him, if he did not know what was happening. I think rather
that when Pippin looked into the palantír he saw the great lidless eye and it
has marked him as Sauron's property, but it sees and speaks only inside
Pippin's mind."
Théoden looked over to where the two hobbits were now
apparently sleeping peacefully, "and what of the other? What of young
Merry?" Though he had just met the hobbit the venerable King of Rohan had
formed an attachment to the brave lad and found he cared greatly for his well
being."
"Much the same thing," Gandalf explained. "He
could see the wraith, although he can see nothing else. A part of him has been
cast into the shadow world of the Dark Lord. The wraith itself claimed exactly
that. But hobbits are outside Saruman's experience. He is not familiar with
their innocence." Gandalf actually smiled a little. "They are so
naïve in their dealings with the world outside their Shire that there is little
that will corrupt or pervert them. They do not crave power or wealth. Their
pleasures are simple and easily obtained, food, pipeweed, each other. A
fearsome enemy such as Sauron has most certainly never encountered such an
adversary before. A fact that is in our favour as he will be unsure how exactly
to deal with them."
"But it is a sore trial for Merry and Pippin."
Gimli said. "Perhaps they will be corrupted by the torture of what is
happening to them."
"Even if that were to happen, we will not abandon
them," said Aragorn, "but how much of a danger are they, to
themselves and to others?"
"I fear the wraith will not cease to pursue them."
Gandalf sighed. "Meriadoc must certainly leave here tonight, as soon as
possible. King Théoden has offered to send him to Edoras and that may be the
safer path for him. With Peregrin I must seek out his inner turmoil and
alleviate it if I may, although a wizard does not lightly enter the mind of a
hobbit. They are too fragile and easily damaged by such contact."
"Pippin is not fit to travel far at the moment in any
case." Aragorn pointed out. "Although his broken bone is now set, he
is still very ill in body, he has a fever and needs rest. He must not be
jostled on the back of a horse for hours on end."
"Merry also needs his wounds tending," Théoden
added. "But to wake him now would seem unkind, he was so exhausted."
"He will have to waken soon," Gandalf said,
"but there is no time to tend to him properly here. He must leave
directly."
"Surely I can remove the fetters from him?" Gimli
took up his borrowed foundry tools. "That at least would be some
help."
"There are many skilled blacksmiths and healers at
Edoras," Théoden assured him. "I will send him with trusted men who
will look after him well and see that the chains are removed and all his hurts
tended to."
"But what of healing?" Legolas asked. "Can
their sight and hearing be restored? Is there nothing you can do Gandalf? Are
you not a wizard of equal status to that of Saruman when he bewitched the
hobbits?"
"It is unlikely that I can remove a spell cast by Saruman,"
Gandalf replied. "But when I learn more, it is possible I can persuade him
to reverse the effects. In the meantime the Ents will keep him safely locked
up.
"There is still much to do in Isengard." Gandalf
continued. "We will aid Treebeard in rounding up any stray orcs or
renegades and, with the assistance of your company of men, My Lord Théoden, we
must secure the entire area before we leave."
"Very well, Théoden rose to leave, "I will summon
two trusty riders, with fast horses to bear Meriadoc to Edoras with all speed
and we shall join him there as soon as the other holbytla is well enough to
travel and Isengard is secured."
"We need to rejoin the war, as soon as we may."
Aragorn said. "Gondor is in deadly peril."
"The Rohirrim will be ready." Théoden replied.
"I will see to it."
