A Burg’s Tale: Chapter 23

I set the bundle of pelts in front of Arinora knowing my blue eyes inside the mask weren’t particularly kind at the moment. She wasted no time in offering the scant payment for my services with a soft, “Thank you, Morchandir.”

It had been three days of hard work running to and from Minas Eriol and its environs, helping both Gadaric, his brother, Hunulf, and a crew of others with several tasks. Dandelion and I had split up to work on them under the idea of many hands making light work; however, once we had collected necessities from the local flora and fauna, things became more difficult. These tasks sent us right into the heart of Minas Eriol, the remaining orc camps, Ost Laden, and Barad Iachiant. By the time the Eglain greeted us with smiles, I was sick to death of goblins, wargs, and especially entirely too-big spiders.

My first sight of one of the leggy, brightly colored arachnids remained fresh in my memory. We had been tasked by Hunulf to burn the bodies of the dead Eglain slain by the spiders beneath Minas Eriol as they fled from the sudden appearance of the goblins that roamed the area in force. “Goblins and wargs sweeping in,” Dandelion had sighed with a sad shake of her head. “Then these creatures…”

I had frowned at her. “What about them? There were spiders infesting the East Path in Archet before it was razed to the ground. I had to get through them there to help as much as I could before the battle.” I had felt the barest of chills creep upon me at the memory of the Black Rider who had shown up in the doomed town.

Dandelion had noticed. She had set a hand on my own with a gentle, “Morchandir. Something terrible happened there. News reached us in Bree fairly quickly even if the tales were all chaotic and confused. I had no idea you’d been involved.”

I’d nodded once. “Maybe I can tell you after we’ve finished here.” I had pulled in a deep breath to release it slowly. “But spiders, Gammer. The ones at Archet were fairly large. Are these any different?”

She hadn’t been the one to answer, however. Instead, it had been one of the Eglain. “The ones in those ruins are nasty sorts. The dark ones, they’re not too bad unless they come in groups. It’s the yellow ones you have to watch for. Might be yellow and red, but it’s that yellow you can see from far off. Those are big as you are.” He had paused as he eyed me up and down. “Well, maybe not you,” he’d then amended. “But normal sized folks.”

Gammer had lifted her brows at him. “I’m normal sized for a hobbit, young ‘un!”

I’d looked away before she’d seen my expression. Height was the only thing normal about the Guardian but even that had to be taken with a large grain of salt. A grain the size a horse or cow would lick in a paddock, I’d added privately. “She does have a point,” I’d told the Eglain aloud. “Normal for Men, I would think?” At his nod, I’d moved the conversation along until Dandelion and I had set out for Minas Eriol with another stack of things to do.

I could still see the bodies, wrapped in webbing or laid on the open ground, guarded by monstrously large spiders looking to feed the babies that would hatch from egg sacs. The Eglain hadn’t been overexaggerating, and even now that I had long been away from Minas Eriol, I still shuddered at the sound their legs made against the stones and ground. I found myself wondering if that was how Grabbo Dogfart — or whatever his name was, given how many idiots I’d met in the last fortnight — felt whenever he heard the tiny turtles scuttling around in his shed and had a new appreciation for his fear. I wasn’t petrified of spiders, mind, but I had a healthy respect for them the bigger they seemed to get.

Seven silver is what Arinora offered me, and I almost told her to keep it. The Eglain had so very little, after all, and this was from her own purse. I knew what it felt like to do without, critically so, and how it could wear down your mind. I accepted it in the end knowing that refusing it would’ve been worse than accepting it, and the Eglain woman hadn’t done anything to incur my sarcasm or my disdain enough to offend her. I couldn’t afford it, anyway, given I needed them to help me get to Radagast.

Gadaric motioned me over to him as I walked away. “You have toiled long, and we are grateful for all you have done. You appear to have the best intentions towards our people.” He nodded at me. “For this, we will grant you the request you ask.”

Dandelion finished trading with Lieva for the rest of our items and came over to where I stood waiting. “Oh? We’ve done enough?” she asked a touch too hopefully to miss hearing. I tried to warn her with a look that she ignored or didn’t see behind my mask.

Gadaric nodded with a quick, “mm” of agreement. When he spoke, however, he aimed his response at me. “Morchandir, you have proven over and again the sincerity of your claims. It is only fair then that we honour our request and provide you the information that you require.” Too right, I answered silently. I don’t want to have to stab people in a blind rage after all of this trouble. He continued. “Radagast is ever a friend to our people. He comes to us now as a favour to our leader who called him when the wildlife in Agamaur turned foul.”

I blinked at him. “It has?”

Dandelion frowned. “If evil has spread so deep that even the creatures are affected, we should waste no more time. The Lone-lands may have precious little of it, as it is!”

Gadaric looked between us. “He is in private study in the last tower in the back of the ruins of Ost Guruth, the place where we make our home. Seek him out. Perhaps there is a way that both of you can aide the other.”

Ost Guruth? I wondered. “So close?” Dandelion asked, surprise filling her features. “It’s on the other side of Weathertop. I wonder why Candaith couldn’t track him there?”

“I don’t know,” I replied to her. Probably because of some agreement with these Eglain, I wanted to say. I held my tongue, though, and offered a hand to Gadaric. He took my forearm as I did his and we bid one another farewell.

Dandelion had procured a pony from the stables nearby. “If we must head past Weathertop,” she told me as she mounted up, “then perhaps we can stop to see if Candaith is well and bring him some supplies?”

I set my jaw slightly. “That sounds like an idea,” I said as nonchalantly as possible. “It’s a little out of the way, but I’m sure that he knows a shortcut to Ost Guruth from his camp.” I mean to find out why he couldn’t offer us this easily found information, I added. Or why he couldn’t tell us what he might have guessed so that we weren’t wasting time here.

We rode out and passed along the Great East Road until we found a bridge had been destroyed, though by enemies or the greatest enemy, Time, I couldn’t say. We had to use the dry river bed running beneath it to move past. I could recall some of the landmarks between the inn and Candaith’s encampment well enough once we had started on the path so that, after a few hours of climbing and descending the hills, we once more found him by his fire with his tent and horse. That he hadn’t been hiding from us this time might be explained easily by the fact he recognized us from afar. Regardless, we halted and got off our mounts to unload the supplies that we had brought to him.

“I thought you might need these if you had yet to fully heal,” Dandelion explained as I hefted the bound fur blankets and foodstuffs within. “The Eglain traded with us quite readily when they found out they were also for you. Your injuries had them worried, Candaith.”

I lowered the goods to the ground near his tent without comment. My silence, for once, took both of their attentions even as Dandelion continued to speak. “We’ve curried their favor, now, and they’ve told us that Radagast is in Ost Guruth, their home.  We’re on our way there, now.”

“I’m pleased at your concern, though you needn’t have worried, Gammer Digweed,” he said warmly. “I’ve healed nicely in the last little while. I won’t refuse your kindness, however. It’s not often that we Rangers get such niceties. I consider it a gift from the Valar when it comes.”

I tugged my gloves on a bit tighter and made a sound of dismay. He glanced at me, as did Dandelion, but it was the Ranger who spoke after a moment. “I can’t see your face beneath that mask, Morchandir, but I can tell that you aren’t pleased about something. Out with it.”

I turned to glare at him through the mask. “Ost Guruth is on the other side of Weathertop,” I reminded him. “You spent scads of time out in the wilderness searching for signs of his passing, didn’t you?”

“Of course he did, grandson,” Dandelion huffed at me. “What are you saying?”

I shook my head. “I’m saying I feel used, Gammer.” I pointed at Candaith even though my focus went to the hobbit. “Are you entertaining the idea that a Ranger who lives his life by his tracking skills couldn’t find Radagast’s trail and let us know so that we could go to Ost Guruth first and then gain the trust of the Eglain?”

She waved me off. “Poppycock, Morchandir. Not even a Ranger is foolproof.”

“No, but he can play us for fools,” I retorted. Focusing my ire on Candaith, I demanded, “When exactly did you find out where Radagast was? When you left just before we went up Weathertop to clear out the enemy there, or was it when you sent off the letter?”

“Morchandir!” Dandelion began angrily.

Candaith held up a hand. “Peace, Gammer. He’s right. There’s no other place I might go to have sent that letter to Mincham, and I had already been told about your search for Radagast.” He dropped his hand. “I didn’t mean to deceive you both. The Eglain required more proof of your intentions, and I needed your help. Even after bringing them what they had asked for, they wanted you to come to them directly.” He shook his head. “I have to continue working with them and protecting them if I mean to protect this land they call home, too. Should I have betrayed them, I couldn’t do so.”

“But it’s been days since we started looking for him!” I argued. “I’ve wasted so much time on these little errands after being told by Gandalf that time was short. That I had to get to the bottom of these problems in this land.” I waved my hand wildly. “That the r….” I stopped short of telling him and took in a breath.

The Ranger lifted both hands to gesture placatingly at me. “I understand, Morchandir,” he answered solemnly. “I owe you as much of an apology as I can give in this situation. It had no easy answer and no simple choice. By betraying the Eglain, I would have doomed your quest from the outset. If they couldn’t trust me, they most certainly wouldn’t trust you, who I was bringing to them in search of someone they respected.”

Dandelion finally spoke up. She didn’t sound as upset as I thought she might. “The time hasn’t been wasted, grandson. Not if it means we’re putting things to right in the wake of those Riders. Not if it means we’re helping people who desperately need it.” She dusted her mailed and gloved hands as her tone turned brusque. “And not if we cleared out a good many of these goblins and other ill-intentioned sorts from this land for the Eglain. That’s fewer of them who remain to support whatever foul plans are in motion.”

Candaith spread his hands a little. “We are not here to write the story of Sauron’s ultimate defeat, my friend. Other pens are at work on that tale. No, we’re here to make sure that story has a happy ending by helping kick out the legs of those who support the Enemy so the people meant to be the heroes can succeed at the end of the day.”

I could feel the anger leaving me, but the frustration remained. “Then what is it I’m supposed to do when it feels like I’m being pressed to hurry along and yet can’t? There are a hundred little things in the way like caltrops, but I still have to get through them if I want to reach my goal.”

Candaith smiled faintly at me. “Wear boots.”

“Ones with metal in the soles,” Dandelion agreed. “That way they don’t sap you as you go, but you still deal with them.”

I set my fists on my hips. “I’m wearing a bird mask, dressing in black, and burgle things for a living. What part of any of that lends itself to mailed shoes?”

The hobbit wagged her finger up at me. “We still need to have a chat about your life choices, grandson. It’s that Tookish blood in you that got you stealing pies and mushrooms and turned you to a life of crime.”

Candaith rubbed the side of his nose in amusement. “I doubt that pie theft has led to murder in this case, Gammy Digweed.”

I rolled my shoulders. “The pies were too good. What can I say? I’d kill for one.” I rubbed my hands together lightly. “So, Ost Guruth?”

Dandelion nodded and offered a hand to the Ranger. He took it and kissed it gallantly, causing her to blush, and she hurriedly said, “Yes, well, come along grandson. If we don’t reach it by nightfall, we’ll need to camp along the way, and I don’t know that I like the looks of the wilds if it had goblins and orcs infesting it.” She turned with a quick, “Stay safe, Candaith,” and moved back to her pony.

I snorted softly. “Here I thought I’m the burglar, but you’re the one stealing hearts, Ranger.” He stood, and we parted amicably with a clasp of our forearms. “Take care, Candaith,” I offered.

“As much as I’m able. And before I forget again, ask Radagast about the runes you found,” he replied. “If anyone knows what they are or mean, it should be him. I would bet they’re from his Order.”

I mounted Neeker once again, and we set off to the southeast to get around Weathertop’s foot and back to the Great East Road. It would be a good while before the crumbling fortifications came into view for us, and we had a finite amount of daylight left before we needed to stop. As we rode, Dandelion finally said, “Now, about this burgling business, young man…”

I sped Neeker up slightly. “We should set a good pace for Ost Guruth if we want to make it there,” I said quickly.

“Morchandir, don’t you run from me!” she called. I could hear the sound of her pony’s hooves speeding up. “You come back here and talk to me about this!”

“I can’t hear you!” I called back with a wave of one gloved hand. “Did you say we should run and stop talking about this? Excellent suggestion!” I booted the horse into a lope immediately and heard the hobbit’s cry of frustration behind me. No, thank you, I said privately. We’ll not be talking about this anytime soon. At least not when I don’t remember where you put that switch.