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Author: Erulisse
Title: In the Darkness of the Moon
Rating: PG
Theme: Think Outside the Box
Elements: careful, damp, bottle
Beta: None – all errors and oversights are totally my own
Author’s Notes: Disclaimer: Tolkien built the sand box; I only play with the bucket and shovel that he left for me. No money, profit or non, is made from the publication of this story.
Summary: A Fourth Age mystery of missing children causes King Elessar to ask the assistance of his friends Legolas and Gimli to investigate the case.
I am so far out of the box on this one, I can’t even see it with a star-seeker. I usually only write Silm-based fic – this is Fourth Age. I usually focus on the Feanorians or at least the Noldorin peoples – this has two beloved characters from Lord of the Rings, but no Noldo. I have never written a mystery, here’s one for all of you. Oh…and I write short – I’m the Queen of Drabbles. This one….well, let’s just say it’s anything BUT short. Welcome to my nightmare
Word Count: 9,709
In the Darkness of the Moon
-1-
“Troubling news has come to my ears, my friends,” the King said. I looked up at Aragorn’s words. “I have received disturbing reports of children disappearing from a village in the western portion of Gondor.”
Gimli and I were seated in comfortable chairs around a low table near one of the southeastern balconies of the Citadel at Minas Tirith. We had arrived at the capital city of Gondor three days earlier to help celebrate the birthday of our boon companion and King, Aragorn. Now we were relaxing, sharing wine and conversation with our friend in the King’s private chambers.
“Children, is it?” Gimli asked. “And how may we be of help to you and them? Just say the word.”
Aragorn let a small smile ghost across his face. Gimli’s gruff exterior hid a tender heart and he dearly loved interacting with the young children of his friends. He was always there with a helping hand and an encouraging word, for any child who needed one.
I, on the other hand, had a momentary thought of “We? Since when is the dwarf speaking for both of us?” before I refocused on what Aragorn was saying.
“Apparently, over the past few months, several children, between the ages of eleven and twelve years, have gone missing. Their parents have searched frantically for them. The remains of one boy were found after he had been missing for more than a month. The body's bones bore tooth marks on them that weren’t from wild animals, but rather had a more human, or orcish look to them. Ten days ago another child went missing, this time the six-year-old grand-daughter of the village headman. At his urging, the Town Council decided to formally request the assistance of the Crown.”
Aragorn reached into a small barrel positioned slightly behind his right side, pulling out a map. Moving the remnants of the luncheon that we three had shared not long before to one side, he spread the map across the tabletop.
“Here,” said the King, pointing to a dot at the meeting of the Gilrain and Serni rivers. “Linhir is a small port town west of the Anduin on the Great South Road. Its port supplies the smaller settlements of Lebennin. The town is also a central gathering point for the crops from that rich farming area, before they are transported to either Minas Tirith or Dol Amroth.”
Aragorn sighed and pulled his hands through his hair, an outward sign of his frustration that we had become familiar with during our years of acquaintance with the King. “I need to respond to the Council's request and look into this. I am asking the two of you: could you take the extra time to travel to Linhir and investigate these disappearances on behalf of the Crown?”
I spoke up. “Tell us what else you know about the matter, Aragorn.”
“The townspeople apparently found personal items that two of the children had in their possession northeast of the town towards the Gilrain river bluffs. But once the trackers and dogs reached the marshlands in front of the cliffs, they quickly lost the trail.”
Aragorn pointed again at the map. “The area between the river bluffs and the Great South Road is a marsh and the bluffs themselves are honeycombed with caves and tunnels.” Aragorn sat back in his chair, looking from me to Gimli and back. “Legolas, it is my hope that the two of you working together, will be able to identify the person or persons who kidnapped the children and return them to Gondor for trial and sentencing. I pray that the remaining children are still alive and will be able to return to their families. The length of time that some of them have been missing is deeply troubling to me.”
The King was very persuasive, so even though Linhir was closer to the sea than I really wanted to be, I found myself agreeing to undertake the investigation with my good friend Gimli. Ithilien was operating smoothly under my second-in-command, and Gimli said he was not needed back at the Caves for a while, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to travel and work in tandem with my friend again. Hopefully we could find and stop this predator before any other children were harmed.
We left early the next morning, riding together on a single horse as we had done so often over the years. Carrying only our bedrolls and a change of clothing, we traveled lightly; although we carried a small amount of food, most of what we ate would come from hunting and trapping along the route. We had discussed sailing down the Anduin and up the coast to Linhir, but I had opted to ride. I wanted to keep away from the sea because of my sea-longing; if I got too close, it could be disastrous for my hard-earned calm. I also knew how uncomfortable Gimli was traveling by water. In terms of time, either method of transport would get us to the village within two weeks. We would arrive at the town just a few days before the dark of the moon.
-2-
We arrived at the town and after locating the Town Hall, went inside and introduced ourselves to the Headman, Master Aldin. We sat down with him, talked about whatever information he had available about the missing children, and asked his opinions about the mood of the town and the people who might be under suspicion.
“The town is afraid,” Master Aldin said. “Children are being escorted to school or on errands. They are being kept close to their homes, and all extra social events have either been canceled or have been rescheduled to allow for close supervision. What frightens me, my Council, and my best trackers is two-fold. First, these kidnappings seem very calculated, almost as if each child had been pre-selected to meet some specific criteria. And, second, they also seem to be meeting a time schedule of some sort. At least, something of that nature is tickling my brain, but I can't quite discern a pattern yet.”
He shook his head and continued. “We have had no luck tracking the assailants any farther than the marshes of Gilrain. The grasses and hillocks themselves are treacherous, and the bluffs behind them offer hundreds of possible hiding places. We are at a loss, and so we asked for help from Minas Tirith.”
“Do you have any persons you suspect here in the town?” Gimli asked, echoing my own thoughts.
“No. I can't imagine anyone within our town who would want to harm any other resident by harming their children. It must be someone from outside, but we haven't been able to isolate anyone.”
After a bit more discussion, he led us across the main square towards the Inn of the Dolphin, a sturdy three-story structure with a large common room, several private dining rooms, and two floors of bedrooms above. We were given a large room on the top floor and were told that three meals a day would be provided for us. Our horse was being cared for nearby sharing the stable with the horses of the town guard. We arranged to meet the parents of the missing children later that evening and settled down to clean off the dirt of travel and eat a light lunch. The food served was hearty, if plain, and the townsfolk seemed friendly. News of why we were there had spread and several of the townspeople came up to us while we were eating, offering their help or their opinions on the case.
We took the short time remaining before meeting with the parents to walk around the town. It was a typical port town, although small. The harbor itself was deep enough for true sea-faring vessels, although most of the ships in the bay were of a slightly shallower draft meant for coastline water travel. There were warehouses near the docks, a central marketplace near the town square, and a second set of storage facilities near the intersection of the Great South Road and the town's main road. The Great South Road made a U through the northern part of Linhir, coming from Minas Tirith on the East to pass northwest into the central part of Lebennin from Linhir. The town had not escaped the war – there were ruined buildings and evidence of attacks from both the water and the land still visible. But it had survived and was rebuilding. The general feeling seemed to be one of optimism, or at least it had been until this latest setback.
Upon our return to the Inn, we were directed to a private dining room just off the common area. Master Aldin introduced us to the parents of the missing children. “This is Master Ferris, one of the bakers in the northwestern section of town, and his wife, Alcia. It was their son, Lucas, whose body was found a short way into the Gilrain marshes.”
Master Aldin continued, “Master Greene and his wife Marna are the parents of Michela. Michela was the first child reported missing, more than six months ago.
“This is Master Fossel and Tamra, his wife. They have a fruit orchard on the eastern edge of town and are the parents of Marwen, the third child who was kidnapped.
“And this is my son-in-law Master Martin with his wife, my daughter Glenna. It was when my grand-daughter Anabel went missing that I determined it was time to ask for help from King Elessar.”
Master Ferris and his wife stayed at the meeting for a while, but left as soon as they could reasonably make their excuses. Their hunt had ended, and not in a manner they would have chosen.
The other parents told us whatever they could. It was obvious that their sorrow and fears had taken a toll on them, they all had a haunted, fearful look behind their eyes that spoke to the fact that they feared their children would never be found alive, or perhaps never found at all. As the parents left us later that night, Mistress Marna came up to me.
“Sir Elf, sir...”
“Lady, you need not give me any titles.”
“Please, sir. I don’t know if Michela is alive or dead, in some ways I hope she is dead so that she isn’t frightened and in any pain. But sir, please, just find her. Bring her back to me, whether she is living or dead, just find her and bring her home….” Her voice broke and a tear fell from her eye. Her husband, Master Greene the local miller, came to her, and putting his arm around her led her from the room.
-3-
After breaking our fast the next morning, Gimli and I set out to examine the locations from which the children were taken and talk to anyone who might have seen something that might help us find them. Michela, had been the first child taken. She had been helping her mother weed their herb garden, and when called in to eat at midday, was found to be missing. The bag of weeds and the small knife that she had been using had been found a short distance away from the house on the road heading towards the river cliffs. Because the earthen track was hard packed and used frequently, there was no easy way to track the direction that she might have been taken. Although dogs had been used to find the child's scent, they had been unable to pick up a trail.
After examining the home of Michela, we then went to look at the homes of the parents of Lucas and Marwen, the second and the third of the kidnapped children. Although their circumstances were different - Marwen having been taken from her bedroom through the window while her parents were in the next room, and Lucas having never returned from a trip to the marketplace for his mother - again what scant clues there were led towards the marsh and the river bluffs.
The fourth child missing was Anabel, a child of six whose parents had been called away when her older brother Padrik had been thrown from his horse and seriously injured. Anabel had been told firmly to stay indoors and not open the door to anyone. However, when they came home, the front door was locked but she was missing. Her doll, which she was rarely without, was found at the edge of the Great South Road, as it turned towards the Gilraen River cliffs.
We then decided to go into the marsh and see where the body of Lucas had been found. Master Aldin had supplied a map for us and had offered a guide, but we wanted to go alone first and take our time looking over the area. Gimli and I wandered into the stable, talking quietly between ourselves. We had decided to ride out to the marshes, and then continue into the marsh on foot. The horse was elven trained and would wander when it could, but come when I whistled. As we were talking and brushing down the mare, there came a light knock at the stall door.
Looking up, I saw a young male dressed in dusty and threadbare clothing looking at us with hesitation. He appeared to be in his early to mid-teen years, and although his clothing was worn it showed signs of mending and was relatively clean.
I nodded at Gimli signaling him to speak to the youngster. Often they found him more approachable than they did me. Perhaps it was because Gimli was closer to them in height, or because he was a plain speaker, but whatever the reason, Gimli was an expert at setting young people at their ease.
He nodded at the teenager, pulled a piece of wood and his whittling knife from a pocket, and settled down on a bale of hay, beginning to carve the wood into a fanciful animal. The young boy followed him, looking with fascination at what Gimli was making. Before long, my friend had set the boy up with his own piece of wood and a second knife and both of them were busy carving. Admittedly, Gimli was actually making something whereas the boy was making a nice pile of wood chips, but they were now comfortable with each other and were engaged in conversation.
“Legolas,” Gimli said quietly. “I think you should hear this too.”
I moved away from the horse and squatted down next to the hay bale.
“Tell my friend what you were just telling me, Derrick,” Gimli urged.
The child looked down at his stick and knife. Then, seemingly gathering his courage, he looked at me with a quick glance in my direction. Looking away again, he said, “Well, sir, it’s like this. I woz around the back o' the house, they have this apple tree that's bearin' and I woz going to just nip one. They wouldn’t miss one apple, there woz loads of 'em.” he said, becoming a bit more defensive towards the end of the sentence and looking defiantly towards me.
“It’s all right, Derrick. If you saw anything that can help us find these children, I’m sure you’ll be welcome to as many apples as you want. Now, whose house were you behind and what did you see?” I asked gently.
“It woz Master Martin's house, and like I said, I woz around the back. I saw 'im come up to the door and I didn’t think nothin' of it because he’s there a lot. But whenz I heard that the little girl was missin'...”
“Who is there a lot, Derrick?” I asked, suddenly focused on what this young man might have to tell us.
He looked up at Gimli for a moment, receiving an encouraging nod from my friend. Casting his glance back to me and then down, he carved a few more chips away from his wooden stick, then looked in my direction again. “That school master, Brondun. Him went up to the front door, brazen as anythin'.”
“What was so unusual about the school master going to the house?” I asked.
“Well, he don' come to see Anabel, she's too young. He comes to see Padrik, Anabel's brother – him that was hurt bad when he was thrown from his horse in the above pasture.”
I nodded. The school master might be worth looking at closer. Why had he gone into the house when Padrik was not at home on that fateful day?
“What about Anabel? Did you see her speak to Master Brondun?” I asked him.
“Aye, I saw her open the door to him, talkin’ to him at the entry, and a little bit later, I sawr him leavin' carryin' somethin' in a large bag. I didn’ think nothin’ of it until I heard that Anabel was missin’ later that night.”
“What direction did he head, lad?” Gimli asked.
“He went to the nor'east. His home is that a way. I don' understand, though,” Derrick continued. “Why would he be wantin' to take Anabel?”
“And that's a very good question indeed, Derrick,” Gimli responded. He cast a quick look in my direction. I nodded, rose from the hay bale, and returned to brushing the horse.
Gimli spent a while longer with Derrick. The young man said that he worked as a laborer with Master Tomkins who ran a regular trade route from Linhir to Ethring via land, then down the Ringló River to Edhellond, and finally by sea to Dol Amroth and around Belfalas back to Linhir. It was Derrick’s responsibility to ride with the goods to Ethring, then help load the goods onto the river barge. He would return the horses and wagons back to Linhir while Master Tomkins continued south with the products for the water portion of the route. They would meet again in Linhir and begin the delivery process again. The route took approximately one month for the full circuit.
-4-
Deciding to look closer at Master Brondur later, we headed out to the swamp to scout the area where Lucas’ body had been found. Letting the horse graze while we went into the marsh, I quickly found the hillock where Lucas’ bones had been found, and we began looking over the area carefully.
“Legolas,” Gimli called from farther northeast, a good distance away from where the body had been found. “I have boot prints here coming from the cliffs. The boots are unusual - square toed. I don't remember any of the townsfolk we met having boots shaped like that, do you?”
I had found nothing in the area northwest from Gimli’s location, so I abandoned my locale and came over to where my friend was looking at the prints of two pairs of square-toed boots. “Let's see where these might lead us, eh Gimli?” I began tracking them back towards their place of origin. They were leading us towards the cliff face.
Reaching the cliff face, we carefully examined the area where the marsh met the cliffs. I finally found an entryway hidden by a fold of rock and brushy overgrowth. “What do you think, Gimli? It is mid-afternoon now and I have no idea how long it might take us to find the owners of these square-toed boots. At this point, I turn the tracking over to you. I am of limited use in stone.”
“Within the cliff caves and tunnels, it is dark anyway,” my friend said. “So the fact that the day is coming to an end will have no bearing on our ability to track the boots. Let's at least make a start to this. I sense the stone here and I think it will help me to choose the correct tunnels and passageways. I have a feeling that these characters won’t be too far from this opening.”
I nodded and we entered the cave through a narrow cleft that was slightly hidden by several stunted bushes. Gimli took the lead.
The dark was oppressive. I am no stranger to dark places, many of the dens of spiders and orcs in and near Mirkwood are dark and I have often been in those. But these river cliffs felt different to me, less stable and more unpredictable. I shook my shoulders. I needed to focus; danger could be well-hidden in this complex of tunnels and caverns.
“Be careful up ahead here,” I heard the gruff but low voice of my dwarvish friend break the silence. “The tunnel pulls together for a short space and you will need to bend to dwarf height to get through easily.”
The narrowing passageway turned into a constricted slot canyon for a short way. I could see that we were in a knife's edge space that was open to the sky above. Water from recent rains still pooled on the floor and we got quite damp from the puddles that we needed to crawl through. I imagined that in a hard thunderstorm this small area could turn into a deathtrap very quickly with rising water coming down faster than it could escape from the narrow outlets at either end of the section of open tunnel.
Continuing onwards we took a sharp turn to the right where the tunnel gained height again, and after a short distance we entered a larger chamber. Keeping to the back wall, we looked carefully ahead across the room towards a faint light at the far end.
“Fire,” Gimli whispered.
I suddenly froze and caught my friend across his chest, a signal to keep him from both movement and speech. We had worked together in battle and scouting situations before. He recognized my sign and immediately stopped short. I listened carefully. I was hearing a sound that I had not heard for several years, a clacking and chittering sound that brought memories of Mirkwood back to me.
Looking up with care, I isolated where the sound was coming from. Yes, there above me in the gloom of the high ceiling, was a darker form, a great spider. What was one of the giant spiders doing here, so far away from my forest eaves? That was a mystery I would have to solve later. Right now, I needed to discover how many spiders there were and what they were eating.
Looking carefully, I could discern several wrapped bundles hanging from webbing. I only saw the single spider, but they were rarely found alone so I could not count on that. I motioned to my friend to retreat back to the tunnels so that we could talk carefully and we backed up and exited the cavern.
“Did you see it, Gimli?” I asked softly. “A giant spider such as we would find in the forests of Mirkwood, there against the cavern ceiling.”
“No, I didn't see it. But the boot prints continue along the left side of the cavern towards that fire we saw ahead of us.”
“So the question comes. Are these two foes working together? Are the booted ones bringing food to the spider so that they can stay here unmolested? Or is the spider completely independent and so content with its food source that it won't bother the booted ones unless the food disappears?”
“We need to take a look at the booted ones,” Gimli said softly. “We need to know what manner of creature they are so that we can determine if they might be involved in the kidnapping of the children or the death of Lucas, or both.”
“The spider worries me,” I said. “It would be best if she was at the far end of the cavern before I begin to creep nearer to the fire. If she notices me and drops down, I would have to attack her, eliminating any possibility of sneaking up on our possible criminals at the fireside.”
“Can you get a view of her from the tunnel entry?” Gimli asked. “If you can, we can stay here while you watch her. When she retreats to the far side, you can sneak around the left edge to get a closer look at who is at the fire.”
“Let's at least try,” I responded. “I think we need to know more about what beings are at the fire before we return to the town.”
I strung my bow and Gimli and I settled down for a silent vigil. I was keeping a close eye on the ceiling and the spider, Gimli was concentrating on the fire at the end, watching carefully for movement.
After an hour or so I saw the bulk of the spider's body moving away from us towards the far corner of the cavern's ceiling. I signaled Gimli and began to carefully move around the edge of the cave towards the fire. The disadvantage of going towards the fire was that the light would destroy my night vision for a short time.
There were several piles of fallen ceiling rock that helped to hide me from any prying eyes. As I got close enough to see what manner of creature was at the fire, I realized that my caution was well placed. At the fire sat two half-orcs sharing a meal that appeared to be the upper and lower arm of a human. I backed away after noting the area carefully and cataloging their visible weaponry. If there were only two of them and the spider, I thought that Gimli and I could successfully overpower them. However, if there were more of the half-orcs at another entrance or simply away gathering more food, it could be more difficult.
Returning to the cavern entry and Gimli, we retreated to the tunnels so that we could discuss what I had seen.
“Well?” he questioned gruffly in a soft whisper.
“There are two half-orcs are at the fire. They have the appearance of those we met at Helm’s Deep and saw at Isenguard. They have bows, swords and knives in easy reach and were eating what appeared to be a human arm while passing a bottle of drink between them. If there are more than the two, I could see no sign of them.”
“We can take them, Legolas,” my companion said, no doubt coloring his words or his tone.
“Yes, we probably can. But I think we would be better served by returning to the town and speaking with Master Aldin. I want to know if these half-orcs just found the body of Lucas, or if they have had these children deliberately caught and brought to them. And if that is the case, then who is actually kidnapping the youngsters?”
-5-
We returned to the Inn and found the Headman and two of the fathers of the missing children waiting for us in the common room. Sitting down with the three men, we listened as they expressed their theories and concerns.
Master Martin, the father of Anabel, had seemed to discern a schedule to the kidnappings. “Michela was taken seven months ago, at the time of the dark of the moon,” he pointed out. “Lucas disappeared three months later, but also during the time of the dark of the moon. Marwen was again two months distant, and again during the dark of the moon. And my own Anabel...” he choked for a moment and Master Aldin put his hand upon his shoulder, offering his son-in-law quiet support. Master Martin took a deep breath and continued, “My own Anabel was taken just one month later, but again during the time of the moon's darkness.”
“It seems to be escalating,” I said. “Seven months, four months, two months and then one month between these disappearances. But are they always during the time of the dark of the moon? That is interesting. We are in that time again tonight, so will we have another child missing today or tomorrow?”
I continued, “Master Aldin, we spent today searching the marsh and the cliff face for signs of the kidnappers. Although I am not sure we found the kidnappers, we did find enemies on your doorstep that will have to be removed and that, if they are not the kidnappers, have at least taken advantage of the bodies of the children.” A choked sound came from the three men who had, against all reason, been hoping that their young ones would be returned to them again.
“I am sorry. I do not mean to be insensitive. But if these kidnappings happen during the dark of the moon, we are running out of time to prevent the next one. Is there any common ground between the four victims?”
“The only thing we can come up with is that three of the children attended school together. Anabel was still too young and would not have started school for another year or two. Master Brondur holds classes in a small copse and hut near his home. He teaches many of the town's children from the time they are about seven years of age through about twelve or thirteen years when they apprentice out to various masters and learn a trade.”
“How many years has Master Brondur been teaching here?” Gimli asked the men. “Is he new to the area?”
“No, not at all,” said Master Greene. “He and I grew up together, but he always loved books and the scholar’s life. When we grew older he was sent to learn at the feet of the learned teachers in Minas Tirith. He returned home after several years of study and set up his school about fifteen years ago. He married a cousin of mine, but she was slain during one of the raids that occurred during the war. He has always loved teaching the children, but now they are his only joy.”
“I would like to question him, if that could be arranged,” I told Master Aldin. “He may well have more insight about why these children were chosen and who might be the next target for the kidnapper.”
“I'll send someone to ask him to join us here,” replied the Headman and he got up from the table, heading towards the innkeeper to have one of his older stable boys deliver the message.
When Master Aldin returned to the table, Gimli began describing what we had found in the cave. “The cave itself is cleverly hidden and it is a bit tortuous to find the correct pathway. At the end of several constricted tunnels and a slot canyon is a large cavern. In that cavern we discovered two half-orcs and a giant spider. The spider has probably lived there for a while, but we suspect that the half-orcs are relatively recent inhabitants, probably no more than half of a year. Although we only saw two half-orcs, that does not mean there aren’t others who just weren't in the cavern when we were.”
“I would have to agree,” I said. “The debris I saw around them spoke of a short stay. That doesn't mean they didn't stay in a different cave earlier, but in this cavern, I would say no more than six months.
“The question I have is what is the spider eating? I saw web-wrapped bundles suspended from the ceiling, and I know that one of a similar size would feed a giant spider from my homeland for a week. There were four of those bundles. Has there been any report of animals missing? I don't think that the spider's prey was appropriately sized to be the missing children.”
Master Aldin nodded in reply. “Several of the shepherds in the upper downs have reported more missing sheep than would be normal for this time of the year.”
“Ah! And here is Master Brondur,” the Headman exclaimed.
“I would appreciate being able to question him privately. Could a side room be made available for Gimli and me?” I queried, hoping to get the school master alone before the men gave him any clue about our line of questioning.
Master Aldin signaled to the innkeeper and soon Master Brondur, Gimli and I were in a private room with a pitcher of water and a door that could be firmly closed. As I entered the room last, I latched the door behind me. I could tell that the three we had left behind us were vexed to have not been invited to this conversation, but I felt that privacy was important to maintain.
Gimli and I questioned Master Brondur carefully and learned a great deal. He was an observant and educated man and had a good understanding of his students. He was devastated about the kidnappings and the death of Lucas.
“Did you know there is an island in the center of the marsh?” he asked. When we asked for more information, he continued. “Not many people know about it, but when I was a child I used to harvest medicinal plants for our healer and several of those plants are only found in the deep marsh. I used to wander the area often when I was young. It is a treacherous land where a misstep can easily cause death by the sinking sands. But if you use a walking stick and take care you can find your way safely. The island is high enough that when the spring floods come, it has parts that remain dry.”
“I would like to see this island. Could you take us to it tomorrow morning?” I asked.
“Of course, I would be happy to. But it must be early because my students are scheduled to arrive three hours after the sun’s rise. Although they can keep themselves occupied for a short time, too much idle time will lead to roughhousing and discipline problems.”
“We could be on the road before dawn so that we enter the marsh as soon as the sun rises. Would that suit?” I asked him. He agreed and we moved on to the next subject.
“Master Brondur, it has come to our attention that you were the last person seen speaking to Anabel on the day that she disappeared. I wonder why you were at her door on that fateful morning,” Gimli asked.
“It is true, I was there picking up some books that Padrik had borrowed that I needed to return to the library at Minas Tirith. The trader was going to leave at noon and I needed to get them to him before he left. But Anabel was very much alive when I left her. I admonished her to lock the door behind me and not answer it until her parents arrived back with news about her brother. She promised me that she would do that and planned to go into the back garden to play with her doll.”
“Which trader was it who was going to take the books back to Minas Tirith for you?”
“Oh, I was dropping them with Master Tomkins. He oversees all of the trading in the area, running both directions on the Great South Road as well as the sea route around the Belfalas peninsula. The Minas Tirith route is run every two months and the western trade route every month. His son, Dunbar, is in charge of the warehouses and the Minas Tirith route. The Master takes charge of the western route with his stepson Derrick.”
“Derrick. We might have met him yesterday. He seems young for such responsibility,” I said. “Do you know him well?”
“Well enough. He was a student of mine for three years, but then was pulled out by his father and started in the trade. Derrick did not take well to scholarly pursuits, he found reading and writing very difficult and was often teased by the other students because of that,” responded the school master.
“Who were the other students he went to class with?”
“Oh, there was Lucas, Marwen, Michela....,” Master Brondur's voice trailed off and a shocked look came over his face. “Oh no!” he gasped.
“Who else was in the class with him?” I asked. “We need to know the names. It is possible that he is either responsible for the kidnappings, or is giving information to the people who are actually taking the children.”
“Padrik was in the class, and Timmo. Timmo is the last of that class. He is the son of the blacksmith and works at the forge with his father now,” the school master said, his voice trembling. “How could I not have seen the pattern?” he groaned.
“We have a name and a possible perpetrator. We will place a watch on the blacksmith's forge, but we also must check out that island as quickly as possible,” I said. “I ask you to be absolutely silent about what we have discussed here. We must catch the kidnapper in the act or we will have no proof of his actions. We will meet you at the marsh one hour before dawn and go quickly to view this island for ourselves.”
“I will be here,” Master Brondur said, shaking our hands before releasing the door latch and leaving the room. He left the inn without conversing with Masters Aldin, Greene and Martin.
“What happened to make Padrik’s horse throw him, Legolas? Did Derrick decide to change his tactics for this one enemy?”
“I’m not sure, but it is also possible that Anabel was taken instead of Padrik because the young man was injured before he could be taken. In either case, Gimli, I must speak with Master Aldin. We will need a guard on duty at the Forge.”
We entered the common room and I pulled Master Aldin aside. I told him of our suspicions and asked him to set a pair of guards near the blacksmith’s forge and that we would check the marsh more carefully the next morning. I made sure to tell him that if anything happened, the guard should not intervene, but should instead follow carefully to discover the route by which the children might have been taken, and then the guard should find and inform us.
“I'll take the first watch,” Gimli said.
“Actually, my friend, I think it would be wiser to leave for the marsh now. If Master Brondur is trustworthy, he will be there when we said in the morning. But if he is not, he...”
“He might be making his way to that island of his right now to hide evidence,” Gimli said, finishing my thought.
I nodded and we split up. Gimli was going to grab our gear from the room, and I would get the horse. We would meet behind the Inn and go quickly to the swamp. I was suddenly very grateful that we had scouted the area earlier in the day because I could choose the best route for the horse to take.
-6-
We spent a quiet night on the outskirts of the marsh. I did a small amount of experimentation going in and realized that Master Brondur’s assessment of spongy hillocks and shaking ground was quite accurate. We had been very fortunate in our tracking efforts earlier in the day. The square toed boot tracks had been on the outskirts of the deep marsh and the ground had been much more stable.
An hour before sunrise we heard someone coming up the road. Looking in that direction, we spied Master Brondur approaching our location. “Good day, Master Brondur,” I said quietly. It was quiet enough that my words would carry far if they weren't spoken with care.
“Good day to you, Master Elf, Master Dwarf,” he replied, also keeping his voice quiet. He was dressed for exploration in high boots, leggings and a hooded tunic, and carried a long walking stick. “Are you ready to conquer the deep marsh?”
“We are indeed,” Gimli responded. We took up our weapons, packs and walking sticks and began following Master Brondur into the marsh.
Using long sticks to check the stability of the hillocks before stepping on them, we managed to avoid being sucked into the mire. (In actuality, Gimli used the haft of his axe and I used my bow, but they served admirably in their new roles.) A short way into the marsh, we began finding small pieces of blue cloth caught in some of the bushes, always on the right-hand side as we passed by.
“Master, do you remember any markings such as these on the path in the past?” I asked the school master.
“No, the swamp and marsh are usually avoided, and I have never known anyone to mark their trails here in such a fashion. The village healer knows the route well and has no need to blaze a path, and he is the only person from the town who needs access to the deep marshes.”
Continuing deeper, and after having spent more than an hour penetrating the marsh, the grasses parted and ahead of us we spied a hillock of much greater size and height. A short time later we were on the island, and the blue fabric ties had led us directly to it.
The island was large enough to require more than twenty long strides to cross in any direction. There were grasses surrounding it, giving it privacy, and a large boulder was sticking half-buried in the ground at the near side. Looking closer at the stone, I found a rope tied around the boulder. The rope was positioned so that it could have secured a person against the stone. There were possible blood stains in some of the cracks and fissures on that side of the rock as well.
Gimli, searching the other end of the island, called to me, sorrow in his tone. “Legolas, I think I found the children.”
Master Brondur and I walked to where Gimli was standing, noticing that the earth was disturbed in several places. I squatted closer to the ground and examined it. One area was dug up, holding only some scraps of clothing, parts of a tunic, and leggings that were mixed into the sandy soil. A bit farther along, another disturbed area existed. Upon closer investigation this area might have held the body of a female because a tattered and torn dress was thrown nearby. Two other areas were undisturbed but mounded as if a body could have been buried below. I hoped that whatever was underneath would still be intact. It looked as if animals had unburied the first two bodies, not shovels or hands.”
Gimli and I looked sadly at each other and then at Master Brondur who was sitting on the ground sobbing quietly against his pulled-up knees. “You could not have known, Master,” I said to him.
“But I should have realized when I heard the names. It was Anabel that threw me off. Why would he take Anabel? She only knew him in passing.”
“First we have to find out exactly who it was who kidnapped these children. Although we think it might have been Derrick, we have no firm proof. We should return to the town now,” I urged. “We’ll continue to watch Timmo and, Belain willing, we will be able to catch the kidnapper in the act. If we cannot catch him attempting to kidnap Timmo or some other child, we will have no proof fit for the King and the courts.”
“We must leave the island as it is and have Master Aldin and whoever he deems appropriate come out and uncover the two mounds to determine whose bodies are still here. They must see for themselves exactly what we saw this morning. We are in your debt, Master Brondur.”
We left the island and returned to the town. Master Brondur went to his home to take up his teaching duties, and Gimli and I, after checking with the guards set over the forge, went to Master Aldin’s home. He was seated breaking his fast. His wife offered us food and drink, but we both only accepted cups of tea. After his wife had left the room we described what we had found to the Headman. Tears gathered in his eyes, but he took a deep breath, putting aside the grieving grandfather and donning the cloak of the Headman again, realizing that the time for mourning would have to wait.
“We need to catch whoever is doing this in the act. Timmo has to be taken and followed. We need proof,” Master Aldin said. “Without proof we cannot imprison anyone for these crimes.”
“Poppi?” came a soft but bright voice from the kitchen doorway. A young girl came through into the kitched from the adjoining room. “I saw Marwen and Derrick talking on the day that she went missing. They were walking together towards the Great South Road. I didn’t think anything about it, they have known each other for years. But…I just thought I should mention it.”
“Gentlemen, may I introduce you to my youngest child, Alyssa.”
I thanked the young lady for her information and determined, after a few follow-up questions, that she did not have anything else to add. Still, it was one more leaf on the tree of proof that we were building.
“We need to eliminate the threat of the spider and the half-orcs also, but they can wait until we have proof of Derrick’s role,” I said. “He is running against a time deadline which may make him careless. Won’t the next shipment he rides with leave soon?”
Master Aldin stated, “It should leave within the next day or two.”
“Could we force the issue?” I asked the Headman. “If Master Tomkins declares that they will leave at sunrise tomorrow morning, it might push our kidnapper into making his move today.”
“I’ll talk to Master Tomkins and see if he might leave tomorrow morning, or at least make sure that people think he will leave on that schedule. That should speed things up,” and he got up from the table, put the dishes on the sideboard, and all of us left his home.
Gimli and I went to break our fast at the Inn while Master Aldin went to talk with Master Tomkins. After a comfortable meal of meat, fruit, eggs and bread, we settled down for a game of chess in the main room while trying to be patient. There were many places that we had waited in the history of our friendship – Helm’s Deep, Dunharrow and at the Black Gate itself. Waiting never grew easier with practice.
In the early afternoon, a young guard came into the Inn looking for us. “The young one, Timmo, just left the forge in the company of Derrick Tomkinson. They are heading north.”
We immediately got up from our seats, armed ourselves and went outside. The two guards joined us and we quickly went towards the marsh. As we ran, I told the guards that they needed to witness this, but they were to stay behind us and allow us, as agents of the King, to apprehend the criminal. They quickly agreed, and retracing our steps from early that morning, we began to shadow Derrick and Timmo. It was important to catch Derrick endangering the life of Timmo, but our goal was to stop Derrick before Timmo was seriously injured or, even worse, killed.
Derrick was leading Timmo into the marsh, entering it and heading directly to the blue-flagged hillocks. I could hear Derrick talking about how he had found an island in the middle of the marsh and he thought he had seen some possible graves. Looking closer, I could see that both boys carried shovels with them. Derrick then said he didn’t want to go alone in case the kidnappers were there, so he thought of Timmo since as an apprentice blacksmith, he was big and strong. Also, he wanted help digging up the graves and Timmo was the perfect person to help. Timmo did not respond to Derrick's conversation.
Derrick and Timmo arrived at the island and the four of us concealed ourselves in the grasses nearby, watching carefully. Derrick led Timmo over to the graves. I could hear Timmo's exclamation of surprise and saw him grasp his shovel and begin digging. Derrick, on the other hand, took his own shovel and hit Timmo a hard blow on the head, bringing him down, unconscious. He then took the body of the young man, dragged him over to the boulder, and tied him to the rock, using ropes around Timmo's wrists to pull him upright. After Timmo was secured, he cut off his victim's vest and shirt, reached into his pack and pulled out a cat of nine tails.
I nodded to Gimli who jumped to the island, axe raised, at the same time as I stood with an arrow ready and shouted “Halt!”
Derrick looked up with shock on his face and backed away from the boulder. He turned around and began running towards the back of the island into unmarked territory. I let an arrow fly, aiming for his leg to keep him from flight. It hit and slowed him down but he refused to stop. Jumping clumsily from the island to a hillock, he began jumping farther into the marsh. The third hillock collapsed under his weight, casting him into the marsh. He moved towards the next hillock, then stopped short with terror on his face.
“Help me!” he cried out. “I am caught by the marsh, it is pulling me under!” He struggled, and I could see that he was being sucked under the surface by the sticky mud.
The guards had released Timmo from his bindings and I called to them for the rope. “Bring me the rope from the stone. Mayhap we can still save Derrick and bring him to Minas Tirith for trial.” But the rope was firmly tied around the boulder and by the time the guards had managed to untie the knots, Derrick was gone, sucked under the grassy sea and leaving no trace of his passage except for the broken hearts of the families whose children he had taken. A few bubbles were all that remained, and all too quickly those too had broken and disappeared.
We returned to the stone and looked at Timmo who had regained consciousness. “You'll have a pounding head for a while, young man,” one of the guards was saying to him, “and you'll need stitches for that head blow. But you survived where your companions did not, so I'd consider yourself lucky, I would.”
We decided to leave the shovels on the island. They would be needed later when men were assigned to uncover the graves of the remaining two children. The five of us followed the safe passage back to the Great South Road, the two guards carrying Timmo between their locked hands. Upon arriving at the road, we found Masters Aldin and Tomkins waiting for us along with a wagon. They assisted Timmo into the wagon and the two guards accompanied the wagon back to town, taking Timmo to the town's healer. The two men remaining then turned questioning looks towards the two of us.
“He attempted to flee,” I informed them. “I shot him through his leg to slow him down, and he missed his leap to a safe hillock, falling into the mire which quickly sucked him down below the surface. I'm sorry, Master Tomkins. I realize he was your son...”
Master Tomkins spat on the ground. “No blood of mine would kidnap and torture innocent children. His death is no loss and I renounce any kinship with him.”
“I'm so sorry, Alban,” Master Aldin said, pulling the other man into a rough embrace. They pounded each other on their backs and Master Tomkins left us, heading back towards town on his own.
-7-
“We need to eliminate the other threats to your town before we can leave for Minas Tirith, Master Aldin. We will go and kill the two half-orcs and the giant spider which are living in the bluff caves. You are welcome to accompany us if you would like.”
Master Aldin agreed to go with us. We walked down the road towards the town to the location where we had originally found the square-toed boot prints. There we began walking towards the cliff entryway. At the cleft, I stopped and addressed my friend and the Headman.
“Gimli, I think, if all goes well we can easily take these three. Here's what I propose. I'll shoot one of the half-orcs and then immediately turn my efforts to the spider. You and Master Aldin can then take care of the other half-orc and, if I didn't kill the first one, the wounded one also. After the foes are all dead, we can look through the debris and see if there might be bones or personal effects that we can return to the grieving parents of these children. The other two bodies, of course, will be unburied later today by the guards and all should be wrapped up by sunset.”
Gimli and Master Aldin agreed to the plan and Gimli once again took the lead. Since we had a human with us this time, I gave Master Aldin a torch, but asked him to stay back so that the light would not give warning to our foes. He lit the torch and stayed well back, so that when Gimli and I entered the cavern, no light leaked from the tunnel at our back. I readied an arrow as Gimli hefted his axe. At my nod, I let loose with an arrow towards the closer of the two half-orcs and then began shooting the spider with several more arrows before it suspended itself too close to me for arrows to be effective. At that point I pulled my long knives and in a short time, the spider was destroyed.
Gimli and Master Aldin, in the meantime, had rushed the two half-orcs, Gimli shouting out his Khazad battle cry and Master Aldin with a sword in one hand and the lit torch in the other. They made short work of the two half-orcs. Master Alden was looking through the middens of trash as I joined him. Gimli was searching the cavern, making sure that there were no more entrances or any other half-orcs to be bothered about.
“We have the bones of children and animals here,” Master Aldin said. “Here is a small pendant that Lucas used to wear, and the cloak that Michela was wearing because the day was cool while she was weeding in the garden. I don't see anything belonging to Marwen or Anabel.”
“If you would build up the fire, Gimli, and burn everything that cannot be returned to the parents, I will climb up and see what prey has been caught by this sister of Ungoliant as well as whether there are any of her children ready to be hatched.”
I made ready to climb up on the rough side wall. Once I got high enough I would be able to use the spider's web to help me get across to her prey and to check the remainder of the roof area.
Two hours later I finally climbed back down, filthy with webbing and dirt caught in my hair, on my skin, and all over my clothing. “The prey was all sheep, praise the Belain. There was one spiderling ready to be hatched, but she has now been slain. I think this cavern is unoccupied again.
“Gimli, my friend, it is time to go back to the Inn, wash up, and have dinner. We will leave the townsfolk to finish up here and on the island. We can leave for Minas Tirith in the morning and report to the King within a fortnight. What say you?”
Gimli agreed with enthusiasm. Searching the midden heaps and the dead bodies of the half-orcs had not left him much cleaner than I was after climbing through spider webbing. Having Master Aldin take the rear of our small group once again, we reversed our path and left the cliff face. Looking upward we were surprised to see that it was only mid-afternoon. We had made good time.
“Gentlemen,” said Master Aldin. “It would be a great honor if you would join the council and me for dinner this evening in one of the private dining rooms at the Inn.”
“It would be our pleasure, Master,” Gimli answered for both of us. I was looking southwards towards the harbor and the chimneys of the town were spread below us. It was a picturesque view, but my thoughts were filled with the four children who had died before we had managed to catch their executioner. The short lives of men had never concerned me before meeting Aragorn, but to see young lives snuffed out so soon before their potential had been allowed to mature cut me to the core. I would not weep, but I mourned nonetheless.
We made our way to the town, cleaned up and met with the Council that night. We were told that all of the bodies were now accounted for and that Anabel's older brother Padrik, who had been thrown from his horse and seriously injured, had regained consciousness, telling his parents that Derrick had deliberately frightened his young, barely trained horse, causing his accident. It seemed that by dying in the marsh, Derrick had saved the Crown a great deal of trouble. Master Tomkins and his son Dunbar were his only living relations and they were appalled by his actions. Although there might have been a few scattered tears over Derrick's death, few truly mourned his passing.
The next morning, as the sun rose over the river cliffs, Gimli and I were already on the road heading back to report to Aragorn. As I sang “Welcome” to the sun, delighting in the colors of the painted sky, I also sang for those four innocent children, praying that they would be cared for by the AllFather. When I had finished my song, I glanced behind me. “Well, Gimli, this was well done. Let's go home.” Our horse jumped forward on the road.
-fin-
Title: In the Darkness of the Moon
Rating: PG
Theme: Think Outside the Box
Elements: careful, damp, bottle
Beta: None – all errors and oversights are totally my own
Author’s Notes: Disclaimer: Tolkien built the sand box; I only play with the bucket and shovel that he left for me. No money, profit or non, is made from the publication of this story.
Summary: A Fourth Age mystery of missing children causes King Elessar to ask the assistance of his friends Legolas and Gimli to investigate the case.
I am so far out of the box on this one, I can’t even see it with a star-seeker. I usually only write Silm-based fic – this is Fourth Age. I usually focus on the Feanorians or at least the Noldorin peoples – this has two beloved characters from Lord of the Rings, but no Noldo. I have never written a mystery, here’s one for all of you. Oh…and I write short – I’m the Queen of Drabbles. This one….well, let’s just say it’s anything BUT short. Welcome to my nightmare
Word Count: 9,709
In the Darkness of the Moon
-1-
“Troubling news has come to my ears, my friends,” the King said. I looked up at Aragorn’s words. “I have received disturbing reports of children disappearing from a village in the western portion of Gondor.”
Gimli and I were seated in comfortable chairs around a low table near one of the southeastern balconies of the Citadel at Minas Tirith. We had arrived at the capital city of Gondor three days earlier to help celebrate the birthday of our boon companion and King, Aragorn. Now we were relaxing, sharing wine and conversation with our friend in the King’s private chambers.
“Children, is it?” Gimli asked. “And how may we be of help to you and them? Just say the word.”
Aragorn let a small smile ghost across his face. Gimli’s gruff exterior hid a tender heart and he dearly loved interacting with the young children of his friends. He was always there with a helping hand and an encouraging word, for any child who needed one.
I, on the other hand, had a momentary thought of “We? Since when is the dwarf speaking for both of us?” before I refocused on what Aragorn was saying.
“Apparently, over the past few months, several children, between the ages of eleven and twelve years, have gone missing. Their parents have searched frantically for them. The remains of one boy were found after he had been missing for more than a month. The body's bones bore tooth marks on them that weren’t from wild animals, but rather had a more human, or orcish look to them. Ten days ago another child went missing, this time the six-year-old grand-daughter of the village headman. At his urging, the Town Council decided to formally request the assistance of the Crown.”
Aragorn reached into a small barrel positioned slightly behind his right side, pulling out a map. Moving the remnants of the luncheon that we three had shared not long before to one side, he spread the map across the tabletop.
“Here,” said the King, pointing to a dot at the meeting of the Gilrain and Serni rivers. “Linhir is a small port town west of the Anduin on the Great South Road. Its port supplies the smaller settlements of Lebennin. The town is also a central gathering point for the crops from that rich farming area, before they are transported to either Minas Tirith or Dol Amroth.”
Aragorn sighed and pulled his hands through his hair, an outward sign of his frustration that we had become familiar with during our years of acquaintance with the King. “I need to respond to the Council's request and look into this. I am asking the two of you: could you take the extra time to travel to Linhir and investigate these disappearances on behalf of the Crown?”
I spoke up. “Tell us what else you know about the matter, Aragorn.”
“The townspeople apparently found personal items that two of the children had in their possession northeast of the town towards the Gilrain river bluffs. But once the trackers and dogs reached the marshlands in front of the cliffs, they quickly lost the trail.”
Aragorn pointed again at the map. “The area between the river bluffs and the Great South Road is a marsh and the bluffs themselves are honeycombed with caves and tunnels.” Aragorn sat back in his chair, looking from me to Gimli and back. “Legolas, it is my hope that the two of you working together, will be able to identify the person or persons who kidnapped the children and return them to Gondor for trial and sentencing. I pray that the remaining children are still alive and will be able to return to their families. The length of time that some of them have been missing is deeply troubling to me.”
The King was very persuasive, so even though Linhir was closer to the sea than I really wanted to be, I found myself agreeing to undertake the investigation with my good friend Gimli. Ithilien was operating smoothly under my second-in-command, and Gimli said he was not needed back at the Caves for a while, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to travel and work in tandem with my friend again. Hopefully we could find and stop this predator before any other children were harmed.
We left early the next morning, riding together on a single horse as we had done so often over the years. Carrying only our bedrolls and a change of clothing, we traveled lightly; although we carried a small amount of food, most of what we ate would come from hunting and trapping along the route. We had discussed sailing down the Anduin and up the coast to Linhir, but I had opted to ride. I wanted to keep away from the sea because of my sea-longing; if I got too close, it could be disastrous for my hard-earned calm. I also knew how uncomfortable Gimli was traveling by water. In terms of time, either method of transport would get us to the village within two weeks. We would arrive at the town just a few days before the dark of the moon.
-2-
We arrived at the town and after locating the Town Hall, went inside and introduced ourselves to the Headman, Master Aldin. We sat down with him, talked about whatever information he had available about the missing children, and asked his opinions about the mood of the town and the people who might be under suspicion.
“The town is afraid,” Master Aldin said. “Children are being escorted to school or on errands. They are being kept close to their homes, and all extra social events have either been canceled or have been rescheduled to allow for close supervision. What frightens me, my Council, and my best trackers is two-fold. First, these kidnappings seem very calculated, almost as if each child had been pre-selected to meet some specific criteria. And, second, they also seem to be meeting a time schedule of some sort. At least, something of that nature is tickling my brain, but I can't quite discern a pattern yet.”
He shook his head and continued. “We have had no luck tracking the assailants any farther than the marshes of Gilrain. The grasses and hillocks themselves are treacherous, and the bluffs behind them offer hundreds of possible hiding places. We are at a loss, and so we asked for help from Minas Tirith.”
“Do you have any persons you suspect here in the town?” Gimli asked, echoing my own thoughts.
“No. I can't imagine anyone within our town who would want to harm any other resident by harming their children. It must be someone from outside, but we haven't been able to isolate anyone.”
After a bit more discussion, he led us across the main square towards the Inn of the Dolphin, a sturdy three-story structure with a large common room, several private dining rooms, and two floors of bedrooms above. We were given a large room on the top floor and were told that three meals a day would be provided for us. Our horse was being cared for nearby sharing the stable with the horses of the town guard. We arranged to meet the parents of the missing children later that evening and settled down to clean off the dirt of travel and eat a light lunch. The food served was hearty, if plain, and the townsfolk seemed friendly. News of why we were there had spread and several of the townspeople came up to us while we were eating, offering their help or their opinions on the case.
We took the short time remaining before meeting with the parents to walk around the town. It was a typical port town, although small. The harbor itself was deep enough for true sea-faring vessels, although most of the ships in the bay were of a slightly shallower draft meant for coastline water travel. There were warehouses near the docks, a central marketplace near the town square, and a second set of storage facilities near the intersection of the Great South Road and the town's main road. The Great South Road made a U through the northern part of Linhir, coming from Minas Tirith on the East to pass northwest into the central part of Lebennin from Linhir. The town had not escaped the war – there were ruined buildings and evidence of attacks from both the water and the land still visible. But it had survived and was rebuilding. The general feeling seemed to be one of optimism, or at least it had been until this latest setback.
Upon our return to the Inn, we were directed to a private dining room just off the common area. Master Aldin introduced us to the parents of the missing children. “This is Master Ferris, one of the bakers in the northwestern section of town, and his wife, Alcia. It was their son, Lucas, whose body was found a short way into the Gilrain marshes.”
Master Aldin continued, “Master Greene and his wife Marna are the parents of Michela. Michela was the first child reported missing, more than six months ago.
“This is Master Fossel and Tamra, his wife. They have a fruit orchard on the eastern edge of town and are the parents of Marwen, the third child who was kidnapped.
“And this is my son-in-law Master Martin with his wife, my daughter Glenna. It was when my grand-daughter Anabel went missing that I determined it was time to ask for help from King Elessar.”
Master Ferris and his wife stayed at the meeting for a while, but left as soon as they could reasonably make their excuses. Their hunt had ended, and not in a manner they would have chosen.
The other parents told us whatever they could. It was obvious that their sorrow and fears had taken a toll on them, they all had a haunted, fearful look behind their eyes that spoke to the fact that they feared their children would never be found alive, or perhaps never found at all. As the parents left us later that night, Mistress Marna came up to me.
“Sir Elf, sir...”
“Lady, you need not give me any titles.”
“Please, sir. I don’t know if Michela is alive or dead, in some ways I hope she is dead so that she isn’t frightened and in any pain. But sir, please, just find her. Bring her back to me, whether she is living or dead, just find her and bring her home….” Her voice broke and a tear fell from her eye. Her husband, Master Greene the local miller, came to her, and putting his arm around her led her from the room.
-3-
After breaking our fast the next morning, Gimli and I set out to examine the locations from which the children were taken and talk to anyone who might have seen something that might help us find them. Michela, had been the first child taken. She had been helping her mother weed their herb garden, and when called in to eat at midday, was found to be missing. The bag of weeds and the small knife that she had been using had been found a short distance away from the house on the road heading towards the river cliffs. Because the earthen track was hard packed and used frequently, there was no easy way to track the direction that she might have been taken. Although dogs had been used to find the child's scent, they had been unable to pick up a trail.
After examining the home of Michela, we then went to look at the homes of the parents of Lucas and Marwen, the second and the third of the kidnapped children. Although their circumstances were different - Marwen having been taken from her bedroom through the window while her parents were in the next room, and Lucas having never returned from a trip to the marketplace for his mother - again what scant clues there were led towards the marsh and the river bluffs.
The fourth child missing was Anabel, a child of six whose parents had been called away when her older brother Padrik had been thrown from his horse and seriously injured. Anabel had been told firmly to stay indoors and not open the door to anyone. However, when they came home, the front door was locked but she was missing. Her doll, which she was rarely without, was found at the edge of the Great South Road, as it turned towards the Gilraen River cliffs.
We then decided to go into the marsh and see where the body of Lucas had been found. Master Aldin had supplied a map for us and had offered a guide, but we wanted to go alone first and take our time looking over the area. Gimli and I wandered into the stable, talking quietly between ourselves. We had decided to ride out to the marshes, and then continue into the marsh on foot. The horse was elven trained and would wander when it could, but come when I whistled. As we were talking and brushing down the mare, there came a light knock at the stall door.
Looking up, I saw a young male dressed in dusty and threadbare clothing looking at us with hesitation. He appeared to be in his early to mid-teen years, and although his clothing was worn it showed signs of mending and was relatively clean.
I nodded at Gimli signaling him to speak to the youngster. Often they found him more approachable than they did me. Perhaps it was because Gimli was closer to them in height, or because he was a plain speaker, but whatever the reason, Gimli was an expert at setting young people at their ease.
He nodded at the teenager, pulled a piece of wood and his whittling knife from a pocket, and settled down on a bale of hay, beginning to carve the wood into a fanciful animal. The young boy followed him, looking with fascination at what Gimli was making. Before long, my friend had set the boy up with his own piece of wood and a second knife and both of them were busy carving. Admittedly, Gimli was actually making something whereas the boy was making a nice pile of wood chips, but they were now comfortable with each other and were engaged in conversation.
“Legolas,” Gimli said quietly. “I think you should hear this too.”
I moved away from the horse and squatted down next to the hay bale.
“Tell my friend what you were just telling me, Derrick,” Gimli urged.
The child looked down at his stick and knife. Then, seemingly gathering his courage, he looked at me with a quick glance in my direction. Looking away again, he said, “Well, sir, it’s like this. I woz around the back o' the house, they have this apple tree that's bearin' and I woz going to just nip one. They wouldn’t miss one apple, there woz loads of 'em.” he said, becoming a bit more defensive towards the end of the sentence and looking defiantly towards me.
“It’s all right, Derrick. If you saw anything that can help us find these children, I’m sure you’ll be welcome to as many apples as you want. Now, whose house were you behind and what did you see?” I asked gently.
“It woz Master Martin's house, and like I said, I woz around the back. I saw 'im come up to the door and I didn’t think nothin' of it because he’s there a lot. But whenz I heard that the little girl was missin'...”
“Who is there a lot, Derrick?” I asked, suddenly focused on what this young man might have to tell us.
He looked up at Gimli for a moment, receiving an encouraging nod from my friend. Casting his glance back to me and then down, he carved a few more chips away from his wooden stick, then looked in my direction again. “That school master, Brondun. Him went up to the front door, brazen as anythin'.”
“What was so unusual about the school master going to the house?” I asked.
“Well, he don' come to see Anabel, she's too young. He comes to see Padrik, Anabel's brother – him that was hurt bad when he was thrown from his horse in the above pasture.”
I nodded. The school master might be worth looking at closer. Why had he gone into the house when Padrik was not at home on that fateful day?
“What about Anabel? Did you see her speak to Master Brondun?” I asked him.
“Aye, I saw her open the door to him, talkin’ to him at the entry, and a little bit later, I sawr him leavin' carryin' somethin' in a large bag. I didn’ think nothin’ of it until I heard that Anabel was missin’ later that night.”
“What direction did he head, lad?” Gimli asked.
“He went to the nor'east. His home is that a way. I don' understand, though,” Derrick continued. “Why would he be wantin' to take Anabel?”
“And that's a very good question indeed, Derrick,” Gimli responded. He cast a quick look in my direction. I nodded, rose from the hay bale, and returned to brushing the horse.
Gimli spent a while longer with Derrick. The young man said that he worked as a laborer with Master Tomkins who ran a regular trade route from Linhir to Ethring via land, then down the Ringló River to Edhellond, and finally by sea to Dol Amroth and around Belfalas back to Linhir. It was Derrick’s responsibility to ride with the goods to Ethring, then help load the goods onto the river barge. He would return the horses and wagons back to Linhir while Master Tomkins continued south with the products for the water portion of the route. They would meet again in Linhir and begin the delivery process again. The route took approximately one month for the full circuit.
-4-
Deciding to look closer at Master Brondur later, we headed out to the swamp to scout the area where Lucas’ body had been found. Letting the horse graze while we went into the marsh, I quickly found the hillock where Lucas’ bones had been found, and we began looking over the area carefully.
“Legolas,” Gimli called from farther northeast, a good distance away from where the body had been found. “I have boot prints here coming from the cliffs. The boots are unusual - square toed. I don't remember any of the townsfolk we met having boots shaped like that, do you?”
I had found nothing in the area northwest from Gimli’s location, so I abandoned my locale and came over to where my friend was looking at the prints of two pairs of square-toed boots. “Let's see where these might lead us, eh Gimli?” I began tracking them back towards their place of origin. They were leading us towards the cliff face.
Reaching the cliff face, we carefully examined the area where the marsh met the cliffs. I finally found an entryway hidden by a fold of rock and brushy overgrowth. “What do you think, Gimli? It is mid-afternoon now and I have no idea how long it might take us to find the owners of these square-toed boots. At this point, I turn the tracking over to you. I am of limited use in stone.”
“Within the cliff caves and tunnels, it is dark anyway,” my friend said. “So the fact that the day is coming to an end will have no bearing on our ability to track the boots. Let's at least make a start to this. I sense the stone here and I think it will help me to choose the correct tunnels and passageways. I have a feeling that these characters won’t be too far from this opening.”
I nodded and we entered the cave through a narrow cleft that was slightly hidden by several stunted bushes. Gimli took the lead.
The dark was oppressive. I am no stranger to dark places, many of the dens of spiders and orcs in and near Mirkwood are dark and I have often been in those. But these river cliffs felt different to me, less stable and more unpredictable. I shook my shoulders. I needed to focus; danger could be well-hidden in this complex of tunnels and caverns.
“Be careful up ahead here,” I heard the gruff but low voice of my dwarvish friend break the silence. “The tunnel pulls together for a short space and you will need to bend to dwarf height to get through easily.”
The narrowing passageway turned into a constricted slot canyon for a short way. I could see that we were in a knife's edge space that was open to the sky above. Water from recent rains still pooled on the floor and we got quite damp from the puddles that we needed to crawl through. I imagined that in a hard thunderstorm this small area could turn into a deathtrap very quickly with rising water coming down faster than it could escape from the narrow outlets at either end of the section of open tunnel.
Continuing onwards we took a sharp turn to the right where the tunnel gained height again, and after a short distance we entered a larger chamber. Keeping to the back wall, we looked carefully ahead across the room towards a faint light at the far end.
“Fire,” Gimli whispered.
I suddenly froze and caught my friend across his chest, a signal to keep him from both movement and speech. We had worked together in battle and scouting situations before. He recognized my sign and immediately stopped short. I listened carefully. I was hearing a sound that I had not heard for several years, a clacking and chittering sound that brought memories of Mirkwood back to me.
Looking up with care, I isolated where the sound was coming from. Yes, there above me in the gloom of the high ceiling, was a darker form, a great spider. What was one of the giant spiders doing here, so far away from my forest eaves? That was a mystery I would have to solve later. Right now, I needed to discover how many spiders there were and what they were eating.
Looking carefully, I could discern several wrapped bundles hanging from webbing. I only saw the single spider, but they were rarely found alone so I could not count on that. I motioned to my friend to retreat back to the tunnels so that we could talk carefully and we backed up and exited the cavern.
“Did you see it, Gimli?” I asked softly. “A giant spider such as we would find in the forests of Mirkwood, there against the cavern ceiling.”
“No, I didn't see it. But the boot prints continue along the left side of the cavern towards that fire we saw ahead of us.”
“So the question comes. Are these two foes working together? Are the booted ones bringing food to the spider so that they can stay here unmolested? Or is the spider completely independent and so content with its food source that it won't bother the booted ones unless the food disappears?”
“We need to take a look at the booted ones,” Gimli said softly. “We need to know what manner of creature they are so that we can determine if they might be involved in the kidnapping of the children or the death of Lucas, or both.”
“The spider worries me,” I said. “It would be best if she was at the far end of the cavern before I begin to creep nearer to the fire. If she notices me and drops down, I would have to attack her, eliminating any possibility of sneaking up on our possible criminals at the fireside.”
“Can you get a view of her from the tunnel entry?” Gimli asked. “If you can, we can stay here while you watch her. When she retreats to the far side, you can sneak around the left edge to get a closer look at who is at the fire.”
“Let's at least try,” I responded. “I think we need to know more about what beings are at the fire before we return to the town.”
I strung my bow and Gimli and I settled down for a silent vigil. I was keeping a close eye on the ceiling and the spider, Gimli was concentrating on the fire at the end, watching carefully for movement.
After an hour or so I saw the bulk of the spider's body moving away from us towards the far corner of the cavern's ceiling. I signaled Gimli and began to carefully move around the edge of the cave towards the fire. The disadvantage of going towards the fire was that the light would destroy my night vision for a short time.
There were several piles of fallen ceiling rock that helped to hide me from any prying eyes. As I got close enough to see what manner of creature was at the fire, I realized that my caution was well placed. At the fire sat two half-orcs sharing a meal that appeared to be the upper and lower arm of a human. I backed away after noting the area carefully and cataloging their visible weaponry. If there were only two of them and the spider, I thought that Gimli and I could successfully overpower them. However, if there were more of the half-orcs at another entrance or simply away gathering more food, it could be more difficult.
Returning to the cavern entry and Gimli, we retreated to the tunnels so that we could discuss what I had seen.
“Well?” he questioned gruffly in a soft whisper.
“There are two half-orcs are at the fire. They have the appearance of those we met at Helm’s Deep and saw at Isenguard. They have bows, swords and knives in easy reach and were eating what appeared to be a human arm while passing a bottle of drink between them. If there are more than the two, I could see no sign of them.”
“We can take them, Legolas,” my companion said, no doubt coloring his words or his tone.
“Yes, we probably can. But I think we would be better served by returning to the town and speaking with Master Aldin. I want to know if these half-orcs just found the body of Lucas, or if they have had these children deliberately caught and brought to them. And if that is the case, then who is actually kidnapping the youngsters?”
-5-
We returned to the Inn and found the Headman and two of the fathers of the missing children waiting for us in the common room. Sitting down with the three men, we listened as they expressed their theories and concerns.
Master Martin, the father of Anabel, had seemed to discern a schedule to the kidnappings. “Michela was taken seven months ago, at the time of the dark of the moon,” he pointed out. “Lucas disappeared three months later, but also during the time of the dark of the moon. Marwen was again two months distant, and again during the dark of the moon. And my own Anabel...” he choked for a moment and Master Aldin put his hand upon his shoulder, offering his son-in-law quiet support. Master Martin took a deep breath and continued, “My own Anabel was taken just one month later, but again during the time of the moon's darkness.”
“It seems to be escalating,” I said. “Seven months, four months, two months and then one month between these disappearances. But are they always during the time of the dark of the moon? That is interesting. We are in that time again tonight, so will we have another child missing today or tomorrow?”
I continued, “Master Aldin, we spent today searching the marsh and the cliff face for signs of the kidnappers. Although I am not sure we found the kidnappers, we did find enemies on your doorstep that will have to be removed and that, if they are not the kidnappers, have at least taken advantage of the bodies of the children.” A choked sound came from the three men who had, against all reason, been hoping that their young ones would be returned to them again.
“I am sorry. I do not mean to be insensitive. But if these kidnappings happen during the dark of the moon, we are running out of time to prevent the next one. Is there any common ground between the four victims?”
“The only thing we can come up with is that three of the children attended school together. Anabel was still too young and would not have started school for another year or two. Master Brondur holds classes in a small copse and hut near his home. He teaches many of the town's children from the time they are about seven years of age through about twelve or thirteen years when they apprentice out to various masters and learn a trade.”
“How many years has Master Brondur been teaching here?” Gimli asked the men. “Is he new to the area?”
“No, not at all,” said Master Greene. “He and I grew up together, but he always loved books and the scholar’s life. When we grew older he was sent to learn at the feet of the learned teachers in Minas Tirith. He returned home after several years of study and set up his school about fifteen years ago. He married a cousin of mine, but she was slain during one of the raids that occurred during the war. He has always loved teaching the children, but now they are his only joy.”
“I would like to question him, if that could be arranged,” I told Master Aldin. “He may well have more insight about why these children were chosen and who might be the next target for the kidnapper.”
“I'll send someone to ask him to join us here,” replied the Headman and he got up from the table, heading towards the innkeeper to have one of his older stable boys deliver the message.
When Master Aldin returned to the table, Gimli began describing what we had found in the cave. “The cave itself is cleverly hidden and it is a bit tortuous to find the correct pathway. At the end of several constricted tunnels and a slot canyon is a large cavern. In that cavern we discovered two half-orcs and a giant spider. The spider has probably lived there for a while, but we suspect that the half-orcs are relatively recent inhabitants, probably no more than half of a year. Although we only saw two half-orcs, that does not mean there aren’t others who just weren't in the cavern when we were.”
“I would have to agree,” I said. “The debris I saw around them spoke of a short stay. That doesn't mean they didn't stay in a different cave earlier, but in this cavern, I would say no more than six months.
“The question I have is what is the spider eating? I saw web-wrapped bundles suspended from the ceiling, and I know that one of a similar size would feed a giant spider from my homeland for a week. There were four of those bundles. Has there been any report of animals missing? I don't think that the spider's prey was appropriately sized to be the missing children.”
Master Aldin nodded in reply. “Several of the shepherds in the upper downs have reported more missing sheep than would be normal for this time of the year.”
“Ah! And here is Master Brondur,” the Headman exclaimed.
“I would appreciate being able to question him privately. Could a side room be made available for Gimli and me?” I queried, hoping to get the school master alone before the men gave him any clue about our line of questioning.
Master Aldin signaled to the innkeeper and soon Master Brondur, Gimli and I were in a private room with a pitcher of water and a door that could be firmly closed. As I entered the room last, I latched the door behind me. I could tell that the three we had left behind us were vexed to have not been invited to this conversation, but I felt that privacy was important to maintain.
Gimli and I questioned Master Brondur carefully and learned a great deal. He was an observant and educated man and had a good understanding of his students. He was devastated about the kidnappings and the death of Lucas.
“Did you know there is an island in the center of the marsh?” he asked. When we asked for more information, he continued. “Not many people know about it, but when I was a child I used to harvest medicinal plants for our healer and several of those plants are only found in the deep marsh. I used to wander the area often when I was young. It is a treacherous land where a misstep can easily cause death by the sinking sands. But if you use a walking stick and take care you can find your way safely. The island is high enough that when the spring floods come, it has parts that remain dry.”
“I would like to see this island. Could you take us to it tomorrow morning?” I asked.
“Of course, I would be happy to. But it must be early because my students are scheduled to arrive three hours after the sun’s rise. Although they can keep themselves occupied for a short time, too much idle time will lead to roughhousing and discipline problems.”
“We could be on the road before dawn so that we enter the marsh as soon as the sun rises. Would that suit?” I asked him. He agreed and we moved on to the next subject.
“Master Brondur, it has come to our attention that you were the last person seen speaking to Anabel on the day that she disappeared. I wonder why you were at her door on that fateful morning,” Gimli asked.
“It is true, I was there picking up some books that Padrik had borrowed that I needed to return to the library at Minas Tirith. The trader was going to leave at noon and I needed to get them to him before he left. But Anabel was very much alive when I left her. I admonished her to lock the door behind me and not answer it until her parents arrived back with news about her brother. She promised me that she would do that and planned to go into the back garden to play with her doll.”
“Which trader was it who was going to take the books back to Minas Tirith for you?”
“Oh, I was dropping them with Master Tomkins. He oversees all of the trading in the area, running both directions on the Great South Road as well as the sea route around the Belfalas peninsula. The Minas Tirith route is run every two months and the western trade route every month. His son, Dunbar, is in charge of the warehouses and the Minas Tirith route. The Master takes charge of the western route with his stepson Derrick.”
“Derrick. We might have met him yesterday. He seems young for such responsibility,” I said. “Do you know him well?”
“Well enough. He was a student of mine for three years, but then was pulled out by his father and started in the trade. Derrick did not take well to scholarly pursuits, he found reading and writing very difficult and was often teased by the other students because of that,” responded the school master.
“Who were the other students he went to class with?”
“Oh, there was Lucas, Marwen, Michela....,” Master Brondur's voice trailed off and a shocked look came over his face. “Oh no!” he gasped.
“Who else was in the class with him?” I asked. “We need to know the names. It is possible that he is either responsible for the kidnappings, or is giving information to the people who are actually taking the children.”
“Padrik was in the class, and Timmo. Timmo is the last of that class. He is the son of the blacksmith and works at the forge with his father now,” the school master said, his voice trembling. “How could I not have seen the pattern?” he groaned.
“We have a name and a possible perpetrator. We will place a watch on the blacksmith's forge, but we also must check out that island as quickly as possible,” I said. “I ask you to be absolutely silent about what we have discussed here. We must catch the kidnapper in the act or we will have no proof of his actions. We will meet you at the marsh one hour before dawn and go quickly to view this island for ourselves.”
“I will be here,” Master Brondur said, shaking our hands before releasing the door latch and leaving the room. He left the inn without conversing with Masters Aldin, Greene and Martin.
“What happened to make Padrik’s horse throw him, Legolas? Did Derrick decide to change his tactics for this one enemy?”
“I’m not sure, but it is also possible that Anabel was taken instead of Padrik because the young man was injured before he could be taken. In either case, Gimli, I must speak with Master Aldin. We will need a guard on duty at the Forge.”
We entered the common room and I pulled Master Aldin aside. I told him of our suspicions and asked him to set a pair of guards near the blacksmith’s forge and that we would check the marsh more carefully the next morning. I made sure to tell him that if anything happened, the guard should not intervene, but should instead follow carefully to discover the route by which the children might have been taken, and then the guard should find and inform us.
“I'll take the first watch,” Gimli said.
“Actually, my friend, I think it would be wiser to leave for the marsh now. If Master Brondur is trustworthy, he will be there when we said in the morning. But if he is not, he...”
“He might be making his way to that island of his right now to hide evidence,” Gimli said, finishing my thought.
I nodded and we split up. Gimli was going to grab our gear from the room, and I would get the horse. We would meet behind the Inn and go quickly to the swamp. I was suddenly very grateful that we had scouted the area earlier in the day because I could choose the best route for the horse to take.
-6-
We spent a quiet night on the outskirts of the marsh. I did a small amount of experimentation going in and realized that Master Brondur’s assessment of spongy hillocks and shaking ground was quite accurate. We had been very fortunate in our tracking efforts earlier in the day. The square toed boot tracks had been on the outskirts of the deep marsh and the ground had been much more stable.
An hour before sunrise we heard someone coming up the road. Looking in that direction, we spied Master Brondur approaching our location. “Good day, Master Brondur,” I said quietly. It was quiet enough that my words would carry far if they weren't spoken with care.
“Good day to you, Master Elf, Master Dwarf,” he replied, also keeping his voice quiet. He was dressed for exploration in high boots, leggings and a hooded tunic, and carried a long walking stick. “Are you ready to conquer the deep marsh?”
“We are indeed,” Gimli responded. We took up our weapons, packs and walking sticks and began following Master Brondur into the marsh.
Using long sticks to check the stability of the hillocks before stepping on them, we managed to avoid being sucked into the mire. (In actuality, Gimli used the haft of his axe and I used my bow, but they served admirably in their new roles.) A short way into the marsh, we began finding small pieces of blue cloth caught in some of the bushes, always on the right-hand side as we passed by.
“Master, do you remember any markings such as these on the path in the past?” I asked the school master.
“No, the swamp and marsh are usually avoided, and I have never known anyone to mark their trails here in such a fashion. The village healer knows the route well and has no need to blaze a path, and he is the only person from the town who needs access to the deep marshes.”
Continuing deeper, and after having spent more than an hour penetrating the marsh, the grasses parted and ahead of us we spied a hillock of much greater size and height. A short time later we were on the island, and the blue fabric ties had led us directly to it.
The island was large enough to require more than twenty long strides to cross in any direction. There were grasses surrounding it, giving it privacy, and a large boulder was sticking half-buried in the ground at the near side. Looking closer at the stone, I found a rope tied around the boulder. The rope was positioned so that it could have secured a person against the stone. There were possible blood stains in some of the cracks and fissures on that side of the rock as well.
Gimli, searching the other end of the island, called to me, sorrow in his tone. “Legolas, I think I found the children.”
Master Brondur and I walked to where Gimli was standing, noticing that the earth was disturbed in several places. I squatted closer to the ground and examined it. One area was dug up, holding only some scraps of clothing, parts of a tunic, and leggings that were mixed into the sandy soil. A bit farther along, another disturbed area existed. Upon closer investigation this area might have held the body of a female because a tattered and torn dress was thrown nearby. Two other areas were undisturbed but mounded as if a body could have been buried below. I hoped that whatever was underneath would still be intact. It looked as if animals had unburied the first two bodies, not shovels or hands.”
Gimli and I looked sadly at each other and then at Master Brondur who was sitting on the ground sobbing quietly against his pulled-up knees. “You could not have known, Master,” I said to him.
“But I should have realized when I heard the names. It was Anabel that threw me off. Why would he take Anabel? She only knew him in passing.”
“First we have to find out exactly who it was who kidnapped these children. Although we think it might have been Derrick, we have no firm proof. We should return to the town now,” I urged. “We’ll continue to watch Timmo and, Belain willing, we will be able to catch the kidnapper in the act. If we cannot catch him attempting to kidnap Timmo or some other child, we will have no proof fit for the King and the courts.”
“We must leave the island as it is and have Master Aldin and whoever he deems appropriate come out and uncover the two mounds to determine whose bodies are still here. They must see for themselves exactly what we saw this morning. We are in your debt, Master Brondur.”
We left the island and returned to the town. Master Brondur went to his home to take up his teaching duties, and Gimli and I, after checking with the guards set over the forge, went to Master Aldin’s home. He was seated breaking his fast. His wife offered us food and drink, but we both only accepted cups of tea. After his wife had left the room we described what we had found to the Headman. Tears gathered in his eyes, but he took a deep breath, putting aside the grieving grandfather and donning the cloak of the Headman again, realizing that the time for mourning would have to wait.
“We need to catch whoever is doing this in the act. Timmo has to be taken and followed. We need proof,” Master Aldin said. “Without proof we cannot imprison anyone for these crimes.”
“Poppi?” came a soft but bright voice from the kitchen doorway. A young girl came through into the kitched from the adjoining room. “I saw Marwen and Derrick talking on the day that she went missing. They were walking together towards the Great South Road. I didn’t think anything about it, they have known each other for years. But…I just thought I should mention it.”
“Gentlemen, may I introduce you to my youngest child, Alyssa.”
I thanked the young lady for her information and determined, after a few follow-up questions, that she did not have anything else to add. Still, it was one more leaf on the tree of proof that we were building.
“We need to eliminate the threat of the spider and the half-orcs also, but they can wait until we have proof of Derrick’s role,” I said. “He is running against a time deadline which may make him careless. Won’t the next shipment he rides with leave soon?”
Master Aldin stated, “It should leave within the next day or two.”
“Could we force the issue?” I asked the Headman. “If Master Tomkins declares that they will leave at sunrise tomorrow morning, it might push our kidnapper into making his move today.”
“I’ll talk to Master Tomkins and see if he might leave tomorrow morning, or at least make sure that people think he will leave on that schedule. That should speed things up,” and he got up from the table, put the dishes on the sideboard, and all of us left his home.
Gimli and I went to break our fast at the Inn while Master Aldin went to talk with Master Tomkins. After a comfortable meal of meat, fruit, eggs and bread, we settled down for a game of chess in the main room while trying to be patient. There were many places that we had waited in the history of our friendship – Helm’s Deep, Dunharrow and at the Black Gate itself. Waiting never grew easier with practice.
In the early afternoon, a young guard came into the Inn looking for us. “The young one, Timmo, just left the forge in the company of Derrick Tomkinson. They are heading north.”
We immediately got up from our seats, armed ourselves and went outside. The two guards joined us and we quickly went towards the marsh. As we ran, I told the guards that they needed to witness this, but they were to stay behind us and allow us, as agents of the King, to apprehend the criminal. They quickly agreed, and retracing our steps from early that morning, we began to shadow Derrick and Timmo. It was important to catch Derrick endangering the life of Timmo, but our goal was to stop Derrick before Timmo was seriously injured or, even worse, killed.
Derrick was leading Timmo into the marsh, entering it and heading directly to the blue-flagged hillocks. I could hear Derrick talking about how he had found an island in the middle of the marsh and he thought he had seen some possible graves. Looking closer, I could see that both boys carried shovels with them. Derrick then said he didn’t want to go alone in case the kidnappers were there, so he thought of Timmo since as an apprentice blacksmith, he was big and strong. Also, he wanted help digging up the graves and Timmo was the perfect person to help. Timmo did not respond to Derrick's conversation.
Derrick and Timmo arrived at the island and the four of us concealed ourselves in the grasses nearby, watching carefully. Derrick led Timmo over to the graves. I could hear Timmo's exclamation of surprise and saw him grasp his shovel and begin digging. Derrick, on the other hand, took his own shovel and hit Timmo a hard blow on the head, bringing him down, unconscious. He then took the body of the young man, dragged him over to the boulder, and tied him to the rock, using ropes around Timmo's wrists to pull him upright. After Timmo was secured, he cut off his victim's vest and shirt, reached into his pack and pulled out a cat of nine tails.
I nodded to Gimli who jumped to the island, axe raised, at the same time as I stood with an arrow ready and shouted “Halt!”
Derrick looked up with shock on his face and backed away from the boulder. He turned around and began running towards the back of the island into unmarked territory. I let an arrow fly, aiming for his leg to keep him from flight. It hit and slowed him down but he refused to stop. Jumping clumsily from the island to a hillock, he began jumping farther into the marsh. The third hillock collapsed under his weight, casting him into the marsh. He moved towards the next hillock, then stopped short with terror on his face.
“Help me!” he cried out. “I am caught by the marsh, it is pulling me under!” He struggled, and I could see that he was being sucked under the surface by the sticky mud.
The guards had released Timmo from his bindings and I called to them for the rope. “Bring me the rope from the stone. Mayhap we can still save Derrick and bring him to Minas Tirith for trial.” But the rope was firmly tied around the boulder and by the time the guards had managed to untie the knots, Derrick was gone, sucked under the grassy sea and leaving no trace of his passage except for the broken hearts of the families whose children he had taken. A few bubbles were all that remained, and all too quickly those too had broken and disappeared.
We returned to the stone and looked at Timmo who had regained consciousness. “You'll have a pounding head for a while, young man,” one of the guards was saying to him, “and you'll need stitches for that head blow. But you survived where your companions did not, so I'd consider yourself lucky, I would.”
We decided to leave the shovels on the island. They would be needed later when men were assigned to uncover the graves of the remaining two children. The five of us followed the safe passage back to the Great South Road, the two guards carrying Timmo between their locked hands. Upon arriving at the road, we found Masters Aldin and Tomkins waiting for us along with a wagon. They assisted Timmo into the wagon and the two guards accompanied the wagon back to town, taking Timmo to the town's healer. The two men remaining then turned questioning looks towards the two of us.
“He attempted to flee,” I informed them. “I shot him through his leg to slow him down, and he missed his leap to a safe hillock, falling into the mire which quickly sucked him down below the surface. I'm sorry, Master Tomkins. I realize he was your son...”
Master Tomkins spat on the ground. “No blood of mine would kidnap and torture innocent children. His death is no loss and I renounce any kinship with him.”
“I'm so sorry, Alban,” Master Aldin said, pulling the other man into a rough embrace. They pounded each other on their backs and Master Tomkins left us, heading back towards town on his own.
-7-
“We need to eliminate the other threats to your town before we can leave for Minas Tirith, Master Aldin. We will go and kill the two half-orcs and the giant spider which are living in the bluff caves. You are welcome to accompany us if you would like.”
Master Aldin agreed to go with us. We walked down the road towards the town to the location where we had originally found the square-toed boot prints. There we began walking towards the cliff entryway. At the cleft, I stopped and addressed my friend and the Headman.
“Gimli, I think, if all goes well we can easily take these three. Here's what I propose. I'll shoot one of the half-orcs and then immediately turn my efforts to the spider. You and Master Aldin can then take care of the other half-orc and, if I didn't kill the first one, the wounded one also. After the foes are all dead, we can look through the debris and see if there might be bones or personal effects that we can return to the grieving parents of these children. The other two bodies, of course, will be unburied later today by the guards and all should be wrapped up by sunset.”
Gimli and Master Aldin agreed to the plan and Gimli once again took the lead. Since we had a human with us this time, I gave Master Aldin a torch, but asked him to stay back so that the light would not give warning to our foes. He lit the torch and stayed well back, so that when Gimli and I entered the cavern, no light leaked from the tunnel at our back. I readied an arrow as Gimli hefted his axe. At my nod, I let loose with an arrow towards the closer of the two half-orcs and then began shooting the spider with several more arrows before it suspended itself too close to me for arrows to be effective. At that point I pulled my long knives and in a short time, the spider was destroyed.
Gimli and Master Aldin, in the meantime, had rushed the two half-orcs, Gimli shouting out his Khazad battle cry and Master Aldin with a sword in one hand and the lit torch in the other. They made short work of the two half-orcs. Master Alden was looking through the middens of trash as I joined him. Gimli was searching the cavern, making sure that there were no more entrances or any other half-orcs to be bothered about.
“We have the bones of children and animals here,” Master Aldin said. “Here is a small pendant that Lucas used to wear, and the cloak that Michela was wearing because the day was cool while she was weeding in the garden. I don't see anything belonging to Marwen or Anabel.”
“If you would build up the fire, Gimli, and burn everything that cannot be returned to the parents, I will climb up and see what prey has been caught by this sister of Ungoliant as well as whether there are any of her children ready to be hatched.”
I made ready to climb up on the rough side wall. Once I got high enough I would be able to use the spider's web to help me get across to her prey and to check the remainder of the roof area.
Two hours later I finally climbed back down, filthy with webbing and dirt caught in my hair, on my skin, and all over my clothing. “The prey was all sheep, praise the Belain. There was one spiderling ready to be hatched, but she has now been slain. I think this cavern is unoccupied again.
“Gimli, my friend, it is time to go back to the Inn, wash up, and have dinner. We will leave the townsfolk to finish up here and on the island. We can leave for Minas Tirith in the morning and report to the King within a fortnight. What say you?”
Gimli agreed with enthusiasm. Searching the midden heaps and the dead bodies of the half-orcs had not left him much cleaner than I was after climbing through spider webbing. Having Master Aldin take the rear of our small group once again, we reversed our path and left the cliff face. Looking upward we were surprised to see that it was only mid-afternoon. We had made good time.
“Gentlemen,” said Master Aldin. “It would be a great honor if you would join the council and me for dinner this evening in one of the private dining rooms at the Inn.”
“It would be our pleasure, Master,” Gimli answered for both of us. I was looking southwards towards the harbor and the chimneys of the town were spread below us. It was a picturesque view, but my thoughts were filled with the four children who had died before we had managed to catch their executioner. The short lives of men had never concerned me before meeting Aragorn, but to see young lives snuffed out so soon before their potential had been allowed to mature cut me to the core. I would not weep, but I mourned nonetheless.
We made our way to the town, cleaned up and met with the Council that night. We were told that all of the bodies were now accounted for and that Anabel's older brother Padrik, who had been thrown from his horse and seriously injured, had regained consciousness, telling his parents that Derrick had deliberately frightened his young, barely trained horse, causing his accident. It seemed that by dying in the marsh, Derrick had saved the Crown a great deal of trouble. Master Tomkins and his son Dunbar were his only living relations and they were appalled by his actions. Although there might have been a few scattered tears over Derrick's death, few truly mourned his passing.
The next morning, as the sun rose over the river cliffs, Gimli and I were already on the road heading back to report to Aragorn. As I sang “Welcome” to the sun, delighting in the colors of the painted sky, I also sang for those four innocent children, praying that they would be cared for by the AllFather. When I had finished my song, I glanced behind me. “Well, Gimli, this was well done. Let's go home.” Our horse jumped forward on the road.
-fin-