Chapter 9. Just in Time for Tea

Meliloc Brandybuck fought off light-headedness as he crossed the yard to meet Tad. At least his head had stopped bleeding and he no longer had to press a cloth against the aching spot. ‘What’s the situation up there?’ he asked.

 ‘The Steward’s not bad hurt,’ the lad said. ‘The Thain’s eyes were open, last I looked, but he’s bleeding bad. Tolly’s worst off, I think. He’s not moved at all, not since I went up. Young Tom said to get help.’

Meliloc measured the wall with his eye and suppressed a mental shudder. He wouldn’t want to be the one to make the climb. “Took”, however, was a byword for courage, though foolhardy might be a better description. Funny how the Tooks had the same distrust of water that the Brandybucks had of heights. ‘There’s no other way into the study,’ he said, more statement than question. 

Tad shook his head. ‘The corridor’s all fallen-in, like, and Tom says the only way out is through the window.’

 ‘You’ll need more rope, and more help,’ Meliloc decided. He gestured to the nearest healer, just standing to his feet as the hobbit he had tended was carried away on a litter. ‘Siggy, can you climb a rope?’

 ‘It wouldn’t be my favourite pastime,’ the healer said, glancing up the wall, ‘but I can if I have to.’

 ‘We have to get Thain Peregrin and Tolibold down somehow,’ Meliloc said. ‘Reginard as well, it might be, for I don’t know if he was hurt or not. D’you have any ideas?’

 ‘I’ll have to take a look,’ Sigimand said. ‘Send me half a dozen helpers, will you?’

 ‘I’ll try,’ Meliloc said. As the healer slung his emergency bag over his back and began to climb the rope, Meliloc scanned the yard, shouting to each able-bodied Took he saw. He sent each one up the rope, and then for some reason his legs would no longer hold him and he had to sit down with his back to the wall. He made sure he was a little way from the rope so that he would not be in the way of anyone descending, but could still keep an eye on the situation.

***

‘Ruby! Can you hear me!’ Diamond called, leaning over the pit that had opened in the earth to swallow her oldest daughter, and her youngest. She could hear little Lassie crying below. ‘Ruby!’

 ‘Ruby please wake up!’ Lassie was pleading. ‘Wake up!’

 ‘No one is hurt,’ Rosamunda, Regi’s wife reported from behind her.

Diamond sighed in relief. Now all she had to worry about was the two below... all! ‘Ruby!’ she called sharply. She thought she saw movement below.

 ‘Mum?’ Forget-me-not’s voice came up to her, sounding hazy. ‘Mother? What happened?’

 ‘You fell,’ Diamond said succinctly. ‘Are any bones broken? Can you move?’ Her heart leapt as she saw the tween sit up. Little Lazuli climbed into her sister’s lap and Diamond heard Forget-me-not soothing the little one’s fear.

 ‘Lassie, it’s going to be all right,’ Diamond called down. ‘Ruby will take good care until we get you both out of there!’

Lapis whimpered for her twin and her Auntie Pimpernel soothed her, Nell’s own daughters huddled about her. Nell’s eldest, Mignonette said, ‘Should I run back to the Smials for help?’

 ‘No!’ Nell and Rosa said in the same breath. ‘We need to stay together,’ Nell added. ‘Don’t run off, love, not alone, not when pits are opening in the earth without warning like this one did.’

Coreopsis, Nell’s middle daughter, was almost in tears. ‘How are we going to get them out?’ she said.

Her mother squeezed her hand. ‘We could use a rope,’ she said ruefully. ‘Perhaps my brother ought to make them required on all picnics from now on.’

 ‘He’s quite fond of rope,’ Diamond said. ‘Ever since they travelled through Moria, you know.’ She furrowed her brow and said suddenly, ‘Petticoats!’

 ‘What?’ Rosa said sharply.

 ‘Take off your petticoats, everyone!’ Diamond said. ‘We’ll make our own rope, tie them together.’

 ‘Will it be enough?’ Mignonette said.

 ‘It has to be,’ Diamond replied. Scooting backwards from the edge she stood and shucked her own undergarment. The others followed suit and soon they were knotting the petticoats firmly together.

What with three hobbit mums and all their daughters, there was more than enough material to work with. Soon Diamond was lowering the makeshift rope. ‘I’m not sure how sturdy this is,’ she called down. ‘Tie the end around Lassie and we’ll pull her up first.’

 ‘No!’ Lazuli shrieked. It took Forget-me-not precious moments to soothe her sister sufficiently to loop the “rope” around her and tie it securely. All the while Diamond fretted under an increasing worry. What if the earth shook again and the pit opened wider, or worse, closed in upon her loved ones?

***

Reaching Waymoot, Leotred slowed the coach. The Great East-West Road passed right through the middle of the town. The damage was greater here than in any of the farmsteads or clusters of dwellings they’d passed since the shake. Hobbits were everywhere, digging in the rubble or tending the injured. Though Leot itched to jump down, roll up his sleeves, and help, he had a bad feeling about what they’d find in Bywater... and Hobbiton. The further East they’d travelled, the worse the damage had been. Near the centre of town he had to pull the ponies to a stop.

Fasttred stuck his head out of the window. ‘Why have we stopped?’ he asked.

 ‘Road’s blocked,’ Leot said.

 ‘Ah,’ Fastred said, jumping out and at a nudge from Leot, Elfstan climbed down off the box to join his father. They ran ahead and started moving rocks and bricks and larger pieces of masonry out of the Road.

 ‘We could use some help here,’ one of the hobbits of Waymoot said.

 ‘Sorry, we’re trying to reach the Mayor in Hobbiton,’ Leot said. ‘From what we’ve seen along the way, Bywater was hit even harder than you were.’

 ‘Harder!’ the hobbit said staring. ‘I find it hard to believe!’ Still, he joined Fastred and Elfstan and even called a few others over to help move the debris out of the way. When the way was clear, Leot touched his whip hand to his forehead in salute. ‘Our thanks,’ he said to the sweating hobbits.

 ‘Welcome,’ they answered, and one said, ‘Safe journey.’ Leot nodded and clucked to the ponies.

Fastred and Elfstan continued to walk ahead of the coach, moving debris as necessary. As they reached the outskirts of Waymoot, Leot pulled the ponies to a stop once more. ‘Do you want me to drive awhile?’ Fastred said.

 ‘I could use a bite to eat,’ Leot admitted.

Fastred climbed up and took the reins, but when Elfstan would have joined him he said, ‘No, son, you eat and rest. I’m sure I’ll need your help when we reach Bywater. We’ve some hours to go, yet. We’ll arrive some time after teatime, I’d guess.’

 ‘Yes sir,’ Elfstan said reluctantly and entered the coach. Elanor pulled sandwiches out of one of the baskets, along with an earthenware jug of cool sweet ginger tea, refreshing in the unusual heat they were having lately. They ate without the usual jollity, for all were wondering what awaited them at journey’s end.

***

 ‘How are you, Sir?’ Siggy said, kneeling beside the Thain, taking up a wrist to try to count the rapid heartbeats. He kept his face bland, his tone cheerful, though he was seriously alarmed at Tolly’s condition, not to mention Pippin’s.

Pippin ignored the question. ‘Is Diamond safe?’ he said faintly. ‘What of the children?’

 ‘First things first,’ Siggy said. ‘We have to get you out of here somehow.’ He half-turned, saying to the other Tooks in the room, ‘Take the door off its hinges. We can use it to lower them, one by one.’ He took out a water bottle and urged the Thain to drink.

Before long they laid the door down beside Tolly and gently eased him onto it. ‘Bind him securely,’ Siggy said. They used one of the ropes to make sure the escort would not slide off the surface as he was being lowered, then came the tricky business of easing him down the face of the cliff. At last one of the Tooks at the window, passing one of the ropes over his shoulder, sighed in relief and said, ‘There. He’s down.’

Pippin had been watching and listening tensely, now he closed his eyes. ‘Good,’ he said.

 ‘We’ll have you out of here in three shakes,’ Siggy said, but the Thain shook his head.

 ‘Regi first,’ he whispered.

 ‘Not on your life,’ the steward answered. ‘They’re taking you down first, and there’s naught you can do about it!’

 ‘I...’ Pippin began, but then the floor quivered beneath them and all the hobbits in the study froze. Siggy threw himself over the Thain, shielding him with his own body as more of the ceiling came down.

***

The elf-horse had breezed through Tookbank like a wisp of fast-blowing cloud and into the high Green Hills of Tookland. The track between Tookbank and Tuckborough had been wiped away in two places where the hillsides had crumbled away, sliding down into the valley, damming the merry stream that had danced through the lowlands. A long lake was already forming.

The sure-footed horse picked his way across the slides and broke again into the effortless gallop on the path beyond. Though he had run far and fast, he was not even breathing hard, though his flanks were dark with sweat. Legolas leaned forward, urging the horse in continuing effort, and Gimli clung like a bearded cloak to his back.

Coming along the last great hill, Legolas sat up in dismay at the sight of the Great Smials, and the horse slowed in response. Gimli tightened his grip, saying gruffly, ‘What is it? What do you see?’

Legolas shifted his weight and the horse turned aside, giving the Dwarf a clear view. Gimli swore in his own tongue, adding, ‘If this isn’t the centre of the shaking then I shudder to think what is.’

Legolas spoke to the horse and they moved forward again. Hobbits were lowering something from an upper window, Gimli saw. Legolas with his far-seeing eyes knew that it was Pippin. He leaned forward again and the elf-horse broke into a gallop to cover the last of the distance. They reached the yard just as the Thain was lowered to the stones.

Legolas slipped from the horse and ran lightly to the group of hobbits. ‘Pippin,’ he said, but his young friend’s eyes were closed.

 ‘Legolas,’ Meliloc said, pushing against the wall to regain his feet. ‘We were expecting you, but I’d quite forgotten... forgive our poor hospitality. I’m afraid we have no rest to offer you.’

Gimli came up then, to steady the Brandybuck. ‘How can we help?’ he said urgently.

Meliloc swayed in the Dwarf’s grasp. ‘You’d know better; you know more of digging than I do.’

A stable lad had run shouting into the Smials and now Everard emerged through a shattered window. ‘Gimli!’ he cried. ‘You’re a sight for sore eyes. We’ve many missing inside.’

 ‘How much has come down?’ Gimli asked gruffly. Everard unrolled the plans clutched in his hand and the two bent over them, talking in low tones.

Legolas knelt at the side of the Thain as the rescuers unwound the rope binding him to the door. ‘Pippin,’ he said softly. He placed a gentle hand on Pippin’s forehead, listening hard to more than ears could hear, and took up one of Pippin’s hands.

 ‘And we had another shake, a little one,’ Everard was saying. ‘We had to dig out some of the rescuers then.’

 ‘I thought the Thain’s study would come down upon us all,’ put in Healer Sigimand, who’d slid down the rope once Pippin was safely on the ground. ‘Thankfully it didn’t.’ He was covered with dust from the crumbling ceiling, and bruised from larger chunks that had rained down upon him, but thankfully no more than that.

 ‘Where’s Diamond?’ Legolas said, raising his eyes from Pippin’s face. The hobbits fell silent, but the Elf did not miss the glances that passed between them. ‘Is she in the Smials?’ he asked, his hand tightening on Pippin’s.

 ‘We think not,’ Meliloc said. ‘The last I saw, the Thain’s wife and daughters were off on a picnic, but they haven’t been seen. They ought not to be far from here, but they’ve not returned and we could spare none to make a search, not knowing just where they were bound.’

At that moment Pippin sat bolt upright, thrusting aside the Wood Elf’s hand, shouting, ‘Farry, no! Faramir!’ His eyes were wide and he grasped at the air in front of him before falling back into the supporting arms of those on either side of him.

 ‘Pippin?’ Legolas said softly.

 ‘Gone,’ Pippin whispered, shaking his head feebly without opening his eyes again. ‘Gone.’