Chapter 19. Healing Begins

 ‘Pippin, my love,’ Diamond said softly in his ear.

Without opening his eyes, Pippin said, ‘What did I do now?’

Surprised laughter rippled, and then, ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

He opened one eye to see Diamond bending over him. ‘You only use that tone when I’ve done something incredibly stupid.’ Someone was holding his left hand in a firm grip, so he raised his right hand to his aching head. ‘What did I do? Try to ride one of those lovely ponies the Rohirrim are so fond of foisting off on us?’

 ‘You know we’re in Rohan?’ Diamond said hopefully. Though they’d told him several times where he was and what had happened, the memory seemed to slip away when he slept again.

 ‘Of course we’re in Rohan,’ Pippin replied. ‘Everything is too Big, and the ceiling is flat—those were my first clues. Those horses carved into the lintels are the capper. We have got to be in Rohan, though I do not remember arriving.’

 ‘There was a snowstorm...’ Diamond began.

 ‘In October?’ Pippin said in astonishment. He opened both eyes. ‘It is October, isn’t it?’

 ‘Yes,’ Diamond reassured. ‘But you were lost in the storm, and when you reached shelter you were so cold and stiff you fell from your pony.’

 ‘Clumsy of me,’ Pippin muttered, closing his eyes again. ‘And so I got a knock on the noggin.’ It was a favourite phrase from Bilbo’s retelling of the Battle of the Five Armies. Strange, how he could remember Bilbo’s voice clear as anything, telling that tale, but he could not remember the snowstorm.

There was a laugh to his left, and he looked over to see a dark-haired hobbit lass who looked familiar. ‘So you’re the one holding my hand,’ he said. ‘Going to make sure I don’t accidentally get up out of bed, are you?’

She laughed again in answer. Before he could ask her name, there was a stir at the doorway and King Elessar entered.

 ‘Strider!’ Pippin said. ‘What a worry and a bother we hobbits are to you! Have I made us break our journey?’

 ‘The snow did that, old friend,’ Elessar answered. ‘It has melted away, however, and we will be able to take up our journey once more, as soon as you and the other invalids are mended.’

 ‘Other invalids?’ Pippin said, looking back to Diamond. ‘You didn’t tell me about other invalids.’

As a matter of fact, she hadn’t. All she needed was for him to throw back his covers and go in search of Merry and Ferdibrand, and fall on his head again. ‘You haven’t been with us,’ she said, dismissing the subject.

Pippin, however, was not going to let it go. ‘Who?’ he demanded.

Elessar swiftly crossed the remaining space between bed and door and gently pressed Pippin back against the pillows. ‘Don’t get up,’ he warned. ‘You need to keep as still as possible.’

 ‘That seems a good idea,’ Pippin murmured. His face had lost all colour and his eyes closed as he sagged against the supporting cushions.

 ‘Elessar?’ Diamond said anxiously.

 ‘All is well,’ the King said in reassurance. ‘He’ll be stronger after the athelas.’

 ‘Ah yes, athelas,’ Pippin said without opening his eyes. ‘It’s that bad, is it, Strider?’

Elessar took the hobbit’s right hand in his and gave a gentle squeeze.

Pippin drew a deep breath, and another, and then said, ‘What other invalids?’

Diamond exchanged a hopeful glance with Forget-me-not. In earlier wakenings Pippin had almost immediately forgotten what they told him, repeatedly asking the same questions over again, the answers slipping away without his seeming to notice.

 ‘Merry,’ she said quietly, ‘and Ferdi were injured as well,’ she said. ‘Strider’s having them brought here, that they may benefit from the athelas as well.’

 ‘Ah, Strider,’ Pippin said. ‘Now you’re thinking like a hobbit. Make a party of it, a celebration! None of this quiet, private, wave-the-bowl-under-his-nose-and-move-on-to-the-next nonsense! Let us invite half of Rohan as well. I’m sure they’d benefit from breathing a little of that steam.’

He opened one eye to locate Diamond, and reassured, closed it again. ‘How badly were Merry and Ferdi injured?’ he asked.

Diamond held her breath and looked to Elessar. How much of the story...?

 ‘Burns to their feet, and Ferdibrand has burns on his back as well,’ Elessar said, maintaining his grip on Pippin’s hand.

 ‘Burns!’ Pippin said, stiffening. ‘What, did they fall into a fire?’ He opened his eyes though it cost him some effort, to fix Elessar with a stern look. ‘You’re not telling me all. And fire... how’s Ferdi taking it?’ He knew of old his cousin’s fear of fire.

 ‘Steady, my love,’ Diamond said, and saw her husband will himself to relax once more.

 ‘They fell into the hands of a ruffian,’ Elessar said slowly as he watched Pippin’s face.

 ‘A ruffian?’ Pippin said, then, ‘burns...’ He drew another long breath. ‘But they are invalids, so that means they survived.’ He let his eyes drift closed, and Diamond thought he might be falling into sleep, but he spoke again. ‘Athelas,’ he said. ‘Ferdi is not well, I think. He has not fared easily in the hands of ruffians in the past, nor recovered quickly.’

 ‘Yes,’ Elessar said. ‘And Merry is haunted by memory as well.’

 ‘Shadow...’ Pippin breathed. ‘There are still Men walking under Shadow, even though the Dark Lord was defeated years ago now. Gandalf said that Shadow always returns and takes on new form...’

Elessar leaned close. ‘This is not the rising of a new Shadow, Pippin, but the lingering effects of the old.’

 ‘That’s a mercy,’ Pippin said, ‘I think.’ He was silent again.

 ‘Are you sleeping, my dear?’ Diamond whispered.

 ‘How do you expect me to answer that question?’ Pippin said in an everyday voice. Elessar chuckled, and Pippin went on, ‘Isn’t it some sort of meal time? Either bring on the athelas or bring on some food, but don’t leave me dangling here.’

***

Somewhere far beyond the hiding place where Ferdi’s thought crouched in concealment, he was dimly aware of his body being lifted, and a sense of motion. He knew what was about to happen, for he’d lived through it, somehow, once before. The ruffians had decided what sort of torments would be most amusing to administer, and to watch. He would die by slow agonies whilst they cheered and jeered, and they would prolong their pleasure just as long as might be. He hoped the end would come quickly, but really there was no hope. No hope at all.

***

Merry wakened from dark dream as Estella stroked his face. ‘Pippin’s awake, beloved, and Elessar has the athelas ready.’ She nodded to Sarry and Merigrin, and they lifted Merry between them, that he need not suffer the touch of a Man. They had settled Ferdi first and returned to fetch Merry. 

 ‘Where are we going?’ Merry said, though in truth he cared not. All was darkness, and Shadow covered all. He almost wished they’d leave him to dream in quiet.

 ‘We’re going to see Pippin,’ Estella answered firmly. Her heart was in her throat. Merry’s right arm was icy cold, and he hadn’t used his right hand in some hours. He was falling rapidly into despair, and if the athelas did not have effect he would lose the long fight against evil memory. Shadow would take him at last, and there was nothing Estella could do to prevent it. They were placing so much hope upon two small dried leaves...

Merry did not rouse at the sound of Pippin’s name, merely nodded dully, his look turning inward once more.

The athelas must have effect, she thought desperately. Arwen and Elessar place such confidence in it.

***

 ‘Here we are!’ Merigrin said as they entered his father’s room. He and Sarry carefully deposited Merry on the large, low bed, another piece of furniture that had sacrificed its legs to King Eomer’s orders.

Estella and Sarry helped Merry to settle next to Pippin, back against the cushions. Pippin looked over. ‘Welcome,’ he said cheerily, though he worried at the dark shadows under his cousin’s eyes, and Merry’s lack of response. ‘I was wondering when you’d get here. They told me we’d eat after this athelas business, and I’m famished.’ When there was no answering smile, he reached for Merry’s left hand and gave it a squeeze. ‘I’m here, Merry,’ he murmured. ‘Do you know?’

Merry blinked and looked over. ‘I know,’ he said, but then he seemed to slip again into dark dream.

Ferdibrand had said nothing in response to Pippin’s greeting earlier, had not opened his eyes nor returned Pippin’s squeeze on his hand. He lay on Pippin’s other side, leaning against the cushions, seeming scarcely to breathe. Pimpernel sat beside her husband, holding his hand and eyeing with suspicion the Kings and healers who moved about the room.

Hobbits crowded into the room. Big brothers and sisters lifted the littlest ones onto the bed and then stood as close around the bed as they could, wanting to offer support to their fathers, uncles, cousins, friends (as well as aunt and mother).

Elessar entered, moved smoothly through the crowd of hobbits, and knelt upon the bed. First he placed a palm against Merry’s forehead, seeming for long moments to listen, before moving on to Pippin, and then Ferdi in his turn. When he reached Pimpernel beside her husband, he looked with compassion into her defiant eyes. ‘May I?’ he said softly.

She hesitated and nodded. She closed her eyes as the overlarge hand approached her face, and stiffened as she felt its touch. She didn’t know what she expected, but Elessar’s palm was warm and dry, gentle, and... peaceful somehow. Peace radiated from his hand, cascading down her head to her neck, into the knotted muscles of her shoulders, down her arms to the clenched fists that slowly opened to lie limp upon her lap, down her body to her legs and on to the tips of her toes. With a sigh she relaxed against the cushions at the head of the bed.

Elessar settled cross-legged on the bed, facing the line of “invalids”, as Arwen entered, bearing a steaming basin. The crowd of hobbits parted before her and she stood by the side of the bed, ready.

Elessar took the two precious leaves and regarded them a moment, gathering himself, and then he breathed on them, and then he crushed them. The hobbits and Rohirrim in the room straightened, breathing deeply of the living freshness that filled the room, promise of joy, a tingle that entered with inhaling the sparkling air and quickly spread throughout a body. The King himself sat straighter, a burden seeming to fall from his shoulders, and he cast the leaves into the steaming water.

Sam’s arm slipped around Rose as the memory of springtime at Bag End stirred within. He closed his eyes, the better to breathe the fragrance of roses and lilies and the promise of damp rich earth. He opened his eyes again to see the King holding the basin before the invalids, and Merry and Ferdi blinking as those who waken from a deep sleep. Pippin still lay back against the cushions, his eyes closed, but there was more colour in his face than Sam had seen since they’d come to Edoras. Pimpernel was staring in astonishment at the healer-king.

 ‘You...’ she breathed. ‘You...’ As Elessar gave the basin back to Arwen, Pimpernel suddenly leaned forward, throwing her arms as far around him as they’d reach. Laughing, Elessar gathered her close, holding her for a long moment before she released him. As she sat back, she shook her head in wonder. ‘I understand now,’ she said. ‘I didn’t before, but now I understand.’

Pimpernel turned to Ferdi, who said, ‘I’ll take one of those, if they’re still on offer.’ Pimpernel laughed and gently hugged her husband. Merry was deeply kissing Estella while their son and daughter looked on, beaming, before being drawn into a general embrace.

Pippin opened his eyes, his gaze falling on Forget-me-not. 'But of course,' he said as if in answer to a lingering question. 'How could I forget you, Ruby, my heart?' he added, using the old pet name from her early years. The Thain's eldest daughter caught her breath as tears came to her eyes. Her father knew her!

One of the hobbits raised a song of springtime’s promise, and the rest joined in. Soon even the Big Folk were humming along and joining the simple chorus, as the sound of celebration filled the room.