AUTHOR'S NOTE: Quotations in italics are taken directly from The Return of the King.

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CHAPTER 26

Surprisingly enough, Merry and Pippin slept soundly and well, with only pleasant dreams to find their slumbers. Perhaps it had been the athelas, they told one another, when they wakened the next morning.

Outside the window, an icy rain was pouring down, interspersed with sleet and flurries of snow. It was a rather miserable day, and completely typical of Blotmath.

“Do you think we will get to talk to the lasses again today?” asked Pippin.

Merry made a face. “That’s entirely up to whether Aunt Tina can keep Rosamunda out of the way or not.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure what I want. In a way I dread taking the story up again. It’s just going to get worse. But I have to admit, it’s a relief getting it out of the way.”

Pippin nodded. “I know what you mean. But I am proud of the way Diamond and Estella are taking it. Some lasses would have been in hysterics--either that, or called us liars.”

“They know we’re not lying. They’ve seen too much already for that.”

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Lavender came in briskly to check on her apprentice. “I had hoped to move you back to the cottage today, but not in this weather.” She glanced at Diamond’s face.

“You are a bit flushed.” She placed a hand on her brow. “You have a slight fever, as well. It’s just as well you stay here a-bed for another day or so.” The healer looked at her shrewdly. “You didn’t sleep well last night, either.” It was not a question.

“No, ma’am.” But Diamond offered no further explanation; she had no intention of sharing what she’d been told without Pippin’s and Merry’s permission.

“Well, it’s willow-bark and rest for a while yet, lass.” Lavender mixed up the bitter tea, and placed it by her apprentice’s bedside. “I’ve some other patients to see. I will check on you again this evening.”

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Rosamunda stood in the Tooks’ private dining room, staring out the window at the inclement weather. She had hoped they could go into Tuckborough again today, but that wasn’t going to be possible.

Eglantine gestured at the generous array on the sideboard. “Come, Rosamunda, help yourself to some second breakfast. There is no need to wait for the others. We’re very informal here of mornings.”

Rosamunda glanced at Estella, who was in conversation with Pearl. Her daughter had been very quiet and withdrawn since teatime yesterday. She hoped that there had not been a tiff with Meriadoc. The last time her daughter had quarreled with her beau, she had moped about for days, making everyone miserable.

But no, Merry entered the room with Pippin in tow, and his face lit up to see Estella, who returned his regard with a smile.

Merry saw Pippin seated, and put the crutches out of the way, and went to get his cousin a plate. “Do you want sausages, ham or bacon, Pip?”

“Yes,” replied Pippin. “Mother,” he addressed Eglantine “we thought we’d go visit with Diamond again today, if that’s all right with you.”

Rosamunda frowned.

“I do not see any problem with that, Pippin,” said his mother, before Estella’s mother could say anything.

Pearl looked up. “Rosamunda, I was thinking of asking you and Mother to come to my apartment today. We could look at those fabric swatches and the sketches from my dressmaker if you like.”

Rosamunda began to get the feeling she was being maneuvered, but the idea of spending the day planning a splendid wardrobe quite made up for it. And, after all, what was the harm? It was clear that even though they were far too young for it, the Tooks were determined to promote Pippin’s courtship of the healer’s apprentice, and when Merry wed Estella, Pippin would be just as close as a brother-in-law. It would be as well if Estella got on with his future wife also. With good grace she gave in. “That sounds like a lovely idea, Pearl,” she said.

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Opal showed them into Diamond’s room. Pippin much admired how well his cousin was getting around on *her* crutches. But for him this was temporary. Opal would be on hers for the rest of her life. He shook his head. He hoped he’d never find reason to be as good with his crutches.

Estella went over and gave Diamond a little kiss on her brow as a greeting, before she sat down once more on the side of the bed.

Merry and Pippin looked at one another sheepishly. It was hard to get started. With a sigh, Merry took up the tale, beginning in Lothlórien. Between the two of them, they tried to describe the Lady Galadriel, and then finally gave up, as they did not feel they were doing her justice.

“She could see right through you,” Pippin finally said. “And it was very uncomfortable at first. But when we left, it was as though she *knew* us, like a mother would. Oh, that’s all moonbeams, anyway…” He shrugged.

“The Lady Galadriel--she’s the one who gave you those lovely cloaks and brooches, isn’t she?” put in Estella, remembering something Merry had once told her.

“That’s right.” Merry fell silent for a second, and Pippin looked at him wondering if he should speak, when Merry took up the tale again.

“The Elves gave us boats, so we wouldn’t have to decide right away where our path led…”

Merry continued the story as far as Parth Galen, with Pippin occasionally interrupting and adding things. Then suddenly they both fell silent, and they reached for one another’s hands, gripping tightly. In a voice little more than a whisper, Merry told of the breaking of the Fellowship, and of Boromir’s sacrifice, and their capture by the Uruk-hai. Once more there was a silence, as tears silently ran down their faces. The lasses were weeping, too, remembering the valiant Man, and how he had tried to protect the two hobbits.

After a moment, Pippin wiped his eyes with his other hand, but he kept his grip on Merry. He took a deep breath. “Merry was unconscious for most of this next part,” and he turned to glance at the scar on his cousin’s brow. “So this is what happened next…” he began to recount their captivity and their escape into Fangorn, skimping somewhat on the details. But Diamond noticed how he winced slightly speaking of the whips, and she and Estella both glanced down more than once at the scars on their wrists.

The day wore on, much as had the day before--with interruptions for meals at which they merely picked. By luncheon they had gone as far as the palantír and their separation. After a sparse and quiet meal, they returned to the story.

Merry and Pippin looked at one another. This was going to be more difficult--for now each had his own side of the story to tell.

Pippin gave a sharp, decisive nod. “Right. Well. I guess I’ll go first…”

As Pippin, in a low voice began to recount his time in Minas Tirith, Merry watched his face, and suddenly realized this was the first time he had really heard the story told properly and in order. Of course they had told one another everything, but it had been all jumbled up, as they switched back and forth and skipped around, telling whatever had just popped into their heads at the time. The same thing had happened when they told Frodo and Sam, and heard their stories.

As Pippin spoke now of the dreadful siege, and of dealing with the madness of Denethor, certain things began to come together in Merry’s mind, and for the first time he realized just how very much “in the nick of time” his arrival among the Rohirrim had been. Only a few minutes longer could have been fatal for the City and those caught within--Pippin.

Oh, blessed Dernhelm, he thought, thank you, Éowyn, my sister. Now, when it was his turn to speak, he felt his voice stronger, and his courage the more for understanding.

And now, as Merry spoke of the Riders of Rohan, his face glowed with love and pride as he spoke of Théoden King, and of Éomer and of Éowyn. He actually laughed. “I can’t believe now that I didn’t realize Dernhelm was Éowyn. I am sure all the other Rohirrim in our éored knew, and were pretending they did not, just as they pretended *I* was not there.” He shook his head, amused at how clueless he had been.

It was Pippin’s turn now to listen, and to realize the same thing--that this was his first *real* hearing of Merry’s story himself. As Merry came to the battle of Pelennor, though, his voice began to falter again. Even to Pippin, Merry had only once directly spoken of the encounter with the Witch-king--instead speaking around it, and giving most of the credit to Éowyn. Pippin felt the hand in his growing cold, and he reached over with his other hand, and felt Merry’s arm. Merry turned to look at him with bleak eyes.

“Merry, can you do this?” Pippin asked softly.

“I think I have to. If I stop now, I will never be able to do it again,” he whispered.

Estella and Diamond were listening with wide tear-filled eyes. Estella was beginning to regret her insistence on hearing this. It was hurting Merry so much to speak of these things. She reached across to his other hand, and gave it a squeeze.

Merry looked at her almost as though he were just remembering she was there, and gave her a sweet smile. Then he took a deep breath, and for the first time fully described his encounter with the Captain of the Ringwraiths. In a tearful whisper he spoke:

“I was lost in dark terror and despair. I told myself: ‘King’s man! King’s man! You must stay by him. As a father you shall be to me, you said,’ But I could not make my will answer, my body was shaking; I could not open my eyes or look up. And then, then I heard Dernhelm’s voice, though it seemed strange and different.” And as he described Éowyn’s defiance of the Nazgûl, his voice grew stronger, seeming to draw on the remembered courage of his shield-sister, in the same way she had given him his courage on the battlefield. “I could not see him strike her down, alone and unaided, so beautiful and brave. As he stooped to smite her with his mace, I drew my sword. I remembered all that Boromir had taught us about striking at the feet and legs of our enemies, and I thrust it into the back of his knee, calling her name…” He stopped abruptly and looked at his cousin. “I do not really remember anything more, Pippin, until Aragorn woke me in the Houses of Healing.” And he began to weep.

Pippin took his cousin in an awkward embrace, and Diamond gave Estella’s hand a squeeze. All of them had tears on their faces.

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At the half-open door, Pearl Took drew back, and looked at her cousin Amethyst. They had been about to knock, and tell the young couples that it was nearly teatime, when they had overheard the last part of Merry‘s story. Pearl put her hand on Amethyst’s arm, and gestured. They moved away from the door.

“I don’t think they will be up to tea with the family, Amethyst, and I don’t particularly like the idea of them coming under Rosamunda’s scrutiny right now.”

Amethyst nodded. She was a bit shaken by what she had heard. Few of the Tooks outside Pippin’s immediate family had heard very much of the story of their travels.

Pearl looked into the sitting room, where Reggie sat with his other two daughters. “Cousin Reggie, I’m taking it on myself to tell Mother and Father that you have invited the lads and Estella to stay to tea?”

Reggie nodded. “Certainly, Pearl. We’ll be glad to have them.”

Amethyst shook her head. “They may not feel up to actually joining us.”

“I understand,” her father said.

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Back in Diamond’s room, there was much patting of backs and blowing of noses. Finally, Diamond took a deep breath, sighed, and said “Estella, look in the front right-hand corner of my night-stand. You’ll see several little cloth bundles. Take out the one tied with a blue ribbon.”

Estella nodded and went to do as Diamond directed. “Here it is.”

The apprentice took it, smelled of it, and nodded. “Go see if you can use it to make a pot of tea. It’s mostly chamomile, with a bit of lemon balm and a very small amount of valerian--I think all of us could use a bit of soothing right now.”

“I think you’re right, Diamond.” And she went out, taking the small packet.

Merry and Pippin both looked a little embarrassed, but Diamond just said “I know it is not as good for you as the athelas, but I don’t have any of that available.”

The lads did not say anything, but both of them looked grateful. In just a few moments, Estella came back with a tea tray, laden not only with the teapot and cups, but with some sandwiches as well.

“Pearl had come by to let us know we will not be expected to tea with your family, Pippin,” she said.

“That’s good,” he said, “I’m not sure either of us is really fit for company right now.”

For a while, the young people were silent, as they made inroads on the teatray. They had not eaten very much, any of them, earlier in the day, and were surprised to discover that they were actually hungry. Finally, Estella took the emptied tray back out, and returned.

She sat down and looked at Diamond, and then turned to Merry and Pippin. “Are you up to doing this anymore today?” she asked.

Pippin pursed his lips, and looked at Merry’s set face. “I think we had better. For one thing, I don’t know that we would get a chance to finish tomorrow, and for another, I for one, want to get it over with.”

“I agree, Pip.” He looked at Estella and Diamond. “Do you really want to hear the rest of it?” In his mind he could see the battered bodies of his cousins and Sam as they lay in the healer’s tent in Cormallen. It did not present a pretty picture.

Both the lasses nodded firmly.

Pippin told of realizing that Merry was lost, and Gandalf sending him out to find his cousin. “I searched the City for ages, and was almost on the point of heading out to the battlefield when I finally came on you.” He fell silent for a second, and then said, “You looked awful. And I don’t think any evil thing we encountered till then--no, not even when I saw Him in the palantír--frightened me so much as when you looked at me with empty eyes and asked ‘Are you going to bury me?’ It broke my heart, it did.”

“I’m sorry, Pip.”

“None of that, cousin. I just wanted you to know. I was dreadfully worried.” They had nearly forgot the lasses were there. “Then Bergil came along, and went for Gandalf, and we got you to the Houses of Healing…”

On the story went, Aragorn’s use of athelas to heal Merry and the others suffering from the Black Shadow, the decision to make a feint of attacking the Black Gate, and Pippin marching out to an impossible battle in the desperate hope of providing a distraction for Frodo.

And the moment when he thought all was lost: seeing Frodo’s things in the hands of the Mouth of Sauron. “I can’t really tell you of the battle. All I could see were Orc legs, and then a troll falling on me. But just before all went dark, I saw the Eagles, and I realized that things might turn out all right, even though I’d not be there to see them.”

He said nothing more. Let Diamond and Estella think he could not remember what it was like to lie for hours under a stinking troll’s corpse.

It was Merry’s turn to give comfort now. And then he said, “I was convinced when I arrived that all three of you were going to die. You already looked dead, all of you, so white, and battered and broken, and Frodo and Sam so thin I could count their ribs. I would have given up, but Gandalf gave me hope. And then you began to stir, though they kept Frodo and Sam asleep for two weeks.”

There was silence, and Diamond timidly said, “I don’t understand how they could do that, sleep for two weeks with no food or water?”

Merry shook his head. “That’s not how it worked. Only Strider or Elrond’s sons had that trick of keeping them asleep. But they regularly trickled water, broth and medicine down their throats, and several times a day, attendants would come in and turn them, or move them a bit. Strider said they could get sore from lying in one position the whole time.”

Diamond nodded. That was true. Bed-sores were a constant problem for healers with bed-bound patients.

The two went on to tell what they knew of Frodo’s and Sam’s dark journey. Though when they spoke of Sammath Naur, all Merry said was, “Gollum caught up with them there and attacked them. He took the Ring and fell into the fire with it.” What they knew of Frodo’s claiming of the Ring they kept to themselves. No one who had not been a part of the Fellowship could have understood what the Ring had done to Frodo, or the burden it had laid on him, that yet was there.

“Oh, Frodo!” said Estella. She could remember him from her childhood, a joyful storyteller, and a dear friend of her brother’s. She had not understood until now just why his bright spirit seemed to have been so quenched, and it made her unbearably sad. She recalled something Angelica Baggins had confided to her, that Frodo would never wed nor father children; now she knew why. She reached over and took Merry’s hand. She knew her love well enough to realize that he would have made Frodo’s sorrows his own.

Diamond had never met Frodo until she had come to the Great Smials as Lavender’s apprentice, but what she heard now explained a great deal of the dark melancholy even her relatively untrained healer’s eye had seen in him. She flushed with embarrassment, thinking of the way Mistress Lavender had questioned him. How painful that must have been!

“Well,” said Pippin with a bit of forced cheer, “that’s all of the bad news. After that, really, we had quite a lovely time what with Aragorn’s coronation, and his wedding, and Faramir’s and Éowyn’s betrothal, and buying gifts. We were a bit homesick, truth be known, but I’m still glad we had that time. Although if we’d known what was going on here, we’d’ve hurried a bit more.”

Merry nodded at this. “You know what happened here in the Shire, so really that is all there is to tell.”

Estella leaned forward, to catch Merry’s gaze. “Thank you. I know that it was hard, dearest. But you can see can’t you, that it’s best I’ve been told. Now I’ll know what’s troubling you, and not imagine horrors.”

“No, now you know of the real ones,” he said ruefully.

“Ah, my love! But the real ones are vanquished, and I can be so proud that you helped to do that.” She laughed. “Why, when you have a bad dream, I can truthfully tell you there are no such things, because you slew them!”

Pippin gave a sharp bark of laughter at the amazed look on Merry’s face. “I daresay you never thought of it that way before, cousin, did you?"

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