Chapter 85. "All this Way for Nothing"

Now came faintly to their ears the sound of shouting and the clatter of horses' hoofs on the stones of the yard. The Thain did not open his eyes, but Ferdibrand jumped to his feet, exclaiming, 'The King!' He raced from the room.

'Stand fast, ruffians!' one of the Tooks was shouting, 'or we'll serve you the same dish your fellows ate!'

'Stuff it down their throats,' another muttered threateningly.

'Hold!' a third said, 'Ferdi said not to shoot unless he gave the order.'

As Ferdi emerged from the inn, he saw a ring of hobbit archers surrounding four tall horses that reared and plunged. Between the hobbits and the horses, the riders had their hands full, but Ferdi recognised one of the riders with relief.

'Hold!' he shouted himself, striding forward. 'Put up your weapons!' The bows were reluctantly lowered, though the hobbits continued to glower at their prey, fingers obviously itching to shoot.

'Legolas,' Ferdi cried, 'You came quickly. Did you bring the King?' He eyed the tall men who accompanied the elf. They were indistinguishable in their black cloaks, all tall, dark-haired, grey-eyed. Two of the Men appeared older than the other; Ferdi supposed one of them must be Elessar. The younger one looked like the friend of the Thain who'd stopped briefly in Tuckborough... Bergil.

His conjecture was rewarded as one of the older men swung down, going to one knee on the icy stones before the hobbit to speak eye-to-eye. 'I am Elessar,' he said quietly.

'What is the Thain's name for you?' Ferdibrand demanded, still suspicious, and at his tone the nearest archers lifted their bows slightly.

'He calls me Strider,' Elessar said, meeting the challenging gaze.

Ferdibrand nodded, satisfied. 'He lies within. Follow me.' The King had to duck to enter, and could not straighten completely once he was within. As he followed Ferdibrand, he said, 'Legolas told me he was wearing the mithril coat, else the sword would have pierced his heart.'

'Aye,' the hobbit said grimly. 'But he still acts as if he's dying.' He looked up at the tall Man for reassurance, only to find the other's face as grim as his own.

'The mithril coat turned the blade but did not stop the force behind the thrust,' the King muttered. 'At the very least he will be bruised and battered, and worse damage might have been done under the skin.'

Ferdi stopped at a door guarded by hobbits and gestured for the King to enter. Elessar ducked into the room, to be greeted with a cry of relief from the dwarf. The Thain, pale, scarcely seeming to breathe, did not move or open his eyes.

'He did not want to be touched,' Gimli muttered anxiously, '...said he'd wait for you to come.'

The King nodded, hands already removing cloak, shirt, and then, more carefully, mail coat. The rings had been driven through the underlying leather into the flesh, and Elessar carefully sponged away the bloody smears to reveal the blooming bruises beneath.

Legolas entered with a steaming basin, and Elessar fumbled at the pouch that hung from his neck, extracting several leaves which he breathed upon, crushed between his palms, and cast into the water. The living fragrance of athelas rose from the basin and began to fill the room. The King took a clean cloth, dipped it into the fragrant water, and bathed the bruised flesh, dipped the cloth again, wrung it out, and laid it upon the breast as if it were a mustard plaster or poultice.

'...but he survived being crushed beneath a troll,' Legolas murmured. 'How can this stroke fell him?'

The King glanced up. 'We spoke of this before you left Buckland,' he said, 'do you remember?'

'I remember... "What will he do when will fails him?", you said,' the elf answered softly. 'I have done all I could do, Elessar. He has rested. He has eaten six meals each day, sometimes seven. He has laughed, and sung, and held his new daughter. He has seen his people come to new life, and new hope.'

'We must hope it was enough,' the King said.

He renewed the compress in the athelas-water as it cooled, adding boiling water from a kettle several times, before calling for a new basin and starting over with fresh leaves.

'Why isn't the athelas working?' Gimli growled.

'It is working,' Elessar said grimly. 'The mithril coat stopped the blade from piercing him through, but the force of the blow...' His face was bleak. 'The athelas might keep him alive long enough for his body to start healing, but the damage may be too much.' He shook his head. 'I hold out little hope.'

'Such a refreshing smell,' the innkeeper said as he brought more water into the room, several hobbits bearing laden trays following him.

'One would hope so,' the King muttered, not taking his eyes from the Thain.

Ferdi sat in a chair nearby, and now began mechanically to eat the food the innkeeper pressed upon him. He did not know how long he sat there, watching, but suddenly Regi was there. 'How...?' Ferdibrand asked.

'I rode here all the way at a gallop,' Regi said. 'Thank the Thain and the Master for keeping post ponies at every inn along the Stock road.' He held out a bag to the King. 'Here,' he said abruptly. 'I do not know if this would help, I only know that it helped once before, when we had no hope.' He gazed intently into the Man's face. 'You do not look all that hopeful.'

Elessar reached into the bag with care, removing a bottle he'd given Sam, nearly a year ago, as the Gamgees were turning homewards from their long stay in Gondor. However, the bottle was not empty as it had left Gondor, but half full of a clear liquid, which when held up to the light, had a slightly greenish hue.

'We have to get it into him somehow,' the steward muttered, staring at the Thain.

'Sit him up,' Elessar said abruptly, taking an empty cup from one of the trays and filling it from the bottle. Gimli lifted the Thain while the others slipped pillows behind him to prop him up. Bending over Pippin, Elessar said urgently, 'Pippin!' To Ferdi and Regi, hovering protectively, he said, 'I'm going to have to hurt him, try to waken him enough to swallow this. I don't have the right kind of feeding tube with me to pour it down his throat for him.'

The hobbits nodded soberly. Reassured that they were not about to try to wrestle him away from his patient, he applied skillful pressure at a calculated spot, a trick of healers to try to rouse an unresponsive patient. Pippin stirred, and the King called his name again, pressing harder on the tender spot, digging in with his thumbnail without mercy.

Pippin's head jerked and he moaned, half opening his eyes. 'It's not enough,' he gasped, 'that a ruffian tries to spit me on his sword, but you, Strider...?'

The King took advantage of this momentary rousing, pressing the cup to Pippin's lips, commanding him to swallow, then tilting the cup, hoping the Thain would not choke. The liquid went down smoothly, however, and he let the hobbit slip back into the restful darkness when the cup was empty.

Hefting the bottle, the King said, 'Is this the ent draught he told me about?'

Regi nodded soberly. 'We had some left after the cure. He told me to put it away for a rainy day. Since those... tree creatures made it especially for the Thain, I hoped it might have some healing virtue left.'

As the afternoon wore into evening, the King continued to renew the athelas compress and the scented steam. Some time after darkness fell, the Thain roused again, this time without application of pain, and was coaxed to drink another cupful of the ent draught.

Just as the innkeeper was bringing in trays of food for late supper, the sound of ponies' hoofs came faintly from the courtyard and shortly Diamond appeared in the doorway. 'Is he...?' she said anxiously, then crossed to the bed, to take up her husband's hand. 'It's like a bad dream,' she said, 'to live this all over again.'

At the sound of her voice, Pippin turned his head on the pillow and opened his eyes. 'Hullo, my love,' he said. 'I hope you didn't come all this way for nothing.'