8. Consequences

'Don't look,' Palan said to Odo, who had hesitated at Farry's cry. He pushed his hand out further. 'Here, take my hand,' he said. Odo reached, their hands met, Palan got a firm grip on Odo's wrist and hauled him upward. The branch slipped from his grasp as Odo kicked his feet against the slippery mud, trying for purchase. Palan hauled stubbornly, and at last both lads were panting on safer ground.

'Are you well?' Palan asked, and Odo nodded. 'Good,' he said, 'Stay here.' He crawled to the brink again, peering down, to see only Faramir. He rubbed his eyes, but the scene below did not change. Ferdibrand was gone. He craned to look as far as he could downstream, a vain hope.

A crowd of hobbits came up the path, leading ponies. 'Where's Ferdibrand?' the Thain snapped.

Odo pointed to the edge. 'He climbed down to help Farry and me,' he said.

'Farry!' the Thain exclaimed, but the youth was too exhausted and sick at heart, having seen Adelgrim swept away, to say any more. He did not yet know of the loss of Ferdi; Palan had not told him.

The Thain went to the edge, where Tolly and Adelard were peering over. 'Is Ferdi down there?' he asked.

'Ferdi?' Tolly said, surprised and alarmed. 'All I see is Faramir.'

'Farry!' Pippin shouted to his son. 'Hold on! Help is coming!'

Hilly had secured a rope to a sturdy tree and now held it ready. 'Adelard,' Pippin said, 'You're the best swimmer of the lot, you go down.'

'Yes, Sir,' Adelard replied calmly, while Tolly let his breath out in a sigh. He'd not been looking forward to the descent, himself, but Adel might have been born a goat for all his lack of fear of heights, or a fish, for his poise in the face of a dip in the roaring stream. He made a good addition to the escort, for all he was recently appointed to the position.

Adelard adjusted his leather gloves, tied a loop about his waist, took a firm grasp on the rope, turned his feet towards the stream, and began the descent, lowered slowly by the other rescuers. When he reached Faramir, the lad had buried his face in his arms. 'Where's Ferdi?' Adelard asked, but Faramir did not answer.

The escort saw to his unease that Faramir was buckled to a sturdy root with Ferdi's belt, easily recognisable, with its intricate tooling. 'Farry?' he said, but the lad made no answer. 'Farry, look at me.'

He was going to need another rope, for it looked as if the son of the Thain was not capable of climbing up himself. He called up to the watchers above, and soon another length of rope was lowered to him. He grabbed at the end, looped it swiftly about Faramir, called to the hobbits above to take up the slack, and released the belt. He watched as Faramir was hauled upwards to safety, his father grabbing him at the top, throwing both arms around him in a fierce hug.

The bank was crumbling away beneath him, and Adelard was glad for the rope securely knotted about his middle. With Faramir safely on solid ground, the rescuers turned their hands to hauling him up the slippery slope. He was covered with mud by the time he crawled over the lip, but he had tucked the belt into his shirt, and it was relatively clean and unscathed as he pulled it out and extended it to the Thain, who was still embracing his son. Hildigrim Took, on the other hand, had been apprised of the loss of his younger son, and he and Palangrim clung to each other, the one blank with shock, the other weeping bitterly.

Pippin looked from the belt to Adelard's grim face. 'Ferdi?' he said, realisation dawning in his face even as it struggled with disbelief.

Adelard shook his head. 'I saw no sign of him,' he said.

'The water took him,' Faramir sobbed into his father's shirt. 'It took him away.'

'No,' Pippin said softly, in pain. His arms tightened unconsciously on his son.

'We should start the search, Sir,' Tolly said respectfully, his own heart wrung with sorrow and anger that he was too proud to show. Just as they were leaving the Smials, word had come that Pimpernel was at last reaching the end of her confinement, and he had looked forward to speeding the expectant father back to the side of his wife in good time.

'Yes,' Pippin said absently. 'See to it. We need to get these lads back to the Smials, and into dry clothes.'

'Yes, Sir,' Tolly said, and stepped away. He began to issue orders as the three fathers and their sons started slowly down the trail.

They found young Adel's body two miles downstream, but there was no sign of Ferdibrand, though they ranged several more miles, on both banks, before darkness descended.

***

'Pimpernel is asking for her husband,' Diamond said, meeting them at the main entrance to the Smials. She looked beyond them, then back to Pippin, puzzled. 'Where is he?'

'Tell her I sent him on a special commission,' Pippin said heavily.

'You didn't,' Diamond said slowly, taking in the grief and exhaustion on the faces of the hobbits before her, the mud-plastered lads. 'Farry, what have you been up to?' But her son would not answer, nor meet her gaze.

'Better to tell her that, than the truth at this point,' Pippin said. 'She has enough to worry about at the moment, what with birthing a babe.'

'What more does she have to worry over?' Diamond asked softly. Pippin did not answer.

Hildigrim spoke up then, tentatively. 'If we may be excused, Sir?'

Pippin looked to him, and to Halibard behind him. 'Take your sons to my study and wait for me there,' he said.

'Yes, Sir,' the fathers said, and led their weeping sons away.

'What has happened?' Diamond whispered.

'Two drowned,' Pippin said. 'Adelgrim... and Ferdibrand.'

'Drowned!' his wife gasped, reaching to grab Faramir in a fierce embrace. 'How?'

'They took one of the trails that the foresters had marked "closed",' Pippin said grimly. 'So marked for good reason.' He took Faramir's shoulder in a gentle grip, all the more gentle because he felt like shaking the daylights out of the lad.

'Come, Farry,' he said grimly. 'We are keeping the others waiting.'

When they reached the study, they found the others waiting. The lads' mothers had been summoned to the study as well, and Adelgrim's mother was weeping on her husband's shoulder at the loss of their younger son. Reginard had served tea, in the meantime, and he and Halibard were encouraging the shivering survivors to take sips of the hot, sweet beverage.

'We need to get them into hot baths,' Halibard said, 'and dry clothes.'

'All in good time,' the Thain answered implacably. 'I want to hear their story, first.'

Haltingly, the lads told of the plans they'd laid, the deception to pry Faramir loose from his minder, the high-spirited hike on the trail to the fishing hole, the sudden disaster. Pippin listened in silence to the tale of Ferdibrand's end, how he'd risked himself to save the two young hobbits. Faramir finished his part of the tale and waited.

His father would not look at him. 'Ferdibrand was worth any ten other hobbits,' he said softly, 'myself included. And he's gone, swept away, because some lads thought they knew better than their parents.' He scanned the faces of Palangrim and Odobard, and those of their parents, then his gaze returned to the boys. 'Do you lads think that your parents sit about drinking tea and making up rules just to spoil your pleasure?' he said. 'Do you think we are lying awake at night, racking our brains for new reasons to say "No"?'

Odobard and Palangrim shook their heads, and fresh tears ran down Palan's cheeks.

'There are good reasons for the rules we give you,' Pippin continued, then dropped his voice. 'Good reasons,' he said, as if to himself. 'Had you listened, had you obeyed, two more Tooks would be alive in the world as we speak.'

'Da, I'm sorry,' Faramir said desperately.

His father did look at him then. 'Sorry,' he echoed bitterly. 'And you think that will make things "all better", do you? Is that what you'll say to his wife and grieving children, to the babe being born this very night, who'll never know his father? Sorry!' The Thain took hold of himself again. 'Go to your room, Farry.'

'Yes, Sir,' Faramir said brokenly. He'd never, ever been sent to bed without a hug before, but now, hugless, he slowly left the room. Careless of mud, he laid himself down on the bed and wept into his pillow. 'I'm sor...' he started to sob, to no one in particular, then stopped. There really were no words to be said.

***

Just after darkness fell, a silent group returned to the Great Smials, bearing the body of Adelgrim Took. He had celebrated his fourteenth year, the previous week, but there would be no more celebrations for him.

The escort, after delivering the body to the grieving family, went on to the Spotted Duck in Tuckborough, where they proceeded to get thoroughly drunk. It would make it more difficult, on the morrow when the light returned, to continue the search for Ferdibrand's body, but quite frankly, none of them cared a fig about the morrow.