Chapter 46. Six of One

Merry saw the Thain's second-best coach drawn up in the courtyard of the Crowing Cockerel when he turned in at the entrance. His travels were beginning to tell on him, and it was a temptation to stop, just long enough to lift a steaming cup of tea, to take a quick meal, to share a laugh with Diamond and her little son... but for the fact (as he belatedly remembered) that he was travelling in secret, as well as the fact that the ostler had his remount ready, in response to the song of his silver horn as he'd approached. Really, it was enough to be able to tell Pippin that his wife and son had obviously arrived safely at their half-way point, in time for tea, and would undoubtedly rest well before commencing the journey once more, next day.

It would be enough, he told himself as he hauled himself into the fresh mount's saddle. It will be enough, he repeated to himself, swaying a bit in the saddle before he determinedly leaned forward and nudged the dancing pony into a gallop. It had better...

He chanted the words in time with the rapid hoofbeats, but found his eyes closing of themselves. 'None of that, now!' he shouted into the wind, raising his face to let the cold rush of air blast him to wakefulness. It helped, and at the next change they had a mug of strong, hot tea ready for him along with the fresh pony, and he took the time to gulp it down, though he burned his tongue in his haste.

'My thanks!' he gasped, shoving the mug back into the hands of the lass who'd held it out to him, and then he leapt to the saddle, reinvigorated, and was gone. Not... long... now... he gasped, in time to the galloping hoofs. Not... long... now... Six changes of pony, to gallop the fifty miles between Great Smials and the Ferry. Six changes... how many did this make?

He honestly could not remember.

***

To Haldi's astonishment, Pippin and Hilly continued asleep, as each hour he visited the stables to check on them, even when he checked to see if they were wakeful enough to eat the noontide meal, which they weren't. Each time he found the tall, silent figure sitting quietly, as if watching over the slumbering hobbits, and apparently not wanting anything, neither food nor drink, though a wakeful hobbit would likely have been hungered in the same amount of time. Still, Pippin had told his wondering relatives stories of how the Men of Minas Tirith ate only two meals in a day, and sometimes one meal a day, during the time of the War when Pippin had been in the Southlands, in the service of the King (they never quite grasped that he wasn't King, at the time). Haldi supposed it was not all that surprising if this giant ate as sparingly, though it hardly made sense. A larger body ought to need more food, at least to his way of thinking.

Still, the mysterious figure declined his every offer of food and drink, with gracious enough thanks, but still a clear refusal. Very strange. He'd heard that the fellow was a son of Elrond. Perhaps Elvish folk ate even less than the Big Men of Gondor.

It wasn't until teatime that he found the two of them, Thain and fellow escort, stretching and sitting up, obviously only just awakened, and glad to welcome him and his offer to fetch food.

'And plenty of it!' Pippin said, but Hilly also wanted to know about his brother.

'Tolly's well,' Haldi could tell him. 'Woke again, at half-past two, and ate another cartload of food before he fell asleep again.'

'Half-past two!' Pippin said. 'What time is it now, I ask you?'

'Teatime,' Haldi said. 'Four o' the clock, or it will be in five minutes or so, and I came to see if you were ready for something or other.'

'Something hearty, for certain,' Pippin said, 'and enough for all of us, and more. I could eat a horse!' and at a whicker from the stall next to theirs, he added, 'Present company excepted, of course.'

Hilly and Haldi laughed, and there was even a low chuckle from the cloaked one.

'Right away, sir!' Haldi said smartly, and turned on his heel to order another feast, to be sent to the stable, much to the cook's dismay, but as no complaints had followed breakfast in the stable, it must be all right, somehow.

Hearty it was, more of a midday meal than a tea tray, what with the thick, meaty stew that had been kept warming over a low fire after the noontide meal had been served to the rest of the guests in the common room, with chunks of fresh-baked bread, assortment of cheeses and cut up fruit and more, followed an hour or so later with a proper tea of sandwiches and cakes.

They made a merry meal, the Thain and two of his hobbits of escort, and the hooded stranger who managed to eat without once revealing his face.

And so teatime came, and teatime went, and the early winter darkness fell, but Merry did not come. Haldi went back to the common room to wait, and Pippin dismissed Hilly to join his family, 'and don't come back until I send word to summon you, for a hobbit cannot think his own thoughts with escort here, and escort there, dogging his heels.'

Hilly went with good humour, as he suspected that the cloaked stranger made a more than adequate escort for the Thain, and he was right.

Pippin started up at every sound of hoofs in the courtyard, as other travellers broke their journey for the evening, and still Merry did not come. His companion could offer little comfort, save to say that such a journey must take so much time, and then there was the time to be spent administering the athelas added to that, and it might be some hours yet...

'Well if he is not here before middle night, I'm going out in search,' Pippin said stubbornly, and the hooded head nodded in resignation, though Elessar pointedly did not offer to company him.

As is the way of things, it was only after Pippin had given up looking out at the sound of every arrival, that a shout of alarm sounded in the courtyard, and a few moments later a stable worker led a staggering, cloaked figure to the back of the stables. 'Here he is, sirs,' he said. 'You told us to look out for a post rider, and this is the first one to come along, and so I figure this is the one...?'

'Yes, thank you,' Pippin said, jumping to his feet to take his cloak-wrapped cousin in hand.

'He rode his pony awfully hard,' the stable worker said disapprovingly. 'I hope you'll have a word with him...'

'I will,' Pippin promised. 'I'll have more than one word for him, I can promise you that.'

'Very well,' the stable worker said, somewhat mollified, and went back to make sure the hard-ridden pony was properly cared for.

'So, Merry,' Pippin said, as he eased Merry down and Elessar bent to examine the exhausted hobbit.

'That was two words,' Merry said faintly. 'I'd call it enough said.'

'Where have you been?' Pippin demanded, taking up a mug of no-longer-warm tea and holding it to Merry's lips. He ought to have ordered a fresh pot from the stable worker. He would order a fresh pot, and more, just so soon as he satisfied himself that his cousin had taken no ill from his efforts.

'I'd think you know that already,' Merry said, after a gulp and a sigh. 'Ah, but that's what was needed.'