Chapter 8. Witness

Ferdibrand’s ears were ringing and the room was oddly tilted, but he could swear he had just heard young Farry called as a witness in this trial by Tooks. ‘This is highly irregular!’ he next heard Rudigrim Took splutter. ‘A child is hardly to be considered a competent witness!’ There was a mutter of agreement from several other councillors around him.

‘Farry,’ Pippin murmured, and then he turned to the councillors and said, ‘Please. Don’t put him through this.’

‘We could simply put it to the vote and banish the lot of you now,’ Erlingar said, knitting his eyebrows at the Thain. ‘But it might be less painful for the child to give his account, to let the truth come out, than to see his father and others banished when he might have shed some light on the matter.’

‘He is hardly an impartial witness,’ Sandovar Took said, and Rudigrim harrumphed in agreement. ‘I should expect him to save his father the Thain at all cost... even to throwing the rest of these hobbits here before us to the white wolves.’

‘Let him speak for himself!’ Erlingar’s voice rang over the protests of the other councillors. ‘He has that right! He, after all, is the injured party in this whole miserable business.’

Ferdi heard Pippin give a choked, ‘Farry!’ and saw the lad walking to the front of the room. Though he was tall for his age, he looked very small, surrounded by grown Tooks as he was, the only child in the crowded great room. Ferdi put a supporting hand on Pippin’s and squeezed gently in reassurance. Farry’s word had saved Ferdi and Tolly from banishment once already, in this very matter. 

Faramir walked directly to stand solemnly before Fortinbrand. To Ferdi’s surprise, the Querier sank to one knee and took the lad by the hand. ‘Farry,’ he said gently. ‘Do you promise to tell the truth?’

‘I promise,’ the child said in a high, clear voice that carried to the far corners of the room. 

Fortinbrand pressed, ‘Do you promise to tell all the truth? That means not only telling the things that happened, but it also means not leaving anything out that happened. You must answer my questions as fully as you can manage.’

‘I will,’ Farry said, and added, ‘I’ll try my best.’

‘I’m sure that you will,’ Fortinbrand said. He raised his eyes to meet Erlingar’s gaze, nodded, and looked back to the small lad. ‘Well then,’ he said. ‘Can you tell me why these hobbits were accused, tried and sentenced to banishment?’

‘I ran away,’ Farry said, and gulped. ‘I was going to go to Gondor.’

‘Did they promise to help you go to Gondor?’ Fortinbrand asked.

‘Yes – no – yes,’ Farry said, blinking. The crowd murmured, and one of the councillors was heard distinctly saying, ‘Do you see? I told you! A child cannot give credible testimony.’

‘Which is it, Farry?’ Fortinbrand said. He sat himself down on the floor and drew the child into his lap. ‘Just tell me what happened, as if you were telling me a story.’ He held up his hand as Faramir opened his mouth to begin. ‘The truth – all the truth you can remember, as best you can remember it, that is.’ 

‘I ran away,’ Farry repeated. His guileless eyes stared into Fortinbrand’s kindly ones. ‘I – I heard the Tooks saying I was a disgrace and a worry to my parents,’ Ferdi heard soft echoes of shame and disgrace from the listening hobbits as if the Tooks found such gossip shocking and disgusting, ‘and I didn’t want to grieve them anymore, so I – I ran away. But a fox tried to eat me, and I had to climb a tree.’

A horrified murmuring broke out in the crowd, then, that fell as quickly to silence as the assembled Tooks leaned forward to hear the small child go on.

‘Uncle Ferdi found me,’ Faramir said, and he turned his head to look at Ferdibrand. ‘He helped me. He bound up my leg, where the fox had bitten, and he took me to his sister’s home in the Woody End.’

‘And not home to your mother?’ Fortinbrand asked in a neutral tone.

‘No!’ Farry said. ‘I told him I was going to Gondor, and if he took me back to the Smials, I’d only run away again as soon as I could manage.’ 

‘So what did he do?’ Fortinbrand said as if it was of little import.

‘He said he’d wager with me. If I could keep silent for a week, he’d take me to Gondor, but if I spoke a word, even a single word, I’d have to go back to my parents and vow not to run away again.’

There was the beginning of an indignant murmur from the crowd at take me to Gondor, which dissolved into chuckles here and there in the crowd at the nature of the bargain Ferdi had struck with the lad. A silent Took? Unheard of!

‘Ferdi told me he would have sent word to me, should he lose the bargain, so that I could follow them and reclaim my son,’ Pippin said.

Erlingar rapped once with his hammer. ‘Please do not speak out of turn,’ he said to the Thain. ‘You’ll have the chance to answer questions, if they’re asked, and to make a final statement when sentence is carried out.’ Pippin nodded and pressed his lips together. It was no less courtesy than Merry had allowed Ferdi and Tolly as a formality when he’d passed judgement on them in the Woody End.

Fortinbrand put an arm around Farry and hugged him gently. ‘A moment, lad,’ he said. He raised his voice and addressed Tolly. ‘Tolibold Took, do you agree to tell the absolute truth?’

‘You know I do,’ Tolly said. ‘Always.’

‘But you weren’t telling the truth when you tried to conceal Farry’s disappearance,’ Fortinbrand said.

‘No,’ Tolly said, his voice suddenly low. He fixed his eyes on his feet, clearly ashamed. Ferdi wanted desperately to speak in Tolly’s defence, but he knew it would only make matters worse to speak out of turn. The Tooks were already predisposed to think the worst of them. He’d heard snippets of the Talk when others hadn’t realised he was nearby. All he could do was reach his other hand to Tolly, to take Tolly’s hand and give it a squeeze, making a chain of sorts, linking the three seated hobbits on trial together. Everard stood a little apart, staring despondently at the floor.

‘Tell us why,’ Fortinbrand said mildly.

‘We were trying to prevent a scandal,’ Tolly said miserably. ‘The Talk was already swirling about the Thain and his family – his wayward son. No different from himself, a plague to Paladin, he was, a scapegrace and ne’er-do-well! A taste of his own medicine, as it were!’

Faramir gave a shuddering sob that was heard throughout the hall, and several of the onlookers were heard to shuffle their feet.

‘The idea was,’ Tolly said, ‘that Ferdi would find the lad and take him on to Buckland, where his father was visiting. I was to make everyone believe that was truth, until he was able to make it come true.’

‘But it didn’t come true,’ Fortinbrand prompted.

‘No,’ Tolly said, lifting his face to meet Fortinbrand’s gaze. ‘The lad is a stubborn Took.’

Fortinbrand’s lips twitched, but he managed to maintain a sombre expression in the end. ‘And so you were accused, and bound and taken to be questioned by the Thain,’ he said. ‘And by the time you arrived in the Woody End, the Thain was there, having come to reclaim his son, and not in Buckland any longer.’

‘Aye,’ Tolly said.

‘And the Master of Buckland was with him,’ Fortinbrand said. ‘And it was decided that he should be the one to question the witnesses and pass judgement, because the matter involved the Thain’s own son.’ He paused and added, ‘And so that is what the Master did.’

‘Aye,’ Tolly said.

Fortinbrand looked to Regi. ‘And you spoke against a “rush to judgement”, I believe were the words you used, Reginard?’ Ferdi felt Tolly give a start at the question. How would Fortinbrand know, unless he’d talked to someone who was there – the Master of Buckland, or one of the hobbits of the escort who had been on the spot, including Tolly’s younger brother Hilly, who’d held the smoking brand in his hand awaiting the Master’s order to carry out the sentence, though Hilly had seemed as surprised as the rest of them to hear that a convocation had been called... Or Reginard himself. Fortinbrand was remarkably well-informed, Ferdi thought, wondering who the Querier had been speaking to as he was building the case against the accused. Of course, anyone questioned would have been bound to silence, under penalty of serious consequences to themselves should they dare to speak of it.

‘I did,’ Regi said, and he raised his hand and added, ‘I promise to tell all truth and only the truth, and to answer the questions as they are put to me.’

‘Then wait for the questions, if you will,’ Fortinbrand said dryly, and despite the seriousness of the situation, there was a nervous titter from the crowd.

‘And what were you doing whilst the Master of Buckland was making up his mind?’ Fortinbrand said, turning his attention back to Faramir, his tone once more warm and kindly. ‘Or did he already have his mind made up?’

‘Leading the witness,’ Erlingar said sternly.

‘I beg your pardon,’ Fortinbrand said. ‘Let me ask again, Farry, if you don’t mind. What were you doing while Master Meriadoc was questioning the witnesses?’

‘I had a fever,’ Faramir said. ‘Rosie said – I think – I don’t remember, exactly...’

‘Take your time, lad,’ Fortinbrand said in reassurance.

‘It – it was probably from the bite on my leg,’ Farry stumbled on. ‘I was out of my head, they told me afterward. I was saying things that didn’t make sense, and having nightmares, and crying out in my sleep, things that made it sound as if Uncle Ferdi was guilty of the terrible things they were accusing him of.’ At the crowd’s angry murmur, he cried, ‘But it wasn’t true! It was a dream! Nightmares!’

‘There, there, lad,’ Fortinbrand soothed, patting Faramir on the back. ‘Only a dream, you said.’

‘And then I woke up,’ Faramir went on. ‘They were about to apply the brand to Uncle Ferdi! I had to stop them! I had to! I ran out of the smial... I shouted to them to stop...’

‘And they stopped,’ Fortinbrand agreed. ‘And then what happened?’

‘And then they asked me... and I told them... and Uncle Merry –‘ Faramir gulped. ‘He said there’d been a false accusation. He said –‘ and the lad gave a gasping sob, ‘– he said a false accuser must pay the penalty!’

‘Banish the Thain,’ Fortinbrand said quietly.

‘And Ev’ard,’ Faramir sobbed. ‘All because I ran away!’ He turned to the accused, weeping, and said brokenly, ‘O Da! I’m so so-sorry! Please forgive me!’

Tears were starting from the Thain’s eyes, and he opened his mouth as they ran down his cheeks, as if he would speak, but didn’t, and he mutely held out his hand to his little son in an agony of feeling.

Farry laid his head on Fortinbrand’s shoulder, weeping violently, and the Querier patted and rubbed his back and soothed the lad in whispers until the storm passed. When Farry lifted his head again, Fortinbrand had a pocket handkerchief ready. ‘Here lad,’ he said kindly. ‘Wipe your face and blow your nose, and we’ll continue.’

Farry nodded and obeyed.

Fortinbrand waited, then said, ‘Is it well with you, Farry?’

Farry nodded again.

Fortinbrand said in a quiet, reasonable tone, ‘But your father – the Thain – and Everard are here in this room before us, even as we speak. They were most assuredly not banished...’

Not yet, anyhow, Ferdi thought to himself, and he thought he could see that many of the others in the room were thinking the same by the looks on their faces.

‘They talked about resit – restit –‘ Faramir said, uncharacteristically stumbling over the word. For a ten-year-old, his speech was almost invariably unusually precise for a child. Perhaps the strain was beginning to tell on him.

‘Was the word “restitution”, Farry?’ Fortinbrand said.

The lad nodded. ‘Yes. That was the word,’ he said.

‘And what was the restitution?’ the Querier asked.

‘I –‘ Farry said. ‘I don’t know, exactly. Ponies, I think,’ he said, looking to Ferdi. The small boy nodded to himself. ‘Yes, that was a part of it. Ponies for Uncle Ferdi’s string, and...’ he looked puzzled. ‘Something for Tolly. I don’t know what, exactly. But they all agreed it was enough.’

‘To pay his debts from wagering,’ Fortinbrand said. ‘Debt, in one with such a responsible position as a hobbit of the escort, is disgrace. I’m surprised, actually, that the Thain did not discharge him from his position for it.’

‘Irrelevant to the matter at hand,’ Erlingar said with a tap of his hammer.

‘Not irrelevant at all, I should argue,’ Fortinbrand returned. ‘Such debt would have made the hobbit vulnerable to offers by ill-doers, to help them in “a little matter” – that might turn out to be a great deal larger matter than he might anticipate.’

‘Such as stealing the son of the Thain for ransom?’ Sandovar said.

Tolly’s mouth was forming a silent No!, his horror plain on his face.

‘He did let those other ruffians go,’ Rudigrim said thoughtfully. ‘The ones he showed safe passage out of the Shire, past the Bounders and King’s Men.’

‘Irrelevant to the matter at hand,’ Erlingar repeated, tapping his hammer a few more times to quell the rising mutter of the crowd. ‘We heard that story, in full, and this Council is satisfied on that account.’

‘But it was the Thain who told that story as well...’ Rudigrim insisted, making it clear that some of the councillors, at least, were having second thoughts. ‘And now that very hobbit stands accused... so, what if that tale is also suspect, even as is his fine speech in the courtyard of the Smials, as he spoke the words of freedom and gave Ferdibrand and Tolibold their release?’

The councillor stood to his feet, to address the assembly. ‘What if all the Thain has said is called into question? What if all his words are suspect?’

***