Chapter Eleven

***

“Sound the horn!” Haldir called back to his troops as the long line of Elves neared the gate of Helm’s Deep.

The elven horn sounded, the eerie blast reverberating off the all too still night air.

Haldir could make out several men on the walls jumping a bit from surprise. A smile of slight amusement came to his face upon seeing the look the human watchers gave him.

“Send for the King!” one called, “Open the gate!!”

The Elves marched up the narrow stone causeway as the heavy wooden gate swung open. Haldir led, the rest in lines of four following. They marched silently, black cloaks swishing over their legs.

Many of the men of Rohan stood to the side, watching in complete amazement as Elves entered their citadel. Most had never even seen an Elf until Legolas had come, and now there were roughly two hundred of the immortals in their presence, all adorned in battle gear.

Haldir stopped, recognizing Theoden, the King of Rohan, who stood before him with a look of complete shock upon his face. “How can this be?” the king asked in disbelief.

“I bring a message from Lord Elrond of Rivendell,” Haldir said, his strong voice carrying on the night air. “A great alliance once existed between Elves and Men. Long ago we fought, and died, together.” He paused, seeing part of the Fellowship, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, burst from a door and rush down the stone steps, looking shocked. He smiled, his eyes fixed on Aragorn’s. “We come now to honor that allegiance.”

The elven troops, in perfect unison with the only sound being the clanking of metal armor moving about, turned on their heel ninety degrees to where they were facing Theoden, who still looked stunned, but pleasantly so.

“Mae govennan, Haldir!” Aragorn began, rushing down the steps, a smile on his face. He stopped in front of his old friend. “You are most welcome. Ever is thy sight a joy!”

Haldir smiled and offered a respectful bow. Aragorn bowed in return, but then, as though by an afterthought, grabbed Haldir and hugged him. Haldir couldn’t believe it. But then, the Men did seem very happy for the added troops. With a small smile he finally closed his arms, hugging Aragorn in return. After all, it was good to see him alive.

When Aragorn released him, Legolas stepped forward. The two elves didn’t say a word to each other for a moment, then both broke out into smiles. Legolas clapped Haldir on the shoulder, and Haldir did the same to Legolas. They did not have to speak to tell each other what was on their minds.

Any ill feelings they might have harbored against each other evaporated in that moment.

“How far behind are the orcs?” Theoden asked, stopping the reunion short.

Haldir squinted at the dark stretching beyond the surround. “Not far… I can make out their torches.”

Legolas looked as well, and upon seeing the oncoming armies he turned to Aragorn. “Let us ready ourselves.”

Haldir nodded and turned to the troops, motioning for them to get into the formation they would be using to fight. Archers along the surround and wall, longbow archers further back, near the Keep.

Theoden put a hand on Haldir’s arm before the Elf assumed his position. “I cannot thank you enough,” he began.

Haldir shook his head. “We never asked for any thanks. We merely come to fight alongside our allies.”

The king of Rohan smiled.

***

The rain had passed, moving eastward, and, Corwyn assumed, towards Helm’s Deep. She tried hard to adjust her outlook. The more she thought about what would be happening in the Rohan tonight, the more upset she became. But it was hard not to let her thoughts drift.

The Golden Woods seemed strangely empty without many of the men about. Women skilled with bows and Elves not yet trained for sentinel duty were given the job of guarding the boundaries. But there really wasn’t anything to guard against. The orcs were all heading to Helm’s Deep.

Night was falling rapidly and darkness began to encase her telain. She didn’t bother to light a lantern. The sooner darkness came, the sooner she could sleep and forget about what was happening.

To keep herself from crying again, she focused as hard as she could on remembering Haldir’s face. Her eyes darted out the window, and to the eastern horizon, which was beginning to light up with stars. The soft light shone through her window, catching on the flower wreath she had hung there, facing the direction of the battle.

Suddenly Corwyn felt extremely exhausted, as though all the tumultuous emotions of the past couple of days had finally caught up with her. She stumbled over the window, unhooked her wreath, and put it around her neck. Then she went to her room and lay down on her bed, curling into a fetal position and crying herself to sleep. Somehow she knew that the next day would not be a joyful one.

***

Haldir stood with his arrow at the ready. It was pitch black, but one had only to gaze into the land beyond and see brightly glowing torches, and hear the grunting roars of the oncoming orcs to know that the army of Saruman was prepared.

Lightning flashed brilliantly, followed by a crack of thunder. For a moment the silhouette of ten thousand Uruk-hai marching towards the fortress lit up the sky. Haldir felt the bewilderment of his troops, and the fear radiating from all.

“Show them no mercy!” Aragorn called in Elvish, marching across the wall. “For you shall receive none!”

Haldir had to smile despite the current events. It seemed that the Heir of Isildur was finally beginning to step up to the challenge. Good, Haldir thought idly, we will need leadership in this battle.

With another dull crash of thunder, the heavens opened and the rain began to fall.

At first the noise of thousands of tiny droplets hitting hundreds of metal helmets, breastplates, and weapons was earsplitting. But as Saruman’s armies advanced, even that sound died away, and to Haldir’s ears everything became silent. His eyes were fixed into the darkness, which was slowly filling with a dim light, the torches of the orcs. He trained an arrow carefully and evened his breathing.

The rain beat down harder. Haldir could feel it running down his hair and face, he could feel his arrow wavering the slightest amount. He narrowed his eyes and tried to stay focused.

He remembered the elenor necklace, tucked safely underneath his breastplate. It had wilted a bit, but was still beautiful and carried an aura of hope about it, and hope was a feeling he clung to at this moment. He forced himself to think of Corwyn. She was safe at this moment, safe back in the Golden Wood. The arrow steadied and a feeling of resolve came over him. He would do this. He could do this. The Lady trusted him and Corwyn was waiting for him.

A sharp crack of thunder punctuated his thoughts. He could see what happened next coming, but could not stop it in time.

An old man, perhaps with a slippery hand from the rain, or maybe it was his arm giving out from holding the bow string taut for so long, released an arrow. It flew effortlessly into the army of orcs, spearing one straight through the neck. The creature fell to the ground with a surprised howl.

Aragorn whipped his head around. “HOLD!!” he yelled angrily, “HOLD!”

But there was no turning back now. The army of orcs saw their fallen and roared. With one fell swoop, they began a mad run forward.

The battle for Helm’s Deep had begun.

***

Volleys of arrows flew this way and that, impaling orcs. Haldir was shooting as fast as he could, not yet missing a target, but still they advanced with incredible speed. He began to have doubts as to the ability of the Rohirrim to win this battle…

There was a dull thud from further down the wall. “THEY’VE GOT LADDERS!!” someone yelled. And all of a sudden orcs began pouring over the walls.

Haldir shouted to his troops and they all pulled out long swords. The orcs came in such number that Haldir found it easy to stand at the wall and swing blindly, lopping off various orc body parts as he could.

Within a few minutes he found himself fighting next to Legolas for a moment, and yelled to him.

“Decent fight?”

Legolas grinned. “You could say that. How’s Corwyn?”

It felt absurd to be making small talk in the midst of slaughter, but Haldir answered anyway. “She’s fine.”

He paused to dig his blade into the chest of an oncoming orc. “Legolas,” he said, ripping the bloodied weapon out of the now lifeless creature’s carcass, “I just want to thank you again. It is because of you that Corwyn and I are together. I also have to tell you that if I don’t get out of this, remember that she is your eldar as well as mine.”

Legolas turned and looked at him for the briefest of moments before fighting again. “I will remember. But you will not fall while I am fighting with you.”

Haldir nodded, blinking to clear his eyes that had momentarily begun to tear up. But there is no time for emotion in the midst of battle, and so he charged forward.

***

Corwyn turned over on her side. She was having the most terrible dream. She was watching Helm’s Deep as it happened, seeing people and orcs fall. She shuddered in her sleep.

***

The sound was deafening.

Haldir was thrown into the air and slammed backwards, sliding on his back until the broken body of a Man stopped him. He barely had time to cover his unguarded head before chunks of rock began to plummet from the sky.

They landed about him, hitting his legs, arms, and sides. When the debris finally stopped falling, Haldir lifted his head.

It didn’t take him long to figure out what had happened. The wall had been breached, detonated, somehow. What sort of devilry is at work here?! Haldir thought to himself with bewilderment.

Despite a pain in his back from hitting the ground, and aching limbs from the falling rock, he stood and looked at the damage. A good piece of the wall was gone; orcs were beginning to pour inside the stronghold.

Haldir heard Aragorn shout from below, and he saw as many of his elves charged forward to try and stop the onslaught.

He pulled out his own bow and loaded an arrow, noticing it was one of the arrows of Rivendell that Corwyn had given him upon their first meeting. But he did not linger on that thought. Instead he took careful aim and speared an orc just as it was about to swing its rusted weapon into Aragorn’s chest. The man looked up and met Haldir’s eyes promptly his own filled with unspoken gratitude, before moving into the chaos yet again.

***

The battle raged on with cruel intensity. Haldir was beginning to think he must be in a dream, a horrible nightmare, for the enemies never stopped coming, they never stopped killing. But as he ducked to the ground for a moment to catch his breath and saw the body of Eewyn lying there, his eyes empty and dead, his hand still around a sword, and his red blood trickling lazily into a horrifying crimson pool from a deep wound in his shoulder, the orc blade still buried it, he realized that it was no dream.

Dreams didn’t include the shattered corpses of his best friends.

A blind rage came over him then, and Haldir grabbed Eewyn’s sword from the elf’s cold hand and charged into the battle once more.

***

“Aragorn! Pull back to the Keep! Get your men out of there!!” Theoden yelled loudly, looking down to where Aragorn battled with an Uruk-hai.

The man looked up and nodded, still slashing at orcs. “TO THE KEEP!!” he yelled to his men, “TO THE KEEP, NOW!”

He glanced up, scanning the surround for Haldir. He found him quickly and passed on the message. “HALDIR,” he shouted, “PULL BACK TO THE KEEP!”

Haldir nodded and submitted, yelling to the other Elves on the surround and turning quickly to battle his way towards the Keep. An orc managed to slice his arm open as he tried to head back. Haldir grabbed the wound, his teeth clenched in pain and his legs trying to give out and force him to the ground. No, he thought to himself, no, think of Corwyn… I cannot fall… I will make it back to the Keep!

He began to try and move forward yet again.

***

Corwyn was still dreaming. She wanted to scream. Haldir was fighting his way to safety, his left arm already mangled from a blade, and he didn’t see what she did. An orc, a huge, bulky thing, was running towards him. It had an arrow through its neck already, spouting dark, fatal arterial blood. But it wasn’t down yet.

In one swoop, one last kamikaze-like attempt, the orc raised its blade and brought it down into Haldir’s back with a sickening thud.

***

Exquisite pain.

That was all Haldir could think of for a moment when the orc slammed its weapon deep into his back, slicing through the skin and tearing apart the muscle, shoving the rusted blade almost to his spinal cord.

He fell to his knees in anguish and surprise, taking huge heaving breaths that he knew would be his last.

Very faintly, as though across all boundaries of time and space, he heard Aragorn’s voice calling his name. Then, the voice morphed into Corwyn’s. I’m sorry Corwyn, he thought, I didn’t mean to get wounded…

Haldir looked around him, aware that the battle was still going on but that he was no longer a part of it. Darkness already surrounded his peripheral vision, but he could still see ahead. He saw the crumpled bodies of many Elves, Men, and orcs. His eyes fell to a dead Elf. It was Eewyn. He was back at Eewyn’s body. And he realized with all certainty that he was dying.

Death. It was funny how that has been nothing but a word to him even up until a moment ago. It had been word that meant nothing… but now… now it was real.

But he found that his life did not flash before his eyes, as he had been told it often does when you are near death, and neither did he feel any sorrow for his unattained dreams and future. He merely pondered the present.

He knew it wasn’t supposed to end this way. Elves were not creatures destined for death. This shouldn’t be happening. But he knew that it was happening, never mind the shoulds and shouldn’ts. Death was not a word that followed guidelines; it would take anyone at any place at any time. Young or old, Elf or Man, death didn’t care.

He breathed in deeply and felt his own warm blood surging from the wound on his back, the life literally seeping away, out of reach, and death was no longer a simple word. He realized that he finally understood it.

As he collapsed, he felt someone catch him.

“Haldir!” the voice choked out.

Haldir looked up with his last eyes. Corwyn? No, she is back in Lorien. She is safe, he thought. He concentrated harder on the face. Aragorn. The one cradling him now was Aragorn. He wanted to say something to the man, but found that his voice was not working; all he could let out was a strangled wheeze and sling his hand weakly against his breastplate.

Aragorn held his dying friend, trying to understand what he was asking for. He watched as the elf’s hand hit the armor and then slowly fell down, leaving a sweaty streak on the golden metal. He looked carefully at Haldir’s chest, then neck, and noticed something. A bit of gold tucked under the metal.

Aragorn quickly grabbed at the golden flowered wreath hidden inside Haldir’s breastplate and pulled it out so that it was lying on the front of the elf’s chest.

With his last strength, Haldir put his hand up to grasp the wilted elanors in his fist. Suddenly, the vision of Corwyn’s laughing face, her green eyes sparkling with life, her brown hair flying in the breeze, filled his line of sight. The last spark of life in his eyes flickered for a moment, then died, and his icy eyes became lifeless.

Hello darkness my old friend.

***

Corwyn awoke with a scream. It was a scream of both terror and agony. She sat up in bed, shaking like a leaf. She put a sweaty hand to her mouth, feeling like vomiting. Her mind raced. What had she dreamt? Though she tried hard to remember, she could not. All she knew was that it has obviously not been very pleasant.

She was beginning to regain control over herself when something in her snapped.

She leapt out of her bed, rushing to her bureau. Without realizing what she was doing, she grabbed a dress out a drawer and pulled it on. Then, gathering on a pair of slippers, she ran out of her telain.

She did not know where her feet were taking her until she reached it. The Mirror of Galadriel.

And standing there, her eyes filled with the deepest sadness Corwyn had ever recalled seeing, stood Galadriel.

Corwyn couldn’t speak. Her heaving chest wouldn’t allow it. She just stood there, looking at the Lady of Light, silently begging for some words of hope.

“Take the horse, Corwyn, and go to him.” Galadriel said. And suddenly, the little bay horse trotted out from the woods. He tossed his mane. Corwyn stepped towards the animal, pulling herself on its back.

“Now go. I cannot offer hope, as you know what you will find. I am sorry, Corwyn. I am so sorry.”

Corwyn didn’t reply. She couldn’t. For what the Lady suggested was absurd. Corwyn refused to believe that Haldir was dead. Galadriel had to be wrong, it simply could not be! Injured, perhaps, or even seriously injured, but dead? No, no that was not the way it would end. And so she didn’t even glance back at Galadriel, for she was afraid of what she might see in the Lady’s eyes. She merely put pressure on the horse’s side, urging it into a swift canter.

The little bay horse picked up a gallop upon leaving the Wood. He pricked up his ears in the night air and gave his tail a flick. His rider needed to get somewhere swiftly, his rider was hurting. While the bay couldn’t help her pain, he could get her where she wanted to go. He lengthened his stride, eating up the ground with his legs.

***

Galadriel watched silently as the horse bore Corwyn away.

So there was a bit of sun before the rain, she thought as she watched dark clouds blow over the bright moon above, but now it is only rain. Rain and grey, sorrow-filled days.

She closed her eyes, her skin felt cold. It is amazing how much you miss the sun when it finally disappears…

With a grief-stricken sigh, she turned and walked back to her palace. Perhaps there had been sun before the storm, but that did not make the downpour any more bearable.

***