"Do you know how wizards
like to be buried?"
"Yes!"
"Well, how?"
Granny Weatherwax paused at
the bottom of the stairs. "Reluctantly."

― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

23. The Eagle Flies

"It's Saruman," cried Gimli. "Your bow, Legolas, bend it! Don't let him put a spell on us; shoot first!"

Legolas took his bow and held an arrow losely in his hand, hesitating.

"What are you waiting for?" hissed Gimli.

"Legolas is right," murmured Aragorn. "We cannot shoot an old man unprovoked."

"Well met, my friends," said the man. It was impossible to make out his face; the brim of his large hat covered him entirely.

He took a step closer, and when his cloak fluttered a hint of white was visible from underneath it.

"Stop him, Legolas!" yelled Gimli, giving his friend a shove.

Kat's fur was bristling and she contemplated attacking the stranger with her claws; it had worked to distract the orc that time. But what if Aragorn was right and this was an innocent old man, not an evil wizard?

"I wish to speak with you. Put that bow away, Master Elf!" As soon as the words had left the man's lips, the weapon fell uselessly from Legolas' hands. "And you take your hand away from that axe, Master Dwarf, and you pull those claws in, Miss Cat!"

All strength left Kat, leaving her body limp and powerless; she could not even run away. By the look on Gimli's face, she knew the same had happened to him. This was not a harmless man; it was a wizard, for sure. What would he do to them?

The wizard bent forward, looking at them from under his hat. "An elf, a man, a dwarf and a cat, travelling together. No doubt there is an interesting tale behind this. I should like to hear it."

"Might we know your name?" asked Aragorn warily.

"My name?" The man chuckled. "Have you not guessed already? You have heard it before, I think. Yes, you have heard it before." Then he added merrily: "And I know why you are here. Tracking two hobbits, so you are. Yes, hobbits, don't look so surprised."

Kat felt a chill seep through her veins. He knew about Merry and Pippin! Had he taken them?

"They came here the day before yesterday," the stranger continued, "and met someone they did not expect. Perhaps you want to know where they were taken? I may have some news about that. Let us sit and talk more comfortably." He started to walk towards a fallen tree.

As soon as the wizard's back was turned, the strange weakness left Kat, and her friends were released from their petrification as well. They readied their weapons again and crept closer.

The old man's cloak opened when he sat on the mossy log, and now they clearly saw his garb: all white.

Gimli charged, his large axe raised over his head. "Saruman! What did you do to our friends? Speak, or I will make a dent in your hat even a wizard will find it hard to deal with!"

Suddenly agile as a young boy, the man jumped on top of the trunk and stood there towering over them. He threw away his cloak and hood, and beneath them his clothes were brilliantly white, hurting Kat's eyes with their dazzling radiance like if he were dressed in pure sunshine.

The wizard waved his staff and Gimli's axe flew from his hand. Simultaneously, Aragorn's sword blazed hotly and scorched his fingers, while Legolas' arrow flew into the sky and exploded like a new year's rocket.

Kat, the only one who had not lost her weapons, leaped onto the log beside him, preparing to jump on his face.

"Have you come to play with my beard again?" The wizard laughed heartily, and for the first time Kat could see his face clearly. Her eyes popped wide open with surprise.

How on earth could Gandalf be here, alive?

"Mithrandir!" cried Legolas.

"Well met!" The wizard's smile was equally sparkling as his snow-white hair and garments.

Neither of the others found any words at first, they were just staring. Their leader was back again; more alive and vigorous than ever. How could it be?

Fear, surprise and relief mingled in Kat, and she had never been less inclined to toy with someone's beard. This was not quite the same person that had led them through Moria. Then, he had been a cranky, gray old man most of the time, but nothing of that remained now; as if he had changed his persona with his clothes.

At last Aragorn murmured: "Gandalf! You returned... How could I have been so blind and not recognized you?"

"Gandalf," said the wizard, tasting the word. "Yes, that was the name. I was Gandalf."

Gimli asked why he was clad in white like Saruman, and he replied: "One might say I am Saruman; Saruman as he should have been."

Now the last of their intimidation left them, and Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn happily crowded around their friend; laughing, touching his robe and patting his back, marvelling over his miraculous survival.

Only Kat stayed apart. She felt left out, having never been close to Gandalf – she had hardly spoken two words with him before his fall. In addition, his behavior just now annoyed her. Why had he pretended to be Saruman and almost made them attack him? She hated to be made a fool of.

Her tail began to lash angrily from side to side. Legolas, she interrupted. Ask him why he didn't say who he was from the beginning. Why did he scare us on purpose? For the laugh? Tell him it wasn't funny.

I am sure it was an accident. How was he to know that Saruman also walks around dressed as an old man?

Just ask him, okay!

Frowning slightly, Legolas obeyed, with an added: "These are her words, not mine."

Gandalf sat on his haunches, regarding Kat face to face. "I did not mean to frighten you, my dear." His eyes were entirely honest, full of wisdom and knowledge, but also compassion. She felt naked before that gaze, as if he had read her very soul and discovered how ugly it was.

Kat broke eye-contact, a deep sense of shame welling up inside her. She ought to be happy like the others; their leader had returned from certain death, however that was possible! But instead she had pettily accused him.

I've made a bloody fool of myself, haven't I... Please tell him I'm sorry.

"She says that she was very foolish, which is not wrong, and that she is sorry," Legolas repeated grimly.

"Not at all. I understand how shocking this must be for you all." Gandalf's smile melted away Kat's embarrassment, and she timidly rubbed her head against his leg, promising herself to behave more friendly towards the wizard in the future.

Now Gandalf wanted to hear all that had happened since Moria. He said that Gwaihir the Windlord had spied for him, so he knew some of the Fellowship's doings, but even the eagle's keen eyes could not see everything.

"The eagle!" Legolas exclaimed. "I saw him."

Aragorn obediently recounted their adventures, with some added words here and there from the others. When he came to Boromir's betrayal, Gandalf sighed and nodded, and said he had expected it would happen. The Ring's temptation had proven too strong. But it was good that the hobbits had come on the quest – even that Merry and Pippin had been captured was good – for because of this, important things were now in motion. It was all meant to be. There would soon be an avalanche, and a dam would break.

"You still speak in riddles, old friend," Aragorn complained with a smile.

Gandalf chuckled and said he had been thinking aloud, but complied when Aragorn asked him to elaborate. The bottom line of his thoughts was that because of the hobbits, but also because of Saruman's double dealings, Isengard and Mordor would be forced to go to war prematurely, before they had mustered their full strength.

"Saruman's a traitor?" asked Gimli.

"Indeed, yes. Doubly!" Gandalf explained that through his spies, the Dark Lord Sauron knew about the Fellowship, and that one of the hobbits carried the One Ring. Therefore he had sent orcs to capture them and bring them to Mordor. Saruman, however, wanted the Ring for himself, and had sent his own orcs to take the hobbits to Isengard instead. In consequence, Sauron had now lost the opportunity to torture Merry and Pippin and pry the Fellowship's plans out of them, and without that information he would undoubtedly come to the wrong conclusion. Not in his wildest dreams could he guess that they wished to destroy the Ring in Mordor, so instead he must assume they would try to use it; that they would take it to Minas Tirith and wield it as a weapon in the war. And this prospect frightened him greatly!

To counter this imagined threat, the Dark Lord was now preparing to attack Gondor before he was quite ready, which of course benefited those who wanted to defeat him. In addition, the treachery of Saruman had ruined their cooperation, and turned Sauron against his former ally.

"If only our friends' countries weren't in the middle, we could have just sat back and watched Isengard and Mordor destroy each other." Gimli smiled grimly.

"The victor of such a battle would only increase his strength," Gandalf disagreed, and added that it would probably be Sauron, because he had a new weapon now; winged beasts for the ringwraiths to fly on. These could block out the sun and send terror to the warriors on the ground.

"It must have been one of those I shot with my new bow that time on the river," said Legolas modestly.

"Only its steed, and he was soon given a new one," said Gandalf. "The Nazgûl cannot be slain with arrows."

Killjoy, Kat muttered. I thought you were brilliant! That monster was huge and far away, and yet you killed it with a single arrow. She was using flattery to get back on friendly terms with Legolas after his reproval before.

Thank you. His pleased smile told her she had succeeded.

Gandalf continued. Against Sauron's Nazgûl, even Saruman with all his power had no chance. Not without the Ring – and he would never get it now; he had failed because he was too eager. Saruman had left his tower to spy on the orcs he sent out, but came there too late, when the Riders of Rohan had already killed them all. Seeing no hobbits among the corpses, he must worry that they had been taken to Edoras, and if they had the Ring like he believed, it was only a matter of time before King Théoden would find it. To prevent this, Saruman also must go to war before he was quite ready.

"Was it Saruman we saw last night then?" asked Gimli. "Or was it you?"

"You certainly did not see me, so I guess it must have been Saruman. So that was why you wanted to make a dent in my hat!" Gandalf laughed heartily.

Legolas reminded him that he had still not told the news about Merry and Pippin. Where were they?

"With Treebeard and the ents."

"The ents!" Aragorn repeated, wonder filling his voice. He had heard tales and legends about those; giant shepherds of the trees in the deep forests. They still existed?

Legolas seemed awed too, and said that if he met an ent, even he would feel young.

Tree shepherds! You'd be friends directly, I dare say. Like clay and long straw.

Clay and straw? Why would such materials be friends?

Dunno, actually... It's a Swedish saying. Kat tried to shrug. Sayings are not supposed to make sense.

Gandalf explained that Treebeard, or Fangorn in Sindarin, was the oldest of the ents and guardian of this forest; hence its name. Apparently he and the other ents had had enough of Saruman and his axes, and woken up for the first time in ages to do something about it. What that was, Gandalf did not know – perhaps even the ents did not know.

Aragorn wondered if they should go to meet the hobbits and this Treebeard now, but Gandalf said he believed their task was another; they were sorely needed in Rohan where something was amiss with King Théoden. Would they come?

This they all heartily agreed to, but Legolas first wanted to know what had happened in Moria, and how Gandalf had managed to survive against all odds.

After some persuasion, the wizard agreed to tell them part of the story. He had fallen, he said, tumbling through the abyss together with the balrog, scorched by his terrible flames. After a long time he reached water, ice cold and numbing, and here the monster's fire was finally quenched. But instead he turned into a slimy, snake-like creature, and still the two fought. Forever wrestling and struggling they sank, beyond light and knowledge, down to the very foundations of the Earth where time did not count.

When they reached the bottom of the icy waters, they came to a network of tunnels which had been delved and gnawed by ancient, nameless things. The balrog fled into the maze, and Gandalf arduously followed through that horrifying darkness, for now the enemy was his only hope of finding his way back.

The balrog led him to an endless spiral stair, and from the lowest dungeon to the highest peak they climbed, traversing thousands upon thousands of steps. In Durin's Tower the stairs ended, and here the balrog again burst into flame and escaped through a window and out onto a snowclad mountain top, with Gandalf close at his heel.

They fought again, making the sky rumble with thunder and the air grow dim with fog. And now at last Gandalf managed to beat his opponent and push him off the cliff, where the demon fell to his death, crushed in an avalanche of shattered stones down the mountainside.

Afterwards, darkness had taken the wizard. He left thought and time, walking on roads he did not want to describe, until finally he was sent back naked to the mountain. There he lay for a long time, watching the stars as the days passed, until the great eagle Gwaihir found him and took him to Galadriel in Lothlórien. He had arrived shortly after the Fellowship had left, and stayed to be healed and clad in new, white clothes.

When Gandalf had finished his tale, Kat was in awe. He must have inhuman power and strength to survive all that! Or... had he actually died? Perhaps it was to the Halls of Mandos he had come, when he walked on those secret paths he mentioned? The talk about being 'sent back' reminded her of her own experience in that department. If so, it was lucky for him that he received a mighty wizard's body instead of a tiny feline one...

Though, she mused, perhaps the Fellowship would have chased Kat away if she had tried to join them as a naked woman. She could easily picture Legolas' reaction if that had happened.

Why are you smirking at me?

It's just my human humor; you wouldn't understand. It's probably too sophisticated for elves.

"I bring messages from Galadriel," said Gandalf. Turning to Aragorn, he repeated what sounded like a poem, but with so many complicated words Kat could hardly understand a thing. Only the last, ominous line stayed in her mind: "The Dead watch the road that leads to the sea."

Legolas' message was also about the sea, it was a warning that something crying there would take his heart away from the forest – a seagull, as he later translated. Apparently elves were very sensitive to the calling of the sea, but he would not elaborate why.

To Gimli, Galadriel sent cheering words; she would be thinking of him when he used his axe "on the right tree". Hearing that, the dwarf jumped to his feet, eagerly looking around for some enemy heads to cleave.

Gandalf smiled and said he would soon find plenty of foes, but first there was a message for Kat. Not from Lothlórien though, this came from another source.

With those cryptic words, he bent his neck and looked directly above them.

Kat followed his gaze and her heart nearly jumped out of her chest. An enormous beast was perched on a stout oak branch, only a few meters over her head. It was larger than a horse, winged and covered in golden brown feathers, and its bent beak was longer than two cats standing nose to tail.

She instinctively cowered flat to the ground to avoid notice from its sharp, yellow eyes; this monster could easily swallow her in a single gulp!

"Gwaihir!" Legolas gasped, and bowed his head in polite recognition.

"Windlord," said Gimli, falling on one knee.

Attention, cat! Gwaihir commanded in a stern, no-nonsense mental voice.

Trembling, Kat straightened up. Sir, yes sir!

I bring important information from the Halls of Mandos. Listen carefully, for I will not repeat myself. That clear?

Yessir!

This says Lord Námo: You are at the right place, and so is the one you must save. Your paths will cross again, but not yet. In the meantime, follow the White Wizard until you meet a man who can take you to the Ringbearer's trail.

Roger that, sir!

And no more fretting. Lord Námo would not have sent you on this quest if he did not think you were the right person for it. Understood?

Nossir! I'm sure he wouldn't, sir!

Good. I shall see you again later. Dismissed!

With that, the eagle took off, and the gale from his mighty wingbeats blew the hat from Gandalf's head and almost felled Kat to the ground. Like a small airplane, Gwaihir circled higher and higher until he was no more than a distant speck in the sky.

Grumbling to himself, the wizard picked up his battered garment and firmly put it back on. "Right. Kat follows me, and I haste to Edoras! Time presses."

While Gandalf led them out of the forest, Kat felt slightly stunned after the encounter with the imperious eagle. She pondered over Mr Pretty Voice's message. What to make of it? She was not much wiser about her mission – like Gandalf, the Vala seemed fond of speaking in riddles – but it was a relief to know she had not ruined everything yet. He had said she was where she should be. Perhaps her strategy of just tagging along and trying to survive was actually working?

Another positive part was that she would not be forced to go on alone quite yet, which had been a constant worry lately. Though, in all honesty, she would have prefered to follow the elf rather than the wizard...

Outside Fangorn, Gandalf let out a shrill, penetrating whistle, and soon they heard hoofbeats in the distance as three horses approached. Arod and Hasufel, who Saruman had scared away the other night, were now in company with a silvery stallion so stunningly beautiful that Kat felt her jaw slacken. Shadowfax, chief of the Mearas had returned to bear Gandalf to war; one White Rider to defy the nine Black ones.

In hardly any time the company was off; setting out towards Edoras and the impending battle at a swift gallop.

A/N:

This was a huge info-dump chapter in the book, but hopefully I managed to narrow it down a bit. :)

Image Credits:

Public domain (Wikipedia).