The Last Ringbearer (12 page)

“Are the Nazgúl wizards, too?”

“Of course. To continue, this asymmetry has been balanced by a very important fact. As severely limited as the wizards’ capabilities are in that neighboring world, it so happened that they nevertheless managed to obtain the Mirror and the
palantíri
and drag the whole lot over here, to Middle Earth. As a result, the Elves can settle in Middle Earth while Men can’t settle in Aman, but control over the ‘channel’ between the worlds remains in the hands of wizards, who are of this world. This enables contact, but disables any colonization. As you can see, the One had set up a well thought-out system.”

“Right – the twin-key principle.”

“Exactly. The only thing He had not anticipated was that some of the wizards were so taken with Aman that they decided to mold Middle Earth in its form and image at any cost; they constitute the White Council. The others, who later formed the Order of the Nazgúl, were emphatically opposed: what sane person would destroy his own world to build a bad copy of an alien one on its ruins? Both sides had their reasons, both sincerely wanted to make the people of Middle Earth happier …”

“Yeah, I get it.”

“Right. When the White Council and the Nazgúl clashed over the future of Middle Earth, both sides quickly found natural allies. We began helping out the dynamic civilizations of Central Middle Earth – Mordor first and foremost, and Umbar and Khand to some extent – while the White Council relied on the traditional societies of the North and West, and the Enchanted Forests, of course. At first the Whites were completely sure of a quick victory, since they happened to possess the Mirror and most of the
palantíri
when the war broke out. They have, for all intents and purposes, opened Middle Earth to Elvish expansion in order to mobilize all forces of magic against Mordor, both local and foreign. The only thing the White Wizards hadn’t foreseen was that our way, the way of Freedom and Knowledge, was so attractive that lots of people – the best in Middle Earth – came to serve as the magical shield of the Mordorian civilization. One after another they dematerialized under the blows of Western magic, but others took their place. In other words, Haladdin, your peace had been dearly bought. There is no higher price.”

“Why didn’t we know any of that?”

“Because it didn’t really concern you. The only reason I mention it now is to ask you to remember that if you join the struggle, you will be fighting for them, too … But this is just sentimental icing on the cake. To make a long story short: the situation was highly unfavorable, but we have managed, at the cost of all those sacrifices, to shield the Mordorian civilization, and it had made it out of the crib. Another fifty, maybe seventy years, and you would’ve completed the industrial revolution, and then no one would’ve been able to touch you. From that point on the Elves would’ve dwelled quietly in their Enchanted Forests, not getting in anyone’s way, while the rest of Middle Earth would’ve by and large gotten onto your path. And so, realizing that they were about to lose the contest, the wizards of the White Council dared a monstrous move: they unleashed a war of total destruction against Mordor, involved the Elves directly, and paid them with the Mirror.”

“They paid the Elves with the Mirror?!”

“Yes. It was total madness; the head of the White Council himself, Saruman, a foresighted and perceptive man, fought this plan to the last, and quit the White Wizards when it was adopted after all. The Council is now headed by Gandalf, the architect of the ‘final solution to the Mordorian problem.’”

“Wait, which Saruman is that? The king of Isengard?”

“The same. He formed a temporary alliance with us because he understood right away what those games with the denizens of the Enchanted Forests mean to Middle Earth. He used to warn the White Council for the longest time: ‘Using the Elves in our struggle against Mordor is akin to burning down the house to get rid of roaches.’ And that’s exactly how it came out. Mordor lies in ruins, and the Mirror is in Lórien, with the Elvish Queen Galadriel; soon the Elves will brush the White Council away like crumbs off the table and rule Middle Earth as they see fit. Remember I mentioned the law of causality? Well, the main difference between the magical and our worlds is that this law doesn’t hold there; or, rather, its sway is very limited. When the Elves figure out the Mirror’s properties – which will be difficult even for them, since they’ve never encountered it before – and understand that it can control the law of causality, they will immediately and forever turn our world into a dirty backwater of Aman.”

“So, this means … there is no way out?” Haladdin asked quietly.

“There is one. So far, there is. The only way to save Middle Earth is to completely isolate it from the magical world. To do that, Galadriel’s Mirror must be destroyed.”

“Can we do it?” the doctor shook his head dubiously.

“We – if you mean the Nazgúl – can not. Not any more. But you, Field Medic Second Class Haladdin, can. Only you, and no other,” unearthly cold suddenly wafted at him from Sharya-Rana’s pointing arm, “are capable of shattering the very foundation of the Elves’ magical power and preserving this World as it is.”

CHAPTER 17

S 
ilence fell. Stupefied, Haladdin stared at the nazgúl, awaiting clarification.

“Yes, you’ve heard right, doctor. You see, right now, all across Mordor, hundreds of wonderful people – including your Sonya – are carrying out our common task. They fight as guerillas, transport children to safe places, set up secret repositories of knowledge for the future … They risk their lives every hour in the ruins of Barad-dúr, abase themselves in occupation administration, die under torture. They’re doing everything humanly possible, not thinking of themselves and not expecting any gratitude from anyone. But it is up to you, Haladdin – you alone! – to determine whether all these sacrifices will be a down payment on a victory or merely an extension of agony. I would love to relieve you of this terrible burden, but I can’t. It’s yours; so it comes out.”

“No, this has to be some kind of mistake!” He shook his head vigorously in protest. “Something got confused somewhere. You say ‘shatter the Elvish magic,’ but I don’t know the first thing about magic! I’ve never had any talent for magic; I can’t do even the simplest trick – find a hidden object with a frame.”

“You don’t even know how right you are! A complete lack of any magical ability such as yours is incredibly rare, almost impossible. You see, Nature had deprived you of a sword, but gave you a wonderful shield instead: a man who is totally incapable of magic is also totally immune to others’ magic. The Elves are in such power now that they can easily wipe out any wizard, but they’ll have to deal with you by the rules of the rational world, where your chances are more on a par. Plus this tendency of yours towards unpredictable emotional decisions is no walk in the park, either … Frankly, the chance of success is very small, but in all other alternatives there are none.”

“But please see that I can’t do a job that I don’t understand!” He was in despair. “That I’ll die is not such a big deal, but to doom the efforts of so many people? No, I can’t! Besides – you’ve just said that Sonya is safe and I can take her to Umbar, and now it seems like she’s working for you, too? How so?”

“Don’t worry about Sonya, she’s splendid. I saw her in Barad-dúr back then. The city burned for several days straight, the Men of the West couldn’t even enter it, and there were numerous people in the basements – the children, the wounded … She was searching for people under the ruins and did totally impossible things sometimes. You must know she has this gift of absolute fearlessness; she can be afraid for someone else, but never for herself. By the way, have you noticed that women have this gift incomparably more often than men? Understand this:
nothing can happen to a person who is not afraid
; it is not for naught that her medical squad considered her a living talisman. This is real ancient magic, not some cheap spell, please trust a professional. She is now in one of our hideouts in the Ash Mountains – thirty-six children from Barad-dúr and Mama Sonya. That place is as safe as can be.”

“Thank you.”

“Not at all, she’s in her rightful place. Listen, Haladdin, I think I’ve scared you too much with all this highfaluting talk. Don’t look so downcast! Please summon your healthy cynicism and look at this business as a purely scientific, theoretical challenge. A mental exercise, you know – putting together a puzzle.”

“You, of all people, should know,” Haladdin responded gloomily, “that a scientist won’t lift a finger until he’s certain that he has all pieces of the puzzle and that it theoretically has a solution. Searching a dark room for a black cat that’s not even there is not science, that’s the philosophers’ business.”

“I can reassure you that there definitely is a cat in our dark room, the problem is how to catch it. Here, then, is the puzzle. Given: a large magical crystal, code name ‘Mirror,’ located smack in the middle of the Enchanted Forest, in Lórien, at Elf Queen Galadriel’s. Problem: to destroy said crystal. Care to give it a try?”

“Parameters of this crystal?” Haladdin joined the game without much desire.

“Ask away!”

“Eh … Well, to begin with: shape, size, weight?”

“It is shaped like a lens. Dimensions: one-and-a-half yards in diameter and a foot thick. Weight: about a thousand pounds, not for one man to lift. Besides, it most likely has a metal setting.”

“All right … Mechanical strength?”

“Absolute, just like that of the
palantíri
.”

“What do you mean – ‘absolute’?”

“I mean literally absolute – impossible to break.”

“Whoa! Then how? …”

“This information,” the nazgúl’s voice was suddenly metallic and officer-like, “is already in your possession, so please use your memory.”

Damn, just what I need … get lost, willya? Wait, what was that he’d said about the Mirror and the
palantíri
? …

“The Mirror and the
palantíri
arose as products of separation of the Eternal Fire, so the same Fire would destroy them, right?”

“Bravo, Haladdin! Precisely so, and in no other manner.”

“Wait a second, where am I supposed to obtain this Eternal Fire?”

“The entire Orodruin is at your service.”

“Are you kidding? Where’s Orodruin and where’s Lórien?”

Sharya-Rana spread his hands: “This is precisely the riddle.”

Haladdin shook his head. “Yeah, no joke … So: one, sneak into the Elvish capital; two, charm their queen; three, steal a thousand-pound medallion; four, drag it to Orodruin … all right, I won’t count chucking it into the crater as a separate task … and I have how long to do all that?”

“Three months,” the nazgúl said drily. “A hundred days, to be precise. If you’re not done by the first of August, you can wind up the operation – it won’t help anyone any more.”

To appease his conscience, Haladdin had actually tried solving this crazy riddle, wracking his mind for about three minutes – no way, no how! – and finally asked with evident relief: “All right, Sharya-Rana, I give up. What’s your solution?”

“I don’t have one,” the other replied calmly, turned what used to be a face towards the stars and muttered with a strange sadness: “How time flies … less than an hour left …”

“What do you mean, you don’t have one?” Haladdin finally managed to stammer. “Didn’t you say that there is a solution?”

“True, there is, but I don’t know what it is. Even if I knew, I would not have been able to divulge it to you, as that would immediately doom the entire enterprise. The rules of this game stipulate that you have to travel this road all by yourself. This doesn’t mean that you have to go it alone; you’re free to accept any technical help from other people at your discretion, but all the decisions have to be yours alone. As for myself, I stand ready to provide any information that can be useful in your mission, but no concrete hints; consider me a sort of an
Encyclopedia of Arda
, but bear in mind that you have less than an hour.”

“Any information?” Curiosity overcame all his other feelings.

“Any non-magical information,” the nazgúl corrected. “Anything your heart desires:
mithril
technology, Elvish dynasties, the Ring of Power, Mordor’s sleeper agents in Minas Tirith and Umbar – ask away, Haladdin.”

“Wait a second – you said ‘non-magical’ and just mentioned the Ring of Power! How so?”

“Listen,” Sharya-Rana remarked somewhat irritably, glancing at the sky again, “you only have about fifty minutes. Honestly, that stupid business involved no magic and has no bearing on your mission!”

“That’s a concrete hint, by the way!”

“
Touché
! All right, if you can spare the time – listen. It’s up to you now to decide what’s important and what isn’t.”

He regretted his curiosity, as he understood that those memories were rather unpleasant to Sharya-Rana. But the nazgúl had already begun his tale, and once again it seemed to Haladdin that the darkness under the cowl hid a ghostly sarcastic grin.

“This had been one of our many attempts to split the Western coalition, which, unfortunately, did no good. We had a fancy ring made – the goldsmiths had a lot of fun – spread a rumor that it’s supposed to confer power over the entire Middle Earth, and shipped it over Anduin. The hope was that the Gondorians and the Rohirrim would battle each other over this little gift. Well, those did indeed swallow the bait, hook, line, and sinker, but Gandalf figured out whose idea it was right away. To save the Western coalition from falling apart, he tricked them all: got to the Ring first, but rather than keep it, caused it to be thoroughly lost.

“He hid it really well; it took our intelligence service more than two years to pick up the trail. It turned out that the Ring was in the Shire. That’s a backwater in the far North-West: whitewashed shutters, hollyhock gardens, a pig in the mud in the middle of the main street … So what to do? Neither the Gondorians nor the Rohirrim have ever set foot in this Shire. Steal the Ring and drop it off at Anduin again – that would’ve been a dead giveaway. So someone had a good idea: to pretend that we’re seeking the Ring, too, and thus dislodge its Shire keeper. But in our conceit we Nazgúl decided to do this ourselves, quick and easy, here today, gone tomorrow … It was stupid for us to get involved directly; this was way below our pay grade, to put it mildly, but a dilettante is always a dilettante, no matter how smart he is. Two real spies would’ve done a lot more good than our entire Order.