The Daughter of the Moon Volume III

Chapter 16 : At the heart of the conflict

When the door was finally opened in full, the much smaller army of Men shuddered in terror. Thousands of them. No. Surely hundreds of thousands of enemies stood before them. Orcs, trolls. Immense giants dressed in rags under their spiked armour.

Elladan then saw a dozen creatures appear that were completely unknown to him. They looked like spectres. Large winged figures, with a human appearance. Their skin was so pale that it was almost translucent and they wore a multitude of weapons on their belts that encircled the sides of their dark rags. Their wings had sharp claws, and as they flew they uttered shrill cries.

-Mithrandir! he called. What are these creatures?

The Maia looked towards the door. He turned pale and answered:

-They are vampires, Elladan. They have been gone for a long time, but it seems that Sauron has secretly sequestered some of them.

-How can we defeat them? Gimli interjected.

-In theory, you only have to remove their capes which give them consistency.

The old wizard sighed and drew Glamdring, his sword, and looked carefully at the slightly anxious faces of all. Eomer was stamping his feet. Gimli was mechanically running his thumb over the blade of his axe to make sure it was sharp. Legolas had notched one of his arrows on the string of his bow and was waiting, looking at their opponents. Elladan and Elrohir stood nearby, dark and silent. Merry and Pippin glared at each other. Aragorn gritted his teeth, the knuckles of his hands white as he gripped Andúril's guard so tightly.

Elenwë closed her eyes gently, breathing in deeply. She placed her fingers on Ant Estel and looked at her companions.

-Friends! she said. This is the final hour. Let us not falter.

They all smiled at each other, aware that this might be the last time they would ever stand together.

The army of Mordor sounded its drums and slowly moved towards them. Then Aragorn turned to them, smiled sadly and whispered:

-For Frodo.

He took off running, soon followed by the hobbits and the other Fellows. Although the Halflings were soon overtaken, they were still just behind the front line.

Elenwë ran swiftly and soon reached the first line. Throwing her arm vigorously from side to side, she quickly eliminated a significant number of enemies.

The rest of them managed to get by little by little until... Aragorn, who until now had maintained a clear space around him, found himself surrounded and besieged on all sides. Seeing this, Elenwë wanted to join her friend, but a high-pitched, shrill cry made her stop in her tracks. The Nazgûls.

There were only four of them left, but four of them could do terrible damage to such a small army. While Elenwë hesitated between helping her friend and fulfilling her mission, an event decided for her. One of the Nazgûls, Khamûl, second in command of the servants of Sauron, landed right in front of her. And so did the other three.

Elenwë, surrounded, tightened her fingers around the hilt of her weapon. She had to defeat them. Hoping that Aragorn would make it, she rushed towards the first Nazgûl.

She was strong, but so were they, and with four of them against her at once, she had a hard time fighting back.

Aragorn suddenly found himself fighting a huge troll, and Elenwë saw the creature's massive weapon rise up before coming down hard. Aragorn dodged as best he could, but the club had hit his back.

Isildur's heir collapsed to the ground, breathless, his back burning with a stabbing pain.

-NO! Gimli shouted. He mercilessly beheaded the orcs but could not get near his friend on the ground.

Legolas, likewise, had seen the predicament he was in, but between them, the enemies were too many.

The troll approached Aragorn and the sheth felt his heart beat faster in fear.

Legolas struggled and Gimli struggled but nothing helped.

Elenwë saw Aragorn look up with clear eyes at the troll who had raised the heavy mace again.

She could not hold back a cry of dismay. A fatal mistake. She had, for a moment, turned her back on her enemies.

When she realised it, it was too late. Khâmul had just grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back, making her drop her sword.

She wriggled to get out of his grip but he squeezed her tighter, causing her to groan in pain.

What she saw next stunned her. One of the Nazgûls had pulled a very dark black blade from his cloak, its hilt crudely decorated with silver.

A Morghul blade. This was Sauron's plan for her. To enslave her.

She struggled harder, but the servant of the Ring thrust the blade into Elenwë's right thigh. She screamed and kicked at the one who was holding her, without success.

Without flinching, the same Nazgûl thrust other similar blades first into her other thigh and then one into each of her shoulders.

Elenwë could not move. Immobilised by the pain and by the embrace of Khamul.

When the other drew a final blade from his clothing, Elenwë knew immediately where it belonged. In her heart. She held back the tears of despair. As soon as that last blade was on her, she would become an enemy to her friends. She wanted to run away but could not.

With a scream she called for help and then met the panicked eyes of her brothers.

-NETHIG!

Then Legolas turned his head and was frightened to see the state of his fiancée.

-Elenwë!

He was too far away to help her. They were all too far away. Elenwë thought that she should have known it would end like this.

Two tears sprang from her eyes and rolled silently down her cheeks as the fifth and final weapon sank deep into her flesh.

She said nothing then. Mute and dark, she sank to the ground and looked up at the sky. The sky... dark and filled with black and grey clouds. But she saw a patch of blue sky in the distance and fixed her gaze on that area.

She could feel her heart beating in her head. Her heart was failing and she could not breathe well.

Gradually she became aware that the heart was slowing down and then a dark veil fell over her eyes.

The emptiness overcame her.