Read Online The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien - Free Book Online Page B

borders, and yet I grudge it not.’
    ‘And now our fates are woven together,’ said Aragorn. ‘And yet, alas! here we must part. Well, I must eat a little, and then
we also must hasten away. Come, Legolas and Gimli! I must speak with you as I eat.’
    Together they went back into the Burg; yet for some time Aragorn sat silent at the table in the hall, and the others waited
for him to speak. ‘Come!’ said Legolas at last. ‘Speak and be comforted, and shake off the shadow! What has happened since
we came back to this grim place in the grey morning?’
    ‘A struggle somewhat grimmer for my part than the battle of the Hornburg,’ answered Aragorn. ‘I have looked in the Stone of
Orthanc, my friends.’
    ‘You have looked in that accursed stone of wizardry!’ exclaimed Gimli with fear and astonishment in his face. ‘Did you say
aught to – him? Even Gandalf feared that encounter.’
    ‘You forget to whom you speak,’ said Aragorn sternly, and his eyes glinted. ‘What do you fear that I should say to him? Did
I not openly proclaim my title before the doors of Edoras? Nay, Gimli,’ he said in a softer voice, and the grimness left his
face, and he looked like one who has laboured in sleepless pain for many nights. ‘Nay, my friends, I am the lawful master
of the Stone, and I had both the right and the strength to use it, or so I judged. The right cannot be doubted. The strength
was enough – barely.’
    He drew a deep breath. ‘It was a bitter struggle, and the weariness is slow to pass. I spoke no word to him, and in the end
I wrenched the Stone to my own will. That alone he will find hard to endure. And he beheld me. Yes, Master Gimli,he saw me, but in other guise than you see me here. If that will aid him, then I have done ill. But I do not think so. To
know that I lived and walked the earth was a blow to his heart, I deem; for he knew it not till now. The eyes in Orthanc did
not see through the armour of Théoden; but Sauron has not forgotten Isildur and the sword of Elendil. Now in the very hour
of his great designs the heir of Isildur and the Sword are revealed; for I showed the blade re-forged to him. He is not so
mighty yet that he is above fear; nay, doubt ever gnaws him.’
    ‘But he wields great dominion, nonetheless,’ said Gimli; ‘and now he will strike more swiftly.’
    ‘The hasty stroke goes oft astray,’ said Aragorn. ‘We must press our Enemy, and no longer wait upon him for the move. See
my friends, when I had mastered the Stone, I learned many things. A grave peril I saw coming unlooked-for upon Gondor from
the South that will draw off great strength from the defence of Minas Tirith. If it is not countered swiftly, I deem that
the City will be lost ere ten days be gone.’
    ‘Then lost it must be,’ said Gimli. ‘For what help is there to send thither, and how could it come there in time?’
    ‘I have no help to send, therefore I must go myself,’ said Aragorn. ‘But there is only one way through the mountains that
will bring me to the coastlands before all is lost. That is the Paths of the Dead.’
    ‘The Paths of the Dead!’ said Gimli. ‘It is a fell name; and little to the liking to the Men of Rohan, as I saw. Can the living
use such a road and not perish? And even if you pass that way, what will so few avail to counter the strokes of Mordor?’
    ‘The living have never used that road since the coming of the Rohirrim,’ said Aragorn, ‘for it is closed to them. But in this
dark hour the heir of Isildur may use it, if he dare. Listen! This is the word that the sons of Elrond bring to me from their
father in Rivendell, wisest in lore:
Bid Aragorn remember the words of the seer, and the Paths of the Dead
.’
    ‘And what may be the words of the seer?’ said Legolas.
    ‘Thus spoke Malbeth the Seer, in the days of Arvedui, last king at Fornost,’ said Aragorn:
    Over the land there lies a long shadow,
    westward reaching wings of darkness.
    The Tower