The Kinstrife
Part
62
In
which we see Tûl Póac at
dawn; our heroes spend a month planning and preparing before starting their
trek across the Mirror of Fire; our heroes encounter the Great Oasis – a rift
in the desert filled with verdant jungle – and encounter an ancient Elf in a marvellous
tower, who proves generous with his gifts.
October 14th – Dawn
We enter Tûl Póac at dawn. It is a
fortified town set in a striking position, on a huge granite outcrop dominating
the utterly flat desert. The walls, 20’ high, sit down from the top of the
plateau and are backfilled, the ramparts being more or less level with the
plateau. The parapet walk is therefore a sort of promenade, circling the town.
In places, the masons have cut the cliff to make it vertical with the wall is
directly cemented to the rock, allowing the solid granite bedrock to support
the walls in the event of siege. In fact to my eye the wall itself scarce seems
necessary at these points.
The sole
entrance to the city is a gate to the east, which must be a weakness in the
design as a single, small force would be able to besiege the entire town at
that gate. The only towers are those that flank this gate and both ends of the
causeway to the citadel at the western end of the town, again a failing in the
defensive scheme. Evidently military architecture isn’t as highly developed
here as it is in Gondor. Perhaps the walls defend
against more natural threats? Certainly Tûl Póac cannot have faced too many sieges or there would be
more towers and several posterns.
The eastern
quarter of the town just inside the gate is dedicated to hostelries for the
considerable transient population: inns and caravan halls. The main street is
the Tûlimi Strand, which passes the length of the
town, through the gate and winds down the cliff to cut across the Mirror of
Fire toward the
The artisan’s
quarter occupies central Tûl Póac,
including various entertainment venues. In the centre of the town the Tûlimi Strand crosses The Blade, Tûl Póac’s other major thoroughfare.
Further west can be found the Assembly and various guildhalls and the western
edge of the town has the most up-market residences, from which I conclude that
the prevailing winds are westerly.
Most westerly of
all, the citadel stands on its own rock apart from the town but joined by a
triple-spanned stone bridge. This is the fortress and home of the Lord of the Póa. His palace is set in its own park adjoining a
collection of highly elaborate buildings: the Library, the Armoury, the Chamber
of Judgements, the Shrine and the Guards’ Hall.
We take our
leave of Kuron, who intends to stay at a caravan
hall. He recommends the
We find the
We spend the
month in preparation. We already have our tents but our main concern will be
water. We purchase a small cart to hold several barrels of water and a donkey
to pull it. (I wanted camels but it seems they’re tricky to handle, Al-Han has
no experience with them and finding anyone willing to enter the Mirror of Fire
will be difficult – we want to maintain a low a profile as possible.)
Brand assures us
that in métima langë
(literally ‘the ultimate extreme’) he knows spells that can drive a well
through the baked crust of the Mirror of Fire to reach the waters below.
However, the infamous beast Razarac (‘the Destroyer’)
has made a name for itself by slaying those digging wells.
Brand spends
some time at the Library, conversing with a sage. The Razarac
attacks at night. Descriptions vary but it sounds like a form of very large
troll. Several accounts speak of a glowing red gem set in its breast but all
these accounts are from survivors who ran for their lives – all those who fight
the creature die. The thing has wings that, while insufficient to allow flight,
enable it to leap several hundred yards at a time.
It sounds
horrifying. Unlike Brand, I am no master of lore, but I have never heard of a
troll with ‘wings’. The mention of a glowing gem puts me in mind of the Kuilëondo and my instincts tell me the thing is more likely
to be of that ilk than any mere troll.
At the end of
the month we have managed to avert much interest in our destination, spreading
the fiction that we intend to skirt the Mirror of Fire by the
November 15th – Dusk
We set out in to
the Mirror of Fire by the light of the stars. The first night is easy as we
travel by a well-made road that sees little traffic. Dust has covered it in a
few places but since the Mirror of Fire is a stone desert such places are
infrequent and we make very good time.
Shortly before
dawn we pass a ruined settlement. There’s hardly anything left of the buildings
and the well that was to be the focus of the staging post across the desert is
filled with broken rubble. If the Razarac did this it
would seem to have a definite method in mind beyond pure slaughter. This is not
the action of a beast seeking prey.
We set camp at
dawn but our unfamiliarity with our tents means we are exposed to the sun for
some 20-30 minutes more than is wise and several of us, including me, take
burns. We should have practised erecting the tents but it’s
shocking how quickly sunrise happens in the desert and how quickly the sun’s
rays scorch after the cool of the night. Tomorrow we must set camp a little
earlier, on spying the first light of dawn. Thankfully Aerin
has an ointment that alleviates the worst of the burns.
November 16th – 28th
Shortly after
setting out, the road abruptly ends. From now on we must navigate by the stars
using the Key to Fuinur’s Well. Ilviren
and Brand really are in their own and lead us
faultlessly across the harsh stone. We march entirely at night, Al-Han driving
the cart. By day we rest within our tents with one person on watch outside
under Sern’s cloak of sandworm hide.
It occurs to me
that we should be grateful the Razarac attacks at
night. A creature of much less power that attacked by day would be much worse.
Only minor damage to our tents would quickly prove fatal in the incandescent
rays of the Sun. I am not sure what purpose our lone sentry serves, since if he
spied any aggressor there would be little to be done about it – we could hardly
go outside to fight in the light of day.
November 29th
During the day I
and a couple of the others, during our respective watches, notice something
ahead, a shimmering haze that we’ve not seen the like of before. That evening,
after a couple of hours march, we suddenly find ourselves at the edge of a rift
– a canyon dropping vertically away in to the darkness. Luckily the Moon is
almost full and by its light Ilviren and Brand spy a path to the north and taking this we descend in to the
unknown.
Worryingly, dawn
finds us just short of the bottom, still on this narrow road with no space to
set out camp. For a dreadful moment we all fear the sun catching us so
unprepared but thankfully the canyon walls protect us…
…And then the light
of dawn reveals a verdant green valley spread out below us – a forest of the
most luxuriantly exotic trees.
But we are all
most astonished to see a slender tower of white stone rising from the trees. It
must be close on half a mile in height, a thin white needle rising from the
green of the trees. Further north we can see a lake of azure blue. The canyon
itself must be 2-3 miles wide and longer north-south. Brand pronounces the
tower as an example of Elven architecture of the early 2nd Age or
even earlier.
In Tûl Póac Brand tried to find out
as much as possible about the Mirror of Fire but no one has penetrated as
deeply as we have for centuries, possibly millennia. However Brand did uncover
several myths. One of those myths referred to a ‘golden tower’ inhabited by a
beautiful maid of incredible power and wisdom – an Elf-maid?
November 30th
Obviously we
want to make the tower our objective but we’ve been walking all night. I’m sure
I could keep going but it would be unfair to inflict such durance on my companions
and we have the donkey to think of too. We descend to the valley floor and
clear a space among the trees, where we luxuriate in sleeping undu ilwë
(literally ‘under sky’) down in the valley it remains cool, even when the Sun
clears the eastern rim of the canyon, and it’s refreshing to leave the tents
packed.
However, by
early afternoon, although we’re not in danger of sunburn, the air has turned
hot and sticky, making it difficult to sleep, so we rise early and begin
hacking our way through the jungle. Luckily the tree canopy is very dense,
restricting the undergrowth (as Brand points out, displaying his erudition for
our delight) and we make fair progress. We rely on Ilviren’s sense of direction
but we also find occasional remains of a paved road, which indicates we are on
the right path.
There are
definitely animals in this wood, though we see only the occasional glimpse of
eyes in the gloom and a passing shadow. Brand, though, is in raptures over the
variety of exotic flora. Several times we encounter a particular bloom
apparently growing epiphytically (Brand’s word, not mine) on trees. It has a
particularly rich and heady scent, strong enough to make you dizzy when you
smell it.
But suddenly the
heat and humidity get to me and I come over a little faint – a sensation I am
utterly unused to. Brand, apparently concerned, asks me to repeat a
tongue-twister in Quenya, one of those he had me practising when he was my
tutor. To both our surprise, I can barely mumble incoherently. Aerin leads me away and sits me down as she examines me,
muttering something about heat-stroke, and after a minute my mind starts to
clear. But then Ilviren suddenly reels, stricken with
a similar malady.
Ilviren had noticed the flower blooming close to
where I had been taken ill and had evidently smelt deeply of its scent. Alerted
now, Brand examines the flower and notices animal bones in the dirt around it.
He pronounces it to be a carnivorous bloom that overcomes passing prey with its
scent and then sends in rapidly growing tendrils to consume the dead or
unconscious victims. It seems we must be careful to hold our breath when we see
similar flowers. Luckily Ilviren and I make a full
recovery within minutes but I hope there are not too many more such surprises
in store for us.
We reach the tower
at dusk to find a single pale-grey door with a doorknocker that seems utterly
inadequate to alert the inhabitants but hopefully there will be a doorwarden just inside. Gazing up the half-mile height of
the edifice, I hammer the knocker as loudly as possible and wait…and wait…and
wait. I ring again…still nothing.
After ten
minutes we’re shrugging and discussing where we can set the tents when suddenly
the door opens to reveal an elderly, male Elf who greets us in a Quenya so
archaic I have trouble following him. Aerin, Brand
and I all return his greeting and introduce ourselves and our companions.
He turns out to
be Forlindaal ‘with two A’s’. I find myself musing
how long it must take for an Elf to become aged and it quickly becomes clear
that Forlindaal is more than a little dotty.
Evidently he lives alone but affirms that ‘solitude is conducive to study’. He
is Noldorin, grey-eyed and silver-haired, though I
wonder if his hair has turned that colour over the millennia from a formerly
darker shade.
He shows us in
to his ‘waiting room’, decorated with furniture constructed of a very pale
wood, a seat running all round the curved outer wall. The room occupies perhaps
a quarter of the ground floor with a central stair rising
the length of the tower.
Forlindaal peers at us vaguely before wandering off
to get ‘tea’. 15 minutes later he returns with teapot and cake on a tray. The
tea is black, a Raj specialty – though Forlindaal can
have no commerce with the Raj – and the cake tastes like nothing I have ever
experienced before.
Forlindaal is some sort of sage. He asks ‘how is Númenor doing’? So I bring him up to date on the last
3-4,000 years of history, pícala (literally ‘reduced’). He then quizzes us long in to
the night. Then around
Before retiring,
Forlindaal warns us not to leave the tower as there
are animals that wander outside at night and some of them can be ‘excitable’ –
that’s what he says, ‘excitable’!
The rooms prove
to have closets of fresh clothes, which magically transform (according to Ilviren) if the first match does not suit, and wonderfully
warm, scented baths.
Clean and
refreshed, while we finish supper, Sern asks if I
think Forlindaal is connected to the Well of Fuinur. I admit I don’t know but I wonder what induces a Noldorin sage to live so far from…anywhere?
I turn in and find the quality of the beds matches the food, clothes and baths.
December 1st
We wake in the
morning to find breakfast laid out in the 4th
floor chamber. Forlindaal turns up mid-morning and
looks surprised before apparently recalling with delight that he has guests.
Brands
asks Forlindaal about Fuinur’s Well.
He recalls Fuinur as ‘a nice chap, very friendly’. It
seems Forlindaal visited him a couple of times while
the Well was building.
Forlindaal is quite dotty. It seems he came out here
because the valley is an absolutely unique environment in to which he has
transplanted fauna and flora from all over Middle Earth, where by-and-large
they live in equilibrium. I mention the carnivorous bloom and he seems
delighted to hear of our encounter.
He talks of the
Well being close to the fires of Ormal, the fallen
Lamp of Arda which leads me to mention the Kuilëondo. He takes one look at the jewel and leads us up
to his laboratory; this proves to be on the 63rd floor – we have to
stop twice for meals!
Forlindaal examines the Kuilëondo
using some spy-glass and concludes, to no one’s surprise, that it houses an
evil spirit. It will be released if the jewel is destroyed and this may be
accomplished in the fires of Ormal, though someone
would have to get right in the heart of it and this will demand protection from
Ormal’s fires. Once released, the spirit will be weak
and it may be possible to ‘uncorporate’ it – I think
he means kill it. Brand asks if this will involve physical or mental combat but
Forlindaal doesn’t seem to comprehend the difference.
However, I suspect the task will fall to me since I’m the best equipped to
handle either.
Brand mentions
that Sern has a cloak of sandworm hide and Forlindaal chirps an offer to produce copies of it for
everyone and turns to his work with a will.
Since they can’t
follow the conversation, Ilviren and Sern set out to explore the rest of the tower. They return
that evening to report that most of the tower is full of Forlindaal’s
copious ‘notes’ but that he also has vast stores of magical artefacts, weapons,
armour and things beyond comprehension. Brand also reports that just about
everything around us is magical.
Ilviren urges Brand to ask Forlindaal
if we can ‘borrow’ any of these things that might aid our quest to destroy the Kuilëondo and retrieve the Karma of Aldarion from Fuinur’s Well.
December 5th
Forlindaal returns a few days later with cloaks
similar to Sern’s and of identical function, save
that they are one-use. He also has an interesting collection of bent metal
hooks and wires for Sern that apparently may help him
in opening locks. (Interestingly I don’t recall anyone telling Forlindaal of Sern’s predelictions that way.)
He gives Aerin a crystal vial filled with a clear liquid, which he
says is four drops of a powerful healing-draft. Finally he produces a matching
sword and shield. He says the virtue of the sword that it will always strike
true and that of the shield that will always ward a blow. However Forlindaal says they have the flaw that both must be fed
with blood.
Forlindaal explains their function and I reach for
the sword. It seems a little blood is a small price to pay for the ability to
deal a mortal blow to whatever we may find in the Well.
But then Ilviren observes that she has no use for the shield and
asks for the sword. I hand it over but I’m not convinced this works well. Ilviren already has a fey-edged blade and I need something
with greater bite than my rapier. Celegmaeg is my
preferred weapon for duelling, when the ability to seize the initiative is crucial,
but I have noticed that against many of our opponents Ilviren’s blows carry far
more weight and I need something similar.
So all that
remains is to see what Forlindaal would give a
lawyer? (Perhaps he should have the shield, and
another blade for Ilviren or myself?) Then we must
venture forth in to the desert once more.
To do list:
Trek to Fuinur’s Well
Destroy the Kuilëondo
Retrieve the
Karma of Aldarion
Keep accounts
for money accruing while in Raj
Visit Minas Ithil – probably not going to happen now
Talk to the
survivor of the 1st Mordor expedition before entering Mordor
Survey my estates and produce a plan to improve
them – consider Pimm’s offer but be cautious