Chapter 374: Quiet Streets
"The streets feel a bit too quiet."
Levi stepped out of the castle, muttering under his breath with a faint frown.
"No one by the roadside chatting and laughing, and Beherdan isn't here either."
"Most likely they've all been sent to the eastern front," said an elderly man nearby, not even looking up. Broad-shouldered despite his years, he was bent over a vegetable patch, planting with steady hands.
"The eastern front?" Levi asked.
"Aye. The east has been a mess lately. They say from the South Vale all the way to Dale, the land's crawling with Orcs. The fighting's nearly reached the Sky-road."
"That's what's happening now?"
"Hah. You must have been away. Anyone around here's heard the talk."
The old man calmly raked the soil and dug up potatoes, his voice unhurried as he went on.
"Except for the garrisons that must be kept, just about every young soul who can fight has gone east. By now the Orcs are likely almost cleared out. Lad, if you'd made your preparations and set out sooner, you might even have caught the tail end of it."
"So that's how it is," Levi said. "Then tell me plainly. I want the full situation, and what the plan is afterwards."
"Right now? What else would it be? Beherdan's flown over to join the fighting. I wouldn't be surprised if they've already mustered and set off for the Black Gate."
"The Black Gate?" Levi repeated. "Why go there?"
"To look for our lord, of course. There was a meeting a while back. Seeing how many questions you have, you probably weren't here then. Anyway, the meeting ended with everyone agreeing on one thing. Our lord's disappearance has Mordor's Lord written all over it. If we break into Mordor and seize that Dark Lord, we'll get answers."
"That's true enough," Levi said, nodding. "I think the same. It is probably Sauron's doing."
"Mm. Then you're thinking like most folk. To break Mordor's great Black Gate of iron, we mustered over twenty full regiments. Forty thousand gathered in Rhovanion in waves. Every Ranger worth his sword went, and every legion champion too. I don't even know how far they've marched by now…"
The old man finished harvesting the last square of potatoes from a standard 9×99×9 plot. He straightened with a grunt and stretched his back.
"They say outside these walls that our lord has left the world and cannot return. I don't believe it. I will never believe such absurd talk, even if some of it comes from Elves."
"Pity I'm truly too old to go out and search for our lord's trail myself."
"But if anyone thinks the old folk of Roadside Keep are easy prey, they've misjudged us. If I can swing a hoe, I can swing a sword."
Levi looked him over. The man was strong for his years. He had the bearing of someone who had fought and been tempered by it.
"Well said," Levi replied. "A great deal has happened. It doesn't even feel like I was gone long."
"And it is time I went out and looked with my own eyes."
Hearing the young man behind him say he meant to head for the eastern front, the old man turned back mid-stretch.
"Back and off travelling again at once. Youth has a great deal of fire in it. Then I wish you go…"
He stopped dead.
"Gah…"
The rest stuck in his throat.
He stared, unblinking, then stepped closer and closer, as if afraid the world might vanish if he moved too quickly. Only when he felt the warmth radiating from Levi's armour did he finally accept that this was not a trick of sight.
Tears rolled down the creases of his face.
"You're back," he said, voice breaking.
A crowd gathered behind them, swelling in moments, and then cheers rose like a wave.
A gentle, holy light had returned the legend to this land, and so the end of the people's hoping was no longer empty.
That day, when Levi came home, the dull heaviness that had hung over the residents left behind in Roadside Keep was swept away, replaced by exhilaration.
That exhilaration spread outward from Roadside Keep like ripples, carried from holding to holding, from one domain to the next.
On Levi's orders, messengers rode out from Roadside Keep and sped east along the Sky-road, to tell the assembled host that Levi had returned.
It would be an anchor, something solid to hold to.
Yet when the word reached them, the host did not disperse or withdraw. They obeyed Levi's standing orders and stayed where they were, waiting.
They were waiting for Levi to settle another matter first.
That stillness unsettled Mordor. But Mordor did not waste the reprieve. It strengthened the Black Gate's defences and continued to draw in troops, great hosts out of the Far East and from Harad.
The balance of offence and defence shifted.
Elsewhere, after announcing his return and dealing briefly with the recent chaos, Levi travelled first to the Water City. There, he sought out the Rangers stationed at the Eregion outpost to confirm the Fellowship's whereabouts.
"The Grey Pilgrim and the other eight went towards the West-gate of Moria," the Ranger reported. "They did not return."
Levi listened in silence, weighing it.
From what he had seen, the Fellowship should have made it through Moria. The question was where they had gone after they emerged, and how far they had already travelled.
And Gandalf. Levi did not know where he was now or what state he was in.
In that unnameable hall that seemed to stand beyond the world's edge, Gandalf's spirit had been summoned away. He had returned to Arda before Levi—of that Levi was certain.
So where would he be now? Lothlórien? Fangorn? Somewhere else?
Levi would have to find out.
"All right. I understand. Has anything else moved lately?" he asked, almost casually, after finishing with questions about the Fellowship.
That question, thrown out lightly, proved to matter.
"Word from afar," the Ranger reported. "There is something strange at the Fords of Isen, on the borders of Rohan. Dunlendings and Orcs are gathering and moving that way. It looks like an attack is coming."
"Oh?" Levi's interest sharpened.
The Ranger continued, "A scouting party in Enedwaith saw a black shadow flying in the night sky, likely a Nazgûl. It was wandering and watching between Dunland and Isengard."
"From what we can tell, a great battle may break out at the Fords of Isen soon."
He laid out everything his people had gathered, then fell silent to wait, awaiting Levi's decision and plan.
The Fords of Isen. Isengard.
Gandalf had warned long ago that this place might no longer be on their side.
Even with all the precautions, Saruman had still managed to cause a disaster. It was an unpleasant surprise, yet also somehow expected. The old wizard's ambition had always been vast.
Later, when Levi had gone there himself, he had proved Gandalf right.
And had even picked up a Ring in passing.
But before Levi could make further plans, the Northern Waste had erupted. Now was the right time to deal with this as well.
"Summon the legions," Levi said. "We march to support the Fords of Isen."
If the Fords of Isen fell, the remaining defenders would have no choice but to retreat and hold the Hornburg in Helm's Deep.
And then the Battle of Helm's Deep would likely follow.
In Levi's memory, the time between those events was short, only a handful of days.
The Hornburg mattered. If it fell as well, Rohan itself would truly suffer.
That would be no good at all.
It helped that the garrison of the Water City had not moved.
Because of the orders Levi had given before his disappearance, they had not thrown themselves into the eastern war. They had held the western lands and the south-western coastline instead.
With the decision made, Levi returned from the outpost to the Water City, and the great city began to move at once.
One full regiment after another formed and assembled in the broad squares, standing ready, waiting for Levi's next command.
"March," Levi said.