The Worlds of Christopher Walker

STEP BY STEALTHY step, the two thieves, Pangol and Dolge, stalked around the piled crates in the battle-torn hold. Pangol couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he thought about the riches jingling in his purse. Mustn’t get too greedy, he told himself. Kill the squealer behind the crates and then topside before we’re missed. He nodded to Dolge across the crates and held up all three of the fingers on his left hand. Pangol glanced at Dolge’s bulging purse and grinned even wider. It occurred to Pangol that if Dolge, too, had a little accident behind the crates, who would be the wiser? He stifled a chuckle and counted down,

Three… Two… One… 

Springing around opposite sides of the crates with blades drawn, they were stunned by the sight of a lone girl hugging her knees next to a lumpy tarp. Surprise and terror whimpered from her like a trapped little animal.

“Well, well, well. Look what we have here, Pangol, my old friend,” said Dolge. His broad grin displayed half a mouthful of yellow and black rotting teeth. “If it ain’t a scared little stowaway?”

Pangol relaxed and chuckled as he leered at the frightened girl. “Aye, and a pretty little mouse, too. How do you suppose she got herself into this scary place all by herself?”

“Why don’t we ask her?” said Dolge, crouching to put his face near the shivering girl. “Hey li’l missee, did you get lost? There, there. You don’t need to be scared of us. Why, we’re honorable gentleman. Ain’t that right, Pangol?”

Pangol laughed and lowered his sword. “Aye, a pair o’right honorable gentlemen, we are.”

“See?” said Dolge with a laugh. “And seeing as we’re a pair o’right honorable gentlemen, that means you can trust us, can’t you, li’l missee?” The girl didn’t answer, but her eyes bulged wide with terror and confusion. “Say, I don’t think she trusts you, Pangol. It’s that bloody scimitar in your hand. It makes you look pretty scary to a frightened little mouse like this one.”

“I do?” asked Pangol. “Do I really look scary? Why thank you!”

Dolge rubbed his chin-whiskers with the back of his knife hand. “Now what do you suppose we ought to do with this poor little thing? If we were near a port, someone unscrupulous could get a good price for her, I’ll wot. Lucky for you li’l missee, two honorable gentlemen found you who wouldn’t think about selling a pretty lassie like you for profit, now would we, Pangol?”

Pangol snorted, enjoying the sport. “I’ll bet she didn’t know this was her lucky day!”

“Well, we can’t leave her here to starve to death, can we? Let’s find her someplace warm and dry where she can rest and recuperate. Maybe one of these crates, keep her nice and safe until we can find someone to take care of her… for a reasonable price, of course.”

“But not too reasonable though,” said Pangol, and they both roared. Then, the girl lifted her eyes, all fear dropping from her face, and started laughing along with them.

“Aye lass, that’s it. You see, Pangol? She’s coming around.”

“Aye, but she must be cracked. Won’t get as good a price for her if she’s gone cracked then, will we?”

“Hey, lassie, what’s so funny there?”

The girl laughed in full-throated chuckles. “I’m laughing because…ha ha… because…” But she couldn’t quite get it out.

“Well, what is it, little mousy? Cat got your tongue? Well, we might just have to cut it out of you!” snarled Dolge, thumbing his knife blade.

“I’m laughing because…” The girl’s face dropped deadly serious. “…because you fell right into our trap.” All at once, the canvas tarp next to her flew back and Lumpolas popped up. With one strong exhale, he blew a palm full of red powder right into their startled faces. Both men shrieked in agony, choking and clutching at their throats while their eyes streamed tears, blinded and burning. They didn’t have long to suffer though, for leaping up behind Lumpolas, Aragunk dispatched the dazed thieves with two heavy blows from his sword. Their heavy purses jingled for the last time as they crashed to the deck together and breathed no more.

“Snake-spice!” said Lumpolas triumphantly, holding his bright red palm up. “You can’t have too much of it on hand!”

“Is it you?” said Beonna, her heart leaping for joy. “Is it really the two of you?”

Aragunk sheathed his sword and picked her up in an enormous bear-hug and squeezed her. “It’s you! I knew we’d find you!”

Beonna let out a cry of pain and beat against his chest. “Let me go! My wrist… it’s broken!”

Bewildered, he dropped her. She all but collapsed onto the deck, trembling and holding her wrist against her chest. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” 

Lumpolas darted past him. “You poor thing. Let me have a look at that.”

“No, we can’t stop here,” said Beonna through panting breath. “We have to keep moving and find the rest of the crew!”

But Aragunk and Lumpolas stopped short and looked at each other for a long, heavy second and then cast their eyes downwards. “Beonna, they… they’re all…” Lumpolas began, but faltered as a great sob overtook him. 

“What is it?” asked Beonna, her stomach sinking. “What happened?”

“There’s no one left but us!” cried Aragunk when his friend couldn’t bring himself to say it.

Beonna, stunned, stared at them both in uncomprehending shock. “You mean they escaped, right? They all got on a boat and left you here while they escaped?” Lumpolas only shook his head, his chest heaving with heavy sobs of grief. Beonna’s heart clenched. “What do you mean?” she asked, fighting back tears. “They’re not… they can’t all be… dead?” Her voice choked on the word. But the pain contorting their faces told Beonna that the thing she feared most was indeed true. A pit of unbelieving sorrow yawned open in her soul as she tried to understand how it could be possible. All of them dead? Grief threatened to swallow them whole. Beonna was about to demand answers from them when the sounds of heavy boots clomped on the balcony above them.

“We can’t talk here,” whispered Beonna, wiping her tears away. “We have to find somewhere to hide. Follow me!”

“Still bossy as ever,” joked Aragunk, trying to raise their spirits, but no one found it in themselves to laugh.

They crouched and followed her across the hold. Beonna couldn’t stop herself from glancing at the bodies on the floor. Surprise and relief flooded her not to recognize any of the Freedom Hawk’s crew among them. Darting between stacks of crates, they worked their way over to the doors leading out and slipped through.

They found themselves in the dry dock where the galleys were hauled aboard and stored. “This is where they captured a ship and tried to get away,” said Lumpolas, struggling not to sob, “before everything went wrong!”

Signs of pitched battle lay everywhere in the form of fallen Dagor soldiers, but two slave-galleys remained in the dock. Beonna ran to the boat farthest from the door. “Let’s get below. We can talk there. There might be some supplies we can use.” Lumpolas and Aragunk followed her up the gangway and down a hatch into an empty barracks belowdecks. Hammocks hung like cobwebs all around, and empty flagons and decks of cards lay scattered about beneath the low ceiling beams. The stale air reeked of mold. Just enough light leaked in to behold each other’s grief-torn faces.

They all started talking at the same time, peppering each other with questions about where they had been and how they had gotten there. But Beonna insisted on hearing their tale first and the sad fate of the crew of the Freedom Hawk.

Talking over each other, bickering, and contradicting one another so often that Beonna struggled to make sense of their winding tale, Lumpolas and Aragunk told her how they had been captured by the Oarni and sent by the mer-empress to attack the floating fortress. They at last came to the battle in the slave-hold of the fortress.

“So there he was,” said Aragunk, pointing at Lumpolas, “fumbling with the keys while those Dagor dogs surrounded us, when everything went dark—pitch black like we had landed down in a dwarf mine. Then a bright light flashed and we dropped to the ground. It was Gandalf—I’m sure of it! He did something to the guards coming in behind us with that flash and they all hit the ground moaning like someone had clubbed them over their ugly heads!”

“Whatever he did,” said Lumpolas, jumping in front of Aragunk, “it gave me time to get the blasted key to turn in the lock. That’s when Captain Yorlov stormed into the slave-hold.”

“That’s when the captain and I stormed into the hold,” said Aragunk, tapping his chest.

Lumpolas rolled his eyes. “Yes, and you too, Aragunk. But you never saw anyone fight like Captain Yorlov did! A tornado of fists and blades tearing through those slavers, cutting them down like a mad harvester in the autumn grain.”

“Aye, that’s just how it happened,” said Aragunk, with not a little pride in his voice. “Between the captain and me and our trusty swords, those slavers didn’t stand a chance!”

Lumpolas gave Beonna a wink. “Anyway, that’s when I started running around and unlocking the crew from those huge cranks. I think they’re used to power the fortress through the water. Everything runs on slave-power here.”

“She doesn’t care about the cranks or the fortress, Lump,” Aragunk blurted in. “She just wants to know what happened to the crew!”

“I know that, you big lumbering bull! I’m just trying to be thorough!”

Ignoring him, Aragunk took over the story. “The whole crew was up and ready to fight, but they were in bad shape after the way those slavers had treated them. But no matter—with me and the captain to lead them, courage ran high. We armed the crew with the dead Dagor’s weapons and came to look for you.”

“For me?” asked Beonna.

A blush of embarrassment flashed across Aragunk’s face. “Well yes, you, of course,” he sputtered, and quickly added, “and the Silmaril too, and the Dagor’s wormy commander. We came to storm the fortress and end everything all at once! And so we set off climbing to the upper decks, cutting down everyone we encountered. And then…” Aragunk fell silent.

“What? You were storming through the fortress. Then what happened?” asked Beonna.

After a heavy pause, Lumpolas looked down at his feet. “Well, it didn’t go quite as we had planned, Bee. We were outnumbered and, like Aragunk said, the crew stood in awful shape after being beaten and whipped half to death by those filthy slavers. Between the captain and Gandalf and—yes, you too, Aragunk—we made progress until we made it to that hold you found us in. But the Dagors were waiting for us with a room full of soldiers armed to their yellow teeth. We had no chance to fight them all and had to fall back.” Aragunk grumbled under his breath at that while Lumpolas continued. “The captain ordered everyone aboard one of these galleys while Gandalf used every trick he had to hold off the Dagor soldiers—flashing lights and bangs and balls of flame—you never saw anything like it! Meanwhile, they got the dock doors open, and the crew made it out onto the water, rowing a galley hard away from the fortress.”

“Okay,” said Beonna, puzzled. “But you were on board, too, right?”

Lumpolas shrugged. “Well, not exactly.”

Aragunk jumped back in. “We came here to rescue you too, Beonna, not just the crew. We couldn’t leave you behind! While Gandalf made his big ruckus, I grabbed Lumpolas and pulled him out of sight and told him we had to stay and find you. That’s when we saw… we saw what happened to the ship.”

They both fell silent, unwilling to carry on with the story. “Tell me what happened!” Beonna cried in exasperation when neither of them spoke.

Lumpolas finally piped up, staring at his boots. “We were terrified to be left behind, I can tell you. But we watched them get away through the bay doors. Then something like a big burning ball of iron smashed down on the ship from somewhere high up. It hit the galley with a BANG! The water all around began boiling, and right away, the galley started to sink. The crew was crying out and jumping overboard, right into the boiling sea while the ship went down. Aragunk and I couldn’t do anything but watch it sink with everyone aboard! The fortress was already on the move again and they were too far behind!” Lumpolas buried his face in his hands, tears splattering on the deck. “They were just crying out, Beonna! We could hear them and couldn’t do anything for them! Oh, it was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. The worst thing I’ll ever see!”

Beonna went numb. All gone? How could it be possible? Aragunk smacked his palm on the table, shaking his head with gritted teeth. 

After a long, quiet moment wrestling with their grief, Lumpolas at last brought his gaze to Beonna’s broken arm. “Here then, that’s enough of that. Let’s have a look at that arm.” He cradled her purple and blue wrist and looked it over, clucking his tongue. “Mmm, that’s a bad one, my dear. How did it happen? You can tell us while I get a few things ready to set it and to ease the pain.”

Beonna could hardly make herself recount her own tale, so much of it passed belief even as she told it. But both her friends encouraged her along as she described the tree of Inolduay and the battle of Ulmo’s temple. And how she had seen them at the bottom of the sea, imprisoned in a bubble with Gandalf, Yorlov, and Millen. But shame kept her from telling them about the false Millen and how she had been willing to let him die to save the Silmaril.

When she told them about Angor tearing the Silmaril from her hand despite the flaming agony, they both gazed at her in disbelief. “You mean, that evil fiend is up there,” asked Aragunk, pointing up, “just sitting there with his left hand on fire?”

Beonna nodded. “That’s what I’m telling you.”

“But how could anyone do that?” he asked, eyes wide. “How?”

“I tell you I saw it with my own eyes!” she said. “I saw it and I can still hardly believe it.”

Aragunk only shook his head while Lumpolas’s face turned white at the image in his mind. “How can we stop someone like that, Bee?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I truly don’t know. Before today, I didn’t think there was anybody stronger than my father. This Lord Angor though… he’s… he’s on a different level. He doesn’t care what it costs to do his master’s will. I almost have to admire him for that.”

“Faugh!” spat Aragunk, though his face betrayed obvious dread. “But you escaped, and that’s when you found us, right?”

She nodded while Lumpolas readied a splint along with some leafy herbs to dull the pain. “What are those?” she asked, noticing the glowing green pearls and the chains around their necks. “I’ve seen that light before.”

Aragunk grinned as he displayed his prize. “Aye, they are beautiful, aren’t they? A gift of the most royal monarch of the three seas, the mer-Empress Una of Oune.” A wistful, faraway gaze danced across his face as he spoke the name.

Beonna raised an amused eyebrow at him and leaned in to inspect the glowing pearl. “They look just like her eyes, that same green glow shining in the deeps, pale and warm.” 

Lumpolas removed his chain and handed it to her. “Aye, they do. She called them the Eyes of Ulmo. They were to remind us we weren’t alone even if we found ourselves in thickest gloom. But the truth be told, we don’t know what they are or what they do. I like to think that she can watch over us through them.” 

Beonna took it in her hand and, as she did, a soothing warmth began flowing through her arm and out into the rest of her weary body. Her broken wrist tingled, and she felt her herself relaxing like she was sinking into a warm healing bath. “No, we’re not alone here,” she said, her voice strange and distant. 

“I can’t imagine the gloom getting much thicker than the one we’re in right now,” Lumpolas said. “Didn’t think I’d ever wish to be back in that stinky fish-bubble with the others, but I do!” He had to stop himself from crying again. Wiping a tear away, he slapped his hands on his knees. “But we were about to do something for that arm, weren’t we? Now I’m sorry, Beonna, but this is going to hurt a bit. But if you chew on these two herbs, it will dull the pain some at least.”

“No,” said Beonna, her voice drifting far away now. “No, I don’t think it will hurt at all. Go ahead whenever you’re ready.”

Lumpolas’s eyes shot wide. “Whenever I’m ready? Bee, we know how brave you are, but you really should take the herbs.”

“No, it’ll be fine.” Then she sighed as though she might even fall asleep right there.

Lumpolas shot a nervous glance at Aragunk, who leaned close and snapped his fingers in her face. “Beonna, are you still with us?”

“Mmm hmmm,” she said from what sounded like somewhere else entirely. The pale green pearl in her hand pulsed and shined as she spoke.

Aragunk shrugged. “Well, go ahead, Lump.”

Lumpolas grimaced and took her broken arm. “Alright, on the count of three.” Beonna could have been sitting in a meadow full of flowers for all the worry she displayed. “One… Two… Three!” He yanked hard on her wrist and a disturbing—POP!—sounded that made Aragunk cringe. Lumpolas held his breath and waited for her scream and maybe even a fist to come lashing out at him. But nothing, not a cry, a whimper, or so much as a flinch, came from her as the bone snapped into its proper place.

Aragunk stood, gaping at her in amazement. “Frodo’s furry feet! That was mad!”

“I don’t understand,” said Lumpolas. “That should have been the most painful thing that’s ever happened to her.” He leaned in close. “Are you alright, Beonna?”

“Hmm? Yes,” she mumbled. “Go ahead. Whenever you’re ready.”

Lumpolas took her wrist again and looked it over, making sure he had set it properly. “It’s done, Bee. I already set it. Where were you?”

Her eyes slid open. “Oh, you did? That was kind of you. Thank you,” she murmured. “I was just remembering that beautiful underwater city and how nice it would be to visit again.”

“Beonna, you should have been screaming and crying and kicking when I set the bone.”

Then she blinked at Lumpolas like someone waking up from a dream. “Yes, you’re right! I should have. What happened?” 

“What happened?” Aragunk said, with laughter bubbling in his eyes. “Our gracious Lady took you by the hand and salved the pain away so Lumpolas could set your wrist. See? In truth, she is with us!”

Beonna raised the Eye of Ulmo and gazed into it with amazement. “Thank you,” she said, believing that Una could hear her. She handed the chain back to Lumpolas, who took it with awe and kissed it before hanging it back around his neck. “Maybe things aren’t so hopeless, if she’s with us,” he ventured.

“Not just her, but Inolduay too,” she said, holding up the jewel. She told them how he had appeared as an elven warrior to ward off the three evil witches. The jewel at her breast shone and the surrounding gloom receded. Along with the light from the two Eyes of Ulmo, the three of them felt hope rising in their hearts.

Lumpolas set about tying a splint on Beonna’s wrist while they figured out what to do next. “Gandalf said something about the Dagorim setting course for a place called Agoth Arn,” he said while he tied the last knot around her wrist. “He said that they had to get there to call Morgoth back from the realm of endless night.”

Aragunk nodded in excitement. “That’s right! That means they haven’t won yet. We can still stop them!”

Beonna held her splinted wrist and tried to flex her fingers. “Inolduay said something else in the tree. He told me they had to attempt it in three days at the island with the Silmaril or it wouldn’t work.”

“Then, if we stop them from getting there with the Silmaril in time, we can still save the world!” said Lumpolas.

 Aragunk slapped his hands together and plopped on a stool next to them. “Right! Okay, so how do we do that?”

Beonna rested her chin on the knuckles of her good hand. “Well, we have only two options: we can either steal the Silmaril back from Angor or we can prevent the fortress from getting to Agoth Arn in time.”

“Bully! Let’s go!” Aragunk said. “Just show me where that snake is and I’ll chop his flaming hand off to get the Silmaril back!”

Lumpolas stared at him. “Are you insane, Gunk? Didn’t you hear what Beonna just told us about that monster? He picked her up with one hand and broke her arm while his other hand was a blooming ball of fire! This is the same monster who called a vortex out of the ocean and bested the might of the Oarni with his dark power. He’s too strong for any of us to tackle head on!”

Beonna, seeing Aragunk gathering to launch into a raging argument, cut him off. “Wait! There was something else I saw before I found you two: a room where the Dagor sailors steer the fortress. They had some kind of globe, black, made of pure obsidian. They were using it to navigate, like a compass. If we stole it from them, maybe they would go off course and miss their window to bring back the Evil One.”

Lumpolas seized on her idea, trying to keep Aragunk from insisting on a suicidal assault on Angor. “Yes! Now that sounds like it might actually work. But how do we get up there without being seen?”

“Well,” said Aragunk, knocking on Lumpolas’s breastplate with his big knuckles, “you’re already wearing Dagor armor.”

Lumpolas’s eyes darted back and forth between them. “What? M-m-me?”

“Of course you, old friend! All you have to do is sneak up there with your elven sneakiness, slip into this steering room, bumble around like you’re serving tea or something, and make off with this obsidian globe.”

“Oh, just like that, huh? Walk in there with a tray and cups and say, ‘Here’s your tea, sirs. That’s it, drink it up. And do you mind if I borrow the fancy compass for a bit? I’ve lost my way back to the kitchens, you see.’ Is that it?”

“Yes! That sounds perfect!” said Aragunk, leaning against a post, hands behind his head. “I’m glad someone around here has the wits to figure this out for you two.”

“And what will you do?” Lumpolas asked. “Just sit here and wait for me to come running back with it?”

“Well, if you insist, Lump. And cook up some food for us before you go. I, for one, am absolutely starving!” Aragunk shot a wolfish stare at Lumpolas’s bag of goodies.

“How can you think of food at a time like this?”

Beonna groaned as their bickering started up again. “He can’t go alone,” she said, trying to head them off. “Lumpolas doesn’t know the way to the steering room. I’ll have to go with him to show him the way.”

“Beonna, you can’t go,” said Lumpolas. “Your wrist is still broken and they’re probably searching everywhere for you as we speak. You need to stay out of sight. You can draw me a map or something.”

But Beonna shook her head. “No, it’s no good. You can’t do this thing alone, Lump. None of us can. We have to stick together.”

Aragunk squinted at them both. “So, you’re saying the three of us have to sneak all the way up there, dodging roving patrols of armed soldiers and witches, and Eru knows what else, steal this globe right out from under their warty noses? And then what? Throw it into the sea and hope they steer the fortress off course?”

“Yes,” sighed Beonna. “That pretty much covers it.”

Aragunk smiled and clapped his mitts together. “Glorious! Count me in!”

“Wait,” said Lumpolas, clinging to the hope that he could talk them out of this mad mission. “We still need to find some armor for Aragunk. And even then, he and I might make it up there, but it will be hard to explain what you’re doing walking around with us.” Even Aragunk had to concede that point and set to scratching his head. 

Beonna sighed. “There is a way,” she said and then hung her head.

“What is it, Bee?” asked Lumpolas.

She spoke without looking up. “I am the daughter of Beorn, a skin-changer. Haven’t you wondered about that?”

Lumpolas leaned in closer. “I had been wondering about it.”

“Ooohh!” said Aragunk, growing more eager. “I get it! You can turn into a bear too! Why didn’t you say so a long time ago? Think what we’re going to do to them with an angry bear to help us! We’ll smash through these Dagor dogs faster than they’ll know what to do. They’ll be running for the closest window to jump out into the sea!”

Beonna lifted her gaze to the ceiling as a wave of embarrassment washed over her face. “No, it’s… it’s not quite like that.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter what kind of bear it is, does it?” said Aragunk. “If those cowards see any sort of bear roaming through the halls, they’ll run.”

But Beonna just stared at the floor, struggling with embarrassment.

“Bee, what is it?” asked Lumpolas, putting a hand on her arm. “Turning into a big scary bear is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Beonna’s eyes filled with frustration. “It’s not that! My father could turn into a mighty bear, ten feet tall with teeth as long as Aragunk’s fingers. My brothers too—all of them—though not as big or as fierce, but bears all the same. But me, the daughter of Beorn and princess of the North?” She broke off, shaking her head while tears brimmed up.

“What?” asked Aragunk, whose face was pure puzzlement. “Not a bear?”

“No!” Beonna cried.

“What then? A dragon?”

She shook her head.

“An eagle? A moose? No? How about a deer?”

But Beonna ground her teeth until at last she couldn’t stand it anymore. “No, no, no! None of those!” She took a deep breath and wiped her cheeks. “My brothers had a nickname for me. They liked to tease me with it.”

“What was it?” said Lumpolas, patting her arm. “You can tell us, Bee. We’re your friends.”

“They called me…” She heaved a heavy sigh. “Little mouse.”

The air hung heavy with awkward silence for a long minute, until Aragunk busted through it with a roaring laugh. “Ha ha ha! All your brothers can turn into big snarling bears and you… you can only turn into a mouse? Oh Bee, that’s just… that’s just… ha ha ha!”

Even soft-hearted Lumpolas couldn’t stop a sharp snort from escaping his nostrils. He slapped a hand over his giggling mouth, but he couldn’t hide his streaming tears.

“All right! All right! Now you know it!” Beonna snarled, crossing her arms in a huff. “I’m sorry I told you.”

Aragunk kept on slapping his thighs while, with supreme difficulty, Lumpolas swallowed his laughter and put his hand on her knee. “Oh Bee, don’t be like that. We mean nothing by it. It’s just… it’s not what we expected, that’s all.”

“Well, I’m sorry I can’t turn into some big slobbering monster for you! I know it’s what you all wanted!”

“No, Gunk is all the slobbering monster we can handle around here.”

“Hey, I don’t slobber!” protested Gunk, wiping spittle from his chin.

Lumpolas smacked himself in the forehead. “Wait, that’s how you snuck out of the hold back on the river without Ratskin seeing you!”

“As a mouse,” Aragunk butted in with a chuckle.

“Neat trick, Bee.”

“Anyway,” said Beonna, trying to press the conversation forwards, “I can guide you up to the bridge—”

“As a mouse,” Aragunk said with a snort.

Beonna glared at him. “As a mouse! That way, we can get up there together, steal this globe, and get away with it.”

“Sounds like a good plan, little rodent girl,” said Aragunk. “Now we just need to get you some cheese so you can keep your strength up. Lump must have some stored in that bottomless sack of his.”

“I do have a lovely sheep’s milk cheddar that I’ve been saving.”

Beonna glared and turned away in exasperation. “I knew I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“My friends,” said Lumpolas, “let’s go find some armor for this big, lumbering fool so we can get underway. Are you going to turn into a… a…” Lumpolas tried but couldn’t stop himself from snickering again.

“A mouse?” grumbled Beonna.

“Yes! Sorry. Will you be doing that now? I’d be happy to carry you here in my pocket.” At that, Aragunk busted out laughing and that made Lumpolas’s snickers bubble up again. “Sorry, Bee! So sorry!”

Beonna stood and turned away from them. “I can take care of myself, thank you. You two go get the armor and I’ll join you in a minute.”

“Wait, you’re not going to let us watch you change into a mouse?” asked Aragunk.

Beonna turned around with a death-stare leveled at him. “Aragunk, I wouldn’t let you see me change for all the gold in the five realms. I wouldn’t for anything in all of Middle-earth after the way you’ve behaved! Now go away! I’ll be with you in a minute.” With that, she spun and faced the cabin wall.

Aragunk gave her a grin and a shrug. “You heard her, Lump. Show’s over. Let’s go.” Leaving her to her privacy, they climbed back to the deck and peeped over the gunwale. They spied two fallen Dagors lying near the other docked galley and crept over to them. “It’s going to be a tight fit,” said Aragunk as he removed the greaves and gauntlets from one of them. “Neither of these two were as tall as me.”

“It’ll have to do, Gunk. Now please hurry. I can hear soldiers out in the cargo hold!”

With grunts and groans, Aragunk cobbled together most of a suit of Dagor armor on his large frame. The last touch was the helmet. “Uhhgg! It smells like rotten fish breath in this thing! No wonder these Dagors are in such a bad mood all the time.”

“Let’s go!” said Lumpolas. They climbed off the galley and looked around for Beonna. “Where is she?”

“Maybe a cat ate her,” Aragunk said with a chuckle. “I knew we shouldn’t have left her alone.” Then he felt a sharp nip in the back of his knee. “Oww!” A dark brown mouse leapt off his boot and scurried ahead of them. It stopped and stood up on its hind legs to squeak at them.

“I think she’s laughing at you, Gunk,” said Lumpolas with a grin.

“That hurt, you little rodent!” Aragunk growled. “You had better not have rabies!” The mouse did a little dancing spin and darted off for the cargo hold. Grumbling and rubbing the back of his knee while Lumpolas chuckled, Aragunk made his way to the door.

The hold lay as they had left it. Except now, a platoon of Dagor soldiers busied themselves stamping out the fires and piling the bodies of the fallen in the center of the deck. Beonna had already scurried behind a stack of crates, making her way along the walls back toward the stairs.

“How do we get past them?” Lumpolas whispered.

“We’re Dagors now,” Aragunk said. “We own this fortress. Let’s go.” He puffed himself up and strode right out into the hold while Lumpolas, surprised and dismayed, stumbled out behind him.

“Oy!” one soldier barked as they walked by. “Where’ve you two been hiding?”

“Yeah,” said another, plopping a body on the pile of carcasses. “You two been nipping at the galley stores, have you?”

Lumpolas struggled to come up with some sort of plausible excuse and started to stammer a reply. But Aragunk just snarled back at them, “Go blow it out your ear holes!” Then kept walking right on past them.

The rest of the soldiers stopped their labors. “What’d you say to me, you surly grunt?” asked the one who had spoken to them first, snagging Aragunk by the arm. “You better not have said what I think you said, you mewling whelp!”

Lumpolas almost died of fright right there. But to his horror, Aragunk spun around and grabbed the soldier by the collar and shook him about like a rag doll. “I said you can go blow it out your ear holes, and that’s what I meant, you putrid bag of worm-filth! If you’ve got a problem with that, then you can tell it to Gripsy here!” he barked, pointing at Lumpolas. “But you don’t want to do that because Gripsy’s in a terrible mood right now. Aren’t you, Gripsy?”

“I—I am?” stammered Lumpolas.

“See? You’ve got him so mad, he doesn’t even know how mad he is. The last time Gripsy was in a mood this rotten, he nearly beat the teeth out of me, he did!” The soldier’s eyes shot wide and darted over to Lumpolas. “He made me give him my rations for a week, and half my pay just to calm him back down. So you and the rest of you dogs keep your mouths shut and get this hold cleaned up, or Gripsy is going to make sure this pile of carcasses will be a little taller when he’s done with the lot of you!” With that, he tossed the stunned soldier back to his companions and marched off to the stairs. “Down, Gripsy! We’ve got better things to do than teach this rabble how to work.”

Lumpolas and the soldiers stood staring at each other across the piled bodies while Aragunk stomped up the steps. To Lumpolas’s surprise, they gazed at him with uncertainty. Lumpolas raised his arms and growled, taking half a step towards them. “Get back to work!” he bellowed in his most fearsome voice, and then darted to the stairs.

“That was reckless,” said Aragunk at the top. “What were you thinking?”

“Me? I’m not the one picking a fight with half a platoon of soldiers!”

Aragunk laughed and slapped him on the helmet. “Well done, friend Gripsy! We’ll make a hero out of you yet. Now let’s go, our little lady-mouse is squeaking for us to keep moving.”

With Beonna skittering ahead of them, they made their way through the dark corridors. Aragunk strode onwards while Lumpolas tip-toed after him. Whenever Dagor soldiers appeared, the little mouse would dart for cover and warn Lumpolas and Aragunk with a squeak. But no one stopped them or talked to them the rest of the way, so that hope blossomed in their hearts that they may actually accomplish this mad plan. 

At last, Beonna led them to the bridge of the fortress, stopping outside the low gate of the steering room. Aragunk and Lumpolas crouched and took turns peeking in. Two sailors stood on duty, both with their backs turned. Neither wore any armor. The black globe they sought sat mounted in the middle of the room, practically unguarded. Aragunk sighed for joy when he saw how easy this was going to be. Both Beonna and Lumpolas looked to him to take the lead here. He nodded with a sly grin growing over his face and whispered, “I’ll take care of those two, Lump. You get the compass and we’ll be gone. Got it?” Lumpolas gave him a jittery nod while Beonna, standing on her little hind legs, rubbed her paws together. “On three,” said Aragunk, raising his fingers. Lumpolas’s heart pounded so hard he wanted to plug his ears. “One… two…”

“Hey! You there!” a gruff voice called out from the corridor behind them. “What are you two doing down there? This is a restricted area!” Lumpolas almost fainted from shock.

But Aragunk popped right up and stepped towards the guard. “We’re here on maintenance detail, that’s all. Got a squeaky door here.” By this time, the sailors inside had turned to see what was happening. Beonna gave a squeak, trying to warn Aragunk not to continue. “There, you hear that squeaking?” he asked. “Been driving our poor pilots nuts.” Then, seeing the guard’s eyes drift over to the door, Aragunk lunged. He smashed the surprised guard in the nose with his forehead and finished him with an uppercut that dropped him to the deck. But before he could celebrate, one of the sailors in the bridge leapt to the alarm bell while the other snatched a cutlass off a wall-rack. In seconds, the sounds of stomping boots came rushing from behind.

“Run!” shouted Aragunk. He scooped up a squeaking-mad Beonna and barreled down the corridor with Lumpolas high-tailing behind. They turned a corner and ran for all they were worth as their pursuers closed on them. Aragunk led them on, having no idea where he was going, turning here, there, anywhere where he didn’t hear the sounds of boots. They reached a corridor where the shouts of angry soldiers echoed from before and behind.

“We’re trapped!” growled Aragunk. “Here, take her!” He handed Beonna, squirming and squeaking, to Lumpolas and unsheathed his sword. “I’ll take a few of them with us at least!”

Lumpolas, who wasn’t the least bit interested in taking any of the Dagorim anywhere with them, cast about for an escape. That was when Beonna squirmed loose in his grip and dropped next to a low grate in the wall and squeaked madly. “Brilliant, Bee!” Lumpolas whispered. Beonna chirped her approval as he yanked the grate free. “In here, Gunk, quick!”

It was a tight fit, but Lumpolas squeezed his round body into the open duct. But if it was tight for him, it was even worse for Aragunk, whose big frame was not meant for close spaces. With many grunts and curses, the young ranger managed to cram himself into the duct and wormed along behind Lumpolas. He in turn struggled to follow Beonna as she scampered on ahead. The heat was stifling and the air pressed heavy.

“This was a terrible idea,” grunted Aragunk as he inched forward on his elbows. “Tell Bee that this had better go somewhere. Somewhere wide open… with lots of cool fresh air!”

“Shhh!” said Lumpolas. “They’ll hear us!”

The hot, dark duct stretched on and on as they squeezed through. Fighting the panic bubbling in their hearts, they couldn’t think of anything but getting to the end of it, no matter what might wait for them. Slowly, though, with Lumpolas and Aragunk reaching the limit of their fraying endurance, the air in the duct grew cooler. Lumpolas noticed it first. Soon, Beonna came scampering back down the duct, cheeping and hopping, encouraging him to keep going. “The air,” he said back to Aragunk, “can you feel it? It’s getting cooler!”

“The only thing I can feel is my bloody, screaming elbows. Hurry up!”

“Courage, my friend, I see light ahead. I think this shaft leads outside!”

At last, they came to a grate that let cold air and gray daylight come streaming through. Beonna was there waiting for them, spinning in furry little circles. Lumpolas punched the grate loose and listened to it go clattering down the side of the fortress and into the sea far below. Beonna scurried outside ahead of Lumpolas as he poked his head out. “It’s all foggy out here.”

“I couldn’t give a donkey’s tail about the weather, Lump!”

“There’s a ledge about ten feet below us, but it’ll be tricky getting down there for you, Gunk.”

“Just go! Anything would be better than staying in this God-forsaken death-hole!”

With a deft flip and a twist, the pudgy elf exited the duct and scaled his way down to the narrow ledge. Beonna surprised him there, now restored to her full human form. “Oh, hello,” he said with a smile. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“I thought you might need a hand getting that lumbering bull down here.”

Aragunk was already hanging halfway out of the duct, reaching for a handhold just beyond his grasp. “Careful, Gunk,” said Lumpolas, “it’s a long drop to the sea from there!”

“You don’t have to remind me!” he yelled down. “Not to worry. We rangers are natural climbers. They say even a spider could learn something from a—” But he fell silent as his grip slipped and he began sliding down the wall.

“Grab him! Grab him!” Beonna shouted as Aragunk skidded head-first towards them. Lumpolas steeled himself for what he knew was going to be a futile attempt to catch his falling friend. He tried not to imagine plunging to his watery death below. But Aragunk shot a hand out and grabbed the edge of a porthole. While still gripping it, the rest of his body flipped over in a long slow arc through the air until he was right-side up. His back slammed against the fortress, jarring his grip on the porthole loose. With a resounding plop, Aragunk landed on his behind and found himself sitting on the ledge, safe and sound between his friends.

Lumpolas and Beonna gaped, speechless with amazement and shock to see him sitting there between them unharmed. But instead of cheering or celebrating, they both dropped and hugged him with all their might. “See? I told you we rangers are natural climbers,” said Aragunk when he had recovered his wits a little. 

Beonna pounded his shoulder over and over with her good hand. “You, Aragunk of Gondor, are the stupidest, bravest, stupidest, most infuriating boy I’ve ever met!”

“Promise me you won’t ever do anything like that again!” yelled Lumpolas.

Aragunk patted his elf friend on the head. “No promises.”

They sat there on the ledge huddled together for a long time, shivering in the cold fog enveloping the fortress. The waters below them churned black in the gray light. “Well, now what?” asked Aragunk. “How are we going to stop them from getting to their stinking island now? We didn’t get the compass and now we’re stuck out here!”

“Isn’t this what you wanted?” said Beonna. “A nice wide open space with lots of fresh cool air?”

Lumpolas squinted out into the fog. “I don’t think getting the compass would have stopped them from getting to Agoth Arn, my friends.”

“Why not?” asked Aragunk, trying to peer out where Lumpolas pointed. A huge dark form took shape in front of them.

“Because we’re already there!” cried Lumpolas as a towering ridge of jagged black rock came looming out of the fog above them.