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“Finally you arrived, Frodo”, said Saruman. His voice was different
from before. There was nothing in it from the bad tune, which Aragorn
has hated so much. Saruman seemed just serious. Maybe, Aragorn thought,
he just has played with us.
Frodo tried to answer, but he couldn’t. He was blind, even though he
turned his head in the direction of Saruman. Blood flew over his destroyed
face.
“Don’t torture him anymore, I beg you”, said Aragorn. Saruman looked
up, his eyes were like flames.
“Torture?” he asked. “Why do you think that, my king? It’s the opposite
– I owe him”, said Saruman. “He has brought to me the ring. I never
could have brought it here. And now, give it to me!”
Frodo began to shake. His mouth opened, but all, what came over his
lips, was something inunderstandable.
“Give him the ring, Frodo”, said Aragorn. “There is nothing that we
can do now.” He waited, until Frodo had obeyed and had brought Saruman
the golden ring. Then he went nearer to Saruman. Frodo fell to the ground
and died finally. Aragorn didn’t even notice it. “What happens now”,
he said quietly, “only concerns us two. Isn’t it true, Saruman?”
Saruman nodded and put the ring on his finger and pointed at Aragorn.
Aragorn touched the ring and in the same moment, when his hand touched
the hot, fiery met-all of the ring, the world was gone.
The mountain was as old as the world. His foundings were at the beginning
of life. His peak touched the sky und his roots went down to the deepest
parts of the world, to the heart of the world. The mountain was Mordor
and Mordor was the mountain. He wasn’t a god, because he was existed
forever and gods are also mortals like us. And he will exist, when all
live has gone. He was the heart of Mordor.
“Since when do you know?” asked Saruman quietly. He whispered; but even
then his voice was reflected in the gray emptiness around them; echos
from a world which didn’t exist at this place.
They were now truly here, Aragorn realized. “I don’t know” he answered
after a while. Hours? Years? What meant time in such a place?
“I don’t know anything. I just think that I know.” He lookded up, looked
at Saruman and could feel nothing than grief.
He just thought that he knew, but he didn’t.
But Saruman believed that he knew and in reality he didn’t know anything.
“Why did you do this?” he asked.
“Why?” Saruman answered “I thought, you knew. Power. The only thing
that counts. Everything which ever has interested me was power. Do you
want to hate me be-cause of this?”
“No” Aragorn answered and it was the truth. This wasn’t a place in which
you could lie. “Not because of this. It is in your nature to do so.
I can’t hate you because of something you are, Saruman. But wasn’t it
possible to prevent the death of so much innocent people? It was from
the beginning a matter between us two. Between me and you.”
“You never had given me the ring freely, you know that” said Saruman.
“You are the king of Gondor. It is the duty of your family to protect
the ring.”
“And you really believe, it is in my power to protect it? You think,
there is any danger for it?” Aragorn said and pointed at the ring. There
was a crack in the ground in front of them, gray smoke arose from it.
For a moment he thought to see a face in it.
“Are you so stupid, Saruman” he said “You want it for yourself? Take
it, if you can! Declare its power for yourself!”
Saruman stared at Aragorn. For just a moment, Aragorn could see in Sarumans
eyes that he wasn’t sure of himself. But just for a moment. “You know
the prophecies” said Saruman and took his hand back. “Who takes the
ring, declares it for himself and has the power over the protecter of
the ring is its master and has its powers.”
“What do you think that you will receive from it?” asked Aragorn.
“What I think, I will receive?” Saruman smiled greedy “Power, you fool.
I will live for-ever and will have the power over the entire world and
all the creatures in it. I will have all knowledge which every human,
elve, dwarf or halfling ever had. You and the others, you have had your
chance and have lost. I will take the chance. I will be a god for ever!”
“When this is, what you want, then go to the cracks of Mount Doom and
declare the ring for yourself” said Aragorn calm.
Saruman hesitated, but then he turned to the mountain and went up the
mountain. Aragorn looked at him, until Saruman disappeared in a gray
mist. Then Aragorn turned around and sat on a stone.
Time passed by. Perhaps outside of this place of infinity Saruman allready
conquered the world with his armies of Uruk-hais. He wasn’t interested
anymore. Now he really had found his heritage and became for one moment
the protecter of the ring. And now he had realized, what this heritage
really meant. It was a curse. “You and the others, you have had your
chance” Saruman had said. Perhaps this was so.
Did they really have a chance?
Somehow Aragorn thought that Saruman had spoken true. It wasn’t Gondor
which was lost. It wasn’t his kingdom which has burned down. It would
grow again and will be green again, like a phoenix from the ashes would
it rise, like it did everytime. Eve-rytime when there was the birth
of a new time. And the birth of a new time was al-ways brutal and bloody,
like every birth. Perhaps someone would even rebuild Minas Tirith. But
it wouldn’t be an elve, dwarf or one of the dunedain. Saruman had spoken
true, never again would the dunedain rise. Oh, the dunedain will exist
for a long time, but they will be replaced by other people, by other
humans.
A long time later the shadows moved in front of him and a man with white
hair ap-peared. Aragorn smiled a little, as he recognised Gandalf.
“Did he arrive allready?” asked Aragorn. “Not yet” answered Gandalf,
“but he will ar-rive in time. The way to ultimate power is long. But
he’ll manage. He is strong, much stronger than anyone before him, he
was the strongest. He will life for ever, and infin-ity doesn’t allow
feelings like pride and hunger for power. He will be one with the ring,
when time goes on.”
“What is he now? Is he a god?” asked Aragorn. “No, I don’t think so.
Something like god, but not quite like him. He is a mortal who has become
immortal and very power-ful”, answered Gandalf.
“One day, we will meet again, Gandalf, but until then this is goodbye”,
said Aragorn. “What will you do?” asked Gandalf.
“I don’t know. The world is big. Perhaps I will go and look for a place,
in where there is a need for a king” answered Aragorn.
“Will you rebuild Minas Tirith?”
Aragorn thought about this, but then he said: “No, it wouldn’t be the
right thing to do. You know that the protecter and guardian can only
once have the job. Do you al-ready have chosen a next one?”
“Yes” said Gandalf, “And it won’t surprise you, I think. You know, who
it is.”
Aragorn nodded. “I really have thought for a moment, why they did join
forces in our fight.”
“Perhaps because it wasn’s just only your fight, it was also theirs”
Gandalf said. Then he rised his arm, smiled and went back into the gray
mist from which he came. But for a brief moment, Aragorn thought to
see a person in the mist. The person was a rider of Rohan with a white
horse on his shield. Oh yes, they would be the new rulers of Gondor,
they would rebuild Minas Tirith in time. But not now and not in some
hun-dred years this would happen. Perhaps by then they wouldn’t even
be the rohirrim anymore. But he knew that the world would belong to
lesser kinds of humanity and the time of the dunedain was gone.