The Last Ring-bearer - Kirill Yeskov [19]
"Our shadow is your shadow," repeated the other calmly. "So, in a way, you and us are now one. May I carry out your orders?"
**
There is not much to add. The Western Coalition army (joined by the turncoat Easterlings who were 'forgiven' by the victors) set out for its last campaign, the highlight of which was the March 23 mutiny of the Westfold Rohirrim and Lossarnach militiamen, who could not for the life of them understand why they had to die far from home for Aragorn's crown. Having ruthlessly put down the revolt, the Dúnadan brought his army to the Cormallen field at the entrance to Morannon, where he met the last defenders of Mordor; the latter had already exhausted its reserves, having invested them all in the South Army. The coalition won; that is to say, the men of Gondor, Rohan, and East simply piled the fastnesses of Morannon with their corpses. The Elves, as usual, joined the battle when it was already decided. The losses of the victors were so massive that a legend about a huge Army of the East had to be quickly invented. The Mordorians there died to a man, including King Sauron; the latter fought in the ranks of his Royal Mounted Guard in a captain's cloak, so his body was never identified. The chronicles of the Western countries mostly gloss over the Coalition's deeds after the victory, for the slaughter it carried out inside Mordor had been horrific even by the not-too-humanitarian standards of the time.
Be that as it may, Gandalf's plan had succeeded (if you don't count the small matter of the Mirror, which the Elves had no intention of returning): the Mordorian civilization had ceased to exist. However, the wizards of the White Council had somehow forgotten one factor: namely, that there is a certain Someone in the world Who rather abhors complete victories and assorted 'final solutions,' and is capable of showing His displeasure with same in unimaginably startling ways. Even now, that Someone was dispassionately surveying the vanquished – all that flotsam cast ashore by the passed storm – when suddenly He rested His gaze upon two soldiers of the extinct South Army among the dunes of the desert of Mordor.
Chapter 10
Mordor, the Teshgol boundary
April 9, 3019
"So why not wait until nightfall?" Haladdin whispered.
"Because if this really is a trap and the guys who set it are not total idiots, they'll expect company by evening. What does the Field Manual teach us, doctor?" Tzerlag raised a finger. "Right – do the opposite of what the foe expects. So, don't move until my signal, and if I'm lost, may the One preserve me, even more so. Clear?"
He cast another look at the camp and muttered: "Damn, I don't like this picture."
The Teshgol boundary consisted of fixed sands dotted with fairly thick copses of white saxaul in shallow depressions between small hillocks covered with desert serge and sacaton. The camp consisted of three yurts pitched in a triangle, with entrances facing in, in a small wind-protected hollow about hundred and fifty yards from their hideout, so everything in it was clearly visible. Tzerlag has watched it for an hour, detecting no suspicious movements; however, there were no non-suspicious movements, either, the camp looked deserted. This was very strange, but it was time to make some move.
A minute later Haladdin, holding his breath, watched the scout in his brown cloak fairly ooze along the barely discernible creases in the ground. He was right, of course: the only thing a field medic could do to help was to not bother a professional. True, but it is not very pleasant to sit in the relative safety of a hideout when your comrade is risking his life a few steps away. He scanned the horizon once again and then discovered, to his amazement, that meanwhile the sergeant has vanished. Nuts! One could almost believe that the scout had turned into an agama lizard and sank into the sand, the way they can; or, more appropriately, was now slithering along as a deadly saw-scaled