The Last Ring-bearer - Kirill Yeskov [41]
"Thank you."
"Not at all, she's in her rightful place. Listen, Haladdin, I think I've scared you too much with all this talk. Don't look so downcast! Please summon your healthy cynicism and look at this business as a purely scientific, theoretical challenge. A mental exercise, you know – putting together a puzzle."
"You should know," Haladdin responded gloomily, "that a scientist won't lift a finger until he's certain that he has all pieces of the puzzle and that it actually has a solution. Searching a dark room for a black cat that's not even there is not for us, that's philosophers' business."
"I can reassure you that there definitely is a cat in our dark room, the problem is how to catch it. Here, then, is the puzzle. Given: a large magical crystal, code name 'Mirror,' located smack in the middle of the Enchanted Forest, in Lórien, at Elf Queen Galadriel's. Problem: to destroy said crystal. Care to give it a try?"
"Parameters of this crystal?" Haladdin joined the game without much desire.
"Ask away!"
"Eh… Well, to begin with: shape, size, weight?"
"It is shaped like a lens. Dimensions: one-and-a-half yards in diameter and a foot thick. Weight: about a thousand pounds, not for one man to lift. Besides, it mostly likely has a metal setting."
"All right… Mechanical strength?"
"Absolute, just like that of the palantíri."
"What do you mean – 'absolute'?"
"I mean literally absolute – impossible to break."
"Whoa! Then how?.."
"This information," the nazgúl's voice was suddenly metallic and officer-like, "is already in your possession, so please work your memory."
Damn, just what I need… get lost, willya? Wait, what was that he'd said about the Mirror and the palantíri?
"The Mirror and the palantíri arose as product of separation of the Eternal Fire, so the same Fire would destroy them, right?"
"Bravo, Haladdin! Precisely so, and in no other manner."
"Wait a second, where am I supposed to obtain this Eternal Fire?"
"The entire Orodruin is at your service."
"Are you kidding? Where's Orodruin and where's Lórien?"
Sharya-Rana spread his hands: "This is precisely your riddle."
Haladdin shook his head. "Yeah, no joke… So: one, sneak into the Elvish capital; two, charm their queen; three, steal a thousand-pound medallion; four, drag it to Orodruin… all right, I won't count lugging it up to the crater as a separate task… and I have how long to do all that?"
"Three months," the nazgúl said drily. "A hundred days, to be precise. If you're not done by the first of August, you can wind up the operation – it won't help anyone any more."
To appease his conscience, Haladdin had actually tried solving the riddle, wracking his mind for two or three minutes – no way, no how! – and finally asked in relief: "All right, SharyaRana, I give up. What's your solution?"
"I don't have one," the other replied calmly, turned what used to be a face towards the stars and muttered with a strange sadness: "How time flies… less than an hour left…"
"What do you mean, you don't have one?" Haladdin finally managed to get out. "Didn't you say that there is a solution?"
"True, there is, but I don't know what it is. Even if I knew, I would not have been able to divulge it to you, as that would immediately doom the entire enterprise. The rules of this game stipulate that you have to travel this road all by yourself. This doesn't mean that you have to go it alone; you're free to accept any technical help from other people at your discretion, but all the decisions have to be yours alone. As for myself, I stand ready to provide any information that can be useful in your mission, but no concrete hints; consider me a sort of an Encyclopedia of Arda, but bear in mind that you have less than an hour."
"Any information?" Curiosity overcame all his other feelings.
"Any non-magical information," the nazgúl corrected. "Anything your heart desires: mithril technology, Elvish dynasties, the Ring of Power, Mordor's sleeper agents in Minas Tirith and Umbar – ask away, Haladdin."