Lord Torthadir, Captain of Gondor, the Lord of Tumladen and the chief of the Rangers of Ithilien was a grim-looking man with an immaculate style. All his clothes were tremendously expensive and always perfectly clean and tidy, his ornate armor and weapons elaborately decorated and polished. Clothes made a man, Torthadir was in a habit of explaining to his wife, who had listened to his self-aggrandizement for a quarter of a century already. There had been a time when Torthadir’s wife had despised her husband, but nowadays she had grown too numb and apathetic to feel or do anything but listen.
It was an afternoon in Minas Tirith. The Great Guest-house of Minas Tirith had been designed to arouse reverence and awe in the few guests who could afford to stay there. The rooms and halls and corridors were huge and they all exuded power, influence and ancient tradition.
Lord Falaben, the Lord of Ethir Anduin, sat in a high-backed chair across from Lord Torthadir. The chair was hundreds of years old and unfathomably expensive. Age had not ruined Lord Falaben’s proportionate physique either. His hair was long, thick and silvery gray, and his elegant smile emphasized his vigorous bearing.
”It has been a most pleasant afternoon”, said Lord Torthadir. ”We shall surely not be displeased with the results.” He reached for his goblet of wine and tasted it again. It was the best wine he had ever tasted, the best wine in all of Gondor, reserved only for Steward Denethor and his most prestigious guests. Only elven-make wine was superior to it.
”Surely not”, Lord Falaben agreed. ”Things are developing quickly now.”
”As I have already said”, Torthadir said, using the exact same tone he always used when he praised himself to his wife, ”I greatly appreciate this opportunity to…”
”And I appreciate your involvement”, Falaben interrupted, somewhat impatient. ”And Denethor’s blessings. A toast for becoming the richest men in Gondor!”
”And for the glory of Gondor!” Torthadir added.
”Yes, that too”, Falaben said, a little irritated by Torthadir’s patriotic sentiments.
The arrangement between Torthadir and Falaben had begun about a year earlier, when Torthadir had – upon visiting Ethir Anduin – found out that Falaben had been trading with the Haradrim south of Gondor for years. It was, strictly speaking, a treason. Harondor had suffered from drought and famine for years, and Falaben had recognised an opportunity to make money. The Haradrim had a lot of gold from the plentiful mines in Near Harad, but one could not eat gold. Harondor was suffering badly from famine because of the drought and the tithes the Haradrim had to pay to Mordor. Ethir Anduin was rich with food – especially fish – that could be salted or smoked or otherwise preserved, more fish they could ever eat in Ethir Anduin. The Haradrim were allies to Mordor, and trading with the enemy was strictly forbidden by the laws of Gondor, but Lord Falaben had arranged an unofficial network for trading salted and smoked fish for Haradrim gold years ago. Falaben had grown a very rich man because of that arrangement.
Torthadir had uncovered the arrangement a year earlier while visiting Ethir Anduin. His first instinct had been to turn Falaben in to Denethor and end his treasonous dealings with the enemy for good, but Torthadir, an economically-minded man who had just been granted the title of Captain of Gondor and the chiefdom of the Rangers of Ithilien, had seen an opportunity there. Unlike Falaben, who only cared about money and his own well-being, Torthadir was a patriotic man who cared deeply for Gondor's future. Torthadir was also a shrewd man who immediately recognized how Falaben’s arrangement could be used for Gondor’s benefit and against Sauron. The mutual benefit from economic ties with the Haradrim would not only enrich both Gondor and Harad, but in the long term the economic dependence between Gondor and Harad would also create a wedge between Mordor and Harad. Eventually it might even cause the Haradrim to secede from their alliance with Mordor and become Gondor’s allies instead. The arrangement with the Haradrim could be built up to include all the surplus food of Gondor, not just the fish of Ethir Anduin, using the network of trusted individuals Falaben had already created.
Of course the plan would have to be approved by Denethor himself, Torthadir had thought, or it would not be the right thing to do at all. One night Torthadir had confronted Falaben and told him that he knew about his arrangement with the Haradrim, and presented his own plan for Falaben to survive the situation. Falaben had not been enthusiastic about letting Denethor know about his treasonous dealings with the Haradrim, but had soon realized that agreeing with Torthadir’s plan was the only option he had left.
Denethor did not like Torthadir’s suggestion initially, but the Steward of Gondor had been looking into the Palantír for years and grown more desperate with each passing year. At this point Denethor was convinced that the inevitable war between Gondor and Mordor would take place within his lifetime, that Gondor would lose the war and that after the fall of Gondor all of the Free Peoples would fall under the shadow. At this point Denethor was ready to clutch any straw available to delay this inescapable doom. So in the end he had, reluctantly, agreed to Torthadir’s plan, on the condition that it had to remain a secret. Gondor could not officially be seen trading with the enemy, and if caught, the culprits would be executed by the laws of Gondor.
Torthadir had agreed to this. Of course it worked the other way around as well. The rulers of Harad could not know of the arrangement either, because Sauron would surely have them executed and replaced if he found out the Haradrim were trading with the enemy. The arrangement was between unofficial, trusted individuals in Gondor and similarly shady traders in Harondor, and everything happened in secret. Torthadir had made arrangements to have all the preservable surplus food in Gondor transported to Ethir Anduin, Falaben had used his connections to trade it to the Haradrim, and both Torthadir and Falaben had benefited greatly from the arrangement. Torthadir had shared the wealth with his Rangers of Ithilien, who had not been in need of anything after the secret arrangement. They had provided so much food for the Haradrim that Torthadir was amazed they still seemed to suffer from the famine.
Today the two lords had dined together shortly after noon and then returned to Falaben’s room to discuss further details of the scheme. Both men knew that there were powerful people in Gondor who would have opposed the arrangement had they known of it’s existence.
Torthadir was one of the closest men to Denethor. He was a husband to Terenis, Denethor’s sister, and he had personally vouched for Falaben and the wisdom of the arrangement with the Haradrim. He never got tired of telling his wife how he had taken the sole responsibility for Falaben and his network, now his network, and how he would eventually be known as the hero who saved Gondor and indeed all the Free Peoples of the Middle-Earth from Sauron's clutches. His wife would listen to his self-congratulations quietly, but never comment in any way.
Falaben thought Torthadir was an insufferable fool. Of course Sauron had to find out about this ’ingenious plan’ sooner or later. And the fact that Falaben had not heard about mass executions in Harad yet was because Sauron had found a way to convert the plan to serve his own purposes. Sauron’s emissaries in Minas Tirith had already approached Falaben about it. They had told him about Romenstar and what Sauron did not want Torthadir or Denethor to know. Falaben had agreed to Sauron’s wishes because he was in many ways much smarter than Torthadir. Smarter, and much more interested in his own survival and self-interest than the ”glory of Gondor” or other such nonsense.
”Lord Falaben.” A servant had appeared at the door and nodded, holding a scrolled parchment in his hand. ”A message for you.”
”Give it to me”, Falaben said, reaching out his hand. The servant gave him the scrolled parchment and Falaben opened it.
Lord Falaben,
the deed has been done. Romenstar is dead. I committed the deed personally and I assure you that the wizard is dead.
However, there has been some complications. For starters, Romenstar’s body is missing. I stabbed him in the Hall of the Gentle Hand while he was talking to a large crowd of people. That caused panic and confusion, which was my plan, but it seems like somebody used the opportunity to take the body out of the Hall or hide it somewhere for some reason. I assure you again that nobody could have survived the wounds I gave him, and nobody has seen Romenstar ever since. He is surely dead, but his body is missing.
Unfortunately that is not all. Pengtaurion has gone missing as well. It happened the previous night, when we were supposed to kill the woman and Parthadan’s spy. Pengtaurion and Erhandîr chased the spook under a bridge, when the guards spotted Erhandîr and arrested him. He spent the night in a jail, but Pengtaurion went missing, and so did Parthadan’s spy. We looked, but couldn’t find a sign of either. And the woman, Radawen, has gone missing as well. She is not in the guesthouse and we have not been able to locate her either. We will continue with our work to tie up all the loose ends and get rid of these problems.
In your service,
Torndollben
Falaben frowned after reading the message. Torthadir noticed it and asked:
”What is it? Everything all right?”
”Nothing for you to worry about”, Falaben lied. ”Just some business. Say… I did ask for you to have the Rangers and other spooks pulled out of Imloth Melui, didn’t I?”
”Of course! An I did. I asked Bordir to take care of it. The matter has been handled. Well, as a matter of fact there is someone there I’m not so sure about. Parthadan, the Warden of the Green, also sent a man down there. We have asked Parthadan to pull his man out of there as well, but Parthadan and his minions have always been difficult to control, so…”
”What?”
”Well, we can’t know for sure.” Torthadir smiled, feeling uncomfortable now. ”That Parthadan is a pest”, he chuckled. ”But his men are of no concern. They have no significance. The last I talked to Parthadan, he said there had been a problem.”
”A what?”
”A small problem with communications. Parthadan said…”
”So there is someone out there? Someone out there spying for Denethor?”
”Could be. I mean, Parthadan said there had been a problem with communications. Falaben, is there a problem?”
Falaben calmed himself down. ”No problem. Not really. But I’m sure you understand that at this point it wouldn’t be good for the either of us if our little venture was compromised.”
”Of course, Falaben, I understand completely”, Torthadir said. ”But this venture has the blessing of Denethor himself. So if either he or Parthadan has someone out there, anything they find out won’t come back to bite us. It’s all for the glory of Gondor, after all!”
”If you say so.”
What a fool, Falaben thought.
