to love someone else

Chapter 48: spirits

''I do not fear death,'' said Aragorn as he stepped in, entering the mountain. Legolas followed and Aerin walked right behind him. Gimli was last to enter, and Aerin could hear his muttering behind her.

''Well this is something unheard of! An elf and a elleth will go underground, where a Dwarf dare not! Ah, I'd never hear the end of it!'' The path was dark, and the air stank horribly. Aerin felt the evil that dwelled in the mountains in her very bones. There were skulls scattered everywhere around. She'd seen my fair share of corpses and deaths but this - the amount of human remains everywhere around - was just sickening. Legolas suddenly quickened his pace and looked forward and Aerin instinctively asked, ''What is it?'' He didn't linger with his response, ''I see shapes of men and of horses.''

''Where?'' asked Gimli. ''Pale banners like shreds of cloud. Spears rise like winter-thickets through a shroud of mist. The dead are following. They have been summoned.''

''The Dead? Summoned? I knew that. Very good. Very good. Legolas!'' Gimli ran up after them. As they went further, piles of skulls and other remains seemed to grow larger. Shapes of arms are surround Legolas and Aragorn, who brush them aside. Gimli puffs at the ghosts around him. Aerin tried her best not to look, not to let it get to her. ''Do not look down,'' Aragorn advised. Gimli stops at a snapping sound under his feet. He looks down and sees hundreds of skulls. Every step he takes lets a crackling out.

It wasn't long before Aerin started questioning her own sanity. Ghostly shapes of arms started stretching out of nowhere, reaching toward her, and when she tried to cut those down, they'd dissipate as if made of mist. I'm imagining things, she'd think to myself, It's just a little bit of mist. One put its arm around her neck and she squealed and clung onto Legolas, who looked shocked then realising what she did she let go and trailed on forwards. 

The clearing looked like a grand hall of a sort, and a large doorway stood on the mountain wall opposite of us. It was empty, but soon Aerin could feel a presence of somebody else, and that feeling grew stronger with each second until a voice could be heard, and it addressed them. They were not alone.

''Who enters my domain?'' the voice asked, faceless for a while. It was a few moments of anticipation before a skeleton-like ghost with a crown on his head appeared. The King of the Dead. Aerin stepped back instinctively. ''One who will have your allegiance,'' answered Aragorn. ''The dead do not suffer the living to pass.'' The King laughs and a dead city appears. ''You will suffer me!'' insisted Aragorn, but the ghost laughed, maliciously. Aerin was sure she was staring with eyes as wide open as they can get. A ghost-city was definitely something she hadn't even imagined to see. Buildings of all shapes and sizes, bridges in the distance - all that once was or could have been. Shapes of dead soldiers started walking out, coming closer and closer and closer and closer... Until they encircled them completely. But Aerin did not want to die there. She did not want to spend any minute longer there. ''The way is shut. It was made by those who are dead. And the dead keep it,'' spoke the Dead King again, ''The way is shut. Now you must die.''

''I summon you to fulfill your oath,'' insisted Aragorn, not stepping away one bit. ''Aragorn,'' Aerin called, wanting to tell him they should leave now, that they must leave, run for their lives, but she couldn't seem to utter a thing beside his name. ''None but the King of Gondor may command me!'' exclaimed the Dead King before he swang his sword at Aragorn, and Aerein thought that was it. What can one do against a ghost sword?

But Aragorn stopped the blow with the Sword of Elendil, to everyone's surprise, it seemed. The King of the Dead fell aback in shock and disbelief, and all the other ghosts in his army moved restlessly. Neither Gimli, nor Legolas, nor Aerin had expected that either. They didn't know what they were expecting, but this certainly never occurred to them. ''That bind was broken!'' insisted the King. Aragorn shoves back the ghost, ''It has been remade. Fight for us, and regain your honour. What say you?'' Aragorn asked,  surveying the dead soldiers. giving each of the ghostly faces a look, ''What say you?!'' 

''You waste your time, Aragorn! They had no honour in life, they have none now in death,'' said Gimli. ''Everyone can repent,'' Aerin said, trying to help, trying to do something - anything, ''Redeem themselves. There is always another chance to regain honour.''

''Honour!'' Gimli insisted in disbelief. ''I am Isildur's heir. Fight for me and I will hold your oaths fulfilled! What say you?!'' Aragorn asked again. ''Aragorn...'' Aerin called, but it was barely above a whisper. Her heart was still beating fast and it was starting to leave her a bit breathless. The King of the Dead smirks then laughs as his army begins to fade. "You have my word! Fight, and I will release you from this living death! What say you?" Aragorn shouts as he drew his sword. ''Stand, you traitors!'' Gimli exclaimed in anger.

The ground shakes. Skulls roll on the floor. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli turn to the breaking doorway to see thousands of skulls flowing out of it. Aerin just stood there, as if her feet were completely paralyzed.  "Out!" Aragorn shouted again. They run, but are nearly swept away by the skulls. "Aerin! Run!" The four of them fight their way through the sea of skulls and escapes to the outdoors to see broad daylight again. Emerging from the doorway in the mountainside, Aragorn sees the black ships and the cities they have sacked. "We've failed.." He cried as the others looked towards the ships too. Suddenly they hear a sound behind them and they frantically turn around, showing their swords. The King of the Dead appears before the heir to the Gondorian throne.

 "We fight!"