Shadow of Mordor - The Novel

Chapter One - The Slaver

Talion looked over the edge of the tower, calculating the jump to the rocky ground below. It was around 100 feet from where the ranger stood to the ground. Before he knew what was happening, he flew over the edge, flipping once before hitting the ground with a knee. Five Uruks stood nearby, whirling around to investigate the loud impact.

 "So, we missed one of you at Narchost eh? An easy mistake to fix!" One of the Uruks snarled.

Talion yelled at the Uruks, "You will suffer for what you've done!"

His expression was stony as he reached for his sword, when he stopped, looking at his left hand. The scar on Talion's left hand pulsed with a blue light, and a ghostly shortbow appeared in his hand. As the Ranger aimed the bow, time slowed and the Uruks glowed with a blue light. One by one, Talion drew back the bowstring and let an arrow fly, picking off the five Uruks like the maggots they were. Talion let his arm down, and the world returned to normal.

Talion smiled slightly, but his faint hint of a good mood was dashed on the rocks when an Uruk grabbed him from behind. Talion burst free from the hold, only to get thrown against a nearby wall and slugged in the gut. He blocked another punch from the large Uruk, but before he understood, he placed a hand on the enemy's face, and his hand burned with a blue flame, searing the Uruk's flesh and stunning him. Talion stumbled backwards, clutching his left hand, a feeling mixed between awe and terror flowing through him. The Wraith appeared next to the Ranger, and said, "Go back to him." The Uruk lay on his hands and knees, seeing stars from the burn. Talion grabbed him, knife to his neck, then forced him to his knees and pressed his left hand to the Orc's flesh once more. "What do you know of the Black Hand of Sauron?" The Wraith demanded of the terrified Uruk. "He... is a fiend! Made of thin air!" "What more?" The Wraith insisted. "A slave I 'ad, SWEARS he fought 'im! I sold him... for a keg of grog... to Gimub the Slaver!" Talion saw the Uruk's mind. He saw the slaver. He saw the spiked head-cage. He saw the wicked cleaver. Gimub was an ugly bastard, a snarl twisting his lips and a flat nose dominating his face. The Wraith lifted his hand from the Uruk's face, and the terrified Orc blinked the blue flame away, screamed in terror and ran as fast as his legs would carry him.

"That is where we must go." The Wraith told Talion. "If one can trust an Orc..." Talion said. "Trust has nothing to do with it. His thoughts cannot lie."

 Talion thought for a moment, then nodded and headed to Gimub. It took the experienced Ranger no time at all to get to the Slaver's encampment, and when he did, what he saw made a knot form in his stomach. A rogue slave who had tried to escape was being beaten down by Orcs, who then dragged his unconscious body away.

 "Don't you see? The slave provided a distraction..." The Wraith spoke in Talions ear. "Why use your human sight to track the Uruk? I see more than any mortal."

Talion closed his eyes for a moment, then, when he opened his eyes, the world was gone. Instead, he saw a black, whirling earth, with glowing blue figures dotted around him. Upon closer inspection, he realized these figures were Uruks, and that he could see through walls and obstacles to pinpoint the location of these Orc filth. "Slay the Orc Captain. Cut off the head of the snake, and the body will wither," The Wraith's voice sounded in Talion's mind. Archers. I must take out the eyes of the camp. Talion thought. One by one, Talion silently dispatched the Orc archers, until, when it came time to kill the final one, Talion had climbed halfway across the rope when he was spotted. The Uruk stupidly raised his crossbow, but an arrow whistled through the air and thudded into the Orc's forehead. His jaw dropped, and in the moment before death, he reached up to feel the projectile, then collapsed. Talion released the focus he had been holding, and the ethereal bow disappeared from his grasp.