The Lady of Rivendell

Chapter 21

She made her way to the causeway door, Aragorn in front of her as he conversed with the king.

"How long do you need?" he roared at the king as he stabbed back at the Orcs that tried to break through the wooden door.

"As long as you can give me," the wounded king responded as he gripped his sword and Aragorn nodded.

"Gimli!" he called as the Dwarf followed and Allora did too as she pushed her way through the crowd.

The three of them snuck through a secret door just out of sight of the causeway as they crept around the edge of the stone tower, their backs flush against the stone as Aragorn dared peak at the Orcs that attacked.

"Oh, come on. We can take them!" Gimli urged before Aragorn gave him a look.

"It's a long way," he said, and Gimli's face fell.

"Toss me," he muttered.

"What?" Aragorn asked with the slightest turn of his head.

"I cannot jump the distance! You'll have to toss me!"

And Aragorn nodded as he went to grab the Dwarf who stammered a second. "Don't tell the Elf," he pleaded.

"Not a word," Aragorn swore and Allora rolled her eyes impatiently.

"You forget the company you children keep," Allora snarled before she pushed past them and leapt with all her might as she came down on the Orcs, her sword slick with blackened blood as she began to fight, kicking some to their deaths and running through the others.

Gimli then let out a cry as he was thrown onto the stone ramp and then Aragorn leapt after him as the three companions began to clear the causeway of Orcs.

"Shore up the door!" they heard Theoden King order as they fought, but as they did, then came the hooks. The massive, mammoth iron hooks that were fired at the top of the keep as the Orcs swung more ladders up and began to scale them as Legolas began to fight, having just caught sight of his Lady fighting on the causeway. He was able to shoot down the ropes they were using to levy up one of the ladders and sent it tumbling back down, crushing both the Orcs that scaled it and the Orcs that stood below. The many, hundreds, if not still thousands, that stood below.

They were losing ground and their enemies were still not relenting.

"Gimli! Allora! Aragorn! Get out of there!" Theoden ordered as they managed to barricade the hole in the door, but the distraction was all that was needed for the two men to be grabbed by an Uruk-Hai as they struggled.

"GIMLI! ARAGORN!" Legolas called from on high as he threw down a rope and Allora slashed at the Orc that held them.

"Go!" she told them.

"Allora-"

"GO!" she screamed as she held them off and Aragorn got Gimli onto his back as he jumped to grab onto the rope and used his feet to push them along the wall.

"ALLORA!" Legolas's voice bellowed from above. "JUMP!"

And the Elvish Lady used the bodies of fallen Orcs to give her a boost up as she jumped, but Legolas had pulled her friends too high, and she knew she wasn't going to make it. She thought her time was up until something gripped her wrist.

Aragorn cried out in agony as he tried to hold onto both the rope that he was sliding down and Allora's arm.

And above them, Legolas groaned as he tugged on the rope and struggled to pull them before another Elf joined him. They pulled Gimli up first and then Aragorn who reached over the edge of the wall to pull Allora up and safely into Legolas' arms.

"You are safe," he breathed as he held her close before they were forced to pull away as the King sounded the retreat.

"No! No, Legolas, dawn is fast approaching. I cannot call upon it if I am within the darkness of the keep. We will not win."

"Listen to me," he said. "All will work itself out, of that, I have hope, but dawn is still many minutes shy, we need to get you to safety before it arrives or then the battle is truly lost. Come! We must move quickly!"

And he took her hand as they went running for the fortress and the final door that would separate them from the Uruk-Hai.

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The constant banging of the battering ram on the other side of the doors did nothing to ease the worry of the surviving men as they piled all that they could in front of it.

"The fortress is taken. It is over," Theoden called from where he was being tended to.

"You would give up so easily?" Allora asked as she and Aragorn approached the king, Legolas and the others using more benches to brace the door.

"You said this fortress would never fall while your men defend it. They still defend it. They died defending it," Aragorn roared.

"And my kin did not give their lives, Haldir did not give his life in vain so you could give up," Allora added darkly.

"Is there no other way for the women and children to get out of the caves?" Aragorn asked and he was met with silence as Legolas flipped a table on its side, the contents onto clatteRing to the ground as he began to carry it.

"He asked you a question!" Allora thundered. "Is there no other way?"

"There is one passage," the king's captain answered. "It leads into the mountains. But they will not get far, the Uruk-Hai are too many."

"Dawn is almost upon us. We just need until then," Allora said as Aragorn placed a hand on the captain's shoulder.

"Send word for the women and children to make for the mountain pass. And barricade the entrance!"

"So much death," Theoden sighed. "What can Men do against such reckless hate?"

"You can have hope," Allora answered but the king still looked to Aragorn who just gave her a calm glance.

"We ride out," he answered and Allora's eyes glittered. "We ride out and meet them and we fight until the Lady Allora can deliver us the aid we require."

Theoden side-eyed Allora before he looked back to Aragorn. "For death and glory," he said.

"For Rohan," Aragorn returned. "For your people."

"The sun approaches," Gimli said and they looked to the small window high on the wall where the darkened sky was beginning to lighten as it marked the sun's approach.

And Gandalf's words played over in Aragorn's head as he turned to the king for his decision.

"Yes. Yes. The horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the deep one last time," he proclaimed and Legolas came up to Allora's side as he took her hand and when their gazes met, all of Allora's fears melted away. They would do this, and they would survive.

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Gimli inhaled a great breath as he stood before the Horn of Helm Hammerhand and began to blow.

"Fell deeds, awake, now for wrath, now for ruin and a red dawn!" the king spoke as they sat atop horses in the hall, ready to ride out and meet their enemy. Allora sat behind Legolas for once as they shared a steed, her arm wrapped around his waist as she gripped her sword for it would be his job to get her as far into the enemy army as they could before dawn came and then it would be down to him to protect her.

And the guards let the barricade drop as the army was filled with Orcs and the king raised his sword into the air. "FORTH EORLINGAS!" he ordered, and Allora felt the tension in both the male before her and the steed beneath her as they charged, but as for her, Allora felt nothing. She felt no fear, no worry, no exhaustion. She simply had hope that this would end and that they would be victorious.

And they charged.