Betrayed by StarSpray

Betrayed

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The sun is shining brightly, but clouds are gathering on the eastern horizon, as Radagast sits on an old mossy tree stump atop the great hill under which Thranduil's halls are busy as an anthill. War is coming, though in what form and precisely when, no one can be certain. Radagast watches the storm clouds for a while, and then turns to look southward out over the dark canopy of Mirkwood, toward the dark smudgy presence that is Dol Guldur. He can almost feel the chill spreading out from it, like a blight sinking into the very soil and poisoning the water no matter how swiftly it runs.

Then up from the south a dark spot appears on the horizon, growing swiftly larger until Gwaihir the Winglord is circling over the hill before alighting before Radagast. "Well met, my friend!" Radagast says with a deep bow. "Did you speak to Gandalf, and to Saruman? What did they say? What is happening in the south?"

"I spoke with Gandalf, and I bore him to Rohan," says Gwaihir gravely, folding his great wings and tilting his head to peer down at Radagast with one bright yellow eye. "It is good that you kept your word to him, but send no more messages to Orthanc!"

"What?" Radagast cries, aghast. "Has something happened? Surely Isengard has not fallen—"

"Saruman has fallen, to his own folly and pride," says Gwaihir, and he tells of the pits and the forges and of the felling of trees in nearby Fangorn, leaving the hills bare and mournful, while the orcs in Isengard cackle and smelt and craft fell and ugly things. And of Gandalf held prisoner on the very pinnacle of Orthanc, a small grey figure pacing to and fro until Gwaihir's unexpected arrival. The message that Radagast bore to him over the summer had been naught more than a trick, and Radagast had not seen it, had never even suspected…

Radagast sits down again. Oh, how far his brother has fallen! It is the worst thing that he has heard since he has come to Middle-earth, worse even than the news that the Nine again ride abroad. Gwaihir speaks of other things and doings between Mirkwood and the White Mountains, reporting all that he's heard from Gandalf and from others. And then he departs in a great rush of wings, leaving Radagast alone on the hilltop, feeling very simple and foolish indeed.

When Gwaihir is gone, Thranduil and his queen come up the hill, clad in hunting gear, and with grave faces. "What news, Radagast?" asks Thranduil.

He takes a breath, and bows his head. "The Shadow grows. Saruman has betrayed us."