Bringing Trouble to Barad-dur by Aiwen

The Battle of the Pelennor in Barad Dur

Celebrimbor headed up towards Sauron's lair in the top of Barad-dur, stopping only at the mithril room for ten minutes or so. He unlocked the door and left it standing wide open, then entered and spread a few coins on the floor. Next, he drifted over to the wall and knocked down two sets of armor and a large axe. He grimaced as they hit the floor, for he hated the idea of damaging such fine work. Then he continued to the top of the tower.

He was horrified to find their attic refuge appeared to have been ripped apart. What had happened while he had been babysitting the refugees? Now he wished he'd stuck around long enough to hear what Gil-galad had to say. Never mind, he was here now. He floated for a few minutes in the attic, pondering what to do next. He decided to go and look for Sauron. Hopefully that would give him some inspiration.

He found Sauron in the Palantir room, hunched over the Palantir. Celebrimbor grinned. He knew just what to do to distract Sauron thoroughly.

He drifted over to the table and set to work on the central supporting leg, slowly weakening the metal. Just as he finished, Sauron pushed his chair back. He leaned one hand on the table to do so, resulting in a wrenching crack as the top of the table tilted towards him, landing on his left foot. The Palantir came unseated and skidded down the metal surface. It bounced along the floor, striking sparks as it went, bounced off the wall, and finally come to rest back in the center of the room.

Sauron stood staring at the table top for a few seconds, then removed it from his foot, while grimacing and muttering something untranslatable about the void. He then knelt down to inspect the foot.

Oh no, thought Celebrimbor, you mean I just injured Sauron by accident? I hope Namo doesn't decide to revoke my mandate for this... Celebrimbor waited a few seconds, but no lord Namo Mandos appeared. Well, he isn't here, and I suppose that assisting Sauron in dropping a tabletop on his own foot doesn't really count as trying to seriously injure or kill him. I thought he'd catch it. I guess he must have been really distracted.

Sauron, meanwhile, had stood up again, still scowling. He was clutching the chair because he couldn't seem to put any weight on his foot. He stood like that for nearly ten minutes before yelling for somebody to come and bring him a table while he limped slowly over to the Palantir. It was undamaged, but the lights inside it were revolving. He carefully set it upright, before turning to deal with Kelas about the table.

Celebrimbor broke tables under the Palantir twelve times that day and night, until Sauron sat with one hand holding the table steady and one on the Palantir while three new tables sat against the wall for him to use as needed. Behind him, Celebrimbor watched as fires flared behind the walls of Minas Tirith. Sauron struck a subordinate who foolishly tried to interrupt him, but his focus was so strong that Celebrimbor couldn't seem to put him off for more than a few minutes at a time.

Finally, just as dawn began lighting the fields of the Pelennor, or trying to through the foul mirk that smothered the land, Celebrimbor went back to the bottom of Barad-dur to switch off with Gil-galad. He wasn't quite certain who was giving who respite, but dealing with the prisoners would at least make a change from watching horrible events in the Palantir and trying to break Sauron's concentration.

Gil-galad was happy to see him and the chalk he'd managed to acquire along the way, although he was more than a little sarcastic about Celebrimbor's hurried departure the previous day.

Gil-galad crept up behind Sauron and looked into the Palantir. There was fire behind the walls of Minas Tirith, that much he could see from the smoke curling up and blackening the white stone of the inner walls. Sickened, Gil-galad looked away for a moment. So everything was going to wrack and ruin already... Gil-galad wondered what to do now.

There was precious little he could do directly - the Palantir was too heavy for him to unseat, and he wasn't much good at breaking tables even if Celebrimbor hadn't already pushed that idea as far as it could go. But if he could do something to call Sauron away from the Palantir, that would work. Sauron should be getting reports back on the effects of the altered orders fairly shortly, but this situation demanded something more immediate. Gil-galad bent down and tied Sauron's shoelaces together on general principle, then left through the door, intent on starting a fire among the documents in Sauron's office.

This proved to be easier said than done. Sauron was using a Feanorian lantern to light the place and the matches that had been in their attic stash were now gone. So Gil-galad started carrying the papers through the door into the living room and dumping them off the balcony. He'd done about a quarter of the office when he heard an inarticulate shrieking coming from the Palantir room, followed by a loud crash. Gil-galad blinked, then thought himself through the ceiling to see what was going on.

Sauron was sitting half-sprawled on the floor clutching his left ankle, his long robes in disarray and his hood fallen back on his shoulders showing his bald head. He was also hissing in pain, sounding somewhat like an angry snake, or possibly a teakettle, in between quietly ranted words. "Miserable little fool... I will make you pay for this." Gil-galad didn't pay too much attention, assuming the words were aimed at him, until the next words: "crazy blond girls shouldn't be allowed on battlefields."

What? He glanced towards the Palantir, but now Sauron was no longer looking into it it was dark. He looked back at Sauron, who had resumed ranting. "Zigur-adun, I told you there were plenty of other creatures than men who might kill you, and not to think you were invulnerable, but did you listen? Damn it. And now your Ring is lost, too. You pathetic fool! I disown you!"

Gil-galad listened to this and wondered what it might mean. It sounded awfully as if Sauron's chief Nazgul had managed to get himself killed by a woman. Blond girl... Gil-galad wondered suddenly what Galadriel was doing in the middle of the Pelennor.

Chapter End Notes

A/N 1: The Witch-King of Angmar is never actually given a name in the books. Zigur-adun is Adunaic and should mean "mortal male sorceror".