Amandil and Miriel sat in a high watchpost overlooking Mordor. It was moonless night, but the light of Mount Doom's eruptions and the fires of a thousand furnaces at work below made it necessary to hide in the shadows. They had placed two more Watching Brooches, including one at their present post. Keeping vigil, they were staying put until dawn, when the Orcs would retreat underground and they could return safely. Huddled under a blanket, their mouths and ears were next to each other, so they murmured to each other softly to stay alert and awake. He said: "Are you sure we're safe here?"
"Yes. Josquil and I were watching farther down the slope two weeks ago, close to the roads. The best I can guess is one of the fell hounds caught our scent down there."
"There wasn't one with the Orcs who attacked you, and I didn't see signs of one at the pool in the pass. Perhaps Josquil was able to destroy it during this flight."
"Perhaps. Such a beast would have led them to me more quickly, and they wouldn't have sent it away."
A huge gout of flames leapt up from Mount Doom; several fell hounds bayed at the sight from a distance, and companies of Orcs chanted as the flames rose. He held her close and said: "Tell me your story, Miriel."
Miriel shook her head. "I grew up in Ithilien, before the Enemy started his great work, and when I was a maiden we had to flee across the Anduin. We huddled in the foothills between Rohan and the Great River, and in that time Brendor became my mate. There wasn't much time before fighting with the enemy crossed the River, and Brendor fell just after our daughter Mina was born. We went to Minas Tirith then, and my parents raised my daughter while I trained to take his place among the Rangers. Since then I've made my home here, on the edge of Darkness."
"Do you get news of her?"
"Sometimes. She married a warden of the Tower and they have two young ones. When the war is over, I'll visit them."
"Was Jonquil your second mate?"
"No, he wasn't. He was never attracted to women, and lived in guilt for his attraction to men. He felt strongly we needed to increase the race of Numenor, but he could never act on this ideal and it haunted him. We worked well together, but shared little time together apart from our joint patrols. His main dwelling was down near the River, and sometime soon I must go there and send his treasures to his parents in Dol Amroth. But not now, danger is too close."
"Yes, the war will come soon," he said distantly. "I felt it at the edges of the Dark Lord's thoughts last night: he wants to start soon, as soon as his troops are ready. He searches for something, and hopes to find it before he strikes."
A clashing of drums came from the plain below, and they could see a company of men march from North to South, playing the strident music of the Haradrim. Amandil shuddered as he heard it, and Miriel held him close. "Peace, my friend. If you're to be a watcher, you must control yourself."
"Yes, I know. I'll manage, I'm determined."
"I know that music's always meant danger to you, the music of ambush and slaughter. Put it aside, put it aside. It rattles me as well, but I have to think of the reason we're here. If we don't return to tell our tale, our vigil is in vain."
He nodded and they settled back into watching as well. She took his hand and squeezed it, and he kept it close to him as they shivered a little. An angry crescent moon rose above Mordor, creeping over the horizon two hours before sunrise. The Haradrim marched off to the South and their music faded into the distance. Their eyes followed them, counting the number of troops, and he murmured: "No Oliphants, must be infantry. The beasts probably wouldn't survive here; the Dark Lord will probably bring them up from the South when he attacks."
"Undoubtedly. Look at the camps around Barad-dur, they'll all Orc divisions. I've heard of men living for long periods of time around Lake Nurnen, but it would take a lot of organization to base them near the mountains. The amount of food and water they'd need to bring in would be enormous. Easier to put them outside the mountains."
"Something we'll have to look for."
Mount Doom sent another plume skyward and the foul beasts screamed their admiration. Miriel looked around and said: "By the way, are those your fingers playing with my breasts?"
There was a short pause. "Whose else would they be?"
She smiled. "I appreciate the attention, and my breasts haven't been fondled for decades, but we need to keep our attention on what's happening around us. We are doing the impossible by walking into Mordor, and to a man of one and twenty the idea of making love here may be appealing, but it's not a good idea. We can't take the chance of being captured: our friends in Ithilien would suffer. Focus, my child. Stay alert for the Enemy."
He sighed and stopped. She snuggled a little closer to him in consolation, and the night crawled onward. An hour before daybreak, clouds from the east swallowed the crippled Moon and they heard voices below. Orc voices reverberated off the stones.
"We gotta get outta here, my love. The war's comin' and we'll be marching out soon. The Eye wants the road to Osgiliath open, and we're supposed to do it."
"Yeah, Worm, we gotta go. You an' me. We find a hole and stay there until the sun dies forever."
The echoes of their motion faded down the pass below them, and Miriel stood up. Bending over, she whispered in his ear: "We've got to follow them. It's almost daybreak anyway, and it'll be safe enough to move. They aren't building a road to the hidden pass, but we've got to make sure these clowns don't find their way through by accident. Deserters have a way of going back if they think they've got something to offer."
He nodded and followed her, both of them moving as quiet as shadows. It wasn't difficult to trace them, and it took some effort not to come upon them too soon. They wanted to make their ambush in a place they felt they could win quickly without a lot of noise, particularly if it happened before sunrise.