Sauruman had received his orders from Sauron, and he had followed the letter of those orders if not exactly the spirit. The Orthanc stone was tied to the one the enemy possessed and in his arrogance he had thought to discover the outcome of the great war they were surely on the verge of. The enemy had seen his thoughts and steered the visions revealed to the leader of the Istari. Saruman’s heart longed for power. He had gambled and had lost the battle, but perhaps he could hedge his bets and still win his private war. He couldn’t use the orthanc stone without revealing too much to the great eye. Gandalf had been right about one thing and one thing only in Sauruman’s opinion.: The great eye did not share power. The ring should have come to him, It would have but for the grey fool’s interference. Maybe, just maybe, there was another way to get the vital information he needed to stay one step ahead of all those who would oppose him .
Sauruman concentrated hard in fervor of his greed. What he intended required much strength, but if he could just accomplish it the end would be worth the means. Sauruman, hidden in his tower alone, had used much of his strength and power and reached down across the ages. He found what he was looking for: .A mortal woman.
She was weak and soft even for a mortal and she had just experienced a loss so grave that her heart no longer clung to its place in vastness of the universe. Yes, she would have to do. He had no time nor yet enough strength to try a second time. He sent across the barriers of boundless time and space the father of all storms and a portal. Making the great flying machine plummet to the ground was a simple feat compared to getting this stubborn daughter of an orc to come thru the portal.
"Blast her and all her kind for costing me so much. This should have been at least somewhat easier.," he thought.
"The damnable creature had waited two days before even moving from the place where the machine had fallen and been consumed by fire. When at last he thought she would finally get off her overgrown rear and move into the open so he could take her, she had wasted time leaving some sort of message hoping for a rescue which would never find her."
He could not take her while she was too near the machine or any tree lest the bulk of what came through with her made him lose both her and whatever else was with her. At long last she was in the open. No trees blocked his grasp nothing larger than a pebble was near her. Sauruman used his reserves and sent a great fog and in it’s midst a portal set directly in her path. Within moments the trap was sprung and she was just at the outskirts to the vale.
He would have brought her nearer but he did not wish to risk an overly hungry uruk eating her before he had time to question her. He called one of the minor Uruk -Hai captains to him. Most had gone to fight, but a few he had reserved, just in case.
"There is a female on the edges of the vale heading this way. I want her brought to me alive and unspoiled do you understand?" " Sauruman ordered.
" I understand, my master," it replied.
" Bring her directly to me. Stop for no one and you will be rewarded. Now go, quickly."
The great beast had run the short distance quickly and without tiring. He found the creature easily. It shrieked in fear as the Uruk neared. The easiest way to make sure a quarry did not run was kill it. Sauruman had said it must be alive however, so he merely hit it over the head. If the mortal should die accidentally from the blow later, that was not his fault. He had carried out his orders to the letter and freshly dead human tasted even better. This one looked like it would make quite a feast, small it was, but plump and round.
The orc picked it up , threw it over his shoulder and ran all the way back to the white hand's tower. The smell of blood on the mortal was so deliciously tempting that only fear of his master’s wrath stopped him from taking a large sample of this future feast. He brought the mortal up the many stairs to the private study as his master had ordered. Once there he dropped his load unceremoniously on the floor and asked,
"My reward master?" .
"Here is your reward, my captain," ",Sauruman sneered as in one fluid movement of his staff he turned the mighty monster into a scorch mark on the rock. The woman was unconscious and a welt was obvious on her head .
" The fool could have killed her with that blow," he justified himself.
His prize was far too valuable to risk. He had given her water from a dampened rag held to her mouth. Usually he would have relegated such a task to one of his human servants, but the risk and cost of losing her to carelessness was too great. This was his last wager and he had spent on it nearly all he had. He could not afford anything happening to her. She was soft and obviously unused to any menial labor. She was unused to being alone in the wilds or she surely would have provided better for herself than she had over the days he had observed her. Yes, this one would be easy to intimidate to get what he needed from.
Everything was going better than expected when suddenly things took an unexpected turn.
The woman had remained unconscious from the knock on her head and her days of being without food and water longer than he had hoped. This delay alone would have been bad enough, but then the ents had attacked and destroyed everything within the circle leading to orthanc. His uruks had fought hard and taken some of the interfering tree herders with them, but at last the ents had breached the dam sending the river flooding through the valley and sweeping away his servants. When the woman finally awoke, Sauruman had begun to question her.
He then discovered his first miscalculation. She would not speak his language and no amount of cajoling, intimidation or voice control could sway her. He had struck her at last in frustration. No matter, he would find a way to make her communicate what he must know.
Then to add insult to injury Gandalf, two of his overindulged halflings, an elf, a dwarf and a man in the company of king theoden had ridden in like thieves and had the nerve to think to order him to his own door at their beck and call. He was exhausted from the exertion of bringing the girl here and now he would have to deal with this rabble. It was unfair and irritating. While he had bandied words with Gandalf, The woman awoke, showed more wit than he had credited her with and fled.
Sauruman was incensed and whispered through barred teeth as loud as he dared without those below hearing, that Grima, who should have been watching her, deserved any blame if she escaped the tower. It was already too late by then though. Terrified of Sauruman’s wrath, Grima took no thought and grabbing the nearest thing to hand launched it out the window at her head.
Sauruman's only consolation after his staff had been broken and his power robbed of him was that Gandalf would not be able to use this tool to ride out the coming storm either.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Thanks to NuemeIndil for being willing to beta.