Chapter 343: Opportunity
"Gollum has been caught."
The ranger did not waste a heartbeat. That was the first thing he said to Levi.
"Tell it all," Levi answered.
"The lame Uruk captain brought him in himself. He caught Gollum near the pass by Minas Morgul."
The ranger hesitated, then added, "He also says Mordor's spies were following Gollum. It seems they meant to let him lead them to something."
Levi nodded.
"Where is Gollum now?"
"At the outpost by the Cross-roads. Plenty of men are watching him."
"Good. Understood."
When the ranger had passed on everything, he and Levi murmured a little more over lesser matters. Then he left with fresh orders.
"We have new work, Gandalf," Levi said when he came back up to the Wall and passed on the tidings.
"Good. Very good," Gandalf said, nodding again and again.
"We must see Gollum at once. He will know much that we can use."
"And if your man is right and he has just been loosed from Mordor, then the Enemy has learned something as well. We cannot fall behind."
"Fair point. Let us go."
Levi swung into the saddle at once.
"The Cross-roads is far from safe. I will go ahead and move him elsewhere. The southern vales will do. Meet me at the fortress there," he told Gandalf.
"In a hurry, as ever," Gandalf grumbled, but he followed close behind, both of them riding back to Roadside Keep.
From there, Levi took the Nether paths to the Cross-roads, while Gandalf took the high road through the sky, bound for the southern vales at a slower pace.
By the time Gandalf had not yet covered a third of his road, Levi was already at the outpost.
Creak.
The ranger on guard opened the iron door for him.
Inside, in a corner, a small twisted thing slowly lifted its head. A harsh gurgling rose from its throat, thick with fear.
"Gollum…"
Levi spoke his name.
"This is not the first time we have met. You remember, do you not?"
"I know you. You were once a Hobbit of the Stoor-folk, and only became what you are now because of an evil you could not master."
Old memories surged up. Gollum stared, wide-eyed, not knowing what use this Man meant to make of such words.
"And that is not all I know," Levi went on. "I know you killed your best friend, then fled from your own guilt and turned into a little thief and robber, hurting folk wherever you went…"
"No!"
Gollum's eyes bulged as he screamed back, "Not true, not true! We were not the thief, Gollum. We were the one it was stolen from!"
"Mind your tongue," the ranger growled.
He had seen enough. He clamped a hand around Gollum's scrawny neck and squeezed until the wretch fell silent.
"Cough… cough… urk…"
Gollum writhed weakly, scrabbling for breath.
Levi waved a hand. The ranger let him go and tossed him to the floor.
"Gollum…"
Rolling on the ground, Gollum at last grasped where he stood. He did not dare bellow any more.
"There is no point in arguing," Levi said. "I have already told you. I know the things you have done. Even your own kin could not bear them. If your grandmother had not cast you out, the only end for you would have been a stone in your hands and a rope round your neck in the fury of the folk."
He spoke with hard severity, then stepped closer and crouched beside Gollum. Under those big, seemingly innocent eyes, his tone softened.
"I also know there is still a spark of good in you. You regret much of what you have done. Is that not so?"
Gollum said nothing. He only bent his head and gurgled in his throat.
Levi could hear the heaviness in it.
Had another come to lecture him thus, Gollum would likely have turned his back and slunk away.
Here, he had to listen. He had to think.
If he did not, neither Levi nor the ranger at his side were men to be trifled with.
One looked harsh, the other mild, but both were dangerous.
All of it, the place, the fear, the weight of those eyes, forced that faint trace of true feeling out of him.
He had no choice.
"You still have a chance," Levi said.
It would not be quite fair to say that Gollum had done nothing for the Free Peoples.
For all that he had once been a Hobbit, with the One Ring, he had done no more than petty evils: theft, trickery, small cruelties.
Had some other race found it, the harm would almost certainly have been far worse.
In a sense, his five hundred years of hiding with the One in a cave and not coming out to work its power had been a gift to the peace of the world.
Five hundred years.
If the Ring had had any feeling, it might have gone mad before Gollum did.
"A chance…?" Gollum echoed, snared by the word.
"Yes. A chance," Levi said. "But first you must atone for the wrongs you have done. When your debt is paid, you will be free."
"We were free before they caught us," Gollum muttered, his face twisting.
Then his expression cleared, and in a frightened voice, he said to himself, "We were never truly free…"
"Shut up. Shut up…"
"He is giving us a chance…"
Gollum clutched his head, caught between selves, his voice swinging from vicious and wild to shrinking and small.
Levi straightened and glanced at the ranger.
"Feed him," he said.
"When he has eaten, we move."
"Move? Where?" Gollum asked, drawn out of his struggle by that one word.
"You want the Precious too?" he babbled. "We can take you to it. We can, if you do not hurt us…"
"No."
Levi shook his head.
"Someone else wishes to meet you. Wait. Behave yourself. If you do, no one will harm you."
Gollum's eyes darted to the ranger.
"When Lord Levi gives his word, he keeps it," the man said sharply. "Do not doubt what he has promised."
"Good, good. No tricks from us, Gollum. We sit still, yes, we sit still…"
The door shut. Levi and the ranger left him there.
Gollum let out a long breath.
Then, all at once, the ranger came back.
Every muscle in Gollum's body went rigid.
He knew this pattern too well.
In Mordor, each questioning had ended the same way. The Orcs would come back afterwards, to whip him, to kick him, to beat him bloody.
"I knew it. More hurting. No trust, never trust, Gollum…"
"What are you muttering about?" the ranger snapped.
Under Gollum's bewildered stare, he asked,
"What do you eat? Meat or greens? Raw or cooked?"