towers

788 the two towers
gleam far away flickered upwards on the rim of earth and
sky.
‘What a fix!’ said Sam. ‘That’s the one place in all the lands
we’ve ever heard of that we don’t want to see any closer; and
that’s the one place we’re trying to get to! And that’s just
where we can’t get, nohow. We’ve come the wrong way
altogether, seemingly. We can’t get down; and if we did get
down, we’d find all that green land a nasty bog, I’ll warrant.
Phew! Can you smell it?’ He sniffed at the wind.
‘Yes, I can smell it,’ said Frodo, but he did not move, and
his eyes remained fixed, staring out towards the dark line and
the flickering flame. ‘Mordor!’ he muttered under his breath.
‘If I must go there, I wish I could come there quickly and
make an end!’ He shuddered. The wind was chilly and yet
heavy with an odour of cold decay. ‘Well,’ he said, at last
withdrawing his eyes, ‘we cannot stay here all night, fix or no
fix. We must find a more sheltered spot, and camp once
more; and perhaps another day will show us a path.’
‘Or another and another and another,’ muttered Sam. ‘Or
maybe no day. We’ve come the wrong way.’
‘I wonder,’ said Frodo. ‘It’s my doom, I think, to go to that
Shadow yonder, so that a way will be found. But will good
or evil show it to me? What hope we had was in speed. Delay
plays into the Enemy’s hands – and here I am: delayed. Is it
the will of the Dark Tower that steers us? All my choices
have proved ill. I should have left the Company long before,
and come down from the North, east of the River and of the
Emyn Muil, and so over the hard of Battle Plain to the passes
of Mordor. But now it isn’t possible for you and me alone to
find a way back, and the Orcs are prowling on the east bank.
Every day that passes is a precious day lost. I am tired, Sam.
I don’t know what is to be done. What food have we got left?’
‘Only those, what d’you call ’em, lembas, Mr. Frodo. A fair
supply. But they are better than naught, by a long bite. I
never thought, though, when I first set tooth in them, that I
should ever come to wish for a change. But I do now: a bit
of plain bread, and a mug – aye, half a mug – of beer would