towers

918 the two towers
Down from their hiding-place they went, and then turning
south they steered as straight a course as Gollum could find
across a long broken slope that leaned up towards the mountains.
Presently, not far ahead, looming up like a black wall,
they saw a belt of trees. As they drew nearer they became
aware that these were of vast size, very ancient it seemed,
and still towering high, though their tops were gaunt and
broken, as if tempest and lightning-blast had swept across
them, but had failed to kill them or to shake their fathomless
roots.
‘The Cross-roads, yes,’ whispered Gollum, the first words
that had been spoken since they left their hiding-place. ‘We
must go that way.’ Turning eastward now, he led them up
the slope; and then suddenly there it was before them: the
Southward Road, winding its way about the outer feet of
the mountains, until presently it plunged into the great ring
of trees.
‘This is the only way,’ whispered Gollum. ‘No paths beyond
the road. No paths. We must go to the Cross-roads.
But make haste! Be silent!’
As furtively as scouts within the campment of their
enemies, they crept down on to the road, and stole along
its westward edge under the stony bank, grey as the stones
themselves, and soft-footed as hunting cats. At length they
reached the trees, and found that they stood in a great roofless
ring, open in the middle to the sombre sky; and the spaces
between their immense boles were like the great dark arches
of some ruined hall. In the very centre four ways met. Behind
them lay the road to the Morannon; before them it ran out
again upon its long journey south; to their right the road from
old Osgiliath came climbing up, and crossing, passed out
eastward into darkness: the fourth way, the road they were
to take.
Standing there for a moment filled with dread Frodo
became aware that a light was shining; he saw it glowing on
Sam’s face beside him. Turning towards it, he saw, beyond
an arch of boughs, the road to Osgiliath running almost as