towers

588 the two towers
been pointing eastward. From that direction there now came
hoarse cries, and there was Grishnákh again, and at his back
a couple of score of others like him: long-armed crook-legged
Orcs. They had a red eye painted on their shields. Uglúk
stepped forward to meet them.
‘So you’ve come back?’ he said. ‘Thought better of it, eh?’
‘I’ve returned to see that Orders are carried out and the
prisoners safe,’ answered Grishnákh.
‘Indeed!’ said Uglúk. ‘Waste of effort. I’ll see that orders
are carried out in my command. And what else did you
come back for? You went in a hurry. Did you leave anything
behind?’
‘I left a fool,’ snarled Grishnákh. ‘But there were some
stout fellows with him that are too good to lose. I knew you’d
lead them into a mess. I’ve come to help them.’
‘Splendid!’ laughed Uglúk. ‘But unless you’ve got some
guts for fighting, you’ve taken the wrong way. Lugbúrz was
your road. The Whiteskins are coming. What’s happened to
your precious Nazgûl? Has he had another mount shot under
him? Now, if you’d brought him along, that might have been
useful – if these Nazgûl are all they make out.’
‘Nazgûl, Nazgûl,’ said Grishnákh, shivering and licking
his lips, as if the word had a foul taste that he savoured painfully.
‘You speak of what is deep beyond the reach of your
muddy dreams, Uglúk,’ he said. ‘Nazgûl! Ah! All that they
make out! One day you’ll wish that you had not said that.
Ape!’ he snarled fiercely. ‘You ought to know that they’re the
apple of the Great Eye. But the winged Nazgûl: not yet, not
yet. He won’t let them show themselves across the Great
River yet, not too soon. They’re for the War – and other
purposes.’
‘You seem to know a lot,’ said Uglúk. ‘More than is good
for you, I guess. Perhaps those in Lugbúrz might wonder
how, and why. But in the meantime the Uruk-hai of Isengard
can do the dirty work, as usual. Don’t stand slavering there!
Get your rabble together! The other swine are legging it to
the forest. You’d better follow. You wouldn’t get back to the