Free The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

trembles; to the tombs of kings
    doom approaches. The Dead awaken;
    for the hour is come for the oathbreakers:
    at the Stone of Erech they shall stand again
    and hear there a horn in the hills ringing.
    Whose shall the horn be? Who shall call them
    from the grey twilight, the forgotten people?
    The heir of him to whom the oath they swore.
    From the North shall he come, need shall drive him:
    he shall pass the Door to the Paths of the Dead.
    ‘Dark ways, doubtless,’ said Gimli, ‘but no darker than these staves are to me.’
    ‘If you would understand them better, then I bid you come with me,’ said Aragorn; ‘for that way I now shall take. But I do
not go gladly; only need drives me. Therefore, only of your free will would I have you come, for you will find both toil and
great fear, and maybe worse.’
    ‘I will go with you even on the Paths of the Dead, and to whatever end they may lead,’ said Gimli.
    ‘I also will come,’ said Legolas, ‘for I do not fear the Dead.’
    ‘I hope that the forgotten people will not have forgotten how to fight,’ said Gimli; ‘for otherwise I see not why we should
trouble them.’
    ‘That we shall know if ever we come to Erech,’ said Aragorn. ‘But the oath that they broke was to fight against Sauron, and
they must fight therefore, if they are to fulfil it. For at Erech there stands yet a black stone that was brought, it was
said, from Númenor by Isildur; and it was set upon a hill, and upon it the King of the Mountains swore allegiance to him in
the beginning of the realm of Gondor. But when Sauron returned and grew in might again, Isildur summonedthe Men of the Mountains to fulfil their oath, and they would not: for they had worshipped Sauron in the Dark Years.
    ‘Then Isildur said to their king: “Thou shalt be the last king. And if the West prove mightier than thy Black Master, this
curse I lay upon thee and thy folk: to rest never until your oath is fulfilled. For this war will last through years uncounted,
and you shall be summoned once again ere the end.” And they fled before the wrath of Isildur, and did not dare to go forth
to war on Sauron’s part; and they hid themselves in secret places in the mountains and had no dealings with other men, but
slowly dwindled in the barren hills. And the terror of the Sleepless Dead lies about the Hill of Erech and all places where
that people lingered. But that way I must go, since there are none living to help me.’
    He stood up. ‘Come!’ he cried, and drew his sword, and it flashed in the twilit hall of the Burg. ‘To the Stone of Erech!
I seek the Paths of the Dead. Come with me who will!’
    Legolas and Gimli made no answer, but they rose and followed Aragorn from the hall. On the green there waited, still and silent,
the hooded Rangers. Legolas and Gimli mounted. Aragorn sprang upon Roheryn. Then Halbarad lifted a great horn, and the blast
of it echoed in Helm’s Deep: and with that they leapt away, riding down the Coomb like thunder, while all the men that were
left on Dike or Burg stared in amaze.
    And while Théoden went by slow paths in the hills, the Grey Company passed swiftly over the plain, and on the next day in
the afternoon they came to Edoras; and there they halted only briefly, ere they passed up the valley, and so came to Dunharrow
as darkness fell.
    The Lady Éowyn greeted them and was glad of their coming; for no mightier men had she seen than the Dúnedain and the fair
sons of Elrond; but on Aragorn most of all her eyes rested. And when they sat at supper with her, they talked together, and
she heard of all that had passed since Théoden rode away, concerning which only hasty tidings had yetreached her; and when she heard of the battle in Helm’s Deep and the great slaughter of their foes, and of the charge of Théoden
and his knights, then her eyes shone.
    But at last she said: ‘Lords, you are weary and shall now go to your beds with such ease as can be contrived in haste.