CHAPTER 4: The King's councillor

Many that dwelt in Númenor held that the years which followed Zigur's coming there were the greatest in its history. The plentiful tribute of raw materials from Middle Earth which Zigur provided enabled its craftsmen to flourish and increased Númenor's trade and wealth; there was greater prosperity in that time than the land had ever known. Too, the King's mood was more often generous, and he seemed to all to be burdened with fewer cares and matters of state than at any time since he seized the throne. More often now than ever before the King's palace was a place where those who had his favour met; at such gatherings always Zigur seemed to be present, and where he went the music seemed more joyous and the drink sweeter.

The most important matters of State for Ar-Pharazôn over the next two years were military ones. The new supplies of coal, coke and steel led to the need for the strengthening of garrisons and the enlarging of the areas under Númenorean influence in Middle Earth, in order to safeguard their source. Ar-Pharazôn had long believed that he had great skill in such matters. And now he found he was not mistaken on that point. An army by men out of the East who attaked certain of the southern garrisons and ports was destroyed with great ease by men following Ar-Pharazôn's commands, and several troublesome incursions of orcs ended with the monsters driven from their lairs and exterminated.

Indeed, in those days Kingship seemed less of a burden than it had ever been before. More and more often the thoughts of the Council agreed with those of the King before ever he spoke of them; it seemed to the King that he must be more skilled at government than before, if all men independently came to his conclusions. The newfound unity of most of his Council pleased him; he was certain that it resulted from his increased wisdom now that he had Zigur's advice to help him in his decisions.

For help him Zigur did. In Council he told often of what he had learned in his own realms and from the teachings of the Valar. But more than that, before the year drew to its close he began to instruct Ar-Pharazôn in private, if he wished it. Ar-Pharazôn found that Zigur had become his closest friend, the one to whom he was accustomed to speak when he was tired or angry, the one to whom he turned when he distrusted all others, and the one who, as often as not, shared wine with him and talked late into the night, cheering him. Certainly he was a more cheerful companion than Amandil, his friend since childhood, who beforetimes Ar-Pharazôn had counted his closest companion; Amandil seldom drank more than a cupful of wine. The King found his first impressions confirmed; he was comfortable in Zigur's presence as he had never felt in any other's since he had seized the throne. Perhaps it was because both were of great status, almost equals.

Of course, there were still causes for annoyance. Amandil continued to spread dissent among the members of the Council. Fortunately, as the months passed fewer and fewer on the Council seemed disposed to listen to him.

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On a night in Hithui, Ar-Pharazôn sat at ease, with the wind and the rain beating on the windows of his private chambers, and the fires roaring high in the grates, their light sparkling from the engraved glass and polished gilt of his rooms. As had become his habit after Council meetings that lasted long, he sought companionship. Beside him, in a similar chair of inlayed wood, sat Zigur. Together, they talked of the burdens that were laid on Kings, that others could not know.

'Did you ever find yourself burdened with such a Councillor as Amandil, who twisted all you said until you almost felt that you were morally wrong?' Ar-Pharazôn enquired.

Zigur smiled 'I have encountered many such in my time, but I was fortunate in that I never suffered any such to gain a hold of the minds of a Council.'

'You had luck then.'

'It was not luck. It is for a ruler to decide whose counsel he will accept. Yet I believe that what you have said reveals a truth; Amandil has too strong a hold on the Council as a whole, Ar-Pharazôn. Otherwise they would not listen to his endless whining on the subject of religion. Who among the men of Númenor in these days is content with the plans of the Valar for Men? Not one that I have met, save he. Yet none will speak openly of their thoughts, for they fear Amandil's influence and ambition.'

Ar-Pharazôn considered for a moment. He himself had often felt uncomfortable when men spoke, as most did, against the Valar's possession of the Undying Lands, and their denial of the gifts of that Land to Men. As Zigur spoke, it occurred to Ar-Pharazôn for the first time that his discomfort might be the result of a wish not to offend Amandil. At that idea anger stirred in him; he was King, and should not be deflected from his own opinions by one of his subjects.

'You are right, Zigur! Why should my Council be afraid to speak their minds because of one man?' Ar-Pharazôn waved his almost empty glass in emphasis, and Zigur listened ernestly to his words.

'Why, at the next Council meeting I will have this matter out with him. He will see how many truly agree with his determination to cling in subservience to the superstitions of a past millennium! I will wager that it will not be many, and he will make sure he sees just how much influence he truly has. What say you?'

'Indeed,' Zigur replied softly, 'I think I can promise you that you will find that few support him.'

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Amandil had suspected since he first saw Zigur brought captive to Númenor that Zigur's influence over the King was dangerous and unwholesome. On the day when Ar-Pharazôn spoke to the Council against the Valar, declaring that the Men of Númenor would heed them no longer, he knew with certainty that it would lead the King to ruin, and with him, as like as not, all his subjects.

Yet he saw also on that day how far Zigur's influence had spread among the Court, without any noticing it; at the Council all save he had spoken in support of Ar-Pharazôn's words, even declaring that the Ban should be ignored. For almost a millennium now the greater part of the people of Númenor had spoken against the Valar, discontent at their own mortality, and refusing to honour them. But always before they had feared the Valar if they did not love them, and never had they spoken in earnest of defying the Ban.

In the weeks that followed, rumours came to Amandil's ears more than once which disturbed him, rumours that Zigur's influence on the King was turning to more serious matters than mere temporal defiance of the Valar. He knew that Zigur followed the unspeakable religion of the Men of Darkness in Middle Earth, and he feared where his influence on the King might lead. In his heart he sought for guidance, and at last resolved that if the rumours were true he must seek one final time to turn Númenor aside from the course on which the King was leading it, even though the cost to himself might be ruinous.

Amandil therefore sent out messengers to all those who he knew still revered the Valar, asking them to meet with him. They talked together of what they knew of Zigur's actions within the council and without it, and of how those who hearkened to him seemed to change and abandon their old thoughts and friendships. The picture that emerged was frightening. They sent also, on various pretexts, ships to Middle Earth, to speak to those who were Faithful there, and the reports that returned disturbed them even further.

Finally, with a heavy heart, for he knew that he was undertaking a step that would lead to strife in the Council and in the Court, Amandil sought audience with Tar-Miriel the Queen.

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When Ar-Pharazôn next entered the Council chamber, he found to his surprise that the Queen sat in her place at the head of the Council table. Two joined chairs had stood there since the earliest days of his reign, but the one assigned to the Queen had been empty since before Zigur had come to Númenor.

In the first months after her marriage Tar-Miriel had come often to the Council, and attended to all duties of state at Ar-Pharazôn's side, seeking to share the rule of the land if she could not rule herself. As the weeks passed, she saw that the greater part of the court did not heed her, but heeded only the words of Ar-Pharazôn. Within months she realised that if she sought to gainsay him, or to contest with him for the power which was hers by right, there would be civil war in Númenor, and the greater part of the Court would fight for Ar-Pharazôn . Faced by the terrible thought of fighting even in the streets of her realm, and by public mockery of her beliefs from Ar-Pharazôn, she despaired and had withdrawn more and more from public life. Within three years her husband had ruled alone, as he desired. She now seldom came from her own chambers, preferring to remain there with those of her Ladies who shared her beliefs and her grief.

Yet today she had taken her place as Queen once more. Ar-Pharazôn frowned.

'What are you doing here, Zimraphel?' he demanded abruptly as he took his place beside her. From the stares of the rest of the Council, he knew that he was not the only one who wished an answer to that question.

'And why should I not be here, my Lord?' she enquired quietly. 'I am Queen of this land, and have come to carry out the duties which are mine to carry out.'

Ar-Pharazôn ignored the implication of her words. 'And why have you chosen to come today to carry out those duties, when for years past you have neglected them?' he asked, his tone as carefully neutral as Tar-Miriel's.

'I did not stay away in those years by my own choice, Tar-Calion, but by yours, and to avoid the unpleasantness that you introduced to this Council. I have come here now because I can no longer allow my country to suffer as it has been doing.'

Ar-Pharazôn was aware that all eyes in the room were upon him. He heard at least one sharply indrawn breath at the Council table. He was grateful when Zigur broke the silence which ensued, saving him from finding an appropriate answer.

'It is true that in name Ar-Zimraphel shares the rule of this land with the King. Therefore, if it pleases the King, I think that it is fitting we should listen to what she has to say, and consider it.'

A surprised murmur ran around the table. Ar-Pharazôn was disinclined to encourage the Queen's participation, but he had found Zigur's advice to be good so many times before that he nodded his agreement.

Then Tar-Miriel the Queen rose to her feet and spoke.

She spoke with all the passion of her beliefs, and with the dignity of her position and her birth. She spoke of the history of Númenor, reminding men of its origins, and of the deeds for which it was given. She spoke of the deference which men should pay to the authority of the Valar that was given them by Illúvatar Himself. She reminded them of the Darkness which lay over thae lands from which Zigur came, and begged that the Council join her in advising the King to seek the advice of the Elves, who knew more of Zigur's true nature.. She warned of the possible dangers of listening to Zigur's counsel, and begged that they turn aside from their course, which seemed certain to bring Númenor to ruin.

As the Lords listened, it seemed clear to them that the words she spoke were foolish, the words of one who knows nothing of the situation. It seemed to them that the King and Zigur humoured a child who wished to play at rule with her betters, for after the speeches which Zigur had in recent days given on the such subjects all other voices seemed ill-informed and their arguments but poorly expressed.

As the Queen spoke, Zigur attended with politeness to what Tar-Miriel said, yet with a gentle smile on his face, as if of condescending amusement. After a few minutes, the King and others in the chamber began to smile also, but when the Queen began to speak against Zigur there were gasps of anger in the chamber, and the Council were no longer disposed to humour her. And when at last she was silent, a great uproar arose in the Council chamber, and all began to berate her and to shout with one voice.

Then Tar-Miriel bowed her head and was silent in her despair, for she knew then that Amandil's hope was in vain, and it was too late for any to undo the harm that Zigur had done or overthrow his influence on the minds of the King and Court. Looking upon her, Amandil angrily raised his hand in a gesture of command and demanded silence. At length silence fell.

'How dare you treat your Sovereign thus?' Amandil asked of them then. 'Why do you show such disrespect to the one to whom you owe allegiance?'

Zigur nodded his head, and still he smiled. 'Your words are true, Amandil; we have behaved in a manner unfitting to the place and time, and unfitting too for the presence of a Lady. I pray you will accept our apologies, Ar-Zimraphel?'

The Queen bowed slightly in silent acknowledgement.

'It was ungracious to speak so,' Zigur continued, 'simply because one here spoke to the Council who was not skilled at such things, and who lacked the knowledge that those who speak to the Council should have. Rather than anger, we should have replied with advice, that the Queen know that her talents are better suited to other duties. Indeed, her skills are important to us all; the very presence of the Queen graces our ceremonies of state and our merrymaking, so great is her beauty, and her hands are unparalleled in the making of tapestries to brighten our walls.'

Several of the Council smiled, but Amandil leaped to his feet in fury. 'How dare you! Do not tell the Queen to take herself away to her playthings, as if she were an errant child! The King holds his power but as a gift from her! She is more fit to rule the Kingdom than any here!'

'Do you suggest, then,' Zigur asked, 'that the King is not fit to rule?'

'Fit to rule! He is not fit to live! He will bring all here to ruin and destruction, in this world and beyond it, by his misrule under your guidance. If I knew nine years ago what I know now, I would have slain him before he could seize the Sceptre, notwithstanding that he was my closest friend. I rue now that I did not!' Amandil's face shone with fury as he looked on Zigur, and he seemed heedless of the presence of the others in the Chamber, as if something had led him to abandon all prudence.

There was a shocked silence in the Council chamber. Ar-Pharazôn rose sudenly to his feet, his face white with anger. With all eyes upon the King, none in the chamber saw the fleeting smile that passed over Zigur's lips as he also rose and began to speak.

'Lord of Andúnïe, you have spoken treason before all of the King's Council. You have threatened his life, and yours is forfeit. Nevertheless, for the friendship he once bore you, I would beg the King to spare you, and instead suggest that henceforth you are exiled from Armenelos. What says the King? Will he grant my petition?'

And as the King spoke, declaring the the man who had once been his greatest support and his most trusted advisor exiled to their dwellings in the city of Roménna henceforth, the Queen wept, unheeding of who saw her, for she knew that great evil was come into Númenor, and knew also that she could not prevent the ruin that approached.

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Ar-Pharazôn threw yet another sheaf of documents down on the table of the Council chamber with an exasperated sigh. What should have been a routine report on the local government of Roménna, brought, as to often of late, unwelcome news.

'It seems that sending Amandil from the Council and to his own lands was not as wise as you at first made it appear, Zigur,' Ar-Pharazôn said. 'He has gathered to himself many others of that faction who call themselves the Elendili. It seems that they still plot against me, if the reports I am receiving are true; certainly they are unwilling to obey any of my commands if it can be avoided. Their disloyalty grows with every day, they speak against me to any that will listen and it seems that in the year since they came there they have led so many to treason in Roménna that the proper government of that town has become almost impossible.'

'It is certain, then, that they are plotting?' one of the younger Councillors said. 'I do not understand this turn of events. For many years they were among your most trusted Councillors and friends; Amandil himself was the closest companion you had in those years. Why now do they plot against you?'

'I do not know. They are unhappy that I no longer allow myself to be led by them, and jealous of my achievements without them; that much is plain. And they do not agree with many of the ideas of this Council. But I fear that it is more than that. I know now that there is conspiracy among them, to what end I do not know.' Ar-Pharazôn turned to Zigur. 'Have you heard aught which might explain their plotting?' he enquired.

Zigur shook his head. 'I think that it is better I do not answer that question, Sire. If my suspicions are correct, it cannot bode well for you… or for your people.'

Ar-Pharazôn and others in the room looked towards him abruptly. 'What is it that you fear, Lord Zigur?' Vorondil asked, the unease clear in his voice.

'I am not certain… but does it not seem strange to you that those who speak against the King are always found among those who name themselves Elf-Friends, and servants of the Lords of the West?'

'What is it that you mean?' Ar-Pharazôn demanded.

'Again I cannot speak with certainty, Sire. But is it not also strange that those who rebel against you are always of the House of the Lords of Andúnïe, those who long dwelt on the Western shores of your land, next to those havens where the ships of Elves are said to have landed in years past? Can you say with certainty that such ships are no longer seen in your harbours? Could it be that these conspirators receive in secret ships that you know not of, bringing messages from ones who, perhaps, resent your glory and your independence from their orders, when once the men of this land did all that they were commanded, and believed only what they were told?'

Ar-Pharazôn realised now why Zigur had been unwilling to speak of his suspicions; the danger was terrifying. 'If the Valar themselves have caused my subjects to conspire against me, what hope have I against them?' he asked, horrified. The anxious murmur running round the Council chamber told him that he was not alone in this feeling.

But Zigur himself did not seem overly concerned. 'The malice of the Lords of the West is indeed a fearsome obstacle. But remember, they are not all powerful. I walked with them before Arda was made, and I saw all of their history, and know all of their deeds. And I know that they are not so powerful that they have never been thwarted in their plans for the rule of others, if those others have the will to resist them. More than once have their plans to control all Arda as they see fit been foiled.'

Zigur then turned the conversation to ways in which the King's influence on Roménna might be strengthened, and he did not speak again of those matters. But his words remained long in Ar-Pharazôn's mind.

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Disclaimer. Not my characters. Not making any money out of this.

This fanfic is dedicated to the true Lord of Arda, Mighty and Radiant.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

There you go Kharina: Tar-Miriel as requested! In this fanfic, though I'm exploring the methods by which Zigur manipulated Ar-Pharazon and achieved his destruction. Therefore I'll mention the actions of Tar-Miriel and Amandil only where they are relevant to this process; sorry any dedicated fans of theirs who hoped for more of their doings! Here I bring them in to show how Zigur manipulated events so that Ar-Pharazon ended up cut off from those (Amandil and Tar-Mirial) who might have influenced his thoughtsdaway from the teachings of Zigur.

Elendili: the Elf-friends. The name given to those who remianed loyal to the Valar at the time when most in Numenor had turned against them. (Akallabeth)

Amandil: Amandil was the father of Elendil (the first King of Gondor). He had been Ar-Pharazon's closest friend until the coming of Zigur. He was the most influential of the Elendili (Akallabeth)

Lord of Andunie: This was Amandil's (and later Elendil's) title in Numenor. Ar-Pharazon's grandfather, who hated the Elendili, ordered them to leave their own city of Andunie in the West and dwell in Romenna (in the East) as he did not want them on the side of the island where they might get secret messages from Aman ( Unfinished Tales: 'The Line of Elros')

Tar-Miriel: Tar Miriel was the rightful Queen of Numenor, to whom the Sceptre should have passed. Ar-Pharazon usurped her throne. She used the elven form of her name, like her father Tar-Palantir, as a sign of her loyalty to the Valar. The Adunaic form is Ar-Zimraphel.