When they entered Cirandil's cell in the garrison hall, the young Man was sitting with his head in his hands. He made a low moaning sound, and Frodo was first afraid that he'd been poisoned too, but Cirandil's dinner still sat untouched. It soon became apparent that he was not ill, but terribly distraught at the death of the other guardsman, who had been his friend.
"I made him eat it," Cirandil told them, horrified. "Alaric never believed me when I spoke of poison. He thought it fretful nonsense, and I began to think there was no danger myself. We were wrong." He bowed his head and began to sob. "It was my death, meant for me--not Alaric. His death is my fault! If you wish to call me a murderer, you may do so now."
They could get nothing more out of him; the young guardsman was too wracked with guilt at what he'd brought about to tell them what had happened. Beregond ordered the untouched dinner tray to be taken away so the stew could be examined, then he and Frodo left Cirandil's cell and went out to the refectory, where Alaric's body had been laid upon one of the tables and covered with a cloth. The other guards who'd been present said that Alaric had fallen over suddenly, not long after taking Cirandil's dinner in to him, and had died within minutes, retching and gasping for air. His lips had the blue tinge of suffocation and the familiar mottling had appeared on his skin. It was definitely the same poison that had killed Carathir, Caradan, and Bregilde.
"Who cooks the meals here?" Frodo asked. "Who brings the food, prepares it, serves it to the Men?"
Beregond sent for the kitchen staff to provide answers to these questions. A series of interviews established the following routines: The meals, usually a stew or hearty soup, were cooked daily in an enormous iron pot and served to all the guardsmen on duty in the lower part of the city who came to the garrison hall from midday until evening. Each serving was ladled directly into a bowl from the pot, except for the prisoner's bowl, which was set aside on a tray with a loaf of bread to be taken in to him by the guard assigned that duty. Alaric had not been the only guard to keep watch over Cirandil; two others also watched him in shifts and brought him his meals. The other two guardsmen were summoned. Both said that they too tasted the prisoner's food before leaving it, at Cirandil's insistence. Both, while stunned and somewhat shaken by Alaric's death, were fine. No other men who'd eaten the stew had fallen ill that day.
One of the guards had accompanied Alaric to the corridor outside Cirandil's cell, and affirmed that the prisoner had had no opportunity to poison the stew that day himself. He hadn't touch the bowl before Alaric had eaten from it. His clothing had been searched and no vial of liquid nor plant leaves or berries had been found on his person, and he had received no visitors since Beregond had last brought Frodo to see him. The obvious conclusion was that the bowl of stew meant for Cirandil had been poisoned while it sat waiting to be taken to him.
Frodo then set out finding out who exactly was in the kitchen and who could have entered while the bowl of stew sat unattended, when even more horrible news came from the citadel, summoning him urgently to the Houses of Healing. There had been a second poisoning in the Queen's boudoir, and Merry and several of the ladies had fallen ill.
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