Secret in Ancient Stone by Kathryn Ramage

For the rest of that night and every night thereafter, Gandalf locked the door to Frodo's room from the outside, and did not unlock it again until breakfast-time.

"It's the only thing to do," said Merry one night not long after Frodo's sleep-walk into the citadel. "I can't tie you hand and foot to the bedposts--the bed's too big and we don't have enough rope. Besides, I don't think you'd be very comfortable trying to sleep that way, and we couldn't have much fun."

"Oh, we might manage some fun!" Frodo laughed. He'd been giving the idea some thought since Merry had started tying his wrist at night. "All the same, I doubt if ropes or locked doors will do any good to keep me in, Merry. I couldn't have possibly opened that secret door, not without a ladder. Even a tall Man like Captain Beregond had to reach up over his head to touch the trick stone."

"It must've been the ghost," Merry replied.

"Yes, exactly. And if he wants me to follow him again, he'll get me out of this room, even through a locked door."

"He'll have to get past Gandalf and me to do it. We'll be keeping a closer watch over you from now on." In addition to the locked door, Merry had also taken to tying the other end of the dressing-gown cord around his own wrist rather than the bedpost, on the theory that he would wake up if Frodo or any ghost tried to undo it.

Before they went to sleep that night, Frodo read for awhile from the huge history book the librarian had given him. The book covered all of Gondor's history from Elendil's founding of the city after the destruction of Numenor to the end of the stewardship of Ecthelion II, Denethor's father. Except for the evening he'd read the tales of ghosts and city folklore, he'd read a chapter or two of history every night--a sure way to put anyone to sleep, Merry had joked.

By this time, Frodo's nightly reading had taken him up to 1020 and the early years of the reign of young King Ciryaher, who would later be known as Hyarmendacil, "South Victor," after he drove the long-encroaching Men of Harad from Gondor's southern borders in 1050, defeating them utterly. It was to be a long and glorious reign; under Hyarmendacil, Gondor reached the pinnacle of its power, influence, and magnificence. This king would rule a vast kingdom.

"But even as Gondor knew its greatest glory," wrote the historian who'd written the book, "the darkness of the Enemy returned and grew. Mordor was guarded by great fortresses in the mountains passes of Ephel Duath and watched closely for signs of the Dark Lord's presence, but Sauron made his return in another place. He did not show himself in his realm of old, but took quiet abode deep in the great forest then called Greenwood. By 1100, the Black Tower of Dol Goldur was known by the Men of Gondor and Elves alike to be inhabited, but the identity of the Necromancer who dwelt within remained a mystery for many years. By then, Sauron had regained his powers and cast a blight upon the forest, which was now known as Mirkwood.

"Yet the return of the Enemy might have been discovered long before. In the year 1021, two messengers from Imladris arrived to see the King. They brought dire tidings of a darkness sensed in the southern eaves of the Greenwood, upon Gondor's own border.

"The Elven messengers dwelt for a time in Minas Anor and had words with the King. But Ciryaher was yet a youth and guided in all things by his most trusted advisor, his Steward Lord Aiglemerth, who had also been Steward in his father's day. Ciryaher took the counsel of Aiglemerth and would not heed the Elven messengers' warnings of the danger upon Gondor's border. He would not act, for his mind was much upon the threat to the south, the Men of Harad, who had slain his own father Ciryandil five years before. At last, the Elves were dismissed from the King's presence. They went from the court and were never seen again, nor has any Elf come to Gondor in goodwill since.

"Had young Ciryaher heeded the warnings, Gondor might have allied itself with the Elves of Imladris and of the Greenwood, as they had a thousand years before, and routed the Enemy before he could grow to great powers. But this chance was lost, and the darkness of Mordor now grows daily upon us."

Frodo laughed and put his free hand upon these paragraphs. "I've found it! It's right here, Merry. It's been here in the house with me since that first day!"
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