45. The Glittering Caves
[People scurry around Helm's Deep.]
Rohan man: "Come on people! Quickly, now!"
Aragorn: "We'll place the reserves along the wall. They can support the archers from above the gate."
Legolas: "Aragorn, you must rest. You're no use to us half-alive."
[Èowyn calls out to Aragorn.]
Èowyn: "Aragorn! I'm to be sent with the women into the caves."
Aragorn: "That is an honorable charge."
Èowyn: "To mind the children, to find food and bedding when the men return. What renown is there in that?"
Aragorn: "My lady, a time may come for valor without renown. Who then will your people look to in the last defense?"
Èowyn: "Let me stand at your side."
Aragorn: "It is not in my power to command it."
[Aragorn begins to walk away.]
Èowyn: "You do not command the others to stay! They fight beside you because they would not be parted from you. Because they love you."
Èowyn: "I'm sorry."
[Èowyn walks away.]
[Inside Helm's Deep, people wander in to the caves.]
[Husbands and sons are taken away from their wives and mothers.]
[In the armory, weapons are handed out to the villagers.]
Aragorn: "Farmers, farriers, stable boys."
Aragorn: "These are no soldiers."
Gimli: "Most have seen too many winters!"
Legolas: "Or too few. Look at them. They're frightened. I can see it in their eyes."
[He looks at Aragorn as the room turns silent.]
Legolas: "Boe a hyn neled herain… dan caer menig!" (And they should be. Three hundred… against ten thousand!)
Aragorn: "Si beriathar hyn ammaeg na ned Edoras." (They have a better chance defending themselves here than in Edoras.)
Legolas: "Aragorn, men i ndagor. Hýn ú ortheri. Natha daged aen!" (They cannot win this fight. They are all going to die!)
Aragorn: "Then I shall die as one them!"
[Aragorn and Legolas stare at each other, and Aragorn walks away from the elf.]
[Legolas tries to run after him, but is stopped by Gimli.]
Gimli: "Let him go, lad. Let him be."
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