Work Text:
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky
She had become her father's heiress, proving herself to be the most suitable of the royal children. She had been tested among the other offspring, either born to her mother or the women of her father's harem, and had risen above all of them.
“Amunet, I have secured a marriage alliance for you for when the time comes where you will take the throne after me and become the Daughter of Manwë. The Khanate of Rhûn have promised to send one of their princes to become your Prince Consort.”
She knew why this marriage alliance was being made for her. It was because of the Sea People who acted like they were the true lords of Harad.
They were challenging her own dynasty, which had come to rule both Near and Far Harad under the united name of Kemet. The kingdom had been taken through successful conquests and grown through carefully planned marriage alliances.
She needed a powerful ally against those long-lived people who come from the sea in their great ships, and marriage is one of the best ways to get allies. Her father had done the same, marrying a princess from Khand and making her his Great Royal Wife. Their line had been assured with Amunet's birth.
“I understand, Father. It is my hope that you and the Khan of Rhûn be blessed with a successful marriage between your children, and will watch us prove why you have chosen well from Mandos’s realm.”
Despite her expectations, it was no mere prince who came to her court a few months after her coronation as the new Pharaoh. It was the new Khan of Rhûn himself coming with a vast army to show off his power, proving why the two late rulers had chosen to make an alliance though a marriage between their children.
There, at their first meeting face to face, he knelt as a sign of respect for her as a fellow ruler of an empire. It is an act she respected and was somewhat touched by.
“Raise your head,” she instructed her betrothed. “What is your name?”
“Khamûl, great Daughter of Manwë,” he answered, lifting his head to meet her eyes.
Both were not even twenty years old at the time of their meeting, having spent years wondering about their betrothed and hoping for a match that would be beneficial for their people and themselves. Now, they both smile, sensing already that they may be better matched than what their late fathers may first have thought.
This was proven the first time Amunet and Khamûl reveal to each other that both have magic, fittingly enough during a assassination attempt on both of them. They protected each other because each wanted the other one alive now when they finally met face to face. This happened with their wedding ceremony but mere days away now.
“A successful marriage match, indeed!” he laughed with some blood of the failed attackers still on his face and clothing, making her desire him even more.
“Our fathers were wise in this match, yes.”
On their ring fingers, the gemstones of their marriage rings shone with a dark light for a brief moment. If anyone had looked at the shadows on the walls around the royal couple, they would have seen a faintly humanoid shape smiling in triumph.
Amunet and Khamûl had sealed their wedding vows with two Rings of Power, gifted to them by their respective fathers. These rings had been gifted to the former rulers by Sauron as a promise of power for their dynasties.
~X~X~X~X~X~X
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone
From the moment they both had taken their respective crowns and then united their lands into an even wider-spreading empire though their wedding day, the first years of their co-rulership are marked with conflict with the Sea People.
“They claim to be lords here in Middle-earth? What a joke! Our people have ruled these lands long before that Isle appeared out of the sea. We know the secrets of the East and South much better than they do!” Amunet said in disgust from her throne as Khamûl signaled to his hidden archers to pull away the dead bodies of the Númenóreans, slain by arrows in the back and chest as punishment for refusing to kneel for the reigning Daughter of Manwë in Kemet.
“Exactly, my love. We may not be able to match them as a sea power, but we have land masses which they do not have. We have countless soldiers together: the famed house archers of my homeland and the Mûmakil of Harad. We have knowledge of Middle-earth they do not have. We also have the Lord of Barad-dûr to ask for advice should it ever be needed.”
“Yes,” Amunet slowly admitted, allowing him to kiss her hand as a sign of fondness. “We are not completely helpless against those arrogant boat travelers.”
When Númenór openly tried to depose them as the co-rulers of the marriage alliance which keeps their nations together, war broke out.
“We need to install a regent who bows down to the might of Númenór! Remove those two rulers of a Lesser Men lineage, and make both Harad and Rhûn new colonies of the Isle!” are the words that are heard by those who battle against the accursed Númenórians. The implication is clear as day: that Númenór is only out after the riches to be found in Harad and Rhûn and they expect to gain control though a puppet ruler who will obey them. It was obvious the Pharaoh of Harad and Khan of Rhûn are not going to bow to the King of Númenór as their overlord.
They will never humble themselves to anyone because they are the legal, native rulers in those lands, with no connections at all to the Isle, and will never let their homelands become colonies to a foreign power.
The soldiers of the Isle had no idea of the true might they would face.
At first, it looked like Númenór would indeed win, facing scattered groups of a smaller army deep into the borderlands set between the three empires of Harad, Khand and Rhûn. They did not realize that it was a trap until a blown battle horn ordered the Mûmakil of Harad to show up on the battlefield.
“Pharaoh…”
“The Pharaoh and Khan!”
There were strange sounds which the soldiers of Númenór have never heard before, something making the ground underneath their feet tremble.
“The Pharaoh and Khan!!”
“Pharaoh! Pharaoh!”
“Great Khan!”
Those were the shouts in the air as the scattered soldiers regained new hope, hurrying behind the massive Mûmakil to regroup at the rear to the best of their ability. The united forces of their homelands were indeed a sight to behold, and they were more than enough to make the Númenóreans suddenly start doubting about a quick and easy victory.
Especially not when seeing both the banners of Harad and Rhûn being held up in the air from the towers strapped to the backs of those massive beasts, as well by the different-armored archers riding almost straight behind.
“Pharaoh Amenhotep III of Kemet and Khan Khamûl of Rhûn themselves are leading the attack!”
It was too late for the terror-stuck enemies to escape as Amunet called to their men:
“This is our message to the Sea People: STAY AWAY FROM OUR LANDS!! ”
Khamûl was not even surprised to see the leading Mûmakil, carrying Amunet herself on its head, be the first beast to literally throw the attackers aside with its long, multiple tusks as it swung its head from side to side. Several of them were impaled on the deadly spikes set on the tusks, which made them even more dangerous.
“Archers at the ready!!”
His mounted archers were next to attack, sending down a rain of arrows in the gaps between the Mûmakil, all of which trampled the enemy soldiers under their massive feet. The Númenóreans did not stand a chance against the united power of Harad and Rhûn nor its two rulers, who can also use magic.
“Catch the commanders! We want them alive!”
The battle was short and brutal due to Amunet and Khamûl using their magic to prevent the enemies escaping as well as the sheer force of the attack from their armies. It was a bloodbath for the Númenóreans, with only a few losses for the Haradrim and Easterlings.
The surviving commanding officers of the Númenórean army were brought to the rulers in chains, found amongst the vast numbers of dead soldiers. The prisoners were treated to the unexpected sight of the couple taking turns mock-bowing and kneeling to each other as a fellow ruler, privately celebrating the overwhelming equal victory for the South and East. Khamûl refused to let Amunet touch the ground, openly showing that he had no problems in viewing his wife as the more powerful one in their marriage.
Oh, what a sight it was to see their enemies be forced to kneel in humiliation as the people of Harad had been forced to do over the years. It was a wonderful revenge against the Sea People.
“Do not think that this is over yet, cursed followers of Sauron! Your lives are short compared to ours, and your bodies shall be turned to dust while Númenór keeps rising in might! You two are but mere short-lived Kings ruling over countries which will never match our island; no one will remember either of you in a thousand years!”
“What sort of twisted society allows two men to marry?!”
The words of the second prisoner made Amunet turn around slowly to face them. Her gender had been hidden due to her full body armor, head protected by a well-covering helmet, and she was dressed much like her soldiers except for a few details that revealed her true rank. It was impossible to see that the current Pharaoh of Kemet was a woman.
Alongside her armor and attire, her chosen throne-name of Amenhotep III was masculine to honor a distant ancestor who had also been a famed warrior..
So it was no big wonder that Númenór likely had gotten the impression that Amunet was, in fact, a man, and that she was only a co-ruler with Khamûl because of the alliance between their nations.
But to insult the very union once arranged by their fathers? The marriage, which had strengthened Harad and Rhûn against a common enemy?
“You ignorant fool. Who said that the Pharaoh of Kemet always has to be a man?” she asked in a low voice. Her movements were slow, like a viper about to strike its prey, as she took off her face veil and war helmet. She soon revealed herself to be a short-haired woman with cold eyes. Her appearance stunned the captives, amazed that they had been so very wrong with their assumptions.
“...witch….Witch…King! Shadow….of the East….!”
This shout is his last word as the commander immediately had his head crushed with a heavy mace held by Amunet herself.
“Send the other one back to the nearest harbor; have him carry a message to his ruler from us. Tell him the words from the Pharaoh of Kemet and Khan of Rhûn: The South and East shall never kneel for the Isle for as long as we two are still here.”
Their own commanders had done so, leaving the royal couple alone while the few surviving Númenórean soldiers were taken away from the battlefield in chains, finding a fate as slaves in either Harad or even further away in Rhûn, unlikely to ever see their home island again for the rest of their lives.
“It is time for our subjects to see their divine co-rulers, blessed by Lord Sauron himself though those rings we swore our wedding vows with. They will know that they will always be protected by our power and might,” Amunet smiled at her husband, her whole being showing off that self-confidence which had attracted him from the very moment he had first seen her.
“This is our message to the Sea People: They can forget about ruling our homelands while we are still around, ” he agreed, smiling that wicked smile of his which she had grown to love.
Without hesitation about being seen, the future Witch-King of Angmar and the Shadow of the East, as they would be called in the West, met in a passionate kiss.
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die