Bathed in the morning light, Pelargir slowly woke. Its people had built an immense harbor along the riverbank.
Countless small sailing boats sped across the broad river, their billowing white sails gleaming in the sunlight.
Twenty or thirty large ships lay moored inside the harbor, where sailors worked in the morning light, scrubbing decks or repairing sails.
A long wooden bridge extended from Pelargir's urban district, crossing the wide river to the far bank of the Anduin River.
This bridge was the vital link between the Great Road and the Harad Road, and Gondor had always kept it firmly under its control.
To prevent an enemy attack, the central section of the bridge had already been raised high, allowing ships to pass while dashing the hopes of the enemy across the river of making a crossing.
Now Allen, who had only recently awakened, stared at the bridge before him, lost in thought.
A bold, reckless idea refused to leave his mind.
Perhaps we don't need ships at all. If we cross here and ride for a day, we could attack the Haradrim stationed in Osgiliath directly.
However, there were still many flaws in this plan. Allen knew nothing of the situation on the opposite bank, for instance, and Klethi's little companions strongly resisted approaching the Land of the Moon beneath its shroud of dark clouds.
This posed a difficult problem for Allen. To obtain intelligence on Ithilien now, he would have to send out an elite reconnaissance team.
But Allen had thought of another approach as well. He had just dispatched a team of messengers to Minas Tirith, hoping Gondor's Steward could send him an Ithilien Assault Force as soon as possible.
The assault force was a special unit that fought a guerrilla war in the Land of the Moon.