What a series of twists--that it should be Saruman each time who is behind the violent deaths of Aragorn's ancestors and that it should be part of a long-running test of his loyalty imposed by Sauron! But the allusions to his ruthless orc-breeding activities, somehow, are even darker, because they are all his own idea (or so he thinks).
Nice touch in the last sentence about "the nine unlikely saviors".

(Nitpick: something seems to have gone awry with the grammar of this clause: " for the Ranger come to play herald and plead on his Chieftain’s behalf"?)