Ahren felt his exasperation building. “Maybe so. Maybe you saw everything you say. Maybe Walker is inside that tower. But how are we supposed to get to him? Fire threads and creepers attack everyone who tries to get close. There isn’t any way past those things! You’ve seen what happened to us and to the Mwellrets, as well! Besides, even if you somehow managed to get all the way up to that tower, how are you going to get in? You don’t have a Druid’s powers. Don’t tell me the door will just open for you. And if it did, that wouldn’t be good news either, would it? Why would you even think of doing something this . . . this ridiculous?”
He was almost shouting, and his breath was ragged as he cut himself off and rocked back on his heels. “You can’t do this!” A surge of fear washed through him as he imagined trying. “I won’t help you,” he finished in a rush.
She gave him such a patient, understanding look that he wanted to shake her. She hadn’t heard a word he’d said, or if she had, she hadn’t paid him the least attention.
But then she surprised him by saying, “Everything you say is true, Ahren Elessedil.”
He stared at her, not knowing what to say. “Then you’ll give up on this idea, won’t you? Come with me instead, back to the coast. We can wait for the Jerle Shannara there. We can hide until she returns. Maybe we can find Tamis again, maybe one or two others who might have escaped. They can’t all be dead, can they? What about Bek? Won’t he try to find his way back to that clearing?”
She brushed back her long hair and folded her hands into her lap, tucking them between her legs like a little girl. Her violet eyes were depthless and filled with pain as they fixed on him. He was suddenly certain that although she was no older than he was, her experience with life’s vicissitudes was far greater than his own.
“Let me tell you something about Walker and me,” she said quietly. “Something I haven’t told anyone. When we left the island of Shatterstone and he was sick from its poison, I sat with him in his cabin. Bek was there, as well. Joad Rish was doing everything he knew to help Walker, but nothing was working. After several days it became clear to all of us that Walker was dying. The poison was in too deep, and it was infused with the magic of that place and the spirit who warded it. Walker’s own magic could not give him sufficient protection against what was happening. He couldn’t make himself well again without help.”
She smiled. “So I used my own skills to heal him. I am a seer, but an empath, as well. My empathic powers allow me to absorb the hurt in others so that they can better mend. It is a draining and debilitating effort, but I knew there was no other choice. Know this, Elven Prince. I would have died gladly for him. He is special to me in a way you know nothing about and I don’t care to discuss. What matters is that in healing him, I formed a link with his subconscious. I think it was intentional on his part, but I cannot be sure. I became joined to him through the bond created by my willingness to give up something of my life in order to save his. It happens now and then with empaths, though usually it fades after the healing is finished. It did not do so here. It continued. It continues now.”
He studied her carefully in the silence that followed. “Are you saying Walker is communicating with you? That you can hear him speaking?”
“After a fashion, yes. Not words exactly. More a presence that comes and goes and suggests things. He is there in my mind, whispering to me that he is alive and well. I can feel him. I can sense him reaching out to me. It is the link we share, he and I, forged of a blending of our lives, of our magic, of the experience shared when he was dying and I saved him.”