up off the ground.
Still, Tiger Ty wasn’t satisfied.
“It’s one thing to find them regrouping today,” he declared
to Wren, out of hearing of the others. “You expect them to sit
tight after an attack like that one. They suffered real damage,
and they need to lick their wounds a bit. But don’t be fooled.
They’ll be doing what we’re doing—thinking about how to re-
206 The Talismans of Shannara
act to this. If they’re still sitting there tomorrow, it’ll be time
for a closer look. Because they’ll be up to something by then.
You can depend on it.”
Wren nodded, then led him off to join Triss for lunch. Triss,
apprised of Tiger Ty’s thinking, agreed. This was a seasoned
army they faced, and its commanders would work hard at find-
ing a way to take back the,momentary advantage the Elves had
won.
They had just finished eating when an Elven patrol rode in
with a battered and disheveled Tib Ame in tow. The patrol had
been scouting the low end of the Streleheim toward Callahom
when they had come across the boy wandering the plains in
search of the Elves. Finding him alone and injured, they had
picked him up and brought him directly here.
Tib was cut and bruised about the face, and covered from
head to foot with dirt and dust. He was very distressed and
could barely speak at first. Wren brought him over to sit, and
cleaned off his face with a damp cloth. Triss and Tiger Ty
stood close to listen to what he had to say.
‘Tell me what happened,” she urged him after she had
calmed him down sufficiently to speak.
“I am sorry, my queen,” he apologized, shamefaced now at
his loss of control. “I have been out there for a day and a night
with nothing to eat or drink and I haven’t had any sleep.”
“What happened to you? ” she repeated.
“We were attacked, myself and the men you sent with me,
not far from the Dragon’s Teeth. It was night when they came,
more than a dozen of them. We were camped, and they
charged out at us. The men you sent, they fought as hard as
they could. But they were killed. I would have been killed as
well, but for Gloon. He came to my aid, striking at my attack-
ers, and I ran away into the dark. I could hear Gloon’s shriek,
the shouts of the men fighting him, and then nothing. I hid in
the darkness all night, then started back to find you. I was
afraid to go on without Gloon, afraid that there were other pa-
trols searching for me.”
“The shrike is dead? ” Tiger Ty asked abruptly.
Tib dissolved into tears. “I think so. I didn’t see him again.
I whistled for him when it was light, but he didn’t come.” He
looked at Wren, stricken. “I’m sony I failed you, my lady. I
The Talismans of Shannara 207
don’t know how they found us so easily. It was as if they
knew!”
“Never mind, Tib,” she comforted him, placing her hand on
his shoulder. “You did your best. I’m sorry about Gloon.”
“I know,” he murmured, composing himself once more.
“You’ll stay here with us now,” she told him. “We’ll find
another way to get word to the free-born, or if not, we’ll just
wait for them to find us.”
She ordered food and drink for the boy, wrapped him in a
woolen blanket, then pulled Tiger Ty and Triss aside. They
stood beneath a towering oak with acorn shells carpeting the
forest floor and clouds screening away the skies overhead and
leaving the light faint and gray.
“What do you think? ” she asked them.
Triss shook his head. “Those were experienced men that
went with the boy. They shouldn’t have been caught unpre-
pared. I think they were either very unlucky or the boy is right
and someone was waiting for them.”
“I’ll tell you what I think,” Tiger Ty said. “I think it’s pretty
hard to kill a war shrike even when you can see it, let alone
when you can’t.”
She looked at him. “What does that mean? “