quietly.
Walker shook his head. “We have discussed this already.”
“Change your mind. Walker. Let me come. You will have
need of me.”
He sounded so sure. Walker recalled thinking. “No. You and
Rumor will wait here. Stay by the door—let me back in if this
fails.”
Cogline’s jaw tightened. “If this fails, you won’t need me to
let you back in.”
True, Walker thought. But that didn’t change things. He
wasn’t going to let the old man and the moor cat go out there
The Talismans of Shannara 217
with him. He wasn’t going to be responsible for their lives as
well. It would be enough that he would have to worry about
keeping himself whole.
“You think I can’t look after myself,” the old man said, as
if reading his thoughts. “You forget I took care of myself for
years before you came along—before there were any Druids. I
took care of you as well, once.”
Walker nodded. “I know that.”
The old man fidgeted. “Could be I was meant to take care
of you again, you know. Could be you’ll have need of me out
there.” He turned his face within the cowl to look at Walker.
“I’m an old man. Walker. I’ve lived a long time—lived a full
life. It doesn’t matter so much what happens to me anymore.”
“It matters to me.”
“It shouldn’t. It shouldn’t matter a whit.” Cogline was em-
phatic. “Why should it matter? Since when did you like me all
that much anyway? I was the one who dragged you into this
business. I was the one who persuaded you to visit the
Hadeshom, then to read the Druid History. Have you forgot-
ten? ”
Walker shook his head. “No, I haven’t forgotten any of it.
But it was me who made the choices that mattered—not you.
We’ve talked all this out, too. You were as much a pawn of the
Druids as I was. Everything was decided three hundred years
ago when Allanon bestowed the blood trust on Brin Ohmsford.
You are not to blame for any of it.”
Cogline’s eyes turned filmy and distant. “I am to blame for
everything that has happened in my life and yours as well,
Walker Boh. I chose early on to take up the Druid way and
chose after to discard it. I chose the old sciences to learn, to
recover in small part. I made myself a creature of both worlds,
Druid and Man, taking what I needed, keeping what I coveted,
stealing from both. I am the link between the past and the pres-
ent, the new and the old, and Allanon was able to use me as
such. How much of what I am has made your own
transformation possible. Walker? How far would you have
gone without me there to prod you on? Do you think for a mo-
ment that I wasn’t aware of that? Or that Allanon was blind to
it? No, I cannot be absolved from my blame. You cannot ab-
solve me by taking it upon yourself.”
218 The Talismans of Shannara
Walker remembered the vehemency in the other’s voice, the
hard edge it had revealed, the insistence it had conveyed.
“Then I shall not attempt to absolve you, old man,” he replied.
“But neither shall I absolve myself. You did not make the
choices for me; nor did you hinder me in making them. Yes,
there were compelling reasons to choose as I did, but those
reasons were not suggested by you before I had considered
them myself. Besides, I could claim as you do, if I wished.
Without me, what part would you have had in all of this?
Would you have been more than a messenger to Par and Wren
if you had not been tied to me as well? I don’t think that you
can say so.”
The old man’s face was lowered into shadow by then, see-
ing the other’s inflexibility, hearing his resolve.
“You will help me best by waiting here,” Walker finished,
reaching out to touch the other’s arm. “Always before, you
have understood the importance of knowing when to act and
when not to. Do so again for me now.”