He stopped her, suddenly ashamed. “I know.”
She shook her head. “No, you don’t.”
“I do. What you did was necessary, and I shouldn’t find
fault. What bothers me is the idea of it, I suppose. I think of
you in another way, a different way.”
She smiled sadly. “That is only because you really don’t
know me, Morgan. You see me one way, for a short time, and
that is how I am for you. But I am a good many more things
than what you have seen. I’ve killed men before. I’ve killed
them face to face and out of hiding. I’ve done it to stay alive.”
There were tears in her eyes. “If you can’t understand that…”
She stopped, bit down on her lip, rose abruptly, and moved
away. He did not try to stop her. He watched her walk to the
far side of the courtyard and seat herself on the stones with her
back against the wall in the deep shadows. She stayed there,
motionless in the dark. Time slipped away, and Morgan’s eyes
grew heavy. He had not slept since the previous night and then
poorly. Dawn would be there before he knew it, and he would
be exhausted. He had not yet devised a plan for rescuing
Padishar Creel—had not even considered the matter. He felt
bereft of ideas and hope.
Finally he spread his cloak on the floor of the shed, made a
pillow with the rags that the three of them had carried in, and
lay down. He tried to think about Padishar, but he was asleep
almost at once.
Sometime during the night he was awakened by a stirring
The Talismans of Shannara 251
next to him. He felt Many Roh curl up against him, her body
pressing close against his own. One slender arm reached
around him, and her hand found his.
They lay together like that for the remainder of the night.
It was nearing dawn when Damson’s touch on his shoulder
brought him awake. There was a lightening in the spaces be-
tween the shadows that told of day’s coming, faint and silvery
lines against the building walls surrounding where he lay. He
blinked the sleep from his eyes and recognized who it was
crouching next to him. He was still tangled with Matty, and he
nudged her gently awake. Together they rose stiffly, awk-
wardly, to their feet.
“They’re here,” Damson said simply. Her eyes revealed
nothing of what she thought, finding them together. She ges-
tured over her shoulder. “The Mole has them hidden in a cellar
not far away. He found me last night shortly after I left you,
took me through the tunnels, and together we brought Chandos
and the others in. We’re ready. Did you find Padishar? ”
Morgan nodded, fully awake now. “Matty found him.” He
looked back at me elfin face. “I wouldn’t have been able to, I
don’t think.”
Damson smiled gratefully at the tall girl and clasped her
slender hands in her own. “Thank you. Many. I was afraid this
was all going to be for nothing.”
Matty’s cobalt eyes glinted like stone. “Don’t thank me yet.
We still have to get him out. He’s being held in the Gatehouse
cells at the Pit.”
Damson’s jaw tightened. “Of course. They would take him
there, wouldn’t they? ” She wheeled back. “Morgan, how are
we going to—”
“We’d better hurry,” he said, cutting her short. “I’ll tell you
when we reach the others.”
If I can think of something by then, he added silently. But
the beginnings of an idea were forming in the back of his
mind, a plan that had come to him all at once upon waking. He
threw on his cloak, and together the three of them abandoned
the tiny court, went back through the rooms that led in, and
stepped out into the street.
It was silent and empty there, the street a black corridor that
252 The Talismans of Shannara
sliced through building walls until it disappeared into a tangle
of crossroads and alleyways. They moved quickly ahead, skim-
ming along the stone in tandem with their shadows, pressing
through the blackness of the dying night. Morgan’s mind was