the half disk glimmered bright copper.
She began to put it away, apparently had second thoughts,
and tested each of the other compass points. When she faced
north, the direction from which they had come, the Skree glim-
mered a second time, a small, weak pulsing. Damson stared at
it in disbelief, closed her hand over it, turned away and then
back once more, and reopened her hand. Again the Skree glim-
mered fitfully.
“Why is it doing that? ” Matty asked immediately.
Damson shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve never heard of
it behaving like this.”
She faced south again and carefully let her palm travel the
horizon from east to west and back again. Then she did the
same thing facing north, reading the Skree’s hammered surface
as she turned. There was no mistake in what they were seeing.
The Skree brightened both ways.
“Could it have been broken again and the pieces carried in
two directions? ” Morgan asked.
“No. It can only be divided once. Another breaking would
render it useless. That hasn’t happened.” Damson looked wor-
ried. “But something has. The reading south points towards the
276 The Talismans of Shannara
Silver River country west of Culhaven above the Battlemound.
It is the stronger of the two.” She looked over her shoulder.
‘The reading north is centered on Southwatch.”
There was a long silence as they considered what that
meant. A heron cried out from over the lake, swept out of the
haze in a flash of silver brightness, and disappeared again.
‘Two readings,” Morgan said, and put his hands on his hips
and shook his head. “And one of them is a fake.”
“So which one do we believe? ” Matty asked. She started
away a few steps as if she had something in mind, then turned
abruptly and came back again. “Which is the real one? ”
Again Damson shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Matty’s cobalt eyes glanced toward the horizon where the
clouds were building. “Then we will have to check them
both.”
Damson nodded. “I think so. I don’t know any other way.”
Morgan exhaled in frustration. “All right. We’ll go south
first. That reading is the stronger of the two.”
“And abandon Southwatch? ” Matty shook her head. “We
can’t do that. Someone has to stay here in case Par Ohmsford
is inside. Think about it, Highlander. What if he’s in there and
they try to move him? What if a chance to rescue him comes
along and no one is here to do anything about it? We might
lose him and have to start all over again. I don’t think we can
take that chance.”
“She’s right,” Damson agreed.
“Fine, you stay. Damson and I will go south,” Morgan de-
clared, irritated that he hadn’t thought of it first.
But Many shook her head again. “You have to be the one
who stays. Your sword is the only effective weapon we have
against the Shadowen. If a rescue is needed, if any sort of con-
frontation comes about, your Sword is a talisman against their
magic. My skills are good, Morgan Leah, but I also know
when I’m overmatched. I don’t like this any better than you
do, but it can’t be helped. Damson and I will go south.”
There was a long silence as they faced each other, Morgan
fighting to control an almost irresistible urge to reject flatly
what he perceived to be the madness of her suggestion, Matty
with her cobalt eyes steady and determined, the weight of her
arguments mirrored in their blue light.
The Talismans of Shannara 277
Finally Morgan looked away, reason winning out over pas-
sion, a reluctant submission to necessity and hope. “All right,”
he said softly. The words were bitter and harsh sounding. “All
right. I don’t like it, but all right.” He looked back again. “But
if you find Par and there’s to be a fight, you come back for
me.”
Matty nodded. “If we can.”
Morgan winced at the qualification, shook his head angrily,
and glanced at Damson in challenge. But Damson simply nod-
ded in agreement. Morgan exhaled slowly. “If you can,” he re-
peated dully.