wrists lashed with cord that cut the flesh. Dust and the smell
of her own sweat and fear filled her nostrils.
“Ah, lady, my lady, the fairest of the fair, ruler of the West-
land Elves—you are such a fool!” The voice became a hiss.
“Sit up and look at me!”
She was struck a blow to roe side of the head that spilled
her back to the ground, and again the fist closed on her hair
and yanked her upright. “Look at me!”
She lifted her head and stared into Tib Ame’s blue eyes.
There was no laughter in them now, nothing of the boy that he
had seemed. They were hard and cold and filled with menace.
“Cat got your tongue? ” he sneered, and gave her a mirth-
less smile. There was blood on his hands. “Cat got your
tongue, and I’ve got the rest. But what to do with you? What
duty shall I render to the Queen of the Elves? ”
He wheeled away, laughing softly, shaking his head, hug-
ging himself with glee. Wren looked around in dismal recogni-
tion. Erring Rift lay dead on the ground next to her, the killing
blade still jammed to the hilt in his back. Grayl lay a little fur-
ther off, lifeless as well, most of his head missing. Towering
over him was Gloon, grown somehow as large as the Roc,
feathers bristling from his sinewy body like quills. Talons and
beak already red with blood ripped at the dead Roc, tearing out
new chunks of flesh. In the midst of eating, Gloon paused and
stared directly at her, crested brows furrowing, and what she
saw in the war shrike’s eyes was an undisguised hunger.
Her breath caught in her throat, and she could not look
away.
“Larger than you remember him, isn’t he? ” Tib Ame said,
suddenly very close again, his shadow enveloping her as he
bent down. His boyish voice was all wrong for the hardened
face. “That was your first mistake—thinking that we were
what we seemed. You were very stupid.”
He seized her neck and twisted her to face him. “It was
easy, really. I could have come into the camp at any time,
could have told you I was anyone. But I waited, patient and
smart. I saw the free-born messenger, and I intercepted him.
He told me everything before he died. Then I took his
The Talismans of Shannara 315
place. All I needed to do was to get you alone for a few mo-
ments, you see. That was all.”
His eyes danced. Suddenly he began hitting her with his free
hand, holding her upright as he did so that she would not fall.
“But’ you wouldn’t give me that!” He stopped hitting her, jerk-
ing her bloodied face about so that she could see him again. His
blond hair was awry and his blue eyes sparkled, but the winning
boy could not conceal the monster that seethed just beneath the
surface of the skin, tensed to break forth. “You tried to send me
away, and while I was gone you led that night attack on the
Federation army! Stupid, stupid girl! They’re nothing! All you
did was slow things up a bit, force us to bring the Creepers just
that much sooner, require us to work just that much harder!”
He dropped to his knees in front of her, hand still clenched
about her neck in a grip of iron. A single word repeated itself
over and over in her pain-fogged mind. Shadowen.
“But I killed those men—or rather Gloon did for me. Tore
them to shreds, and I listened to them scream and did nothing
to quicken their death. But it was your fault they died, not
mine. I sent Gloon to hide and came back—too late to stop
your foolish night raid, but soon enough to make certain it
would not happen again. And then I waited, knowing a chance
would come to get you alone, knowing it must!”
He gave her his little-boy look of pleading, and his voice
grew mocking. “Oh, Lady, please, please take me with you?
You promised you would? Please? I won’t be any trouble? “