prisoner of the Shadowen at Southwatch. There are others out
looking for him as well. I promised to wait for them.”
His voice had an edge to it that did not allow for argument,
but he added reluctantly, “But if you really need me …”
She stopped him with a squeeze of her hand. “I can make
it back on my own. But there is something I have to tell you
first, and you have to promise me that you will tell the others
when you see them again.” Her grip tightened. “Where are
they, anyway? What’s become of them? What’s happened with
Allanon’s charges? Did the others fulfill mem as well? ” She
was speaking too rapidly, and she forced hersetf to slow down,
The Talismans of Shannara 331
calm, not to look off to the east and the brightening
w ,.ye^ sit down. Let me have a look at your wound.”
She took his arm and led him to a moss-covered log where
die seated him, stripped off his shirt, tore it in strips, and
cteaned and bound the sword slash as best she could.
“par and CoU found the Sword of Shannara, but then they
disappeared,” he told her as she worked. “It’s too long a story
fomow. I’ve been tracking Par; he may be tracking Coll. I
don’t know who has the Sword. As for Walker, I was with him
when he went north to recover a magic that would restore
Paranor and the Druids. He was successful, and we came back
together, but I haven’t seen him since.” He shook his head.
“Paranor’s back. The Sword’s found. The charges are all ful-
filled, but I don’t know what difference it makes.”
She finished tying up his wound and moved back around in
front of him. “Neither do I. But in some way it does. We just
have to find out how.” She swallowed against the dryness in
her throat, and her hazel eyes fixed him. “Now, listen. This is
what you are to tell the others.” She took a deep breath. “The
Shadowen are Elves. They are Elves who rediscovered the old
magic and thought to use it recklessly. They stayed behind
when the rest of the Elven nation fled the Four Lands and the
Federation. The magic subverted them as it does everything; it
made them into the Shadowen. They are another form of the
Skull Bearers of old, dark wraiths for which the magic is a
craving they cannot resist. I don’t know how they can be de-
stroyed, but it must be done. AUanon was right—they are an
evil that threatens us all. The answers we need lie in the pur-
pose of fulfilling the charges that we were given. One of us
will discover the truth. We must. Tell them what I’ve told to
you, Morgan. Promise me.”
Morgan rose. “I’D tell them.”
A heron’s cry pierced the morning stillness, and Wren jerked
about. “Wait here,” she said.
She hobbled over to the fallen Shadowen and began rifling
through their clothing. One of them, she knew, had the
Elfstones, stolen from her by Tib Ame. Her anger at him
burned anew. She searched the closest two and found nothing.
She stirred the ashes of the one Morgan had burned through
and found nothing there either. Then she went back to the
332 The Talismans of Shannara
driver and his companion, to their severed bodies, and ignoring
what had been done to them, she worked her way carefully
through their robes.
In the cloak pocket of one she found the pouch and the
Stones. Exhaling sharply, she stuffed the pouch into her tunic
and limped back toward Morgan.
Halfway there, she saw the Shadowen horse that hadn’t run
grazing at the edge of the trees. She stopped, considered mo-
mentarily, then put her fingers to her mouth and gave a
strange, low-pitched whistle. The horse looked up, ears prick-
ing toward the sound. She whistled again, varying the pitch
slightly. The horse stared at her, then pawed the earth. She
walked over to the animal slowly, talking softly and holding
out her hand. The horse sniffed at her, and she reached out to