her pack, and off they had gone.
Desidio and the rest of the advance force had been sent
north to meet with Barsimmon Oridio to await her return.
Two days ago. They had traveled all night te get here and
spent the first of those two days without sleep. They had all
gone exploring instead.
She shook her head, looking off into the darkened trees,
smelling moss and bark mold and wildflowers and wondering
that so much could happen in such a little time. She heard
Stresa shift in the darkness before her, restless, and she looked
back again.
“Did you find the Thing?” she asked him, not knowing
what else to call it.
“Hssstt.” Stresa was laughing. “Not Thing, Wren Elessedil.
Things! There have been some changes in three hundred years,
it seems. There are more than the one now.”
And perhaps always were, and only one was ever seen, she
thought suddenly. She rose, contemplating the advent of the
The Talismans of Shannara 367
new day. Before her, east, waited the Wing Riders and the
Home Guard, and beyond them, somewhere on the grasslands,
the Creepers. Behind her, west, lay the Matted Brakes.
More than one. Well, now.
“Wait for me, Stresa,” she ordered, rising again, anxious
now to begin. “The valley opens into a draw that will bring
them right through here. It shouldn’t be long.”
Stresa turned and moved back into the shadows. “I’ll take a
nap. I’m tired from all this rooting about. It stinks in the
Brakes, you know. Pfffttt. Watch yourself until you get back
here. Queen of the Elves.”
She let him go without comment, then turned into the trees
east and made her way back toward the dawn’s brightening
light. The forest was thin here, the draw she had described a
broad wash down out of the higher ground where runoff and
wind had swept away roost of the cover. She found Faun al-
most immediately, the little creature leaping onto her shoulder
and riding there as she slipped ahead through the trees. The
plan would work, she told herself, and to make certain, she
went over it again in her mind. The mechanics were simple
enough. It was the execution that would make the difference.
And the execution was almost entirely in her hands.
She moved down into the valley, following the north slope
where the shadows were deepest in the growing light, peering
out onto the plains beyond where a faint haze concealed what
lay there. They had scouted everything thoroughly the day be-
fore in preparation. The Home Guard knew the terrain well
enough to take advantage of it, and the Wing Riders had found
hiding places within the trees close by the Brakes. Games
within games, she thought. Wheels within wheels. She thought
back to Morrowindl, where she had learned to play cat and
mouse with the Shadowen creatures, to put into practice all
that Rover knowledge Garth had imparted to her. She thought
how farsighted her mother and father had been to give her into
Garth’s keeping, knowing how life must one day be for her. It
was strange even now to think how much had been given up
for her, but it was no longer so difficult to accept. Life dele-
gated responsibility as need required and never in equal shares.
The trick was in not being afraid when you learned that this
was so.
368 The Talismans of Shannara
Paun chittered softly in her ear, and she reached up to stroke
the warm, fuzzy face. We must look after each other, she
thought to herself. We must nurture and love, if life is to have
any real meaning. But first, unfortunately, we must find a way
to survive against the things that would prevent us from doing
so.
She found Triss and the Home Guard hidden at the mouth
of the valley within a cluster’of pine and heavy brush. It was
still and hazy on the plains beyond, the coming light diffuse
within the ground mist, giving it the look of snow. There was
a dampness in the air, and it had a pungent, coppery taste.
“They are no more than a mile below where we wait,” Triss