had become and disappeared into the trees.
VII
^T\ usk was edging into night by the time Par and Damson
y preached the base of the Dragon’s Teeth and the trail that
Sv wound upward through the cliffs to the Kennon. Moon-
light flooded down from the north, and the skies were clear
and bright with stars. The day’s heat had cooled, and there was
a breeze blowing out of the mountains.
Somewhere in the trees of the forest behind, an owl hooted
softly and was still.
Because there was light enough to navigate the trail and they
were well rested, the Valeman and the girl pushed on. The
night was well suited for travel, even in the mountains, and
they made good time climbing from the lower slopes into the
pass. As they went, night descended and the silence deepened,
the forest and its inhabitants falling away behind them in a
pool of black, the rocks closing about and becoming silhou-
ettes that rose jagged and stark against the sky. Their boots
scraped and crunched on the loose stone and their breathing
grew labored, but beyond those immediate sounds the world
was still and empty-feeling.
Time passed, and midnight approached. They were well into
the pass now, approaching its apex, the point where the trail
would start down again into the valley beyond. The light ahead
seemed brighter than the light behind, a phenomenon for which
neither the Valeman nor the girl could account, and they ex-
changed more than one questioning glance. It was not until
they had reached the top of the pass, deep within the mountain
peaks, the way forward a long, broad corridor through the
rock, that they realized that what they were seeing was not the
63
64 The Talismans of Shannara
light of moon or stars, but the blaze of watch fires burning di-
rectly ahead.
Now the glance they exchanged was a wary one. Why were
there watch fires burning here? Who had set them?
They proceeded more cautiously man before, keeping well
into the shadows on the dark side of the pass, stopping fre-
quently to listen for what might be waiting ahead. Even so,
they almost missed seeing the guards posted on a rise several
hundred yards further on, positioned so as to give them a clear
view of anyone trying to slip past. The guards were soldiers,
and they wore Federation uniforms. Par and Damson melted
instantly into the shadows and out of view.
“What are they doing here? ” the girl whispered in Par’s ear.
The Valeman shook his head. There was no reason for them
to be here that he could figure out. The free-born were no-
where near the Kennon. Pirerim Reach was far to the east.
There was only the valley beyond, and there was nothing in
the valley, hadn’t been anything there for that matter since …
His mind froze and his eyes went wide.
Since Paranor had disappeared.
He took a deep breath and held it, remembering Allanon’s
charge to Walker Boh. Was it possible that Walker had … ?
He did not finish the thought. He would not let himself. He
knew he was jumping to conclusions, that the presence of the
soldiers in the pass could be for any number of reasons.
Yet something inside whispered that he was right. The sol-
diers were there because Paranor was back.
He bent hurriedly to Damson. She stared at him in surprise,
seeing the excitement in his eyes. “Damson.” He breathed her
name. “We have to get past those guards. Or at least…” His
mind raced. “At least we have to get far enough into the rocks
to see what’s beyond, what’s down in the valley. Can we do
that? Is there a way? Another way? ”
He was speaking so fast that his words were tumbling over
one another. Walker Boh, he was thinking. The Dark Uncle.
He had almost forgotten about Walker—had all but given up
on him since their separation at the Hadeshom. But Walker
was unpredictable. And Allanon had believed in him, enough
so that he had determined that the charge to find Paranor
should be his.
The Talismans of Shannara 65