said, and proceeded to describe it in detail—the hills with their
carpets of blue, lavender, and yellow grasses and flowers, the
streams that turned frosty at dawn and blood-red at dusk, the
mist that came and went with the changing seasons, the forests
and the meadows, the sense of peace and timelessness. The
Highlands were his passion, the more so since his departure
weeks earlier. It reminded him again how much home meant to
him, even a home that was really no longer his now that the
Federation occupied it—though in truth, he thought, it was still
more his than theirs because he kept the feel of it with him in
his mind and its history was in his blood and that would never
be true for them.
She was silent for a time when he finished, then said, “I like
how you describe your home. I like how you feel about it. If
I lived there, I think I would feel the same.”
The Talismans of Shannara 93
“You wouM,” he assured her, studying the profile of her
face as she stared out across the Rabb, distracted. “But I guess
everyone feels that way about their home.”
‘1 don’t,” she said.
He straightened up again. “Why not? ”
Her forehead furrowed. It produced only a slight marring of
her smooth features but gave her an entirely different look, one
at once both introspective and distant. “I suppose it’s because
I have no good memories of home. I was born on a small farm
south of Varfleet, one of several families that occupied a val-
ley. I lived there with my parents and my brothers and one sis-
ter. I was the youngest. We raised milk cows and grain. In
summer, the fields would be as gold as the sun. In fall, the
earth would be all black after it was plowed.” She shrugged. “I
don’t remember much other than that. Just the sickness. It
seems a long rime ago, but I guess k wasn’t. The land went
bad first, then the stock, and finally my family. Everything be-
gan to die. Everyone. My sister first, then my mother, my
brothers, and my father. It was the same with the people who
lived on the other farms. It happened all at once. Everyone was
dead in a few months. One of the women on the other farms
found me and took me to Varfleet to live with her. We were
the last. I was six years old.”
She made it all sound as if it were nothing out of the ordi-
nary. There was no emotion in her voice. She finished and
looked away. “I think there might be some rain on the way,”
she said.
They slept until dawn, ate a breakfast of bread, fruit, and
cheese, and began their trek north again. The skies were cloud-
ing when they woke, and a short time after they crossed the
Rabb it began to rain. Thunderheads built up, and lightning
streaked the blacjaiess. When the rain began to come down in
torrents, they took shelter in the lee of an old maple set back
against a rocky rise. Brushing water from their faces and
clothes, they settled back to wait out the storm. The air cooled
slightly, and the plains shimmered with the damp.
Shoulder to shoulder, they sat with their backs against the
maple, staring out into the haze, listening to the sound of the
rain.
94 The Talismans of Shannara
“How did you meet Padishar? ” Moigan asked her after they
had been quiet for a time.
She brought her knees up and wrapped her arms about them.
Water beaded on her skin and glistened in her black hair. “I
apprenticed to Hirehone when I was old enough to work. He
taught me to forge iron and to fight. After a while I was better
than he was at both. So he brought me into the Movement, and
that’s how I met Padishar.”
Memories of Hirehone crowded Morgan’s mind. He let them
linger a moment and then banished them. “How long have you
been looking after the Whistledown? ”
“A couple of years. It offers an opportunity to learn things