there’s no light. How much did Chandos tell you? ”
She moved away from the hut into the trees, a very deter-
mined stride, and he was swept along in her wake. “He told
me that Padishar had been taken by the Federation when he
and Par came to rescue you. He said Par had left you to go
find Coil—that it had something to do with the Shadowen.”
“Everything has something to do with the Shadowen,
doesn’t it? ” she whispered, her head lowering wearily.
She walked over to one end of a crumbling log and sat
down. Morgan hesitated, still guarded, then sat with her. She
turned slightly so that she was facing him. “I have a very long
story to tell you, Morgan Lean,” she advised.
100 The Talismans of Shannara
She began with finding Par and Coil after they had escaped
the Pit in Tyrsis. She told of how they had decided to go back
down into the Shadowen breeding ground one final time, how
they had enlisted the help of the Mole and found their way
through the tunnels beneath the city to the old palace. From
there the brothers had gone off together in search of the Sword
of Shannara. Par had come back alone, carrying with him what
he believed to be the talisman, half-mad with grief and horror
because he had killed his brother. She had nursed him for
weeks in the Mole’s underground home, slowly bringing him
back to himself, carefully bringing him out of his dark night-
mare. From there they had fled from safe house to safe house,
the Sword of Shannara in tow, hiding from the Seekers and the
Federation, looking for a way to escape the city. Finally
Padishar had found them, but in the process of yet another es-
cape from the Federation, Damson herself had been taken.
Padishar and Par had come back to rescue her, and that in turn
had led to Padishar’s capture. Fleeing the city completely, be-
cause at last there was a way to do so and there was nothing
they could do for Padishar without help, they had come north
through the Kennon.
She touched his arm impulsively. “And what we saw, Mor-
gan Leah, from high in the pass, far off in the distance beyond
the Federation watch fires, but as clear as I see you, was
Paranor. It is back, Highlander, returned out of the past. Par
was certain of it. He said it meant mat Walker Boh had suc-
ceeded!”
Then, growing subdued again, she described their journey
back out of the pass and their fateful encounter with Coil—or
the thing Coil had become, wrapped in that strange, shimmer-
ing cloak, hunched and twisted as if his bones had been rear-
ranged. In the struggle that followed the power of the Sword
of Shannara had somehow been invoked, revealing what Par
now thought to be the truth about the brother he believed dead.
“He went after Coil, of course,” she finished. “What else
could he do? I did not want him to go, not without me—but
I did not have the right to stop him.” She searched Morgan’s
eyes. “I am not as certain as he that it is Coil he tracks, but
I realize that he must find out one way or the other if he is
ever to be at peace.”
The Talismans of Shannara 101
Morgan nodded. He was thinking that Damson Rhee had
given up an awful lot of herself to help Par Ohmsford, that she
had risked more than he would have expected anyone to risk
besides himself and Coll. He was thinking as well that the
story she had told him had a feeling of truth to it, that it
seemed right in the balance of things. The doubts he had
brought with him coming in began to fade away. Certainly
Par’s persistence in going after the Sword of Shannara was in
character, as was this new search to find his brother. The prob-
lem now was that Par was more alone than ever, and Morgan
was reminded once again of his failure to watch out for his
friend.
He realized Damson was studying him, a hard, probing look,