determined one, edged with flashes of anger and hope. “I say
we have to try something or Padishar is lost.” Her face tight-
ened. “If it was us instead of him, wouldn’t he come? ”
Chandos rubbed at the scarred remains of his ear. “In your
case, he already did, didn’t he? ” He shook his head. “Pools to
the end, we are,” he muttered to no one in particular. “All of
us.” He looked back at Morgan. “All right, Highlander. Two
dozen men, myself included. I’ll pick them tonight,”
He rose abruptly. “You’ll want to leave right away, I expect.
First light, or as soon thereafter as we can put together supplies
for the trip.” He gave Morgan a wry look. “We don’t have to
live off the land by any chance, do we, Highlander? ”
Morgan and Damson stood up with him. Morgan extended
his hand to the free-bom. “Thank you, Chandos.”
The big man laughed. “For what? For agreeing to a mad-
man’s scheme? ” He clasped Morgan’s hand nevertheless. “Tell
you what. If this works, it’ll be me thanking you a dozen times
over.”
Muttering, he trudged off toward the cooking fires, carrying
his empty plate, shaggy head lowered into his barrel chest.
Morgan watched him go, thinking momentarily of times gone
by and of places and companions left behind. The thoughts
were haunting and filled with regrets for what might have
been, and they left him feeling empty and alone.
The Talismans of Shannara 119
He felt Damson’s shoulder brush up against his arm and
turned to face her. The emerald eyes were thoughtful. “He may
be right about you,” she observed quietly. “You may be a mad-
man.”
He shrugged. “You backed me up.”
“I want Padishar free. You seem to be the only one with a
plan.” She arched one eyebrow. ‘Tell me the truth—is there
any more to this scheme than what you’ve revealed? ”
He smiled. “Not much. I hope to be able to improvise as I
go along.”
She didn’t say anything, just studied him a moment, then
took his arm and steered him out along the bluff face. They
walked without saying anything for a long time, crossing from
the edge of the trees to the cliffs and back again, breathing the
scent of wildflowers and grasses on the wind that skipped
down off the ridges of the peaks beyond. The wind was warm
and soothing, like silk against Morgan’s skin. He lifted his face
to it. It made him want to close his eyes and disappear into it.
“Tell me about your sword,” she said suddenly, her voice
very quiet. Her gaze was steady despite the sudden shifting of
his eyes away from her. ‘Tell me how it was healed—and why
you hurt so much, Morgan. Because you do in some way,
don’t you? I can see it in your eyes. Tell me. I want to hear.”
He believed her, and he discovered all at once that he did
want to talk about it after all. He let himself be pulled down
onto a flat-surfaced rock. Sitting next to her in the darkness,
both of them facing out toward the cliffs, he began to speak.
“There was a girl named Quickening,” he said, the words
thick and unwieldy sounding as he spoke them. He paused and
took a deep, steadying breath. “I loved her very much.”
He hoped she didn’t see the tears that came to his eyes.
He spent the night rolled into a blanket at the edge of the
trees, body wedged within the roots of an ancient elm, head
cradled by his rolled-up travel cloak. The makeshift bedding
proved less than satisfactory, and he woke stiff and sore. As he
shook the leaves and dust out of the cloak he realized that he
had not seen Matty Roh since the night before, that he hadn’t
actually seen her even at dinner, although he had been pretty
preoccupied with his plan for rescuing Padishar—his great and
320 The Talismans of Shannara
wonderful plan that on reflection in the pale first light of dawn
appeared pretty makeshift and decidedly lacking in common
sense. Last night it had seemed pretty good. This morning it