serve the Federation. I don’t think we came all the way back
from Morrowindl to embrace a lifetime of that.”
He looked at Wren. “What are your thoughts, my lady? I am
certain you have assessed the situation on your own.”
Again she was ready. “It seems our choices are these. Either
we fortify Arborlon and await the Federation army here or we
take our army out to meet them.”
“Go out to meet them? ” Barsimmon Oridio was aghast. His
142 The Talismans of Shannara
heavy frame shifted combatively, and his aged face furrowed.
“You have said yourself they have ten times our strength.
What point would there be in forcing a battle? ”
“It would give us the advantage of not letting them dictate
time and place and circumstance,” she replied. She was still
standing, keeping her vantage point so that she could continue
to look down at them and they up at her. “And I said nothing
about forcing a battle.”
Again there was silence. Barsimmon Oridio flushed. “But
you said that—”
“She said we could go out and meet them,” Eton Shart in-
terrupted. He was sitting forward now, interested. “She did not
say anything about fighting them.” His gaze stayed on Wren.
“But what would we do once we were out there, my lady? ”
“Harass them. Draw them off. Hit and run. Whatever it takes
to delay them. Fight them if we get a chance to hurt them badly,
but avoid a direct confrontation where we would lose.”
“Delay them,” the first minister repeated thoughtfully. “But
sooner or later they will catch up to us—or reach Arborlon.
Then what? ”
“We would be better off spending the time setting traps, for-
tifying the city, and gathering in supplies,” Perek Arundel of-
fered. “We withstood the demons when the Ellcrys failed two
hundred years ago. We can withstand the Federation as well.”
Barsimmon Oridio grunted and shook his head. “Study your
history, Perek. The gates to the city were taken and we were
overrun. If the young girl Chosen hadn’t transformed into the
Ellcrys anew, it would have been over for us.” He swung his
heavy head away. “Besides, we had allies in that fight—not
many, but a few, some Dwarves and the Legion Free Corps.”
“Perhaps we shall have allies again,” Wren declared sud-
denly, bringing all eyes back to her. “There are free-bom in the
mountains north of Callahom, a sizable number, the Dwarf Re-
sistance in the Eastland, and the Troll nations north. Some of
them might be persuaded to help us.”
“Not likely,” the general of her armies said gruffly, inci-
sively, declaring the matter at an end. “Why should they? ”
Wren had brought the discussion to where she wanted it; she
had the Council listening to her, looking for an answer to what
seemed an unsolvable dilemma.
The Talismans of Shannara 143
She straightened. “Because we’ll give them a reason. Bar.”
She used his nickname easily, familiarly, the way Ellenroh had.
“Because we’ll give them something they didn’t have before.
Unity. The Races united against their enemies in a common
cause. A chance to destroy the Shadowen.”
Eton Shart smiled faintly. “Words, my lady. What do they
mean? ”
She faced him. He was her biggest hurdle in this business.
She had to have his support. “I’ll tell you what they mean,
Eton. They mean that for the first time in three centuries we
have a chance to win.” She paused for emphasis. “Do you re-
member what brought me in search of the Elves, First Minis-
ter? Let me tell the story once again.”
And she did, all of it, from the journey to the Hadeshom
and the Shade of Allanon to the search for Morrowindl and
Arborlon. She repeated Allanon’s charges to the Ohmsfords.
She had shown no one the Elfstones save Triss, but she
brought them out now as she finished her tale, dumped them
in her hand, and held them out to be seen.
“This is my legacy,” she said, shifting the hand with the
Elfstones from face to face. “I did not want it, did not ask for
it, and more than once have wished it gone. But I promised my