night.
Coil! It had been Coil!
He came to his feet, bewildered and frightened, fighting for
air and balance. What was going on? Had Coil been sent to
kill him after all? Had he tried to choke him to death? He
168 The Talismans of Shannara
watched the dark form disappear into the shadows, lost in the
rocks and trees almost instantly. There was no mistake. It had
been Coll. He was certain of it.
But what was his brother trying to do?
He thought suddenly of the Sword, glanced hurriedly down,
and found it lying untouched next to where he stood. Not the
Sword, he thought. What then?
He groped at his neck, aware suddenly of new pain. His
hand came away wet with blood. He felt again. He found a
collar of bruised, torn flesh. He touched it gingerly, question-
ingly.
And then he realized that the Skree was gone.
His brother had stolen it. He must have seen Par hold it up
while he was hiding out there in the dark. He must have come
down after Par had fallen asleep, crept up on him, pinned him
to the ground, yanked at the leather cord about his neck so that
he choked, bitten it through when nothing else worked, and
carried off Damson’s talisman.
Why?
So that Par would follow him, of course. So that Par would
have to give chase.
The Valeman stood staring after his brother, after the thing
his brother had become, stunned. In the silence of his mind it
seemed he could hear the other cry out to him.
Help me, Coil was saying.
Help me.
XV
When it grew light enough to see. Par went after his
brother. Sunrise was early, the day clear and bright,
and the trail Coil left easy to follow once again. Par
redoubled his efforts, pushing himself harder than before, de-
termined that this time Coil would not get away. They were
deep within the Runne Mountains by now, hemmed in by can-
yon walls as they followed the Mermidon south, and there was
little room for deviation. Nevertheless, Coil continued to wan-
der away from the riverbank as if searching for a way out.
Sometimes he would get almost half a mile before the moun-
tains blocked his path. Once he was able to climb to a low
ridge and follow it south for several miles before it dead-ended
at another cliff face and turned him aside. Each time Par was
forced to follow so as not to lose the trail, afraid that if he sim-
ply kept to the riverbank Coil would double back. The effort
of the pursuit drained him of his strength, and the muggy,
windless air made him light-headed. The day passed, sunset
came, and still he had not found Coll.
He fished for his dinner that night, using the hook and line
from the trading center, cooked and ate his catch, and left what
remained—a more than generous portion—on a flat rock several
dozen feet off from where he slept. He was awake most of the
night, hearing and seeing things that weren’t there, dozing infre-
quently and fitfully. He did not see Coil once. When he woke,
he found the fish gone—but it might have been eaten by wild
animals. He didn’t think so, but there was no way to be sure.
For the next three days he continued his pursuit, working his
way downriver, edging steadily closer to the Rainbow Lake
169
170 The Talismans of Shannara
and Southwatch. He began to worry that he was not going to
catch up to Coil until it was too late. Somehow his brother was
managing to keep just ahead of him, even with his diminished
capacity to reason, even in his half-Shadowen state. Coil was
not thinking clearly, not choosing the easiest or quickest paths,
not bothering to hide his tracks, not doing anything but some-
how managing to keep just out of reach. It was frustrating and
troubling at once. It seemed inevitable that he would find Coil
too late to help him—or perhaps even to help himself, if the
Shadowen discovered them. If Rimmer Dall found Coil first,
what was Par supposed to do then? Use the Sword of