wielded by the combatants, the strengths of the First Seeker
and the ancient spirit as they fought for control of Coil’s life
and his. His brother had become separated from him somehow;
he could no longer feel him pressing close. For a moment he
could see Coil, could make out the other’s familiar features,
and then even that was gone.
“Par, I have to tell you—” he heard his brother call out.
Inside, the magic of the wishsong was building, and his
brother’s words disappeared in its rush.
The lamp of the King of the Silver River cut against the
Shadowen dark, forcing it away. Par reached toward the light,
stretching out his hands. But the darkness surged back again,
a shriek of desperation and anger. It scythed across the light
and shut Par away.
In terror Par released his magic. It roared out of him like
floodwaters in a spring storm, a torrent that could not be
slowed. Par felt the magic explode everywhere, white-hot and
fierce, burning everything. It swept about him in a fury, and
Par could do nothing to stop it.
He felt himself change, felt himself shift away from his body,
turn his face aside and mask who and what he was. The change
was terrifying and real; it was as if his skin was being shed.
He saw the lamp of the King of the Silver River disappear.
He saw the darkness close about.
Then his strength gave out, consciousness left him com-
pletely, and he saw nothing at all-
XVI
When Barsimmon Oridio advised Wren, following the
High Council’s decision to engage the approaching
Federation force rather than wait for it in Arborlon,
that it would take at least a week to assemble and provision the
whole of their army, she determined to set forth with as many
men as he could have ready in two days to act as a vanguard.
Predictably, the old warrior balked, challenging the sense of
taking a small force against so many, questioning what would
happen if it was trapped and forced to fight. She listened pa-
tiently, then explained that the purpose of the vanguard was
not to engage the enemy, but to monitor it and perhaps to slow
it by letting it discover the presence of another army in the
field. There was no reason to worry, she assured. Bar could se-
lect the commander of the vanguard, and she would be bound
by his decisions. Bar fussed and fumed, but in the end he gave
in, satisfying himself with her promise that she would wait un-
til he arrived with the bulk of the army before attempting any
sort of offensive engagement.
Word went out to the Elves who had settled the surrounding
countryside of the approach of the Federation army and of the
danger that it posed. Those who wished could come to
Arborlon, which would serve as a defense for the Elven peo-
ple. Those who chose to remain where they were should be
prepared to flee if the Federation broke through. Wing Riders
were dispatched to the farthest points and to the Wing Hove.
Runners were used elsewhere. Families from the settlements
nearest the city began to drift in almost immediately. Wren set-
tled them in camps scattered across the bluff and away from
183
184 The Talismans of Shannara
the defenses that were being built. There could be no closing
away of the city behind walls this time. The Elfitch had been
destroyed in the demon attack in Elventine Elessedil’s time,
and the Keel had been left behind on Morrowindl. Bulwarks
would be constructed, but they would be neither tall nor high
nor unbroken. The cliffs of the Carolan and waters of the Rill
Song offered some natural protection against an attack from
the west, and there were high mountains north and south, but
the Federation was most likely to come at them from the east
through the Valley of Rheim. Whatever defenses were to be
employed would have to be settled there.
Wren spoke with her ministers and the commanders of her
army at length about what form those defenses might take.
There were heavy woods all the way east from the city to the