He squeezed Grianne’s hand reassuringly, an automatic response to the encroachment of fresh darkness and solitude. He glanced at her immediately to see if she had noticed, but her gaze was still directed straight ahead.
At the water’s edge, they stopped. On Walker’s instructions, Truls Rohk knelt to lay him down, cradling him so that his head and shoulders rested in the shape-shifter’s arms. Bek found himself thinking how odd it seemed, that a creature who was himself not whole, but bits and pieces held together by smoky mist, should be the Druid’s bearer. He remembered when he had first met Walker in the Highlands of Leah. The Druid had seemed so strong then, so indomitable, as if nothing could ever change him. Now he was broken and ragged, leaking blood and life in a faraway land.
Tears came to Bek’s eyes as swiftly as the thought, his response to the harsh realization that death approached. He did not know what to do. He wanted to help Walker, to make him whole again, to restore him to who he had been when they had first met all those months ago. He wanted to say something about how much the Druid had done for him. But all he could do was hold his sister’s hand and wait to see what would happen.
“This is as far as I go,” Walker said softly, coughing blood and wincing with the pain the movement caused.
Truls Rohk wiped the blood away with his sleeve. “You can’t die on me, Druid. I won’t allow it. We’ve too much more to do, you and I.”
“We’ve done all we’re allowed to do, shape-shifter,” Walker replied. His smile was surprisingly warm. “Now we must go our separate ways. You’ll have to find your own adventures, make your own trouble.”
The other grunted. “Not likely I could ever do the job as well as you. Game-playing has always been your specialty, not mine.”
Bek knelt beside them, pulling Grianne down with him. She let him place her however he wished and did nothing to acknowledge she knew he was there. Truls Rohk edged away from her.
“I’m done with this life,” Walker said. “I’ve done what I can with it, and I have to be satisfied with that. Make certain, when you return, that Kylen Elessedil honors his father’s bargain. His brother will stand with you,—Ahren’s stronger than you think. He has the Elfstones now, but the Elfstones won’t make the difference. He will. Remember that. Remember as well what we made this journey for. What we have found here, what we have recovered, belongs to us.”
Truls Rohk spat. “You’re not making any sense, Druid. What are you talking about? We have nothing to show for what we’ve done! We’ve claimed nothing! The Elfstones? They weren’t ours to begin with! What of the magic we sought? What of the books that contained it?”
Walker made a dismissive gesture. “The magic contained in the books, the magic I spoke of to both Allardon Elessedil and his son, was never the reason for this voyage.”
“Then what was?” Truls Rohk was incensed. “Are we to play guessing games all night, Druid? What are we doing here? Tell us! Has this all been for nothing? Give us something to hope for! Now, while there’s still time! Because I don’t think you have much left! Look at you! You’re—“
He couldn’t make himself finish the sentence, biting off the rest of what he was going to say in bitter distaste.
“Dying?” Walker spoke the word for him. “It’s all right to say it, Truls. Dying will set me free from promises and responsibilities that have kept me in chains for longer than I care to remember. Anyway, it’s only a word.”
“You say it, then. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”
Walker reached up with his good hand and took hold of the other’s cloak. To Bek’s surprise, Truls Rohk did not pull away.
“Listen to me. Before I came to this land, before I decided to undertake this voyage, I went into the Valley of Shale, to the Hadeshorn, and I summoned the shade of Allanon. I spoke with him, asking what I could expect if I chose to follow the castaway’s map. He told me that of all the goals I sought to accomplish, I would succeed in only one. For a long time, Truls, I thought that he meant I would recover the magic of the books from the Old World. I thought that was what I was supposed to do. I thought that was the purpose of this voyage. It wasn’t.”