What a collection of fools, Padishar Creel thought disdainfully to himself.
When he reached the first screening of trees north, the city of Tyrsis a distant grayish outline against the swelter, Padishar eased the handles of the cart down, shoved the body he had been hauling aside, took out an iron bar and began prying loose the boards of the cart’s false bottom. Gingerly, he helped Morgan extricate himself from his place of hiding. Morgan’s face was pale and drawn, as much from the heat and discomfort of his concealment as from the lingering effects of last night’s battle.
“Take a little of this.” The outlaw chief offered him an aleskin, trying unsuccessfully not to look askance. Morgan accepted the offering wordlessly. He knew what the other was thinking—that the Highlander hadn’t been right since their escape from the Pit.
Abandoning the cart and its body, they walked a mile further on to a river where they could wash. They bathed, dressed in clean clothes that Padishar had hidden with Morgan in the cart’s false bottom, and sat down to have something to eat.
The meal was a silent one until Padishar, unable to stand it any longer, growled, “We can see about fixing the blade, Highlander. It may be the magic isn’t lost after all.”
Morgan just shook his head. “This isn’t something anyone can fix,” he said tonelessly.
“No? Tell me why. Tell me how the sword works, then. You explain it to me.” Padishar wasn’t about to let the matter alone.
Morgan did as the other asked, not because he particularly wanted to, but because it was the easiest way to get Padishar to stop talking about it. He told the story of how the Sword of Leah was made magic, how Allanon dipped its blade in the waters of the Hadeshorn so that Rone Leah would have a weapon with which to protect Brin Ohmsford. “The magic was in the blade, Padishar,” he finished. He was having trouble being patient by now. “Once broken, it cannot be repaired. The magic is lost.”
Padishar frowned doubtfully, then shrugged. “Well, it was lost for a good cause, Highlander. After all, it saved our lives. A good trade any day of the week.”
Morgan looked up at him, his eyes haunted. “You don’t understand. There was some sort of bond between us, the sword and me. When the sword broke, it was as if it was happening to me! It doesn’t make sense, I know—but it’s there anyway. When the magic was lost, some part of me was lost as well.”
“But that’s just your sense of it now, lad. Who’s to say that won’t change?” Padishar gave him an encouraging smile. “Give yourself a little time. Let the wound heal, as they say.”
Morgan put down his food, disinterested in eating, and hunched his knees close against his chest. He remained quiet, ignoring the fact that the outlaw chief was waiting for a response, contemplating instead the nagging recognition that nothing had gone right since their decision to go down into the Pit after the missing Sword of Shannara.
Padishar’s brow furrowed irritably. “We have to go,” he announced abruptly and stood up. When Morgan didn’t move right away, he said, “Now, listen to me, Highlander. We’re alive and that’s the way we’re going to stay, sword or no sword, and I’ll not allow you to continue acting like some half-dead puppy...”
Morgan came to his feet with a bound. “Enough, Padishar! I don’t need you worrying about me!” His voice sounded harsher than he had meant it to, but he could not disguise the anger he was feeling. That anger quickly found a focus. “Why don’t you try worrying about the Valemen? Do you have any idea at all what’s happened to them? Why have we left them behind like this?”
“Ah.” The other spoke the word softly. “So that’s what’s really eating at you, is it? Well, Highlander, the Valemen are likely better off than we are. We were seen getting out of that Gatehouse, remember? The Federation isn’t so stupid that it will overlook the report of what happened and the fact that two so-called guards are somehow missing. They’ll have our description. If we hadn’t gotten out of the city right away, we likely wouldn’t have gotten out at all!”
He jabbed his finger at the Highlander. “Now the Valemen, on the other hand—no one saw them. No one will recognize their faces. Besides, Damson will have them in hand by now. She knows to bring them to the Jut. She’ll get them out of Tyrsis easily enough when she has the chance.”
Morgan shook his head stubbornly. “Maybe. Maybe not. You were confident as well about our chances of retrieving the Sword of Shannara and look what happened.”
Padishar flushed angrily. “The risks involved in that were hardly a secret to any of us!”
“Tell that to Stasas and Drutt and Ciba Blue!”
The big man snatched hold of Morgan’s tunic and yanked him forward violently. His eyes were hard with anger. “Those were my friends that died back there, Highlander—not yours. Don’t be throwing it up in my face! What I did, I did for all of us. We need the Sword of Shannara! Sooner or later we’re going to have to go back for it—Shadowen or not! You know that as well as I! As for the Valemen, I don’t like leaving them any better than you do! But we had precious little choice in the matter!”
Morgan tried unsuccessfully to jerk free. “You might have gone looking for them, at least!”
“Where? Where would I look? Do you think they would be hidden in any place we could find? Damson’s no fool! She has them tucked away in the deepest hole in Tyrsis! Shades, Highlander! Don’t you realize what’s happening back there? We uncovered a secret last night that the Federation has gone to great pains to conceal! I’m not sure either of us understands what it all means yet, but it’s enough that the Federation thinks we might! They’ll want us dead for that!”
His voice was a snarl. “I caught a glimpse of what’s to come when I passed you through the gates. The Federation authorities no longer concern themselves merely with doubling guards and increasing watch patrols. They have mobilized the entire garrison! Unless I am badly mistaken, young Morgan Leah, they have decided to eliminate us once and for all—you and me and any other members of the Movement they can run to earth. We are a real threat to them now, because, for the first time, we begin to understand what they are about—and that’s something they will not abide!”
His grip tightened, fingers of stone. “They’ll come hunting us, and we had best not be anywhere we can be found!”
He released the Highlander with a shove. He took a deep breath and straightened. “In any case, I don’t choose to argue the matter with you. I am leader here. You fought well back there in the Pit, and perhaps it cost you something. But that doesn’t give you the right to question my orders. I understand the business of staying alive better than you, and you had best remember it.”
Morgan was white with rage, but he kept himself in check. He knew there was nothing to be gained by arguing the matter further; the big man was not about to change his mind. He knew as well, deep down inside where he could admit it to himself, that what Padishar was saying about staying around in an effort to find Par and Coll was the truth.
He stepped away from Padishar and smoothed his rumpled clothing carefully, “I just want to be certain that we are agreed that the Valemen will not be forgotten.”
Padishar Creel’s smile was quick and hard. “Not for a moment. Not by me, at least. You are free to do as you choose in the matter.”
He wheeled away, moving off into the trees. After a moment’s hesitation, Morgan swallowed his anger and pride and followed.
Par came awake for the second time that day toward midafternoon. Coll was shaking him and the smell of hot soup filled the close confines of their shelter. He blinked and sat up slowly. Damson stood at a pruning bench, spooning broth into bowls, the steam rising thickly as she worked. She glanced over at the Valeman and smiled. Her flaming hair shimmered brightly in the shards of sunlight that filtered through the cracks in the shuttered windows, and Par experienced an almost irresistible need to reach out and stroke it.