02 The Druid of Shannara by Terry Brooks

Author:Terry Brooks
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy
Published: 2010-04-10T10:40:05+00:00

192 The Druid of Shannara

Walker reached out once more, and his fingers rested on the Koden's muzzle. His thoughts became words. Let us pass, and we will find a way to set you free.

The Koden stared out at him from the prison of its ruined body, sightless eyes hard and empty. Go, it said.

Walker lifted his hand away long enough to beckon his com- panions forward, then placed it back again. The others of the company came hesitantly. Quickening in the lead, then Morgan Lean, Homer Dees, Carisman, and Pe Ell. He watched them pass without comment, his arm outstretched, his hand steady. He caught a glimpse of what was in their eyes, a strange mix of emotions, understanding in Quickening's alone, fear and awe and disbelief in the rest. Then they were past. They walked from the rubble of Bone Hollow to the break in the cliffs beyond which they turned to wait for him.

Walker took his hand away and saw the Koden tremble. Its mouth gaped wide, and it appeared to cry out soundlessly. Then it wheeled away from him and lumbered down into the rocks.

"I won't forget," the Dark Uncle called after it.

The emptiness he felt made him shiver. Pulling his cloak close, he walked from the Hollow.

Morgan and the others, all but Quickening, asked Walker Boh when he reached them what had happened. How had he man- aged to charm the Koden so that they could pasj? But the Dark Uncle refused to answer their questions. He would say only that the creature was a prisoner of the Stone King's magic and must be freed, that he had given his promise.

"Since you made the promise, you can worry about keeping it,'' Pe Ell declared irritably, anxious to dismiss the matter of the Koden now that the danger was behind them.

"We'll have trouble enough keeping ourselves free of the Stone King's magic," Homer Dees agreed.

Carisman was already skipping ahead, and Morgan suddenly found himself facing Walker Boh with no reply to give. It was Quickening who spoke instead, saying, "If you gave your prom- ise, Walker Boh, then it must be kept.'' She did not, however, say how.

They turned away from Bone Hollow and passed into the break that opened out through the peaks to the Tiderace. The passage was shadowed and dark in the fading afternoon light, and a chill, rough-edged wind blew down off the slopes of the cliffs above, thrusting into them like a giant hand, shoving them

The Druid of Shannara 193

relentlessly ahead. The sun had dropped into the horizon west, caught in a web of clouds that turned its light scarlet and gold. The smell of salt water, fish, and kelp filled the air, sharp and pungent.

Morgan glanced back once or twice at Walker Boh, still amazed at how he had been able to keep the Koden from at- tacking them, to walk right up to it as he had and touch it without coming to harm. He recalled the stories of the

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