Bearers of the Black Staff: Legends of Shannara (38 page)

“Well, then? Do I have your promise of help?”

“Not so fast. There are other things to consider. Your plan is to keep the enemy out of the valley by bottling up the passes north and hoping the ones south remain undiscovered. I see problems with this. We might close him off from one entrance, but we cannot reasonably think the others won’t be found. We might be better off to let the Trolls come in and fight them on our own ground.”

“And lose how many of our people in the bargain?”

“Few. We take them all to the strongholds, like this one, and keep them safe until the battle is finished.”

“Assuming the battle ends quickly, which I doubt. You haven’t seen this army, Hadrian. I have. It’s big and well armed. Too many for any of us separately and maybe all of us together. We need to fight it from behind walls and in places like Declan Reach and Aphalion where it cannot bring its full strength to bear. You are a brave man and a skilled fighter. But most in this valley aren’t, not even within your own army. We haven’t fought a real battle against a real adversary since our ancestors came here. It won’t be easy.”

Esselline studied him. “So you would trap them in the passes and do battle there? From behind walls? That sounds like a siege to me, Sider. How much longer would that take than a direct confrontation? Besides, you undervalue not only my army, but those of some of the other southern strongholds and the Elves, as well. They will account themselves well if brought to the moment.”

“First, we do not simply fight them from behind walls in the passes. That is just where we begin.” Panterra watched as Sider leaned forward, assuming an almost confrontational posture. “They will divide their forces to come after us, choosing to attack more than one of the passes. But I don’t think they will take time to find the ones they don’t know about before they attack. They are impatient and confident in their strength of numbers. They will attack what they know and scout out other choices while they do so. That gives us a chance to slip out of the valley and get around behind them. It gives us a chance to trap them where they cannot defend themselves as they are used to.”

He paused. “I do not denigrate the fighting skills and heart of our people. But fighting is not our way of life as it is for these Trolls. You will have to take my word on this. And Panterra’s. These Trolls are not like anything we have seen before.”

Panterra straightened up as Esselline looked over at him. “What say you, boy? Does he speak the truth as you see it? Are these Trolls really so big and bad as he says?”

“Much worse,” Pan answered without hesitating. “They are armored, and they have creatures called Skaith Hounds to track down anything that tries to elude them. And there are more than you think. Five thousand would be a low estimate.”

“Yet you escaped them, did you not? Did you fight your way clear?”

Pan shook his head. “I was let go to come back here and arrange a meeting with the leaders of the peoples in this valley. It was a trick to find a way in, and I helped them make it work.”

There was a long silence. “Well, you show courage in admitting this, Panterra. And we have all been tricked in ways that make us look foolish, myself included. Although not lately.”

“The boy is still learning, but I think he is good at his studies,” Sider Ament offered suddenly. “I would not have brought him along if I did not value his advice and appreciate his insight.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Esselline said. He shifted his gaze back to the Gray Man. “You have settled on what needs doing, it appears. You seem to have thought it through carefully.”

“As carefully as I can,” the other replied. “Though I don’t claim your ability when it comes to tactics. I need your help, Hadrian. I can’t do enough to keep the enemy out by myself. Even with the northern villages and the Elves, we will be overrun. We need your army to aid us. We need everyone to stand together against this threat. Because, in all likelihood, it is only the first of many, now that the walls are down and we are exposed. We had better set a good example right away or we are likely finished.”

Esselline nodded slowly. “It will be done, then. I’ll dispatch a force to Declan Reach. I’ll lead it myself. I will do what I can to bring the others with me, but I can’t promise they will respond as you might like. They will want to make certain of the passes south, first. You know that.”

“I do. But if you come and no one else does, we are still a hundred times better off than otherwise.”

“Undoubtedly.” Esselline smiled. “Are you happy now?”

Sider glanced at Panterra and winked. “Happy enough,” he answered.

T
WENTY-FOUR HOURS LATER
, they were camped in a glen a day’s journey south of Glensk Wood. Twilight had settled in and the last of the day’s light was fading west as they went about preparing dinner.
Sider arranged deadwood in a pit, thinking back to his meeting with Hadrian Esselline.

“Do you think any of them will come?” the boy asked suddenly, as if reading his mind. “Besides Esselline?”

Sider nodded absently, still looking away. “A few will be influenced by his decision; they might join him.” He shrugged. “Hard to say, though. Glensk Wood had better plan on defending its own boundaries.”

He glanced at the boy, who acknowledged his words with a cursory nod. “Seems they would want to do more. Why do they think we would go to all the trouble of coming down there to warn them if it were not as important as we say it is?”

Sider struck flint to stone, sparked the fire, blew gently on the tiny flame until the wood was burning, then rose and joined the boy where he was sitting. “It’s not that simple,” he said.

“Why not? It seems that simple to me.”

He’s so young
, Sider thought, taking in the smooth face and strong features.
Like I was when the old man came to me that first time. I didn’t know anything of the world, and this boy knows not much more for all that he is a Tracker and has the skills of a survivalist. He still doesn’t know how life can turn you around and twist you about and do with you what it will.

He folded his long, lean frame forward, looking down at his boots as he spoke. “Not much that seems simple ever is—more so here than in most cases, I might add. There are alliances, both public and secret, that dominate the thinking of the leaders of Men and Elves alike. There are antagonisms between families and towns that have not been forgotten even after centuries, and these play a part, too. What on the surface seems obvious and clear is mired in chains of details that are interlinked and sometimes unbreakable.”

He looked at the boy. “A danger from without threatens, a clear and present danger, and the need is apparent to those of us who live apart and can reason it through. But most don’t live like you and I. They are part of a larger community of family and friends and fellow citizens, and a wide range of considerations governs their actions. They are much more concerned about not doing the wrong thing than doing the right. They take their time because they are afraid of making mistakes that will undo them. As I said, it is complicated.”

The boy nodded, brushing at his lank hair where it fell across his face. “I guess.”

The Gray Man considered him. “How would you like to become someone who could make a difference in all of that?”

The boy blinked. “What do you mean? Make a difference how?”

“Place yourself in a position where you could speak to everyone about the things that need doing, that might have life-altering consequences for everyone, and see to it that the right choices are made. Would you be interested?”

“No one can do that. Not even you.”

Sider Ament smiled. “Sometimes, I can. And sometimes is enough to keep me trying.”

“But I’m not you. I’m just a Tracker.”

“Not just a Tracker, Panterra. You are much more than that. You are special at what you do; you are gifted and skilled. I wasn’t exaggerating when I told Esselline I had good reason for bringing you along with me. I haven’t met another with your talent in all the time I’ve been walking the valley and warding its passes.”

The boy looked uncertain. “Prue is more talented than I am.”

“It might seem so, but she’s not. And she is too young. She relies on you. You rely only on yourself. Yours are the greater skills. Even if you don’t think so, it is true.”

“Well, I don’t see—” The boy stopped midsentence and stared at Sider. “What’s the point of this conversation? What are you trying to say to me?”

“I am trying to tell you that I think you should be the next to bear this talisman.” He lifted the black staff a few inches, drawing the boy’s eyes to its rune-carved length. “I think you should become my apprentice and train with me to take my place when I am gone.”

Panterra Qu smiled and almost laughed. Sider watched the laugh surface and then disappear as the boy suppressed it. “I don’t want to carry the staff,” the boy said quickly. “I just want to be a Tracker.”

“You would be a Tracker still. You would keep your skills and use them often. But you would do much more, too. You would serve a higher cause than Trow Ravenlock and the people of Glensk Wood.”

“No, that’s enough for me. Besides, there’s Prue. I have to look out for her.”

Sider took a deep breath. There it was—the crux of the matter. He gave the boy a smile. “Yes, there’s Prue. You consider her your best friend, don’t you?”

“I do. You know that.”

“Do you love her?”

He hesitated, caught off guard by the question. Perhaps no one had ever asked it. Perhaps he hadn’t even considered it. He didn’t seem to know what to say. “As I would a sister, yes,” he replied finally.

“Nothing more?”

“Not as I think you mean.”

“Does she love you?”

Again, the hesitation. “In the same way. As a brother.”

“Then there is no difficulty in doing what I suggest. You do not have to stop loving each other as friends and siblings, and you can still be together as much as you choose. Nothing about bearing the black staff prevents this. But …”

He held up one hand, palm open toward the boy, as if to stop something he might be about to say. “But something else might prevent it. Not just if you become my successor and the next bearer of the staff, but even if you choose to remain a simple Tracker from Glensk Wood. What you had once envisioned for both of you is finished. That future is gone. It left with the collapse of the magic that warded the valley. It left when the doors opened to the outside world and our survival became a much more perilous undertaking.”

The boy gave him a look, and he smiled in spite of himself. “I know how that sounds. But I don’t say these things only because the protective wall is down and the passes are open. I say them because I met a man while I was outside the valley, and he told me what the world was like. He described it in detail, and it is not a place that will tolerate weakness or indecision. It is populated by dangerous creatures and infused with the residue of the poisons and the resultant mutations of the Great Wars. Those of the human Race that survived did so by being tougher and stronger than those who did not. The Trolls who besiege the valley are indicative of what’s out there. But they are only one example.”

He paused, letting the boy think it through. “It isn’t hard to see
what I am trying to say, is it? A battle for survival is at hand, and it will require more than any of us have considered giving in the past. Life will not be as simple or safe. It will be hard and dangerous, and it will demand a great deal of everyone. You already have a better chance of doing something about that than most. But that chance will increase a hundredfold if you accept my offer. Not only for you, but for those whom you choose to protect.”

The boy was silent for a while longer, and then he shook his head doubtfully. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I can do that. I don’t know if I want to.”

Sider nodded. “I don’t know, either. Neither of us will know until the moment I pass the staff to you. All we can do until then is to try to prepare you for what having the staff means. We can talk about it. We can examine it. You can ask what questions you would, and I can answer them as best I know. This will give you a chance to see if it might be something that interests you—not in the abstract, but in the practice of it. I will try to convince you that you are the right man to bear it. But I will not force you to take it, and I will not expect you to force yourself. It has to be voluntary. You have to feel the need.”

The boy shook his head again. “I don’t like the idea of it. I don’t want to be responsible for so many people.”

“How is that different from what you do now? You act as surrogate to an entire village and by proxy for the entire valley in most cases. They depend on your Tracker’s skills to ward them, to keep them safe, to see them right. If you fail, many times your own number will suffer as a consequence. Many more lives are in your hands now than ever before because of the danger of an invasion. You cannot pretend that taking up the staff will in any measurable way increase the nature of your responsibility. What it will do is give you a better chance of doing your job as it needs doing.”