"We'll need help to search for them," Bek said. "Especially if the Ilse Witch and the Mwellrets are looking, too."
Truls Rohk rocked back slightly on his heels and gave an audible sigh. "We'll have some difficulty finding any. There's bad news everywhere in this business. Your sister used her magic to immobilize the Jerle Shannara's crew. She boarded the ship and took them all prisoner. She has locked them belowdecks, and she controls both ships. Black Moclips is anchored in the bay, where you went ashore. The Jerle Shannara is downriver, closer to the ice gates. There's no help to be had from either."
Bek felt as if the ground had fallen away beneath his feet. Whatever else had been taken from them, at least they'd had the Jerle Shannara to retreat to. Now that haven was lost, as well. They were trapped on Ice Henge. They couldn't even get word of where they were to the Wing Riders.
He thought suddenly of Rue Meridian and felt a sharp pang of terror, one much sharper than he would have expected. He took a steadying breath. "Are the Rovers unharmed and well?" he asked, trying to sound casual.
The shape-shifter shrugged. "No one was hurt in the boarding. I don't know what's happened since, but probably nothing."
"Shades! We've lost everything, Truls. You and I and maybe one or two more are all that's left, alive and free." He heard a hint of desperation creep into his voice and tried to block it away. "We have to do something. At least we have to go back and face Grianne, find a way to convince her that she's an Ohmsford, make her see that she's been-"
"Slow down, boy," Truls Rohk said. "Let's take a deep breath and think this through. There's no going back to face the Ilse Witch just yet. What's already happened is still too fresh in her mind. We need a way to reach her besides what you've already tried. Something she can't brush aside as easily as your words."
He glanced meaningfully over Bek's shoulder. The boy glanced with him and found himself staring at the pommel of the Sword of Shannara still strapped across his back. In the excitement of his encounter with his sister, he had forgotten he was carrying it.
He looked back at the shape-shifter. "You mean, I should try using this?"
"I mean, find a way to use it." The other's voice was ironic. "Not so easy to do, I'd think. Your sister isn't just going to stand there and let you use the magic on her. But if you can find a way to catch her off guard, surprise her maybe, she might not have a choice. Like it or not, she might have to face up to the truth of things. It's the best chance we have of persuading her."
Bek shook his head doubtfully. "She'll never give us the chance. Never."
Truls Rohk said nothing, waiting.
"She'll fight us!" Bek reached back to touch the handle of the Sword of Shannara, then let his hand fall away helplessly. "Besides, I don't know if I can make it work against her."
"Not against her," the shape-shifter advised quietly. "For her."
Bek nodded slowly. "For her. For both of us."
"I wouldn't be so quick to discount our chances," Truls Rohk continued. "We've lost the ship and crew, but we don't know about Panax and that Highlander and the others. And I wouldn't put finished to the Druid if I saw him dropped six feet underground he has more lives than a cat. He won't have gone into the tower without a plan for getting out. I know him, boy. I've known him a long time. He thinks everything through. I wouldn't be surprised if he was already free and looking for us."
Bek looked doubtful, but nodded anyway. "What do we do next? Where do we go from here?"
Truls Rohk climbed to his feet, cloak falling about his wide shoulders, shadowing him from the ground up, leaving him a wraith, even in the growing dawn light.
"I need to backtrack far enough to make certain we aren't being followed by the witch or her rets. You wait here for my return. Don't move from this spot." He paused. "Unless you're in danger. In that case, hide yourself the best way you can. But if that becomes necessary, don't use your magic. You're not ready yet, not without me."
He gave the boy a hard stare in warning, then turned and disappeared into the trees.
Bek sat with his back against an aging shagbark hickory and watched the eastern sky brighten with the dawn's coming. Darkness gave way to first light, then first light to morning, the sky changing colors in gaps through the trees that were invisible in the darkness and could be discerned only now. He sat thinking of where he was, of the journey that had brought him to this place and time, and of the changes he had gone through. He remembered thinking, on the evening that Walker had first appeared in the Highlands months earlier and asked him to come on this voyage, that if he went with the Druid, nothing in his life would ever be the same again. He hadn't realized how right he would prove to be.