The Elves of Cintra (Book 2 of The Genesis of Shannara)

And Bear, big and steady and mostly quiet, stepped between Panther and Cat at one point when the former was making an unmistakable attempt at intimidation, forcing his fellow Ghost to back away and finally to turn aside. Panther, who normally wouldn’t have allowed anyone to do this to him, seemed genuinely confused.

“She’s just a Freak, man,” he mumbled over his shoulder at Bear. But after that, he pretty much left the girl alone.

Their destination was already settled, and they were quick to resume their journey. They were at least a week from reaching the Columbia River and their promised meeting with Hawk, so there was good reason to press ahead. Logan was wondering anew how they were supposed to find the boy, but knew that it was the boy who must find them. The gypsy morph that was concealed within the human skin would have surfaced by now, and the wild magic taken hold. This was what must happen, Logan realized, if the boy was to be their savior.

Their travels took them out of the city and into the countryside. Buildings disappeared behind them, lost in a haze of smoke and ash that even the sun could not burn through. The corpses of vehicles that littered the highway dwindled, and the bitter metallic taste of the air took on a woodsy flavor. The land stretched away around them in a sprawl of wintry fields and stands of dying trees, of drainage and fouled ponds, of broken fences and collapsing farms. There was almost no sign of life—a bird here and there, the quick movement of a small animal passing through the weeds, a burrowing rodent sticking its head from its hole momentarily, and a pair of stick-thin figures running from an old house far off in the distance.

The end of everything, Logan thought more than once. The way it will be everywhere before long. He tried to imagine it and failed. The world was too vast for such a thing. The prospect of it rendered empty and lifeless was too bleak to consider.

Even though he knew it was coming.

Even though it had been foretold.

They drove south for three days, bypassing a handful of small towns that sat off to the side of the freeway, silent and empty. Once, they passed another city. Logan didn’t know their names, nor did Cat or any of the Ghosts. The signs that had once identified them were gone, leaving broken-off metal supports with twisted, jagged ends. The days were hazy with bad air and weak sunlight, and the landscape had the look of a mirage. The highway wound through oceans of liquid light that shimmered and contorted. In the junk heaps of ruined vehicles and scattered debris, in the clusters of falling-down walls and roofs, and in the barren fields and empty horizons, the world was a tomb.

As mid-afternoon of the third day approached, they came in sight of a fresh cluster of buildings, their roofs just visible above a grouping of hills in rough country that was chilly and stark, a graveyard marked by the bones of dead trees.

Logan was sitting in the front passenger’s seat of the Lightning, looking back over his shoulder while he talked with Owl. River and Fixit were on either side of her, sufficiently recovered that they could sit upright, but not yet strong enough to walk any distance. The rest of the Ghosts were riding on the hay wagon with Rabbit and Cat.

Panther was driving.

It had taken awhile for the boy to come around to the idea, but when Logan casually mentioned earlier in the day that it might be time for him to try, Panther had just as casually declared that it couldn’t hurt. He had been driving ever since.

“I don’t understand why Cat was out on the streets alone at night like that,” Owl was saying. “That seems so dangerous.”

“I thought so, too,” he agreed.

“And she didn’t have any weapons?”

“None that I could see.” He paused. “But I think she might be more capable than she appears. She seemed at home out there. She made a point of asking me what I was doing coming into the city by myself. It felt like she thought she knew better than I did how to take care of herself.”

That’s ’cause she’s a Freak, Panther said to himself, his mood darkening as he thought anew about having to put up with Lizard girl. Sometimes he wished Hawk were back in charge. Even he knew better than to try to bring a Freak into the family.

“Hey, what’s that?” he broke in, suddenly catching sight of something in the road ahead.

Logan turned to look, seeing what appeared to be a tangle of vehicles blocking their way. “Stop the AV,” he told Panther at once.

When the boy had done so, Logan got out of the car and walked forward a few paces, searching the road ahead and then the countryside around. Nothing was moving. But it didn’t feel right. He glanced back at the kids and then ahead again. The road was straight and undeviating; there were no crossroads visible beyond the tangle. There was nowhere to go unless they drove off into the fields and hills, and he didn’t think the hay wagon could handle the rough terrain.

He walked back and leaned down to Panther. “I’m going to walk ahead. Stay behind me. Keep your eyes open.”

The boy’s face clouded. “Just looks like some junk,” he said. “We could turn around, I guess, find another way.”