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

She reached the cluster of rocks and stopped. At least one of them waited within, just out of sight. The wolfish one, the one that served the old man. It had made no effort to disguise its coming. It had revealed itself openly, knowing she would respond as she had. Or perhaps it had hoped she would try to flee so that it could give pursuit and take her down from behind, a rabbit caught by a predator. Whatever the case, it wanted her to know before she died that it had found her and she could not escape. It took pleasure in forcing her to anticipate her own death, to know there was no escape.

She wished suddenly that Johnny were there to stand beside her. It would make this so much easier, knowing he was there. But then, she thought, perhaps he was, in spirit if not in flesh. Perhap she was there still, her guardian angel.

She remembered a time not long after he had first found her—she might have been nine or ten—when he had told her he was going out for longer than usual and that she must wait alone until his return. She was instantly terrified, certain that he would not be coming back, that he was leaving her. She threw herself against him, sobbing wildly, begging him not to go, not to abandon her. Carefully, gently he soothed her, stroking her long black hair, telling her it was all right, that he would be back, that no matter what happened he would never leave her.

When she had quieted enough that she was coherent again, he had said, “Yo no abandono a mi ni?a. I would never leave my girl, little one.

Wherever you are, I will always be close by. You might not see me, but I will be there.

You will feel me in your heart.”

She supposed that it was true: that he had never really left her and had always been there in her heart. She could feel his presence when she was lonely or frightened if she searched hard enough. She could reassure herself by remembering that his word had always been good. Even when he was gone from her life and from the world of the living, some essential part of him was still there.

It would be so this time, too. He would be there for her.

She walked to the edge of the boulders and stopped, searching the air for the demon’s smell. She found it almost immediately, rank and poisonous, the stench of something that had cast aside any semblance of humanity. The air was thick with it, the sweet clean scent of the mountainside smothered under its heavy layers. It crouched within the rocks, still hidden, waiting on her.

She could feel its rage and hatred and its need to sate both with her blood.

How should she handle this? She stared into the black shadows of the boulders, searching the twisting passages that wound between.

She did not believe it would be smart to go in there. Better to wait out here, to make it come to her.

Then she saw the first of the feeders as they slid like oil from out of the rocks, their shadows splotches of liquid darkness. They seemed in no hurry, their appearance almost casual. But where only a handful surfaced at the outset, there were soon a dozen and then a dozen more.

She glanced back up the mountainside to where she had left Kirisin and his sister. They were no longer in view. With luck, they were no longer in hearing, either.

It was time to get this over with.

“Demon!” she shouted into the rocks.

Then she waited.

KIRISIN CAUGHT UP to his sister, who glanced around as he reached her and said, “Where’s Angel?”

He shook his head. “She said she had something she needed to do.”

“Did she tell you what it was?”

“She just said we should go on without her. I told her we could wait until she was done with whatever she had to do. But she wouldn’t allow it. She was pretty insistent.” He shook his head. “I don’t know, Sim. It doesn’t feel right.”

“No, it doesn’t.” His sister looked back down the mountain slope to where they could just make out the Knight of the Word as she stood before the cluster of massive boulders they had come past earlier.

“What do you think she is doing?” he asked her.

She hesitated a moment, and then said, “I think she’s protecting us. I think that’s the way she wants it. We’d better do what she says. Come on. The caves are just ahead.”

They climbed the gradually steepening slope, relying on the crampons and ice axes for purchase. It was a slow and arduous trek, but they pushed ahead steadily, working their way across the ice field. Kirisin watched how his sister used the ax, driving it into the ice and then pulling herself forward, and he did the same. Once or twice, he glanced back to look for Angel, and each time he found her right where he had seen her last, poised and waiting at the edge of the boulders. Once, he thought he heard her shout something, but the wind blowing down from the higher elevations masked her words.

Again, he almost turned back, the need to do so suddenly compelling. But he kept moving anyway, putting one foot in front of the other, hammering his ax into the ice and pulling himself ahead.

Then he topped a rise that led onto a rocky flat, and he couldn’t see her anymore.