The High Druid of Shannara Trilogy

Khyber took a deep breath. It was the thing that had chased them through the streets of Anatcherae—the thing that had tried to kill Pen.

A shiver ran down Khyber’s back when Cinnaminson turned her head slightly in their direction, as if seeing them as clearly as they saw her. In that instant, her features were clearly revealed, and such anguish and horror were mirrored there that Khyber went cold all the way to her bones. Then the Rover girl looked away again and pointed north. The thing that hung from the mainmast moved quickly in response, leaping through the rigging, changing the set of the sail, the tautness of the radian draws, and thereby the direction of the airship. The Skatelow began to lift away again, turning north in the direction Cinnaminson had pointed. The crooked-legged thing darted back across the moonlight, then fastened itself in place against the mast, hunching down like a huge lizard on a pole.

Seconds later, the airship disappeared behind the rise of the bluff, and the sky was empty again.


In the dark aftermath, Khyber exhaled sharply and exchanged a hurried look with Pen. Then she jumped in fright as Tagwen stood up suddenly next to her, rubbing at his bleary eyes. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Don’t do that again!” she snapped furiously, her hands shaking.

They told him what they had seen, pointing north at the empty sky. A look of disbelief crossed his rough features, and he shook his head, blinking away the last of his sleep. “Are you certain of this? You didn’t dream it? It wasn’t just the clouds?”

“It’s tracking us,” Pen answered, his voice dismal and lost-sounding. “It’s killed Gar Hatch and his Rover cousins, and now it’s using Cinnaminson to hunt us.”

“But how did it get aboard the Skatelow?”

No one could answer him. Khyber stared at the empty sky, trying to reason it through. Was there a connection between the creature and the Druids? Could it have gotten aboard the Skatelow while the Galaphile had the Rover airship in tow? That would mean Terek Molt had deliberately lied to them about sending the Skatelow safely on her way. But why do that? For that matter, why bother to put the creature aboard the Skatelow at all if the Druid intended to hunt Penderrin on his own anyway?

Whatever the answer, someone was going to an awful lot of trouble to prevent the boy from attempting to rescue his aunt. So someone must think he had a very good chance of succeeding, even if the boy himself thought he had very little. It was an intriguing conclusion, and it gave her unexpected reason for hope.

Pen was staring at her. “Do you think the Elfstones could be used against whatever’s got Cinnaminson?”

She gave him a doubtful look. “We don’t even know what it is, Pen. It might be human, and the Elfstones would be useless.”

“It doesn’t look it.”

“Whatever it is, we’re not going to fight it if we don’t have to.” She motioned toward the bluff. “Let’s get out of here. We can stop and eat when it gets light. I don’t want to chance it coming back again.”

Pen stood his ground, his mouth a tight line. “Did you see the way she looked at us?” Khyber hesitated.

“She saw us. She knew we were here. Yet she turned the ship the other way.” His voice was shaking. “She’s being made to track us, Khyber. Maybe her life depends on whether or not that thing finds us. Yet she steered it away. She saved us.”

Tagwen shook his bearded head. “You don’t know that, young Pen. You might be mistaken.”

The boy kept staring at Khyber. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach as she realized what he was about to ask. She had to stop him, even if it meant lying to him about what she had seen. But she could not bring herself to do that. That was the coward’s way out. Ahren would not have lied in that situation. He would have told Pen the truth.

“We can’t do this,” she said.

“We have to!” he snapped. His face had an angry, almost furious look. “She saved us, Khyber! Now we have to save her!”

“What are you talking about?” Tagwen demanded. “Save who?”

“She’s not our concern,” Khyber pressed. “Our concern is with your aunt, the Ard Rhys.”

“Our concern is with whoever needs our help! What’s wrong with you?”

They faced each other in stony silence. Even Tagwen had gone quiet, looking quickly from one face to the other.

“We don’t have any way of saving her,” Khyber said finally. “We don’t know anything about that creature, nothing about what it will take to overcome it. If we guess wrong, we’ll all be dead.”

Pen straightened and looked off to the north. “I’m going, whether you go with me or not. I’m not leaving her. I have to live with myself when this is over. I can’t do that if something happens to her that I might have prevented.” He glanced back at her, the angry look suddenly pleading. “She isn’t the enemy, Khyber.”

“I know that.”

“Then help me.”