The High Druid of Shannara Trilogy

She squeezed her eyes shut against her humiliation and rage, fighting to keep from breaking down completely. “Yes, Master,” she whispered.

“Do you know where you are? You may answer.”

“Inside the Forbidding, Master.” She opened her eyes again and looked up.

“Inside the world of the Jarka Ruus,” the demon corrected softly. “Where I brought you to live.”

She barely heard it; her head was buzzing with the aftereffects of the conjure collar’s pain. The demon beckoned to Hobstull, who moved to fill the water cup once more, then hauled her to her knees so that she could drink again of the foul-tasting water. She accepted his gift wordlessly.

“You may thank me,” the demon said.

She took a deep breath. “Thank you, Master.”

The demon nodded. “Hobstull is not pleased with you. You made him work much harder than he intended when he left here three days ago. You made him feel inadequate. He is my Catcher, my finder and keeper of specimens. He is the one you must rely on for food and drink, so you don’t want to upset him.”

She looked briefly at Hobstull, who stared back at her with the same inquisitive look he had displayed earlier.

“Hobstull uses traps meant to lure his quarry by sounds, sights, and smells that speak to their deepest needs. He is very good at it. I have acquired many specimens as a result of his cleverness and perseverance. You are the latest and perhaps the most important. But you are still only a specimen. Do you understand?”

A specimen. She kept the anger from her face and voice with an effort. “Yes, Master.”

“Good.” The blue eyes glittered. “I am Tael Riverine, Straken Lord of Kraal Reach. I rule here. I rule everything from the Dragon Line north to the Quince south, from Huka Flats west to Brockenthrog Weir east. I rule you. Learn to accept this. I am your master, now and forever.”

A pause. “Do you understand, Grianne Ohmsford, once Ard Rhys of the Druids?”

She felt her heart sink. She had been hoping desperately that her capture was by chance and not by design, that she would have a chance to gain her freedom after her captor’s interest in her waned. But if the demon knew who she was, she was there because it had intended to bring her there, and there was no longer any chance of being set free.

“Yes, Master,” she managed.

It saw the look on her face. “You didn’t listen closely enough to what I said earlier, did you? You weren’t paying attention.”

She cringed in spite of herself, anticipating another rush of pain.

“I said that you are inside the world of the Jarka Ruus, that I brought you here to live. You are here because of me. You are here because I wished it to be so. Think back to your own world, to your visit to the ruins of the Skull Kingdom, where once the Warlock Lord ruled. Think back to the fires that ignited and burned without reason. Think back to the face you saw in those fires when you tried to probe them with your magic.”

She knew at once what the demon was telling her. She remembered it all, especially the face that had appeared in the flames, coming out of hiding just long enough for her to see its features clearly.

It was this face. It was the face of the Straken Lord.

“You remember now, don’t you?” the demon said. “Good.” It gestured. “Get on your knees again and bow to me.”

She did so, a chill settling through her as she realized how deeply in trouble she was.

“Take her, Hobstull,” the Straken Lord ordered.

Without bothering to wait, the demon turned away and disappeared up the stairs into the gloom.


Hobstull walked over to where she knelt, clipped a fresh chain to a ring on the belt about her waist, and pulled her back to her feet. His eyes studied her for a moment, and then he tugged on the chain to indicate she was to follow. Moving to a heavy iron door concealed under the stairs, Hobstull led her through the opening and down a flight of worn, water-stained stone steps that lay beyond. She followed docilely, intent on conserving what was left of her strength for a time when she could put it to better use. She was thinking about her predicament. What she had been told by the shade of the Warlock Lord was confirmed. She was inside the Forbidding because the Straken Lord had arranged for a handful of Druids who hated her to be swayed into using magic that would put her here. Mostly, she was there because by being there something else had been set free. The Straken Lord hadn’t admitted to it, but she was certain from what the shade of Brona had told her that it was so.

Yet it wasn’t the Straken Lord that had crossed over into her world in response to the magic that had brought her here, but another demon, one she still knew nothing about.