The High Druid of Shannara Trilogy

He said it with such sadness that it made her throat tighten in response. “There are no dragons in my world,” she answered.

“No dragons?” His head lifted from the cradle of his arms. “Well, who will protect you from the Furies, then? Or the giants, and ogres and Graumths? Who will warn you of their coming? Who will keep you from stumbling into their lairs?”

“There are no Furies, ogres, giants, or Graumths. All of those are here. They were all sent here in the time of Faerie, when the Forbidding was created.” She paused. “My world is nothing like yours, little Ulk Bog. It is a very different kind of place.”

“Are there Ulk Bogs like me?”

“No. There are no Faerie kind at all, save Elves.”

“I hate Elves,” he muttered. “Elves enslaved the Jarka Ruus.”

“Weka Dart,” she said quietly. “We will try to take you with us, just as I promised. I will keep my word. I just want you to know that I may not be able to break you free. I may not have the power to do that.”

He was silent a long time. “No Ulk Bogs?”

“No.”

He squirmed around in the dark, shifting positions, trying first one, then another, so restless that she thought there was something wrong with him. “Are you all right?”

“I might not come with you after all,” he said suddenly. “I might stay here. Your world sounds boring. It sounds as if there is nothing to do. I might be better off staying right where I am.”

She stared at him. “I thought you said you couldn’t do that. I thought you said Tael Riverine would kill you if you stayed.”

“He might take me back, now that Hobstull is dead.” Weka Dart’s voice was small and contemplative. “He will need a new Catcher.”

“No!” she said at once. “The Straken Lord will have you killed, Weka Dart! He will find out what you have done and that will be the end of you!”

“He might not. He might think me too valuable now.”

She wanted to shake him so hard his teeth rattled. “If this is a threat meant to get back at me for telling you the truth, for telling you what I thought you had a right to know, then it is a poor one! Don’t be such a fool! You cannot talk about going back to Tael Riverine! Going back is suicide!”

“Or maybe I will go west, where I said I wanted to go when we met.” He shrugged. “Maybe I will go to Huka Flats and find a place where I will be accepted.”

She didn’t know what to say. She wanted him to quit talking the way he was. She wanted to tell him that they would find a way to get him out of the Forbidding. She wanted him to wait until they knew for sure what was going to happen when they used the darkwand. But Weka Dart was already sifting his expectations in his mind, rethinking his life and his plans for the future, accepting better than she, perhaps, the realities.

“Don’t decide anything tonight,” she said to him. “Wait until we have a chance to test the staff. Will you do that?”

He was silent for a long time. “I will sleep on it, Straken Queen. I will give it the thought it deserves.”

“I wouldn’t ask for more than that,” she said.

“I would be a good Catcher for you. Is there was anything to catch over there? Or to protect you from? There must be something.”

“There are enemies,” she assured him. “There are always enemies.”

She watched him lie down and curl into a ball. “I will keep you safe from your enemies,” he said softly. “I will protect you.”

“I know.”

She sat staring out into the night, her thoughts dark and threatening, pushing back her weariness. She should be able to do more for him than what she believed she could. She should be able to help him. But she didn’t know where to start. She didn’t know how to do what was needed. She felt weak and impotent.

“I will be there for you,” he whispered.

Then he said nothing more.


She awoke with the dawn, the silvery tinge of its breaking a faint blush on the eastern horizon. The sky was overcast and the clouds thick and roiling across the Pashanon. A storm was building to the southwest, and there was a screen of rain where it swept eastward out of Huka Flats.