The High Druid of Shannara Trilogy

Shadea shook her head. “It should be anyone but you. What will you do if you find him and he looks at you and you cannot act? Don’t tell me it cannot happen because I know better. I was there, Iridia, when you lost him. You were inconsolable for weeks. He was the one you wanted—the one you will always want.”


“I don’t deny that!” she snapped. “But that part of my life is over. I am committed to our efforts here. If he stands in our way, if he acts to help her, then I want him dead! I have the right to watch him die. I ask nothing more than that. If he is to be killed, I want to be there to see it. I want my face to be the last face he sees in this life!”

Shadea sighed. “You only think you want that. What you want is for him to take you back again, to tell you that he loves you still, despite what has happened. If he were to do so, you would abandon your cause and us in a heartbeat. No, wait, Iridia—don’t lie to yourself. You would, and you know it. Why wouldn’t you? I don’t condemn it. I would do the same in your place.”

“You would do nothing of the sort,” the other woman sneered. “You have never loved anyone but yourself. Don’t pretend to understand me. I know love compels me, but it compels me in ways other than those you seem so quick to attribute. Love doesn’t compel me to embrace him; it compels me to see him suffer!”

“Yes, but not at your hands.” Shadea moved away, gazing out the tower window at the enfolding darkness and roiling storm clouds. Outside, the wind began to howl and the rain to fall in heavy curtains that lashed the stone walls.

“Better at my hands, where we can be certain of the result, than at the hands of Terek Molt, who has already failed us once!”

“Better at another’s hands entirely. I am sending Aphasia Wye to make certain the job is done right.”

She glimpsed Iridia’s face out of the corner of her eye, and the look confirmed what she had already decided about the other’s feelings for Ahren Elessedil.

“Iridia,” she said softly, turning back. “Distance yourself from this matter. Leave it to others to determine what is needed. You have suffered enough at the hands of the Elven Prince. He has betrayed you already and would do so again. His loyalty is to her, not to you. That will never change. To place yourself in a position where you must test your resolve is foolish and dangerous. It asks too much of you.”

The sorceress stiffened, her lips tightening to a thin, hard line, her perfect features cast in iron. “And you think too little of me. I am not a fool, Shadea. I am your equal and in some ways your better. I have experiences you do not; don’t be so quick to dismiss me as a lovesick child.”

“I would never do that.”

“You not only would, you do!” Iridia’s glare would have melted iron. “If Ahren Elessedil has used the Elfstones to try to help that woman, I want him dead as much as you do. But I want to see it happen. I want to watch him die!”

“Do you?” Shadea a’Ru paused. “I would have thought you’d had enough of that sort of thing. How many more of those you profess not to love, but secretly do, must you watch die before you are satisfied?”

Iridia’s face went white. “What are you talking about?” There was an unmistakable warning in her words.

Shadea ignored it, her gaze cold and empty. “The baby, Iridia. You remember the baby, don’t you? You didn’t love her, either.”

For a long moment Iridia neither moved nor spoke, but simply stared at Shadea, the look on her face one of mixed incredulity and rage. Then both drained away with frightening swiftness, leaving her features calm and dispassionate. “Do what you want,” she said.

She turned and walked away without looking at Shadea. As she went through the door, she said softly, “I hate you. I’ll see you dead, too.”

As Iridia disappeared down the tower stairs, Shadea glanced after her, thinking for just a moment that she should go after her, then deciding otherwise. She knew the sorceress. Iridia was quick to anger, but she would think the situation through and realize she was being foolish. It was better to let her be for now.

She looked down at the scrye waters in the basin. The ripples had disappeared; the surface had gone completely still.

Ahren Elessedil would be made to vanish just as swiftly.