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.Bek tried to recover, to conceal himselfanew, but it was too late.Something fierce and primal howled down the corridors and rushed across thestones like an uncaged beast.Bek felt his heart freeze and his chest tighten.He stood where he was,trying to muster a defense he didn t have.Truls Rohk saved him.The shapeshifter snatched him off his feet as if he were a child, tucked him underan arm that felt as if it were banded in iron, and began to run.Back down the halls and passageways andacross the courtyards he raced.Leaping over crumbled stone and along worn trenches, he bore the boyaway from the enraged spirit.But it was all around, infused in the castle stone, and it came at them fromeverywhere.Hidden doors dropped into place before them with deafening thuds.Iron gates clanged shut.Spikes rose out of the earth to spear at them.Trapdoors dropped away beneath their feet.Truls Rohkcatapulted and twisted his way past every hazard, sometimes using the walls and even the ceilings to findhandholds and footholds.Nothing slowed him.He ran as if on fire.Bek used his voice in an effort to help, humming anew, not knowing what he did, but needing at least totry.He hummed to make them as swift and elusive as birds, to give them the liquidity of water, to lendthem the ethereal qualities of air.He threw up anything and everything he could think of, constantlychanging tactics, trying to throw off the thing that pursued them.He melted into the creature that bore himaway, disappearing into the smell of earth and grasses, into the feel of iron muscles, into the feral instinctsand quick reflexes.He lost himself completely in a being he did not begin to understand.He lost all senseof who he was.He stripped himself of identity and fragmented into the night.Then suddenly he lay stretched upon the earth, buried in the tall grasses, and he realized they were backoutside again.Truls Rohk crouched next to him, head lowered, shoulders heaving, and the sound of hisbreathing was like an animal s growl.Then he began to laugh, low and guttural at first, then broader andwilder.Bek laughed with him, oddly euphoric, strangely exhilarated, the death that had sought themoutrun and outsmarted. Oh, you re nothing of what you seem, are you, boy? the shapeshifter gasped out between laughs. Nothing of what you were told all these years! Did you know you had a voice that could do this? Hegestured back toward the castle. What was it I did? Bek pressed, convulsed by laughter, as well. Magic!Bek went still then, his laughter fading to silence.He lay in the tall grasses and stared at the stars,listening to the echoes of the word in his mind.Magic! Magic! Magic! No, he thought.That wasn t right.He didn t know any magic.Never had.Oh, yes, he had the phoenix stone, the talisman he wore abouthis neck, given to him by the King of the Silver River, and perhaps that was what You saved us, boy, Truls Rohk said.Bek looked over quickly. You saved us.The dark form shifted and slid nearer. I took us clear of the spirit s reach, but you were the one whokept it at bay.It would have had us otherwise.It dwells all through those ruins.It masks the truth of whatGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlit is and how it looks.It protects itself with deception.But you were its equal this night.Don t you see?Yours was the greater deception, all movement and sound and color.ah, sweet!He leaned close, invisible within his cloak and hood. Listen to me.You saved us this night, but I savedyou once before.I carried you from the ruins of your home and the dark fate of your family.That makesus even!Bek stared. What are you talking about? We are the same, boy, Truls Rohk said again. We were born of the ashes of our parents, of theheritage of our blood, of a history and fate that was never ours to change.We are kindred in ways youcan only guess at.The truth is elusive.Some of it you discovered for yourself this night.The rest you mustclaim from the man who holds it hostage.He reached out and pressed the third key into Bek s hand, closing the boy s fingers over it. Take this tothe Druid.He should be grateful he did not have to retrieve it himself grateful enough to give up thetruth he wrongfully imprisons.Trust begets trust, boy.Ward yourself carefully until that trust is shared.Keep secret what you have learned this night.Pay heed to what I say.Then he vanished, sliding away so swiftly and suddenly that he was gone almost before the boy realizedhe was going.Bek stared into the quivering grasses through which Truls Rohk had vanished, speechless,aghast.Moments later, he watched a shadow lift off the plains and slide upward along one of the airship sanchor lines before disappearing over the side.The Jerle Shannara hung etched against the departing night by the first pale glimmerings of dawn as Bekwaited for a glimpse of something more.When nothing came, he rose wearily and began his walk back.TWENTYFIVEYou disobeyed me, Bek, the Druid said quietly, his voice so chilly the boy could feel the ice in it. Youwere told not to leave the ship at night, and you did so anyway.They were alone in Redden Alt Mer s cabin, where as many as nine of the company had gatheredcomfortably on more than one occasion during their voyage, but where on this morning it felt as if theDruid was taking up all the space and Bek was in danger of being crushed. The order I gave extended to everyone, yourself included.It was very clear.No one was to leave theship without my permission.And particularly not to go into the castle.Bek stood frozen in front of the Druid, his hand outstretched, the third key held forth.Of all the possiblereactions he had anticipated, this was not among them.He had expected to be chastised for hisimpetuous behavior, certainly.He had expected to be lectured on the importance of following orders.Butall of his imagined scenarios ended with Walker expressing his gratitude to the boy for having gainedpossession of the key.There would be no need for another day of scavenging through the ruins andrisking the safety of the ship s company.There would be no more delays.With the third key in hand, theycould proceed to their final destination and the treasure that waited there.Bek saw no hint of gratitude in the Druid s eyes as he stood before him now.It had not occurred to him until he was back aboard ship that his plan to hand the key over to Walker infront of the other members of the ship s company so that he could bask in the glow of their praise and beGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlrecognized at last as an equal would not work.If he gave the key to Walker in public, he would have toexplain how he obtained it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]