Part 31 (1/2)
Valegirl and highlander rose and followed as she opened the door and stepped outside.
The moment the latch clicked free, Whisper was on his feet, padding silently through the door after them.
They paused momentarily on the porch of the little cottage, losing themselves in the splendor of the evening's peaceful, almost mystical still-life. The air was chill and faintly damp and smelled sweetly of the darkened forest. White moonlight bathed the lawn, flower gardens, neatly trimmed hedgerows, and shrubs with dazzling brightness. Each blade of gra.s.s, soft petal, and tiny leaf glistened wetly, deep emerald laced with frost as the dew of the autumn evening gathered. In the blackness beyond, the trees of the forest rose against the star-filled sky like monstrous giants-ageless, ma.s.sive, frozen in the silence of the night. The gentle wind of early dusk had faded entirely now, drifting soundlessly into stillness. Even the familiar cries of the woodland creatures had softened to faint and distant murmurs that soothed and comforted.
”Grandfather will be at the willow,” Kimber Boh said softly, breaking the spell.
Together, they moved off the porch onto the walkway that led to the rear of the cottage.
No one spoke a word. They simply walked slowly, the girl leading, their boots sc.r.a.ping softly against the worn stone. Something skittered through the dry leaves in the dark curtain of the forest and was gone. A bird called sharply, its piercing cry echoing in the stillness, lingering on.
The three moved past the corner of the house now, through groupings of pine and spruce and lines of hedgerows. Then a huge, sagging willow appeared from out of the darkness of the edge of the forest, its branches trailing in thick streamers that hung like a curtain against the night. Ma.s.sive and gnarled, its humped form lay wrapped in shadowed darkness, as if drawn inward onto itself. There, beneath its canopied arch, the bowl of a pipe glowed deep red in the darkness, and puffs of smoke rose skyward to thin and vanish.
As they pa.s.sed through the trailing limbs of the willow, they saw clearly the skeletal form of Cogline, hunched over on one of a pair of wooden benches that had been placed at the base of the ancient trunk, his wizened face turned toward the darkened forest. Kimber Boh went directly over to him and placed the forest cloak about his shoulders.
”You will catch cold, grandfather,” she scolded gently.
The old man grimaced. ”Can't even come out here for a smoke without you hovering over me like a mother hen!” He pulled the cloak about him nevertheless as he glanced over at Brin and Rone. ”And I don't need these two for company either. Or that worthless cat. I pose you brought him out here, too!”
Brin looked about for Whisper and was surprised to find that he had disappeared again. A moment earlier, he had been right behind them.
Kimber Boh seated herself next to her grandfather. ”Why won't you at least try to be friends with Brin and Rone?” she asked him quietly.
”What for?” the other snapped. ”I don't need friends! Friends are nothing but trouble, always expecting you to do something for them, always wanting some favor or other. Had enough friends in the old days, girl. You don't understand enough about how life is, that's your trouble!”
The girl glanced apologetically at Brin and Rone and nodded toward the empty bench.
Wordlessly, the Valegirl and the highlander sat down across from her.
Kimber Boh turned back to the old man. ”You must not be like that. You must not be so selfish.””I'm an old man. I can be what I want!” Cogline muttered petulantly.
”When I used to say things like that, you called me spoiled and sent me to my room. Do you remember?”
”That was different!”
”Should I send you to your room?” she asked, speaking to the old man as a mother would to her child, her hands clasping his. ”Or perhaps you would prefer it if Whisper and I also had nothing more to do with you since we are your friends, too, and you do not seem to want any friends.”
Cogline clamped his teeth about the stem of his pipe as if he might bite it through and hunched down sullenly within the cloak, refusing to answer. Brin glanced quickly over at Rone, who arched one eyebrow in response. It was clear to both that despite her age, it was Kimber Boh who was the stabilizing force in this strange little family.
The girl leaned over then and kissed her grandfather's cheek softly. ”I know that you don't really believe what you said. I know you are a good, kind, gentle man, and I love you.” She brought her arms about his thin frame and hugged him close.
To Brin's surprise, the old man's arm came up tentatively and hugged her back.
”They should have asked before they came here,” he muttered, gesturing vaguely toward the Valegirl and the highlander. ”I might have hurt them, you know.”
”Yes, grandfather, I know,” the girl responded. ”But now that they are here, after having made such a long journey to find you, I think you should see why it is that they have come and if there is anything you can do to help them.”
Brin and Rone exchanged hurried glances once more. Cogline slipped free of Kimber Boh's arms, muttering and shaking his head, wispish hair dancing in the moonglow like fine silk thread.
”Dratted cat, where's he got to this time! Whisper! Come out here, you worthless beast!
I'm not sitting around...”
”Grandfather!” the girl interrupted him firmly. The old man looked at her in startled silence, and she nodded toward Brin and Rone. ”Our friends, grandfather-will you ask them?”
The wrinkles in the old man's face creased deeper as he frowned. ”Oh, very well,” he huffed irritably. ”What was it that brought you here?”
”We have need of someone who can show us a way through this country,” Brin replied at once, hardly daring to hope that the help they so badly needed might at last be offered. ”We were told that Cogline was the one man who might know that way.”
”Except that there isn't any Cogline anymore!” the oldster snapped, but a warning glance from the girl quieted him at once.
”Well then, what country is it that you plan to travel through?”
”The central Anar,” Brin answered. ”Darklin Reach, the moor beyond-all the way east to the Ravenshorn.” She paused. ”Into the Maelmord.”
”But the walkers are there!” Kimber Boh exclaimed.
”What reason would you have for going into that black pit?” the old man followed up heatedly.
Brin hesitated, seeing where matters were headed. ”To destroy the walkers.”
”Destroy the walkers!” Cogline was aghast. ”Destroy them with what, girl?”
”With the wishsong. With the magic that...”
”With the wishsong? With that singing? That's what you plan to use?” Cogline was on hisfeet, leaping about wildly, skeletal arms gesturing. ”And you think me mad? Get out of here! Get out of my house! Get out, get out!”
Kimber Boh rose and gently pulled the old man back down on the bench, talking to him, soothing him as he continued to rant. It took a few moments to quiet him. Then wrapping him once more in the forest cloak, she turned again to Brin and Rone.
”Brin Ohmsford,” she addressed the Valegirl solemnly, her face quite stern. ”The Maelmord is no place for you. Even I do not go there.”
Brin almost smiled at the other's emphasis on her own forbidding. ”But I do not have a choice in this, Kimber,” she explained gently. ”I have to go.”
”And I have to go with her,” Rone added grudgingly. ”When I find the sword again, at is.
I have to find the sword first.”
Kimber looked at them each in turn and shook her head in confusion. ”I don't understand.
What sword? Why is it that you have to go into the Maelmord? Why is it that you have to destroy the walkers?
Again Brin hesitated, this time in caution. How much should she reveal of the quest that had brought her to this land? How much should she tell of the truth that had been entrusted to her? But as she looked into the eyes of Kimber, the caution that bade her keep watch over all that she so carefully hid suddenly ceased to have meaning. Allanon was dead, gone forever from the Four Lands. The magic he had given Rone in order that he might protect her was lost. She was alone, weary, and frightened, despite the determination that carried her forward on this impossible journey; if she were to survive what lay ahead, she knew she must take what help she could find where she might find it. Hidden truths and clever deceptions had been a way of life for Allanon, a part of the person that he had been. It could never be so for her.
So she told the girl and the old man all that had been told to her and all that had befallen her since Allanon had first appeared in the village of Shady Vale those many days gone past. She hid nothing of the truth save those secrets she kept hidden even from Rone, those frightening suspicions and unpleasant whisperings of the powers, dark and unfathomable, of the wishsong. It took a long time to tell it all, but for once the old man was quiet and the girl listened with him in silent wonderment.
When she had finished, she turned to Rone to see if there were anything further that should be said, but the highlander shook his head wordlessly.
”You see, then, that I have to go,” she repeated the words one final time, looking from the girl to the old man and back again, waiting.