Here, for the first time, Cogline was mentioned. Drisker bore down, reading everything there was to read about the old man and Walker that led up to the search for the Black Elfstone, his return from the city of the Stone King to the former site of Paranor, and his attempts to bring back the Druid’s Keep from its limbo existence. It was a slow, tedious process, and after dozens of pages he still didn’t know why the Black Elfstone would not respond to him.
But he stopped reading when he found something else, something of equal importance.
He had found a way to save Tarsha.
FOURTEEN
Tavo Kaynin had been walking for days. How many, he didn’t know. Time had lost meaning for him. Everything had lost meaning except his search for Tarsha. Since the tavern massacre in that small Westland village, he had made it a point to stay away from everyone when not engaged in asking about his sister. Every so often he would find someone who had seen her. Tarsha was memorable, the color of her eyes and hair unusual, and those who had encountered her remembered. Most knew nothing more than from which direction she had come and in which direction she had gone. So he followed along as best he could, picking up just enough scraps of information to be able to continue his search.
Until, finally, he found someone who knew something more useful.
His source was a man he encountered on a lonely road outside another unfamiliar village he was avoiding while following the steadily disappearing trail Tarsha had left in her passing. It had been several days since there had been any new information, and he was still traveling eastward, still tracking along the southern borders of the Mermidon, when he caught sight of the man approaching. He almost stepped off the roadway, intimidated by the other’s clean, well-tended dress and air of confidence. He had endured enough raw looks and rough comments about his own dirty, disheveled appearance to want to avoid inviting any more. He was afraid of his own temper by now. He knew what he was capable of doing if he became angry or frightened, and he was intent on avoiding any further incidents.
But on a whim he decided not to give way and continued toward the other traveler until they were face-to-face. Then he asked the same two questions he had been asking everyone he spoke to. Have you seen a girl with white-blond hair and lavender eyes? And when he saw the hesitation in the other’s eyes, he felt a surge of excitement and pressed on. Did she say where she was going?
“Who are you?” the man asked. Not unfriendly, but clearly wary. “You don’t mean her harm, do you?”
Tavo could barely contain himself. “She is my sister!” he exclaimed. “I am searching for her because I think she needs my help. Please, tell me if you know anything.”
His words were persuasive and his voice filled with desperation. He was clever, and he knew how to pretend. His skill at deception was improving, and he was paying close attention by now to the advice offered by his friend and companion, Fluken, who was standing just off to one side.
Make him believe, Fluken urged him wordlessly. Do not anger or frighten him like you did those others. Give him a reason to want to help.
So Tavo did as he said, and avoided calling on the magic that roiled within him, eager to be unleashed so that it might crush this stranger and force the words from his dying tongue. Instead, he remained outwardly calm, but concerned in what he believed to be a brotherly way.
The stranger looked at him doubtfully. “You look all done in.”
“I have traveled a long way to find her,” Tavo continued when he sensed the hesitation. “I have no credits or means of transportation. But I continue on, anyway. I won’t let anything stop me. I must find her.”
The young man hesitated a moment more, then nodded. “You look like her. I can see the resemblance. So, yes. I did meet and speak with her maybe a month ago. I gave her food and water, too. She was all alone and looked very tired.”
“That was kind of you.” Tavo made a show of gratitude, forcing a smile. “Do you know where she was going? Did she say?”
“She did. To a small village, but the name escapes me. North, somewhere, in the Westland. I think she was looking for someone.” He shook his head. “I just can’t seem to remember.”
“Please take a moment to think about it. Maybe it will come to you. Anything at all will help…”
They stood together in silence for long minutes, the man with his head lowered and his eyes fixed on the ground while Tavo stared at him impatiently.
Finally, the man sighed and lifted his head, smiling. “No use. I just can’t seem to remember it.”
Tavo was enraged. His face reddened and his neck muscles corded. “Then I’ll help you!”
Ten minutes later he had the answers he wanted. Tarsha was headed for the village of Emberen to find a man named Drisker Arc. She had not said why she was looking for him. She did not say what she intended to do when she found him. She did not say anything about who he was. Not that it mattered; he would find all that out eventually. What he’d learned was enough to give him a fresh start.
He would have thanked the man if he had told him all this willingly, but then maybe he really couldn’t remember. In any case, it was too late. The magic of the wishsong had destroyed his mind and left him a babbling idiot standing in the road mumbling and jerking like a puppet hitched to invisible strings. Tavo did not laugh. It wasn’t funny. The magic was serious business, and he took it that way. He could use it for anything if he was prepared to accept the consequences, and by now he was. He saw it as necessary, and that was sufficient to give him license to do what he had just done. The man would never be the same, but he had served his purpose.
Tavo considered leaving him as he was, but then thought it would be a kindness simply to put an end to him.
So he did.
A single note, high and haunting, and it was done.
He went on alone, completely unaware that his sister was now tracking him as he was tracking her. He would have found it ironic, had he known. He could have stopped where he was and waited for her to catch up to him, but he thought her arrived and settled in Emberen by now and had no reason to believe anything else. Least of all that she had returned to Backing Fell, had discovered what he had done to their parents and uncle, and had gone off to look for him as a result.
He had no reason to know that she was simply trying to help him and had never intended to abandon him. But maybe it didn’t matter. By now he was well past complex rational thinking, and he could only manage situations as they happened. Being in the moment was simple, uncomplicated, real. He could handle what that required of him, but not much more. Thinking beyond the moment was no longer possible.
The trek went on for several more days, taking him along the shores of the Mermidon and onto the grasslands that spread east toward the distant mountains of the Dragon’s Teeth. He wasn’t entirely sure where Emberen was, but he took time to ask people now and again so he could continue. Most were happy to provide him with the help he needed. Only one or two turned away, but he let them go.