Armageddon's Children - Terry Brooks [84]
The voice was coming from everywhere—from outside Kirisin but from inside, as well. Then he realized that it wasn’t an audible voice he was hearing; it was unspoken thoughts projected into his mind, lending those thoughts the weight and substance of spoken words.
Wait a minute. She? Who was ‘she?’
—Your order has served me long and well, my beloved, my Chosen. You have stayed at my side since the time of my birthing, since the moment of my inception. I have never wanted. I have never needed. But I want and need now, and you must heed me. You must do as I ask—
Kirisin was listening intently, even as he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe that it was real. The Ellcrys never spoke to anyone to save the Chosen, and she only spoke to them once—on the day of their choosing, when she called them by name. That she was communicating with him was mind boggling. What was it she had said? A change in the world? The end of everything they knew?
“What is this change?” he whispered, almost without realizing he had spoken the words.
—Humans and their demons are at war. It is a war that neither will win. It is a war that will destroy them both. But you and I will be destroyed, as well.
If we are to survive, we must leave the Cintra. We must travel to a new land, to a new life, where we will find shelter and rebirth—
Was the tree answering him? Had it heard his question? Kirisin tried to decide, and then simply quit thinking about it and said what was on his mind.
“What can we do to help?”
—Take me from the Cintra. Do not uproot me, but carry me away still rooted in my soil. Place me inside a Loden Elfstone, and I will be protected. Use the seeking-Elfstones to find it, the three to find the one. Read your histories.
The secret is written down—
Kirisin had no idea how to respond. He knew of Elfstones, for they were a part of Elven history. But the Elves had not possessed one for hundreds of years. No one knew what had become of them.
No one even knew for certain what it was they were supposed to do. They were magic, but their magic was a mystery.
He wanted to ask more. He wanted to know all about the Elf-stones and everything else he had just heard the tree reveal. Mostly, he wanted to hear the tree speak to him again. But he couldn’t think what to ask, and before he could his chance was gone.
—Do not fail me, Kirisin Belloruus. Do not fail the Elves. Do what I have asked of you—
The branch lifted away and the voice went still. Kirisin waited, but nothing further happened. The Ellcrys was silent. He exhaled slowly, his mouth dry and his face hot. Everything that had just happened felt surreal, as if he had been lost in a dream.
“What am I going to do?” he whispered to the air.
* * *
HE WAITED UNTIL dawn, until after the greeting, until the rituals were satisfied, then gathered the Chosen together at the edge of the clearing and told them what had happened. They sat close, listening, their eyes skittering from face to face. When he finished, they stared at him as if he had lost his mind. The doubt on their faces was unmistakable.
“Don’t you believe me?” he demanded angrily. He clenched his fists. “I know what I heard!”
“I know what you think you heard,” Biat said, skepticism clear in his tone. “But maybe you imagined it.”
A few of the others nodded in agreement. They wanted him to have imagined it. Kirisin shook his head angrily. “I didn’t imagine anything! She spoke to me.
She told me some sort of change is coming, and it’s going to destroy everything.
She told me we have to go somewhere else and take her with us. She talked about Elfstones and magic and histories and secrets. I heard her clearly enough.”
“Sometimes whole groups of people think they see or hear something that never happened,” Giln said quietly.
“The Ellcrys never speaks to anyone,” added Raya. She shifted her dark eyes toward