Bearers of the Black Staff - Terry Brooks [107]
She nodded. “What do you intend to do to help?” She paused. “By coming here, I assume that you intend to speak with Pogue.”
“I intend it. And once I have done so, I intend to get word to those other villages. But I would ask your thoughts first. We already know how Skeal Eile and his followers will react. How should I go about this so that they cannot undermine me? I have to be certain that someone will listen to me and then act on what I am saying. Glensk Wood sits closest to Declan Reach. If the Trolls find the pass through, they will come here first.”
She thought about it a moment. “A public announcement invites trouble. Something private might be better.” She gave him a look. “What if I were to bring Pogue and Skeal Eile to you tonight. Just the two.”
“Eile won’t come,” said Panterra, standing off to one side.
“He will if he doesn’t know the reason he is being summoned.”
“Bring Trow Ravenlock, as well,” Sider said. “His Trackers are the closest thing you have to an organized fighting force, and two of them are directly involved in what’s happened.” He glanced at the boy. “Ravenlock will stand up for you, won’t he? He believes in you and the girl?”
Panterra Qu nodded doubtfully. “But he believes in the teachings of the Children of the Hawk, as well. I don’t know.”
“Well.” The word was a sigh of resignation. “We have to start somewhere.”
“I’ll go now.” Aislinne stood. “Panterra, there’s food in the kitchen. Go in and have something to eat and drink. Sider, I would speak with you alone for a minute.”
She took him outside without further explanation, closing the door tightly behind them. She stood on the porch without looking at him for a moment, staring out into the night, but seeing something else entirely. Then she took him down the steps, across the yard, and into the shadows where they could not be easily seen. All around them, the village was dark and silent. Even the lights in the windows were beginning to disappear.
When she turned to face him, there was no friendliness in her eyes. “Why did you bring Panterra back with you?”
The question took him by surprise. “He’s seen things I haven’t; he brings another perspective and another voice to the discussion. I thought it would help.”
She gave him a sardonic smile. “You are such a poor liar, Sider. All you say is probably true, but that isn’t why he’s come with you. I don’t need you to tell me the reason, either. I can see it in your eyes, in the way you look at him. You want him for yourself. You’ve decided he’s the one.”
Sider hesitated, considering a lie. Then he gave it up. Not with her, he decided. “That’s true. But he doesn’t know it yet; I haven’t spoken to him. I have no way of knowing what he will say.”
She stepped close. “I know that boy. And the girl who partners with him. They aren’t exactly like you and I once were, but close enough that I won’t let you do this. Separating them would be worse than what you did in separating us. Do you realize what they mean to each other?”
He shook his head. “I know hardly anything about that. I only know what he makes me feel, and what he makes me feel is why I plan to speak to him.”
“I forbid it!” she hissed sharply.
“It isn’t your place to do that.” The words were out before he could think better of them, too late to take back. “Aislinne, I don’t want this, either. But if I am killed in this business, in this transition from the old world to the new, that boy will be needed to take the staff and go on. There must be someone to follow after me.”
“Then find someone else.”
He shook his head. “I haven’t time for that. I haven’t even got a place to start. I’ve been looking all these years, waiting, but there’s been no one. Now I have to—”
“Stop.” She spit out the word as if to rid herself of its bitterness, one hand lifting