Bearers of the Black Staff - Terry Brooks [121]
“I am not your brother,” his mentor replies. “Don’t call me that. Why are you here?”
“Because I’ve done what I said I would do? Surely you didn’t think I was lying!”
The old man shakes his head slowly. “No, I never thought that. I hoped you might instead come to your senses. I even warned the King, as I told you I would. It wasn’t enough, apparently. Why don’t you stop where you are?”
He makes it a command, and the Elf stops. “Nothing you could have done would have been enough, brother. Warning the King only made it harder than it might have been otherwise. But this was a test I sought. I needed to see if I was strong enough, to discover if my power was great enough. I was, and it was. Dozens of dead Elves would attest to this if they could speak from whatever resting place they’ve found. They came at me in waves once their King was dead. They came at me with everything they had, but it wasn’t enough to stop me. So here I am.”
“Do you believe yourself strong enough to kill me, as well?”
“I’ve come to find out.”
The boy goes cold at these words and immediately searches for a weapon. But he carries none. There is no need when he is with his mentor, who is a match for anything. Except, perhaps, this time. The boy rises, prepared to do whatever he can to help.
“Your pup would defend you, brother,” the Elf says lightly, happily. He almost laughs. “I think I must kill him, as well. I wouldn’t want him to come looking for me later, should he be rash enough to do so after I’ve finished with you. Revenge is such a tiresome business.”
“If revenge is so tiresome, you must be weary, indeed,” the old man says, shifting the black staff in his hands. “Why come searching for me, seeking my death, if revenge is all you expect to find?”
The Elf cocks his head and thinks on it a moment. “Revenge is not what I seek by killing you, brother. Peace of mind is what I seek. If you are gone and I alone remain, who is left to challenge me? I can be whatever I wish once you are dead. I can be leader of all the Races and reshape the world in whatever ways I see fit.”
“You lie even to yourself.” The old man’s words are so soft they are almost inaudible. “You care nothing for peace of mind. You are here because I would not join you. You seek to make me suffer for refusing your offer. I would not partner with you in your cause, and so now you would make me pay the price for my temerity.”
The Elf’s features tighten and his face undergoes a sudden transformation, changing from calm to tense, mirroring rage and frustration and despair all at once, emotions he has kept bottled up inside but now break free. He shifts the black staff in the same way the old man did only moments earlier.
“Shall we find out who shall be judged right and who wrong?” he asks. “Shall we settle this?”
The old man does not reply. “Stay where you are,” he says over his shoulder to the boy, his voice soft enough that his enemy cannot hear his words. “Don’t try to help me. Don’t interfere.”
The boy has been taught to obey the old man and not question his directives. But this time he does not think he can do so. He cannot sit by and let his mentor be killed if he can do anything to stop it. He does not like what he sees and hears in the voice of the Elf. He thinks that the old man is in danger. How can he ignore this?
The old man has turned back to face the Elf, who is advancing on him once more. “Do not do this,” he says. “We are the last of our kind, the last who bear the staff. Think what—”
But the runes carved into the dark length of the other’s weapon are already flaring to life with the power of the Word’s magic, and abruptly white fire lances out at the old man. He blocks the strike with magic of his own, but the force of the attack knocks him back two steps. The Elf’s laughter is high and shrill as he comes on, the magic preceding him in a steady stream, as if water jetting from a pump. There seems to be no end to it, its power undiminished by loss of either strength or determination in the bearer. The old man has taught the boy that usage of the magic in any