Bearers of the Black Staff - Terry Brooks [126]
“Place yourself in a position where you could speak to everyone about the things that need doing, that might have life-altering consequences for everyone, and see to it that the right choices are made. Would you be interested?”
“No one can do that. Not even you.”
Sider Ament smiled. “Sometimes, I can. And sometimes is enough to keep me trying.”
“But I’m not you. I’m just a Tracker.”
“Not just a Tracker, Panterra. You are much more than that. You are special at what you do; you are gifted and skilled. I wasn’t exaggerating when I told Esselline I had good reason for bringing you along with me. I haven’t met another with your talent in all the time I’ve been walking the valley and warding its passes.”
The boy looked uncertain. “Prue is more talented than I am.”
“It might seem so, but she’s not. And she is too young. She relies on you. You rely only on yourself. Yours are the greater skills. Even if you don’t think so, it is true.”
“Well, I don’t see—” The boy stopped midsentence and stared at Sider. “What’s the point of this conversation? What are you trying to say to me?”
“I am trying to tell you that I think you should be the next to bear this talisman.” He lifted the black staff a few inches, drawing the boy’s eyes to its rune-carved length. “I think you should become my apprentice and train with me to take my place when I am gone.”
Panterra Qu smiled and almost laughed. Sider watched the laugh surface and then disappear as the boy suppressed it. “I don’t want to carry the staff,” the boy said quickly. “I just want to be a Tracker.”
“You would be a Tracker still. You would keep your skills and use them often. But you would do much more, too. You would serve a higher cause than Trow Ravenlock and the people of Glensk Wood.”
“No, that’s enough for me. Besides, there’s Prue. I have to look out for her.”
Sider took a deep breath. There it was—the crux of the matter. He gave the boy a smile. “Yes, there’s Prue. You consider her your best friend, don’t you?”
“I do. You know that.”
“Do you love her?”
He hesitated, caught off guard by the question. Perhaps no one had ever asked it. Perhaps he hadn’t even considered it. He didn’t seem to know what to say. “As I would a sister, yes,” he replied finally.
“Nothing more?”
“Not as I think you mean.”
“Does she love you?”
Again, the hesitation. “In the same way. As a brother.”
“Then there is no difficulty in doing what I suggest. You do not have to stop loving each other as friends and siblings, and you can still be together as much as you choose. Nothing about bearing the black staff prevents this. But …”
He held up one hand, palm open toward the boy, as if to stop something he might be about to say. “But something else might prevent it. Not just if you become my successor and the next bearer of the staff, but even if you choose to remain a simple Tracker from Glensk Wood. What you had once envisioned for both of you is finished. That future is gone. It left with the collapse of the magic that warded the valley. It left when the doors opened to the outside world and our survival became a much more perilous undertaking.”
The boy gave him a look, and he smiled in spite of himself. “I know how that sounds. But I don’t say these things only because the protective wall is down and the passes are open. I say them because I met a man while I was outside the valley, and he told me what the world was like. He described it in detail, and it is not a place that will tolerate weakness or indecision. It is populated by dangerous creatures and infused with the residue of the poisons and the resultant mutations of the Great Wars. Those of the human Race that survived did so by being tougher and stronger than those who did not. The Trolls who besiege the valley are indicative of what’s out there. But they are only one example.”
He paused, letting the boy think it through. “It isn’t hard to see what I am trying to say, is it? A battle for survival is at hand, and it will require more than any of us have considered giving in the past. Life will not be as simple