Bearers of the Black Staff - Terry Brooks [14]
They talked for a while about how they were going to approach carrying out the charge given to them by Sider Ament. It would not be easy. Only a few were likely to accept that the world was changing in such a drastic way, and not many of them were in a position to do anything about it.
Trow Ravenlock might be one. He was a member of the Hawk sect and a subscriber to the belief that the Hawk would return to lead them out of the valley when it was time. But he was also a man who could be persuaded to a cause where there was evidence it was right to do so. He might hew to the party line, but he was independent enough in his thinking to listen to what Pan and Prue would tell him.
The other possibility was Aislinne. But getting her to help them would be tricky. She was impossible to predict; she might choose to do everything in her power to help or she might do nothing at all.
The hours slipped by, midday turning into afternoon and afternoon to dusk. By the time they had come down out of the high regions and onto the flats at the west end of the valley, the sun had dropped behind the rim of the mountains and the sky was coloring to gold and pink. On another day, the boy and the girl would have stopped to admire it. But the news they brought of the deaths of their friends and the charge they had been given did not allow for pauses.
So they crossed the grassy foothills to the thick woodlands beyond and made their way down familiar paths to their destination. The windows of the cottages and longhouses shone as firefly lights through the trees long before they arrived, and they could hear the sounds of voices and evening tasks being carried out as they approached, familiar and comforting.
“I could eat something,” Prue observed.
“Right after we give our report,” Panterra agreed.
They entered the village and made their way to the longhouse that served both as a gathering point for the Trackers of Glensk Wood and as a residence for their leader, Trow Ravenlock. It was early still, and there were torches burning at the entrance and candlelight flickering from within. But when they climbed the steps of the porch and peered through the door, they found the common rooms empty of everyone but Trow himself.
The Tracker leader was seated at one of the tables, studying a collection of hand-drawn maps. His short, lean body was hunched over as he worked, and his angular features were tightened in concentration. But he looked up quickly as they entered and hesitated only a moment before getting to his feet. “What’s happened?”
Clearly he had read something in their faces. They walked over until they were standing in front of him. “Bayleen and Rausha are dead,” Panterra said. “Killed before sunrise, probably in their sleep.”
“Before sunrise,” the other repeated. He looked from face to face. “So you’ve been tracking the killers?”
Pan nodded. “Since early this morning, up the slopes of Declan Reach and back down again. We cut the trail of the killers first and then discovered the killing ground. We kept tracking until we found where they had bedded down amid the remains. Then, toward midday, we caught up to them.”
He stopped, waiting to see if Trow had heard clearly. The Tracker leader ran his hand through his iron-gray hair and blinked. “They killed them and then ate them later?” he asked slowly. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“They dismembered them so that they were all but unrecognizable,” Prue answered. “Show him, Pan.”
Panterra reached in his pocket and produced Bayleen’s bracelet. “That was how we know who it was,” he said.
Trow Ravenlock sat back down slowly. “What sort of creatures would do something like that? Were they Kodens?”
Pan shook his head. “We thought they might be Kodens, but they weren’t. They weren’t like anything we’ve ever seen. Like anything anyone in this valley has ever seen. We tracked them, Trow, but they caught our scent or heard us. They set a trap for us; they were waiting in ambush. We almost died. But someone saved us.”
He told