Bearers of the Black Staff - Terry Brooks [72]
“I can’t be sure what I’m seeing,” Tasha said finally.
His eyes were the best of the five, so the others accepted that they would find nothing, either. “We should go find out,” Phryne said suddenly. Again, she saw the looks on their faces. “We’ve come this far; why not go a little farther?”
“Because now we are setting out across country we know nothing about,” Tasha pointed out. “That makes exploring a whole lot more dangerous. I can’t imagine that your father would have much good to say about us if we follow your suggestion. I think we’ve done as much as we can. It’s time to be going back.”
“But what if those are people out there? What if they can tell us something about what’s happened to the world?”
“What if they aren’t and they can’t and they only want to eat us?” Tenerife asked with a grunt. “Let it go, cousin.”
She wheeled on him. “I don’t want to let it go! I want to have a look for myself!”
Without a word, Tasha scooped her up in his long arms and threw her over his shoulder. “Time to be going, Princess. Satisfying your curiosity will have to wait for another day.”
She struggled against him, demanding that he put her down, beating at him with her fists. Panterra had never imagined that a Princess would behave this way, and he didn’t like how it made him feel. Clearly, Phryne Amarantyne was someone who was used to getting her way and didn’t like it a bit when she didn’t.
“This is foolish!” she snapped, continuing to thrash from her perch atop her cousin’s broad shoulder. “We’re supposed to be exploring! We’re supposed to discover as much as we can!”
“We can come back and do that another time,” Tenerife replied, walking alongside Tasha but staying out of range in case Phryne decided to take a swing at him. “When we’re better prepared.”
“When we have more men and more weapons and less confusion,” Tasha added. “Stop struggling, will you?”
She stopped then, going limp, as if suddenly drained of the energy to resist. She hung there for a moment, and then said, “Put me down.”
Tasha hesitated, but finally he lowered her to her feet and stepped back. “We came to find out about the barrier that wards us from the outer world, Phryne. We’ve done that. Now we need to go back and let your father and the High Council decide what is to be done about it.”
“I know,” she said, straightening her rumpled clothing and brushing herself off. “I just thought that since we were already here …” She trailed off. “I just thought we might do a little more, learn a little something else. But I understand your point, Tasha. I’ll let it go for now. But I’m coming back.”
“And we’ll come with you,” Tasha assured her.
Panterra hoped the big man didn’t think he was speaking for all of them, because he wasn’t at all sure he and Prue would be coming back. Having seen what they’d seen, he was inclined to believe that his own duty lay in reporting back to Pogue Kray and the people of Glensk Wood. It might not be easy to accept, but now they knew for sure. Everyone in the valley would have to be made aware that the barrier was down and the valley was open to the rest of the world. It would take time for people to get used to the idea, and the sooner they got started doing so, the better.
All of a sudden he caught sight of something he had missed before. Off to the left, close against the wall of the cliffs, a single column of smoke rose into the damp air. A solitary campfire, he decided instantly, not a quarter mile distant.
“Look there,” he said to the others, pointing.
They peered through the gray twilight with him and spied the smoke immediately. “A campsite …” Tenerife said quietly, the words trailing off.
“Now we have to have a look!” Phryne insisted at once. “That’s not too far for us to go! Is it, Tasha? It’s not, is it?”
Her cousin did not reply at once. Panterra could tell that he was thinking it over. “It’s not what we came to do, cousin,” he repeated. “I don’t know.”
But he was clearly hesitating, and this did not escape Phryne. She turned to Pan. “We can go over there and take a quick