High druid of Shannara_ Jarka Ruus - Terry Brooks [106]
“Papa knows this, and he doesn’t forget such favors. I don’t think he intends you harm. But I don’t always understand how he thinks, either.” She took his hands again. “Will you tell me where you are staying? So that if I discover you are in danger, I can warn you?”
He hesitated. It was the one thing he had been ordered not to reveal, no matter what. He had promised to keep it a secret. And now Cinnaminson was asking him to violate his trust. It was a terrible moment, and his decision was made impulsively.
“We are lodged at Fisherman’s Lie, about half a mile into the city.” He squeezed her fingers. “But how will you find us, even if you need to? You’ll have to ask for help, and that’s too dangerous.”
She smiled. “Let me tell you another truth, Penderrin. I can find you anytime I want, because even though I am blind, I can see with my mind. I have always been able to do so. It is the way I was born — with a different kind of sight. I travel with Papa because I can see better than he can in darkness and in mist and fog, bad weather, storms of all sorts. I can navigate by seeing with my mind what is hidden to his eyes. That’s why he can go into places others cannot — across the Lazareen, into the Slags, places cloaked by weather and gloom. It’s like a picture that appears behind my eyes of everything around me. It doesn’t work so well in daylight, although I can see well enough to find my way about. But at night, it is clear and sharp. Papa didn’t know I could do this, at first. When Mama died, he began taking me to sea rather than leaving me with her relatives. He never liked them or they him. Having me travel with him was less trouble than finding someone he trusted to raise me at home. I was still very young. I thought I was being given a chance to prove I was worth keeping. I wanted him to love me so that he wouldn’t give me up. So I showed him how I could read the sky when no one else could. He understood my gift, and he began using me to navigate. I let him do so because it made me feel secure. I was useful, and so I believed he would keep me.”
She paused. “Papa doesn’t want anyone to know this. Only the two men who serve as crew know, and they are his cousins. Both are sworn to secrecy. He is protective of me; I am his daughter and helpmeet. But I am also his good-luck charm. Sometimes, he isn’t clear on the difference. I think he loves me, but he doesn’t know what loving someone really means.”
She reached out and cupped his face in her hands. “There. I’ve given you a gift — a truth no one else has ever heard.”
He took her hands in his own and squeezed them gently. “You’ve kept this to yourself a long time. Why are you telling someone now, after so long? Why disobey your father’s wishes like that? I wouldn’t have minded if you had kept it secret.”
She freed her hands, and her fingers brushed at her hair and face like tiny wings. “I am tired of not being able to talk about it with anyone. Not talking about it is like pretending I am someone other than who I really am. I have been looking for someone to tell this to. I chose you because I think we are the same. We are both keeping secrets.”
“I guess that’s so,” he said. He sat back against the pilot box wall. “Now it’s my turn to tell you a secret. I hardly know where to begin, I have so many. You know who I am, but you don’t know what I am doing here.”
“I can guess,” she said. “The Ard Rhys is your aunt. You are here because of her. But the Druids say you are in danger. They say that what happened to her might happen to you if you are not found and brought to them. Is that true?”
He shook his head. “I’m in danger, but mostly from them. Some of them are responsible for what’s happened to her. If they find me, I might end up the same way. I escaped them when they came looking for me in Patch Run. So now I’m running away.”
“Are you looking for your parents?”
“I’m looking for my aunt. It’s complicated.” He paused. “We promised to tell each other truths tonight, so let me tell you one. You