High druid of Shannara_ Jarka Ruus - Terry Brooks [122]
“This way!” she shouted at Pen and Tagwen, and broke for the kitchen.
The boy and the Dwarf didn’t stop to ask if she knew what she was doing; they just went after her. The room was in chaos by then, its occupants surging up against one another in their efforts to get clear, most of them trying to reach the front door. The Gnome Hunters, still fighting to regain their equilibrium after Khyber’s attack, were bowled over in the rush. A moment later, the lights went out and the room was engulfed in blackness. Pen and Tagwen were in the kitchen by then, with Khyber just ahead, flinging open the back door that led to the street. Without a backward glance, they plunged into the rain and fog and darkness.
The streets were crowded, and it was difficult to move ahead at a brisk walk, let alone a run. Pen struggled to keep Khyber in sight, Tagwen pushing up against him from behind, both of them jostling and shoving to break free of the knots of people hindering their flight. Ahren Elessedil had disappeared, but Pen thought he must be somewhere close. Behind them, Fisherman’s Lie was still in an uproar, shouts turning to cries of pain and anger, the windows breaking out, the entire place in blackness. Pen realized they had left everything behind in their escape, but knew there was no help for it. What mattered was getting away. What counted for something was staying alive.
A burly dockworker shouldered Pen aside effortlessly. As the boy staggered, he felt something rip through his cloak, scoring his left arm. He heard the dockworker gasp and felt him clutch at his arm. As he tried to wrench free, he saw a dagger protruding from the man’s chest, the blade buried to the hilt. The man fell heavily into the boy, his dead eyes open and staring.
Pen looked around in shock and caught sight of something big scurrying along the peaks of the roofs, something cloaked and hooded and shadowy. Terek Molt, he thought at once, then realized that, there hadn’t been time for the Druid to get out of the inn and come after them. The figure on the roof was much larger than Molt in any case, and it didn’t move like him. It moved like some huge insect.
It was coming down, toward the dead man and Pen.
“Penderrin!” Khyber called back to him.
He turned at the sound of her voice and began to run anew. Behind him, he heard gasps as the crowd realized what had happened to the dockworker. He didn’t glance back to see if they were looking at him. He wasn’t about to stop anyway. He wasn’t going to do anything but keep running.
They angled down a maze of narrow side streets, grunting and shoving their way clear of passersby, until they finally reached the waterfront. Pen’s arm was throbbing, and he glanced down in the light of the dockside lamps and saw blood soaking through his sleeve. The dagger had cut him from shoulder to elbow, the blade so sharp that even the heavy cloak had failed to blunt it.
Who had attacked him? He knew he had been the target, not that dockworker. If the worker hadn’t shoved him aside at just the right moment, Pen would be the one lying in the street back there.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the shadowy figure giving chase, working its way swiftly along the warehouse roofs, scuttling along in the manner of a spider, arms and legs cocked out from its low-slung body.
It was coming too fast for him to outrun it.
“Khyber!” he shouted in sudden fear.
The girl wheeled back, saw the figure, as well, and thrust out both arms in a warding gesture. The magic caught the figure in midleap and sent it spinning out of sight.
“What was that?” she shouted at him.
He didn’t reply. He had no idea what it was. He just knew he didn’t want to see it again.