They crossed the catwalk quickly, once they were upon it, ignoring the creak and groan of its iron stays. They kept their feet moving, their hands on the railing, and their eyes focused carefully ahead, watching the palace wall draw closer. When the crossing was completed they stepped hurriedly onto the battlement, each reaching back to help the next person, grateful to be done.
The Mole took them into a stairwell where they found a fresh set of steps winding downward into blackness. Using the light of the stones Damson had supplied, they descended silently. They were close now; the stone of the wall was all that separated them from the Pit. Par’s excitement sent the blood pumping through him, a pounding in his ears, and his nerve endings tightened.
Just a few more minutes . . .
At the bottom of the stairwell, there was a passageway that ended at a weathered, ironbound wooden door. The Mole walked to the door and stopped. When he turned back to face them, Par knew at once what lay beyond.
“Thank you, Mole,” he said softly.
“Yes, thank you,” echoed Damson.
The Mole blinked shyly. Then he said, “You can look through here.”
He reached up and carefully pulled back a tiny shutter that revealed a slit in the wood. Par stepped forward and peered out.
The floor of the Pit stretched away before him, a vast, fog-bound wilderness of trees and rock, a bottomland that was strewn with decaying logs and tangled brush, a darkness in which shadows moved and shapes formed and faded again like wraiths.The wreckage of the Bridge of Sendic lay just to the right and disappeared into the gray haze.
Par squinted into the murk a moment longer. There was no sign of the vault that held the Sword of Shannara.
But he had seen it, right there, just beyond the wall of the palace. The magic of the wishsong revealed it. It was out there. He could feel its presence like a living thing.
He let Damson take a look, then Coll. When Coll stepped back, the three of them stood facing one another.
Par slipped out of his cloak. “Wait for me here. Keep watch for the Shadowen.”
“Keep watch for them yourself,” Coll said bluntly, shrugging off his own cloak. “I’m going with you.”
“I’m going, too,” said Damson.
But Coll blocked her way instantly. “No, you’re not. Only one of us can go besides Par. Look about you, Damson. Look at where we are. We’re in a box, a trap. There is no way out of the Pit except through this door and no way out of the palace except back up the stairs and across the catwalk. The Mole can watch the catwalk, but he can’t watch this door at the same time. You have to do that.”
Damson started to object, but Coll cut her short. “Don’t argue, Damson. You know I’m right. I’ve listened to you when I should; this time you listen to me.”
“It doesn’t matter who listens to whom. I don’t want either of you going,” insisted Par sharply.
Coll ignored him, shifting his short sword in his belt until it was in front of him. “You don’t have any choice.”
“Why shouldn’t I be the one to go?” Damson demanded angrily.
“Because he’s my brother!” Coll’s voice cracked like a whip, and his rough features were hard. But when he spoke next, his voice was strangely soft. “It has to be me; it’s why I came in the first place. It’s why I’m here at all.”
Damson went still, frozen and voiceless. Her gaze shifted.
“All right,” she agreed, but her mouth was tight and angry as she said it. She turned away. “Mole, watch the catwalk.”
The little fellow was glancing at each of them in turn, a mix of uncertainty and bewilderment in his bright eyes. “Yes, lovely Damson,” he murmured and disappeared up the stairs.
Par started to say something more, but Coll took him by the shoulders and pushed him back up against the weathered door. Their eyes met and locked.
“Let’s not waste any more time arguing about this, huh?” Coll said. “Let’s just get it over with. You and me.”
Par tried to twist free, but Coll’s big hands were like iron clamps. He sagged back, frustrated. Coll released him. “Par,” he said, and the words were almost a plea. “I spoke the truth. I have to go.”
They faced each other in silence. Par found himself thinking of what they had come through to reach this point, of the hardships they bad endured. He wanted to tell Coll that it all meant something, that he loved him, that he was frightened for him now. He wanted to remind his brother about his duck feet, to warn him that duck feet were too big to sneak around in. He thought he might scream.
But, instead, he said simply, “I know.”
Then he moved to the heavy, weathered door, released its fastenings, and pulled on its worn handle. The door swung open, and the half-light and fog, the rancid smells and cloying chill, the hiss of swamp sounds, and the high, distant call of a solitary bird rushed in.
Par looked back at Damson Rhee. She nodded. That she would wait? That she understood? He didn’t know.
With Coll beside him, he stepped out into the Pit.
XXXI
Where was Teel?
Morgan Leah knelt hurriedly beside Steff, touched his face, and felt the chill of his friend’s skin through his fingers. Impulsively, he put his hands on Steff’s shoulders and gripped him, but Steff did not seem to feel it. Morgan took his hands away and rocked back on his heels. His eyes scanned the darkness about him, and shivered with something more than the cold. The question repeated itself in his mind, racing from corner to corner as if trying to hide, a dark whisper.
Where was Teel?
The possibilities paraded before him in his mind. Gone to get Steff a drink of water, something hot to eat, another blanket perhaps? Gone to look around, spooked from her sleep by one of those instincts or sixth-senses that kept you alive when you were constantly being hunted? Close by, about to return?
The possibilities shattered into broken pieces and disappeared. No. He knew the answer. She had gone into the secret tunnel. She had gone there to lead the soldiers of the Federation into the Jut from the rear. She was about to betray them one final time.
No one but Damson, Chandos, and I know the other way—now that Hirehone is dead.
That was what Padishar Creel had told him, speaking of the hidden way out, the tunnel—something Morgan had all but forgotten until now. He shivered at the clarity of the memory. If his reasoning was correct and the traitor was a Shadowen who had taken Hirehone’s identity to follow them to Tyrsis, then that meant the Shadowen had possession of Hirehone’s memories and knew of the tunnel as well.
And if the Shadowen was now Teel . . .
Morgan felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. It would take the Federation months to take the Jut by siege. But what if the siege was nothing more than a decoy? What if the Creeper itself had been, even in failing, just a decoy? What if the Federation’s intent from the beginning, was to take the Jut from within, by betrayal once again, through the tunnel that was to have been the outlaws’ escape?
I have to do something!
Morgan Leah felt leaden. He must leave Steff and get to Padishar Creel at once. If his suspicions about Teel were correct, she had to be found and stopped.
If.
The horror of what he was thinking knotted in his throat—that Teel could be the very worst of the enemies that had hunted them all since Culhaven, that she could have deceived them so completely, especially Steff, who believed that he owed her his life and who was in love with her. The knot tightened. He knew that the horror he felt didn’t come from the possibility of betrayal—it came from the certainty of it.
Steff saw something of that horror mirrored in his eyes and grappled angrily with him. “Where is she, Morgan? You know! I can see it!”
Morgan did not try to break away. Instead, he faced his friend and said, “I think I know. But you have to wait here, Steff. You have to let me go after her.”
“No.” Steff shook his head adamantly, his scarred face knotting. “I’m going
with you.”
“You can’t. You’re too sick . . .”
“I’m going, Morgan! Now where is she?”
The Dwarf was shaking with fever, but Morgan knew that he was not going to be able to free himself unless he did so by force. “All right,” he agreed, taking a slow breath. “This way.”
He put his arm under his friend to support him and started into the dark. He could not leave Steff behind, even knowing how difficult it would make things having his friend along. He would simply do what he must in spite of him. He stumbled suddenly and fought his way back to his feet, hauling Steff up with him, not having seen the coil of rope that lay on the ground in his path. He forced himself to slow, realizing as he did so that he hadn’t even taken time yet to think through what he had surmised. Teel was the traitor. He must accept that. Steff could not, but he must. Teel was the one . . .
He stopped himself.
No. Not Teel. Don’t call that thing Teel. Teel is dead. Or close enough to being dead that there is no distinction to be made. So, not Teel. The Shadowen that hid in Teel.
His breathing grew rapid as he hastened through the night, Steff clinging to him. The Shadowen must have left her body and taken Hirehone’s in order to follow Padishar’s little company to Tyrsis and betray it to the Federation. Then it had abandoned Hirehone’s body, returned to the camp, killed the watch because it could not ascend the Jut unseen, and reinhabited Teel. Steff had never realized what was happening. He had believed Teel poisoned. The Shadowen had let him think as much. It had even managed to cast suspicion on Hirehone with that tale of following him to the bluff before falling into unconsciousness. He wondered how long Teel had been a Shadowen. A long time, he decided. He pictured her in his mind, nothing more than a shell, a hollow skin, and his teeth ground at the image. He remembered Par’s description of what it had been like when the Shadowen on Toffer Ridge, the one who had taken the body of the little girl, had tried to come into him. He remembered the horror and revulsion the Valeman had expressed. That was what it must have been like for Teel.
There was no further time to consider the matter. They were approaching the main cave. The entrance was ablaze with torchlight. Padishar Creel stood there. The outlaw chief was awake, just as Morgan had hoped he would be, brilliant in his scarlet clothing, talking with the men who cared for the sick and injured, his broadsword and long knives strapped in place.
“What are you doing?” Steff cried angrily. “This is between you and me, Morgan! Not him!”
But Morgan ignored his protestations, dragging him into the light. Padishar Creel turned as the two men staggered up to him and caught hold of them by the shoulders.
“Whoa, now, lads—slow down! What’s the reason for charging about in the dark like this?” The other man’s grip tightened as Steff tried to break free, and the rough voice lowered. “Careful, now. Your eyes say something’s frightened you. Let’s keep it to ourselves. What’s happened?”
Steff was with anger, and his eyes were hard. Morgan hesitated. The others in Padishar’s company were looking at them curiously, and they were close enough to hear what he might say. He smiled disarmingly. “I think I’ve found the person you’ve been looking for,” he said to the big man.
Padishar’s face went taut momentarily, then quickly relaxed. “Ah, that’s all, is it?” He spoke as much to his men as to them, his voice almost joking. “Well, well, come on outside a minute and tell me about it.” He put his arm about their shoulders as if all was well, waved to those listening, and steered the Highlander and the Dwarf outside.
There he backed them into the shadows. “What is it you’ve found?” he demanded.
Morgan glanced at Steff, then shook his head. He was sweating now beneath his clothes, and his face was flushed. “Padishar,” he said. “Teel’s missing. Steff doesn’t know what’s happened to her. I think she might have gone down into the tunnel.”
He waited, his gaze locked on the big man’s, silently pleading with him not to demand more, not to make him explain. He still wasn’t certain, not absolutely, and Staff would never believe him in any case.
Padishar understood. “Let’s have a look. You and I, Highlander.”
Steff seized him by the arm. “I’m coming too.” His face was bathed in sweat, and his eyes were glazed, but there was no mistaking his determination in the matter.
“You haven’t the strength for it, lad.”
“That’s my concern!”
Padishar’s face turned sharply into the light. It was crisscrossed with welts and cuts from last night’s battle, tiny lines that seemed to reflect the deeper scars the Dwarf bore. “And none of mine,” he said quietly. “So long as you understand.”
They went into the sick bay, where Padishar took one of the other outlaws aside and spoke softly to him. Morgan could just make out what was being said.
“Rouse Chandos,” Padishar ordered. “Tell him I want the camp mobilized. Check the watch, be certain it’s awake and alive. Make ready to move everyone out. Then he’s to come after me into the hidden tunnel, the bolt hole. With help. Tell him I said that we’re all done with secrecy, so it doesn’t matter now who knows what he’s about. Now get to it!”
The man scurried off, and Padishar beckoned wordlessly to Morgan and Steff. He led them through the main cavern into the deep recesses where the stores were kept. He lit three torches, kept one for himself and gave one each to the Highlander and the Dwarf. Then he took them into the very back of the farthest chamber where the cases were stacked against the rock wall, handed his torch to Morgan, grabbed the cases in both hands and pulled. The false front opened into the tunnel beyond. They slipped through the opening, and Padishar pulled the packing crates back into place.
“Stay close,” he warned.
They hurried into the dark, the torches smoking above them, casting their weak yellow light against the shadows. The tunnel was wide, but it twisted and turned. Rock outcroppings made the passage hazardous; there were stalactites and stalagmites both, wicked stone icicles. Water dripped from the ceiling and pooled in the rock, the only sound in the silence other than their footsteps. It was cold in the caves, and the chill quickly worked its way through Morgan’s clothes. He shivered as he trailed after Padishar. Steff trailed them both, walking haltingly on his own, his breathing ragged and quick.
Morgan wondered suddenly what they were going to do when they found Teel.
He made a mental check of his weapons. He had the newly acquired broadsword strapped across his back, a dagger in his belt, and another in his boot. At his waist, he wore the shortened scabbard and the remains of the Sword of Leah.
Not much help against a Shadowen, he thought worriedly. And how much use would Staff be, even after he discovered the truth? What would he do?
If only I still had the magic . . .
He forced that thought away from him, knowing what it would lead to, determined that he would not allow his indecision to bind him again.
The seconds ticked by, and the echo of their passing reverberated in the sound of the men’s hurried footsteps. The walls of the tunnel narrowed clown sharply, then broadened out again, a constant change of size and shape. They passed through a series of underground caverns where the torchlight could not even begin to penetrate the shadows that cloaked the hollow, vaulted roofs. A little farther on, a series of crevices opened before them, several almost twenty feet across. Bridges had been built to span them, wooden slats connected by heavy ropes, the ropes anchored in the rock by iron pins. The bridges swayed and shook ‘as they crossed, but held firm.
All the while they walked, they kept watch for Teel. But there was no sign of her.
Steff was beginning to have trouble keeping up. He was enormously strong and fit when well, but whatever sickness had attacked him—if indeed it was a sickness and he had not been poisoned as Morgan was beginning to surmise—had left him badly worn. He fell repeatedly and had to drag himself up again each time. Padishar never slowed. The big man had me
ant what he said—Steff was on his own. The Dwarf had gotten this far on sheer determination, and Morgan did not see how he could maintain the pace the outlaw chief was setting much longer. The Highlander glanced back at his friend, but Steff didn’t seem to see him, his haunted eyes searching the shadows, sweeping the curtain of black beyond the light.
They were more than a mile into the mountain when a glimmer of light appeared ahead, a pinprick that quickly became a glow. Padishar did not slow or bother to disguise his coming. The tunnel broadened, and the opening ahead brightened with the flicker of torches. Morgan felt his heartbeat quicken.
They entered a massive underground cavern ablaze with light. Torches were jammed into cracks’ in the walls and floors, filling the air with smoke and the smell of charred wood and burning pitch. At the center of the cavern a huge crevice split the chamber floor end to end, a twisted maw that widened and narrowed as it worked its way from wall to wall. Another bridge had been built to span the crevice at its narrowest juncture, this one a massive iron structure. Machinery had been installed on the near side of the crevice to raise and lower it. The bridge was down at the moment, linking the halves of the cavern floor. Beyond, the flat rock stretched away to where the tunnel disappeared once more into darkness.
Teel stood next to the bridge machinery, hammering.
Padishar Creel stopped, and Morgan and Steff quickly came up beside him. Teel hadn’t heard or seen them yet, their torchlight enveloped by the cavern’s own brightness.
Padishar laid down his torch. “She’s jammed the machinery. The bridge can’t be raised again.” His eyes found Steff’s. “If we let her, she will bring the Federation right to us.”
Steff stared wildly. “No.” he gasped in disbelief.
Padishar ignored him. He unsheathed his broadsword and started forward.
Steff lunged after him, tripping, falling, then crying out frantically, “Teel!”
Teel whirled about. She held an iron bar in her hands, the smooth surface bright with nicks from where she had been smashing the bridge works. Morgan could see the damage clearly now, winches split apart, pulleys forced loose, gears stripped. Teel’s hair glittered in the light, flashing with traces of gold. She faced them, her mask revealing nothing of what she was thinking, an expressionless piece of leather strapped about her head, the eyeholes dark and shadowed.