Warrior (The Word and the Void)
Page 10
After a quick shower and a change of clothes – he couldn’t let her see him this battered and bloody – he was out the door and into his Jeep. On the drive downtown, he realized he could not, in fact, tell her what had happened. She would never bring herself to accept the truth, and he knew it would eat at her for the rest of their lives. The knowledge of what he had been given to do by the Lady, and what she had been forced to endure as a result, required a more believable explanation.
Which meant he must again break the rule they had made to always tell each other everything and have no secrets
He knocked, and she was in his arms the moment she flung open the door, and they held each other wordlessly for a long time afterwards. The children were in bed asleep, she whispered. Then she pulled him inside to sit with her on the couch, and she related in detail what she had gone through that night.
“If I hadn’t been able to stop a taxi on its way back from the airport, I don’t know what might have happened to us,” she finished. “The fake limo guy wasn’t chasing us anymore by then, but that didn’t mean he had given up. I couldn’t bring the children home; I didn’t know if we would be safe there. So, I came down here instead and started calling you.”
She looked into his eyes and gave a weary, exasperated sigh. “Now, you tell me what is going on. All of it. Every last bit.”
But he did not. He told her instead that he had run afoul of some very bad people and seen something by accident that he shouldn’t have. It had happened by chance while he was on a job, and there was nothing he could do about it. When he realized they would come after him, he had sent her and the children to her aunt and uncle, so she would be safe. He had no idea how determined they were to get at him, but the matter was finished now. He had done the right thing and brought in the police and they were all in custody.
She listened without saying anything, but he could see the disappointment reflected in her eyes. She knew he was holding something back. But she reached up to stroke his face. “I love you, and I trust you. If that’s the story you want to tell me, fine. I don’t think that’s all of it. What I want to know – all I want to be sure about – is that this is the end of it. I want your word that we are all safe. I don’t want to spend my life looking over my shoulder because you held something back you shouldn’t have.”
He nodded. “This is the end of it.”
But even as he spoke the words, he wondered. Would other demons come looking for him because of what had happened here tonight? Would the Lady ask something more of him later? He wasn’t sure. He wondered if he could ever be sure, or if the burden he carried of agreeing to serve her would follow him for the rest of his life.
“You don’t look so good,” she said, her hand still stroking his cheek. “You look like you’ve been in a fight.”
He shrugged. “You should see the other guy.”
She smiled. “I’d rather just see this guy. My husband, in bed with me. It’s late. Let’s get some sleep, tough guy. Then let’s go home and put all this – whatever all this really is – behind us.”
He smiled back, knowing it was the best he could hope for.
* * * * *
They did not speak of it again – not in a direct way – but Anne let him know every now and then that she knew he wasn’t telling him everything and she was not about to forget it. He did his best to live with that, trying to lead a normal life – one that did not involve Demons of the Void and Knights of the Word and the possibility of unwelcome visits from things born of dark magic.
Even so, he continued to carry the black staff, his reassurance that he could still defend himself and his family if the need should arise.
Months went by, and life resumed a normality that suggested the past actually was behind them. Both Jack and Anne resumed their careers and care of the children, and they seldom spoke to each other – never in the presence of Mila – about that night. Mila talked about what she remembered for a while, commenting mostly on some of the more terrifying and gruesome aspects of her experience, but both parents discouraged further talk, and her friends mostly responded by rolling their eyes. Soon enough she lost interest as other, more immediately pressing matters captured her attention.
Five months later, on a crisp fall day in late November, the approach of Thanksgiving imminent and thoughts of family celebrations ripe in everyone’s minds, Jack was reviewing plans for an expansion and rehabilitation site in Lincoln Park, when Two Bears appeared. He came out of a cluster of giant hemlocks where Jack was certain there had been no one a moment ago. Tall, broad chested and stone-faced, wearing the combat fatigues of his Viet Nam service, he had the look of a man on a mission, and Jack was immediately on guard.
“Jack McCall,” he greeted. “It is good to see you again, kem’sho.”
We’ll see about that, Jack thought. But instead of saying so, he said, “And you, O’olish Amaneh.”
The big man nodded. “You remember my given name. I am honored.”
“Are you here to check up on me? Or is it something else that brings you back?”
“Why don’t we sit for a moment?” the other suggested, gesturing towards a nearby bench.
It was cold that day, the wind gusting now and then, the sky gray and heavily overcast. The promise of winter’s coming was unmistakable. Jack did not much care to sit around talking. What he wanted was for this meeting to be over.
They seated themselves and studied at each other a moment. “You did well against the demon and his creatures,” Two Bears said. “You did what many others failed to do. What many gave their lives for in their failed efforts. I think that says much about your character.”
Jack shook his head, brushing aside the compliment. “Does this mean you’re here to ask me to undertake something more for the Lady?”
“If I was, how would you respond?”
Jack almost said he would tell him to go jump in a lake, but then he hesitated. Would he really refuse the Lady’s request outright? His memories of his meeting with her in the Fairy Glen resurfaced, bright and shining images from the past. He would never forget how wonderful it had been just to be in her presence. He would never be able to ignore how she had made him feel. As if he were special. As if he were born to be more than he had ever thought he could be.
“It would depend,” he said finally.
Two Bears smiled. “Diplomacy. It suits you well. But I am not here to enlist your services a second time. You were told you would be called on once and once only. A promise is a vow when given by the Lady. She sends me to tell you so. To reassure you that she will keep that promise.”
He paused, his dark face gone serious once more. “And to do one thing more. Something that will offer proof your service to her is truly finished. I am to take back your staff.”
Jack felt a sudden rush of uncertainty. Take away his staff? Take from him the talisman he had carried for so many years, his sole defense against the demons? It felt as if Two Bears was asking for his right arm and he would be left diminished in a way he could never compensate for.
Two Bears nodded, as if understanding what he was feeling. “You will not have further need of it, Jack McCall, but another will. Another who has just agreed to serve the Lady as a Knight of the Word.”
Jack said nothing, only shook his head doubtfully.
“If you choose to keep it, you will remain in her service, a Knight of the Word. The staff will continue to serve you well. But it will attract those who would take it from you. And they will try, no matter what they have to do, to make it theirs.”
Jack took a deep breath to steady a sudden shaking inside. “You mean no matter what they have to do to me or my family.”
Two Bears shrugged. “You have lived with the staff long enough. Better it should go to another who has earned the right to bear it. Whoever receives it will have much to live up to. Your service to the Lady has set a very high standard.”
Jack nodded. Two Bears was right. His time of service was over; hi
s time to possess the black staff was done. No matter his attachment and his sense of loss, he should let it go. He should not forget what it felt like to believe that by agreeing to bear it he had lost his wife and children. He should not forget what it had almost cost him. He should not forget his promise to Anne.
And he should not forget his brave little tatterdemalion, Ineke.
“Do the right thing, kem’sho,” the big man said quietly.
Jack McCall looked at the staff one last time. Then he handed it over. He felt a sense of loss immediately, but undeniable relief as well. The events of that terrible night when the demon had come for him were finally consigned to the past. Anne had asked him then to promise her that the danger to their family was ended for good.
Now he had the chance to assure her that it was. And the chance to rethink his refusal to tell her the truth and to remove the stain of having kept that truth a secret from her. They had never had secrets before; they should not have one now. If you loved someone as much as he loved her, you trusted them to accept any truth.
He must do so here. He must repair the breach he had opened between them, no matter his hesitancy and misgiving.
Leaving Two Bears standing with the black staff firmly gripped in his huge hands, Jack McCall went home to make things right.
About the Author
Terry Brooks is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty-five books, including the Fall of Shannara novels The Black Elfstone and The Skaar Invasion; the Genesis of Shannara trilogy: Armageddon’s Children, The Elves of Cintra, and The Gypsy Morph; The Sword of Shannara; the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy: Ilse Witch, Antrax, and Morgawr; the High Druid of Shannara trilogy: Jarka Ruus, Tanequil, and Straken; the nonfiction book Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life; and the novel based upon the screenplay and story by George Lucas, Star Wars®: Episode I The Phantom Menace™. His novels Running with the Demon and A Knight of the Word were selected by the Rocky Mountain News as two of the best science fiction/fantasy novels of the twentieth century. The author was a practicing attorney for many years but now writes full-time. He lives with his wife, Judine, in the Pacific Northwest.
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