"A Sedt is a Gnome chieftain-in this case, Spilk. He commands the patrol. A rather unpleasant fellow. Not like me, you see. Very much an Eastland Gnome. He would just as soon cut your throat as look at you. He's your problem. You'd better answer the questions he asks."

He shrugged. "Besides, once you've told Spilk what he wants to know, I'll do what I can to see that you're released. After all, our fight's not with the Vale people. Our fight's with the Dwarves. Not to disappoint you, but you're really not all that important. That magic of yours is what's interesting. No, you answer the questions and I think you'll be turned loose quick enough."

Jair eyed him suspiciously. "I don't believe you."

Slanter drew back. "You don't? Well, here's my word on it, then. As good as your own."

Heavy eyebrows arched. "It means as much to me as yours does, boy. Now take it."

Jair said nothing for a moment. Strangely enough, he thought the Gnome was telling him the truth. If he promised he would seek Jair's release, he would do just that. If he thought Jair would be released on answering the questions asked, Jair probably would. Jair grimaced. On the other hand, why should he trust any Gnome?

"I don't know," he muttered.

"You don't know?" Slanter shook his head hopelessly. "You'd think you had a choice, boy. You don't answer, Spilk goes to work on you. You still don't answer, he turns you over to the walkers. What do you think happens to you then?"

Jair went cold to the bone. He didn't care to think about what would happen then.

"I thought you were smart," the Gnome continued, wizened yellow features twisting into a grimace. "Smart, the way you got past those others back there-even got past the walker. So stay smart. What difference does it make now what you tell anyone? What difference if you tell the Sedt why the Druid came to see you? The Druid's gone by now anyway-won't likely catch up to him this side of the Eastland. He wouldn't tell you anything all that important anyway, would he?

The magic-well, all they want to know about the magic is how you learned it. The Druid, maybe?

Someone else?" He waited a moment, but Jair said nothing. "Well, anyway, just tell how you learned it and how you use it-simple enough and no skin off your nose. No games, just tell the truth. You do that, and that's the end of your use."

Again he waited for Jair to respond, and again the Valeman stayed silent.

Slanter shrugged. "Well, think on it." He stood up, stretched, and came over to Jair.

Smiling cheerfully, he replaced the gag in the Valeman's mouth. "Sorry about the sleeping accommodations, but I can't be taking many chances with you. You've shown me that much."

Still smiling, he retrieved a blanket from the far side of the clearing, brought it over to Jair and wrapped it about him, tucking in the corners where the ropes bound him to the tree so that it would stay fixed. Then he walked over to the fire and kicked it out. In the faint glow of the embers, Jair could see his stocky form as it moved off into the dark."Ah, me-reduced to chasing down Valemen," the Gnome muttered. "Waste of talent. Not even a Dwarf! At least they could give me a Dwarf to track. Or the Druid again. Bah! Druid's gone back to help the Dwarves and here I sit, watching this boy...

He muttered on a bit more, most of it unintelligible, and then his voice faded away entirely.

Jair Ohmsford sat alone in the dark and wondered what he was going to do when morning came.

He slept poorly that night, cramped and bruised by the ropes that bound him, haunted by the specter of what lay ahead. Considered from any point of view, his future appeared bleak. He could expect no help from his friends; after all, no one knew where he was. His parents and Brin, Rone, and Allanon all thought him safely housed at the inn at Shady Vale. Nor could he reasonably antic.i.p.ate much consideration from his captors.

Slanter's rea.s.surances notwithstanding, he did not expect to be released, no matter how many questions he answered. After all, how would he answer questions about the magic? Slanter clearly thought it something he had been taught. Once the Gnomes learned it was not an acquired skill, but a talent he had been born with, they would want to know more. They would take him to the Eastland, to the Mord Wraiths...

So the night hours pa.s.sed. He dozed at times, his weariness overcoming his discomfort and his worry-yet never for very long. Then finally, toward morning, exhaustion overtook him, and at last he drifted off to sleep.

It was not yet dawn when Slanter shook him roughly awake.

"Get up," the Gnome ordered. "The others are here."

Jair's eyes blinked open, squinting into the predawn gray that shrouded the highland forest. The air was chill and damp, even with the blanket still wrapped about his body, and a fine fall mist clung about the dark trunks of the fir. It was deathly still, the forest life not yet come awake. Slanter bent over him, loosing the ropes that bound him to the tree. There were no other Gnomes in sight.

"Where are they?" he asked as the gag was slipped from his mouth.

"Close. A hundred yards down the slope." Slanter gripped the Valeman's tunic front and hauled him to his feet. "No games now. Keep the magic to yourself. I've let you loose from the tree so that you might look the part of a man, but I'll strap you back again if you cross me.

Understand?"

Jair nodded quickly. Ropes still bound his hands and feet, and his limbs were so badly cramped he could barely manage to stand. He stood with his back against the fir, the muscles of his body aching and stiff. Even if he could manage to break free, he couldn't run far like this. His mind was dizzy with fatigue and sudden fear as he waited for his strength to return. Answer the questions, Slanter had advised. Don't be foolish. But what answers could he give? What answers would they accept?

Then abruptly a line of shadowy figures materialized from out of the gloom, trudging heavily through the forest trees. Two, three, half a dozen, eight Jair watched as one by one they appeared through the mist, bulky forms wrapped in woolen forest cloaks. Gnomes-rugged yellow features glimpsed from within hoods drawn close, thick-fingered hands clasping spears and cudgels. Not a word pa.s.sed their lips as they filed into the clearing, but sharp eyes fixed on the captive Valeman and there was no friendliness in their gaze."This him?"

The speaker stood at the forefront of the others. He was powerfully built, his body corded with muscle, his chest ma.s.sive. He thrust the b.u.t.t of his cudgel into the forest earth, gripping it with scarred, gnarled fingers, twisting it slowly.

"Well, is it?"

The Gnome glanced briefly at Slanter. Slanter nodded. The Gnome let his gaze shift back to Jair. Slowly he pulled clear the hood of his forest cloak. Rough, broken features dominated his broad face. Cruel eyes studied the Valeman dispa.s.sionately, probing.

"What's your name?" he asked quietly.

"Jair Ohmsford," Jair answered at once.

"What was the Druid doing at your home?"

Jair hesitated, trying to decide what he should say. Something unpleasant flickered in the Gnome's eyes. With a sudden snap of his hands he brought the cudgel about, sweeping the Valeman's feet from beneath him. Jair fell hard, the breath knocked from his body. The Gnome stood over him silently, then reached down, seized the front of his tunic and pulled him back to his feet.

"What was the Druid doing in your home?"

Jair swallowed, trying to hide his fear. "He came to find my father," he lied.

"Why?"

"My father is the holder of Elfstones. Allanon will use them as a weapon against the Mord Wraiths."

There was an endless moment of silence. Jair did not even breathe. If Slanter had found the Elfstones in his tunic, the lie was already discovered and he was finished. He waited, eves fixed on the Gnome.

"Where are they now, the Druid and your father?" the other said finally.

Jair exhaled. "Gone east." He hesitated, then added, "My mother and sister are visiting in the villages south of the Vale. I was supposed to wait at the inn for their return."

The Gnome grunted noncommittally. I've got to try to protect them, Jair thought. Spilk was watching him carefully. He did not look away. You can't tell that I'm lying, he thought. You can't.

Then a gnarled finger lifted from the cudgel. "Do you do magic?"

"I..." Jair glanced at the dark faces about him.

The cudgel came up, a quick, sharp blow that caught Jair across the knees, throwing him to the earth once more. The Gnome smiled, eyes hard. He yanked Jair back to his feet.

"Answer me-do you do magic?"

Jair nodded wordlessly, mute with pain. He could barely stand.

"Show me," the Gnome ordered.

"Spilk." Slanter's voice broke softly through the sudden silence. "You might want to reconsider that request."

Spilk glanced briefly at Slanter, then dismissed him. His eyes returned to Jair. "Show me."

Jair hesitated. Again the cudgel came up. Even though Jair was ready this time, he could not move fast enough to avoid the blow. It caught him alongside the face. Pain exploded in his head, and tears flooded his eyes. He dropped to his knees, but Spilk's thick hands knotted in his tunic and once more he was hauled to his feet."Show me!" the Gnome demanded.

Then anger flooded through Jair-anger so intense that it burned. He gave no thought to what he did next; he simply acted. A quick, muted cry broke from his lips and turned abruptly to a frightening hiss. Instantly Spilk was covered with huge gray spiders. The Gnome Sedt shrieked in dismay, tearing frantically at the great hairy insects, falling back from Jair. The Gnomes behind him scattered, spears and cudgels hammering downward as they sought to keep the spiders from their own bodies. The Sedt went down under a flurry of blows, thrashing upon the forest earth, trying to dislodge the terrible things that clung so tenaciously to him, his cries filling the morning air.

Jair sang a moment longer and then quit. Had he not been bound hand and foot or had he not been dizzy still from the blows struck by Spilk, he would have taken advantage of the confusion the wishsong's use had created to attempt an escape.

But Slanter had made certain he could not run. As the anger left him he grew silent.

For a few seconds Spilk continued to roll upon the ground, tearing at himself. Then abruptly he realized that the spiders were gone. Slowly he came to his knees, his breathing harsh and ragged, his battered face twisting until his eyes found Jair. He surged to his feet with a howl and threw himself at the Valeman, gnarled hands reaching. Jair stumbled back, his legs tangling in the ropes. In the next instant, the Gnome was atop him, fists hammering wildly. Dozens of blows struck Jair's head and face, seemingly all at once. Pain and shock washed through him.

Then everything went black.

He came awake again only moments later. Slanter knelt next to him, dabbing at his face with a cloth soaked in cold water. The water stung, and he jerked sharply at its touch.

"You got more sand than brains, boy," the Gnome whispered, bending close. "You all right?"

Jair nodded, reaching up to touch his face experimentally. Slanter knocked his hand away.

"Leave it be." He dabbed a few more times with the cloth, then allowed a faint grin to cross his rough face. "Scared old Spilk half to death, you did. Half to death!"

Jair glanced past Slanter to where the remainder of the patrol huddled at the far side of the clearing, eyes darting watchfully in his direction. Spilk stood apart from everyone, his face black with anger.

"Had to pull him off you myself," Slanter was saying. "Would have killed you otherwise.

Would have beat your head in."

"He asked me to show him the magic," Jair muttered, swallowing hard. "So I did."

The thought clearly amused the Gnome, and he permitted himself another faint smile, carefully averting his face from the Sedt. Then he put his arm about Jair's shoulders and raised him to a sitting position. Pouring a short ration of ale from the container at his waist, he gave the Valeman a drink. Jair accepted the ale, swallowing and choking as it burned clear down to his stomach.

"Better?"

"Better," Jair agreed.

"Then listen." The smile was gone. "I've got to gag you again. You're in my care now-the others won't have anything to do with you. You're to be kept bound and gagged except for meals.

So behave. It's a long journey."

"A long journey to where?" Jair did not bother to conceal the alarm in his eyes."East. The Agar. You're to be taken to the Mord Wraiths. Spilk's decided. He wants them to have a look at your magic." The Gnome shook his head solemnly. "Sorry, but there's no help for it. Not after what you did."

Before Jair could say anything, Slanter shoved the gag back into his mouth. Then, loosing the ties that bound Jair's ankles, he pulled the Valeman to his feet. Producing a short length of rope, he looped one end through Jair's belt and tied the other end to his own.

"Spilk," he called over to the other.

The Gnome Sedt turned wordlessly, and started off into the forest. The remainder of the patrol followed after.

"Sorry, boy," Slanter repeated.

Together, they walked from the clearing into the early morning mist.

7.

All that day, the Gnomes marched Jair north through the wooded hill country bordering the western perimeter of Leah. Embracing the shelter of the trees, forsaking the more accessible roadways that crisscrossed the highlands, they kept to themselves and to their purpose. It was a long, exhausting trek for the Valeman, made no less difficult by the way in which he was secured, for his bonds cut into and cramped his body with every step. His discomfort might not have gone unnoticed, but it went unrelieved. Nor did his captors evidence the slightest concern for the toll that the pace of their march was extracting from him. Rugged, hardened veterans of the border wars of the deep Eastland, they were accustomed to forced marches through the worst kind of country and under the least favorable of conditions-marches that at times lasted several days. Jair was fit, but he was no match for these men.

By nightfall, when they at last arrived on the sh.o.r.es of the Rainbow Lake and made their way down to a secluded cove to set their camp, Jair could barely walk. Bound once again to a tree, given a quick meal and a few swallows of ale, he was asleep in minutes.

The following day pa.s.sed in similar fashion. Awake at sunrise, the Gnomes took him east along the sh.o.r.es of the lake, skirting the northern highlands that they might reach the concealment of the Black Oaks. Three times that day, the Gnomes paused to rest-once at midmorning, again at midday and a final time at midafternoon. The remainder of the day, they walked and Jair walked with them, his body aching, his feet blistered and raw. Pushed to the limit of his endurance, he refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing him falter, even for a moment. Determination gave him strength, and he kept pace.

All the time they marched him through the highlands, he thought about escape. It never entered his mind that he wouldn't escape; it was only a question of when. He even knew hove he would manage it. That part was easy. He would simply make himself invisible to them. That was something they wouldn't be looking for-not so long as they thought his magic limited to creating imaginary spiders and snakes. They didn't understand that he could do other things as well.

Sooner or later he would be given the opportunity. They would free him just long enough so that he could make use of the magic one more time. Just a moment was all that he would need. Like that, he would be gone. The certainty of it burned bright within him.

There was added incentive now for his need to escape. Slanter had told him that the walker that had come into the Vale with the Gnome patrol had gone east again in search of Allanon. But how was Allanon to know that the Mord Wraith tracked him? There was only Jair to warn him, and the Valeman knew he must find a way to do so.

His plans for escape were still foremost in his thoughts when, later that afternoon, they pa.s.sed into the Black Oaks. The great dark trunks rose about them like a wall. In moments the sun was screened away. They traveled deep into the forest, following a pathway that ran parallel to the sh.o.r.eline of the lake, winding their way steadily eastward into dusk. It was cooler here, deep and silent within these trees. Like a cave opening downward into the earth, the forest took them in and swallowed them up.

By sundown, the highlands were far behind. Camped within a small clearing sheltered by the oaks and a long ridgeline that dropped away northward to the water's edge, the Valeman sat back against a moss-grown trunk a dozen times his girth-bound and gagged still-and watched Slanter scoop meat stew from a kettle that simmered over a small cooking fire. Weary and discomfited, Jair nevertheless found himself studying the Gnome, pondering the contradictionshe saw in the cracker's character. For two days he had had ample opportunity to observe Slanter, and he was as puzzled by the Gnome now as he had been when he had first conversed with him that night following his capture. What sort of fellow was he? True, he was a Gnome-yet at the same time, he didn't seem like a Gnome. Certainly he wasn't an Eastland Gnome. He wasn't like these Gnomes he traveled with.

Even they seemed to sense that much. Jair could see it in their behavior toward him. They tolerated him, but they also avoided him. And Slanter had acknowledged that to Jair. He was as much an outsider in his own way as the Valeman. But it was more than that. There was something in the Gnome's character that set him apart from the others-an att.i.tude, perhaps, an intelligence. He was smarter than they. And that was due most probably to the fact that he had done what they had not. A skilled tracker, a traveler of the Four Lands, he was a Gnome who had broken the traditions of his people and gone out of the homeland. He had seen things they had not. He understood things they could not. He had learned.

Yet in spite of all that, he was here. Why?

Slanter ambled over from the fire with a plate of stew in one hand and squatted down beside him. Loosing the gag so that his mouth was clear, the Gnome began to feed him.

"Doesn't taste too bad, does it?" The dark eyes watched him.

"No-tastes good."

"You can have more if you want." Slanter stirred the stew on the plate absently. "How do you feel?"

Jair met his gaze squarely. "I hurt everywhere."

"Feet?"

"Especially the feet."

The Gnome set down the stew. "Here, let me have a look."

He pulled free the Valeman's boots and stockings and examined the blistered feet, shaking his head slowly. Then he reached over into his pack and pulled free a small tin.

Loosening its cap, he dipped his fingers in and extracted a reddish salve. Slowly he began rubbing it into the open wounds. The salve was cool and eased the pain.