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Skull
Bearers and Gnome Hunters Await
Then they
were clear of the fissure and back out onto the slide leading down to
the lake within the mountain crater. Preia Starle stood frozen directly
before them, only yards away.
"Shades!"
hissed Jerle Shannara.
Before then,
arrayed in a broad semicircle that cut off any possibility of escape,
were dozens of Gnome Hunters. At their center, black-cloaked and hunched
down like wraiths awaiting night, were a pair of the dreaded Skull
Bearers.
Their
pursuers had caught up with them at last.
The Elves
stumbled to a ragged halt behind Preia. Tay counted quickly. They were
five matched against almost a hundred. They stood no chance. Preia
backed carefully to Jerle's side. She had not drawn a weapon.
"They were
waiting when I came out," she said quietly. There was no fear in her
voice. She glanced at Tay, and her face was oddly calm. "They are too
many for us."
Jerle
nodded. He glanced at Tay, grim-faced. Behind them, the fissure belched
grit and dust as a new explosion tore through the mountain. The earth
shuddered beneath them, still reacting to the fall of the Chew Magna and
the giving up of its magic.
"We'll have
to go back," Jerle whispered. "Maybe we can find another way out."
But there
was no other way, Tay knew. There was only this way, through the Skull
Bearers and the Gnome Hunters. Going back into the fissure was suicide.
The entire mountain was collapsing, and anything caught within its
tunnels would be crushed. Behind and to his left, the remaining Elven
Hunter released his grip on Vree Erreden and let the other man slide to
the rock floor. The locat was just barely conscious. There was blood on
his head and face. When had that happened? Tay wondered. How had he
missed it?
The Elven
Hunter came forward to stand beside him.
Hopeless,
Tay thought.
He eased
himself away from Jerle then, testing his strength to stand on his own.
He found he could do so. He straightened, then, looked directly at his
friend. Jerle stared back at him suspiciously, and Tay smiled at the
other in spite of himself. Preia Starle watched him curiously. Her eyes
were bright and challenging, and he thought that maybe she saw what
Jerle did not.
"Wait here
for me," he said.
"What are
you going to do?" Jerle demanded at once, stepping forward to take hold
of his arm, to restrain him.
Carefully,
Tay freed himself. "I'll be all right," he said. "Just wait here."
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