“I mean men and women throughout the Four Lands for whom power is an elixir and an addiction. I mean anyone who thinks that wielding magic is a way to enhance their own status and will use it at the expense of others. They are out there, and we both know it. Who they are affiliated with matters not in the least. Their intentions are what trouble me.”

She sipped at her tea but didn’t look away from the other woman. “I was uncertain what to do when I learned about this magic, and so I went to ask the advice of the shades of the dead. Often they know things hidden from the living, and I was hopeful that they would help me in my search for this magic. One of those shades, a very powerful Druid now long dead, came to me and told me something of what I needed to know. Among the things it told me was that my fears were justified—the danger of a misuse of the magic, should it fall into the wrong hands, was real. It also told me one thing more. It told me that when I went in search of this lost magic I must take with me both Redden and Railing—that they were crucial to my success in finding where the magic was hidden.”

She was skirting the edges of the truth, trying to avoid anything that suggested the twins would be in any danger. Sarys was staring at her openmouthed. “Actually,” she continued, “the shade told me that the quest to find the magic would fail without your sons to help me. It gave me no explanation of why that was so. But in all of the great quests and struggles that have defined the history of the Four Lands since the recovery of the Sword of Shannara and the defeat of the Warlock Lord, there have been Ohmsfords involved. I think it is their destiny, Sarys. I think it is the family’s destiny. You and I, we might wish it otherwise, but we have nothing to say about it.”

The other woman nodded slowly. “You have nothing to say about it, perhaps. But I most certainly do.”

“But is the choice yours to make? Do you speak for your sons? Or will you let them speak for themselves?”

“In this instance, I will speak for them. They are not going. Find someone else to help you with this nonsense.”

“There is no one else.” Khyber sipped delicately at her tea, watching the other carefully. “You have raised your boys to look after themselves and not to depend on you. They are boys in name only. They are almost men. How ready are they to make wise choices? How well have you taught them? Have you faith in their ability to reason things out?”