Goodkind Terry. Chainfire (Sword of Truth – 9)

   Kahlan could manage only a whisper. «Yes, Sister.»
   «Swift journey,» Sister Ulicia said.
   After Sister Tovi had rushed off down the wall, taking Kahlan's beautiful dress with her, Sister Ulicia seized a fistful of Kahlan's hair and twisted her head close. The Sister's fingers groped along the side of Kahlan's face, making her cry out.
   «You have broken bones,» she announced after her examination of Kahlan's injuries. «Complete your mission and I will heal you. Fail, and it will only be the beginning.
   «The other Sister and I have a number of other things we must do before our goals are accomplished. So do you. If you complete your task today you will be healed. We would like you to be healthy for those future duties»-Sister Ulicia patted Kahlan's cheek in a patronizing manner —«but I can always make other arrangements should you fail in this one. Now, hurry up and get me the other two boxes.»
   She had no choice, of course. As much pain as she was in, she knew that if she didn't comply, and soon, then it was only going to be worse for her. Sister Ulicia had shown her that there was always more pain just waiting to be applied. Kahlan knew, too, that there was no escape from the Sisters.
   Kahlan wished she could forget the pain like she seemed to have forgotten the rest of her life. It seemed that only the bad parts of her existence remained in the dark vaults of her memory.
   With her breath catching on the ragged edge of tears from the throbbing hurt, she pulled her pack back around, slipped her arm through the strap, and hiked the whole thing up on her back.
   «And you had better do as I said and bring them both,» Sister Ulicia growled.
   Kahlan nodded and rushed off across the broad corridor. Everyone ignored her. It was as if she were invisible. The few people who did look her way only seemed to see her for a fleeting moment, before they, too, forgot that they had ever noticed her.
   Kahlan grabbed the bronze skull in both hands and pulled open one of the snake doors. She raced across the plush carpets and was past the guards before they could think to wonder what they had seen. She dashed up the stairs, ignoring soldiers patrolling the halls, some of whom briefly turned her way, as if trying to hold the image of her in their memories, before losing their mental grip of her and going on about their duties. Kahlan felt like a ghost among the living; there, but not.
   She grunted with the effort of pulling open one of the gold-clad doors enough to slip inside the garden. She was in so much pain that she could not rush fast enough. She just wanted to get back and have the Sister make the hurt stop. As before, the garden was as quiet as a sanctuary should be. She had no time to notice or enjoy the flowers and trees. She paused on the grass, staring at the two black boxes sitting on the stone slab, momentarily immobilized by the sight of them, and by the thought of what she had been told to do.
   More slowly, she closed the rest of the distance, not wanting to ever get there, not wanting to ever have to do what she knew she must. But the agony of the twisting, throbbing pain all along the side of her head drove her on.
   Standing before the slab, she finally slipped off her pack and set it down beside the boxes on its back, rather than its bottom. She wiped her runny nose on the back of her sleeve. Gently, she caressed the side of her face, fearing to touch it and make it hurt worse, but at the same time aching to comfort the throbbing pain. She almost fainted when she felt something jagged sticking out. She didn't know if it was a splinter from Sister Ulicia's broken oak rod, or if it was a splinter of bone. Either way, she felt light-headed and thought she might vomit.
   Knowing she had little time, she crossed one arm across her stomach and with the other hand began untying the leather thongs holding her bedroll to the bottom of her pack. Her fingers were slick with blood, making the task of untying the knots more difficult. She finally had to resort to using both hands. When she at last had them undone, she carefully unfurled her bedroll and took out what lay inside, setting it on the stone slab so as to make room for the loathsome black boxes. She sucked in a sob, trying not to think of what she was leaving behind.
   Kahlan forced herself to set to work wrapping the two remaining boxes in her bedroll. When she was finished, she laced up the thongs, securely fastening them to insure that the boxes would not fall out. At last finished, she swung the pack onto her back again and reluctantly started across the open area of bare ground in the center of the immense indoor garden.
   As she crossed the ring of grass, she paused and turned, looking back through her watery vision at what she was leaving on the stone slab in place of the boxes.
   It was the most precious thing she had.
   And now she was leaving it behind.
   Overwhelmed and unable to go on, feeling more hopeless and helpless than she could ever remember feeling, Kahlan sank to her knees in the grass.
   She crumpled forward as she broke down sobbing. She hated her life. She hated living. The thing she loved most was being left behind because of those evil women.
   Kahlan wept uncontrollably, gripping the shaggy grass in her fists. She didn't want to leave it. But if she didn't, Sister Ulicia would never let her get away with violating such a direct order. Kahlan sobbed at how sorry she felt for herself, for her helpless situation.
   No one but the Sisters knew her, or even knew that she existed.
   If only just one person would remember her.
   If only the Lord Rahl would come to his garden and save her.
   If only, if only, if only. What good was wishing?
   She pushed herself up then and, sitting back on her heels, stared off through the tears at the granite slab, at what she had left standing there.
   No one was going to save her.
   She didn't used to be this way. She didn't know how she knew that, but she knew. Somewhere in her dim, vanished past, it seemed like she used to be able to depend on herself, on her own strength, to survive. She didn't used to waste her time lamenting «If only.»
   Staring across the garden, Lord Rahl's beautiful, peaceful garden, she drew strength from what she saw standing there now, and, at the same time, from somewhere deep inside herself. She had to do that now-be resolute, as she was sure she used to be. She had to somehow be strong for herself, for her own sake.
   Kahlan somehow had to save herself.
   What stood there now was no longer hers. It would be her gift to Richard Rahl in exchange for the nobility of life-her life-that she had remembered in his garden.
   «Master Rahl guide us,» she quoted from the devotion. «Thank you, Master Rahl, for guiding me this day, for guiding me back to what I mean to myself.»
   She swiped the backs of her wrists across her eyes, wiping away the tears and blood. She had to be strong or the Sisters would defeat her. They would take everything from her. Then they would win.
   Kahlan couldn't let them do that.
   She remembered then, and touched the necklace she wore. She turned the small stone between a finger and thumb. This, at least, was still hers. She still had the necklace.
   Kahlan struggled to her feet and straightened under the weight of the pack. She first had to get back so that Sister Ulicia would at least heal the injury she had inflicted. Kahlan would willingly take that help because she would then be able to go on and find a way to succeed.
   With a last look back, she finally turned and headed for the door.
   She knew now that she couldn't surrender her will to them, to their belief that they had a right to her life. They might defeat her, but it couldn't be because she allowed it.
   But even if she lost her life in the end, she knew now that they would not defeat her spirit.

CHAPTER 58

   Richard slowly paced the small room, deep in thought, going over the memory of the morning Kahlan had disappeared. He had to figure it out, and soon-for more reasons than one. The most important of those reasons, of course, was to help Kahlan. He had to believe that he still could help her, that she was still alive and there was still time.
   He was the only one who knew her, who believed in her existence. There was no one but him to help her.
   There were also the implications of the wider concerns that her disappearance engendered. There was no telling how far-reaching those problems could turn out to be. In that, too, he was the only one opposing what hidden designs lurked behind events.
   Since it seemed Kahlan had so far not been able to escape her captors, that meant she couldn't and was going to need help. With the beast seemingly able to strike again at any time, Richard was painfully aware of how easily he could die at any moment, and if he did, then the one person who was her connection to the world would be gone.
   He had to use every minute of what time he had available to work toward helping her. He couldn't even bother wasting time reprimanding himself for all the days he had already let slip through his fingers.
   It had all started that morning, not long before he'd been shot with the arrow, so he had decided to concentrate on that single event and to start anew. He had pushed the enormity of the problem from his mind in order to narrow his focus on the solution. He would never come to understand who had Kahlan by pulling out his hair and agonizing over the fact that someone had her, or by trying to convince others that she existed. None of that had accomplished anything, nor would it.
   He had even set aside the books, Gegendrauss and Ordenic Theory, that he'd discovered in the little room. The first was in High D'Haran. It had been a long time since he had worked with the ancient language, so he knew he couldn't afford to spend time on it. A brief examination had told him that the book might hold remarkable information, although he hadn't spotted any that was material. Besides, he was out of practice translating High D'Haran. He didn't have time to work on it until he first resolved other issues.
   The second book was difficult to follow, especially with his mind elsewhere, but he had read just enough of the beginning to realize that the book was indeed about the boxes of Orden. Other than The Book of Counted Shadows, which he had memorized as a child, he didn't recall ever seeing another book about the boxes of Orden. That alone, to say nothing of the profound danger of the boxes themselves, told him that the book was of immeasurable valuable. But the boxes were not his problem at the moment. Kahlan was the problem. He'd set that book aside as well.
   There were also other books in the small, shielded room, but he had not had the time or inclination to search through them. He had decided that devoting himself to the books before he had a true understanding of what was going on would only waste yet more time. He had to approach the problem in a logical manner, not in random, frantic attempts to somehow pluck an answer out of thin air.
   Whatever the cause of Kahlan's disappearance, it had all started that morning just before the fight when he'd been shot with the arrow. When Richard had climbed into his bedroll the night before the battle, Kahlan had been with him. He knew she had. He remembered holding her in his arms. He remembered her kiss, her smile in the dark. He was not imagining it.
   No one would believe him, but he was not dreaming up Kahlan.
   He put that part of the problem aside as well. He couldn't concern himself anymore with trying to convince others. Doing so was only diverting his attention from the real nature of the problem.
   Nor could he afford to give in to fear that others might be right that he was only imagining her; that, too, was a dangerous distraction. He reminded himself of the very real evidence: the issue of her tracks.
   Even if he couldn't make others understand the lifetime of learning that went into understanding the meaning of what he saw when he looked at tracks, he knew for certain what the evidence on the ground had revealed to him. There was a language to tracks. Others may not understand that language, but Richard did. Kahlan's tracks had been swept away, undoubtedly with magic, leaving behind a forest floor too artificially perfect and, more importantly, the rock that he'd discovered kicked out of place. That rock told him he was right. Told him that he was not imagining things.
   He had to reason out what had happened to Kahlan-and that meant how had she been taken. Whoever had done it had magic, that much he knew. He at least knew that much because of the way their tracks had been altered. Knowing that narrowed the possibilities of who could be responsible. It had to be someone with magic sent by Jagang.
   Richard remembered waking from a dead sleep that morning and laying there on his side. He remembered not being able to open his eyes for more than a brief moment at a time and not being able to lift his head. Why? He didn't think it was because he was groggy from still being half asleep; it had been more overwhelming than that. It had felt like sleepiness, yet stronger.
   But the part of the memory that had him at the tantalizing, frustrating brink of near understanding was what he remembered seeing in the murky darkness of false dawn as he had laid there trying to fully wake. That part of the memory was where he now put all his attention, all his mental effort, all his concentration.
   He remembered shadowy tree limbs that appeared to move about, as if carried to and fro in the wind.
   But there had been no wind that morning. Everyone had been sure about that point. Richard himself remembered how dead still it had been. But the dark shapes of the tree limbs had been moving.
   It seemed a contradiction.
   But, as Zedd had pointed out with the Wizard's Ninth Rule, contradictions can't exist. Reality is what it is. If something contradicted itself then it wouldn't be what it is. It was a fundamental law of existence. Contradictions can't exist in reality.
   Tree limbs could not wave around by themselves and there had been no wind to move them.
   That meant he was looking at the problem all wrong. He was always stumped by how the tree limbs could move about in the wind when there was no wind. The simple fact was that they couldn't. Maybe someone had been moving them.
   Pacing across the little room, Richard halted.
   Or maybe it wasn't the tree limbs that had been moving.
   He'd seen the shadowy movement and had assumed it was the tree limbs. Maybe it wasn't.
   With that single insight, Richard gasped with sudden realization.
   He understood.
   He stood frozen, eyes wide, unable to move, as the sequence of events and scraps of information from that morning tumbled together in his mind, forming a framework of comprehension of what had happened. They had been taking Kahlan, probably using a spell of some sort on her, as they did to keep Richard asleep, then collected her things and tidied up the camp to erase evidence of her having been there. That was the movement he remembered. It hadn't been tree limbs moving back and forth in the near darkness, it had been people. Gifted people.
   Richard saw a red glow. When he looked up, Nicci was coming into the small room.
   «Richard, I need to talk to you.»
   He stared at her. «I understand. I know what the viper with four heads means.»
   Nicci's gaze turned away, as if she couldn't bear to look into his eyes. He knew that she thought he was merely adding another layer to his delusion.
   «Richard, listen to me. This is important.»
   He frowned at her. «Have you been crying?»
   Her eyes were red and puffy. Nicci was not the sort of woman given to tears. He had seen her cry, but only for very good reason.
   «Never mind that,» she said. «You have to listen to me.»
   «Nicci, I'm telling you, I've figured out.»
   «Listen to me!» Fists at her sides, she looked as if she might again burst into tears. He realized that he had never seen her looking quite this distraught.
   He didn't want to waste any more time, but he decided that it might hurry things along if he let her have her say.
   «All right, I'm listening.»
   Nicci stepped close and gripped him by both shoulders. With an intent expression, she peered into his eyes. Her brow wrinkled with conviction.
   «Richard, you have to get out of here.»
   «What?»
   «I've already told Cara to collect your things. She's bringing them now.
   She said she knows her way down here, down into the tower, anyway, without having to go through shields.»
   «I know, I taught her before.» Richard's sense of alarm began to rise. «What's going on? Is the Keep under attack? Is Zedd all right?»
   Nicci cupped one hand to the side of his face. «Richard, they are determined to heal you of your delusion.»
   «Kahlan is no delusion. I just now figured out what happened.»
   She seemed not to notice what he said, or maybe she was ignoring what she thought was no more than yet another in a long series of attempts to prove the impossible. This time, though, he wasn't really interested in proving it to her.
   «Richard, I'm telling you, you have to get out of here. They wanted me to use Subtractive Magic to eliminate your memory of Kahlan.»
   Richard blinked in surprise. «You mean Ann and Nathan want to do that. Zedd never would.»
   «Zedd too. They convinced him that you're sick and the only way to heal you is to excise what they consider to be the diseased portion of your thoughts responsible for your false memories. They convinced Zedd that time is running out and this is the only way to save you. Zedd is so heartbroken to see you like this that he has snatched at what he thinks may be the only chance to make you well again.»
   «And you agreed to this?»
   She indignantly smacked the side of his shoulder. «Are you crazy? Do you really think I would do that to you? Even if I thought they were right, do you seriously think I would ever consider taking away part of who you are? After what you've shown me about life? After what you have done to bring me back to embracing life? Do you really think that I would do that to you, Richard?»
   «No, I guess you wouldn't do such a thing. But why would Zedd? He loves me.»
   «He is also terrified for you, terrified that you are being taken over by this delusion, or bewitchment, or whatever is causing this sickness that is leaving you alive but not really yourself, turning you into a stranger they don't know.
   «Zedd feels that this might be their only chance to ever have you whole again, to ever have you be Richard, the real Richard, again.
   «I don't think that any of them-Ann, Nathan, or Zedd-really wants to do this, but Ann truly believes that you alone are the salvation for our cause. She has faith that prophecy has revealed this as the only chance we have and she is desperate to make you well lest we all be lost.
   «Zedd was reluctant, but then they showed him a message in the journey book and talked him into it.»
   «What message?»
   «Verna is with the D'Haran troops. She sent word that our soldiers are becoming disheartened that you haven't joined them. Verna fears that unless you are there to lead them they may choose not to go on. She sent a desperate message wanting to know if Ann had found you yet, trying to find out when you could be expected to join your men in the coming battle with the Imperial Order.»
   Richard was stunned. «I suppose I can understand why the three of them are so worried, but to ask you to use Subtractive Magic.»
   «I know. I think it's a solution born of desperation, not clear thinking. But worse, I fear that once they discover that I don't intend to do as they wanted, they will then decide that they can't let this opportunity slip away from them and so their only alternative will be to try to somehow use their gift to cure you themselves. That kind of blind tampering with consciousness would be unpredictable, to say the least.
   «They're desperate because they fear we all are running out of time before Jagang ends our chances forever. They believe this is the only solution. They are no longer listening to reason.
   «You have to get out of here, now, Richard. I only agreed to their plan so that I could warn you first and give you time to get away. You must leave immediately if you are to escape.»
   Richard's head was spinning at the very notion of what they wanted to do. «That presents a problem. I don't know how to cover my trail with magic, the way Zedd can. If they are as committed as you say they are, then they will come after me. If they follow me and take me by surprise, what am I going to do, then? Fight them?»
   She lifted her arms in frustration. «I don't know, Richard. But I do know their state of resolve. Nothing you say is going to talk them out of this because they think you are suffering under a condition where you aren't rational, so they feel that for your own good they must take control.
   They may be doing it for loving reasons, but they're wrong to do it this way. Dear spirits, I, too, think you're suffering from some problem, but I just couldn't allow them to do this.»
   Richard squeezed her shoulder in a gesture of appreciation before he turned away as he tried to take it all in. It was near to impossible for him to imagine that Zedd would agree to such a thing. It just wasn't like him.
   Wasn't like him.
   Of course. It also wasn't like Ann to be so certain of how Richard must be made to play out his role in prophecy. Kahlan had changed everyone who knew her. She had made Ann come to see how Richard wasn't meant to follow the literal reading of prophecy as if it were a book of instruction.
   Since Kahlan had vanished, everyone had changed. Zedd was different, too, and not in ways that were at all helpful. Even Cara had changed. She was just as protective, but now she was protective in a somehow more — feminine way. Nicci had changed as well, although in her case Richard thought the results were more positive-from his standpoint, anyway. She had forgotten everything having to do with Kahlan, and as a result she had become more sheltering of him despite her own views and interests, more willing to champion him despite everything he said and did. She was more devoted to him and thus more dedicated to safeguarding him.
   But Zedd had changed in ways that were more troubling, much as Ann had become more overbearing and willing to directly interfere with Richard's decisions and impose her views of what she believed Richard had to do.
   Richard had been telling people all along that the implications of Kahlan's disappearance were far broader and more complex than anyone but he was seeing. This change in everyone's behavior, some subtle and some overt, was further manifestation of those far-reaching effects. And yet, even Richard hadn't realized the full extent of the hidden corollaries and consequences.
   Things had changed. Richard could no longer allow past characteristics to confuse the reality of how matters were in the present. It was vital that he recognize the truth of the way things were, now, and not be influenced by how they had once been. Nicci had become even more of an ally. Cara was just as protective as ever, if in a subtly different way. But Zedd and Ann, and possibly Nathan, had become less than dependable in ways that mattered most.
   He had to take the way people had changed into account and act accordingly. He had to keep his objectives in mind and act to accomplish those goals even if it meant no longer fully trusting people he once had, people he cared about.
   With Kahlan's disappearance, everything was being altered. The rules had changed.
   He turned back to Nicci.
   «This couldn't have happened at a worse time. I just figured it out. The viper with four heads are the Sisters of the Dark.»
   «Jagang's Sisters?»
   «No-my former teachers, Sisters Tovi, Cecilia, Armina, and their leader, Sister Ulicia. Sister Ulicia was the one who assigned all of my teachers, including you.»
   «Richard, that's just crazy. I don't.»
   «No, it's not. That morning when I thought I saw the tree limbs moving when there was no wind, it wasn't the tree limbs. It was those Sisters I saw move about in the near darkness.»
   «But Jagang has all the Sisters of the Dark.»
   «No, he doesn't.»
   «He's a dream walker, Richard. With the bond to you the Sisters of the Light who are free are out of his grasp, but he captured those Sisters-I was there, with them, when Jagang first got his clutches on us. They are Sisters of the Dark; without the bond they're helpless against the dream walker. My — feelings are what bonded me to you and allowed me to escape his control. But they couldn't escape; they're not loyal to you nor could they be.»
   «Oh, but they are. They swore a bond to me.»
   «What! That's impossible.»
   Richard shook his head. «You weren't with them the day it happened. It was when Jagang's troops were trying to take the Palace of the Prophets. Sister Ulicia and my former teachers-except you were gone and Liliana was dead-knew where Kahlan was being held. They wanted free of Jagang's domination and so they made me an offer. They traded the whereabouts of Kahlan in exchange for being allowed to swear loyalty to me so they could escape the dream walker's domination.»
   Nicci was in near apoplexy with bottled objections. She looked as if the idea was so bizarre that she had trouble even deciding where to start. She heaved a breath to gain control of her galloping objections.
   «Richard, you simply have to stop coming up with such flights of fancy. None of this even works in your story. The viper, as you think you figured out, would really then have to have five heads. You forgot Merissa.»
   «No, Merissa is dead. She was trying to kill me-she came after me. She said she intended to bathe in my blood.»
   Nicci pulled a strand of hair through her finger and thumb. «Well, I admit, I often heard her make that vow.»
   «She tried to make good on the vow. She had followed Kahlan and me in the sliph. The Sword of Truth is incompatible with life in the sliph. When I got here I retrieved the sword and plunged it into the sliph before Merissa was able to get out. She died in there.
   «Of those Sisters of the dark who swore loyalty to me, only four are still alive. Those Sisters are the viper with four heads. They're the ones who came that morning and took Kahlan. They used magic to spell me so that I wouldn't awake easily. The spell they used must have been something simple, like magnifying my sleepiness so that I wouldn't realize that magic had been used on me. The single wolf that called wasn't a wolf, but a signal given by the approaching troops. Because of the spell I didn't recognize it for what it was-the spell made me so sleepy I couldn't think, but still, I knew there was something strange about it. The Sisters then used magic to cover their trail. They took Kahlan.»
   Nicci seized fists full of blond hair as she growled in agitation. «But they're Sisters of the Dark! They can't be bonded to you and the Keeper both. That whole concept is crazy.»
   «I thought so too. Sister Ulicia convinced me that I was only looking at it from my perspective. She wanted to swear loyalty and in return I got to ask where Kahlan was. They had to answer truthfully to honor their bond. They then were to leave. If I asked any more than that it would break our agreement and we would all be back where we started-them subjects of Jagang and Kahlan a captive. Sister Ulicia said that after swearing their bond to me and my asking one question, they would then leave. They got the bond, I got Kahlan.»
   «But they're Sisters of the Dark!»
   «Sister Ulicia said that if they didn't actively try to kill me thereafter they considered that to definitely be to my benefit so that was in their view conforming to the requirements of their bond, since not killing me was what I wanted, therefore keeping their bond to me intact.»
   Nicci turned away, one hand on a hip. «In an odd sort of way, that actually makes sense. Sister Ulicia is more than devious. That's the way she thinks.»
   Nicci turned back. «What am I saying? Now you're starting to suck me into your delusions. Richard, stop this. Look, you have to get out of here, and you have to do it now. Come on. Cara will be right behind me with your things.»
   Richard knew that Nicci was right. He couldn't find Kahlan if he had to worry about warding off three people with the gift who knew quite well how to use it and wanted to alter his very thoughts. They weren't likely to give him any chance to explain anything. He had already tried explanations and that hadn't worked.
   They would most likely do what they thought they had to do. Richard didn't believe that they would give him any warning. Before he knew what had hit him it would be over.
   He hated to admit it to himself, but he knew that Zedd was capable of such a thing. After giving Richard the Sword of Truth, when they were on their way to try to recover the boxes of Orden that Darken Rahl had put into play, Zedd had once said that so many lives were at stake that he would not hesitate to kill even Richard, if necessary, to save all those innocent people. He had told Richard how, to be the Seeker and carry the Sword of Truth, he had to be ready to be just as committed to their cause, that he had to understand the larger picture.
   It was hardly out of the question to imagine Zedd now being willing to use magic to try to erase Richard's memory of Kahlan-a memory that Zedd thought was a sickness that was harming him and their cause and thereby endangering the lives of millions.
   «I think you're right,» Richard admitted in a dejected voice. «They will try to stop me.» He picked up the two small books lying on the table and slipped them into a back pocket. «I think we had better get out of here before they can do that.»
   «We? You want me to go with you?»
   Richard paused and shrugged self-consciously. «Nicci, you and Cara are the only true friends I have right now. You've been there to help me when I needed it most. I can't afford to leave valued friends behind just when I'm beginning to figure out what's going on. Once I do have it figured out I may need your help with it, but even if I don't I'd like you there with me just for the advice and support you give me.
   «I mean, if you're willing to come. I'd not force you, of course, but I'd like you to come.»
   Nicci smiled that rare smile she had, the smile that revealed the nobility of the woman Nicci really was, the smile he had only seen since she had come to love life.

CHAPTER 59

   Cara stood impatiently waiting on the other side of the shield. Rikka, standing guard near the iron door, was watching out into the tower room. Both turned when they saw the red glow and heard Richard coming. He saw packs and other gear collected into a neat pile just inside the door. He pulled his pack out from among the others and stuffed the two books inside.
   «We're leaving, then?» Cara asked.
   Richard put his arms through the straps and hiked the pack up onto his back. «Yes, and I think we best not waste any time.»
   As he picked up his bow and quiver, everyone else started gathering their own things.
   It appeared that Cara, wanting Nicci to be near Richard so that she would be handy to help protect him, had brought the sorceress's things along as well. Richard wondered how much of wanting Nicci along had to do with what Shota had said.
   He saw that Rikka, too, had a pack. He almost asked her what she thought she was doing, but realized then that she was Mord-Sith and she would say that her place was with him. He had spent so much time with only Cara protecting him that he thought it would feel a bit odd having more than one Mord-Sith around again.
   «Everyone ready?» he asked as he saw them all tightening straps and buckles.
   After each woman nodded, Richard led the grim-faced group out the doorway. He knew that Cara might have followed him without question, but she wouldn't blindly follow Nicci or anyone else's orders without good reason, so he suspected that Cara had probably asked a lot of pointed questions-something Mord-Sith were wont to do-and found out why they had to leave.
   At the base of the tower, Richard ran his hand along the iron railing as he started around the walkway, but then a sudden realization brought him to a halt. Everyone waited, watching him, wondering why he had stopped.
   Richard looked at Nicci's puzzled blue eyes. «They're not going to trust you in this.»
   «What do you mean?» Nicci asked.
   «It's too important. They aren't going to leave it to you to do as they instructed. They will be concerned that you'll lose your courage, or that you might fail and allow me to slip away.»
   Cara stepped closer. «You mean you think they will come looking for you?»
   «No, not looking for me,» Richard said, «but I bet that somewhere between here and the way out of the Keep they will be lying in wait, just in case I get past Nicci and try to leave. If we come upon them unexpectedly then it will be too late.»
   «Lord Rahl,» Rikka said, «Mistress Cara and I would not allow anyone to harm you.»
   Richard lifted an eyebrow. «I'd just as soon not have it come to that. Those three think they need to help me. They aren't intent on harming me-at least not intentionally. I don't want you two to hurt them.»
   «But if they surprise us with the intent of using their magic on you, you can't expect us to let them do it,» Cara said.
   Richard met her gaze for a moment. «Like I said, I don't want it to come to that.»
   «Lord Rahl,» Cara said in a low voice, «I simply can't allow anyone to attack you in such a way, even if they think it's to help you. You can't equivocate in a situation like that. If they attack you, it must be stopped —period. If they were allowed to succeed, then you would never be the same again. You would no longer be the Lord Rahl we know, the Lord Rahl you are.»
   Cara leaned even closer and fixed him with that look that Mord-Sith had that always made him sweat. «If they do attack you and are allowed to succeed because you fear to harm them, then when they are finished you will no longer remember this woman, Kahlan. Is that what you want?»
   Richard clenched his jaw as he let out a deep breath. «No, it's not. Let's try to avoid having it come to such things. But if it does, then I guess you're right. They can't be allowed to do as they intend. But if we must stop them, let's not use any more force than necessary.»
   «Hesitation is a mistake that invites defeat,» Cara said. «I would not be Mord-Sith had I not hesitated when I was young.»
   Richard knew she was right. The Sword of Truth had taught him that much, at least. The dance with death allowed no compromise between life and death.
   He laid a hand on Cara's shoulder. «I understand.»
   Nicci gazed up the tower, her blue eyes taking in the doors all around it. «Where do you think they will wait?»
   «I don't know,» Richard said as he hooked his thumbs under the shoulder straps of his pack. «The Wizard's Keep is immense, but in the end there's only one way out. Since there are so many routes we could take, I'd guess it will be when we get nearer the courtyard out to the portcullis.»
   «Lord Rahl,» Rikka spoke up, looking a little uneasy once he met her gaze, «there is another way out.»
   Richard frowned at her. «What are you talking about?»
   «There is another way out besides the main entrance. It is only accessible through passages deep in the Keep.»
   «How do you know such a thing?»
   «Your grandfather showed it to me.»
   Richard didn't have time to wonder at such a thing. «Do you think you can find it again?»
   Rikka considered a moment. «I believe so,» she finally said. «I sure wouldn't want to get us lost down in the Keep, but I believe I can find the way. Starting out from here we're already part of the way, so it won't be quite so hard.»
   Richard went to rest his hand on the hilt of his sword as he considered. The sword wasn't there. He rubbed his palms together, instead.
   «Maybe it would be better if we went that way.»
   Rikka turned, her blond braid whipping around as she did so, and started away. «Follow me, then.»
   Richard let Nicci go ahead of him, then followed, letting Cara bring up the rear. He hadn't gone a dozen steps when he stopped. He turned and looked back.
   Everyone glanced to where he was looking and then watched him, puzzled by what he could be thinking.
   «We can't go that way, either.» He turned back to Rikka. «Zedd showed you that way out of the keep. He knows Mord-Sith. he knows that despite how well you two got along, if presented with a choice, your loyalties will fall to me.
   «Zedd is fond of using tricks. He will let Ann and Nathan guard the routes to the main entrance to the Keep. He will lie in wait on the route he showed you, Rikka.»
   «Well, if there are only two ways out,» Nicci said, «that means they will have to split up to make sure both are blocked. That's if Zedd goes through the thought process as you've laid it out. He might forget that he told Rikka about the other way out, or he might not think that she would tell you. That way still might be clear.»
   Richard slowly shook his head as he stared off at something else-the wide platform partway back around the walkway around the stagnant water in the bottom of the gloomy interior of the tower.
   «While what you say is possible, counting on Zedd to make such a strategic mistake would be foolish.»
   Nicci was looking a bit worried. «Well, you can't use your power without chancing calling the beast, but I certainly can use mine. And I have more power at my command than Zedd does. If they split up as you suggest, then we will not have all three to contend with at once.»
   «No, but I'd not like to have that kind of a test, especially not in the Keep. It's possible that there are defenses here that he has initiated to protect the First Wizard should he be attacked. You might simply try to catch him up in a conjured tangle to slow him down while we escape and it might be all it takes to trigger something lethal. Besides, even if you do manage to succeed at such a thing, he could still come after us.
   Nicci folded her arms. «Then what, exactly, do you suggest we do?»
   He turned back and once again met her blue eyes. «I suggest that we take a way out that they can't follow.»
   Her nose wrinkled up. «What?»
   «The sliph.»
   Everyone looked back down the walkway as if the sliph might be standing there waiting for them to come and travel with her.
   «Of course,» Cara said. «We could escape without them ever knowing where we've gone. There will be no tracks. More than that, though, it can put us a tremendous distance away from the danger. They will have no hope of ever following us.»
   «Exactly.» Richard clapped her on the back of the shoulder. «Let's go.»
   They all followed him as he rushed down the walkway and through the blasted open doorway. Inside the sliph's room, Nicci cast magic, igniting the torches in brackets on the walls as they all gathered around the well. Everyone peered down together.
   «There's only one problem,» Richard said out loud as the thought came to him while gazing down into the black abyss. He looked up at Nicci. «I have to use magic to call the sliph.»
   Nicci took a deep breath and let it out with a discouraged look. «That is a problem.»
   «Not necessarily,» Cara said. «Shota told us that using your magic had the potential to call the blood beast. But it acts randomly. When you use magic, it would be logical that it would thus find you, but the beast doesn't act through logic. It might come when you use magic, Shota said, or it might not. There's no way to tell or predict.»
   «And we're pretty certain that we're not going to be able to walk out of this place without having to confront the others,» Nicci pointed out.
   «Trying to run will present two problems,» Richard said, «getting past them and then keeping out of their grasp to prevent them from trying to 'heal me.' This makes more sense. The sliph would be a certain way to escape without Zedd, Ann, and Nathan having any way to either follow or know where I went-and it would also avoid confronting them, something I'd not like to have to do. I love my grandfather; I don't want to have to defend myself against him.»
   «I almost hate to say it,» Cara said, «but this makes more sense to me, too.»
   «I agree,» Rikka said.
   «Call the sliph.» Nicci held a handful of her hair back as she looked down to peer into the well again. «And hurry, before they come looking to see what's taking me so long.»
   Richard didn't hesitate. He stretched his fists out over the well, He needed to call his own gift in order to call the sliph and calling his own ability was not something he was good at. He resolved that he had done it before; he would have to do it again.
   He let his tension go. He knew that he had to do this or he very well might lose his chance to ever find the one woman he loved more than life itself. For a moment, the pain of how much he hurt every day without her nearly made him pull inward with the aching misery of it.
   With his sincere and burning need to do whatever he must in order to help Kahlan, his need ignited deep within him. He felt it roaring up from the core of his being, taking his breath. He tightened his abdominal muscles against the power of the feeling within him.
   Light ignited between his outstretched fists. He recognized the sensation from having done it before. He pressed the padded silver-leather wristbands he wore together. He had not had these the first time, but they were what the sliph had told him he should use to call her again. They brightened to such intensity that through his flesh and bone Richard could see the other side of the heavy silver bands.
   He focused his intent. He wanted nothing else but for the sliph to come to him so that he could help Kahlan. He hungered for it. He demanded it be done.
   Come to me!
   The glow of light wailed as it ignited in a line down the center of the well, like a lightning bolt, but instead of the sound of thunder, the air crackled with the ripping roar of fire and light racing away at incredible speed into the depths of blackness.
   Those around the stone wall gazed anxiously down inside the well lit by the flash of light. Nicci also glanced around, keeping an eye on the room around them, apparently worried about the appearance of the beast. The echo of the power Richard had sent down into the well was a long time in fading away, but at last all fell silent.
   In the stillness of the Keep, in the quiet of the mountain of dead stone towering around and above them, came a distant, deep rumbling.
   A rumbling of something coming to life.
   The floor began to quake with growing force, until it began lifting dust from the joints and cracks. Small pebbles danced on the trembling stone floor.
   Far down in the distant depths the well began filling with something rushing up the shaft at impossible speed, roaring with a howling shriek of velocity as it came. The howl grew as the sliph rushed upward to meet the call.
   Nicci, Cara, and Rikka backed away from the well as shimmering silver shot upward, coming to an instantaneous stop that somehow seemed graceful.
   Within the undulating silver pool, a lustrous metallic hump mounded up, rising above the edge of the stone wall surrounding the well. It drew up into a bulk, rising of its own accord, gathering into a recognizable shape. Its glossy surface, like a liquid mirror, reflected everything around the room, distorting the images reflected off its surface as it grew and transformed.
   It looked like living quicksilver.
   The rising shape continued to contort, bending into edges and planes, folds and curves, until it warped into a woman's face.