Richard smiled. “I think they will shun you no more. In fact, I suspect you will find that a lot of young men are bewitched by your beauty.”
She lowered her head with a shy smile.
Richard gestured at the woman with the two peg legs. She immediately held up both hands to ward him off.
“Thank you, Lord Rahl, but I do not wish to have my legs back. My knees used to hurt me so bad that I could hardly walk. With these, I can walk. They do me just fine if it pleases you.”
Richard showed her a smile. “Then I would not think of changing them.”
Kahlan wasn’t sure if Shale looked amazed, or concerned. She leaned close to whisper to him.
“How did you do those things?” the sorceress asked. “I didn’t know that magic had such powers. How does it work?”
Richard stared off into the swamp a moment before he answered. “I have no idea. Sometimes when I need it badly enough, my gift works. This was one of those times. I sincerely felt the need of it, the need of helping them, and it worked. That is the way with war wizards, I believe. Or at least with my power. It is brought to life by need.”
He turned his attention to the group watching him. “I’m sorry that Shota pulled you all into this. Thank you for your concern for the Mother Confessor, and your help, but we must leave at once. We have a long way to travel and I want to get us where we are going before our children are born.”
“Lord Rahl … ?” Shale said, hesitantly.
Richard seemed to know what she was about to say. He dismissed her concern with a quick gesture.
“Of course you’re coming with us, Shale. We need you with us. The children of D’Hara need you when it is time to be born, and after that, too. Besides, this is going to be a long and dangerous journey. We need to keep the Law of Nines intact. We can’t do all that without you.”
She sighed in relief and smiled as she gave him a single nod.
When Richard said that they needed to get going, Kahlan held the hand of each witch woman in turn, wishing them well on their own journeys home.
“Don’t forget,” the witch woman with the wavy white hair said. “If either you or Lord Rahl is ever in need of our help for any reason, we will always do what is within our ability.”
Niska retrieved Kahlan’s knife from near Nea’s remains. Her pack was not far away. She brought both back and handed Kahlan her knife, handle-first. “We will do as you have asked and bury Shota down in Agaden Reach.”
Richard rested the palm of his left hand on the hilt of his sword as he looked at all the women watching him. “Do you all know about the Glee?” There were worried looks all around. They obviously all knew what the Glee were. “The Golden Goddess, their leader, continually tries to get into the minds of people in our world in order to find out where the Mother Confessor and I are so that she can send the Glee to kill us and prevent these babies from being born.”
“What can we do to help?” Niska asked.
“You can all guard your minds. If you sense a power probing your thoughts, use your gift to shut it out.”
All of them nodded and spoke up to say that they would be careful.
44
Richard put an arm around Kahlan’s and Shale’s shoulders and moved them away from the witch women over to the group of Mord-Sith standing a short distance apart under a dead tree draped with sheets of moss. He wanted to have a confidential conversation. He didn’t necessarily distrust the witch women, but he didn’t want to let anyone know his plans for where they were going, or the route he intended to take.
“Besides nearly killing us all,” he told them once they were all back together with the six Mord-Sith, “Shota greatly delayed us in getting to the Keep. The diversion exposed us to attacks by the Glee. With Kahlan so far along, she is even more vulnerable. We need to avoid any more of those risky battles. Not only that, but Shota has caused us to go a long way off course in the wrong direction in order to come up here to Agaden Reach. It put us a long way from Aydindril.”
“How far do you think we are from the Keep?” Shale asked.
Richard stared off to the northeast, as if he could almost see the Keep from where he stood. “We are farther from the Keep, now, than we were when we were at the People’s Palace.”
Shale clearly looked disheartened. Richard couldn’t say he blamed her. They had already had a long and difficult journey, not even counting the time in Bindamoon and now up near Agaden Reach. They were all exhausted from that journey, and it turned out that for all practical purposes, the journey was only now beginning. They now had farther to go than when they started.
“We are going to need to hurry, then, if we are to get to the Keep before the babies come.” Shale passed a look of caution among them all. “We certainly don’t want to be traveling when the Mother Confessor gives birth. The Glee are danger enough, but if they ever caught us when the Mother Confessor was in labor, well, I think we all know how bad that would be.”
Richard nodded. “I think we all agree on that. Fortunately, we brought plenty of horses with us from Bindamoon. They couldn’t make it up here, of course, so we had to leave them down the mountains a ways. They are eating grass and hopefully resting up for the long and difficult ride ahead.”
“Are you sure they will still be there?” Kahlan asked.
Richard had no trouble reading the concern in her voice or on her face. He reassured her with a nod. “We made sure they will stay where they are until we get back to them. We left them in a good-size box canyon. There’s a stream through it, so they have water, and there is plenty of grass for them to eat. We made a quick fence of sorts with some deadfall to close off the narrow entrance to the canyon. They aren’t going anywhere.” He smiled at Kahlan. “I brought along a mare that is especially gentle riding for you.”
She didn’t look to care about that. She was obviously worried about bigger issues than an easy ride. “How far?” She ran her hand over her swollen belly. “We need to be on our way to Aydindril. How long will it take us to reach the horses so we can set off in earnest?”
Richard was probably more impatient than she was, but he was trying not to show his concern over the distance they still had to travel before the babies came so as not to discourage her. He didn’t want Kahlan to worry they wouldn’t make it in time, but it was a legitimate fear.
He could see that she looked spent from the battle with Shota and the other witches she had fought and killed. He knew she wouldn’t give up easily, but he also knew she would be concerned about the twins. Carrying them, added to the difficulty of traveling, would have to wear her out all that much quicker.
He didn’t really have an alternate plan if they didn’t want to try to make it to Aydindril in time. There was no substitute that could begin to provide the same level of safety. That meant that they had to get there, and they couldn’t afford to waste any time.
“You just went through quite the ordeal,” he said. “Are you feeling strong enough for a difficult walk down these mountains?”
“I’m fine,” she said without hesitation, almost sounding annoyed that he would think of her as fragile. “But I will be a lot finer when we get to Aydindril. Stop worrying about me—I can rest all I want once we get there. Now, though, is not the time for resting. Now is the time for riding. Get us to the horses, would you please?”
“All right,” Richard said with a sigh at her determination. “If we push hard, I think we can reach where we left them by dark. It’s a good place to camp. I saw wild boars on our way up here. I know where they will be bedding down late in the day. If we’re lucky, I can get one with an arrow and we can have a good meal tonight and meat for our journey. We’re going to need our strength, and our supplies of travel food are running low.”
“Which way?” she asked, eyeing the path back through the gloomy and dangerous swamp, not seeming concerned about the details that worried him.
“I found a way that will keep us from having to go back up the peaks and over the
snowpack that you used to get into this place. I saw your tracks,” he explained when she looked over at him with a quick frown.
“That would be good. Then what?” she asked.
Richard flicked his hand toward the east. “Once we get back out of this swamp, we need to head east down out of these mountains as quickly as we can to get back to the horses. After that, we ride east.”
Kahlan gave him a puzzled look. “Why not northeast? Aydindril is northeast of here. Northeast would be the straightest route.”
“This spine of mountains runs northeast all the way up through the Midlands. You’re right that it’s the straight route, but it would take forever to pick our way through these mountains. Not only that, but we couldn’t take horses if we went that way.
“Once we are down and out of these mountains we will head east, cross north of Tamarang to reach the Callisidrin, then we can follow the river up to its headwaters. That will be the flattest traveling, where the horses can make better time. After that, we jump east again between the worst of the mountain ranges over to the Kern River basin. Following that north will take us right to Aydindril and the Keep.”
“Sounds simple enough,” Shale said.
Kahlan looked over and arched an eyebrow at the sorceress. “Not so simple. Most towns and villages are along rivers. We don’t want people to spot us. I really don’t want to encounter any more Glee. If one of them hooks my belly with a claw, it’s all over.”
“Kahlan is right,” Richard said. “That means we’re going to have to stay close enough to the rivers to make riding easier and faster along relatively flat river valleys but stay far enough away from any of the towns or villages where people could see us ride past. We simply can’t afford to let any people spot us before we get to the Keep. That won’t be easy, but it’s not so impossible.”
“We’re wasting time,” Kahlan said. “By your lady’s command, take me away from this dreadful place and get me to your keep, wizard. Our children are asking to be born.”
Richard answered with a smile that made her smile in return, and that, more than anything, lit his world. He wanted to hug her and kiss her, but they needed to be on their way, and besides, he didn’t want an audience when he finally had the chance.
They quickly wished the witch women safe journeys home after they buried Shota; then they traced their route back out of the swamp. Once into the vast forests of the rugged mountain country, they ascended steep climbs through clefts in the mountains to get through a confined, narrow pass that Richard had found before. It was a difficult climb but, in the end, it turned out to be a lot easier than the frigid way into the Reach by going across the snowpack and then over the windswept, open ledges. The thickly forested cleft in the mountains had steep rises to each side and jumbled rock up the middle, so it sheltered them from the worst of the winds but was hard work that tired their muscles and at least made them warm with the effort.
Once through the pass, they were finally able to start down out of the mountains. The trees were thick, but that meant that the forest floor, so sheltered from the sun, was relatively barren, making travel quick and relatively easy.
Ahead of them lay a long and dangerous journey.
Richard intended to outrun any trouble.
45
As the nine of them rode through a woodland of massive oak trees with low spreading limbs, now bare of leaves, Kahlan worried about the people in Aydindril who had seen them arrive. They had taken out-of-the-way routes and bypassed main thoroughfares. Doing so enabled them to avoid being seen by most people, but they still had unavoidably been spotted by some. There was no telling how many more had looked down a rise, or out a window, or up a street and seen them race through the city. Still, it was only one of her worries, and not nearly the biggest one.
They all knew that being spotted created the danger of the Golden Goddess being able to look through the eyes of those people in her search for Richard and Kahlan, and then she would be able to find them. As soon as she did, there was no doubt in any of their minds that she would send hordes of her kind to finish them before they could reach the safety of the Wizard’s Keep. But they were close and would soon be under the protection of the defensive magic of the Keep.
All the way from Agaden Reach, they had traveled as fast as possible and the whole time managed not to be spotted by anyone. It had been a swift and exhausting journey up through the Midlands. She only wished that the original journey from the People’s Palace to the Keep had been as swift. Without the interference of the witch’s oath, it would have been.
Aydindril, however, was another thing altogether. It was no longer possible to avoid detection.
There were also people out on the road, both on foot and on horseback, as well as in wagons as they went about their business. They were all surprised to see their group ride past. Many of those people waved. Some cheered. Word of the sightings of the Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor, pregnant no less, would quickly spread throughout the city. By morning it was likely that everyone in Aydindril would know that the Lord Rahl and the pregnant Mother Confessor had finally returned. There would be rejoicing.
But with the Glee sure to attack at any moment, any rejoicing would soon turn to terror. While they would be safe up in the Keep, the people of Aydindril would have no such safety. Had it been possible to take a way in to the Keep without being seen, they would have done it, but there was no such way in. It had been inevitable that they were going to be seen, and even if it had been by only one person, that was enough to bring the Glee.
Kahlan’s spirits lifted a little as she at last saw the magnificent Confessors’ Palace. Set on an expanse of vibrant green grounds, the white stone of the palace atop a hill seemed to glow in the light of the setting sun. She slowed her horse to momentarily take in the sight. It had been so long since she had seen it that she had come to fear she never would again.
This was the ancestral home of the Confessors. It was where she had been born and where she had grown up. She ached to go straight there. More than anything, she wished the twins could be born there, where she had been born. Some of the same staff she knew growing up likely still lived and worked there. She knew they would be overjoyed to have the children of the Mother Confessor be born there, and to have little feet once more running through the halls. Kahlan wanted to bring life back to that home of the Confessors.
The palace, in addition to being the ancestral home of the Confessors, was also a seat of power for the Midlands. The larger lands of the Midlands had palaces down in the city for their ambassadors and members of the Central Council, which had ruled the collective lands of the Midlands. As the Mother Confessor, the last of a long line, Kahlan had reigned not only over the other Confessors when they were still alive, but, when need be, over the Central Council itself.
It was an authority that the Mother Confessor exerted only when the council could not reach agreement, or when they reached an agreement that she couldn’t accept as the best course for the Midlands. Some of the larger lands occasionally manipulated the council to the disadvantage of other, smaller lands. When that happened, the Mother Confessor would intervene, but otherwise she let the council manage the Midlands.
Even so, her authority was such that kings and queens sought the Mother Confessor’s advice and counsel. They were well aware that they ultimately answered to her, as did every ruler of every land of the Midlands. The council was the intermediary step to her final authority, and handled most of the mundane, day-to-day affairs. Kahlan used her role to sometimes speak for those in the Midlands who had no voice on the council.
That didn’t earn her any friends, but Confessors, and the Mother Confessor in particular, didn’t have friends anyway, because everyone greatly feared a Confessor’s power. Richard had been the first real friend she’d ever had, the first one not to shy away from her because of that power, the first to stand with her and protect her willingly for the person she was, not because of her ability or status.
/> The irony was that wizards had always protected Confessors, and Richard was a wizard, although he hadn’t known it at the time.
Up on the towering mountain beyond the palace they got their first glimpse of the dark, imposing walls of the Wizard’s Keep. While the Central Council ruled the Midlands, and the Mother Confessor had authority over that council, it was the dark, brooding Keep embedded high up in the rocky face of the mountain that was the dark threat backing the word of the Mother Confessor. The Wizard’s Keep had provided the wizards who always accompanied Confessors, including the Mother Confessor herself. The Keep, in a sense, was the muscle behind the Mother Confessor’s authority. While it hadn’t always been that way, during Kahlan’s lifetime the wizards at the Keep chose not to use their power in order to rule, preferring instead to let the Central Council rule the lands.
As they rode higher up on the road to the Keep, it offered spectacular views of the city of Aydindril spread out far below. Smoke came from many a chimney, as most places had fires going not just for preparation of food but to ward off the cold. Lamplight glowed in most of the homes and buildings, making the city seem to sparkle in the gathering dusk. People, carts, and wagons filled the streets of the city. The view of the city from the road up to the Keep had always been one of Kahlan’s favorite sights.
As they rode silently up the mountain along a series of switchbacks, the road finally emerged from a thick stand of spruce and pine trees before the bridge spanning a chasm that had always seemed to her like the mountain had split open, leaving a yawning abyss.
Beyond the bridge, the Wizard’s Keep above them was embedded in the rock of the massive, imposing mountain. The complex of the Keep was vast, and it seemed to be perched menacingly on the side of the mountain, as if ready to pounce on any threat. The Keep was enormous, and its walls of dark granite looked almost like cliff faces rising up before them, as if it were a part of the dark rock of the mountain itself. Above those imposing walls, the Keep was an intricate maze of ramparts, bastions, towers, connecting walkways, spires, and high bridges between sections of the structure.
Into Darkness Page 22
