Witch's Oath

by Terry Goodkind

  “No. At least, I don’t think so. Now listen. You need to go through the second steel door on the other side, then take the hallway to the left at the first intersection you come to. Go past two wooden doors on the right side of the hall, then take the next hallway to the right immediately after the second door, go to the fourth wall bracket with a light sphere—”

  “What if there aren’t any light spheres? Some of these passageways don’t have them.”

  Richard shook his head as he waved his hand for her to be quiet and listen. “There will be light spheres. At the fourth light sphere, take it out of its bracket and throw it on down the hallway as far as you can.”

  She blinked, not sure she had heard him correctly. “If I do that, it will be pitch black.”

  “That’s right. After you throw the sphere, then turn back and stand there in the darkness.”

  Vika leaned toward him, confused by the strange order. “Stand in the darkness. Just stand there?”

  “Yes. Facing the way you came from, take one pace from the center of that hallway toward your left. Keep your knife in your right hand. Then wait.”

  The Mord-Sith leaned in a little more toward him. “Wait. All right. Wait for what?”

  “You’ll know when it happens.”

  “But you promised me that I would—”

  “Vika! You need to follow my instructions exactly!”

  She straightened at his sudden tone. “Yes, Lord Rahl.”

  “Do you remember it all?”

  “I think so.”

  “There can be no thinking so. You must remember it exactly and follow every bit of it as I laid it out. Repeat it back to me. And hurry, we don’t have much time.”

  “Much time for what?” Shale interrupted.

  Kahlan hushed her. Shale pressed her lips tight with a look of dissatisfaction as she crossed her arms and remained silent.

  Vika looked from Shale back to Richard. She gestured behind. “Take this passageway to the fork. Take the left fork to the steel door. Go through the steel door, cross the bridge, and then go through the steel door on the other side. Take the left hallway at the second—”

  “First,” he corrected, holding up a finger. “Take the left hallway at the first intersection you come to.”

  Vika was nodding, trying to commit it to memory. “The left hallway at the first intersection. Then go past two wooden doors on the right side of the hall. Take the next right immediately after the second door, go to the fourth light sphere, take it out of the bracket and throw it as far as I can down the hallway, then turn back and stand there in the darkness.”

  “That’s right. Then what?” he asked her.

  “Facing the way I came, I’m to take one step to my left, then wait. Oh yes, and hold my knife at the ready in my right hand.”

  “Good.” Richard grabbed her by her shoulders. “Now repeat it back to me again. You have to get it right, Vika. If you take a wrong turn down here we’ll likely never find you. If you take a wrong turn you will die all alone like all the dried-up corpses we’ve found down here. I suppose that would be better than dying old and toothless in bed, but dead is still dead.”

  Vika smiled that he knew what Mord-Sith always said was their worst fear. Then she nodded as she looked up at him and repeated the instructions. She hesitated in a few places. Once she finished, Richard made her repeat it again, then another time until he was sure she had every turn correct.

  Shale’s suspicion was clearly evident in her expression. “How do you know all this? How do you know all these places, these corridors, and where these turns are?”

  “I studied the plans of this place, remember?”

  “Yes, but that doesn’t explain how—”

  “We don’t have time to discuss this,” he said, cutting her off and letting her know by his tone that he wanted her to stop asking him questions.

  “What about your promise that I could cut him?” Vika asked. “Why can’t I go with you so that I can—”

  “Do you think I would lie to you?”

  That made her blink. “No, Lord Rahl.”

  “Good, because I wouldn’t. Now get going. We don’t have much time. Hurry, but don’t run or you might make a mistake.”

  After a brief look at her sisters of the Agiel, she turned and rushed off on her mission, her red leather quickly vanishing in the dim distance down the passageway.

  Richard turned back to the suspicious sorceress. “I need you to think something into existence.”

  Startled by the unexpected request, Shale cocked her head. “What do you want me to think up?”

  “Something that will distract Michec. Something that will throw him off. Maybe even scare him.”

  “I told you. He isn’t afraid of snakes.”

  “I didn’t say snakes. I said something to distract him and hopefully scare him.”

  “I don’t know that I can conjure something big and scary enough to worry a witch man.”

  “You told me that it isn’t big and scary that matters. What matters is what works. That’s what we need: something that works. I need you to think up something that will get Michec’s attention. Alarm him. Something that will distract him—distract and hopefully frighten him. If you can make him scream and frantic to get away that would be perfect.”

  Shale looked on the verge of panic. She lifted her arms and let them flop down at her sides.

  “And how in the world do you suggest I do that!”

  “Use your head, Shale. It will come to you when you need it. I know it will. I trust you. Now, I need you to go about three dozen paces down the next passageway over, the one he went down, but no closer—I don’t want him to know you’re in there—then set loose whatever it is you can conjure and send it on down the rest of the way to attack him. After you do that, come back here to this passageway and come after us as fast as you can. I may need you to help with something else. I’m not sure yet.”

  Shale stood staring at him with her jaw hanging. “You’re not sure, yet,” she repeated in astonishment.

  “We’re wasting what little time we have,” he told her. “We can’t let this opportunity slip away. We may never get another. Get over there, count your heartbeats until you get to a hundred, then do what I asked. Conjure something formidable and send it on down the hall, then hurry over here to us.” Richard turned to the others before Shale could object or argue. “The rest of you, come with me.”

  Richard left Shale to do as instructed as he led Kahlan and the five remaining Mord-Sith to rush into the twin to the spiraled passageway Michec had taken in order to trap them.

  18

  Richard brought Kahlan and the five Mord-Sith to a halt. Before any of them could speak, he crossed his lips with a finger.

  “If you must speak, do it quietly.”

  Kahlan glanced over at the wall. “Michec is on the other side?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then what are we doing here?” Kahlan asked. “Shouldn’t we be over there if we hope to catch him? How do you hope to get him from here?”

  Richard smiled. “Wait. You’ll see. And remember, don’t try to use your power on him. Get your knife out. I doubt you will get the chance to stab him just yet, but you need to be ready in case.”

  He turned to the stone wall separating the passageway they were in from its twin where the witch man lurked, waiting to capture them. He looked to the right, to the stone pillar not far away, and then to the one to the left, to judge his relative place between them.

  “What are you looking for?” Kahlan asked as she watched.

  “I don’t have time to explain it. Just watch.”

  Once he was sure he was in the correct spot, as the six women watched, Richard put his fingertips lightly against the wall and slid them over the stone, looking for the right place. When he found the joint between the stone blocks he was looking for, a joint deeper than the others, he followed it to a similarly deep vertical joint and then went to one knee as he followed that
one down. In the silence as the others watched him, he traced all the joints at that area of the wall, making sure they were the ones he needed, and being certain of their layout.

  Once he was sure he had found the right place and he was sure of the arrangement of the individual blocks, he turned to the women watching him. “As soon as Shale does what I told her, we’re going to go through here and try to catch Michec off guard.”

  Berdine’s nose wrinkled in disbelief. “How are we going to get through a solid stone wall?”

  Instead of wasting time answering, Richard took hold of Nyda’s arm and pulled her closer to the wall. He squatted down, drawing her down with him. He looked into her blue eyes to make sure she was paying attention. When he was sure she was, he traced a stone block about knee height, showing it to her. It was square, each side about as long as his forearm.

  “When I tell you, I want you to side-kick this stone block.”

  She looked at him with a wary expression. “And what am I to do once I break my ankle?”

  Richard shook his head. “Don’t worry. I’m going to fracture key places in the wall first to weaken everything. It’s beveled to balance where it is, so when the rest of the wall comes apart and you kick it, it will be enough to tip it and cause it to give way. It won’t take a great deal of force, so you don’t have to worry about hurting yourself.

  “This block is a critical structural element, but I can’t take care of all the right places by myself. I’m going to need you to take care of this one. Once I fracture the wall, freeing it from the stone above, and then you kick it, that block will tip and will fall through and the rest of the wall will come falling down.”

  He looked at her and then the others to make sure they were all paying attention. They were all more than merely paying attention. They were mystified.

  “All of you, be sure to stay clear and get back—especially you, Nyda—once the stone blocks start collapsing. I know the wall is going to come down, but I don’t know where all the stone blocks will fall. Many of them are heavy and could severely injure or even kill you if they fall on you. We can’t risk that, so be sure to stay clear.”

  As they were all trying to comprehend what he told them, Richard drew his sword. He tried to draw it slowly enough that it wouldn’t make a sound Michec could hear. Still, the unique, high-pitched ringing sound the blade made coming out was almost painful as the magic answered his call. Richard winced as the sound reverberated through the hall, hoping it wasn’t so loud that it could be heard on the other side of the stone wall.

  Once the sound died out Richard put his ear close and listened for anything from Michec. When he heard nothing but silence, he placed the point of the blade at a key joint low on the wall, and then he waited, listening for the right time.

  Kahlan leaned in, unable to stand the tension any longer. “Richard,” she whispered, “what are we waiting for?”

  He lifted a finger for her to wait as he heard Shale’s footsteps in the distance as she came running.

  As soon as he heard Michec scream over on the other side of the wall, he said, “That.”

  Gritting his teeth with the effort, Richard put all his weight against both hands on the hilt and shoved the sword through the low joint between two of the stones. The stone grated against the blade as it slid in. Once it was through, with all his might he pulled the sword upward. Stone popped and shattered, sending small bits flying. After he had cut as far as needed, he pulled the blade back out of the joint.

  He could hear Michec, on the other side of the wall, curse and yell. Between angry curses, he let out short screams. As the witch man was struggling with whatever Shale had thought into existence and set upon him, Richard used the hilt of the sword to tap the stone blocks. As soon as he heard a hollow sound that confirmed the loss of integrity, he sheathed the sword.

  He looked at Nyda. “Wait until I hit the wall and then kick that stone.”

  Nyda gave him a single nod. Richard took a step back and, hoping he was right, threw himself at the wall, grunting with mighty effort. As soon as his shoulder hit the stone with his full weight behind it, he could feel the blocks under his shoulder give. Joints popped and shattered as blocks began to tip. As stone started coming apart, he looked back at Nyda.

  “Now!”

  Nyda threw a swift kick at the stone block he had shown her.

  With a cracking sound the stone gave way as if it had no strength at all. Nyda leaped back out of the way. As the wall caved in, Richard almost fell in with it. He regained his balance and jumped back just in time as blocks of stone and broken chunks of rock came crashing down with a rumbling sound. A great cloud of dust billowed up. All of them coughed out dust.

  As soon as enough of the stones had collapsed, Richard dove through, toppling a few blocks out of his way to make the opening larger. Some of the stone blocks crashed down to the sides while several others tumbled in ahead of him. He could sense the Mord-Sith charging through right after him. Even as he was going through, more stones, having lost their support, toppled over. Some of the big blocks of stone hit the floor and shattered, sending fragments sliding underfoot.

  Richard charged through the rolling clouds of dust. As he emerged on the other side, he spotted Michec. The man looked shocked by the wall collapsing right next to him, and even more so by Richard and the Mord-Sith suddenly storming in at him.

  But the shock of seeing them was only secondary to the witch man’s plight. What had him in a real panic was the cloud of angry wasps swarming around his face. He was frantically swinging his arms, swatting at them, and trying to swipe dozens of them off his face as they were stinging him. His face was already a mass of angry red welts. His eyes were nearly swollen shut.

  Shale and Kahlan came through the dust cloud, both with knives at the ready. With the wasps swarming around his head, Michec took in all the people coming for him with knives.

  He immediately turned and raced away, swatting at the wasps as he ran. Richard heard him laugh even as the wasps were stinging his face. Richard knew why the man was laughing. It was the reason he had been waiting in this particular trap of a dead end that delighted him.

  Instead of going after Michec, Richard grabbed Kahlan’s arm and tossed her behind him, in the direction Michec had run.

  “Something very bad is about to happen,” he said as he turned to her. “Go. All of you. Go.”

  “What’s about to happen?” Shale demanded.

  “Go! I need you all out of the way!”

  All of a sudden, a sound Richard had heard too many times before filled the passageway behind him.

  Glee shrieked with rage as they came racing out from far off down around the spiraled end of the trap. Hundreds of them filled the corridor. Their screams echoed off the stone walls. Steam rising from their wet bodies rolled along the ceiling.

  He knew that the Glee, with their long, muscular legs, could outrun them and would love nothing more than to run down their prey. Running would be the death of them.

  19

  The slimy, dark creatures were packed into the corridor so tightly they were jostling each other and having trouble scrambling forward as fast as they wanted. Many of them were clambering to go over the top of others so they could be the first to get at Richard, Kahlan, and the rest of them. Richard knew that as much as they wanted them all, they were especially keen to get their claws into Kahlan.

  He had no intention of running, but he needed the rest of those with him to get out of harm’s way. Looking over his shoulder, he saw them all hesitate.

  Needle-sharp teeth snapped. Long arms flailed. Claws reached and raked the air as they shrieked their bloodlust to get at them.

  Richard waved his arms at the others, urging them to get back. Not only did he want to make sure the Glee didn’t get to Kahlan, he needed all of them back out of the way.

  “Go! Run!”

  As Shale and Kahlan hesitantly turned to run in the same direction Michec had gone, the Mord-Sith swept in t
o surround Kahlan. He saw that, at last, they were all running.

  Richard turned back to face the enemy racing toward him from around the spiraled end of the corridor where they had been hiding. There were so many of them they were in each other’s way and having trouble going as fast as they wanted. Richard hoped that delay would give him the time he needed.

  The shrill, angry sound of the steel coming out made Kahlan and the rest of them all stop and turn back to see what he meant to do. They all knew that there had to be hundreds of Glee coming, far too many for him to fight.

  Richard looked back over his shoulder. “Keep going!”

  They all backed away, none of them willing to leave Richard to fight the threat alone. They didn’t realize that he had known that Michec had the Glee hiding back in the spiral, and he didn’t have time to explain his intentions to them.

  He was worried that they were going to interfere. “Don’t stop! Keep going!”

  Shale flung her hands out, sending a shimmering wave of light slamming into the mass of the enemy. The arms of several were blown off by Shale’s power. That blast of magic ripped straight through maybe a dozen dark bodies before it dissipated. Although it cut down some of the Glee, it was insignificant in relation to their numbers. The mass of the monsters simply ran right over the top of the fallen dead.

  “Stop!” Richard yelled back at Shale. “You’re going to hit me. I need room! Leave this to me and get back!”

  When she nodded her understanding and he was sure that she wasn’t going to do it again and accidentally kill him, he turned back, hoping he hadn’t lost what little time he had. He needed to act before the shrieking creatures got to him.

  Richard turned to the side and took a mighty swing with the sword. The tip of the blade whistled through the dank air. With all his power behind it, he sent the blade crashing through one of the fat columns on the side of the corridor opposite the hole he had created. The massive capital, with its support column abruptly gone, dropped straight down to the floor and shattered, sending shards of stone flying.

  Even as some of the stone of the column was still toppling, he rushed to take out the next fat column. As soon as a powerful strike from his sword had shattered the second stone support on that side of the corridor, he rushed to the wall beside the jagged hole he had made. With several more swings, he took down the supporting columns on one side of that opening and then on the other side.