Into Darkness

33

Shota pushed her way through the tight knot of witch women crowded around on the ledge just above Kahlan. She leaped down the last few feet, landing with surprising grace. She had fire in her eyes.

Kahlan stood. She didn’t know exactly why. Somehow, she felt compelled to stand and face a coldly angry Shota, whether by her own volition or Shota’s she wasn’t entirely sure.

Kahlan remembered how terrified she had been the first time she had gone to Agaden Reach with Richard to face the witch woman. There had been times since then when her fear of the woman had ebbed and flowed, but at the moment, she was back to remembering how much she had feared that first encounter, when Shota had put snakes all over her. The witch woman knew how much Kahlan feared snakes. Had Richard not been able to stop her and make her remove her snakes, they very well might have bitten her, and she surely would have died. But Richard was not with her this time.

“Do you think I don’t know what you are doing?” Shota asked in a smooth voice, suddenly looking and sounding like Kahlan’s mother.

Such an image hurt Kahlan’s heart, but she dared not show how much it got to her.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, Shota.”

Kahlan put emphasis on the witch woman’s name to let her know that she wasn’t going to break down in helpless emotion at seeing an image that appeared to be her mother. It was thievery of cherished memories from her own mind in order to use them in cruel trickery. As much as Kahlan had loved her mother, she didn’t appreciate Shota using her mother’s image in such a cold-blooded manner.

“Do you think I haven’t noticed you deliberately leaving your tracks, or breaking a branch here and there so that Richard can follow you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Kahlan hooked some of her hair behind an ear. “I’m simply walking. I don’t know how you expect me to walk and not leave tracks.”

Shota, reverting to looking again like Shota—a very angry Shota—seized Kahlan’s chin between her thumb and the knuckle of her first finger. She narrowed her eyes as she leaned in.

“Don’t feed me that. I know what you’re doing. I am also well aware that you have been trying to slow us down so that Richard can catch up with us and ‘rescue’ you.”

Kahlan retreated to her Confessor face, showing no emotion.

“Why would you fear he would be alive?” Kahlan asked. “The entire palace fell in on him.”

“Fear it? There is hardly anything to fear.” Shota released Kahlan’s chin, instead regarding her with an intense look that held her in no less of a powerful grip. “On the contrary. I made sure the palace fell in on him. But you foolishly hold out hope that he somehow got out in time. Am I right?”

Kahlan shrugged. “Well, you know Richard. He often manages to come out of impossible situations wondering why anyone would have been worried about him. So, were I you, I wouldn’t be so smug that he isn’t this minute coming up this mountain after you and your coven.”

“You think so?” Shota nodded with a sly smile. “Well, I think you should know that down in that chamber beneath my palace, when I saw that everything was beginning to fall in, just before I escaped out the tunnel with you and my ladies, I turned back and cast a simple little spell to hinder his legs for just long enough to keep him from running to safety in time. He wouldn’t have realized that my spell was there, and, because of it, he would have been unable to get away. As he stood there, momentarily helpless, the entire weight of the palace and a good part of the mountain all fell in on him.”

Not wanting to give Shota the satisfaction of reacting with the horror and rage she was feeling inside, Kahlan maintained the Confessor face and didn’t say anything.

“So you see, Mother Confessor, your husband, the man who fathered those two monsters you carry, is dead and buried in a grave so deep his body will never even be recovered for a state funeral. He is entombed under my palace, because of my spell. Quite fitting, don’t you think, since he came to bury me.”

“What’s your point?”

“The point is, you no longer have a husband; we no longer have a Lord Rahl; those two children no longer have a father; and he isn’t going to come to rescue you. So you might as well quit bothering with your little tricks.”

Unable to maintain her Confessor face, Kahlan swallowed.

“You shouldn’t be so smug about your safety, because if he doesn’t come to kill you, I will do it myself—you have the promise of the Mother Confessor on that.”

Shota straightened and folded her arms, looking down at her, amused by the threat. “Is that so? Well, I must admit, you are more vicious than I am. My intent is to let you live, not kill you. I simply want to eliminate the threat to the world posed by those two monsters you carry. Fortunately, with Richard dead, no more can ever be created.”

Against her will, Kahlan felt a tear roll down her cheek.

“Now,” Shota went on, “you can either get moving and get yourself and those unborn babies to Agaden Reach, where you will give birth to them, or I will see to it that you miscarry here and now.”

Kahlan lifted her chin. “You mean like you tried and failed to do before?”

“With everything I have done, my aim was always to simply slow you down so that you wouldn’t get too far away. Were you to get to the Keep I wouldn’t have been able to get to you and do what is necessary for the greater good. I could have killed you any number of times, but I didn’t. None of the things I did, such as that wood where you lost so much time, were an attempt to kill you, now were they?”

“You did something to make me start to miscarry after we were out of that wood, and after we were stopped from getting to the Keep by the boundary you put up, but Richard was able to help stop it. You were trying to kill me along with my babies.”

“On the contrary.” Shota couldn’t seem to hold back a knowing smile, as if she were talking to an ignorant child. “I knew that if I cast a spell to have you start to miscarry, Richard would have to find you a plant called mother’s breath, the only herb that could stop it. I made you start to miscarry and collapse in that particular place on purpose. I knew that when Richard went to look for mother’s breath—mother’s breath transplanted from the fields of Bindamoon and planted there for him to find—he would come across the pass trail, which would eventually lead you all to the pass and to me. My mountain lion returned to let me know that all went as I had planned.

“So, you see, it wasn’t an attempt to kill you, but instead I went to a great deal of trouble to get you right to the spot where I wanted you. As I have told you, I don’t want to harm you, but to simply eliminate the little monsters you carry.

“Unfortunately, Richard destroyed my winter palace. Now, I want you to finish the journey into my home of Agaden Reach, where you will be taken care of until you give birth. After that, you will be free to go. But like I say, if you are too difficult about it …”

Shota touched a finger to Kahlan’s belly. She gasped with a sudden, powerful contraction. The pain was so intense that it doubled her over as Shota followed her down to continue holding the finger on her swollen belly.

“… then I will simply have you miscarry right here and now and be done with it. So what is it going to be, Mother Confessor? Do you want to finish the journey and give birth in comfort and with help? Or do you want to simply miscarry right here and bleed to death on this mountainside?”

Shota removed her finger. When she did, Kahlan sucked in a breath and a cry of agony. At last, the painful contraction eased.

“All right, you win,” Kahlan said, swallowing between pants as she caught her breath. “I won’t cause any more trouble. I will go willingly.”

Shota stared long and hard into Kahlan’s eyes as if to satisfy herself that Kahlan meant it before slowly nodding.

“Smart girl. Now, no more nonsense. We will not be stopping.” The witch woman lifted an arm to point. “It grows dark, but the tree line is right there. Out of the woods and in the open, with the moonlight reflecting off the snowcaps, there will be plenty of light to allow us to continue.

“We will walk the rest of the night to cross that snowcap, and then in the morning we will reach the swamp that guards my home. Once through that foul place, we will head down into my beautiful home of Agaden Reach. It will be warm, and you will be able to rest until you deliver. But for now, we push on.”

Kahlan was still experiencing stitches of pain, although they were easing. She felt helpless. She feared that what Shota did might harm the babies. She didn’t want her to do anything like it again.

She nodded her agreement.

Shota looked around at all the witches seeming to hang on her every word, Shale among them. Shota gestured with a flick of her hand. “Let’s get moving. Now.”

Kahlan had been well aware that Shota had shown no fear of being within range of her Confessor’s power. More worrisome, she could feel a subtle difference in the restraint that she always had to exert on that power within herself, lest it be unleashed accidentally. The coiled fury of the power felt … muted. It was as if that restraint had clamped down tight when Shota had finally established the coven with all thirteen witches.

When Shota glared at her, waiting, Kahlan grabbed a root for a handhold and started climbing, following after the rest of them, with Nea right behind.

Something fundamental in the back of Kahlan’s mind was bothering her. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she knew that the pieces didn’t fit. Something didn’t ring true, didn’t add up, didn’t make sense, but she couldn’t quite reach it. Despite her best efforts to pull that question out of the dark reaches of her mind to examine possible answers, it remained just out of her grasp.

She knew, though, that if she thought on it long enough, it would come to her.