Into Darkness

7

Fat snowflakes drifted through the still, cold air, dissolving away the instant they touched Richard’s face and the backs of his hands. Dark, brooding clouds overhead seemed to hang still in the pass, casting the day in gloomy light. Richard could just make out the smell of woodsmoke. They all lay in a line on their stomachs in the fresh snow, heads just high enough to peek over the edge of the ridge in order to squint into the distance.

Richard was not liking what he was seeing.

“Why would such a strange place be way up here?” Rikka asked.

Nyda pulled the small willow stick she had been idly chewing from her mouth. “Maybe it’s a stroke of luck.”

“It’s not a stroke of luck,” Kahlan said, clearly as unhappy as Richard was at what they all saw in the distance.

“Why not?” Nyda asked. “Shelter, warmth, food, rest. That sounds like a stroke of luck to me. What could be wrong with that?”

“It’s a trap,” Richard said in a distracted voice as he peered into the distance. “That’s what’s wrong with it.”

Nyda put her chew-stick back in her mouth as she let herself slide back down the snow-covered slope a little ways, retreating from the edge of the ridge so she could sit up without taking the chance of revealing herself to anyone beyond. She planted a boot against the base of a birch tree to halt her slide. “You really think so?”

“Everything that has happened has contrived to put us up here, on this trail, with nowhere else to go,” Vika said with obvious displeasure as she looked over the edge of the ridge, watching into the distance with the rest of them. “Do you really think that coming upon this place is just chance?”

Nyda sighed. “I suppose not.”

“This is the trap that has been pulling us in ever since we left the People’s Palace,” Richard said.

With a cunning look, Nyda spun her Agiel up into her fist. “Maybe I should go take a look.”

“Not a good idea,” Vika said.

Nyda dropped her Agiel, letting it hang from the gold chain around her wrist. She pulled the stick out of her mouth again. “Why not? A Mord-Sith might be the right thing to set the mood up there and change our luck.”

Vika looked back over her shoulder. “The Law of Nines, remember? We need the nine of us to stay together.”

“Vika is right,” Richard murmured as he watched for any sign of people. He was sure that the Golden Goddess was still searching for them, so he didn’t want anyone who might be out beyond to see them. There was no telling how many eyes the goddess could be looking through as she frantically hunted for him and Kahlan.

The town in the distance, off through the heavy timber, had been built hard up against the pass, spanning the broad distance from one towering bluff to the other, some of the buildings piled up on top of one another in what looked like an unplanned, haphazard fashion, making them appear hunched together against the elements. It was hard to tell at such a distance, but it looked like there was a stone wall built all the way across the pass, entirely blocking the way through. He supposed it was possible it was simply built that way to take advantage of the lay of the land. But in his gut, he knew there was more to it.

The massive fortress town grew right up behind the stone wall, the wall itself so high it rose up above some of the treetops. The tree line and barren ground above overlooked the town from each side of the wide pass.

As far as Richard could tell, the only way over the pass was through that walled fortress. He had trouble imagining the reason for a fortress in such an isolated place. Of course, it was possible that it wasn’t really a fortress at all, and it only appeared that way from a distance. Again, his gut told him that wasn’t the case.

Up inside the wall built across the pass and beyond the jumble of structures, he could just make out a much taller, more impressive-looking structure of some sort. It looked like maybe it was made from a pale-colored or white stone.

It had to be a difficult life in such a remote place. As such, it seemed an odd place for a grand structure of any sort to be towering in its midst.

Richard didn’t think there could be more than a few thousand people at most living in the town. The smell of woodsmoke told him that the place was not abandoned. If it was not abandoned, then the goddess might be able to use the people living there to finally spot and attack them.

Unfortunately, the only way across the pass was to go through that fortress town.

Kahlan put her hand on his forearm. “I don’t like it. Like you say, it’s a trap. Everything that has happened to us since leaving the People’s Palace has been leading us right to here.”

Richard nodded. “I’m afraid you’re right.”

She rolled a bit to the side, looking like it was uncomfortable to be lying on her swelled belly. “So what are we going to do about it?”

In the middle distance, on the path leading through the snow-crusted trees and among the rocks rising up from the thick white blanket of snow covering the ground, and across another snow-covered rise, he could just make out the tracks of a big mountain lion. He didn’t have to wonder if it was the same one he and Vika had encountered when searching for the mother’s breath.

“Well,” he finally said, “Zedd told me once that one should not willingly walk into a trap.”

Shale scowled over at him. “Is that another one of your Wizard’s Rules?”

Richard looked over and showed her a crooked smile. “If it isn’t, it should be.”

“Is that all of what Zedd had to say about it?” Kahlan asked.

“Actually,” Richard said, “the rest of it is ‘unless you have no other choice.’”

“Well, it looks to me like this would qualify as ‘no other choice,’” she said.

They all turned to look up at the gray clouds when rumbles of thunder echoed through the mountains. The low, ragged clouds that were silently gliding in obscured the higher peaks, and by the looks of them, they promised some bad weather.

“I grew up in mountains like this,” Vika said. “Thunder and snow high up in the mountains are a worrisome pair.”

“So what are we going to do?” Kahlan asked, ignoring Vika’s comment and obviously growing impatient. “I’m not in favor of walking into a trap. Someone wants my babies. I don’t intend to simply walk in there and hand them over or have them taken from me. But I’m cold and I want to get beyond these mountains and down into Aydindril, where it will be warmer. We can’t lie here forever watching that place.”

Richard let out a long breath. The rising breeze carried away the cloud of that breath as he appraised her green eyes. “I agree.” He showed her a smile. “I have a plan.”

Kahlan arched an eyebrow. “A good plan?”

He wasn’t in the mood to debate the merits of it. He was more concerned about avoiding whatever kind of trap waited for them in the walled stronghold blocking the pass. He was also concerned about the way the wind was coming up and the weather was closing in. The night before had been miserable huddled in the protection of a quickly built pine-bough shelter, with no fire, as they ate some of their dwindling supply of dried meat and hard travel biscuits.

“First,” he said, “I need to know if you’re up for a difficult attempt to get over these mountains in order to avoid walking into the trap that’s waiting for us.”

Kahlan frowned at him. “What are you proposing?”

Richard put an arm over her shoulders and pulled her close so she could sight down the length of his other arm to where he was pointing.

“Look at that notch to the left side of the pass, just before the slope of the second mountain over starts to rise up again. See what I’m talking about?”

Kahlan squinted into the distance. “I can’t tell for sure. You always could see better than me. And you know more about such country than I would.”

“Well, there’s an indentation in the side of where that mountain rises up.” He gestured to indicate the slope on the left side of the pass. “That notch is higher than the pass with that walled town built across the trail, but it might be a way over the mountains without having to go through the town. See? Up there not far above the tree line.”

“I see it,” Shale said as she pushed in close on the other side of him, finally seeing where he was talking about.

“I see it too,” Vika offered.

“What of it?” Kahlan asked. “What are you thinking?”

“Like I said, it might be a way over the mountains. A way to skirt that walled fortress built across the pass.”

“You mean a way to skirt that trap?” the sorceress asked.

Richard nodded. “Yes. I think it could give us a way to avoid walking into a trap and instead go right around it. If it is a way across, we could avoid anyone seeing us, and we just might be able to make our own luck and get over the mountains and into Aydindril and then to the Wizard’s Keep.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Kahlan asked, blowing some warm breath into her cupped hands again.

“I’m waiting for you to tell me that you’re up for it. It’s going to be a difficult climb. It’s not a trail, so we will have to make our own way. It will be hard climbing.”

“I’m pregnant,” Kahlan said, “I’m not helpless, and I’m not eager to spend any longer up here than necessary. Let’s get going while we still have light.”