Soul of the Fire

Chapter 31

Du Chaillu walked off to her blade masters, apparently telling the men to sit and rest themselves while she spoke with the Caharin. While she was seeing to that, Kahlan, with the end of her finger in his ribs, prodded Richard in the direction of their gear.

“Get Du Chaillu a blanket to sit on,” Kahlan murmured.

“Why does she need ours? They have their own blankets with them. Besides, she doesn’t need a blanket to sit on to tell me why she’s here.”

Kahlan poked his ribs again. “Just get it,” she said under her breath so the others wouldn’t hear. “In case you hadn’t noticed, the woman is pregnant and could use a rest off her feet.”

“Well that doesn’t—”

“Richard,” Kahlan snapped, hushing him. “When you insist someone submit to your will, it is accomplished most easily if you give them a small victory so they can retain their dignity while they do as you insist. If you wish, I will carry it over to her.”

“Well,” Richard said, “all right, then. I guess—”

“See? You just proved it. And you will carry the blanket.”

“So Du Chaillu gets a small victory, but I don’t?”

“You’re a big boy. Du Chaillu’s price is a blanket to sit on while she tells you why she’s here. The price is minuscule. Don’t continue a war we have already won just to make the opponent’s humiliation crushing and complete.”

“But she—”

“I know. Du Chaillu was out of line in what she said to you. You know it, I know it, she knows it. But her feelings were hurt and not entirely without cause. We all make mistakes.

“She didn’t understand the dimensions of the danger we have only just discovered we face. She has agreed to peace for the price of our blanket to sit upon. She only wants you to pay her a courtesy. It won’t hurt you to indulge her sensibilities.”

Richard glanced over his shoulder when they reached their things. Du Chaillu was speaking to the blade masters.

“You threaten her?” Richard whispered as he pulled his blanket from his pack.

“Oh yes,” Kahlan whispered back. She put a hand on his arm. “Be gentle. Her ears are liable to be a bit tender after our little talk.”

Richard marched over and made a show of flattening the grass and spreading his blanket on the ground before Du Chaillu. With the flat of his hand, he smoothed out the bigger wrinkles. He set a waterskin in the middle. When finished, he held out a hand in invitation.

“Please, Du Chaillu”—he couldn’t make himself address her as his wife, but he didn’t think that mattered—“sit and speak with me? Your words are important, and time is precious.”

She inspected the way he had matted down the grass, all in one direction, and scrutinized the blanket. Satisfied with the arrangement, she sat at one end and crossed her legs under herself. With her back straight, her chin held high, and her hands clasped in her lap, she looked somehow noble. He guessed she was.

Richard flipped his golden cape back over his shoulders and sat cross-legged at the other end of the blanket. It wasn’t very big, so their knees almost touched. He smiled politely and offered her the waterskin.

As she graciously accepted the waterskin, he recalled the first time he had seen her. She had been in a collar and chained to a wall. She had been naked and filthy, and smelled as if she had been there for months, which she had, yet her bearing was such that she had somehow seemed to him just as noble as she did now, clean and dressed in her spirit-woman prayer dress.

He remembered, too, how when he had been trying to free her, she feared he was going to kill her and she had bitten him. Just recalling it, he could almost feel her teeth marks.

The troubling thought occurred to him that this woman had the gift. He wasn’t sure the extent of her powers, but he could see it in her eyes. Somehow, his ability allowed him to see that timeless look in the eyes of others who were at least brushed with a dusting of the gift of magic.

Sister Verna had told Richard that she had tried little things on Du Chaillu, to test her. Verna said the spells she sent at Du Chaillu disappeared like pebbles dropped down a well, and they did not go unnoticed. Du Chaillu, Verna had said, knew what was being tried, and was somehow able to annul it.

From other things, Richard had long ago come to the realization that Du Chaillu’s gift involved some primitive form of prophecy. Since she had been held in chains for months, he doubted she was able to affect the world around her with her magical ability. People whose magic could affect others in an overt manner didn’t need to bite, he imagined, nor would they allow themselves to be held captive to await being sacrificed. But she was able to prevent others from using magic against her, not an uncommon form of mystical protection against the weapon of magic, Richard had learned.

With the chimes in the world of life, Du Chaillu’s magic, whatever its extent, would fail, if it hadn’t already. He waited until she had her drink and had handed back the waterskin before he began.

“Du Chaillu, I need—”

“Ask how are our people.”

Richard glanced up at Kahlan. Kahlan rolled her eyes and gave him a nod.

Richard set down the waterskin and cleared his throat.

“Du Chaillu, I rejoice to see you are well. Thank you for considering my words of advice to keep your child. I know it is a great responsibility to raise a child. I am sure you will be rewarded with a lifetime of joy at your decision, and the child will be rewarded by your teachings. I also know my words were not as important in your decision as was your own heart.”

Richard didn’t have to try to sound sincere, because he truly was. “I’m sorry you had to leave your other babies to make this long and difficult journey to bring me your words of wisdom. I know you would not have undertaken such a long and arduous journey were it not important.”

She waited, clearly not yet content. Richard, patiently trying to play her game, let out a breath and went on.

“Please, Du Chaillu, tell me how the Baka Tau Mana fare, now that they are returned at last to their ancestral homeland?”

Du Chaillu smiled at last with satisfaction. “Our people are well and happy in their homeland, thanks to you, Caharin, but we will talk of them later. I must now tell you of why I have come.”

Richard made an effort to school his scowl. “I am eager to hear your words.”

She opened her mouth, but then scowled herself. “Where is your sword?”

“I don’t have it with me.”

“Why not?”

“I had to leave it back in Aydindril. It’s a long story and it isn’t—”

“But how can you be the Seeker if you do not have your sword?”

Richard drew a breath. “The Seeker of Truth is a person. The Sword of Truth is a tool the Seeker uses, much like you used the whistle to bring peace. I can still be the Seeker without the sword, just as you can be the spirit woman without the gift of the whistle.”

“It doesn’t seem right.” She looked dismayed. “I liked your sword. It cut the iron collar off my neck and left my head where it was. It announced you to us as the Caharin. You should have your sword.”

Deciding that he had played her game long enough, and considering the vital matters on his mind, he leaned forward and let his scowl have its way.

“I will recover my sword as soon as I return to Aydindril. We were on our way there when we met you here. The less time I spend sitting around on a good traveling day, the sooner I will arrive in Aydindril and be able to recover my sword.

“I’m sorry, Du Chaillu, if I seemed in a rush. I mean no disrespect, but I fear for innocent lives and the lives of ones I love. It is for the safety of the Baka Tau Mana, too, that I am in a hurry.

“I would be thankful if you would tell me what you’re doing here. People are dying. Some of your own people have lost their lives. I must see if there is anything I can do to stop the chimes. The Sword of Truth may help me. I need to get to Aydindril to get it. May we please get on with this?”

Du Chaillu smiled to herself, now that he had given her the proper respect. Slowly, she seemed to lose her ability to hold the smile, losing with it her bluster. For the first time, she seemed unsure, looking suddenly small and frightened.

“My husband, I had a troubling vision of you. As the spirit woman, I sometimes have such visions.”

“Good for you, but I don’t want to hear it.”

She looked up at him. “What?”

“You said it was a vision.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t want to hear about any visions.”

“But—but—you must. It was a vision.”

“Visions are a form of prophecy. Prophecy has yet to help me, and almost always causes me grief. I don’t want to hear it—”

“But visions help.”

“No, they do not help.”

“They reveal the truth.”

“They are no more true than dreams.”

“Dreams can be true, also.”

“No, dreams are not true. They are simply dreams. Visions are not true, either. They are simply visions.”

“But I saw you in a vision.”

“I don’t care. I don’t want to hear it.”

“You were on fire.”

Richard heaved a breath. “I’ve had dreams where I can fly, too. That doesn’t make it true.”

Du Chaillu leaned toward him. “You dream you can fly? Really? You mean like a bird?” She straightened. “I have never heard of such a thing.”

“It’s just a dream, Du Chaillu. Like your vision.”

“But I had a vision of this. That means it is true.”

“Just because I can fly in my dreams, that doesn’t make it true. I don’t go jumping off high places and flapping my arms. It’s just a dream, like your vision.

“I can’t fly, Du Chaillu.”

“But you can burn.”

Richard put his hands on his knees and leaned back a little as he took a deep and patient breath.

“All right, fine. What else was there to this vision?”

“Nothing. That was all.”

“Nothing? That was it? Me on fire? Just a little dream of me on fire?”

“Not a dream.” She held up a finger to make her point. “A vision.”

“And you journeyed all this way to tell me that? Well, thank you very much for coming such a distance to tell me, but we really must be on our way, now. Tell your people the Caharin wishes them well. Good journey home.”

Richard made to look like he was going to get up.

“Unless you have something more to say?” he added.

Du Chaillu melted a little at the rebuff. “It frightened me to see my husband on fire.”

“As well as it would frighten me to be on fire.”

“I would not like it if the Caharin was on fire.”

“Nor would the Caharin like to be on fire. So, did your vision tell you how I might avoid being on fire?”

She looked down and picked at the blanket. “No.”

“You see? What good is it, then?”

“It is good to know such things,” she said as she rolled a little fuzz ball across the blanket. “It might help.”

Richard scratched his forehead. She was working up her courage to tell him something more important, more troubling. The vision was a pretext, he reasoned. He softened his tone, hoping to ease it out of her.

“Du Chaillu, thank you for your warning. I will keep it in mind that it might somehow help me.”

She met his eyes and nodded.

“How did you find me?” he asked.

“You are the Caharin.” She was looking noble again. “I am the Baka Tau Mana spirit woman, the keeper of the old laws. Your wife.”

Richard understood. She was bonded to him, much like the D’Harans—like Cara. And like Cara, Du Chaillu could sense where he was.

“I was a day south of here. You nearly missed finding me. Have you begun to have difficulty telling where I am?”

She looked away from his eyes as she nodded. “I could always go and stand looking out at the horizon, with the breeze in my hair and the sun or stars upon my face, and I could point, and say, ‘The Caharin is that way.’ ”

She took a moment to again find her voice. “It has become harder and harder to know where to point.”

“We were in Aydindril until just a few days ago,” Richard said. “You would have had to start on your journey long before I came to this place.”

“Yes. You were not in this place when I first knew I must come to you.” She gestured over her shoulder. “You were much, much farther to the northeast.”

“Why would you come here to find me if you could sense me to the northeast, in Aydindril?”

“When I began to feel you less and less, I knew that meant there was trouble. My visions told me I needed to come to you before you were lost to me. If I had traveled to where I knew you were when I started, you would not be there when I arrived. I consulted my visions, instead, while I still had them, and journeyed to where they told me you would be.

“Toward the end of our journey, I could feel you were now in this place. Soon after, I could no longer feel you. We were still a goodly distance away, so all we could do was to continue on in this direction. The good spirits answered my prayers, and allowed our paths to cross.”

“I am pleased the good spirits helped you, Du Chaillu. You are a good person, and deserve their help.”

She picked at the blanket again. “But my husband does not believe in my visions.”

Richard wet his lips. “My father used to tell me not to eat mushrooms I found in the forest. He would say he could see me eating a poison mushroom and then getting sick and dying. He didn’t really mean he could see it was going to happen, but that he feared for me. He was warning me what might happen if I ate mushrooms I didn’t know.”

“I understand,” she said with a small smile.

“Was yours a true vision? Maybe it was a vision of something that’s only possible—a vision of a danger—but not a certainty?”

“It is true some visions are of things that are possible, but not yet settled in the fates. It could be that yours was that kind.”

Richard took up her hand in both of his. “Du Chaillu,” he asked in a gentle voice, “please tell me now why you have come to me?”

She reverently smoothed the little colored strips running down her arm, as if reminding herself of the prayers her people sent with her. This was a woman who bore the mantle of responsibility with spirit, courage, and dignity.

“The Baka Tau Mana are joyous to be in their homeland after all these generations separated from the place of our hearts. Our homeland is all the old words passed down said it was. The land is fertile. The weather favorable. It is a good place to raise our children. A place where we can be free. Our hearts sing to be there.

“Every people should have what you have given to us, Caharin. Every people should be safe to live as they would.”

A terrible sorrow settled through her expressions. “You are not. You and your people of this land of the New World you told me about are not safe. A great army comes.”

“Jagang,” Richard breathed. “You had a vision of this?”

“No, my husband. We have seen it with our own eyes. I was ashamed to tell you of this, ashamed because we were so frightened by them, and I did not want to admit our fear.

“When I was chained to the wall, and I knew the Majendie would come any day to sacrifice me, I was not this frightened because it was only me, not all my people, who would die. My people were strong and they would get a new spirit woman to take my place. They would fight off the Majendie, if they came into the swamp. I could die knowing the Baka Ban Mana would live on.

“We practice every day with our weapons, so none may come and destroy us. We stand ready, as the old laws say, to do battle for our lives against any who come against us. There is no man but the Caharin who could face one of our blade masters.

“But no matter how good our blade masters, they could not fight an army like this. When they at last put their eye toward us, we will not be able to fight off this foe.”

“I understand, Du Chaillu. Tell me what you saw?”

“What I have seen I have no way of telling you. I do not know how to tell you that you might understand how many men we have seen. How many horses. How many wagons. How many weapons.

“This army stretches from horizon to horizon for days as they pass. They are beyond count. I could no more tell you how many blades of grass are on these plains. I have no word that can express such a vast number.”

“I think you just have,” Richard murmured. “They didn’t attack your people, then?”

“No. They did not come through our homeland. Our fear for ourselves is but for the future, when these men decide to swallow us. Men like this will not forever leave us to ourselves. Men like these take everything; there is never enough for them.

“Our men will all die. Our children will all be murdered. Our women will all be taken. We have no hope against this foe.

“You are the Caharin, so you must be told these things. That is the old law.

“As spirit woman to the Baka Tau Mana, I am ashamed that I must show you my fear and tell you our people are frightened we will all perish in the teeth of this beast. I wish I could tell you we look with bravery to the jaws of death, but we do not. We look with trembling hearts.

“You are Caharin, you would not know. You have no fear.”

“Du Chaillu,” Richard said with a startled guffaw, “I’m often afraid.”

“You? Never.” Her gaze withdrew to the blanket. “You are just saying so that I might not be shamed. You have faced the thirty without fear and defeated them. Only the Caharin could do such a thing. The Caharin is fearless.”

Richard lifted her chin. “I faced the thirty, but not without fear. I was terrified, as I am right now of the chimes, and the war facing us. Admitting your fear is not a weakness, Du Chaillu.”

She smiled at his kindness. “Thank you, Caharin.”

“The Imperial Order didn’t try to attack you, then?”

“For now, we are safe. I came to warn you, because they come into the New World. They passed us by. They come for you, first.”

Richard nodded. They were headed north, into the Midlands.

General Reibisch’s army of nearly a hundred thousand men was marching east to guard the southern reaches of the Midlands. The general had asked Richard’s permission not to return to Aydindril, his plan being to watch the southern passes into the Midlands, and especially the back routes into D’Hara. It made sense to Richard.

Fortune now put the man and his D’Haran army in Jagang’s path.

Reibisch’s force might not be large enough to take on the Imperial Order, but D’Harans were fierce fighters and would be well placed to guard the passes north. Once they knew where Jagang’s forces were going, more men could be sent to join Reibisch’s army.

Jagang had gifted wizards and Sisters in his army. General Reibisch had a number of the Sisters of the Light with him, too. Sister Verna—Prelate Verna, now—had given Richard her word that the Sisters would fight against the Order and the magic they used. Magic was now failing, but so would the magic of those aiding Jagang, except, perhaps, the Sisters of the Dark and the wizards with them who knew how to conjure Subtractive Magic.

General Reibisch, as well as Richard and the other generals back in Aydindril and D’Hara, had been counting on the Sisters to use their abilities to keep track of Jagang’s army when it advanced into the New World, and with that knowledge, aid the D’Haran forces in selecting an advantageous place to take a stand. Now, magic was failing, leaving them blind.

Luckily, Du Chaillu and the Baka Tau Mana had kept the Order from surprising them.

“This is a great help, Du Chaillu.” Richard smiled at her. “It is important news you bring. Now we know what Jagang is doing. They didn’t try to come through your land, then? They simply passed you by?”

“They would have had to go out of their way to attack us now. Because of their numbers, the edges of their army came near but, like a porcupine in the belly of a dog, our blade masters made it painful for them to brush against us.

“We captured some of the leaders of these dogs on two legs. They told us that for now their army was not interested in our small homeland and people, and they were content to pass us by. They hunt bigger game. But they will one day return, and wipe the Baka Tau Mana from the land.”

“They told you their plans?”

“Everyone will talk, if asked properly.” She smiled. “The chimes are not the only ones to use fire. We—”

Richard held up his hand. “I get the idea.”

“They told us their army was going to a place that could provide them with supplies.”

Richard idly stroked his lower lip as he considered that important bit of news.

“That makes sense. They’ve been gathering their forces in the Old World for some time. They can’t stay put forever, not an army like that. An army has to be fed. An army that size would need to move, and would need supplies. A lot of supplies. The New World would offer them a tempting meal along with their conquests.”

He looked up at Kahlan, standing behind his left shoulder. “Where would they likely go to find supplies?”

“There are any number of places,” Kahlan said. “They could pillage from each place as they invade, getting what they need as they strike deeper into the Midlands. As long as they pick their route with that in mind, they could feed the army as they go, like a bat scooping up bugs.

“Or, they might strike at a place with larger stocks. Lifany, for example, could net them a lot of grain, Sanderia has vast sheep herds and would get them meat. If they picked targets with enough food, they could supply their army for a long time to come, allowing them the freedom to pick their targets at will, for strategic reasons alone. We would have a difficult time of it.

“If I were them, that would be my plan. Without their urgent need for food, we would be at their mercy as far as picking a place to stand against them.”

“We could use General Reibisch,” Richard said, thinking aloud. “Maybe he could block the Order, or at least slow them, while we evacuate people and supplies before Jagang can get to them.”

“That would be a huge task, moving so many supplies. If Reibisch surprises Jagang’s troops,” Kahlan said, also thinking aloud, “engages him to stall their advance, and we could move enough other forces in from the sides . . .”

Du Chaillu was shaking her head. “When we were banished from our homeland by the law-givers,” she said, “we were made to live in the wet place. When it rained to the north for many days, great floods came. The river overflowed its banks and spread wide.

“In its rush, churning with mud and big uprooted trees, it swept everything before it. We could not stand against the weight and fury of so much water—no one could. You think you can, until you see it coming. You find higher ground, or die.

“This army is like that. You cannot imagine how big it is.”

Seeing the burden of dread in her eyes and hearing the weight of her words made gooseflesh rise on Richard’s arms. Though she couldn’t express the number, it was unimportant. He understood the concept as if she were somehow pouring her image and impressions of the Imperial Order directly into his mind.

“Dru Chaillu, thank you for bringing us this information. You may have saved a great many lives with your words. At least, now, we won’t be caught unawares—as we might well have been. Thank you.”

“General Reibisch is already headed east, so we have that much in our favor,” Kahlan said. “We must now get word to him.”

Richard nodded. “We can take a roundabout way to Aydindril so we can meet up with him and decide what to do next. Also, we can get horses from him. That would save us time in the long run. I only wish he wasn’t so far away. Time is vital.”

After the battle in which the D’Haran army had defeated Jagang’s huge expeditionary force, Reibisch had turned his army and was racing east. The D’Harans were returning to guard the routes north from the Old World, where Jagang had gathered his forces in preparation for marching into the Midlands or possibly D’Hara.

“If we can get to the general and warn him Jagang’s army is coming,” Cara offered, “then we could get his messengers sent off to D’Hara to call reinforcements.”

“And to Kelton, Jara, and Grennidon, among others,” Kahlan said. “We have a number of lands with standing armies already on our side.”

Richard nodded. “That makes sense. We’ll know where they’re needed, at least. I just wish we could get to Aydindril faster.”

“Are we sure it really even makes any difference, now?” Kahlan asked. “Remember, it’s the chimes, not the Lurk.”

“What Zedd asked us to do may not help,” Richard said, “but then again, we don’t know that for sure, do we? He might have been telling us the truth about the urgency of what we need to do, but simply cloaked it with the name Lurk instead of chimes.”

“We could lose to Jagang before the chimes can get us. Dead is dead.” Kahlan let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t know Zedd’s game, but the truth would have served us in better stead.”

“We must get to Aydindril,” Richard said with finality. “That’s all there is to it.”

His sword was in Aydindril.

In much the same way Cara could sense him by her bond, and Du Chaillu could tell where he was, Richard had been named Seeker and was connected to the Sword of Truth. He was bonded to the blade. He felt as if something inside him was missing without it.

“Du Chaillu,” Richard asked, “when this great army went past you on its way north—”

“I never said they went north.”

Richard blinked. “But . . . that’s where they would have to be going. They’re coming up into the Midlands—or else D’Hara. They have to come north for either.”

Du Chaillu shook her head emphatically. “No. They are not going north. They went past our land on our south side, staying near the shore—turning with it, and now go west.”

Richard stared dumbfounded. “West?”

Kahlan sank to her knees beside him. “Du Chaillu, are you sure?”

“Yes. We shadowed them. We had men scout in all directions, because my visions warned me these men were a great danger to the Caharin. Some of the men of rank we captured knew the name ‘Richard Rahl.’ That is why I had to come to warn you. This army knows you by name.

“You have dealt them blows and frustrated their plans. They have great hate for you. Their men told us these things.”

“Could your visions of me and fire really be the fire of hatred these men have in their hearts for me?”

Du Chaillu mulled over his question. “You understand visions, my husband. It could be as you say. A vision does not always mean what it shows. It sometimes means only this thing is possible and a danger that must be watched, and it sometimes is as you say, a vision of an impression of an idea, not an event.”

Kahlan reached out and snatched Du Chaillu’s sleeve. “But where are they going? Somewhere they will turn north into the Midlands. Lives are at stake. Did you find out where? We must know where they will turn to the north.”

“No,” Du Chaillu said, looking befuddled by their surprise. “They plan on following the shoreline with the great water.”

“The ocean?” Kahlan asked.

“Yes, that was their name for it. They intend to follow the great water and go to the west. The men did not know what the place they go is called, only that they are to go far to the west, to a land that has, as you said, vast supplies of food.”

Kahlan let go of the woman’s sleeve. “Dear spirits,” she whispered, “we are in trouble.”

“I’d say so,” Richard said as he clenched a fist. “General Reibisch is far off to the east, and running in the wrong direction.”

“Worse,” Kahlan said as she turned to look southwest, as if she could see where the Order was headed.

“Of course,” Richard breathed. “That’s the land Zedd was talking about, near that Nareef Valley place, the isolated land to the southwest of here that grows so much grain. Right?”

“Yes,” Kahlan said, still staring off to the horizon. “Jagang is headed for the breadbasket of the Midlands.”

“Toscla,” Richard said, remembering what Zedd had called it.

Kahlan turned back to him, nodding in resigned frustration.

“It looks that way,” she said. “I never thought Jagang would go that far out of the way. I would have expected him to strike quickly into the New World, so as not to allow us time to gather our forces.”

“That’s what I was expecting. General Reibisch thought so, too; he’s racing to guard a gate Jagang isn’t going to use.”

Richard tapped a finger against his knee as he considered their options. “At least it may buy us time—and now we know where the Imperial Order is going. Toscla.”

Kahlan shook her head, she, too, seeming to be considering the options. “Zedd knew the place by an old name. The name of that land has changed over time. It’s been known as Vengren, Vendice, and Turslan, among others. It hasn’t been known as Toscla for quite some time.”

“Oh,” Richard said, not really listening as he started making a mental list of things they had to weigh. “So, what’s it called, now?”

“Now, it’s Anderith,” she said.

Richard’s head came up. He felt a tingling icy wave ripple up through his thighs. “Anderith? Why? Why is it called Anderith?”

Kahlan’s brow twitched at the look on his face. “It was named after one of their ancient founders. His name was Ander.”

The tingling sensation raced the rest of the way up Richard’s arms and back.

“Ander.” He blinked at her. “Joseph Ander?”

“How do you know that?”

“The wizard called ‘the Mountain’? The one Kolo said they sent to deal with the chimes?” Kahlan nodded. “That was his cognomen—what everyone called him. His real name was Joseph Ander.”