Warheart

CHAPTER 3

Kahlan ran to the closest of the soldiers holding a torch. She put her hands over his big fists around the torch and pushed him back.

“No. We can’t do this. Extinguish the torches.” She looked around at the others, her voice rising. “All of you! Put them out!”

Everyone looked confused, but the dozen men with the torches looked more relieved than anything. They carried the hissing, crackling torches, flames flapping, back away from the pyre lest they accidentally ignite it, then doused them in buckets of water. The flames fizzed and popped and sputtered in protest, but finally went out.

Only then did Kahlan sigh with relief.

Nicci put a hand on Kahlan’s shoulder, turning her back. “What desperate act are you talking about?”

Kahlan ignored the sorceress and pointed in command up at the citadel for all the soldiers watching her to see.

“Carry Richard back up to the bedroom where he was. Place him back on the bed. Be careful with him.”

Without questioning the strange request, the big men of the First File all clapped fists to hearts.

Kahlan turned her attention to Commander Fister when he rushed up in front of his men. “Mother Confessor, what–”

“Have the room guarded. No one but the First File goes in, not even staff. Have the citadel guarded until I can get back.”

He gave her a nod. “It will be done, Mother Confessor.”

“Kahlan, what’s going on?” Nicci asked under her breath.

Kahlan glanced off at Hunter, sitting at the edge of the dark wood. She looked off above the trees to the distant mountains that looked like gray phantoms floating in the hazy light. Somewhere back there in those mountains was a pass where the witch woman lived.

“I have to go find Red, the witch woman,” Kahlan told her again.

Nicci glanced toward the mountains. “Why would you want to find a witch woman? Why now, of all times?”

Kahlan’s gaze met Nicci’s blue eyes. “Witch women can see things in the flow of time. They can see events.”

“They can certainly make it seem that way at times,” Nicci agreed, “but so can a fortune-teller. They will tell you most anything you want to hear for a silver coin. Exactly what you want to hear and make it sound convincing if the coin is gold.”

“Witch women don’t ask for silver or gold.”

Nicci looked sympathetic. “That doesn’t mean the things they see really turn out to be true.”

“Red told me that I would be murdered.”

Nicci paused momentarily at such news. “And did she tell you that Richard would give his life to go to the underworld to come after you?”

“No. That’s the point. That’s why I have to go see her.”

“What do you mean, that’s the point?”

“She told me that Richard is the pebble in the pond, and because he acts of free will, the ripples of those things he does touch everything, so it disrupts what she can see.” Kahlan gestured toward the puddles. “The same way ripples from the raindrops disturb the reflection.”

“Meaning?” Cassia asked, her wet, red leather creaking.

Kahlan looked to the hope in the eyes of the three Mord-Sith. “Meaning, there may be a way for us to bring Richard’s soul back to his body in this world.”

“Bring him back to life?” Vale asked in a tone of astonished hope.

Kahlan gave her a quick nod. “Yes.”

“But you just said that she can’t see what Richard will do,” Cassia said.

“That’s right–that’s my point. She can’t see what he will do, but she may be able to see what others will do, what others might be able to do, or have the potential to do. Don’t you see?” Kahlan turned back to Nicci. “Red told me to kill you.”

Nicci’s mouth fell open. “What?”

Kahlan grasped Nicci’s arm and pulled her a little farther away from the soldiers. The three Mord-Sith followed, forming a shield from the others.

“Red saw that if you weren’t stopped, you would kill Richard,” Kahlan said in a lower voice. “She didn’t know what Richard would do because she can’t predict his actions, but she knew what would happen to others and what you would do. She knew that you would kill him.

“She said that the future–all of our lives–depends on Richard. Without him, we were all lost. That includes her. Do you see? She has a vested interest in Richard surviving because she would not want the Keeper of the underworld to be able to get hold of her outside the natural order of the Grace.

“Sulachan and Hannis Arc want to do exactly that. They intend to break the Grace, break the division between the world of the living and the world of the dead. See what I mean? As a witch woman, she would be doomed to an eternity of torture.

“She says that Richard is the only one who can stop them. You probably know better than I do all the prophecy that names Richard, and all the different ways he is named and the way he always seems to be at the center of everything.”

Nicci sighed. “Indeed I do.”

“So, Red told me that I had to kill you so that you in turn couldn’t end Richard’s life. She said he must live in order for everyone else to have a chance at life. She told me that I would be murdered before you killed him, so I had to kill you first.

“She was right about it all. But at the time I told her I didn’t believe you would kill Richard. She said you would do it because you love him. That was all true. It happened just as she said, but at the time it made no sense.

“She didn’t say that you would do it out of an act of love. She only said you would do it because you love him. I thought it meant that she was saying you would somehow do it out of anger or jealousy or something.” Kahlan tried to dismiss the accusation with a quick wave of a hand. “You know what I mean.”

Nicci’s only answer was to let out a deep sigh.

“That part just didn’t seem possible to me,” Kahlan said. “I couldn’t bring myself to believe you would do such a thing to Richard and I told her so. She said that if you lived, you would. In the end I couldn’t seriously consider ending your life on her word when it made no sense to me.”

Nicci smiled sadly, then. “Thank you for believing in me.”

The sorceress looked over at Richard lying atop the funeral pyre. Men were starting to clamber up over the planks and logs to carefully lift him down.

“Maybe you should have taken her advice,” Nicci said. “Had you done as she insisted, Richard would be alive right now. I’d rather it be me lying there dead than him.”

“Done is done,” Kahlan said, waving off the notion. “We can’t change what is done, but maybe we can change what will be.”

Nicci looked back at her. “What do you mean?”

“Red felt real sorrow for me, true compassion. I know she did.” Kahlan gestured off toward Hunter. “Because she did, I thought that Red sent Hunter as a way of offering her condolences.”

Nicci was beginning to look more intrigued. “Now you think otherwise? You think she sent him for some other reason?”

“Yes–maybe. The last time she sent Hunter to me, it was so he could lead me safely to her so that she could tell me what she saw in the flow of time. She wanted to protect Richard and she believed that I was the best one to do that. She said that she could not kill you herself because it is not her place to interfere directly. Her place is to see what she can in order to help others do what must be done. She was right about it all, but I didn’t believe her and so I didn’t follow her instructions.”

Kahlan gripped Nicci’s arm. “What if that’s what she is doing this time as well? What if that’s why she sent Hunter? What if she sees something in the flow of time, something we could do to help bring Richard back?”

Nicci’s expression was guarded. “Witch women often seem like they are trying to help you, but that isn’t necessarily the case. They have their own agenda and they have an unpleasant way of giving you false hope to serve their own ends.”

Kahlan knew that Nicci would do anything, take any chance no matter how crazy, if it could save Richard, so she knew that the sorceress was expressing doubt as a way of testing the strength of Kahlan’s theory.

“Her agenda this time is for Richard to survive in order to stop Sulachan. There is no bigger threat to her. What if there really is a way?” Kahlan asked. “What if the witch woman sees something, some way to help Richard? While it’s true that they misdirect you at times, it’s never with lies–there is always a core of truth in what they say. I actually liked her, Nicci. I think she really cares about all of us.”

Nicci regarded her with a skeptical expression but didn’t say anything.

“Since I didn’t do as she told me to do and stop Richard’s death by killing you, that changed events, changed the course and flow of events in time. Richard’s act of free will changed the future. What if she now sees something new in the flow of time, something that we could do–something that has only now become a possibility because Richard did what he did by coming after me?”

Nicci looked off toward Hunter.

“Let’s go,” Cassia said, growing impatient with the discussion. “We’re wasting time. Let’s get to this witch woman and find out.”

“She wanted me to come alone the last time,” Kahlan told the Mord-Sith.

Cassia drew her hand down the single, wet blond braid lying over the front of her shoulder. “That’s nice. This time you’re not going alone. We’re going with you. If there is a way to bring Lord Rahl back, we’re going with you to help make sure you get there to find out how it can be done, and then get back and do it.”

Kahlan knew it was pointless arguing with a Mord-Sith who had her mind made up, and besides, maybe the woman had a point. The Dark Lands were a dangerous place.

“I’m going, too,” Nicci said with finality.

“No one is arguing,” Kahlan said as she gripped the hilt of the sword and started making her way back through the gathered throng of soldiers and a few of the staff from the citadel. Everyone stepped back, making way for her. All eyes were on her and those eyes were filled with hope, even if the people didn’t understand why Kahlan herself suddenly seemed to have found some.

“I have to go see Red. Make sure Richard is well protected until we can get back,” she called over her shoulder to the commander.

He hurried to catch up with her. “Mother Confessor, we should go with you for protection. Lord Rahl would insist. You need to have some of the First File with you. You’ve fought with these men. You know their heart and their strength.”

“I do, but I want you all to wait here,” Kahlan said to the commander. “This is a witch woman. They are private and secretive. She will not be happy and may not help me if I bring an army.”

The big officer’s knuckles were white as he gripped the hilt of the sword at his hip. “If it’s an army, I don’t think there is a lot she could have to say about it.”

Kahlan cocked her head toward the man. “To get to where she lives, I had to walk over a valley carpeted with human skulls. It was impossible to take a step without putting a foot on one.”

That gave the man pause.

“Nicci is protection enough from things magic,” Kahlan said before he could take issue with letting her go without him and his men. “Cassia, Laurin, and Vale are protection enough from other dangers.”

The three Mord-Sith showed the commander self-satisfied smiles as they passed him on their way to follow after Kahlan.

Kahlan paused momentarily to look back at the concern on Commander Fister’s face. She lifted the sword a few inches from its scabbard and let it drop back. “Besides, I have Richard’s sword with me and I know how to use it.”

Commander Fister let out a deep breath. “We know the truth of that.” Behind him a number of his men nodded in agreement.

Nicci leaned over close as Kahlan turned and started out once more. “What if she can’t tell us anything?”

“She will. That’s why she sent Hunter for me.”

Once they were beyond the square, Nicci gently took Kahlan’s arm and brought her to a halt. “Look, Kahlan, it’s not that I don’t want to try, or that I wouldn’t do anything, give anything–including my own life–to be able to bring Richard back. I just want you to be realistic and not get yourself carried away with false hope.

“After Richard died and you came back, it was the other way around–I wanted to grasp at any straw and you were the one who was being realistic. You said we had to accept the hard truth and not wish and hope for what was beyond hope. Remember? If it does turn out to be nothing more than a false hope, it will only make it hurt worse.”

“It couldn’t hurt worse,” Kahlan said.

Nicci sighed as she nodded in understanding. Kahlan started across the empty grounds around the citadel, Nicci at her side.

Thinking about Nicci’s words, she finally lifted her fist to show Nicci the ring with the Grace on it. “Magda Searus, the first Mother Confessor, and Wizard Merritt, left this ring for Richard. It waited three thousand years for Richard to find it along with their message and with prophecy. This is what they were fighting for, what Richard was fighting for, what we are fighting for.”

Nicci nodded. “When Richard laid your dead body on the bed, before I healed you, he took off that ring and put it on your finger.”

Kahlan hadn’t known that. “This means something, Nicci. Everything that has happened–all the prophecy that has named Richard, all the different peoples who have recognized him by other names and titles, all the things Richard has learned, the things he has done, finding the omen machine, and finding this ring left for him–it all means something. It has to.

“The flow of time that witch women can see into means something. She sees it for a reason. It has meaning.

“All of those things are connected and have a larger meaning. All of it can’t simply come to an end. We can’t allow it. We have to fight, for if we don’t we will surely all die.

“I was blinded to it by grief for a time. But now I see the bigger picture. I can see it the way Richard would want me to see it.” She held her fist up again as she walked. “If Richard put this on my finger, it was for a reason.

“Red can tell us something, Nicci. I know she can. I’m not going to let that chance–any chance–pass me by.

“Besides, what do we have to lose? How much worse off could we possibly be than we are now? Are you willing to let the chance pass, no matter how slim?”

“Of course not.” Nicci finally showed the faintest of smiles. “If there is a way, you would be the one to find it. Richard loved you enough to go to the underworld to bring you back. We will try anything, do anything, to bring him back.”

Kahlan summoned all her courage to show the woman a smile. “The way ahead may be painful, in ways we can’t yet imagine.”

Nicci’s eyes revealed her resolve. “If it has a chance to bring him back, it will be done.”