“So the Midlands didn’t fight back?”
“Darken Rahl went before the council and asked them to join him in an alliance of peace. Those who did were held up as champions of harmony. Those who did not were held up as traitors, and publicly executed on the spot by Darken Rahl himself.”
“How did…”
She held up her hand and closed her eyes. “Darken Rahl has a curved knife he keeps at his belt. He takes great pleasure in using it. Please, Richard, do not ask me to tell you what he did to those men. My stomach cannot bear its recounting.”
“I was going to ask how the wizards reacted to all this.”
“Oh. Well, it started to open their eyes.
“Rahl then outlawed the use of all magic and declared anyone using it an
insurrectionist. You must understand that in the Midlands magic is a part of many people, many creatures. It would be like saying you are a criminal for having two arms and two legs, and must have them cut them off. Then he outlawed fire.”
His eyes came up from the soup. “Fire? Why?”
“Darken Rahl does not explain his orders. But wizards use fire. Even so he does not fear wizards. He has more power than his father ever did, more than any wizard. His followers give all kinds of reasons, the main one being that it was used against Darken Rahl’s father, so fire is a sign of disrespect to the house of Rahl.”
“That’s why you wanted to sit in front of a fire.”
She nodded. “To have a fire in the wrong place in the Midlands, without the approval of Darken Rahl or his followers, is to invite death.” She pushed at the dirt with a stick. “Maybe in Westland, too. Your brother seems close to outlawing fire. Maybe…”
He cut her off. “Our mother was burned to death in a fire.” His tone was a hot warning. “That’s why Michael is concerned about fire. That’s the only reason. And he never said anything about outlawing it, only that he wanted to do something so others wouldn’t be hurt like she was. There’s nothing wrong with wanting people not to be hurt.”
She looked up at him from under her eyebrows. “He didn’t seem to care about hurting you.”
Richard let his anger die as he took a deep breath. “I know it seemed that way, but you don’t understand him. That’s just his way. I know it isn’t his intention to hurt me.” Richard pulled his knees up and folded his arms across them. “After our mother died, Michael spent more and more time with his friends. He would make friends with anyone he thought was important. Some of them were pompous and arrogant. Father didn’t like some of Michael’s friends, and told him so. They would argue about it.
“One time Father came home with a vase that had these little figures sculpted around the top, like they were dancing on the rim. He was proud of it. He said it was old, and he thought he could get a gold piece for it. Michael said he could get more. They argued, and finally Father let Michael take the vase to sell. Michael came back and threw four gold pieces on the table. My father just stared at them for the longest time. Then he said, in a real quiet voice, that the vase wasn’t worth four gold pieces, and wanted to know what Michael had told the people. Michael said he told them what they wanted to hear. Father reached out to pick up the four coins, and Michael slapped his hand over them. He picked up three and said only one was for my father, because one was all he expected to get. Then he said, ‘That is the value of my friends, George.’
“That was the first time Michael called him ‘George.’ My father never let him sell anything for him again.
“But do you know what Michael did with the money? The next time my father left on a trip, he paid off most of the family debts. He didn’t even buy anything for himself.
“Sometimes Michael is crude in the way he does things, like today when he told everyone about our mother, and pointed at me, but I know… I know that he has everyone’s best interests at heart. He doesn’t want anyone hurt by fire. That’s
all, he just doesn’t want anyone to go through what we did. He is only trying to do what is best for everyone.”
Kahlan didn’t look up. She pushed at the dirt a moment more and then tossed the stick in the fire. “I’m sorry, Richard. I shouldn’t be so suspicious. I know how much it hurts to lose your mother. I’m sure you’re right.” Finally, she looked up. “Forgive me?”
Richard smiled and gave her a nod. “Of course. I guess if I had been through all you have, I would be quick to think the worst, too. I’m sorry I jumped on you. If you will forgive my tone, I’ll let you finish the soup.”
She nodded her agreement with a smile as he handed her the last of the soup.
He wanted to hear the rest of her story, but he waited and watched her eat for a while before he asked, “So have the D’Haran forces conquered all of the Midlands?”
“The Midlands is a big place; the People’s Peace Army occupies only a few of the larger cities. People in many areas ignore the alliance. Rahl does not really care. He considers it a petty problem. His attention has been diverted to something else. The wizards found out his real goal was the magic the great wizard had warned the council about, the magic they had mishandled for their own avarice. With the magic Darken Rahl seeks, he will be master of all, without having to fight anyone.
“Five of the wizards realized they had been wrong, that the great wizard was right after all. They sought to gain redemption in his eyes, and save the Midlands, and Westland, from what will happen if Darken Rahl gains the magic he seeks. So they searched for the great wizard, but Rahl hunts him also.”
“You said five wizards. How many are there?”
“There were seven: the great wizard and his six students. The old one has vanished; one of the others sold his services to a queen, a very dishonorable thing for a wizard to do.” She paused, considering that a moment. “And as I told you before, the five others are dead. Before they died they had the whole of the Midlands searched, but the great one was not to be found. He is not in the Midlands.”
“So they believed him to be in Westland?”
Kahlan dropped the spoon in the empty pot. “Yes. He is here.”
“And they thought this great wizard could stop Darken Rahl, even though they could not?” Something was wrong with this story, and Richard wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was coming next.
“No,” she said after a pause, “he does not have the power to go against Darken Rahl either. What they wanted, what we need to save and keep us all from what will be, is for the great wizard to make the appointment only he can make.”
By the care with which she was choosing her words, he knew she was dancing around secrets he was not to ask about, so he didn’t, and instead asked, “Why didn’t they come after him themselves, and ask him to do it?”
“Because they feared he would say no, and they did not have the power to force him.”
“Five wizards did not have the power of this one?”
She shook her head with a sad smile. “They were his students, ones who wanted to be wizards. They were not born wizards, born with the gift. The great one was born to a father who was a wizard and a mother who was a sorceress. It is in his
blood, not just his head. They could never be the wizard he is. They simply did not have the power to make him do what they wanted.” She fell silent.
“And…” He didn’t say anything else. With his silence he let her know his next question, and that he would have the answer to it.
At last, she gave him the answer in a soft whisper.
“And so they sent me, because I do.”
The fire crackled and hissed. He could feel the tension in her, and he knew she had gone as far with that answer as she would on the subject, so he remained still to let her feel safe. Without looking over, he put his hand on her forearm, and she put her other hand over his.
“How are you to know this wizard?”
“I only know I must find him, and soon, or we are all lost.”
Richard thought in silence. “Zedd will help us,” he said at last. “He’s a cloud reader. Finding lost people is what a cloud reader does.”
Kahlan gave him a suspicious look. “That sounds like magic. There is not supposed to be any magic in Westland.”
“He says it’s not; that anyone can learn. He’s always trying to teach me. He mocks me whenever I say it looks like it will rain. His eyes get real big and he says, ‘Magic! You must have magic, my boy, to read the clouds and know the future so.’”
Kahlan laughed. It was a good sound to hear. He didn’t want to press her further even though the weave of her story had many loose threads; there was much she wasn’t telling him. At least he knew more than he did before. The important thing was to find the wizard and then get away; another quad would be coming for her. They would have to go west while the wizard did whatever it was he had to do.
She opened her waist pouch and pulled something out. Untying a string, she laid back the folds of a waxed cloth that held a tan substance. Dipping her finger in it, she turned to him. “This will help the fly bites heal. Turn your head.”
The ointment soothed the sting. He recognized the fragrances of some of the plants and herbs it was made from. Zedd had taught him to make a similar ointment, but with aum, that would take pain from flesh wounds. When finished with him, she put some on herself. He held out his sore red hand.
“Here, put some on this, too.”
“Richard! What have you done?”
“I was stuck by a thorn, this morning.”
She dabbed the ointment carefully on his wound. “I have never seen a thorn do this.”
“It was a big thorn. I’m sure I’ll be better by morning.”
The ointment didn’t help the pain as much as he had hoped, but he told her that it did, not wanting to worry her. His hand was nothing compared to the things she had to worry about. He watched as she retied the string around the little package and replaced it in her waist pouch. Her forehead was creased in thought.
“Richard, are you afraid of magic?”
He thought carefully before answering. “I was always fascinated by it; it sounded exciting. But now I know there is magic to fear. But I would guess it’s like people: some you stay clear of and some you are fortunate to know.”
Kahlan smiled, apparently satisfied with his answer. “Richard, before I can
sleep, there is something I must tend to. It is a creature of magic. If you would not be afraid, I will let you see it. The opportunity is a rare one. Few have ever seen it, and few ever will. But you must promise me you will leave and take a walk when I ask, and not ask me any more questions when you return. I am very tired and must sleep.”
Richard smiled at the honor. “Promise.”
Opening her waist pouch once more, Kahlan withdrew a small round bottle with a stopper. Blue and silver lines spiraled around the fat part. There was light inside.
Her green eyes came to his. “The creature is a night wisp. Her name is Shar. A night wisp cannot be seen in the day, only at night. Shar is part of the magic that helped me cross the boundary; she was my guide. Without her, I would have been lost.”
Kahlan’s eyes filled with tears, but her voice remained steady and calm. “Tonight, she dies. She can live no longer away from her home place and the others of her kind, and she does not have the strength to cross the boundary again. Shar has sacrificed her life to help me because if Darken Rahl succeeds, all her kind, among others, will perish.”
Pulling the stopper free, Kahlan placed the little bottle in the flat of her palm and held it out between them.
A tiny flare of light lifted clear of the bottle, floating up into the cool, dim air of the wayward pine, giving everything a silvery cast. The light softened as the wisp came to a stop in the air between them, hovering. Richard was astonished. His mouth hung open as he watched, transfixed.
“Good evening, Richard Cypher,” it said in a tiny little voice.
“Good evening to you, Shar.” His own voice was not much more than a whisper.
“Thank you for helping Kahlan today. In so doing you are also helping my kind. If you ever need the help of the night wisps, say my name and they will help you, for no enemy may know it.”
“Thank you, Shar, but the Midlands are the last place I would want to go. I’ll help Kahlan find the wizard, but then I must take us west and get us safely away from those who would kill us.”
The night wisp seemed to turn in the air for a time, considering. The silvery light felt warm and safe on his face.
“If that is what you wish, then you must do so,” Shar said. Richard felt relieved. The tiny point of light spun in the air before them again.
Shar spun to a stop. “But know this; Darken Rahl hunts you both. He will not rest. He will not stop. If you run, he will find you. There is no doubt of that. You have no defense against him. He will kill you both. Soon.”
Richard’s mouth was so dry he could hardly swallow. At least the gar would have been quick, he thought, and then it would be over. “Shar, isn’t there a way for us to escape?”
The light spun again, making flashes on his face and the branches of the wayward pine.
Shar stopped again. “If your back is to him, your eyes will not be. He will get you. He enjoys it.”
Richard stared. “But… is there nothing we can do?”
The tiny point of light spun again, coming closer to him this time before stopping. “Better question, Richard Cypher. The answer you want is within yourself. You must seek it. You must seek it or he will kill you both. Soon.”
“How soon?” His voice turned harder; he couldn’t help himself. The light backed away a little as it spun. He would not let this opportunity go without finding out at least something he could hold on to.
The night wisp stopped. “The first day of winter, Richard Cypher. When the sun is in the sky. If Darken Rahl does not kill you before then, and if he is not stopped, then on the first day of winter when the sun is in the sky, my kind will all die. You both will die. He will enjoy it.”
Richard tried to decide the best way to question a spinning point of light. “Shar, Kahlan is trying to save the others of your kind. I am trying to help her. You are giving your life to help her. If we fail, everyone dies, you just said so. Please, is there anything you can tell me to help us against Darken Rahl?”