The impact drove him back a step. Heat and fire was all around him. The anger of the wizard’s fire exploded, scattering back into the air from where it came, and then it was gone.
“Zedd! What are you doing? Are you crazy! It’s me, Richard!” He advanced, angry. Angry that Zedd would do this, angry from the magic of the sword. The heat of his rage pounded through his veins.
Zedd, in his simple robes, looking as thin and frail as ever, stood his ground. Chase, bristling weapons, looking as dangerous as ever, stood his. Zedd took Kahlan’s arm in his sticklike hand and pulled her protectively behind himself. Chase started forward, the look in his eyes as dark as his clothes.
“Chase,” Zedd cautioned in a low voice, “don’t be a fool. Stay where you are.”
Richard looked from one grim face to another. “What’s the matter with you three? What are you doing here? I told you not to come after me! Darken Rahl has sent men to capture you. You must turn back.”
Zedd, his white hair in its usual disarray, turned a little to Kahlan, but kept his eyes on Richard. “Do you know what he’s saying?”
Kahlan shook her head, pulling some of her long hair back. “No. I think it’s high D’Haran; I don’t speak high D’Haran.”
“High D’Haran? What are you talking about? What are…”
With a cold wave of understanding, he remembered. It was the enemy web Darken Rahl had put on him. They didn’t recognize him. They thought he was their worst enemy. They thought he was Darken Rahl.
Another thought came to him. Bumps ran up his arms to the back of his neck. Zedd, at least, thought he was Darken Rahl, and had used wizard’s fire against him. Zedd wasn’t the traitor. That left only Kahlan. Could it be she saw him for who he really was?
Choked with fear at the thought, he advanced toward her as his stare locked on her green eyes. Kahlan’s back stiffened, her hands at her sides, her head held up. Richard recognized the stance; it was one of warning. Serious warning. He knew what her touch would do to him. He remembered Shota’s warning that he might beat Zedd, but that Kahlan would not fail.
Zedd tried to stay between them. Richard hardly noticed him as he pushed the old man out of the way. Zedd came up behind him and put his thin fingers on the back of Richard’s neck. They gave a pain something like the Agiel had given. Fire burned through the nerves of his arms, and all the way down his legs. Before all the time spent at the mercy of Denna, the wizard’s fingers would have paralyzed him with pain. But Denna had spent a long time training him, forcing him to tolerate pain, to deal with this much and more. Zedd was a match for what Denna had been able to do, but Richard pulled resolve from deep within himself, and put the pain from his mind, letting the anger of the sword take its place. He gave Zedd a look of warning. The wizard didn’t back off. Richard gave him another shove. He pushed harder than he intended to, and Zedd tumbled to the ground. Kahlan stood frozen in front of him.
“Who do you see me as?” the Seeker whispered. “Darken Rahl, or Richard?”
She trembled slightly, seemingly unable to move. Richard’s eye was caught by something, his view flicked down for an instant, and he saw that he had the sword point at her throat, at the hollow of her neck. He hadn’t been aware of putting it there; it was as if the magic had taken it there of its own accord. But he knew that wasn’t true. He had put it there. That was why she was trembling. A drop of blood grew against her skin, under the sword’s point. If she was the traitor, he had to kill her.
The blade had turned white. So had Kahlan’s face.
“Who do you see?” he whispered again.
“What have you done to Richard?” Her whisper was ragged with rage. “If you have harmed him, I swear I will kill you.”
He remembered the way she had kissed him. It was not the kiss of a traitor, it was a kiss of love. He realized there was no way he could kill her, even if his fear was true. But he knew now it wasn’t. With tears in his eyes, he slid the sword into its scabbard.
“I’m sorry, Kahlan. May the good spirits forgive me for what I almost did. I know you can’t understand me, but I’m sorry. Darken Rahl is using the Wizard’s First Rule on me, trying to turn us against one another. He is trying to make me believe a lie, and I almost did. I know you and Zedd would never betray me. Forgive me for thinking it.”
“What do you want?” Zedd asked. “We can’t understand you.”
“Zedd…”He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “How can I make you understand?” He grabbed the wizard’s robes in his fists. “Zedd, where’s the box? I have to have the box before Rahl finds it! We can’t let him get it!”
Zedd frowned. Richard knew this was doing no good; none of them could understand him. He went to the horses and started searching through the packs.
“Look all you want, you’ll never find it,” the wizard smiled. “We don’t have the box. You are going to die in four days.”
Richard sensed something move behind him. He spun around; Chase had the mace raised. A stream of fire shot past, between them. Scarlet kept the fire up until Chase stepped back.
“Some friends you have,” the dragon grumbled.
“Darken Rahl put a wizard’s web on me. They don’t recognize me.”
“Well, if you stay with them much longer, they are going to kill you.”
Richard realized that they wouldn’t have the box. Not if they were coming to D’Hara to save him. They wouldn’t have risked taking the box to Rahl. The three of them silently watched him and the dragon.
“Scarlet, say something to them, see if they can understand you.”
The dragon’s head swept closer to the three. “This is not Darken Rahl, but your friend, hidden by a wizard’s web. Can any of you understand me?”
The three stood mute. Aggravated, Richard stepped closer to Zedd.
“Zedd, please try to understand me. Don’t seek the night stone. If you do, Rahl will trap you in the underworld. Try to understand!”
None of the three grasped a word he was saying. He had to get the box first;
then he would come back and protect them from the men Rahl had sent. Reluctantly, he climbed back up onto Scarlet. She kept a wary eye to the three, puffing a little smoke and flame in warning. Richard wanted desperately to stay with Kahlan, but he couldn’t—he had to get the box first.
“Let’s get out of here. We have to go find my brother.”
With a roar of flame, warning the three to stay back, Scarlet took to the air. Richard held her spikes tight. Her red, scaled neck stretched out as she climbed into the sky among the drifting white clouds, weaving between them. He watched his three friends watching back until he could see them no more. He felt desperately helpless. He wished he could have seen Kahlan’s smile, just once.
“Now what?” Scarlet asked over her shoulder.
“We have to find my brother. He should be with an army of about a thousand men, somewhere between here and the Rang’Shada. They shouldn’t be as hard to find.”
“They couldn’t understand my words; the web must affect me too, since I’m with you. But it must be a web for people, not dragons, for I see the truth. If these three wanted to kill you because of a wizard’s web, surely the others will too. I can’t protect you against a thousand men.”
“I have to try. I’ll think of something. Michael is my brother, I’ll think of a way to make him see the truth. He’s on his way with the army to help me. I need his help very badly.”
Since an army would be easier to spot, they flew high, to see more ground. Scarlet made gentle sweeping turns among the immense, cottony clouds. Richard hadn’t realized how big clouds really were, when viewed this close. As some of them gathered, it was like being in a wonderland of white mountains and valleys. The dragon skimmed under their dark bases, sometimes passing through a damp wisp that hung down, her head disappearing in the whiteness at the end of her neck, the tips of her wings vanishing, too. The size of the clouds made even Scarlet seem small and insignificant.
They searched for hours without seeing any sign of an army. Richard was getting so used to flying, he didn’t have to hold on to Scarlet’s spikes all the time. He leaned back against two of them, letting his body relax while he looked at the landscape below.
As they flew, Richard thought about what he could do to convince Michael of who he was. Michael would have the box; that had to be where Zedd had left it. Zedd would have hidden it from Rahl with magic, and let the army protect it. He had to think of a way to show Michael who he was. Once he had the box, he would have Scarlet fly it up to her cave with her egg. There it would be safe from Rahl.
Then he could go back to Kahlan and protect her from Rahl’s men. Maybe he could have Scarlet fly her to the cave, too. She would be safe from the men there.
Three and a half days, and then Darken Rahl would die. Then Kahlan would be safe for sure. Forever. Then he would go back to Westland, be finished with the magic. Be finished with Kahlan. The thought of never seeing her again made him weak with pain.
Late in the afternoon, Scarlet spotted the army. She was better at seeing things
from this height than he. They were still a long way off and Richard had to stare awhile. At first he saw only a wispy column of dust; then he saw the ranks, moving along a road.
“Well, what’s your plan? What do you want to do?” she called back to him.
“Do you think you could land us ahead of them, without letting them see us?”
A big yellow eye frowned back at him. “I’m a red dragon. I could land us in the middle of them, and they wouldn’t see me, if I didn’t want them to. How close do you want to be to them?”
“I don’t want them to see me. I have to get to Michael without his men seeing me. I need to avoid trouble.” Richard thought a moment. “Set us down a few hours’ march ahead of them. Let them come to us. It’ll be dark soon; then I can get to Michael.”
Scarlet held her wings spread, gliding in a spiral toward hills ahead of the advancing army. She came down behind some of the higher ground, flew up the valleys, keeping out of sight of the road, and landed in a small clearing of long brown grass. Her bright red scales, glossy and lustrous, stood out in the late-afternoon light. Richard slid off her shoulder.
Her head came around. “What now?”
“I want to wait until dark, until they set up camp for the night. After they eat, I’ll be able to sneak into Michael’s tent, and talk to him alone. I’ll think of a way to convince him of who I really am.”
The dragon grumbled, looked up at the sky, and toward the road. Her head swung back around, tilting, a big yellow eye peering at him.
“It will be dark soon. I must return to my egg. It needs to be warmed.”
“I understand, Scarlet.” Richard let out a deep breath, thinking. “Come back for me in the morning. I’ll wait for you in this field at sunrise.”
Scarlet looked up at the sky. “Clouds are gathering.” Her head came back down. “If there are clouds, I can’t fly in them.”
“Why?”
She grunted, a puff of smoke rising from her nostrils. “Because clouds have rocks in them.”
Richard frowned. “Rocks?”
Her tail swished impatiently. “The clouds hide things; it’s like fog, you can’t see. When you can’t see, you run into things, like hills and mountains. I may be strong, but running into rock when I’m flying would break my neck. If the cloud bottoms are high enough, I can fly under them. If the tops are low enough, I can fly over them, but then I won’t be able to see the ground. I won’t be able to find you. What if there are clouds and I can’t find you, or what if something else goes wrong?”
Richard rested his hand on the hilt of his sword, looking off toward the road. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll have to go back to my other three friends. I’ll try to stick to the main road, so you will be able to see me.” Richard swallowed hard. “If all else fails, I will have to go back to the People’s Palace. Please, Scarlet, if I can’t stop Rahl with what I do here, I must be in the People’s Palace three days from tomorrow.”
“Not much time.”
“I know.”
“Three days from tomorrow, and then I’m done with you.”
Richard smiled. “That’s our bargain.”
Scarlet peered up once more. “I don’t like the look of the sky. Good luck, Richard Cypher. I will return in the morning.”
She took a little run and lifted into the air. Richard watched her circle around him once, low, then fly off, getting smaller, disappearing between hills. A memory struck him: the memory of having seen her before. It had been the day he had first met Kahlan, right after the snake vine had bit him. He had seen her fly overhead just as she had done now, and disappear behind hills. He wondered what she had been doing in Westland that day.
Making his way through the tall, dry grass, Richard hiked to a nearby hill, climbing to the top of its sparsely wooded slope, where he could watch the approaches to the west. He found a well-hidden nook in the brush, made himself comfortable, and took out some dried meat and fruit. He found he even had a few apples left. He ate without enjoyment while he watched for the Westland army and his brother, wondering all the while what he could do to convince Michael of who he was.
He thought of trying to write it out, or maybe even drawing a picture, or a map, but he had doubts that would work. If the enemy web around him changed his spoken words, it would probably change the written ones as well. He tried to think of games they had played when they were young, but none stood out in his mind. Michael hadn’t played all that much with him when they were young. Richard remembered that Michael only really liked fighting with play swords. He didn’t think pulling his sword on his brother would have the desired effect.
But there was one thing, he remembered. When they had played at swords, Michael had liked Richard to salute him, while on one knee. Would Michael remember that? He had liked it done often; it made him smile more than anything else. Michael called it the loser’s salute. When Richard had won, Michael wouldn’t give him the salute, and Richard wasn’t his match in size at the time, and hadn’t ever been able to make Michael give the salute. But Michael had made Richard give it often enough. He smiled at the memory, though at the time it had hurt. Maybe Michael would remember. It was worth a try.