“I thought we were shipwrecked and lost,” Nathan said with a tone of wonder in his voice. “Ironically, this debacle may have put us exactly where we were supposed to go.”
“I prefer to choose my own direction,” Nicci said, but she could not argue with the evidence of her own eyes. She did not need a prophecy to help save the world or to aid Richard Rahl in any way possible. And if she had to journey toward a mysterious place called Kol Adair, then she would do it, as would Nathan.
The wizard pursed his lips as he regarded the stones. “Only a fool tries to resist a clear prophecy. In doing so, the person usually brings about the same fate, but in a far worse fashion.”
Nicci set off, leaving the cairn behind. “We go to Kol Adair, wherever it is,” she said.
After the tall stone cairn dwindled in the distance, Nicci heard a loud crack and rumbling clatter in the windblown silence behind them. They all spun in time to watch the spire of piled stones shifting and collapsing. The tallest rocks crumbled from the pinnacle, the center buckled, and the whole structure collapsed into a mound of rocks. The cairn had served its purpose.
* * *
Leaving the high point, they descended the headlands, and came upon the bones of a monster. A long skeleton sprawled among the rocks and weeds just above the high-tide line. Its head was the size of a wagon, a triangular skull with daggerlike fangs and cavernous eye sockets. Its vertebrae draped along the rocks and down into the sand like a rope of bones as long as ten horses in a row. Innumerable curved ribs formed a long and broken tunnel that tapered to a point at the creature’s tail.
“It’s not a dragon,” Nathan observed.
“Dragons are mostly extinct,” Nicci said.
Bannon crossed his arms over his chest. “Sea serpent, but just a small one. We often saw them swimming past the Chiriya shore during mating season, when the kelp blooms.”
Looking at the long skeleton, Nicci surmised that the creature had died out at sea, and the tides had cast its body up on shore, where gulls and other scavengers picked it clean. Only a few iron-hard scraps of meat remained on the curved bones. “If that is a small sea serpent, I’m glad the Wavewalker did not encounter one.”
They walked along the beach until the tide came in with late afternoon. The sun lowered in a ruddy ball toward the expanse of water. The three trudged on, finding no path, no villages, no docks, nor even old campfire circles that would indicate a human presence. This land seemed wild, unsettled, unexplored.
Bannon bounded off ahead, heading toward another large cliff that blocked their way, pushing out into the sea. “Hurry, the tide is coming in, and it’ll block our way. I’d rather walk along the beach than climb those cliffs.”
They were sloshing in ankle-deep water by the time they rounded the point, climbing over seaweed-covered rocks. “This way,” Bannon said. “Be careful of your footing.”
But when they came around the corner into a cove, the young man froze in place. He reached out to catch his balance on a tall rock.
Nicci saw what had caught his attention. Another wrecked ship had been smashed like a toy high up on the rocks. Little was left beyond a few ribs, some hull planks, and the long keel. Time and weather had reduced it to skeletal remains.
Nathan paused to catch his breath. “Now, that is interesting. What sort of ship is it?”
The wreck’s curved prow was adorned by a ferocious carved serpent head—a sea serpent like the bones they had seen, Nicci realized. The hull planks were rough-hewn and lapped one over the top of the other, rather than being sealed edge-to-edge as those of the more sophisticated Wavewalker had been. Several of the ship’s intact ribs curved up, draped with moss and seaweed. The rest of the hull had fallen apart.
Nicci turned to Bannon, who looked as if he had seen an evil spirit. “Is the design familiar to you?”
Too quickly, he shook his head. Nathan pressed, “Why are you shuddering, my boy?”
“I’m just cold and tired.” He cleared his throat and trudged up on the rocks. “It’ll be dark soon. We should keep going and find a place to make camp.”
Nicci looked around, made her decision. “This is a good enough spot. The cove is sheltered, and that wreck is above the high-tide line. It’ll provide shelter.”
“And ready firewood,” Nathan said.
Bannon sounded uncertain. “But maybe if we kept going, we could find a village.”
“Nonsense. This is much better than sleeping out in the windy headlands.” Nathan picked his way closer to the ominous serpent ship. “It’ll all look better with a nice roaring fire.” He began to gather shattered fragments of the planks for kindling.
Nicci found a sheltered area in the curve of the ruined hull. “The sand is soft here. We can build a fire ring out of rocks.”
Bannon sounded defeated. “I’ll go find us dinner. There’ll be crabs, shellfish, maybe some mussels in the tide pools.”
He trotted off into the deepening twilight, while Nathan gathered scraps of wood and prepared a fire, but he had to rely on Nicci’s magic to ignite it. Soon, they had a large crackling blaze.
After smoothing the sand for a decent cushion, the wizard situated himself on the ground. Nicci dragged up a wave-polished log to use as a makeshift seat. Nathan propped his elbows on his knees and gazed into the cheerful bonfire, looking miserable. “I do not believe I’ve ever felt so weary and lost, even if I know we’re on our way to Kol Adair.”
“We’ve endured a lot of hardship, Wizard. This is just more of it.” She poked a stick into the flames.
“I’m lost because my magic failed us when I needed it most. I’ve had the gift all my life. I wasted so many centuries locked in that dreadful palace, receiving prophecies and forced to write them down so that everyone could misinterpret them.” He snorted. “The Sisters had the best of intentions, but their results left much to be desired.”
He shifted his position, but could not seem to find a comfortable spot to sit. “They considered me dangerous! Prophecy was integral to me, woven through my flesh and bone and blood, and when Richard sent the omen machine back to the underworld, he unraveled that part of me.”
“Richard did what was necessary,” Nicci said.
“No doubt about that, Sorceress, and I’m not complaining.” He fumbled around in his makeshift pack to withdraw the tortoiseshell comb he had claimed from the unnamed sailor’s trunk. He began to wrestle with the tangles, grimacing as his unkempt hair fought against his efforts. “The world is a better place without that damnable prophecy.”
He held up his hand, concentrated, even squeezed his eyes shut, but nothing happened. “But now I’m losing the rest of my magic. I haven’t been able to use my gift properly since before the storm, before the selka. I have tried, but … nothing. How can that be, Sorceress?”
“Are you asking if magic itself is going away, as did prophecy? I don’t see the correlation. My gift functions properly.” Then, as an afterthought, she added, “So long as I haven’t been poisoned.”
“But I was a prophet and a wizard.” He looked at her with a flare in his azure eyes. “If the gift of prophecy unraveled within me, what if it was connected to the rest of my gift? You can’t pluck one loose strand from a complex tapestry without unraveling other parts. Could it have disrupted my entire Han? Maybe by yanking out prophecy, Richard loosened other strands of interconnected magic.” He pushed his hands out toward the blaze, visibly straining. “What if I can’t create a light web ever again? Or manipulate water? Or make fire? Will I have to resort to doing card tricks, like a traveling charlatan? How can I be made whole again?”
“I don’t have answers for you, Wizard,” Nicci said.
He looked stung. “Maybe you won’t be able to call me that anymore.”
Interrupting them, Bannon returned with an armload of misshapen oysters and mussels, which he dumped in the sand at the edge of the fire. “There were crabs too, about the size of my hands,” the young man said. “I couldn’t carry them all
, and the crabs tried to run away. I can go catch some later.”
Nathan used a stick to push the shells into the coals, and the moisture hissed and spat as it steamed away. The mussels yawned open, gasping as they died. Bannon used a stick to fish them back out of the flames, rolling them onto the sand. “They cook quickly.”
Nicci and Nathan each picked up one of the hot shellfish, juggling them in their fingertips until they could pry the shells wide enough to get at the meat inside. After they devoured the entire haul, Bannon took a flaming brand from the fire and ventured into the darkness again. Before long, he returned with crabs, which they also roasted.
Squatting down on the smooth log near Nicci, Bannon laid his sword on his lap and ran his finger gently along the blade’s edge. He kept glancing around, deeply uneasy.
At last having the chance to think and plan, Nicci gazed at the skeletal remnants of the wrecked serpent ship, then looked up into the sky to view the altered constellations. “Tomorrow, we decide where to go.”
Paying little attention to their discussion, Bannon tossed the empty shells against the wooden ribs of the derelict ship.
Nathan opened the leather satchel at his side, glad he still had his life book. It had mostly dried, and the blank pages suffered little enough damage. Using a lead stylus he had procured in Tanimura, he began to sketch the coastline on one of the blank pages.
“I have no cartographic instruments, but I do have a good eye.” He added the rocky points, the crescent-shaped beach, the site of the tall stone cairn, and now the sheltered cove that held the wreck of the serpent ship. “It’s difficult to make an accurate map if you don’t know where you’re starting, but I’ll do my best. After all, I am the roving ambassador, and Richard will want a map when we come home again.” He worked his hands, concentrated, looked down at the pages, then sighed in disappointment. “A map-making spell could do a much better job, but this will serve.”
Nicci said, “At least that book provides blank paper. It is not entirely useless.”
Nathan sat up straight as a thought occurred to him. He looked at Nicci and extended a finger. “The witch woman wasn’t useless. She knew we had to be here. You had to be here.”
“Yes, to save the world, to save Richard’s empire. I’m sure it will all become clear enough … once we find someone to ask.”
Bannon looked up at them. “So if we find a place called Kol Adair, you’ll get your magic back? And the sorceress will save the world.”
“Yes!” Nathan said, then frowned. “Possibly. Or maybe it’s just a foolish, vague prediction that has no merit at all.”
Nicci added, “No one can be certain of anything a witch woman says. And prophecy no longer exists.”
“Do we have another choice? We’re here anyway. You and I came to explore the Old World. That quest seemed pointless before, but it is more important now.”
“Then we will go to Kol Adair,” Nicci said as she went to stand at the edge of their firelight, “as soon as we have any idea where to find it.”
CHAPTER 20
Bannon did not sleep well, despite the shelter of the cove and the familiar lullaby of the surf. Restless, he fought against swirling thoughts of all that had happened in the past few days, and fears of what might lie ahead.
Since he was awake, he volunteered to keep watch, brooding through the darkest hours of the night. He jumped at every sound in the darkness, fearing that burly, ruthless men would stride up the beach to seize him, to gag and bind him. But it was just his imagination … his memories.
While the beautiful sorceress slept on the sand not far from Nathan, Bannon called upon peace, reshaped the world the way he wanted it to be, and fashioned a contented smile for himself. The wizard looked unsettling as he lay near the waning fire, sound asleep but with his eyes open. Near dawn, though, his eyelids fluttered closed.
The young man roused his companions as morning light edged the high headlands. He was amazed at how instantly Nicci came awake without yawning or stretching. She rose to her feet, her blue eyes bright and alert, her expression clear as she absorbed her surroundings in a flash. She brushed sand off her black dress, and despite all the ordeals, didn’t look at all rumpled; that in itself seemed like sorcery to Bannon.
He’d been infatuated with pretty girls on Chiriya, but Nicci was unlike any woman he had ever met. She was more beautiful and intelligent than the young island women, but it was more than that. She seemed fascinating, but also dangerous. Bannon flushed with embarrassment when she caught him staring at her—and she stared right back, but with an expression that carried little warmth.
They set off into the wilderness together. After leaving the small cove behind, Bannon let out a silent sigh of relief to be away from the wreck of the ominous Norukai ship.…
“The beach gets rockier farther on,” Nicci said, scanning south along the shore. “We’d better travel inland.”
The wizard agreed. “That is where we’d likely encounter some settlement, since we haven’t seen any docks or boats on this section of the coast.”
“I’ll find a way for us to climb up,” Bannon volunteered. Scouting ahead at his own pace, he picked a feasible route, zigzagging up the crumbling sandstone cliffs. The other two followed him, hand over foot, and together they reached the open, windy flats above the surf.
The breeze was sharp and chilly, and thin clouds scudded across the sky. The tall pampas grass and low vegetation rippled as if some invisible stampede charged across the flatland. Dark green cypress trees hunched against the constant gale, their tufted branches pointed in the direction of the prevailing winds.
Nathan and Nicci discussed their plans, but the rustling breezes snatched their words from Bannon’s hearing as he scouted ahead. He was reluctant—or perhaps not brave enough—to make small talk with the beautiful sorceress. He wanted to hear where Nicci had grown up, if she’d had a perfect life, a peaceful upbringing, loving parents. Bannon didn’t need to know—didn’t want to know, actually. He just made it so in his own mind.
When Nathan startled a black-winged tern from a matted clump of grass, the old wizard bent down. “Ah, look, a nest—and better yet, three eggs.” He cradled them in his palms. “This can supplement our breakfast.”
Bannon came back, feeling his stomach growl. “Eggs? Are we going to make a new cook fire?” They had only been traveling for an hour.
Nicci took the eggs from Nathan’s hands. “No need to stop. Let me.” She wrapped her fingers around them, and Bannon saw tendrils of steam rise up. Within moments she handed him one of the eggs, and the shell was so hot that he had to juggle it in his hands. “We can eat as we walk,” Nicci said. “We have a long distance to cover—even if we don’t know where we’re going.”
Nathan finished his breakfast and tossed the crumbled eggshell to the ground. He dry-washed his hands and rubbed them on his pants.
From the outstretched headlands they could see the coastline snaking southward for miles. The hills inland were covered with dark pines and silver-leaved eucalyptus with peeling bark.
The three maintained a steady pace, and the wizard called to Bannon, “If you see any more signposts pointing the way to Kol Adair, my boy, be sure you let us know.”
Bannon cheerfully agreed, then realized Nathan was just teasing him. But was it such an unlikely possibility?
He ranged ahead, foraging, and wound his way through the bent cypress trees, then explored the stands of pine and the spicy-smelling eucalyptus. Seeing no sign of human habitation, the young man wondered if they were the first human beings to set foot on this untamed land. It felt wonderful, and it felt terrifying at the same time.
Chiriya Island had been settled for countless generations. The people grew their cabbages and set out in their fishing boats, and the only excitement was the occasional trading ship that tied up in the small harbor. He had long pretended that his younger years were perfect, with every neighbor waving a hearty hello, everyone chipping in to help one another, th
e weather always sunny, food on the table, a fire in the hearth on even the coldest winter nights.
He had left that place … a place that never really existed.
He was robbed in the dark alleys of Tanimura. He fought bloodthirsty selka and saw his shipmates slaughtered, certain that he, too, would die that night. But he had survived the Wavewalker being shipwrecked on an unknown shore. He had left Chiriya for this, had left his father’s hard fists and drunken shouts, had left the blood. And the kittens …
Bannon winced at the memories. He brushed aside tall, brittle blades of pampas grass, walked around a hummock, and ducked into a rustling tangle of cypress that offered shelter from the wind. Even with the fearful ordeals, this was better than Chiriya. Far better.
Exploring by himself, he entered the forest. He heard the chuckle of a creek flowing through the pines to a beautiful round pool with a smooth sandy bottom. He saw the silvery flashes of small fish darting around, evading his shadow. Bannon knelt in the weeds and flowers on the edge of the pond and scooped handfuls of the cold, clear water, drinking his fill. Fresh water!
He studied the darting fish, but they were much too small to bother with. A handful would barely make a meal, even if he could catch them. The water, though, was pure and delicious. He filled his waterskin and ducked out of the pines and eucalyptus into the brisk wind again.
Now that he had shaken his darker memories, Bannon felt light-footed as he continued to explore. Yes, he had suffered terrible hardships, but he would make the best of his situation. He reminded himself that he had left Chiriya intending to seek adventure—and he had found exactly that. A small, shadowed part of him acknowledged that he had fled his island in shock and denial at what had happened … but he drove those thoughts away again, blinking his eyes and looking at the bright world. He drew another clean breath.
“I am not running away—I am exploring!” he said aloud with enough force to convince himself. He was in an unknown land with a great wizard as his mentor, a man who taught him history and swordplay. And there was the mysterious and beautiful sorceress Nicci, who intruded more and more into his thoughts. He could not help but be attracted to her.