Phantom

  Richard remembered Kahlan saying, "Shar has sacrificed her life to help me because if Darken Rahl succeeds, all her kind, among others, will perish."

  The wisp had been the one who told Richard for the first time that Darken Rahl was after him. Shar had warned that if Richard ran he would be caught and killed. Richard had thanked the wisp for helping Kahlan. He told Shar that his life had been made longer because she had saved him from doing something foolish that day. He told Shar that his life was better for knowing her, and thanked the wisp for helping bring her safely through the boundary.

  Shar had then told him that she believed in him, and the rest of it, exactly as Baraccus had related through the sliph. At the time he had thought that the slightly odd speech characteristics were simply idiosyncratic of wisps—and perhaps they really were, but Baraccus had used those exact words for a reason.

  Shota had used the same words, too—either deliberately or in innocent unawareness of their source—no doubt in order to help him by reminding him of those words from Shar. She probably didn't realize the real reason for saying those exact words, but through her ability they were intended to make him think. To make him remember. It was probably only because of the terrible vision Richard had had of Kahlan witnessing his execution that he hadn't connected Shota's words with the same words he'd heard years before from the night wisp. That vision had simply overpowered everything else.

  Richard listened to the night sounds off in the woods, of bugs chirping, the leaves rustling in the wind, and a distant mockingbird, as another memory began seeping back into his consciousness.

  Shar, the wisp, had used his name without being introduced. He supposed that the wisp could simply have overheard it while in the little bottle in the pouch at Kahlan's belt.

  Or she might have already known his name.

  Richard's eyes were opened as wide as they would go as he recalled something else. He had asked the wisp why Darken Rahl was trying to kill him, if it was because he helped Kahlan or if there was another reason.

  Shar had come close and asked, "Other reason? Secrets?"

  Secrets.

  Richard jumped to his feet and cried out aloud with the shock of understanding.

  He pressed his wrists to the sides of his head, unable to suppress another shout.

  "I understand! Dear spirits, I understand!"

  Secrets.

  Richard had thought at the time that the wisp knew about the tooth that Richard kept hidden under his shirt, but that wasn't it at all. It had nothing to do with that tooth. Shar was asking him something entirely different. She was offering him his first chance at recovering the secret book Baraccus had left for him.

  But it had been too soon. Richard hadn't yet been ready.

  Richard had failed Baraccus's test back then, too. Failed it for the first time that night with the wisp. Baraccus, though, probably had no way to know when Richard would be ready. He had to have a way to test him from time to time. Shota had said that just because Baraccus had seen to it that Richard had been born with the ability, that didn't mean he would do the right things.

  Baraccus hadn't taken his free will—and so, from time to time, Baraccus needed to test the one born with that ability to see if he had learned to use it to accomplish those things along the way that needed to be accomplished. Richard wondered how many other things put in his path had been the doing of Baraccus. At the moment, he had no way to know the answer to that question.

  He did know that when the sliph said he failed the test, that was at least the second time he had failed it. The sliph's test was a reserve test, a repeat test, for after Richard had learned more. After he'd had a chance to know who he really was.

  Secrets.

  Richard felt as if his head might explode with the power of comprehension. Every emotion he had ever had seemed to collide together, twisting his insides with the excitement and anxiety of it all.

  He threw himself down on the stone floor, hands gripping the edge until his knuckles were white.

  "Sliph! Come back! I know what Baraccus meant! I understand! Sliph!"

  Mere inches away, liquid metal rose up into the cold, silvery moonlight, forming into the flawless features of the sliph. It was an impossibly beautiful vision, reflecting the swaying trees and his own face in flowing distortions of reality.

  The sliph slowly smiled. "Do you wish to change your answer, Master?"

  Richard wanted to kiss the quicksilver face. "Yes."

  The sliph cocked her head to one side. "What is it you wish to confide in me, Master?"

  "A night wisp told me that before. Not just Shota." Richard gestured with the frustration of trying to get it all out at once before the sliph could say that he had not passed the test. "Shota was second. It was a night wisp who first told me those same words—the words Baraccus used. That's where I heard it first. That's what Baraccus wanted me to know—that it's the night wisps."

  Richard half expected silver arms to slip around his neck and draw him closer. "Anything else, Master?" the sliph whispered intimately.

  "Yes. With that message, Baraccus wanted me to realize that what he left—left for me alone—is hidden with the night wisps."

  The sliph came closer yet, still showing the gentle curve of a knowing smile. Her gaze drank him in. For the first time ever, her lips moved with her words, her voice coming in the breathy whisper of surrender. "You have passed the test, Master. I am pleased."

  "Now, there's a first," Richard said.

  The sliph laughed, a sound as clear and pleasant as the moonlight.

  "Do you know the place of the wisps, Master?"

  Richard shook his head. "No, but Kahlan told me a little about them, about their homeplace. Kahlan is my wife. She has traveled in you before and was pleased, but you don't remember her because she was captured by some very bad people who released a spell to make everyone forget her—something a little like what was done to you. I'm trying to find her before those same bad people can hurt everyone.

  "That's what this is all about. That's why Baraccus left something for me—something to help me in my efforts."

  "I see. I am happy for you, Master."

  "Anyway, Kahlan told me about the place where the night wisps live. She said that it's beautiful."

  "So Baraccus told me, too."

  "Kahlan said that you can't see the wisps in the daytime, only at night. I guess that's why they're called night wisps.

  "Kahlan said they're like stars, like stars fallen from the sky. She said that it's like seeing stars among the grass."

  The sliph nodded at his excitement. "I am happy that you are pleased, Master."

  "Can you go there? To the place of the night wisps—this place of stars fallen to the ground?"

  "Even if you could travel, I'm afraid not," the sliph said. "Baraccus directed that this emergency portal be built here for a reason. He did not want me to be able to go to the home place of the night wisps because he did not want anyone to know that he went there. He did not want it to become a destination, either, but rather to remain a remote and secret place of stars fallen to the ground.

  "Baraccus told me that this portal is not a great distance from the wisps, but it is the closest I can get to them. He did not want me to give any hint that this place existed, or to ever divulge anything involving my future masters. It was his way of protecting you. That is why I could not tell your friends where you were. That secrecy and security was also meant to be part of what would bring forth the right words, from the right person. That protection not only protected you, but denying you the help of your friends prompted you into thinking for yourself. Thinking is what Baraccus said would turn the key for you."

  Richard's head spun with everything he was learning. He leaned closer, seeking to confirm what he already knew. "You brought Baraccus's wife, Magda, here, didn't you? And she was carrying something with her."

  "Yes. This is the place I brought Magda after the last time I saw master Baraccus. She repaired the
stone, here, before going back. That was the last time I saw her. No one has been through to this place ever since then.

  "You have passed the test, Master. This is the way to the secret library Baraccus left for you."

  * * *

  CHAPTER 36

  Kahlan stepped carefully among the rubble of ancient buildings that had over the millennia crumbled and eventually toppled, sending sections tumbling down the steep hillside. Dusty pieces of brick and stone lay scattered everywhere among the dry, decomposing dirt of the slope. It would be easy to stumble and fall in the dark, and it was a long way down. Jillian, a shadowy, lithe shape just ahead of them, climbed the scrabble as effortlessly as a mountain goat. Sister Ulicia, ahead of Kahlan, and the other two Sisters, behind her, huffed and puffed with the effort of the arduous ascent. As eager as they were to press on, the Sisters were getting tired. They frequently lost their footing and slipped, nearly falling from the bluff.

  Kahlan thought that they would be well advised to wait until daylight to finish climbing up into the ruins of the city of Caska. She wasn't about to give them that advice, though. The Sisters did what the Sisters wanted to do and there was nothing Kahlan could do about it. In the end, the only result of any suggestion she might offer would be a beating for interfering.

  Kahlan would have been happy to see any one of the Sisters fall and break her neck, but she knew that the other two would be no less trouble than all three. For that matter, one of the Sisters was more than capable of making Kahlan's life a torturous nightmare. Any of them could easily use her power through the iron collar around Kahlan's neck to put her in a state of unendurable agony. So, she climbed without commenting on the wisdom of doing such a thing by the light of the moon alone.

  Since Jillian's trail was so treacherous, they'd had to leave the horses at the base of the headlands. There were certain items, though, that the Sisters would not let out of their sight, much less leave behind, and so Kahlan was made to carry them, along with what other packs she could lift. It was a grueling effort to lug the heavy load up the precipitous trail. Jillian had wanted to help with some of the packs, but the Sisters refused to allow it, saying that Kahlan was a slave and meant for a slave's work. They told Jillian to worry about guiding them to Tovi. Kahlan signaled Jillian with her eyes to do as the Sisters wanted and move out. She silently reminded herself that such work would only make her stronger, while the Sisters, shunning any effort, would only grow weaker.

  Kahlan wanted to remain strong. Someday she was going to need her strength. But it had been a long day and that strength was flagging.

  At least they were nearing the end of the lengthy, headlong journey. Soon enough the Sisters would all be reunited and then maybe they would settle in for a time, be a little less tense, a little slower to anger. While Kahlan looked forward to a respite of a day or two, she was troubled by what it would mean.

  The Sisters had given the clear impression that this was to be the end of the journey, the end of their struggle, and the beginning of a new era. Kahlan could not imagine what that could mean, but it worried her greatly. The Sisters often talked among themselves of the reward that awaited them being nearly in their grasp. More than once, Sister Ulicia had remarked, in answer to the others' impatience, "It won't be long, now."

  Kahlan had no idea what their plan was, what great event was about to take place, but she was certain that it involved the boxes she carried on her back—Lord Rahl's boxes. The two Sisters following behind kept a careful watch on those boxes. The night before, Kahlan had overheard the Sisters say that when they reached Tovi, and the third box, the preparations would begin.

  Kahlan sighed in relief when they at last reached the top of the steep incline, finding themselves standing at the base of a decomposing wall. In places gullies had undermined and washed out sections of the wall. Kahlan took one last look out over the moonlit plain far below before following Jillian through one of the dark gaps in the wall. Once into the breach in under the wall still remaining overhead, Kahlan discovered that the wall was as thick as a small house. Whatever people built such a wall must have been decidedly worried about what might come to attack them.

  The steep trail leveled out on the other side of the wall and led them among buildings set close together. Many places near to the edge had crumbled or were leaning and about to fall. The massive wall had held much of the decaying rubble back, but in places parts of falling buildings had gone over the top. Over time, broken bricks, blocks, and mortar had also been washed down through the gullies.

  They soon found themselves on a narrow street among buildings that were in better shape. The outer fringe of structures had seemed to take the brunt of the weather and as a result were the most deteriorated. From the confinement of buildings they made their way out into a graveyard. In the moonlight it was a haunting sight. Statues stood here and there like phantoms among the dead.

  Making their way among the graves, Kahlan saw that higher up the buildings lay like an endless carpet over the rolling landscape. In the clear sky she spotted Jillian's raven, Lokey. The girl had never pointed it out, apparently hoping the Sisters would think it just a wild bird, but when Kahlan glanced her way Jillian would sometimes signal with her eyes to look up. Lokey would do aerial tricks that would make Jillian, if the Sisters were looking the other way, smile. She seemed a girl searching for some small reason for joy among the desolation of what had befallen her and her grandfather because of the Sisters. When Sister Armina once noticed the raven, she thought that it was a vulture following them across the desolate landscape. Kahlan didn't correct her.

  "How much farther?" Sister Ulicia asked as she paused among the grave markers. For some reason, Kahlan thought that she sounded suspicious of Jillian.

  Jillian pointed. "Not far. Up there, through that building. It's the passageway to the dead."

  Sister Cecilia snorted. "Passageway to the dead. Tovi always did have quite the sense of drama."

  Sister Armina shrugged. "Seems pretty appropriate to me."

  "Go on, then," Sister Ulicia said as she gestured for the girl to get moving again.

  Jillian started out at once, leading them out of the maze of the graveyard and up into the empty city. Kahlan couldn't tell for sure by the light of the moon alone, but it seemed that everything—every wall, roof, street, every part of everything—was the same color of dust and death. The ghostly silence in among the buildings shrouded the night with an eerie sense of stillness. Kahlan felt as if she were walking through the immense skeleton of a city, as if every bit of tissue and life had been stripped away and all that was left was crumbling beige bones.

  Along a broad thoroughfare that, by the look of the decorative, curving stone walls to each side, must once have been beautiful, Jillian slipped like a shadow through the arches fronting one of the larger buildings. Inside, it was hard to see. Kahlan heard the girl's feet crunching across bits of crumbled mortar. The Sisters didn't seem to notice the mosaic underfoot. Where moonlight fell across the floor Kahlan could see faded little tiles that made up a picture of trees, paths, and a wall surrounding a graveyard. There were even mosaic people.

  Looking at the sweep of the picture across the floor as she lugged her heavy load, Kahlan tripped on a missing section of tile and fell to her knees. Sister Ulicia immediately struck her across the back of her head, knocking Kahlan sprawling on her face.

  "Get up, you clumsy ox!" Sister Ulicia shouted as she kicked Kahlan in the ribs.

  Kahlan was trying, but with the weight of the load on her back it was easier said than done. "Yes, Sister," she said, gasping between the kicks, hoping to gain time to stand.

  Jillian stepped between them. "Leave her be!"

  Sister Ulicia straightened with a glower. "How dare you interfere. I'll wring your scrawny neck."

  "I think we ought to skin her alive," Sister Armina said, "and leave her bleeding corpse out there for the vultures."

  Sister Ulicia snatched Jillian's collar. "Get out of the w
ay so I can teach this lazy ox a lesson."

  "Leave her be," Jillian repeated, refusing to back down.

  "Let's just cut the little brat's throat and be done with her," Sister Cecilia complained. "We don't have time for this. We can find Tovi on our own, now."

  Knowing that she had to pacify the Sisters before they carried out their threats to harm the girl, Kahlan finally managed to regain her feet. She immediately took Jillian's arm and pulled her back out of harm's way.

  "I'm sorry—it's my fault," Kahlan said. "We can go now."

  Kahlan half turned to start out, but she didn't take a step. She knew better than to do so without permission. Sister Ulicia didn't move. She had murder in her eyes.

  "Not until she sees you get the kind of lesson we've owed you for quite a while now," she said. "You're getting far too used to being treated lightly at your every transgression."

  "You will leave Kahlan be," Jillian said from halfway behind Kahlan, trying not to be pushed any farther into the background.

  Sister Ulicia planted her fists on her hips. "Or what?"

  "Or I'll not show you where Tovi is."

  "You foolish child," Sister Ulicia growled. "We already know where Tovi is. She's in here. You've already led us to her."

  Jillian slowly shook her head. "There are miles of passageways down there. You'll get yourselves lost among the bones. You leave Kahlan be or I'll not show you the way."

  "I can sense Tovi," Sister Cecilia said with a dismissive sigh. "Cut the girl's throat. We're close enough that I can find Tovi, now, with my gift alone."

  "I, too, can sense her," Sister Armina said.

  "Sensing that she is near," Jillian said, "doesn't mean that you will be able to find the correct passageway to get to her. Down there, down with the bones, you may be only a short distance from her but if you take one wrong turn among many you must make, you will go for miles and never reach her. People have gone down there and died because they couldn't find their way back out."