As Richard walked endlessly through the oak grove, he wondered if it would ever end. On a moonless, cloudy night, or even a cloudy day for that matter, it was the kind of place where it would have been easy to get lost. Everything looked the same. The trees were spaced evenly, and there was nothing to indicate if he was going in the right direction, except the moon and stars.
For what seemed like half the night, Richard moved ever onward through the forest of the dead. He was sure that he had followed the directions the sliph had given him. The sliph, however, had no way to know exactly what he would find; she had only been given directions from Baraccus, and that had been three thousand years before. The landscape could have changed a great deal since the time of Baraccus. The bones, though, didn't look to be anywhere near that old. Of course, it could be that lying in the oak grove there were bones thousands of years old, but by now those would have all crumbled to dust.
As Richard continued on, the woods began growing murkier, until he found himself entering the black shadows of a dark forest of immense pines, their trunks standing close together and each nearly as big as his house back in the Hartland woods had been. It was like encountering a wall of mountains that rose up into the sky. The trunks, like pillars, were clear of branches until somewhere up out of sight. But those branches completely closed off the sky and left the forest floor below a dark and confusing maze among the massive trunks.
Richard paused, considering how he would keep to a direction in the pitch blackness that lay ahead while being unable to move in anything resembling a straight line.
That was when he heard the whispers.
He cocked his head, listening, trying to make out the words. He couldn't, so he carefully stepped deeper into the gloom, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness before taking a few more steps. Before long he began to be able to make out the shapes of the trees ahead, so he moved forward, ever deeper into the close canyons among the trunks of the monumental pines.
"Go back," came a whisper.
"Who's there?" he whispered back.
"Go back," said a faint little voice, "or stay forever with the bones of those who have come before you."
"I've come to speak with the night wisps," Richard said.
"Then you have come for nothing. Go, now," the voice repeated with more strength.
Richard tried to lay the sound of the words over his memory of what a wisp sounded like. While it wasn't the same, it did have qualities in common.
"Please come forward so that I may talk with you."
Only silence surrounded him. Richard moved ahead a dozen paces into the darkness.
"Last time warned," came the eerie voice. "Go, now."
"I have come a long way. I'm not going back without speaking with the wisps. This is important."
"Not to us."
Richard stood with one hand on a hip as he tried to conceive of what to do next. He was far from clearheaded. His weariness was hampering his thinking.
"Yes, this is important to you, too."
"How?"
"I have come for what Baraccus left for me."
"So did those whose bones you have passed."
"Look, this is important. Your lives ultimately depend upon this as well. In this struggle there will be no uninvolved bystanders. All will be drawn into the storm."
"The stories you have heard about a treasure are empty lies. There is nothing here."
"Treasure? No—you don't understand. That's not what this is about at all. I think you misunderstand me. I've already passed the tests Baraccus left for me—that's why I'm here. I'm Richard Rahl. I'm married to Kahlan Amnell, the Mother Confessor."
"We don't know this person you speak of. Go back to her while you still can."
"No, that's the point, I can't. I'm trying to find her." Frustrated, Richard ran his fingers back into his hair. He didn't know how much time he might have to say what he needed to say, or how much he should leave out, if he was to convince the wisps of his true reason for being there—to convince i them to help him.
"You once knew her. Magic was used against Kahlan to make everyone forget her. You knew her, too, but you forgot her like everyone else. Kahlan used to come here. In her role as the Mother Confessor she fought to protect the land of the night wisps and to keep others out.
"She told me about the beautiful land of the night wisps. She told me about the open fields in ancient, remote forests. She has been among the wisps as they gather at twilight to dance together in the grasses and wildflowers.
"She told me that she spent many a night lying on her back in the grass as the wisps gathered around her, speaking with her of things common to both of your lives: of dreams and hopes, of loves.
"Please, the wisps knew her. She was your friend."
Richard saw, then, a tiny light come out from behind a tree. "Go, or your bones will remain out there, with the others who seek treasure, and no one will ever see you again or know what became of you."
"If I need gold I earn it. I have no interest in treasure."
The tiny spark of light started away. "Not all treasure is gold."
As it glided into the distance, the shafts of spinning light played over the trunks of trees it passed.
"I knew Shar," Richard called out.
The light paused. It stopped spinning.
For a moment, Richard watched as the spark of light hung there, in the distance, faintly illuminating the closely gathered monarchs of the forest standing like sentries for what lay beyond. .
"You did not come because of the legends that there was treasure to be found here?"
"No."
"What do you know of the name you spoke?"
"I was with Shar after she went through the boundary. Shar crossed that boundary to help stop the threat from Darken Rahl. Shar crossed the boundary to help in the effort to find me so that I, too, could help in that struggle. Before she died, Shar said that if I ever needed the help of the night wisps, then I should say her name and they would help me, for no enemy may know it."
Richard pointed back toward the grove of dead oaks, where the forgotten, moldering remains reposed. "I have a feeling that none of the people whose bones lie back there knew her name, or the name of any wisp."
The light slowly returned through the trees, finally coming to a stop not far from him. He could feel the softly glowing shafts of light gliding over the contours of his face. They almost felt like the faint touch of a spider's web.
Richard took a small step closer. "I spoke with Shar before she died. She said that she could not live away from those of her kind any longer, and she did not have the strength to return to her home place.
"She gave me my first test from Baraccus. She said that she believed in me, believed that I had inside me what it takes to prevail. It was a message from him. She asked me about secrets."
The tiny light turned a warm, rosy color as it spun in silence for a moment.
"And you passed her test?"
"No," Richard admitted. "It was too soon for me to understand it all. Later, I finally came to understand. The sliph said that I have now passed the test that Baraccus left for me."
"What is your name?"
"I grew up named Richard Cypher. Since then I've come to learn that I am Richard Rahl. I have been called by other names as well: the Seeker; the one born true; the bringer of death; Richard with the Temper; the Pebble in the Pond; and Caharin. Does one of those names mean anything to you?"
"Does the name Ghazi mean anything to you?"
"Ghazi?" Richard thought a moment. "No. Should it?"
"It means 'fire.' Ghazi was given that name by prophecy. If you were the one, you would know that name, too."
"I'm sorry, but I don't. I don't know why, but I can tell you that I don't hold much with prophecy."
"I am very sorry, but misery has come to this land. The wisps are in a time of suffering. We cannot help you. You should go now."
The wisp began leaving again, spinning as it floated
off into the towering trees.
Richard took a step forward. "Shar said that if I needed the help of the wisps, they would help me! I need your help!"
The little point of light paused again. Richard got the distinct impression by the way it hovered motionless that it was considering something. After a moment, it slowly began rotating, casting off shimmering beams of light. It came partway back.
The wisp then spoke a name that Richard had not heard spoken aloud in many years.
His blood turned to ice.
"And does this name mean anything to you?" the wisp asked.
"How do you know my mother's name?" Richard whispered.
The wisp slowly drew closer. "Many, many seasons ago, Ghazi went through a dark boundary to find her, to help her, to tell her of her son, to tell her many things she needed to know, many things her son would need to know. Ghazi never returned."
Richard stared, his eyes wide. "What do the wisps do in the day? When it's light?"
The wisp, like nothing more than a glowing silver ember, slowly spun, throwing shafts of light across Richard's face. "We go where it is dark. We do not like being in the light."
"Does fire hurt you?"
The shafts of light dimmed. "Fire can kill us."
"Dear spirits…" Richard whispered.
The wisp came closer, the shimmering light brightening… again, as it seemed to study his face. "What is it?"
"What was the prophecy about Ghazi?" Richard asked.
The slowly spinning light paused. "The prophecy was about Ghazi's death. It said he would die in fire."
Richard's eyes closed for a moment. "Many seasons ago, when I was but a boy, my mother died in a fire."
The wisp remained silent.
"I'm sorry," Richard said in a small voice as Shota's words rang through his head. "I think Ghazi died in my home. Our house caught on fire. After my mother brought my brother and me safely out, she went back in for something—we never knew what. She was probably overcome by the smoke. She never came out. I never saw her again. She died in the blaze.
"I think she went back for Ghazi. I think my mother and Ghazi died together in that fire, without him ever completing his purpose."
The wisp seemed to watch him for a time. "I am sorry for what happened to your mother. After all this time, tears still come to you."
Richard had run out of words and could only nod.
The wisp again started spinning faster. "The name Richard Cypher is the name we know you as. Come, Richard Cypher, and we will tell you what Ghazi went to tell your mother."
* * *
CHAPTER 41
Richard followed the sparkling point of light into the ancient stand of timber, a place of quiet and peace. He had never seen trees this big. It struck him as odd that creatures so tiny would live among trees so big.
It seemed like they walked for hours, though Richard knew that it only felt that way because he was so drained. When they at last emerged from the trees into a vast clearing, Richard could hardly believe his eyes. It was just as Kahlan had described it. The grassy meadow sparkled with hundreds of night wisps gliding among the tall blades of grasses and wild-flowers. The swath of stars above, through the gap in the towering pines, seemed lifeless and dead compared with the stars in the grass.
It was a beautiful sight, but it brought pain into Richard's heart because it reminded him of Kahlan, of the first day he had met her, when she had introduced him to Shar, of the time she'd told him about the wisps. Kahlan and the wisps were forever linked in his mind.
And now, after all this time, he knew that it was a night wisp that his mother had run back into the burning house to save. She had not died alone.
All because a man thousands of years before had gone to the Temple of the Winds and done something that would result in Richard being born with both sides of the gift, both sides that the sliph said he no longer had.
As Richard stepped into the grass, some of the night wisps came closer, curious to see the stranger among them. The wisps flashed brighter and dimmer, as if in conversation among themselves.
"What are you called?" Richard asked the wisp who had escorted him.
"I am Tam."
Richard watched wisps gliding closer, rising up the length of him, before shooting away.
"Our numbers dwindle," Tarn said. "Such a thing has never happened before. It is a time of suffering for us. We don't know the cause."
"The cause is in part why I am here," Richard told him. "I'm hoping to find help so that I can stop what is causing this sickness among the wisps. If I don't succeed, you will all vanish from the world."
Tarn considered in silence for a time. Others who had heard Richard's words drifted away, sinking into the dark places in the grass, as if seeking a quiet place to weep. Some, though, came closer.
"Many here knew Ghazi," Tarn said. "They miss him. Can you tell us any of what he said before his life was gone? The way you have spoken of Shar's words?"
"I'm sorry, Tam, but I never saw Ghazi. I never knew that he had come to see my mother. Ghazi and my mother must have died before he had a chance to tell us anything of his reason for being there."
Richard wondered if that had been the reason for the fire.
Many of the wisps dimmed, as if in disappointment that he could tell them none of Ghazi's last words.
Richard remembered his purpose and turned to his guide.
"Please, Tam, I have come for an important reason that, as I said, may in the end help the wisps with what they suffer. I have come because Baraccus left something here for me. His library is here. He sent his wife with a book for me."
"Magda," one of the nearby wisps said. He wasn't sure which one was speaking, but it sounded decidedly more feminine than Tam.
"That's right."
"This was long before our time," she said, "but the words of Baraccus have been passed down to us. We still hold the secrets he asked us to keep. I am Jass. Come. Tam and I will show you."
Tam and Jass led Richard off through the silky grass, toward the towering trees to his left. Among the trees, away from the open meadow, it was again like descending into a dark world. Only the two wisps gave him enough light to see his way.
"How far?" Richard asked.
"Not far," said Jass.
"It is a place within our realm," said Tam, "a place where we can watch over and protect it. Over the millennia the seed of stories planted in the fertile soil of bits and scraps of facts was watered by wishes and began to take root and grow. Eventually, a bountiful fruit of rumors burst forth, to be spread on the wind of whispers that said we hid a fabled hoard of gold. Nothing could convince the believers that it was not true. The truth does not glitter for these people like gold does. Their dream of reaping unearned wealth was so strong for them that they would rather sacrifice everything truly precious to them than accept the truth that it was an empty belief."
"What we hide is not a treasure," Jass said, "but a promise made by our ancestors."
"It is a treasure, of a sort," Richard told them. "To the right person, anyway."
What seemed not far to them seemed quite far to Richard. It was getting ever more exhausting for him to put one leg in front of the other. His stomach growled with hunger as they moved through the silent wood.
It had to be somewhere deep in the middle of the night when the trees opened up and Richard could see at last, illuminated by the silvered moonlight, a valley spread out far below. Lush forests carpeted the bowl of the valley, with the mat of trees ascending the slopes of mountain close in on each side. The place where he stood overlooking the length of the valley was not only a commanding spot, but a place with hauntingly beautiful views of the things that Richard had always loved. He ached to be able to explore such a place, to be down in those woods… but to be there with Kahlan. Without her, beauty was only a word. Without Kahlan smiling at him, the world was empty and dead.
"This is the place of the library that Master Baraccus left with us for sa
fekeeping," Tarn said.
Richard looked around. He saw only ferns, some vines trailing down from the darkness above, and the massive trunks of the pines standing with him at the rim of the overlook.
"Where?" he asked. "I don't see a building anywhere."
"Here," Jass said as she drifted down to a small boulder, coming to rest atop it. "Under here is the library."
Richard scratched his scalp. It seemed an odd place for a library. But then he recalled finding the entrance to the library in Caska under a gravestone. In light of that, this made more sense. A building might have long ago been discovered and raided.
He bent and put his shoulder against the rock, in a curved niche that wasn't sharp. He was sure that he wasn't strong enough to move such a huge slab of stone, but he put all his weight against the stone socket anyway. With great effort it slowly began to pivot to the side.
The wisps came close, looking with Richard at what lay below. The stone had rested on a small, carefully smoothed lip. There was no hole, no stairway down into the ground within that lip.
Richard knelt and dug at what was under the rock, inside the stone lip. It was soft, and dry.
"This is just sand."
"Yes," Jass said. "When Magda came, she followed her husband's instructions, using magic, and filled what was below."
Richard was incredulous. "With sand?"
"Yes," Jass said.
"How much sand?" Richard asked. He wasn't looking forward to digging out a sand-filled hole, no matter how small it turned out to be.
"You see that small river down in the valley?" Jass asked.
Richard squinted in the dim moonlight. He saw the sparkling reflections off the water wandering among sandbars.
"Yes, I see it."
"The words passed down to us," Jass said, "say that Magda brought with her a powerful spell from Baraccus. She used it to create a whirlwind that drew the sand up from the riverbanks, and funneled it into this hole, here, filling up the place below to protect it."