As they walked along an animal trail through knee-high grass, Zedd finally slipped in close and put an arm around the young woman’s shoulders. He told her that he wanted to show her some of the herbs that a young sorceress needed to know about. He steered her off through tall grasses and shrubs to point out plants with red berries growing up the soil bank below the steeper rock above. He launched into a lecture about the many uses of the berries, the leaves, and the roots of the plants he was showing her.
“Everything all right?” Kahlan asked Richard once they were relatively alone.
He gave her a puzzled look. “No, not really.”
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“Well,” he said as if trying to think of something, “there was a man who has been dead for three thousand years and when Hannis Arc poured my blood over his mummified corpse, he came back to life. And now he wants to rule the world of life, with Lord Arc as the ruler of the D’Haran Empire, I suppose. Oh, and you and I are near death from a poison we both carry, but we may all be eaten alive by half people before we ever die from the poison.”
“Sorry,” she said, “I didn’t mean to get you upset.”
He waved a hand. “No, it’s not that.”
“Then what is it?”
He let out a deep sigh. “It’s just everything.”
“Everything? Anything in particular getting you down? I mean more than the things you mentioned.”
For a time he looked off to the sparse woods off through the grass to the side before answering.
“I’d just like to be alone with you, that’s all.”
“Ah,” she said with a knowing smile. “That.” It was rather difficult being intimate in the middle of a camp of soldiers.
“That’s not what I mean—well, that too—but that’s not what I mean.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“I mean like when I built that cabin for us way back to the west, in Westland. I’ve just been thinking about the time when we were alone and far from all the troubles of the world.”
Kahlan briefly pressed her head against the side of his shoulder. “It will happen, Richard. Things will get better. We’ll get rid of this awful poison and then you will do whatever it is that you need to do to stop the unruly twins and then we will be able to live in peace.”
He smiled at her description of Emperor Sulachan and Hannis Arc as if they were little more than mischievous boys.
“But I don’t want to live in a tiny cabin,” she said. “I mean, I would, if we had to, but I would rather we live at the People’s Palace.”
“Ah,” he said with a smile, “so I’ve married a girl with her eye on the finer things in life.”
Kahlan circled an arm around his waist. “Finer than traipsing through a damp and gloomy wilderness with a bunch of soldiers? You bet. For one thing, I want a real bed. In a room with a door. With a lock on the door.”
Richard couldn’t help smiling. “I would like that very much.”
“I bet you would,” she teased with a gentle shove of her hip.
He smiled again. She was happy that she had been able to lighten his mood. She didn’t know what was bothering him, but she was at least happy that she had been able to make him smile.
CHAPTER
53
By the end of a long day of making their way down dangerously steep slopes, along narrow cuts between rock walls, and through areas of dense woods, they finally reached flatter ground. There, they were able to follow a brook among moss-covered rocks as it meandered through a forest of young, wispy hardwoods. The rocky brook left the forest canopy more open, helping them to see in the fading light.
Richard watched for a place where they could set up camp.
He had finally managed to put a few people between Kahlan and him, and Irena and Samantha. Kahlan was happy to be left alone with him as well. He didn’t know what it was about Samantha’s mother, but Richard found her tiresome. She tried to be perpetually cheerful and friendly.
Richard wasn’t in the mood for either. He had bigger things on his mind.
He supposed that Irena was simply trying to make the best of a bad situation. After all, she had been in charge of Stroyza when the barrier had failed. On the way to warn others of what had happened, her husband had been eaten alive by half people right before her eyes and she had been taken captive by the savages who did it. People in her village, surely people she knew well, had been murdered by walking corpses sent to kill her daughter. Now she was on a mission to save Richard’s and Kahlan’s lives. He didn’t see that she had a lot to be happy about.
He supposed that she had to be happy that her daughter was alive and well and so was trying to remain optimistic. He still thought, though, that she should be a bit more worried about the situation they were all in—out in the middle of the trackless forests of the Dark Lands, making their way through dangerous and mysterious woods. They had all nearly been killed by the attack of the Shun-tuk, and there was no telling if legions more of the flesh eaters would show up at any moment.
In Samantha’s case, though, he knew her exuberance was the innocence of youth. She was worried about their situation, wanted to be helpful, and she was clearly afraid at times, but she was also excited be on an “adventure.” She was rightly proud of herself for being able to help them when they had been in an impossible spot. Richard was proud of her, too. It was the second time she had done such a thing.
Nicci thought Samantha had a dangerous temper. Richard, for one, was happy that she had gotten angry enough to do what she’d done, or they would all be dead. There were times when anger was a useful tool, and he was glad that Samantha had been able to call on it.
As Richard carefully picked his way over the spongy ground among the moss-covered rocks, he kept an eye to the woods all around. Kahlan, following close behind, held his hand to help balance herself as she crossed the brook with him. They used rocks as stepping-stones to get over to the other side where the ground was more open, less rocky, and made for easier walking. The light mist made for slick footing, though.
Occasionally Richard checked behind to make sure everyone was keeping up. In the gathering darkness, Zedd smiled and leaned close to Samantha from time to time, pointing out different useful plants. She soaked it all up.
It reminded Richard of when he had been young, and Zedd had taken him on walks in the woods to show him where particular things grew and told him of their use. Richard missed that so much. He missed those times he’d had with his grandfather.
He couldn’t stop thinking about Zedd’s advice to quit, to give everything up, and take Kahlan away to some distant place where they could enjoy a life together. He tried to think of other things, but Zedd’s words kept echoing around in his mind.
If there was one person in the world whose advice he took seriously, it was Zedd. And yet, this time …
Richard stepped on exposed roots to stay out of the marshy spots where there could be hidden holes. He kept a continuous watch on the shadows to see if they moved. He watched spots of light to see if they vanished beneath shadows. Sometimes both things happened. It was usually a bird, flitting from branch to branch. Once, it had been a squirrel. Both sometimes moved a branch in the still air and made the leaves drop their load of collected mist in a shower of fat drops.
Richard had been watching, but he hadn’t seen Kahlan’s little friend, Hunter. Whatever the animal with the big green eyes was, it didn’t act aggressive. It seemed interested only in watching Kahlan. He shared the feeling, but he didn’t necessarily appreciate it in a wild animal. Just because it hadn’t acted aggressively yet, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t at some point.
Still, something about the creature put him at ease. He just didn’t think it was dangerous. Whatever it was, he hadn’t seen it all day, so it had probably stayed in its home area once they had moved on.
From time to time ravens let out raucous calls to warn others of approaching people. The harsh, echoing cries were grating in
the quiet woods. Richard could see some of the soldiers out ahead look up into the trees when a raven made a racket. The men behind kept a careful watch all around as well.
Something about the area they were in made Richard uneasy. The openness by the brook left the forest canopy a little too open for his liking. Through gaps in the leaves he could see the stepped stone of cliffs rising up to the sides. The scouts had said that the pass they were going through was the only practical way to make good progress.
There were hundreds of places from up high where anyone could easily mark their progress along the brook. He felt like a mouse being watched by an owl.
Making good time was always foremost in Richard’s mind, though, and this was the only real choice for a route that would get them to Saavedra and the containment field at the citadel.
Richard noticed all the little birds abruptly take to wing, darting away through the branches. Almost at the same time, three ravens lifted silently into the air and raced off together through the trees.
Richard froze an instant before he heard a clipped cry from one of the men behind.
He spun around and looked up just in time to see legs pulled upward through the trees. Something big and dark was carrying the man away. Richard saw the man’s legs kicking as he fought whatever it was that had him, and then for just an instant before it vanished beyond the trees overhead, he saw the body go slack and limp.
In the next instant he had his sword out of its scabbard. The distinctive ring of steel being drawn echoed off the stone walls. In the hush of the silent woods, that sound was terrifyingly angry.
All the men swiftly had weapons to hand. Everyone looked up, ducking as they turned, trying to see the threat.
Richard instead watched the shadows down in the darkening woods.
Something dark swooped in at them out of that darkness of the trees to the side and snatched up a man not far ahead, breaking his neck as it yanked him from his feet and up into the air. His sword clattered down on the rocks. The man never even had time to cry out.
Whatever it was, it was not half people, or any kind of occult sorcery. Richard recognized the way it had happened. It was some kind of big predator taking prey.
“Close ranks!” Commander Fister shouted back at everyone.
Men ran in from both directions, collecting Zedd, Nicci, Irena, and Samantha as they came forward. Richard pulled Kahlan close with his left arm, protecting her and himself with his sword. Zedd frowned as he looked around for an intruder he could strike down with his gift. Nicci turned slowly, searching the canopy. Irena hunched over, sheltering her daughter. Samantha’s eyes were wide in terror.
They were all vulnerable targets if they stood still.
“Move,” Richard called out to everyone. “Keep going!”
There was no saving the two men who had been taken. All they could do now was keep anyone else from being taken.
“What do you think that was?” Kahlan whispered from close beside him as they raced ahead.
“I have no idea,” he told her as he ran along the side of the brook, jumping from rock to root to rock, “but we need to get out of the open of this streambed.”
“Some kind of small woods dragon?” she asked as she worked to keep up with him.
“I didn’t get a good enough look. There isn’t enough light and they were too dark to tell much.”
“Keep moving!” Commander Fister called out to his men as he urged them on, waving his sword. “Watch your backs, boys!”
“Commander!” Richard called out as they raced down the open area beside the brook.
When the man paused to look back, Richard pointed with his sword. “Make for that split in the rocks on the side. There are heavy woods beyond. We need to get out of this more open area. Whatever those things are, we’re in the middle of their game trail.”
Commander Fister nodded and turned the rush of men toward the place that Richard had pointed to. As he ran through the opening in the huge boulders, Richard could see that the forest beyond was dense and thick. The heavy cover would make it more difficult for any airborne predators.
The only problem was that it was getting dark. They needed to set up camp, not run through the woods in the dark.
He knew they didn’t have any choice. Before they dared stop for the night, they first needed to get out of the area.
The woods they entered were populated by spruce and pine crowded in close. Growing that close left the lower trunks free of branches for quite a ways up. That meant that the ground was more open, but in among the maze of trunks was not the kind of place a big, winged creature could easily navigate.
It also meant the forest floor, shaded by the dense growth overhead, was more barren, making it easier for them to run.
And run they did, eager to get out of the area.
CHAPTER
54
It was late in the night and quite dark by the time they found a place lower on the mountain where Richard thought it might be safe to stop for the night. At least, it was about as safe a place as they were going to find in the dark of an endless forest he didn’t know. The area was heavily wooded with dense, tightly spaced young hardwoods all around that made it difficult to move through, at least without making a lot of noise. A few large trees left them a bit of a more open spot where they could lay out bedrolls and get some sleep for the remainder of the night.
It would be difficult to travel through such woods, but it would also make it virtually impossible for any creature to swoop in and pick them off as had happened back near the brook. The dense growth would make it hard for any predator of any size to rush in at them. Since they needed to stop so they could all get a little sleep, it didn’t matter how difficult it would be to travel through such an area as long as it made for good protection.
Of course, an attacker, including half people, could still make their way in, but they would face a wall of First File soldiers with weapons. They were all angry that they had not been able to stop the predator, whatever it was, from taking two of their fellow soldiers.
“What do you think?” Commander Fister asked as he peered around in the light of little flames Nicci, Zedd, and Irena each held aloft in a hand.
Richard carefully scanned the area. “This looks about as good a spot as we’re going to be able to find, short of finding a stone fortress.”
“We’ve come quite a distance since we saw those things,” the commander said. “Maybe we left them behind. Maybe they haven’t followed us.”
“Or maybe they’re full,” Irena said. “I told you, the Dark Lands are dangerous and filled with things no one has ever seen—or at least lived to tell about. Most of us have only heard vague stories and rumors.”
“It looks like some of those rumors are proving to be true,” the commander said.
Richard didn’t see what choice they had in it, but he didn’t feel like discussing the matter. After a hard day of traveling through difficult terrain, they all needed to get some sleep, not debate the dangers of the Dark Lands.
Richard saw shadows appear as the moon emerged from the broken cloud cover. At least when the clouds began to break up it had stopped drizzling. It was going to be a damp, chilly night, though.
“Have the men find places wherever they can to lay out their bedrolls,” Richard said. “We all need to stay in close together.”
Jake Fister looked around in the mix of moonlight and conjured flames. “At least it’s not so open in here. It will be difficult for anything to pick us off.”
“After we get settled, no fires tonight,” Richard said.
It meant cold, preserved food, rather than cooking anything, but it was too late to cook, anyway. They needed to have a bite to eat to keep up their strength and then get some sleep so they could be on their way at first light.
Commander Fister quietly gave orders as he moved off among his men, seeing to it that some settled in while he pointed out others and quietly called out names for watches.
&nbs
p; “No standing watch for you,” Zedd told Richard. “You need to rest.”
“You’re right,” Richard told his grandfather.
There wasn’t much room in among the thick growth, so all of them were packed in close. Zedd selected a spot close to Richard and Kahlan. Nicci, Irena, and Samantha started setting up places to sleep nearby. Richard thought that the wizard might have picked his spot deliberately to block Irena and Samantha from being able to get in any closer to him and Kahlan. Whether done deliberately or not, Richard was thankful. He just wanted to get some sleep.
Richard and Kahlan set out a small bedroll and blanket beside a slope of rock. Without building a shelter, there was no real protection from the weather if the rains returned. As Kahlan was settling in, Richard went to where his grandfather was carefully laying out a blanket.
“You going to be comfortable there?” Richard asked.
Zedd smiled. “Perfectly. I can sleep on the point of a thorn.”
That made Richard smile because he knew that it was close to the truth. The old wizard always slept with his eyes open, but he usually slept well.
“Zedd,” Richard asked in a quiet voice the others couldn’t hear, “did you really mean what you said before?”
Zedd puzzled at him. “About what?”
Richard hesitated for a moment, afraid of the answer. “About being tired of living.”
“Ah,” Zedd said with a knowing nod. “Well, my boy, at times yes, at other times no.” Zedd smiled, looking a little less serious. “I think old age is nature’s way of preparing us for death, making us more willing to take our leave of this world. It gets tiring after so many years of seeing people continue to do such cruel and awful things. One just gets tired of the stupidity of it all. After a time, it saps the joy out of life.