Wizard's First Rule (37 page)

Richard kissed the end of his finger and then touched it against the bone on the necklace. He looked back up into her soft eyes.

“I add my oath of protection to the bone,” he said in a whisper. “To you now and to any child you may bear in the future. I would trade no day I spend with you for a life of safe slavery. I accepted the post of Seeker of my own free will. And if Darken Rahl takes the whole world into madness, then we will die with a sword in our hands, not chains on our wings. We will not allow it to be easy for them to kill us; they will pay a high price. We will fight with our last breath if need be, and in our death, let us inflict a wound on him that will fester until it claims him.”

A smile spread across her face, until her eyes were caught up in it. “If Darken Rahl knew you as I do, he would have reason to lose sleep. I thank the good spirits the Seeker has no cause to come after me in anger.” She laid her head down on
her arm. “You have an odd talent for making me feel better, Richard Cypher, even when telling me of my death.”

He smiled. “That’s what friends are for.”

Richard watched her for a while after she closed her eyes, until sleep gently took him. His last thoughts before it came, were of her.

The first hint of morning was damp and dreary, but the rain had stopped. Kahlan had given Adie a parting hug. Richard faced the old woman, looking into her white eyes.

“I must ask you to do an important task. You must give Chase a message from the Seeker. Tell him he is to go back to Hartland and warn the First Councilor that the boundary will be down soon. Have him tell Michael to gather the army to protect Westland from Rahl’s forces. They must be prepared to fight at any invasion. They must not let Westland fall as did the Midlands. Any forces that come across must be deemed invaders. Have him tell Michael that Rahl is the one who killed our father and those who come, do not come in peace. We are at war, and I am already joined in battle. If my brother or the army fails to heed my warning, then Chase is to abandon the service of the government and gather the boundary wardens to stand against Rahl’s legions. His army was virtually unopposed when they took the Midlands. If they have to shed blood freely to take Westland, maybe they will lose their spirit. Tell him to show no mercy to the enemy, take no prisoners. I take no joy in giving these orders, but it’s the way Rahl fights, and either we meet him on his terms or we die on them. If Westland is taken, I expect the wardens to extract a terrible price before they fall. After Chase has the army and wardens in place, he is free to come to my aid, if he chooses to do so, as above all else we must stop Rahl from getting all three boxes.” Richard looked down at the ground. “Have him tell my brother that I love him and I miss him.” He looked up and gauged Adie’s expression. “Can you remember all that?”

“I do not think I could forget if I wanted to. I will tell the warden your words. What would you have me tell the wizard?”

Richard smiled. “That I’m sorry we couldn’t wait for him, but I know he will understand. When he is able, he will find us by the night stone. I hope by then to have found one of the boxes.”

“Strength to the Seeker,” Adie said in a rasp, “and you too, child. Grim times lie ahead.”

The trail was wide enough to allow Richard and Kahlan to walk side by side after they left Adie’s place. Clouds hung thick and threatening, but the rain held off. Both wrapped their cloaks tight. Damp, brown pine needles matted the path through the forest. There was little brush among the big trees, allowing an open view for a good distance. Ferns covered the ground in feathery swaths through the trees, and dead wood lay in it here and there as if asleep in a bed. Squirrels scolded the two of them as they hiked along, while birds sang with monotonous conviction.

Richard picked at the branch of a small balsam fir as they walked past, stripping the needles between his thumb and the crook of his first finger.

“Adie is more than she seems,” he said at last.

Kahlan looked up at him as they walked. “She is a sorceress.”

Richard glanced sideways at her in surprise. “Really? I don’t know exactly what a sorceress is.”

“Well, she is more than us, but less than a wizard.”

Richard smelled the aromatic fragrance of the balsam needles, then cast them aside. Maybe she was more than he, Richard thought, but he wasn’t at all sure she was more than Kahlan. He remembered the look on Adie’s face when Kahlan had grabbed her by the wrist. It had been a look of fear. He remembered the look on Zedd’s face when he had first seen her. What power did she have that could frighten a sorceress and a wizard? What had she done that had caused thunder without sound? She had done it twice that he knew of, once with the quad, and once with Shar, the night wisp. Richard remembered the pain that had followed. A sorceress greater than Kahlan? He wondered.

“What’s Adie doing living here, in the pass?”

Kahlan pushed some of her hair back over her shoulder. “She became tired of people coming to her all the time, wanting spells and potions. She wanted to be left alone to study whatever it is a sorceress studies; some sort of higher summons, as she called it.”

“Do you think she will be safe when the boundary fails?”

“I hope so. I like her.”

“Me too,” he added with a smile.

The trail, climbing sharply in places, forced them to go single file at times as it twisted along steep rocky hillsides and over ridges. Richard let Kahlan go first so he could keep an eye on her, make sure she didn’t wander off the path. At times he had to point out the trail, his experience as a guide making it plain to him, but
not to her unpracticed eye. Other times the trail was a well-defined rut. The woods were thick. Trees grew from splits in the rock that pushed up above the leaf litter. Mist drifted among the trees. Roots bulging from cracks provided handholds as they climbed the abrupt inclines. His legs ached from the effort of descending extreme drops in the dark trail.

Richard wondered what they were going to do once they reached the Midlands. He had depended on Zedd to let him know the plan once they crossed the pass, and now they were without Zedd, without a plan. He felt kind of foolish to be charging into the Midlands. What was he going to do once they crossed over? Stand there and look around, divine where the box was and then be off after it? Didn’t sound like a good plan to him. They didn’t have time to wander about aimlessly, hoping they would come across something. No one was going to be waiting for him, waiting to tell him where to go next.

They reached a steep jumble of rock. The trail went straight up the face. Richard surveyed the terrain. It would be easier to go around, rather than climb over the jut of rock, but he finally decided against it, the thought that the boundary could be anywhere making up his mind. There must be a reason the trail went this way. He went first and took Kahlan’s hand, helping to pull her up.

As he walked, Richard’s thoughts continued nagging at him. Someone had hidden one of the boxes, or Rahl would have it already. If Rahl couldn’t find it, how was Richard to? He didn’t know anyone in the Midlands; he didn’t know where to look. But someone knew where the last box was, and that was how they had to find it. They couldn’t look for the box; they had to look for someone who would be able to tell them where it was.

Magic, he thought suddenly. The Midlands was a land of magic. Maybe someone with magic could tell where the box was. They had to look for someone with the right kind of magic. Adie could tell things about him without ever having seen him before. There had to be someone with the kind of magic that could tell him where the box was without ever having seen it. Then, of course, they had to convince that person to tell them. But maybe if someone was hiding their knowledge from Darken Rahl, he would be glad to help stop him. It seemed there were too many wishes and hopes in his thoughts.

But there was one thing he did know: even if Rahl got all the boxes, without the book he wasn’t going to know which box was which. As they walked along, Richard recited the Book of Counted Shadows to himself, trying to find a way to stop Rahl. Since it was an instruction book for the boxes, it should have a way to stop their use, but there was nothing like that in the book. The actual explanation of what each box would do, directives to determine which box was which, and how to open one, took up only a relatively small portion at the end of the book. Richard understood this part well, as it was clear and precise. Most of the book, though, was taken up with directions for countering unforeseen eventualities, resolving problems that could prevent the holder of the boxes from succeeding. The book even started out with how to verify the truth of the instructions.

If he could create one of these problems, he could stop Rahl, since Rahl didn’t have the book to help him. But most of the problems were things he had no way of bringing about, problems with sun angles and clouds on the day of opening. And a
lot of it made no sense to him. It spoke of things he had never heard of. Richard told himself to stop thinking of the problem, and to think of the solution. He would go through the book again. He cleared his mind and started at the beginning.

Verification of the truth of the words of the Book of Counted Shadows, if spoken by another, rather than read by the one who commands the boxes, can only be insured by the use of a Confessor
….

By late afternoon, Richard and Kahlan were sweating freely with the effort of the hike. As they crossed a small stream, Kahlan stopped and dipped a cloth in the water and used it to wipe her face. Richard thought it was a good idea. When they came to the next stream, he stopped to do the same. The clear water was shallow as it ran over a bed of round stones. He balanced on a flat rock as he squatted to soak a cloth in the cold water.

When he stood up, Richard saw the shadow thing. He froze instantly.

Off through the woods there was something standing partly behind a tree trunk. It wasn’t a person, but was about that size, with no definite shape. It looked like a person’s shadow standing up in the air. The shadow thing didn’t move. Richard blinked and squinted his eyes trying to tell if he was really seeing what he thought he was seeing. Maybe it was just a trick of the dim afternoon light, a shadow of a tree he mistook for something more.

Kahlan had continued to walk along the trail. Richard came quickly up behind her and put his hand on the small of her back, below her pack, so she wouldn’t stop. He leaned over her shoulder and whispered in her ear.

“Look to the left, off through the trees. Tell me what you see.”

He kept his hand on her back, kept her walking along as she turned her head, looking off to the trees. Her eyes searched as she held her hair back, out of the way. Then she saw the thing.

“What is it?” she whispered, looking back to his face.

He was a little surprised. “I don’t know. I thought maybe you could tell me.”

She shook her head. The shadow remained motionless. Maybe it was nothing, a trick of the light, he tried to tell himself. He knew that wasn’t true.

“Maybe it’s one of the beasts Adie told us about, and it can’t see us,” he offered.

She gave him a sidelong glance. “Beasts have bones.”

Kahlan was right, of course, but he had been hoping she would have agreed with the idea. As they moved quickly down the trail, the shadow thing stayed where it was and they were soon out of sight of it. Richard breathed easier. It appeared that the bone necklace Kahlan wore, and his tooth, had hidden them. They ate a supper of bread, carrots, and smoked meat as they walked. Neither enjoyed the meal. Their eyes searched off into the deep woods as they ate. Even though it hadn’t rained all day, everything was still wet, and occasionally water dripped from the trees. The rock was slick with slime in places, needing care to be crossed safely. Both watched the surrounding forest for any sign of danger. They saw nothing.

The fact that they saw nothing began to worry Richard. There were no squirrels, no chipmunks, no birds, no animals of any kind. It was too quiet. Daylight was slipping away. Soon they would be at the Narrows. He worried about that, too. The idea of seeing the things from the boundary again was frightening. The idea of
seeing his father again was terrifying. His insides cringed at what Adie had told them, that those in the boundary would call to them. He remembered how seductive their calls were. He had to be prepared to resist. He had to harden himself against it. Kahlan had almost been pulled back into the underworld when they were in the wayward pine, the first night he knew her. When they were with Zedd and Chase, something had tried to pull her in again. He was troubled that the bone might not protect her when they were that close.