But Zedd had changed in ways that were more troubling, much as Ann had become more overbearing and willing to directly interfere with Richard’s decisions and impose her views of what she believed Richard had to do.
Richard had been telling people all along that the implications of Kahlan’s disappearance were far broader and more complex than anyone but he was seeing. This change in everyone’s behavior, some subtle and some overt, was further manifestation of those far-reaching effects. And yet, even Richard hadn’t realized the full extent of the hidden corollaries and consequences.
Things had changed. Richard could no longer allow past characteristics to confuse the reality of how matters were in the present. It was vital that he recognize the truth of the way things were, now, and not be influenced by how they had once been. Nicci had become even more of an ally. Cara was just as protective as ever, if in a subtly different way. But Zedd and Ann, and possibly Nathan, had become less than dependable in ways that mattered most.
He had to take the way people had changed into account and act accordingly. He had to keep his objectives in mind and act to accomplish those goals even if it meant no longer fully trusting people he once had, people he cared about.
With Kahlan’s disappearance, everything was being altered. The rules had changed.
He turned back to Nicci.
“This couldn’t have happened at a worse time. I just figured it out. The viper with four heads are the Sisters of the Dark.”
“Jagang’s Sisters?”
“No—my former teachers, Sisters Tovi, Cecilia, Armina, and their leader, Sister Ulicia. Sister Ulicia was the one who assigned all of my teachers, including you.”
“Richard, that’s just crazy. I don’t—”
“No, it’s not. That morning when I thought I saw the tree limbs moving when there was no wind, it wasn’t the tree limbs. It was those Sisters I saw move about in the near darkness.”
“But Jagang has all the Sisters of the Dark.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
“He’s a dream walker, Richard. With the bond to you the Sisters of the Light who are free are out of his grasp, but he captured those Sisters—I was there, with them, when Jagang first got his clutches on us. They are Sisters of the Dark; without the bond they’re helpless against the dream walker. My…feelings are what bonded me to you and allowed me to escape his control. But they couldn’t escape; they’re not loyal to you nor could they be.”
“Oh, but they are. They swore a bond to me.”
“What! That’s impossible.”
Richard shook his head. “You weren’t with them the day it happened. It was when Jagang’s troops were trying to take the Palace of the Prophets. Sister Ulicia and my former teachers—except you were gone and Liliana was dead—knew where Kahlan was being held. They wanted free of Jagang’s domination and so they made me an offer. They traded the whereabouts of Kahlan in exchange for being allowed to swear loyalty to me so they could escape the dream walker’s domination.”
Nicci was in near apoplexy with bottled objections. She looked as if the idea was so bizarre that she had trouble even deciding where to start. She heaved a breath to gain control of her galloping objections.
“Richard, you simply have to stop coming up with such flights of fancy. None of this even works in your story. The viper, as you think you figured out, would really then have to have five heads. You forgot Merissa.”
“No, Merissa is dead. She was trying to kill me—she came after me. She said she intended to bathe in my blood.”
Nicci pulled a strand of hair through her finger and thumb. “Well, I admit, I often heard her make that vow.”
“She tried to make good on the vow. She had followed Kahlan and me in the sliph. The Sword of Truth is incompatible with life in the sliph. When I got here I retrieved the sword and plunged it into the sliph before Merissa was able to get out. She died in there.
“Of those Sisters of the dark who swore loyalty to me, only four are still alive. Those Sisters are the viper with four heads. They’re the ones who came that morning and took Kahlan. They used magic to spell me so that I wouldn’t awake easily. The spell they used must have been something simple, like magnifying my sleepiness so that I wouldn’t realize that magic had been used on me. The single wolf that called wasn’t a wolf, but a signal given by the approaching troops. Because of the spell I didn’t recognize it for what it was—the spell made me so sleepy I couldn’t think, but still, I knew there was something strange about it. The Sisters then used magic to cover their trail. They took Kahlan.”
Nicci seized fists full of blond hair as she growled in agitation. “But they’re Sisters of the Dark! They can’t be bonded to you and the Keeper both. That whole concept is crazy.”
“I thought so too. Sister Ulicia convinced me that I was only looking at it from my perspective. She wanted to swear loyalty and in return I got to ask where Kahlan was. They had to answer truthfully to honor their bond. They then were to leave. If I asked any more than that it would break our agreement and we would all be back where we started—them subjects of Jagang and Kahlan a captive. Sister Ulicia said that after swearing their bond to me and my asking one question, they would then leave. They got the bond, I got Kahlan.”
“But they’re Sisters of the Dark!”
“Sister Ulicia said that if they didn’t actively try to kill me thereafter they considered that to definitely be to my benefit so that was in their view conforming to the requirements of their bond, since not killing me was what I wanted, therefore keeping their bond to me intact.”
Nicci turned away, one hand on a hip. “In an odd sort of way, that actually makes sense. Sister Ulicia is more than devious. That’s the way she thinks.”
Nicci turned back. “What am I saying? Now you’re starting to suck me into your delusions. Richard, stop this. Look, you have to get out of here, and you have to do it now. Come on. Cara will be right behind me with your things.”
Richard knew that Nicci was right. He couldn’t find Kahlan if he had to worry about warding off three people with the gift who knew quite well how to use it and wanted to alter his very thoughts. They weren’t likely to give him any chance to explain anything. He had already tried explanations and that hadn’t worked.
They would most likely do what they thought they had to do. Richard didn’t believe that they would give him any warning. Before he knew what had hit him it would be over.
He hated to admit it to himself, but he knew that Zedd was capable of such a thing. After giving Richard the Sword of Truth, when they were on their way to try to recover the boxes of Orden that Darken Rahl had put into play, Zedd had once said that so many lives were at stake that he would not hesitate to kill even Richard, if necessary, to save all those innocent people. He had told Richard how, to be the Seeker and carry the Sword of Truth, he had to be ready to be just as committed to their cause, that he had to understand the larger picture.
It was hardly out of the question to imagine Zedd now being willing to use magic to try to erase Richard’s memory of Kahlan—a memory that Zedd thought was a sickness that was harming him and their cause and thereby endangering the lives of millions.
“I think you’re right,” Richard admitted in a dejected voice. “They will try to stop me.” He picked up the two small books lying on the table and slipped them into a back pocket. “I think we had better get out of here before they can do that.”
“We? You want me to go with you?”
Richard paused and shrugged self-consciously. “Nicci, you and Cara are the only true friends I have right now. You’ve been there to help me when I needed it most. I can’t afford to leave valued friends behind just when I’m beginning to figure out what’s going on. Once I do have it figured out I may need your help with it, but even if I don’t I’d like you there with me just for the advice and support you give me.
“I mean, if you’re willing to come. I’d not force you, of course, but I’d like you to come.”
Nicci smiled that rare smile she had, the smile that revealed the nobility of the woman Nicci really was, the smile he had only seen since she had come to love life.
Cara stood impatiently waiting on the other side of the shield. Rikka, standing guard near the iron door, was watching out into the tower room. Both turned when they saw the red glow and heard Richard coming. He saw packs and other gear collected into a neat pile just inside the door. He pulled his pack out from among the others and stuffed the two books inside.
“We’re leaving, then?” Cara asked.
Richard put his arms through the straps and hiked the pack up onto his back. “Yes, and I think we best not waste any time.”
As he picked up his bow and quiver, everyone else started gathering their own things.
It appeared that Cara, wanting Nicci to be near Richard so that she would be handy to help protect him, had brought the sorceress’s things along as well. Richard wondered how much of wanting Nicci along had to do with what Shota had said.
He saw that Rikka, too, had a pack. He almost asked her what she thought she was doing, but realized then that she was Mord-Sith and she would say that her place was with him. He had spent so much time with only Cara protecting him that he thought it would feel a bit odd having more than one Mord-Sith around again.
“Everyone ready?” he asked as he saw them all tightening straps and buckles.
After each woman nodded, Richard led the grim-faced group out the doorway. He knew that Cara might have followed him without question, but she wouldn’t blindly follow Nicci or anyone else’s orders without good reason, so he suspected that Cara had probably asked a lot of pointed questions—something Mord-Sith were wont to do—and found out why they had to leave.
At the base of the tower, Richard ran his hand along the iron railing as
he started around the walkway, but then a sudden realization brought him to a halt. Everyone waited, watching him, wondering why he had stopped.
Richard looked at Nicci’s puzzled blue eyes. “They’re not going to trust you in this.”
“What do you mean?” Nicci asked.
“It’s too important. They aren’t going to leave it to you to do as they instructed. They will be concerned that you’ll lose your courage, or that you might fail and allow me to slip away.”
Cara stepped closer. “You mean you think they will come looking for you?”
“No, not looking for me,” Richard said, “but I bet that somewhere between here and the way out of the Keep they will be lying in wait, just in case I get past Nicci and try to leave. If we come upon them unexpectedly then it will be too late.”
“Lord Rahl,” Rikka said, “Mistress Cara and I would not allow anyone to harm you.”
Richard lifted an eyebrow. “I’d just as soon not have it come to that. Those three think they need to help me. They aren’t intent on harming me—at least not intentionally. I don’t want you two to hurt them.”
“But if they surprise us with the intent of using their magic on you, you can’t expect us to let them do it,” Cara said.
Richard met her gaze for a moment. “Like I said, I don’t want it to come to that.”
“Lord Rahl,” Cara said in a low voice, “I simply can’t allow anyone to attack you in such a way, even if they think it’s to help you. You can’t equivocate in a situation like that. If they attack you, it must be stopped—period. If they were allowed to succeed, then you would never be the same again. You would no longer be the Lord Rahl we know, the Lord Rahl you are.”
Cara leaned even closer and fixed him with that look that Mord-Sith had that always made him sweat. “If they do attack you and are allowed to succeed because you fear to harm them, then when they are finished you will no longer remember this woman, Kahlan. Is that what you want?”
Richard clenched his jaw as he let out a deep breath. “No, it’s not. Let’s try to avoid having it come to such things. But if it does, then I guess you’re right. They can’t be allowed to do as they intend. But if we must stop them, let’s not use any more force than necessary.”
“Hesitation is a mistake that invites defeat,” Cara said. “I would not be Mord-Sith had I not hesitated when I was young.”
Richard knew she was right. The Sword of Truth had taught him that much, at least. The dance with death allowed no compromise between life and death.
He laid a hand on Cara’s shoulder. “I understand.”
Nicci gazed up the tower, her blue eyes taking in the doors all around it. “Where do you think they will wait?”
“I don’t know,” Richard said as he hooked his thumbs under the shoulder straps of his pack. “The Wizard’s Keep is immense, but in the end there’s only one way out. Since there are so many routes we could take, I’d guess it will be when we get nearer the courtyard out to the portcullis.”
“Lord Rahl,” Rikka spoke up, looking a little uneasy once he met her gaze, “there is another way out.”
Richard frowned at her. “What are you talking about?”
“There is another way out besides the main entrance. It is only accessible through passages deep in the Keep.”
“How do you know such a thing?”
“Your grandfather showed it to me.”
Richard didn’t have time to wonder at such a thing. “Do you think you can find it again?”
Rikka considered a moment. “I believe so,” she finally said. “I sure wouldn’t want to get us lost down in the Keep, but I believe I can find the way. Starting out from here we’re already part of the way, so it won’t be quite so hard.”
Richard went to rest his hand on the hilt of his sword as he considered. The sword wasn’t there. He rubbed his palms together, instead.
“Maybe it would be better if we went that way.”
Rikka turned, her blond braid whipping around as she did so, and started away. “Follow me, then.”
Richard let Nicci go ahead of him, then followed, letting Cara bring up the rear. He hadn’t gone a dozen steps when he stopped. He turned and looked back.
Everyone glanced to where he was looking and then watched him, puzzled by what he could be thinking.
“We can’t go that way, either.” He turned back to Rikka. “Zedd showed you that way out of the keep. He knows Mord-Sith. he knows that despite
how well you two got along, if presented with a choice, your loyalties will fall to me.
“Zedd is fond of using tricks. He will let Ann and Nathan guard the routes to the main entrance to the Keep. He will lie in wait on the route he showed you, Rikka.”
“Well, if there are only two ways out,” Nicci said, “that means they will have to split up to make sure both are blocked. That’s if Zedd goes through the thought process as you’ve laid it out. He might forget that he told Rikka about the other way out, or he might not think that she would tell you. That way still might be clear.”
Richard slowly shook his head as he stared off at something else—the wide platform partway back around the walkway around the stagnant water in the bottom of the gloomy interior of the tower.
“While what you say is possible, counting on Zedd to make such a strategic mistake would be foolish.”
Nicci was looking a bit worried. “Well, you can’t use your power without chancing calling the beast, but I certainly can use mine. And I have more power at my command than Zedd does. If they split up as you suggest, then we will not have all three to contend with at once.”
“No, but I’d not like to have that kind of a test, especially not in the Keep. It’s possible that there are defenses here that he has initiated to protect the First Wizard should he be attacked. You might simply try to catch him up in a conjured tangle to slow him down while we escape and it might be all it takes to trigger something lethal. Besides, even if you do manage to succeed at such a thing, he could still come after us.
Nicci folded her arms. “Then what, exactly, do you suggest we do?”
He turned back and once again met her blue eyes. “I suggest that we take a way out that they can’t follow.”
Her nose wrinkled up. “What?”
“The sliph.”
Everyone looked back down the walkway as if the sliph might be standing there waiting for them to come and travel with her.
“Of course,” Cara said. “We could escape without them ever knowing where we’ve gone. There will be no tracks. More than that, though, it can put us a tremendous distance away from the danger. They will have no hope of ever following us.”
“Exactly.” Richard clapped her on the back of the shoulder. “Let’s go.”
They all followed him as he rushed down the walkway and through the blasted open doorway. Inside the sliph’s room, Nicci cast magic, igniting the torches in brackets on the walls as they all gathered around the well. Everyone peered down together.
“There’s only one problem,” Richard said out loud as the thought came to him while gazing down into the black abyss. He looked up at Nicci. “I have to use magic to call the sliph.”
Nicci took a deep breath and let it out with a discouraged look. “That is a problem.”
“Not necessarily,” Cara said. “Shota told us that using your magic had the potential to call the blood beast. But it acts randomly. When you use magic, it would be logical that it would thus find you, but the beast doesn’t act through logic. It might come when you use magic, Shota said, or it might not. There’s no way to tell or predict.”
“And we’re pretty certain that we’re not going to be able to walk out of this place without having to confront the others,” Nicci pointed out.
“Trying to run will present two problems,” Richard said, “getting past them and then keeping out of their grasp to prevent them from trying to ‘heal me.’ This makes more sense. The sliph would be a certain way to escape without Zedd, Ann, and Nathan having any way to either follow or know where I went—and it would also avoid confronting them, something I’d not like to have to do. I love my grandfather; I don’t want to have to defend myself against him.”
“I almost hate to say it,” Cara said, “but this makes more sense to me, too.”
“I agree,” Rikka said.
“Call the sliph.” Nicci held a handful of her hair back as she looked down to peer into the well again. “And hurry, before they come looking to see what’s taking me so long.”
Richard didn’t hesitate. He stretched his fists out over the well, He needed to call his own gift in order to call the sliph and calling his own ability was not something he was good at. He resolved that he had done it before; he would have to do it again.
He let his tension go. He knew that he had to do this or he very well might lose his chance to ever find the one woman he loved more than life itself. For a moment, the pain of how much he hurt every day without her nearly made him pull inward with the aching misery of it.
With his sincere and burning need to do whatever he must in order to help Kahlan, his need ignited deep within him. He felt it roaring up from the core of his being, taking his breath. He tightened his abdominal muscles against the power of the feeling within him.
Light ignited between his outstretched fists. He recognized the sensation from having done it before. He pressed the padded silver-leather wristbands he wore together. He had not had these the first time, but they were what the sliph had told him he should use to call her again. They brightened to such intensity that through his flesh and bone Richard could see the other side of the heavy silver bands.
He focused his intent. He wanted nothing else but for the sliph to come to him so that he could help Kahlan. He hungered for it. He demanded it be done.
Come to me!
The glow of light wailed as it ignited in a line down the center of the well, like a lightning bolt, but instead of the sound of thunder, the air crackled with the ripping roar of fire and light racing away at incredible speed into the depths of blackness.
Those around the stone wall gazed anxiously down inside the well lit by the flash of light. Nicci also glanced around, keeping an eye on the room around them, apparently worried about the appearance of the beast. The echo of the power Richard had sent down into the well was a long time in fading away, but at last all fell silent.
In the stillness of the Keep, in the quiet of the mountain of dead stone towering around and above them, came a distant, deep rumbling.
A rumbling of something coming to life.
The floor began to quake with growing force, until it began lifting dust from the joints and cracks. Small pebbles danced on the trembling stone floor.
Far down in the distant depths the well began filling with something rushing up the shaft at impossible speed, roaring with a howling shriek of velocity as it came. The howl grew as the sliph rushed upward to meet the call.
Nicci, Cara, and Rikka backed away from the well as shimmering silver shot upward, coming to an instantaneous stop that somehow seemed graceful.
Within the undulating silver pool, a lustrous metallic hump mounded up, rising above the edge of the stone wall surrounding the well. It drew up into a bulk, rising of its own accord, gathering into a recognizable shape. Its glossy surface, like a liquid mirror, reflected everything around the room, distorting the images reflected off its surface as it grew and transformed.
It looked like living quicksilver.
The rising shape continued to contort, bending into edges and planes, folds and curves, until it warped into a woman’s face.
A silver smile widened in what seemed to be recognition. “Master, you called me?”
The sliph’s eerie, feminine voice echoed around the room, but her lips hadn’t moved.
Richard stepped closer, ignoring Nicci and Rikka’s wide-eyed astonishment. “Yes. Sliph, thank you for coming. I need you.”
A silver smile was pleased. “You wish to travel, Master?”
“Yes, I wish to travel. We all do. We all need to travel.”
The smile widened. “Come, then. We will travel.”
Richard herded everyone close to the wall. Liquid metal formed into a hand that reached out to touch each of the three women in turn.
“You have traveled before,” the sliph said to Cara after only brief contact with her forehead. “You may travel.”
The glistening hand gently brushed a palm across Nicci’s brow, lingering for a bit longer. “You have what is required. You may travel.
Rikka lifted her chin, ignoring her distaste for magic, and stood her ground as the sliph touched her forehead.