Into Darkness

18

With his sword, Richard gestured ahead for everyone to move on toward the palace and away from the scene of the brief but frenzied battle. While the Glee who went back to their own world would be testament to others of the trouble that awaited them here, tyrannical leaders, as the Golden Goddess apparently was, were often more than willing to throw the lives of countless followers into the fray.

With the battle over, Richard didn’t want to be anywhere nearby in case the goddess, in a fit of anger, decided to send another wave of fighters. Attacking after a battle had seemingly ended was a good way to catch your opponent with their guard down. Richard didn’t want to let his guard down, so he urged everyone away from the scene of the fight.

Though he might have won this skirmish, he knew that he had to solve the vastly bigger problem of stopping the goddess from sending any Glee at all. Winning a battle was of no use if he couldn’t win the war. Every battle exposed them to the possibility that, this time, they might lose. If they lost, everyone in their world would ultimately lose.

Even if Richard and Kahlan could get to the safety of the Keep, that wouldn’t provide any safety for everyone else. They would continue to be vulnerable. In the end, that was his weakness as a leader, and the goddess’s strength. There was virtually no way for normal people to protect themselves, especially if the Glee came in massive hordes, and Richard couldn’t protect everyone. People everywhere would be prey at the mercy of savage predators.

He took Kahlan’s hand to help her balance as she stepped over the thick, tangled ring of severed claws and slimy bodies surrounding her. All those claws were now still, but it was a very visible reminder that they had been meant for her and her unborn babies. He knew that more would come. The Glee were relentless. He felt sick at not knowing if he was ever going to be able to stop them once and for all.

Richard let go of Kahlan’s hand so she could help Shale, who looked weak and exhausted after unleashing masses of white snakes. The snakes she had conjured were gone now, either withdrawn by the witch woman after they were no longer needed or taken back to the home world of the Glee as they fled with the snakes still attached to them. Those snakes were in a way part of her, so when they were taken away with fleeing Glee, they were in a sense ripped away from her connection to them.

In the aftermath of the effort, the witch woman looked like she might collapse. Cassia rushed in on the other side and helped Shale stay upright as she stepped among the mounds of claws and the remains of the dead.

With the sword still in his hand, the magic of it still surged through him, filling him with rage. The sword hungered for an enemy; that was its way, its purpose. With the threat so fresh, the shrieks and howls still echoing through his head, Richard was not quite ready to relinquish the rage of the sword’s magic spiraling through him. He wanted it at full force and at the ready just in case.

As the Mord-Sith started up the narrow cobblestone street, closely protecting Kahlan, he held back to reassure himself that there were no more threats lurking around any of the corners. Seeing none, he finally sheathed his sword and, in so doing, extinguished the rage. Once that fury of magic was finally cut off, it left him feeling weak and exhausted from the effort of the fight.

When the hair on the back of his neck tingled and stiffened, he looked up and saw a single Glee standing in the sun atop a two-story building, looking down, watching him. Somehow he had known that it would be there. The rest of those with him were helping each other and talking among themselves as they made their way up the narrow street. They didn’t see the Glee. He didn’t think that this lone creature wanted anyone but Richard to see it.

As he stood staring up at it, the Glee opened its arms a little and spread its claws to reveal webbing between its razor-sharp claws. Richard felt that it was a sign—that it was trying to convey the message that it meant no threat.

And then it bowed at the waist, as if out of respect.

He spotted, then, in those slow movements as it bowed, something he had never noticed before. There was a slight, iridescent, greenish sheen to this Glee’s skin. It reminded him a little of the iridescent green sheen on the backs of some black beetles. He hadn’t seen this quality to the flesh of any Glee he had fought.

Even though he hadn’t noticed this slight greenish sheen on this particular Glee before, there was no doubt in his mind that this was the same individual he had seen several times before, when on previous occasions it had also signaled that it intended him no harm.

When the Glee stood back up, it shared a long look with Richard. From time to time as it stared, its third eyelid blinked across its big, glossy black eyes. It cocked its head a little, possibly as if appraising him. Richard felt a sense of peace with this creature.

He reminded himself of one of his most basic beliefs, that an individual was not guilty because of the crimes of others. It was something very personal for him, because he had once been hated as the Seeker because of how corrupt people before him had been when they had possessed the sword, its power, and the post. Because of their notorious behavior, it was assumed that all Seekers were evil. He had likewise been condemned as evil because of the sins of his father. He knew that although all the other Glee he had seen and fought had been trying to kill them, this one individual had not, so he had to remember not to judge it by their actions.

And then it turned to scribbles and in a fleeting moment was gone.

Richard wished there were a way to talk to that Glee, to find out its intentions and what it wanted.

Kahlan paused a ways up the narrow street and turned back. “Are you coming?”

“Sure,” Richard said as he sprinted to catch up with the others.

“So,” Shale finally said as they moved on up an even narrower alleyway to continue to make their way toward the palace, “tell me how you managed to get your sword out of the scabbard when it had been welded in there by Iron Jack’s magic.”

“Wizard’s First Rule,” he said.

Shale paused to turn back and give him a squinty-eyed look. “What?”

“I was always able to get the sword out,” Richard said.

Shale flopped her arms against her side in frustration. “Well, if that were really true, then why couldn’t you get it out before? You had Vika and Cassia hold the scabbard while you pulled on the handle. You couldn’t get it out then.”

“Actually, I could,” Richard told her.

Shale clawed her fingers as she growled in exasperation. “No, you couldn’t. I saw it. It was welded in by Iron Jack’s magic and the three of you couldn’t pull it apart. What’s more, when I felt the scabbard, I could feel the magic bound into it holding it together.”

Richard shrugged. “I could feel the magic, too.”

Shale held her head with both hands as she growled again. “And you couldn’t draw it! Why could you draw it now, but not back then?”

Richard finally showed her a smile. “Shale, I could have drawn it whenever I wanted. I asked for your help and you said you couldn’t do it. As you said yourself, I’m a war wizard. But I wanted Iron Jack to think he had bested me.”

The witch woman leaned toward him a little. “What?”

“I felt Iron Jack’s magic tingling around the hilt. It was only Additive. There was no Subtractive element to it. So, I only pretended I couldn’t get it out of the scabbard because I knew he would be able to sense if his spell was broken. For that reason, I was careful not to. I wanted him to think instead that I had tried and failed, so I was defenseless. I wanted him to believe that so he would feel emboldened. I wanted him to think he had everything under control so that he would lose his sense of caution and act true to his nature.”

Shale straightened her back and stared at him for a moment. “You mean you were concerned that if he feared you, he might put on an innocent and friendly act?”

Richard smiled again. “Now you’re getting the idea. I felt no need to show off and pull the sword when he thought his magic had locked it in the scabbard. I wanted to see what he would do when he thought he was in complete control.”

Shale turned to Kahlan. “Your husband is a very devious man.”

Kahlan nodded. “Annoying, isn’t it?”