Severed Souls

CHAPTER 22

At the far edge of the encampment near the brook, the commander used his thumb and a finger in the corners of his mouth to let out a loud whistle. The rising and falling notes, which all the men recognized, were the signal to begin the retreat.

Without hesitation, the men immediately turned and raced toward the spot where Kahlan and the others waited. Along the way they snatched up what gear they had, slinging packs and supplies over a shoulder.

As the men cleared the open area, the Shun-tuk were caught by surprise at how abruptly the soldiers abandoned the defensive line they had fought so hard to hold. For that brief moment they were confused and didn’t know what was happening, what to expect, or exactly how to respond. The swiftness of the surprise gave the men a small head start. It wasn’t much, but Kahlan knew that in battle such small windows of opportunity could mean the difference between life and death.

In preparation, Zedd had already formed a liquid ball of wizard’s fire between his outstretched hands. The sinister flame burned and tumbled and rolled like a thing alive as it hung in midair between his palms, hissing and spitting spiraling sparks.

Kahlan could see into the liquid core of the sphere, as if it were a world unto itself, a transparent, glowing, burning, full moon. This was a relic of ancient power, most of which had been lost over time. This was a window into the kind of power that used to exist in the world—the kind of power that Emperor Sulachan had once wielded, and now again brought back to the world of life.

Zedd held the spellbinding sight there between his palms, a lethal, obedient servant to his wishes, as he waited for the right moment. The lines and creases of his weathered face looked calm in the hissing, flickering light of his creation.

He appeared utterly tranquil as he waited to unleash the contained cataclysm he calmly carried between his hands.

Kahlan understood that calm. When she was about to release her power, she, too, went dead calm. All emotion was alien in that pristine moment where she alone was in control of such ancient power.

Wizard’s fire was legend among most people. It was so rarely seen, and by so few, that many people dismissed it as an ancient myth, a relic of past times. To those who believed it was real, especially those few who had ever actually seen it, wizard’s fire was greatly feared. Most who had seen it saw it in the instant before it killed them.

Kahlan had seen Zedd use wizard’s fire a number of times. It had been a necessity in the war, one of the few circumstances where there was a purpose for such violent destruction.

The wizards Kahlan had grown up with had lived their entire lives without ever once conjuring and unleashing such devastating power. It was likely most would not even know how.

Zedd knew how.

Kahlan noticed, though, that in the times he had used it before, Zedd had never seemed this calm. She had also never seen him hold it so close, like a special, beautiful treasure, for so long. And it was beautiful. It was terrifyingly exquisite.

Usually, he cast it out almost as fast as he could conjure the rare substance. This time, he was keeping it in place, as if letting it come to know the world it had just been born into, letting it gather strength. She noticed, too, that the whorls of colors as it burned seemed more intense than she remembered.

Zedd used wizard’s fire only in the most desperate of circumstances to save lives. This time, the lives he was trying to save were not only all of theirs, but that of the Lord Rahl himself, who just happened to be his grandson.

Knowing what was coming, Kahlan snatched up a torn strip of a tunic and covered the horse’s eyes to keep it relatively calm. Warhorses were used to battle and trained for explosions and fire, but she suspected that this one was not.

At the far side of the encampment, along what had formerly been the defensive front line protecting their encampment, the Shun-tuk rapidly realized that those defenses were abruptly gone and, much like a dam bursting, they flooded into the void of the open ledge. They had clear ground to cover and prey they wanted. Now, there was nothing to stop them.

As the last of the soldiers of the First File finally raced past the old wizard, Zedd flung his arms open. At his command, the tightly contained, turbulent furnace of power expanded in an instant and roared away.

The entire area of the open ledge at the foot of the cliff and the towering spruce and pine trees of the forest around them lit under the blinding intensity of yellow-orange flames. Night seemed to turn to day.

The tumbling, liquid inferno raced across the abandoned encampment, shrieking with terrifying menace. The sound it made was so deafening that it caused the Shun-tuk to hesitate. They hunched down, cringing as they covered their ears. Wizard’s fire always howled, but this shrieked with painful intensity.

The tumbling globe of liquid flame remained airborne, passing just above the granite ledge where hundreds of dead Shun-tuk lay sprawled. It lit the entire bloody scene, brightly illuminating the whitewashed dead in such stark relief as it passed above them that it made them look supernatural, like a graveyard of dead spirits.

Kahlan spotted men of the First File lying dead among the Shun-tuk. They were beyond help, now. At least their remains would be turned to ash rather than be eaten by the half people. Dead was dead, and it couldn’t matter to them any longer, but it mattered to Kahlan. Being incinerated somehow seemed better than having the unholy half dead feeding on the remains.

The wizard’s fire, a tumbling, burning fury, hit the ground with such thundering force it shook the trees. Pine needles rained down, igniting as they fell, looking like burning rain. As it crashed down, the dense, blazing, molten orb burst apart, splashing the brightly burning liquid fire out across the open ground. Like a towering rogue wave it swamped the advancing horde of Shun-tuk. It actually lifted many of them up into the air, like so much flotsam, and carried them along in the flow as they were incinerated.

Wizard’s fire burned with unparalleled intensity. It was sticky, and once it was stuck fast, not only could you not get it off, you couldn’t extinguish the flame. It burned until its power was spent. So much as a drop of it stuck to a leg could burn down to the bone. To say that it was excruciatingly painful did not begin to describe the horror of it. Those touched by even a speck of it could think of nothing but getting it off.

Kahlan had seen men in battle splashed with small amounts of it on an arm or hand. They would use their own sword to hack off the limbs to prevent the wizard’s fire from climbing up onto the rest of them. Others, in their mad panic to escape it, would accidentally run into pools of it.

In the blindingly intense light of the exploding sea of fire, Kahlan could see silhouetted Shun-tuk reduced momentarily to little more than black skeletons. In the next instant, even that much vaporized to nothing.

For the most part, as they ran they tried not to look back because of the intensity of the light. It was so blindingly bright that, like the rest of them, Kahlan not only had to turn her face from it, she also squinted against the painful illumination. The wave of heat it gave off felt like it might ignite her hair and melt her skin.

The fire made the horse carrying Richard more than a little skittish. Kahlan kept a firm hold on the reins up near the bit to prevent it from bolting. She was thankful that she had covered the horse’s eyes.

She had no idea of how many of the Shun-tuk were consumed in the burning sea of wizard’s fire, or how many might not be harmed by it at all. She had trouble imagining anyone who would not be harmed by it. She did know that now that it had been unleashed, there was no time to worry about it.

“Let’s go,” she said as she took hold of Zedd’s sleeve.

His eyes looked vacant. He had put everything he had into the creation of the conflagration. He had been determined to make sure he used every ounce of effort he could muster to protect them, to protect his unconscious grandson.

Zedd blinked. “What?”

“You did good, Zedd. You have given us a chance.” Kahlan again tugged his sleeve. “Now come on—we have to go.”

The old wizard looked more than exhausted, but he kept up with Kahlan as she started pulling the horse ahead into the gorge. The horse was only too glad to be led away from the burning nightmare behind them. Kahlan knew that the wizard’s fire would continue to burn for quite a while and continue to catch victims in its fiery snare. Those with even a little of it on them would be incapacitated and it would be months before they healed, if ever. Many of those burned would die within hours or days. Yet more, those not vaporized by the intensity of the fire, but who had been close enough to inhale the noxious heat, would die in breathless agony within a short time.

As Kahlan pulled the horse up the dark gorge, Nicci stepped up beside her. “I’ve never seen him do that before,” she whispered to Kahlan. “I think he put everything he had into it to try to stop even those with occult powers.”

Kahlan glanced over at the sorceress. “Do you think it worked?”

“No. But it was a noble effort. I know what such things take to create, and that took more than a lot. I hope he saved some for when we get them farther up into the gorge. When we do, I’ll help him with some Subtractive Magic.”

The sorceress quickly moved out in front of Kahlan and cast her hand out. A flame floated ahead, gently lifting up through the air, among the pine boughs. It was not fire meant to be destructive, but a small flame meant to show them where they were going and light the ground enough that they wouldn’t trip over tree roots and rocks.

Nicci turned to the tightly packed group of men following behind them. “Keep your eyes ahead. They need to adjust to the darkness. Try not to look back because once we get farther in Zedd is going to be laying down more wizard’s fire behind us. Within the confines of the gorge it will be even brighter. It will help blind the enemy to the darkness of the trail ahead and slow them down. Don’t look back and let it blind you too.”

The men following behind nodded that they understood.

Nicci led the way, with Kahlan right behind her. They had to pick their way carefully along the side of the brook, frequently over slick, moss-covered rocks. While Kahlan, in her official capacity as a Confessor, had traveled the countryside her whole life, Nicci had grown up in cities and until she met Richard had rarely set foot on dirt. Being with Richard for as long as she had been, she had learned how to walk in the woods, which was fortunate because there was no trail up the gorge. They were in uncharted wilderness and had to pick their way as best they could.

Sometimes some of the men had to rush out ahead to hack away at fallen limbs or saplings to clear them out of the way for the horse. Kahlan was especially careful to let the horse pick where it wanted to step. They couldn’t afford to have it break a leg.

The small lights Nicci released from time to time revealed rock walls rising up in places. The sheer rock faces were wet with water seeping through the tiniest cracks. Slime grew in long strings that hung down, their tips dripping water. Where there were rocky hillsides, cedar trees grew down close to the brook. In places up higher on those steep hillsides, where they could get a good foothold, towering pines grew. Where it was too rocky or steep for the forest monarchs, smaller trees and shrubs with roots fanning out like claws clung to the rugged hillside.

The terrain at the bottom of the gorge would not be easy to traverse in the daytime. At night it was quite difficult, but not entirely impossible. Picking their way up the ever-rising ground was slow going, though. At least it would be no easier for the Shun-tuk.

With the cliffs and perilously steep hillsides, Kahlan was confident that the Shun-tuk would not be able to get out around them, especially since the fastest route was the one they were taking at the bottom of the gorge where the footing was better. The slopes were far trickier to traverse. Traveling that way would be slower and dangerous. That meant that Richard had been right, and by going this way they would be able to funnel the Shun-tuk into a narrow space.

The trees up ahead suddenly lit with bright yellow light as Zedd, bringing up the rear, unleashed more wizard’s fire back at the enemy following them. It lit the way for them.

The jolt of another explosion shook the ground. She could feel the thump from the concussion deep in her chest. Kahlan didn’t know how many Shun-tuk it was killing, or how many were getting through. She and everyone else were being careful not to look back and be night-blinded by the intensity of the thunderous blasts.

Nicci raced back to help Zedd. When Kahlan heard the ripping sound, like tearing canvas, and saw the white light on the treetops around them, Kahlan knew that the sorceress was using a mix of Additive and Subtractive Magic on the enemy. It was as violently destructive as wizard’s fire, but she doubted that it would affect those with occult abilities any more than did wizard’s fire. At least it would be deadly to those without such protection and reduce their numbers.

With the sword in her hand and its attendant rage, she was eager to encounter some of the enemy that got through. Richard’s life was in great peril because of these half people. All of their lives were. She had to resist the urge to turn back and fight.

The time was not yet right. It would come soon enough, she knew, and when it did then her sword—Richard’s sword—would taste their blood.