Severed Souls

CHAPTER 28

An impatient Commander Fister stood waiting in front of his men as Kahlan reached them.

“What in the world just happened?” he asked, sounding angry and frightened at the same time.

“The walls fell down,” Kahlan said.

He made the oddest face, and opened his mouth to say something, but then decided better of it.

Kahlan didn’t think that any of them had ever seen such an extraordinary thing happen before. They had all just witnessed power on a rarefied level.

“Is Richard all right?” Kahlan asked the commander.

Fister nodded. “As all right as he was before, anyway.”

Samantha was still clutching Kahlan tightly and still weeping. It seemed she had been frightened, too, frightened by the realization of what she had done. Samantha had just used her power to kill probably thousands of people. Half people, anyway.

Kahlan suspected, though, that it was as much from the emotional exhaustion of the ordeal and the terror that had driven her to do such a thing as anything else. At the end of a particularly violent and exhausting battle, Kahlan sometimes felt like sitting down and having a good cry.

But she was a Confessor, and her mother had taught her from an early age that she couldn’t let people who depended on her see such weakness. Seeing weakness in leaders made people lose confidence in that leader, and in themselves.

“Well, from what I was told,” the commander said, “Samantha had stopped in the middle of the brook and was just standing there. So what—”

“Not now, Jake,” Kahlan said. She gestured. “Let’s get moving. I don’t think that any of the Shun-tuk survived what I just saw, but if they did I don’t want to have them catch us sitting around celebrating. I want to put some distance between us and them—if any are still alive.”

He pointed up to the soaring walls on each side of the gorge. “Besides, it’s probably not the best idea to stand around under rocks and cliffs that might have been loosened by all that shaking. I wouldn’t want what happened to the Shun-tuk to happen to us.”

Kahlan nodded with a worried look back down the gorge. It wasn’t that far to the site of the buried Shun-tuk. That much violence could easily have weakened the walls above them.

The commander cocked his head. “Do you think any are still alive? I mean, they have that occult sorcery, after all.”

Kahlan considered his question briefly. “I can’t be certain, of course, but I can’t imagine how they could have survived the mountains to each side falling in on them. I think they were all crushed under hundreds of feet of rock. Doesn’t matter how much sorcery you have if a boulder the size of a house falls on you. I’m pretty sure they are all dead.”

“Pretty sure.” He still sounded hesitant. “Couldn’t there be a pocket created by a huge slab that spared some of them? If there are any alive, they might be able to dig out. They can bring the dead back to life, remember? If even one of them with such powers is alive, he could raise an army of dead to come after us.”

“After what I witnessed, I don’t see how there could be anyone left to dig out and bring the dead back to life. Even if they survived in a pocket, they are still buried by hundreds of feet of rock. I can’t imagine they could ever dig out.”

Kahlan let out a deep breath. “But just in case, and more importantly, to get out from under these steep walls, it’s a good idea to keep moving. At least for a little while so we can put some distance between us and all the Shun-tuk buried down there. I don’t like being this close to them, even if it is a graveyard now. I don’t especially like sleeping beside a graveyard. Let’s keep going, but take it a little slower. I think we’re all pretty tired.”

“These are men of the First File, Mother Confessor. They can carry you on their shoulders and march double-time all night long.”

Kahlan nodded. “I know, but I think it’s up to us to decide to give them the rest they may not be aware they need.” She arched an eyebrow at him. “Didn’t I always make sure that you and your men were rested before you went out at night to bring me back strings of enemy ears?”

Commander Fister snorted a short laugh.

“Let’s move a little farther up the mountain,” Kahlan said, “and then let the men get some sleep before morning.”

Commander Fister tapped a fist to his heart in salute.

“Where’s Richard,” Kahlan asked.

The commander pointed a thumb up the gorge. “Nicci is watching over him. Zedd and Irena are farther up making sure the way ahead is safe.”

Kahlan was glad to hear that. If there was one person she would want watching over Richard, it was Nicci.

Samantha hadn’t moved. She seemed to be content where she was in Kahlan’s arms. Kahlan thought that maybe she didn’t want the others to see the tearstains running down her dusty face.

“You okay?” Kahlan whispered.

Samantha nodded. “Just tired … So tired.”

Kahlan could imagine that well enough.

As Kahlan carried Samantha up the gorge, making her way through the relieved men, she finally reached the horse. By the time she got there, Samantha was hanging limp, asleep in Kahlan’s arms. Kahlan was dead tired, and as thin as Samantha was, she was still heavy. But Kahlan felt good holding the young woman. It felt good to be needed for comfort and shelter.

Nicci stood in a rush as Kahlan came close. “What in the world was that?”

“What are you so angry about?” Kahlan asked with a frown. The woman looked like she wanted to skin a dragon. “It killed the Shun-tuk, not us.”

Nicci cast a suspicious look at Samantha asleep in Kahlan’s arms. “Did she do that?”

Kahlan nodded.

Nicci appraised the young woman a moment longer. “How?”

“She said that Richard taught her.”

Nicci shot a look back over her shoulder at the unconscious Richard. “Of course he did.”

Kahlan spotted Irena in the distance racing toward them. “Look, Nicci, let’s not frighten her mother about this right now. We’ll talk about it later. I think we need to get away from here just in case. Then we all need to get some rest. You and Zedd—and Samantha—need to rest if you are to recover your abilities. All right?”

Nicci heaved a sigh as in the distance Irena was calling her daughter’s name.

“All right,” Nicci said. “Let’s get moving. I want to find a safe place, then Zedd and I can work on waking Richard.”

“It can’t be soon enough for me,” Kahlan said. “Irena might be able to help with it.”

Nicci folded her arms. “Zedd and I can do it. We’ll get him back, I swear.”

Kahlan nodded. “Thanks, Nicci.”

She wondered why Nicci didn’t want Irena helping. It was Richard, though, so she supposed that Nicci was not willing to take any chances with letting someone she didn’t really know touch him with her power.

Nicci leaned close and shook her finger in Kahlan’s face.

“But when I wake that husband of yours, I intend to ask him just what in the world he taught that girl.”

Kahlan smiled. “I bet you will.”