Soul of the Fire

Chapter 14

Zedd woke at the sound of the door in the other room closing. He opened one eye just enough to peer toward the doorway as the hide was lifted to the side.

He relaxed a bit at seeing it was Nissel. The stooped healer took her time shuffling across the room.

“They are gone,” she said.

“What did she say?” Ann whispered, she, too, slitting one eye enough to peek through.

“Are you sure?” Zedd whispered to Nissel.

“They packed everything they brought. They gathered food for the journey. Some of the women helped by putting together supplies they might take to sustain them. I gave them herbs that may be of use for little ills. Our hunters gave them waterskins and weapons. They said quick farewells to their friends, to those they have come to love. They made me promise to do my best to keep you well.”

Nissel scratched her chin. “Not much of a promise, the way I see it.”

“And you saw them leave?” Zedd pressed. “You are sure they are gone?”

Nissel turned a little, skimming a hand through the air out toward the northeast. “They started out. All three. I watched them go, just as you asked of me. I had walked with everyone else to the edge of the village, but most of our people wanted to walk a ways out into the grassland to be that much longer with them, and to watch our new Mud People go. These people urged me to come with them, so I, too, went out onto the grassland, even though my legs are not as swift as they used to be, but I decided they would be swift enough for a short walk.

“When we had all gone a goodly distance, Richard urged us to return, rather than be out in the rain to no good end. He was concerned, especially, that I go back to care for you two. I believe they were impatient to make good time on their journey, and we all slowed them with our pace, but they were too considerate to speak those thoughts to us.

“Richard and Kahlan hugged me and wished me well. The woman in red leather did not hug me, but she did give me a bow of her head to show her respect and Kahlan told me the woman’s words. She wished me to know she would protect Richard and Kahlan. She is a good woman, that strange one in red, even if she is not Mud People. I wished them well.

“All of us who had walked out into the grassland stood in the drizzle and waved as the three of them journeyed to the northeast, until they became spots too small to see anymore. The Bird Man then asked us all to bow our heads. Together, with his words leading us, we beseeched our ancestors’ spirits to watch over our new people and keep them safe on their journey. He then called a hawk and sent it to travel with them for a ways, as a sign that our hearts were with them. We waited until we could no longer see even the hawk circling in the sky over the three of them.

“Then we returned straight away.”

Tilting her head toward him, Nissel lifted an eyebrow. “Does that satisfy you better than my simple word that they are gone?”

Zedd cleared his throat, thinking the woman must practice sarcasm when there was no healing to be done.

“What did she say?” Ann asked again.

“She says they’re gone.”

“Is she sure?” Ann asked.

Zedd threw off his blanket. “How should I know? The woman gabs a lot. But I believe they’re gone on their way.”

Ann, too, threw aside her woolen blanket. “Thought I’d sweat to death under this scratchy thing.”

They had remained under the blankets the whole time, silent and patient, fearing Richard might pop back in with some forgotten question or new idea. The boy frequently did such unexpected things. Zedd dared not precipitately betray himself, dared not let incautious action spoil their plans.

While they had waited, Ann had fretted and sweated. Zedd had taken a nap.

Pleased that Zedd had asked for her help, Nissel had promised to watch and let them know when the three were gone. She said those with age must stick together and that the only defense against youth was cunning. Zedd couldn’t agree more. She had that twinkle in her eye that made Ann scowl in confused annoyance.

Zedd brushed his hands clean of the straw and straightened his robes. His back ached. At last he embraced the healer. “Thank you, Nissel, for all your help. It is deeply appreciated.”

She giggled softly—against his shoulder. “For you, anything.” Upon parting, she pinched his bottom.

Zedd gave her a wink. “How about some of that tava with honey, honey?”

Nissel blushed. Ann’s gaze shifted from one to the other. “What are you telling her?”

“Oh, just told her I appreciated her help and asked if we might have something to eat.”

“Those are the itchiest blankets I’ve ever seen,” Ann grumbled as she scratched furiously at her arms. “Tell Nissel she has my appreciation, too, but if you don’t mind, I’ll skip having my bottom pinched for it.”

“Ann adds her sincere appreciation to mine. And she is much older than I.” Among the Mud People, age lent weight to words.

Nissel’s face wrinkled with a grin as she reached up and gave his cheek a doting pinch. “I will get you both some tea and tava.”

“She seems to have grown quite fond of you.” Ann smoothed back her hair as she watched the healer duck under the hide covering the door.

“And why not?”

Ann rolled her eyes and then brushed straw from her dark dress. “When did you learn the Mud People’s language? You never mentioned to Richard or Kahlan that you knew their language.”

“Oh, I learned it—a very long time ago. I know a lot of things; I don’t mention them all. Besides, I always think it best to leave yourself a little wiggle room, should it come in useful, such as now. I never really lied.”

She conceded the point with a sound deep in her throat. “While it might not be a lie, it is still a deception.”

Zedd smiled at her. “By the way, speaking of deceptions, I thought your performance was brilliant. Very convincing.”

Ann was taken aback. “Well, I . . . well, thank you, Zedd. I guess I was pretty convincing.”

He patted her shoulder. “That you were.”

Her smile turned to a suspicious scowl. “Don’t you try to sweet-talk me, old man. I’m a lot older than you and I’ve seen it all.” She shook her finger up at him. “You know good and well I’m cross with you!”

Zedd put his fingertips to his chest. “Cross? With me? What have I done?”

“What have you done? Need I remind you of the word Lurk?” She stalked around in a little circle, arms raised, wrists bent over, fingers clawed, mimicking a fiend. “Oh, how frightening. Here comes a Lurk. Oh, how terrifying. Oh, how very scary.”

She stamped to a halt before him. “What was going through your witless head! What possessed you to spout such a nonsensical word as Lurk! Are you crazy?”

Zedd pouted indignantly. “What’s wrong with the name Lurk?”

Ann planted her fists on her wide hips. “What’s wrong with it? What kind of a word is Lurk for an imaginary monster!”

“Well, quite a good one, actually.”

“A good one! I nearly had heart failure when you first said it. I thought for sure Richard was going to realize we were making up a story and suddenly burst out laughing. It was all I could do to keep from laughing myself!”

“Laugh? Why would he laugh at the word Lurk? It’s a perfectly good word. Has all the elements of a frightening creature.”

“Have you gone loony? I’ve had ten-year-old boys I’ve caught at mischief come up with stories of pretend monsters plaguing them. They could, on the spot, when I snatched them by the ear, think up better names for those monsters than a ‘Lurk.’

“Do you know the time I had keeping a straight face? Had it not been for the seriousness of our problem, I’d not have been able to do so. When you then again today insisted on repeating it I feared our ruse would be unmasked for sure.”

Zedd folded his arms. “I didn’t see them laughing. The three of them thought it was frightening. I think it had Richard’s knees knocking there for a moment when I first revealed the name.”

Muttering, Ann slapped her forehead. “Only luck preserved our artifice. You could have ruined it with such foolishness.” She shook her head. “A Lurk. A Lurk!”

Zedd surmised it was probably her frustration and genuine fear bubbling to the surface, so he let her rant as she paced. Finally, she came to a halt, peering up with sputtering ire.

“Just where in Creation did you ever get such an asinine name for a monster? Lurk indeed,” she added in a mutter.

Zedd scratched his neck as he cleared his throat. “Well, actually, in my youth when I was first married, I brought home a kitten for my new bride. She loved the little thing, and laughed endlessly at its antics. It pleased me to my toes to see the tears of joy in Erilyn’s eyes as she laughed at that little ball of fur.

“I asked her what she wished to name the kitten, and she said that she enjoyed so much watching the way it incessantly lurked about, pouncing on things, that she would call it Lurk. That was where I got the name. I always like it, because of that.”

Ann rolled her eyes. She sighed as she considered his words. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again and, with another sigh, instead gave his arm a consoling pat.

“Well, no harm done,” she conceded. “No harm done.” She bent and with a finger hooked the blanket. As she stood folding it, she asked, “What about the bottle? The one you told Richard was in the First Wizard’s enclave at the Keep? What trouble is it likely to cause when he breaks it?”

“Oh, it was just a bottle I picked up in a market when I was traveling one time. When I saw it, I was immediately taken with the mastery it must have taken to make such a beautiful, graceful piece. After a long negotiation with the peddler, I finally wore him down and purchased it for a exceptionally good price.

“I liked the bottle so well that when I returned, I set it up on that pedestal. It was also a reminder of how, because of my skill at bargaining, I had obtained it at a remarkably good price. I thought it looked nice, there, and it made me proud of myself.”

“Well, aren’t you the clever one,” Ann sniped.

“Yes, very. Not long after, I found a bottle exactly like it for half the price, and that was without haggling. I kept the bottle there on that pedestal to remind myself not to get cocky, just because I was First Wizard. It’s just an old bottle kept as a lesson; no harm will come when Richard breaks it.”

Ann chuckled as she shook her head. “If not for the gift, I fear to think what would have become of you.”

“What I fear is that we are about to find out.”

Already, as his magic was failing, he felt aches in his bones, and lassitude in his muscles. It would get worse.

Ann’s smile faded at the grim reality of his words.

“I don’t understand it. What you told Richard was true: Kahlan would have to be his third wife to have called the chimes into this world. We know the chimes are here, yet it’s impossible.

“Even given the convoluted ways magic can interpret incidents to constitute the fulfillment of requirements and conditions to trigger an event, she can be counted as no more than his second wife. There was that other one, that Nadine girl, and Kahlan. One and one equals two; Kahlan can be no more than number two.”

Zedd shrugged. “We know the chimes have been unleashed. That is the problem we must address, not the how of it.”

Ann grudgingly nodded her assent. “Do you think that grandson of yours will do as he says and go straight to the Keep?”

“He promised he would.”

Ann’s eyes turned up to him. “We are talking about Richard, here.”

Zedd opened his hands in a helpless gesture. “I don’t know what else we could have done to insure he goes to the Keep. We gave him every motivation, from noble to selfish, to rush there. He has no wiggle room. We made the consequences, should he fail to do as we told him he must, frighteningly clear to him.”

“Yes,” Ann said, smoothing the blanket folded over her arm, “we did everything except tell him the truth.”

“We mostly told him the truth of what would happen if he doesn’t go to the Keep. That was no lie, except that the truth is even more grim than we painted it for him.

“I know Richard. Kahlan loosed the chimes to save his life; he would be bound and determined to set it right, to help. He could only make what is bleak worse. We can’t allow him to play with this fire. We gave him what he needs most: a way to help.

“His only safety is the Keep. The chimes can’t get him where they were called forth, and the Sword of Truth is the only magic likely to still work. We will see to this. Who knows, without him in their grasp, the threat could even die out on its own.”

“Slim thread to hang the world on. However, I suppose you’re right,” Ann said. “He is one resolute man—like his grandfather.”

She tossed the blanket on the pallet. “But at all costs, he must be protected. He leads D’Hara and is pulling the lands together under that banner to resist the scourge of the Imperial Order. In Aydindril, besides being safe, he can continue the task of forging unity. He has already proven his leadership ability. The prophecies warn that only he has a chance to successfully lead us in this struggle. Without him, we are lost for sure.”

Nissel shuffled in carrying a tray of tava bread spread with honey and mint. She smiled at Zedd as she let Ann unload the three steaming cups of tea she was also holding. Nissel set the tray of tava on the floor before the pallets and sat down where Zedd had been lying. Ann handed her one of the cups and sat on the folded blanket at the head of the other pallet.

Nissel patted the bedding beside her. “Come, sit, and have tava and tea before you must leave on your journey.”

Zedd, considering weighty matters, offered her a weak smile as he sat beside her. She sensed his somber mood and silently lifted the platter to offer him tava. Zedd, seeing she understood his worry if not its cause, slipped a thankful arm around her shoulders. With his other hand, he took a piece of sticky tava.

Zedd licked honey from the crusty edge. “I wish we knew something about that book Richard mentioned, Mountain’s Twin. I wish I knew if he knew anything about it.”

“He didn’t seem to. All Verna told me at the time was that Mountain’s Twin was destroyed.”

Ann had already known that much when Richard asked. She had offered to inquire through her journey book, even though its magic had already, faded, so they might conceal from Richard the spreading extent of the trouble.

“I wish I’d had a look at it before it was destroyed.”

Ann ate a few bites of her tava bread before she asked, “Zedd, what if we can’t stop them? Our magic is already beginning to dwindle. It won’t be long until it fails completely. How are we going to stop the chimes without magic?”

Zedd licked honey from his lips. “I’m still hoping answers can be found at the place they were entombed, somewhere in the land of Toscla. Or whatever they call it now. Perhaps I can find books there, books of the history or culture of the land. They might give me the clue I need.”

Zedd was growing weaker by the day. His departing power sapped vitality as it bled away. His journey would be slow and difficult. Ann had the same trouble.

Nissel cuddled close to him, happy to simply be with someone who liked her as a woman, and didn’t want healing from her. Her healing would not help him. He genuinely did like her. He felt sympathy for her, too, for a woman most people didn’t understand. It was hard to be unlike those around you.

“Do you have any theories at all of how to banish the chimes from this world?” Ann asked between bites.

Zedd tore his tava bread in half. “Only what we discussed; if Richard stays at the Keep, then without him the chimes very well may be pulled back to the underworld even without our help. I know it’s a slim hope, but I will just have to find a way to fight them back into the underworld if need be. How about you? Any ideas?”

“None.”

“And do you still have your mind set on trying to rescue your Sisters of the Light from Jagang?”

She swished away a gnat. “Jagang’s magic will fail just the same as all other magic. The dream walker will lose his grip on my Sisters. In danger there is opportunity. I must use the opportunity while it is available.”

“Jagang still has a huge army. For one who often criticizes my plans, you prove no more ingenious at the task of scheming.”

“The reward is well worth the risk.” Ann lowered the hand with her tava. “I shouldn’t admit it . . . but, since we are to part ways, I will say it. You are a clever man, Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander. I will miss your vexing company. Your trickster ways have saved our hides more than once. I admire your perseverance—and see where Richard gets his.”

“Really? Well, I still don’t like your plan. Flattery will not change that.”

Ann simply smiled to herself.

Her plan was too artless, but he understood her commitment. Rescuing the Sisters of the Light was essential, and not simply because they were captives being brutalized. If the chimes could be banished, Jagang would again control those sorceresses, and so their power.

“Ann, fear can be a powerful master. If some of the Sisters don’t believe you that they can escape, you can’t allow them to remain a menace, albeit an unwilling one, to our cause.”

Ann looked over out of the corner of her eye. “I understand.”

He was asking her to either rescue them or assassinate them.

“Zedd,” she said in soft compassion, “I don’t like mentioning it, but if what Kahlan has done . . .”

“I know.”

In calling forth the chimes, Kahlan had invoked their aid to save Richard’s life. There was a price.

In return for keeping Richard in the world of life until he recovered, she had unwittingly pledged the chimes the one thing they needed in order to also remain in the world of life.

A soul. Richard’s soul.

But he would be safe at the Keep; the place where they had been called was a safe haven for the one pledged.

Zedd put half his tava bread to Nissel’s lips. She smiled and chomped a big bite. She fed him a bite of her tava bread, after touching it to the end of his nose first. The foolishness of this old healer putting a dot of honey on his nose, like some mischievous little girl, made him chuckle.

Finally, Ann asked, “What ever happened to your cat, Lurk?”

Zedd frowned as he puzzled, trying to recollect. “To tell you the truth, I don’t recall. So much was happening back then. The war with D’Hara—led by Richard’s other grandfather, Panis Rahl, was just igniting. The lives of thousands hung under threat. I was yet to be named First Wizard. Erilyn was pregnant with our daughter.

“I guess with all that was going on, we just lost track of the cat. There are countless places in the Keep with mice; it probably found lurking about more appealing than two busy people.”

Zedd swallowed at the painful memories. “After I moved to Westland, and Richard was born, I always kept a cat as a reminder of Erilyn and home.”

Ann smiled in kind, sincere sympathy.

“I hope you never named one ‘Lurk,’ so that Richard would have cause to suddenly recall the name.”

“No,” Zedd whispered. “I never did.”