Stone of Tears

Chapter 32

The lightning didn’t come anymore. The clouds still roiled around him, but the lightning didn’t come. He walked without giving thought to where he was going. When he felt inexplicable danger, he skirted it. To the sides, visions tempted him to look, but he stoically ignored them.

Almost not seeing it at first, because of the dark clouds, he came upon another tower. It looked like the first, except it was a glossy black. At first thinking he would avoid it, he found himself walking to one of the arches and peering in. The ground inside was covered with sand that was drifted into the corners, the same as the last tower, but it was black instead of white. It glimmered with the same prismatic light as the white sand.

Curiosity overcame caution and he reached inside, running a finger through the black grit covering the walls. It tasted sweet.

The wizard who had given his life into this fire had done so to save another, not to save himself torture. This wizard had been altruistic, the other ignoble.

If having the gift meant he was a wizard, Richard wondered which kind he was. He would like to think of himself as high-minded, but he had just killed another to save himself from torture. But was he not within his rights to kill to protect his life? Must he wrongly die to be honorable?

Who was he to judge which of these wizards had been wiser, or which had done what was within his rights?

The sparkling black sand fascinated him. It seemed to draw light from nowhere and reflect it about the inside of the tower in winking colors. Richard retrieved an empty spice tin and scooped it full of the black sand. He tucked the tin back in his pack hanging from Geraldine’s saddle while he whistled for Bonnie—she was off browsing again.

Her ears swiveled toward him as her head came up. Dutifully, she trotted over and joined him and the other two horses, pushing her head against his shoulder in hopes of a neck scratch. As they left the tower behind, he gave her the scratch she wanted.

His shirt was soaked with sweat as he hiked quickly across the barren ground. He wanted to be out of this valley and away from the magic, the spells, and the visions. Sweat rolled from his brow as he walked, trying to ignore familiar voices that called to him. He ached with desire to see the faces of loved ones who called his name, but he didn’t look. Other voices hissed with menace and threat, but he kept moving. At times, the spells tingled against his flesh, burning with pricks of heat or cold or pain, and he rushed away from them even faster.

As he wiped sweat from his eyes, they focused on the baked earth before him and he saw tracks. His own. He realized that in trying to avoid the feelings of danger, the visions, and the voices, he must have been walking in circles, if in fact the footprints were real.

He began to have the queasy feeling that the magic was trapping him. Maybe all this time he had been walking, he had not been making any headway out of the Valley of the Lost. Maybe he, too, was lost. How was he going to find a way out? He tugged the horses on and kept moving, but with a rising sense of panic.

Unexpectedly, out of the dark fog before him came a vision that startled him into a dead stop. It was Sister Verna. She was wandering aimlessly, her hands clasped prayerfully, her eyes skyward, and a blissful smile upon her lips.

Richard stalked toward her. “Be gone! I’ve had enough of these specters! Leave me alone!” She didn’t seem to hear him. That was impossible; she was easily close enough to hear him. He stepped closer, the air feeling abruptly thick and sparkling around him as he did so, until he seemed to step beyond it. “Do you hear? Listen to me! I said be gone!”

Distant brown eyes focused on him. She held her arm out, her hand held up in forbidding. “Leave me. I have found what I seek. Leave me to my peace, my bliss.”

As she turned away, Richard felt an apprehensive, tingling sensation all the way down to his toes. She wasn’t trying to entice him, as the other visions had.

His hair tried to stand on end.

“Sister Verna?”

Could it be true? Could she be alive? Maybe he hadn’t really killed her. Maybe it had all been a vision. “Sister Verna, if it really is you, talk to me.”

She regarded him with a puzzled frown. “Richard?”

“Of course Richard.”

“Go,” she whispered as her eyes turned up once more. “I am with Him.”

“Him? Him who?”

“Please, Richard, you are tainted. Go away.”

“If you’re a vision, then you go away.”

She regarded him with pleading. “Please, Richard. You’re disturbing Him. Don’t ruin what I’ve found.”

“What have you found? Is it Jedidiah?”

“The Creator,” she said in a hallowed tone.

Richard peered skyward. “I don’t see anyone.”

She turned her back to him and strolled away. “Leave me to Him.”

Richard didn’t know if this was the real Sister Verna, or an illusion. Or maybe the dead Sister’s spirit. Which was true? How could he tell?

He had promised the real Sister that she would make it through, that he would help her. He followed after her before she could disappear into the dark fog.

“What does the Creator look like, Sister Verna? Is he young? Old? Does he have long hair? Short? Does he have all his teeth?”

She turned in a rage. “Leave me!”

The menace in her expression froze him in his tracks.

“No. Listen to me, Sister Verna. You’re coming with me. I’m not leaving you trapped in this spell. That’s all you see: an enchantment spell.”

He reasoned that if she was a specter, and he took her with him, she would vanish when they left the magic of the valley. If she was real, well then he would be saving her. She would be alive. Though he wished to be free of her, he wished more that she was alive, and that she wouldn’t really do to him what she had done back in the tower. He didn’t want that to be the true Sister Verna. He started toward her again.

Her hand came up, as if to push him, even though he was a good ten paces away. The force of the impact threw him to the ground. He rolled over, clutching his chest, clutching at the receding agony. It felt like what had been done to him in the tower—hard, burning pain—but it faded faster.

Wincing, he sat up, quickly gathering his wits as he gasped for breath. He looked up to check where the Sister was in case she was about to hurt him again. What he saw halted his breath only half out of his lungs.

As the Sister once again stared skyward, the dark fog around them swirled and coalesced into forms, the forms of wraiths: insubstantial figures, seething, simmering with death. Their faces churned with steaming, shifting shadows that conjoined into glowing red eyes set in inky faces—hot tongues of flame alive with hate, glowering out from eternal night.

Bumps rippled and tingled across the backs of his shoulders. When he had been in the spirit house and felt the screeling on the other side of the door, when he had sensed the man about to kill Chandalen, and when he had first encountered the Sisters, he had felt an overwhelming, inexplicable sense of danger. He felt that danger now.

There wasn’t the slightest doubt in his mind that these things were part of the magic of this valley, and that that magic had at last found an intruder. Him.

“Verna!” he screamed.

She scowled down at him. “I told you, Richard, I am to be addressed as Sister Verna.”

“Is that what you do to your charges? Hurt them with your power?”

She looked startled. “But I . . .”

“Is this your eternal Paradise? Quarreling with people? Hurting them?” He rushed to his knees, eyeing the drifting forms about them. “Sister, we have to get out of here.”

“I wish to stay with Him. I have found my bliss.”

“This is your idea of Paradise? Giving pain? Answer me, Sister Verna! Is that what your Creator wishes of you? To hurt the people you are responsible for?”

She gaped at him, quickness suddenly coming to her movements as she rushed to him. “Did I hurt you?” She gripped his shoulders. “Oh, child, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

He came the rest of the way to his feet and shook her.

“Sister, we have to get out of here! I don’t know how! Tell me how to get out of here before it’s too late!”

“But . . . I wish to stay.”

“Look around, Sister Verna! What do you see?”

She jerked her head woodenly about, from one dark form to another, then to him. “Richard . . .”

Richard angrily pointed skyward. “Look, Sister! That’s not the Creator! It’s the Keeper.”

She peered where he directed. With a gasp, her fingers flew to her mouth.

The red glow in the eyes of one of the dark, shifting forms intensified into burning embers. The sense of danger flamed through Richard’s very soul. The sword was out in a blink. The vaporous wraith solidified into solid bone and muscle, claws and fangs, into a frightening beast covered with a dark, cracked, leathery hide dappled with hideous, suppurating sores. It descended upon him in a terrifying rush.

With the sword gripped in both hands, Richard screamed with unleashed fury, driving the sword through the beast’s chest as it rushed at him. Soft flesh and hard bone hissed at contact with the blade. The monster slid from the sword and hit the ground like a bucket of slop, its hide not entirely able to contain its contents. A drop of blood splattered on Richard’s arm, burning through his shirt and into his flesh. From the inside, the beast boiled and frothed. Worms wriggled from the abscessed sores.

Sister Verna stared wide-eyed at the bubbling, smoking mass. He grabbed her curly hair in his fist and twisted her head to look at the forms that were closing in. “Is this your idea of Paradise? Look! Look at them!”

He dragged her backward with him as the dark, watery blood running from the beast ignited, sending acrid, oily black smoke curling from the flames. Richard halted when he remembered what she had told him before, about backing into worse danger. He smelled burning flesh and, realizing it was his own, spat on the painful, smoking spot of the beast’s blood on his arm.

He took in a quick sweep of the area. There were more of the forms behind. Another of them solidified into a beast, this time with cloven hooves and a broad snout. Razor-sharp tusks sprouted, growing into long, curved weapons.

Snorting, it charged them. Richard drove his sword downward through the thing’s skull as it tried to gore him. With a squeal, the beast collapsed heavily. By the time the bulky body hit the ground, it had mutated to a writhing mass of snakes. They tumbled and rolled as they hit, the tangled pile of them wriggling apart. Hundreds of hooded red eyes glowered up at him. Red tongues flicked the air as the yellow-and-black-banded bodies slithered toward the two of them.

Richard didn’t think they were mere incorporeal illusions; the place on his arm where the drop of blood had splattered burned painfully. The snakes hissed. Some coiled to strike, revealing dripping fangs.

“Richard, we have to get out of here. Come, child.”

They turned and ran, the floating, red-eyed forms following. Richard felt the thick air as he went through. The air around him sparkled.

Sister Verna cried out. He turned to see her on the ground before the snakes. She sprang to her feet and tried again, but could not pass through. To her, the air was solid.

She stood silently a moment, going calm. She clasped her hands. “Richard, I am trapped in this spell. I cannot leave it. It is me the spell captured, and recognizes. It is too late for me. Save yourself. Run. Without me, you may have a chance. Hurry. Go.”

There seemed to be a lot more snakes than Richard had seen at first. The ground was alive with them. They were surrounding him. He struck as they did, and beheaded three that came too close.

The headless bodies writhed and then disassembled into hundreds of huge, glossy, black-and-brown-banded bugs. They skittered in every direction. Some ran up his pant leg. He frantically shook his legs trying to get them out. Each bite felt like a hot coal on his flesh. He stomped his feet to get them off. From the ground where he had killed the snakes, more of the bugs poured out, their hard-shelled bodies tumbling over each other, rustling like the sound of dry leaves blowing across parched earth.

Dancing among the clicking bugs and between the squirming snakes, he stepped back into the sparkling air. “Without you I don’t have a chance. You’re coming with me.”

He enfolded her in his arms and threw himself sword-first at the sparkling barrier. The wall seemed hard at first, but then the air about them exploded in glittering flashes. Lines of light, like crazed glass, shot in every direction. The air erupted in a burst of sparkles and a crack of thunder. The darting sparkles slowed and then drifted to earth, like fat flakes of snow, their light extinguishing when they touched the ground. The two of them moved past the vanished barrier, free of the spell.

The dark forms followed. The snakes followed. Bugs popped and crunched under his boots.

Richard’s grip tightened on the sword. “Let’s get out of here.”

She took two strides and then froze.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t feel the way,” she whispered. “Richard, I can’t feel the gaps.” She turned to him. “Do you feel anything?” He shook his head. “Try! Richard, try to feel where there is less danger.”

He stomped his feet to knock the bugs off his legs and swiped off one that had made it to his face. Snakes were still pouring from the ground where the monster had fallen. They boiled up like water from a spring. “I can’t. I feel danger all about. It’s the same everywhere. Which way!”

She clutched her skirt in a fist. “I don’t know.”

Richard heard a scream. The familiar voice wrenched his attention before he could stop himself. Kahlan was standing where the snakes poured from the ground. They slithered up and over her as if she were a rock in a living stream of snakes. She held her arms out to him.

“Richard! Help me! You said you would love me always! Please, Richard! Don’t leave me to this! Help me!”

His own voice came in a shaky whisper. “Sister Verna, what do you see?”

“Jedidiah,” she answered quietly. “There are snakes all over him. He wants my help. May the Creator have mercy on us.”

“Why should he start now?”

“Do not speak blasphemy.”

He forced himself to turn from the vision. Gripping the Sister’s arm, he led her away. They sidestepped as they watched the forms drifting around them. They avoided the snakes, but it was impossible not to step on the huge bugs.

He knew that moving anywhere without knowing where to go could be more dangerous than standing still, now that the magic had found them. Even so, he couldn’t make his feet stop. Finally they reached ground that was clear of snakes and bugs, for the moment.

“We’re running out of time. Do you feel anything yet? Do you feel the way yet?”

“Nothing. I’m sorry, Richard. I have failed in my duty, failed the Creator. I’ve killed us both.”

“Not yet.”

Richard whistled for the horses. They came at a trot, ignored by the dark forms. Bonnie nuzzled her head against him, forcing him back a step. Sister Verna took up the lead line and started leading Jessup away.

“No!” Richard leapt up onto Bonnie. He swatted two clicking bugs from his pant leg. “Mount up. Hurry.”

Sister Verna stared at him. “Richard, we can’t ride the horses. I told you that. They are just dumb animals. They will be spooked and take us into a storm of spells. We can’t control them without bits!”

“Sister, you told me you read The Adventures of Bonnie Day. Do you remember when the three heroes were taking the injured people to safety, and they came to the poison river that couldn’t be crossed? What did they say? They said that the people just had to have faith that it could be done. Bonnie, Geraldine, and Jessup led them across the river. Have faith, Sister. Mount up. Hurry.”

“You want me to do something I know will get us killed because of some fool thing you read in a book! We must walk!”

Bonnie tossed her head and danced about. Richard took up the slack in the reins to keep her in place. “You don’t know the way. I don’t know the way. If we stay we die.”

“Then what good is riding going to do!” She had to give a sharp tug to keep Jessup still. He was roused by Bonnie’s excitement.

“Sister, what have the horses been doing all day, whenever we let them?”

“Browsing on grass that isn’t there. They’re having visions!”

“Are they? Do you know that? What if what we’re seeing is the illusion? Maybe they see what’s really here. Now let’s go!”

The dark forms were closer, their eyes glowing a brighter red. Sister Verna glanced at them, and then pulled herself up onto the saddle. “But—”

“Have a little faith, Sister.” Bonnie pranced sideways, eager to be off. “I promised you I would save you, and I intend to. I’ll lead. Don’t hold back.”

Richard gave his horse a sharp kick in the ribs with his heels while shouting the command. She leapt out into a dead run. The other two horses sprang to follow. He leaned forward over Bonnie’s withers as she stretched into the gallop. He let her have free rein, without giving her any hint of direction. He focused on her ears, instead of what lay ahead, not wanting to influence her.

“Richard!” Sister Verna screamed from behind. “In the name of the Creator, watch where you’re going! Don’t you see what you’re leading that horse into!”

“I’m not leading her,” he called out over the sound of thundering hooves. “She is picking her own course.”

The Sister galloped up beside him, her eyebrows knit together in fury. “Are you insane? Look at where you’re headed!”

Richard snatched a glance. They were rushing headlong for the edge of a cliff.

“Close your eyes, Sister.”

“Have you lost your . . .”

“Close your eyes! It’s a vision. A vision of a fear we all have in common—falling. Just like we both saw snakes.”

“The snakes were real! If you’re wrong we will be killed!”

“Close your eyes. If it’s really there, the horses won’t run over the edge of a cliff.” He hoped he was right about that.

“Unless it’s really there, and the magic shows them a vision of flat ground so as to kill us!”

“If we stay, we die! We have no choice!”

He heard a growled curse from her as she hauled in on her left rein, trying to turn her horse, but Jessup stayed with Bonnie. Bonnie was leading; Jessup and Geraldine wouldn’t leave her.

“I told you destroying those bits was foolish! We can’t control them! They’re running away with us!”

“I told you I would save you. Destroying those bits is what will save you. My eyes are closed. If you want to live, close yours!”

Sister Verna was silent as the three horses thundered on. Richard’s eyes were squeezed shut. When he judged they should be at the brink, he held his breath. He prayed that the good spirits would be with him this time.

His legs tingled in anticipation of plummeting over a cliff. He tried not to think of what it would be like on the way down. Shared fear, that’s all it was. He realized he was holding Bonnie’s mane in a death grip. He relaxed his fingers but kept his eyes closed.

The plunge didn’t come.

The three horses galloped on. He did nothing to slow them, but let them run as they would. They were in a frisky mood from grazing all day, and he could tell they were enjoying the run. They were running for the sheer joy of it.

After a time, Richard realized that the sound of their hooves was changing. It wasn’t as sharp; it had grown softer.

“Richard! We’re out of the valley!”

He looked back over his shoulder to see the wisp of dark storm clouds boiling at the edge of the horizon. The golden sun hung low in the sky over the grassy, undulating ground beneath them. Their horses slowed to a canter.

“Are you sure? Are you sure we’re away from it?”

She nodded. “This is the Old World. I know this place.”

“But it could still be an illusion, to give us confidence, and trap us before we’re clear.”

“Must you always question what I tell you? I can feel it with my Han. This is no illusion. We are safely out of the valley and away from its magic. It cannot reach us now.”

Richard wondered briefly if she could still be an illusion. But he, too, sensed that the danger was no longer there. He leaned forward and gave Bonnie’s warm neck a big hug.

The immense hills they were entering were barren of trees, covered with clumps of grass and wildflowers, the low places sprinkled throughout with sandy-colored rocks. The sun shined warmly, but it no longer scorched the land. Richard laughed into the wind at his face.

He grinned at Sister Verna, but she wasn’t smiling. Her brow was creased with a scowl as she scanned the sweep of hills before them.

“Wipe that grin off your face,” she snapped.

“I’m just happy we made it. I’m happy you’re alive, Sister.”

“If you had any idea how angry I am with you right now, Richard, you would not be quite so pleased I am still with you. Take this advice seriously: you would be doing yourself a great favor, right now, if you kept that tongue of yours still.”

He could only shake his head.