Warheart

CHAPTER 53

Richard pressed his hand to the top of the machine in a silent thank-you.

He turned and hurried to the cramped landing for the spiral stairs where the others waited.

Nicci looked up. “So, what was that all about? What did it say?”

“I don’t know,” Richard said, flicking a hand back toward Regula. “Nothing much, really. Nothing that made any sense. You know the way it likes to talk in riddles. Just more of those same games and nonsense we’ve gotten from it before.”

Nicci made a sound to say that she knew what he was talking about. Nathan looked disappointed.

Richard rubbed the back of his neck. The pain from the poison was making his head hurt so much it was making him sick to his stomach. Kahlan, watching him, could see how he was feeling.

“I knew it was a waste of time. Now can we go to the containment field?” There was no mistaking by her tone that it was not really a question.

He gave in with a weary nod. “Of course. I told you we would go there as soon as I checked the machine. It’s fine. I’m done. Let’s go.”

Kahlan blinked, apparently having expected an argument of some sort. “Well, all right, then. Good.”

Richard grabbed Nathan’s arm and turned the frowning prophet to get him started up the circular stone stairway. He needed to distract them from the omen machine.

“Are all the defenses in place,” Richard asked Nathan, “like I told you we needed in case those unholy half-dead get into the palace?”

Nathan looked back over his shoulder as Richard prodded him upward. “How would they get in? The palace is sealed tight.”

“Well, there are catacombs out there on the plains, remember? That’s how I got in before. Jagang managed to launch an attack in that same way. Sulachan is one of the dead, after all, so he would likely be aware of such places. And then there are the walls that are melting–”

“You’ve made your point,” Nathan said, holding up a hand. “You go on to the containment field while I check with General Zimmer and make sure that the defenses are in place and ready. If need be, I can always use wizard’s fire to hold any invaders back. Happy?”

“Yes, thank you, that would ease my mind if you would coordinate it with him. If those unholy half-dead get in here, we are going to be in a lot of trouble.”

“Once I’m done healing you,” Nicci said, “I’ll go help them. If the enemy breaks in there are plenty of choke points inside where we can keep them contained with the help of fire.”

“Good,” Richard said with a firm nod, not believing a word of it. There would be no containing such forces, at least not for long.

At the top of the stairs as they went around the empty structural chamber and climbed the ladder up and out of the hole where the floor of the Garden of Life had collapsed, Richard gestured to the prophet. “Nathan, you had better get going while we have the chance. Get General Zimmer and his men in place. The rest of us will head for the containment field.”

Back up on the floor of the Garden of Life, surrounded by the heady fragrance of jasmine that grew in great swaths beside the walkway that wandered down toward them in the heart of the room, Richard paused to look across the remaining grass to the altar. There on top of the granite slab where lives were once sacrificed, right where he had left them, sat the three boxes of Orden.

All of their covers were off. Each sinister-looking box was blacker than black. Each looked like a window through the world of life into the underworld itself.

He supposed that in a way that’s exactly what they were. The power of Orden could create spectral folds that brought worlds together. Now, the world of the dead was coming together with the world of life.

Richard glanced up at the glass roof over the Garden of Life. The sun had set and the sky was darkening. Richard couldn’t yet see the first stars.

“It will be night soon,” Nicci said. “Night is the best time to use the containment field, so we will have that on our side to help us.”

“We can’t get there soon enough to satisfy me.” Kahlan gestured around the room. “The Garden of Life is a containment field. Why can’t we do it here?”

Nicci shook her head, dissuading them from the notion. “With the breach in the floor down into the substructure and below that into the room with the omen machine, we dare not trust that the containment field would still be intact. We know that the omen machine goes down through the plateau, like a deep taproot. That could drain the power protecting the field right into the ground. We simply can’t trust it. The consequences of a field breach would be catastrophic. We know that the other one, down in that lower library, is intact. We need to get down there and use that one.”

It was a reminder to prompt Richard to stop looking around the Garden of Life and get moving. Richard needed to take a last look at it all and get it fixed in his mind. He had also wanted to make sure that the boxes of Orden were still where he had left them and that they hadn’t been disturbed. Satisfied, he started up the path between the small trees.

Outside the great doors carved with a scene of rolling hills and forests and then sheathed in gold, General Zimmer and a large contingent of the First File waited to protect him wherever he went in the palace. He was going to need a way around that, and he hoped Nathan would provide the excuse.

“General Zimmer,” Richard said, lifting a hand to get the man’s attention as he hurried down the hall. “We need to get down to the containment field in the lower libraries. Nicci has to heal me there, so we’ll be in there all night. While we’re doing that, I want Nathan to take you and the men and show you where we need defensive positions set up.”

The general looked a little confused. “If there is any breach, we will defend right there, wherever it is.”

Richard was shaking his head. “Ordinarily, you would be right. But this threat is different. It involves powers we’ve never had to face before.” Richard signaled to the prophet. “Nathan will take you and the men down and show you the spots where we hope to be able to contain any intrusion. He will know best where his magic will work, should it be needed.”

The general, more accustomed to acting alone and in his own way than by elaborate planning, looked back at Nathan, seeming unsure. Richard gestured again. “Hurry now. Get going. Once you’re done, I’d like you and the men to stand guard outside the library with the containment field where we will be. Nathan knows which one it is.”

General Zimmer clapped a fist to his heart. “I will see that it is taken care of, Lord Rahl.”

With Nathan following closely behind, General Zimmer peeled away as he started down the hall, taking his large contingent of men with him down the nearest staircase. The entire top floor was guarded with a permanent force of the First File who would remain behind to guard the Garden of Life and the boxes of Orden waiting inside.

Richard, with Kahlan at his side, followed Rikka down the grand marble staircases on the other side from the one the general and his men had taken. Nicci, Cassia, and Vale followed him down flights of stairs past landings at several levels. Richard slipped an arm around Kahlan’s waist as they descended the marble steps. He needed to feel her warmth, the life in her. He needed to feel the balance to what churned inside him.

At the unexpected embrace, Kahlan looked over at him, not asking anything, not saying anything, simply happy that he had pulled her close to him. She gave him her special smile, the one she gave no one else.

Rikka knew the way to the library with the containment field better than any of them, so when they reached a lower level she led them without hesitation through guarded double doors out of the restricted areas and into the grand halls of the palace. They were immediately greeted by the background murmur of hushed whispers and the scuffing of feet against the ornate stone floors.

Being one of the main public hallways through the palace, it was several stories high. There were people everywhere nervously going about their business, taking care of urgent matters. He could see small groups of people rushing over the bridges that crossed the hallway overhead. Some stopped to look down at the unexpected sight of the Lord Rahl in the palace. It had been quite a while since they had seen him.

Everywhere, people noticed the statuesque blonde with the single braid, dressed in red leather, walking out in front, leading the Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor through his palace. Richard had forgotten what it was like to have eyes constantly watching them. With that unique skill that beautiful women seemed to possess, Rikka appeared not to notice anyone looking at her, and yet was acutely aware of all the eyes on her.

From a side hall, Nyda arrived to join them. She glanced over to Richard, Kahlan, and those following. She noticed immediately that Rikka marched with purpose, her eyes ahead, and fell in beside her. Rikka and Nyda almost looked as if they could have been sisters. With four Mord-Sith escorting them, surrounding Richard, Kahlan, and Nicci in a wall of red leather, they were drawing even more attention.

Mord-Sith never went anywhere unnoticed. Even if people didn’t look directly at them, most people seemed to have a sixth sense that enabled them to know where the Mord-Sith were and casually, without looking at the women in red leather, to move away and give them ample distance.

The People’s Palace was so sprawling that it took quite some time to get from one end to the other. Richard was glad when Rikka turned them in to a private corridor and then down service stairs that would cut the distance they needed to travel through the palace.

They finally reached the proper hallway where there were several libraries, most with glassed doors, including the one with the containment field.

“Here we are,” Rikka said as she stopped and gestured.

“At last,” Kahlan said with obvious relief. “I never thought we would get here.”

Just before entering through the double doors with squares of opaque glass, Richard came to a stop. He snapped his fingers.

“I forgot. I have to do something a minute. It will be quick.”

Nicci frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Kahlan’s frown was more serious. “Richard, you need to get in here right now and let Nicci get that poison out of you.”

Richard was nodding reassuringly as she spoke. “I know, I know. This will only take a minute. Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

“You can do it after–”

“No, I just need to do this first. It will be quick. I’ll explain in a couple minutes when I’m back. I will be right back.”

Kahlan looked into the dark room and then back to him. “Richard, I don’t think–”

“Get the lamps lit and get the place set up,” he said, gesturing into the room. “Hurry.”

Before Nicci could take his arm, he stepped away and seized Cassia’s instead. “I’ll take Cassia with me. All right? Will that ease your mind?”

He started moving down the hall, still holding Cassia’s arm, ushering her along with him. He waved assurance back at the confused faces of Kahlan and Nicci, and the scowls of the other three Mord-Sith.

Kahlan lifted her hand in confusion. “Richard–”

“Go in and wait for me.” He gestured for her to go into the library. “I’ll be right back.”

As soon as he turned a corner in the hall so that he was out of their sight, he started running.

Cassia ran at his side. “Lord Rahl, what’s going on? Where are we going?”

Richard pointedly didn’t answer her. He caught the round cap of a newel post in one hand to help swing himself around as he caught Cassia’s arm with his other hand to pull her along with him and down the stairs.

His mind raced as fast as his feet as he oriented himself in a mental map of the palace, making sure of each intersection and turn he made so that he wouldn’t get stuck in a dead end with a shield and have to waste time backtracking. He took several unconventional routes simply to skirt one place that he knew was shielded, and a public corridor so that he wouldn’t be seen by anyone.

“Lord Rahl, what are we doing? Where are you going?”

Richard slid to a stop as a shield he hadn’t realized would be in that particular hallway lit the air red right across the hallway. He would have to go back and take a different route.

“Lord Rahl–”

He turned to face Cassia, still holding her by the arm. “I’m going someplace dangerous. I have to do something crazy. I need help. Are you with me? Are you willing to risk your life helping me?”

Cassia blinked at the question, then lifted Cara’s Agiel from where it hung on the chain at her neck, showing it to him. “Of course, Lord Rahl. Like Cara, I would lay down my life for you.”

“I’m trying to save all of our lives. I have to do this. It’s the only way–our only chance.”

Cassia’s face screwed up with a puzzled frown. “Do what?”

Richard turned her and gave her a shove, starting her running back up the hall with him. He took the next intersection, flinging open the door into the Lord Rahl’s private corridor off the service area. There would be less chance of being spotted in there. He was relieved to see which corridor it was. He remembered the small painting of a statue on a hillside of wildflowers. It was a corridor that would take them where they needed to go.

“Stay with me,” he said as he hurried down the hallway. “There is no time to lose.”

“Lord Rahl, what’s wrong?”

“Sulachan and the half people are going to break in soon and start killing people. We have to get back in time to stop them before it’s too late and everyone is slaughtered.”

“Lord Rahl,” she protested as she ran behind him. “What are you going to do? Why couldn’t you tell the others? Why would you leave the Mother Confessor without telling her?”

He stopped and turned back a moment, catching his breath.

“That horde of half people spread out across the Azrith Plain are going to get in here at any moment. If I don’t do this they will kill everyone in here. The Twilight Count is nearly done. Time is running out. If I don’t do this everyone is going to die.”

“So why couldn’t you tell her that and tell her what you intend to do? And what is it you intend–”

“Even if I succeed in saving the world of life, I will likely die doing it. I couldn’t tell her that. If by some chance I live, then I’ll have to apologize to her, but I couldn’t tell her I’m running off to do something that is likely to get me killed no matter if I succeed or not. This is about everyone, not just the people here.”

Cassia smiled a crooked grin. “Lord Rahl, she knows your heart. Whatever it is you have to do, she would understand.”

“Not this,” he said as he started down the corridor again, heading for the stairs.

At the bottom of the solemn black marble stairs, he raced along the final corridor that would get him to where he needed to go.

“Sliph!” he called out as he ran. “Sliph–I need you!”

He threw open the double doors and stumbled to a stop, Cassia right behind him, both out of breath.

The silver face rising above the silver pool in the well smiled pleasantly. “Master, you wish to travel?”

Richard swallowed, hands on his knees, catching his breath. He straightened.

“Yes, we both need to travel. It’s urgent. We need to travel.”

“Come,” the sliph said, “and we will travel. You will be pleased.”

Richard hopped up on the stone wall surrounding her well. “You must not tell anyone where we’re going,” he said as he helped pull Cassia up beside him. “No matter who asks, you must not let them know where you are taking us.”

“Master,” the sliph said with a coy smile, “you know I never reveal anything about my clients to anyone.”