Warheart

CHAPTER 7

When Kahlan woke and squinted around she was relieved to see that the sky had just begun to lighten with the approaching dawn. She sat up and spotted Vale waking the other two Mord-Sith. Nicci squatted down beside the brook not far away, splashing cold water on her face.

With the faint light of dawn it was already light enough that they would be able to see where they were stepping without the need of Nicci creating a flame to light their way. Kahlan stretched as she yawned. Daylight would enable them to see if they were being attacked. They would be able to see well enough to run, or fight if they had to.

Although she knew that they had to have slept for a couple of hours, it felt like she had been asleep only a few minutes. She needed more, but at least she did feel somewhat better. As she stood she told herself that it would have to do.

“Nice bed you made for us,” Kahlan said in a weary voice to the three Mord-Sith. “We better get going.”

They returned the smile as Kahlan started out toward where Hunter was sitting up on a rock waiting for them. Once he saw them all up and moving in a line, he bounded off, expecting them to follow.

Kahlan’s back ached from sleeping on the ground, and she felt stiff all over. She put her hand on her middle and smiled when she felt the warmth still there from Hunter sleeping tight against her the whole time.

As the overcast day brightened under an iron-gray sky, they reached the far edge of a ridge, where they had a view out at the trackless forest ahead. It was disheartening to see the vast wilderness spread out below and the enormity of the mountains rising up beyond.

“When we were in the village of those people living by the witch woman, it was in a mountain pass,” Nicci said.

Kahlan nodded, feeling discouraged that the mountains were still far off beyond rugged woodlands. “That means we still have a long way to go.”

When hopelessness threatened to overwhelm her, she forced it away by keeping herself focused on what she would say to Red once they reached her. They couldn’t afford to fail.

Hunter trotted off down the slope, looking back over his shoulder as if to say, “Come on. Let’s go.”

Without a word, they all moved out to follow. The slope led them down into densely forested lowlands among craggy hills. Though they weren’t mountains, it was still difficult traveling.

Despite the difficulty of the terrain, Hunter found them a way through it all so that they were able to make good time until near midmorning, when they came to an impassable ravine that looked to be a long split completely through the rocky forest. It wasn’t far to the opposite side, but it was too wide to jump across.

The five of them stared down at the rushing water of the stream at the bottom. Though roots hung down the sides, they were not stout enough for handholds and the dirt certainly didn’t look stable enough to climb down. Kahlan could see no way for them to make it down the overhang. Even if they could, the opposite side didn’t look to have a way to climb back up.

Before Kahlan and the rest of them could begin to look for a better place they might be able to cross, she saw Hunter on the opposite side of the chasm. She frowned, wondering how he had gotten across. When he saw that she had spotted him, he started loping off to her left, as if he wanted them to go in that direction.

“Let’s see where he wants us to go,” Kahlan said as she started following the edge of the drop. “He obviously knows a way across.”

In places the edge of the cliffs had given way and taken trees with it. In another place they were forced to go through the woods to get around a spot where the tangled and thorny brush among trees growing right up to the edge was dense and impenetrable. Some of those trees leaned out over the drop, trying to find a patch of light for themselves. Vines hung from some of those trees, but they didn’t look strong enough that Kahlan would trust trying to use them to swing across.

As they came out of the woods Kahlan saw Hunter sitting on a log of a tree that had fallen over the chasm. He waited in the middle until he was sure they had spotted him. Once he knew they were watching, he turned and crossed the rest of the way over to the other side, clearly letting them know that this was the way they needed to cross.

Hunter had no difficulty at all crossing the log. Not only was he smaller and lower, but he had claws if he needed them. If he did fall, he was quick enough to be able to catch the log with his claws. He didn’t look like he feared falling, though. He was catlike in that he seemed to have no fear of heights.

When Kahlan peered over the edge it made her pulse quicken.

“Hunter,” she called across the ravine, “we can’t walk over the log like you can.”

He sat on the other side watching her, as if to ask why not.

Kahlan knew she couldn’t do it. She could balance pretty well for a few steps on a log going across a narrow stream if it meant keeping from getting wet, but she couldn’t balance for such a distance over a drop that would be fatal. Making it even more difficult, the humidity and frequent drizzle left the log slippery. Just thinking about trying to cross on it made her heart beat even faster.

Kahlan turned to Nicci. “Any ideas? We can’t walk across like he did.”

“Sure we can,” Cassia said.

Without explaining, she straddled the log and started shimmying across, using her hands as well as her legs to hold on. In no time at all she had made it to the other side. She stood up and smiled at them.

“See? Easy.”

Vale shook her head as if it was silliness and walked across the log, arms stretched out to the sides, as if she had been doing such things her whole life.

“You don’t need to stand up and walk across like her,” Cassia called over the chasm. “It’s not that hard if you do it like I did.”

Kahlan knew they couldn’t afford a delay. She got down and straddled the log. The bark was rough. Gummy sap stuck to her hands as she worked her way along the log, trying to look at the two Mord-Sith waiting on the other side, rather than look down.

Cassia was right. In short order Kahlan and then Nicci and Laurin made it across. It turned out to be a lot less trouble than Kahlan had feared when she first saw Hunter trot across.

Once they were all on the other side, they plunged back into the woods, following after Hunter. Before long they came to yet another ridge, but this one overlooked a narrow valley below that seemed softer because it looked mostly to be leafy trees, rather than the spiky shapes of pine and spruce. Hunter quickened his pace as he galloped down the slope, apparently wanting to hurry them along.

Coming down the slope from the ridge and out of the rough rock, they reached an area of smoother ground. It grew thick with grasses dotted with white flowers. As they moved farther into the area, the grass became increasingly shaded by maple, ash, and oak trees. Once he saw they were following, Hunter bounded away. Kahlan frowned as she watched him disappear off into the trees out ahead. It wasn’t like him to run off like that and vanish out of sight.

She wondered if he might be checking some danger or investigating a strange smell, like the stench of half people. Whatever it was, Kahlan found it a bit disturbing the way he had so abruptly vanished into the woods. She lifted the sword a few inches, checking that it was clear and its magic ready, then let it slide back down.

Emerging from a crowded area into a more open cathedral of monarch oaks, they all spotted something ahead. It looked like a person in an expanse of gravel beside a shallow stream.

Kahlan saw Hunter sitting on a rocky ledge in the shadows to the right, beside the crystal-clear water moving slowly past.

“I smell meat cooking,” Vale said.

Kahlan smelled it, too. She could see the wisps of smoke from the cook fire.

“It’s the witch woman,” Nicci said in a low voice, her gaze remaining locked on what she was seeing.

“Are you sure?” Kahlan whispered back. “From this distance I can’t make out who it is.”

“I don’t need to see her,” Nicci said. “I can sense her power with my gift. It’s hard to miss.”

“That’s disturbing,” Cassia muttered. “I hate magic.”

Without waiting to discuss a plan, Kahlan started toward the figure in the distance. Her plan was to find out if Red could help them, and if she could, to make sure she did. It was no more complicated than that.

When they got close enough Kahlan could see that there appeared to be something cooking on several spits above a bed of glowing coals. The witch woman stood bent over, tending to the coals with a stout stick.

As they got closer, Kahlan could see that Red was wearing an elegant gray dress that looked completely out of place in the wilds of the Dark Lands. It looked more like something one would wear to a palace ball. It made Kahlan, who was wet and filthy from mud, her hands dotted with spots of sticky sap, feel like a beggar.

The woman’s bewitching sky-blue eyes made her tight thatch of ropy red locks, by contrast, look all the more red. The gray dress, by its lack of color, served to make the dazzling color of the witch woman’s eyes and hair stand out all the more. Although it would seem to make sense, Kahlan knew that the woman’s red hair was not where she had gotten her name.

The witch woman at last looked up with those piercing blue eyes. “Ah, there you are, Mother Confessor. Right on time.”

“On time for what?” Kahlan asked suspiciously as she came to a halt not far away.

Red glanced around and spread her arms as if it were obvious. “Why, lunch, of course.”

“You were expecting us?” Kahlan asked.

Red frowned. “Yes, of course.” She gestured off toward the ledge outcropping where Hunter sat watching. “I sent your little friend to get you.”

Kahlan nodded. “I thought that might be the case.” She held a hand out to her right. “This is Cassia, Laurin, and Vale.” She lifted her other hand out. “This is Nicci.”

Red smiled indulgently. “Yes, I know, the sorceress you were supposed to kill.”

Kahlan ignored the reprimand. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought them with me.”

Red shrugged. “No, of course not. I have my own protection. I don’t begrudge you yours. In fact, considering the deteriorating state of affairs, I consider it a mark of wisdom.”

“That’s what I needed to talk to you about … the state of affairs and all that is at stake. At stake for all of us.”

“Yes, yes, now won’t you all pull up a rock, so to speak, and have a seat? Lunch is ready.”

Kahlan and Nicci shared a look.

“You made us all lunch?” Kahlan asked.

“Yes,” Red said. “I’ve been expecting the five of you, and I know that you are all hungry. I don’t think it’s wise to have a serious discussion about the world of the dead on an empty stomach.”