Wasteland

15

“That’s the passageway, there, Lord Rahl,” Nyda said in a low voice. “Beyond lies the Wasteland.”

“Just so you understand,” Rikka told him, “Vika is most likely dead by now. Michec would not want to let you have any hope of saving her. He would want to use her death to make you feel powerless against him. His specialty is making his victims feel helpless.”

Richard shook his head as he stared off into the darkness. “A man like Michec has bigger designs than killing Vika. His desire is to eliminate me. To do that, he will need her alive as bait.”

Rikka let out a deep breath. “I have to admit, that’s a possibility. He must feel you are vulnerable.”

“You mean because of the goddess?” Kahlan asked.

Rikka nodded. “He has a way of knowing things. He would have chosen this time to strike while you already have an incredibly difficult situation on your hands. He came and took Vika before we could leave in order to keep you here.”

Richard checked a side hall as they went past. “All the more reason we can’t leave and allow him to have free run of the palace. There is no telling what sort of treason he could be up to.”

While Richard and those with him were on their way to find Michec, he had sent Edward Harris back. Harris swore that he would oversee the staff until Richard’s return.

He also swore to investigate any influence by Moravaska Michec among the palace staff. Richard told him that if he found any connections, to have the First File deal with it harshly.

It had been a long way down to where the tombs were located, and then another long journey to the isolated section M111-B. The eight soldiers at the guard station at the first of the locked doors reported no activity.

They admitted that in the past people had been discovered beating on the locked doors from the other side. The doors were opened to release those people, but strict orders said that under no circumstances were they to go in beyond the fourth locked door, even to look for others.

When the soldiers opened the first massive door and Richard stepped inside, glass spheres in brackets began to glow. The soldiers, carrying lamps, were surprised. Richard wasn’t.

The soldiers weren’t the only ones surprised. Shale gaped at the glowing glass spheres. “What in the world … ?”

“Light spheres. They were created by ancient wizards,” Richard told her. “They can still be found in a number of isolated places, not only here at the palace.”

Standing beyond the first door, inside the lighted area illuminated by the spheres, Richard turned to the soldier.

“Do the other men also have keys?”

The soldier looked a little puzzled. “Yes, Lord Rahl.”

He really didn’t want any of the men getting any closer than necessary to the spell-form of the complication that waited beyond the fourth locked door.

“Then give me your keys. I’ll return them when we come back out.”

The man looked apprehensive. “Lord Rahl, we have men here who can escort you for protection.”

Rikka gestured around at her sister Mord-Sith. “What do you think we’re here for? Just to look pretty?”

“That’s not …” The big soldier took one look at her glare and cleared his throat. “I can see that you have adequate protection with you.” He glanced back at Richard, eager to look away from the displeased Mord-Sith. “We will be at our post should you need us, Lord Rahl.”

“Have you or the others seen anything out of the ordinary recently?” Richard asked the soldier.

“Out of the ordinary? No, Lord Rahl. It’s been as quiet as a tomb down here. Always is.”

Richard nodded, thanking the man, and then closed and locked the first door. It felt ominous being beyond that first barrier on their way into what he knew to be a dangerously unpredictable spell-form.

“What really bothers me,” Richard said as he pulled the key from the lock, “is how Michec was able to come and go from this place. It appears he may have been hiding down here for a long while, waiting for the right time to strike. But no matter how long he’s been here, he would need to come out from time to time for supplies. And, he obviously went up to the stables to capture Vika and take her back in there with him.”

In the silence, Richard turned back to look at the rest of them. “So, how was Michec coming and going?”

“Maybe there’s another way in and out,” Kahlan suggested as they reached the second vaultlike door. “You know, a secret entrance of some kind. Maybe a service entrance.”

“That wouldn’t be necessary,” Shale said.

Richard had to turn keys in two sets of locks in the second door, and then lift a long lever to draw back heavy bolts.

He turned back to Shale. “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t it be necessary?”

He pulled open the second door. Beyond was another small, empty room made up of rough stone blocks. Light spheres in four brackets began to glow as they all stepped into the room.

“This Michec character wouldn’t need a secret way in and out. He’s a witch man.” Shale shrugged, as if that should explain everything. She glided a hand over the top of one of the glowing glass spheres. “These light spheres, as you called them, start glowing a faint green, getting brighter as we get close, to then glow with a warm yellow-white light when we’re even closer and like now, when I put my hand on it.”

“They react to the presence of the gift,” Richard said as he unlocked the two locks on the third door. “Between you, Kahlan, and me, they have what’s needed to make them glow. Now, what do you mean about Michec not needing a secret way in and out?”

Shale’s brow twitched. “I told you. He’s a witch man.”

“So?”

“Witch women are masters of illusion. As a witch man, I can’t even imagine how powerful he might be. That kind could easily create an illusion that he wasn’t there. That’s how I intend to get us away from the palace without the soldiers, and thus the goddess, knowing we are leaving or which direction we were going. Don’t you remember that I said I would take care of it?”

Everyone stared at her. Richard pulled open the door, revealing the same sort of plain room and the substantial fourth door on the opposite wall. That last one had four locks—two on each side. Instead of a lever, it had a wheel in the center.

“You can do such a thing?” Kahlan asked.

“I’m a witch woman. Of course I can. If I can make snakes appear and disappear from around your ankles, don’t you suppose I can make people not see us leaving?”

“Snakes?” Richard turned to Kahlan. “What’s she talking about?”

Kahlan waved off the question. “So then Michec could cast a web so that the soldiers wouldn’t see him coming and going?”

Shale frowned her incredulity. “You two really don’t know much about witch women, do you?”

“What about the locks?” As soon all of them had stepped into the little room Richard pulled the third door closed and then locked it.

“I’m not sure.” Shale’s face twisted in thought a moment. “Could be any of several methods to defeat them.”

“Like what?” Richard pressed.

“Well, one simple way would be to cast a web to make the guards curious enough to come to check on things and unlock all the doors, giving him the chance to slip in before they are satisfied there was nothing there, and lock the doors.”

Richard didn’t like to think how easy it would be for someone gifted in such a way to create trouble. “But to get back out, would he be able do that from beyond four locked doors? Could he somehow make the guards come back to unlock all the doors so he could get out? And wouldn’t they get suspicious when they were unlocking the doors so often over nothing?”

Shale looked back at the third door Richard had just locked as she considered. “I’m not sure, but there’s an even simpler explanation.”

“Like what?” Kahlan asked.

“He could have used a concealment spell so the guards wouldn’t see him and then simply taken a set of spare keys, like the ones you borrowed.”

Richard grunted unhappily. “You’re right. That certainly would be easier. Then, all he would have to do is cast a concealment web to go unnoticed as he came and went?”

Shale nodded. “That’s the idea.”

Richard unlocked the locks on each side of the final door and then started spinning the wheel in the center. As he did, it drew the heavy bolts back from the iron doorframe set into massive stone blocks to each side.

“It certainly looks like the builders went to a lot of trouble to make sure no one got in here,” Kahlan said.

Richard pulled on the door. “Unfortunately, they didn’t take witch men into account.” The door was so heavy that he had to tug on it several times to start it moving. Once it did start, it slowly glided open on silent hinges.

With the door standing wide open, they all stood and stared in amazement at what lay beyond.