Wasteland

17

After the heavy door pulled closed on its own, like the lid on a coffin, Richard, Kahlan, Shale, and the five Mord-Sith continued on in silence until they finally reached the end of the long, curved corridor. There was a passageway going off to the right and another to the left. The way straight ahead was blocked by a tall, flat metal door.

“How do we know where we need to go from here?” Kahlan asked.

“Since I don’t know where Michec would be, or where he has Vika, I don’t, actually,” Richard told her, “but since we haven’t come across any sign of either one, yet, we have no choice but to go farther in and keep looking.

“The hall to the left is essentially a dead end unless you correctly make a complicated series of choices necessary to get through the maze to an open element in the spell-form. If you make a wrong choice, you could wander around in there for a very long time before finding your way out, if ever. From knowing the complication and having studied the plan Harris showed us, I can tell you that this hallway here, to the right, if you make the correct turns, goes through a series of intersections until it eventually connects to the way ahead on the other side of the node behind this door and then deeper into the complication.”

“So both the hall to the right and this door eventually meet back up?” Kahlan asked.

Richard nodded.

“What’s behind the door?” Shale asked.

“If we’re where I think we are in the complication, it’s a node that should eventually link to a convergence of branches. In the spell-form as you would draw it, it’s made as a circle with a line through it. That hall to the right is a way to get around this constricting node, but it’s a lot longer way around. The quickest way into the heart of the spell-form is straight ahead through the doorway and across the node. Although it’s longer, I think the safer way would be the hallways to the right.”

“So if this isn’t a room, then why is there a doorway here?” Kahlan asked.

“I don’t know for sure, but I imagine it’s a way to physically complete the circle of the node to match the way the spell-form is drawn.”

Kahlan eyed the dark passageway to the right. “Well, I get a bad feeling about this hallway, here, to the right.”

Shale looked from Kahlan to Richard. “Pregnant women have good instincts. I suggest you pay attention to them.”

“I always trust Kahlan’s instincts.”

Richard opened the tall, heavy, flat metal door in front of them. As he did so, light spheres to either side beyond began to glow. They all stepped in and stood in a tight cluster on a small landing inside the doorway and stared out at the colossal octagonal room that came into view as the light spheres brightened.

The vast space stretched high up into darkness. There were no windows Richard could see. As soon as he realized that he was reflexively looking for windows even though windows would be pointless down here, he became newly aware of how deep underground they were, below even the tombs of his ancestors. That awareness brought back his old dread of being trapped in confined spaces underground.

A broad stone walkway built in the form of an arched bridge spanned across to another door on the opposite side of the octagonal room. The walkway was six or eight feet wide. Richard leaned out and looked down at the drop-off under the bridge. He couldn’t see a bottom in the darkness below.

There was no walkway around the perimeter of the room to the other side. If they wanted to proceed, they would have to cross the bridge over the ominous pit.

Kahlan pressed a hand over her nose. “The smell of death is awful in here.”

Richard took a light sphere from a bracket on the wall, held his breath, and leaned out, looking over the edge again. Even with the light sphere it was still too dark to see anything.

“The stench is too powerful to merely be some dead rats or small animals. It has to be the rotting corpses of people.”

“How do you lose your balance on a walkway that wide and fall off?” Shale asked. “There is no railing, but still …”

Richard gave her a worried look. “Well, if they were moving through here in darkness, they could have simply stepped off the edge without realizing it.”

Because of the smell of rotting flesh, and their need to get on with finding Michec, Richard didn’t want to spend any more time in the octagonal room than it would take to get across.

Even though the bridge was plenty wide enough, everyone stood pressed up against the door at their backs. The gagging stench of death was so oppressive it made them all hesitant to proceed.

“Maybe we should go around after all,” Kahlan said.

The landing they were on had a twin across on the other side of the bridge. There was a closed door at the other end of the bridge that looked the same as the one at their backs. On the walls all the way around the octagonal room were stacked stone moldings, as if at the base of the wall, as well as crown moldings, but there was no floor or ceiling. They were merely decorative. The unpleasant thought occurred to him that tombs were also decorated.

Carved medallions stood out on each facet of the octagon-shaped room. Richard leaned over the edge to peer down the walls. He could see that there were similar carved medallions far below, and also up high on the walls, both almost in darkness, both denoting other levels of the complication. The stone of the room, like the rest of the place they had seen so far, was covered in dark, dirty, gritty, mottled splotches, almost like lichen that grew on rocks. In some places it was draped with filthy cobwebs.

“I think we should trust your first instinct,” Richard said. “After all, the other way around could have even worse things than this.”

“Well, this is just ridiculous,” Shale huffed, obviously nervous about the stone bridge. “Do you mean to tell me that this is part of a spell-form? Like you would draw in the dirt with a stick?”

“Actually, yes,” Richard said. “Like I explained before. It’s a kind of decorative element in the complication.”

Shale’s hands fisted at her sides. “Why in the world would the builders decorate this spell-form?”

It was clear that she didn’t like the place one bit. Richard couldn’t say that he blamed her. But it wasn’t like they had a choice.

“Well, the People’s Palace is similarly built in the shape of a spell-form laid out on the ground. It has a lot of beautiful, grand decorations—columns, arches, statues—that aren’t needed for that spell-form. Things like that aren’t really a part of the spell-form, so I can only assume the builders wanted to make it beautiful or interesting.”

Shale scowled. “You call this beautiful?”

“No,” Richard admitted. “I’d say this place looks—”

“Dangerous,” Kahlan said as she stared out across the bridge.

Richard squeezed her hand. “The whole complication is dangerous, so that would make sense.”

“Do you have any idea where Michec would be?” Shale asked.

When Richard gave a questioning look to the Mord-Sith, they all shook their heads.

“I don’t either,” Richard told her. “From the plans, this place is enormous. I can tell you that this is only the very tip of one edge of the spell-form, and it comprises several levels. Michec wasn’t in any of those rooms behind us, so obviously he has to be deeper in.” Richard pointed down. “By the footprints in the dust, he comes and goes this way, across the bridge. That would make sense, since the most straightforward way deeper into the heart of the spell-form is straight ahead across the bridge.”

Nyda stepped out past Richard. “We’d better go across first and check, then.”

Richard was about to object, but all five of the Mord-Sith pushed between him, Kahlan, and Shale and started across the bridge before he had a chance to argue.

Vale was the last one in line. She looked back over her shoulder. “Just wait there a minute until we check out what’s beyond the door.”

As she turned back to catch up with the others, the stone in the middle of the bridge abruptly shattered and began to fall away. Loud cracking noises came from the rest of the stone. Vale had to leap off one of the big blocks as it tipped and began to tumble into the darkness. Nyda and Cassia grabbed her arms and pulled her onto the far landing with them just as the rest of the stone bridge gave way underfoot and all dropped into the pit.

Clouds of dust rose up as the stone fell with a roar. Large blocks of stone, parts of blocks, chunks, lumps, and flakes all cascaded down into the black abyss.

The Mord-Sith all pressed their backs against the door as even the edge of the landing they were on began to crumble. To keep from falling, they opened the door and stepped back into the dark doorway.

Shale, Kahlan, and Richard backed up against their own door in disbelief as they watched the dust billowing up. They could hear the large blocks hitting the bottom somewhere far below in the darkness.

The five Mord-Sith stood in surprise across the room, in the dark doorway, staring back through the clouds of dust at Richard, Kahlan, and Shale. He was at least relieved that they all made it safely to the other side.

Shale was beside herself. “I thought this was a spell-form! How could that happen? It’s obviously not drawn in the dirt collapsing into a big hole in the middle of it, is it?”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Then what just happened?” the sorceress demanded.

“Chaos.” Richard drew his lower lip through his teeth. “The complication just did something chaotic.”

Shale stared back at him. “Or it was a trap laid by Michec.”

“Either way,” Kahlan said, “we can’t leave them over there and us over here. We need to all stay close together.”

“You’re right,” Richard said. “All of you … wait there,” he called across to the five Mord-Sith. “We’ll go around and come meet you over there.”