Wasteland

2

“What do you wish to do, Lord Rahl?” Vika asked.

He finally drew back from Kahlan. “What my grandfather would have said to do, of course.”

Vika pulled her single long blond braid forward over her shoulder and held it in her fist as she looked down at him. Finally, she hopped down off the short stone wall.

“I don’t understand, Lord Rahl.”

“Zedd, my grandfather, always said to think of the solution, not the problem. The problem is that Kahlan can’t travel in the sliph. We’re focused on that problem.”

“I didn’t know your grandfather.” Vika looked at a loss. “I’m sorry, Lord Rahl, but I don’t know what that means.”

“It means that instead of thinking of the problem—that the sliph can’t take us all—we instead need to think of the solution. I’m hoping we will be safe at the Keep—Kahlan especially—so we need to get there. If the problem is that she can’t go in the sliph, the solution is that we have to get there another way.”

Vika brightened. “I will get horses and supplies together.”

Richard smiled at her. “Good thinking, Vika. That is the solution.”

Shale stepped closer. “Lord Rahl, won’t that be dangerous? Traveling all the way there? I’m from the Northern Waste, which has enough of its own dangers, but I’ve heard very ugly things about many of the places down here. I’ve heard that D’Hara is dangerous enough in its own right, but the Midlands is a savage and wild place and traveling across it can be quite perilous.”

Kahlan knew the truth of that. When she used to travel the Midlands, she always had Giller, an experienced wizard, with her at all times for protection. Richard was a wizard, of course, and more powerful than Giller had ever been, but Giller did have the advantage of having been trained his whole life in the use of his craft and in the dangers of the Midlands.

Richard had been raised in Westland, far away from any knowledge of magic, and the gift didn’t work the same way in him as it did in others. Unlike a typical gifted person, he couldn’t necessarily call upon his ability at will—both because of his lack of a lifetime of training and because his gift was fundamentally different. Being the gift of a war wizard, his power came forth mostly as a function of rage.

“I can testify to the fact that the Midlands is indeed dangerous,” Kahlan said. “But it’s also a place of beauty and wonder.”

Shale shot her a cynical look. “Beauty won’t save us. The key word in what you said is ‘dangerous.’ We would have to cross a lot of dangerous territory.”

“Well, it’s obviously dangerous for us to stay in the People’s Palace,” Richard told the sorceress. “We will be under constant threat and unrelenting attack as long as we’re here. Here, the goddess can keep an eye on us, so to speak, through everyone in the palace without the gift. That’s pretty much everyone. She can watch us and pick a time to attack when we are at our weakest. We can never have a moment of safety, here.

“There are gifted at the Keep who may be able to help us, and perhaps more importantly, the Keep has numerous powerful shields of every kind that can protect Kahlan and the babies. There are some shields here at the People’s Palace, but not nearly enough. It simply isn’t safe for us here. We need to get to a place of safety so we can figure out how to combat this threat. That place is the Wizard’s Keep in Aydindril. We can’t go in the sliph, so we either walk or go on horseback. There is no other way. It’s as simple as that.”

Shale crossed her arms as she considered his words for a moment, visibly cooling as she did so. “You’re right. We’re not safe here. I can’t offer any better suggestion.”

Berdine scowled at him with fury in her blue eyes. “Well, I’m going, too. I’ll not be left behind this time. I’m going.”

Richard turned a smile to the concern that was so obvious in her expression. “Of course you’re going. I wouldn’t think of going without you, Berdine. We’re all going.”

“I’ll organize a detachment of the First File to escort us,” Cassia offered. “How many soldiers do you wish to take with us?”

With one arm around Kahlan’s waist, Richard took in all the tense faces watching him. “None. We can’t risk it.”

Cassia leaned in as if she hadn’t heard him correctly. “Can’t risk it? Can’t risk having protection? It’s a long way across a lot of dangerous territory. A unit of cavalry and soldiers of the First File would act as a deterrent to those dangers. A show of force would prevent a fight from happening in the first place. The last thing we want is a fight. You or the Mother Confessor could be hurt or even killed in a fight. Why wouldn’t you want to take adequate protection?”

“Because the goddess has the ability to use soldiers to spy on us, just the same as she can use anyone else. If she knows precisely where we are, she can send the Glee to attack us out in the open in the Midlands. Worse, just as she used Nolo to try to stab Kahlan to death when he was alone with her, the goddess could use one of those men to attack us when we least expect it. Whereas Nolo was rather inept with a knife, the soldiers of the First File are experts with their weapons. Those soldiers wouldn’t be protecting our backs, they would be a threat when our backs are turned.

“The Golden Goddess only has to be successful once and Kahlan is dead. The goddess will then have accomplished her objective of destroying the chances of our magic living on. That would ensure the eventual extinction of everyone in this world.”

“He’s right,” Kahlan said, the strength finally coming back to her now that Richard knew she was pregnant and was determined to protect her and the twins. More importantly, it was also clear from his reasoning that her pregnancy wasn’t going to be the distraction she had feared. “It’s not a matter of their loyalty. We know beyond any doubt that they are loyal. It’s a matter of the ability of the goddess to bend them to her will and use them.”

Richard turned back to the sliph. Her smooth silver face was still watching him, and the shiny surface of that face reflected the people watching both of them.

“Sliph, you may go back into your sleep. Thank you for coming.”

“Even if the Mother Confessor can’t travel, I can still take you to the Keep, Lord Rahl. Come, we will travel. You will be pleased.”

“I would like that very much, but I can’t leave Kahlan. I must stay to protect her. Since I can’t have the pleasure of traveling in you, you may go back into your sleep until the day when I can travel in you.”

Kahlan knew that Richard understood the unique nature of the sliph. He knew how to talk to her in a way that she not only understood but he could put it in a way that didn’t lose her trust. Kahlan just didn’t like the nature of the necessary flattery.

“Thank you, Master. I’m sorry you won’t be traveling in me. You would have been pleased.”

“Yes, I know I would have,” he said. “I hope to one day soon have the pleasure of traveling in you. Until then, you may go back to be with your soul.”

The silver face smiled. “Thank you, Master.”

With that, the shiny silver face seemed to melt back down into the ever-moving liquid silver filling the well, and then the entire mass of her swiftly sank out of sight with accelerating speed.

Shale planted her fists on her hips. “Someday you are going to have to explain that to me.”

“If you like,” he said, “but I can tell you right now you will not be any more pleased to know the story.”

When she let her arms fall back to her sides, Richard gestured around at all the women watching him. “From now on, the only ones we can trust are the nine of us. We all have magic that prevents the Golden Goddess from getting into our minds or seeing through our eyes.”

“Do you really think that if we took soldiers who are loyal to you,” Shale pressed, “that the goddess could actually use them?”

Richard shrugged. “Maybe not, but are you willing to risk it?”

“Are you willing to risk danger to the Mother Confessor by traveling dangerous lands?” the sorceress asked.

Richard frowned at her. “So then, you relied on soldiers for your protection in the dangerous Northern Waste?”

“No. I relied only on myself.” Shale sighed when she realized what he had just done. “I see your point.”

“You told me when we first met that when you were meditating you could feel some strange entity probing, trying to get into your mind, but it couldn’t. Remember?”

“Yes.”

“That had to be the goddess. Your gift protected you and she couldn’t get in. None of the soldiers have the benefit of that protection. We in this room are the only ones we can trust to be free of the goddess’s control.”

Richard finally retrieved his sword from where he had left it leaning against the stone wall of the well. He slipped the baldric back over his head before attaching the scabbard at his left hip. He looked at each of them in turn. “Until we get to the Keep and the gifted there who may be able to help, it must be us nine against everyone else because everyone else is a potential threat.”

Vika turned a sly smile to her sister Mord-Sith. “We are Mord-Sith. We have no desire to babysit soldiers, anyway.” She turned back to Richard. “Unless you think it best to travel on foot, we are going to need to get horses. That’s not a problem at the palace.”

“Except that Lieutenant Dolan and the First File know we’re leaving the palace,” Richard said, “so they will likely assume we’re leaving on horseback. That means we have to assume the goddess knows that as well and will be watching for it. But she won’t know which direction we go unless the soldiers see us leaving. It would obviously be easier and quicker getting to the Keep if we had horses, but taking them would mean that soldiers would by necessity see us collecting them. Any number of the First File standing watch on the high ramparts would easily spot us leaving on horseback and know which way we went.”

Kahlan’s concern was evident in her expression. “That means the goddess could see all of that through any of their eyes.”

Richard agreed with a nod. “Getting away on horses without being seen is a problem.”

“Then stop thinking of the problem, and think instead of the solution,” Shale said.

“What would the solution be, then?” Richard asked her.

Shale leaned toward him. “Think. Who do you have with you on this journey?”

The way the sorceress asked the question reminded him of so many gifted people who had taught him valuable lessons.

Richard shrugged, not sure what she meant. “We have the nine of us. Kahlan, me, six Mord-Sith—”

Shale flashed him a cunning smile. “And me.”