Witch's Oath

17

Shale looked even more bewildered. “What do you mean, he intends to trap us in there? How do you know this?”

Rather than answer the sorceress, Richard turned to Vika. “I need you to do something for me.”

Vika pulled her braid forward over her shoulder and held it in one fist as she nodded eagerly. “Yes, Lord Rahl?”

“You need to do exactly as I say.”

She added a confused look to Shale’s. “All right. What do you need me to do?”

Richard gestured, pointing a thumb back over his shoulder at the opening beside the one Michec had taken. “I’m going after Michec down this way.”

“But Shale said he took the other passageway.”

“I know what Shale said.” He pointed, then, across the broad room to another corridor by itself. “I need you to go down that way.”

After she looked back over her shoulder to where he had pointed, her expression turned dark. “You promised me I could cut him.”

Richard nodded. “And I meant it. Until then, if we are to have a chance, you need to listen to me, and do exactly as I say.”

Vika pulled both leather sleeves down tighter as she considered for a moment. “All right, I’m listening.”

No Mord-Sith would ever have dared to hesitate at any order Darken Rahl, or any of his predecessors, gave them. To do so would have meant a swift death. Richard, on the other hand, was pleased that Vika had hesitated. It was just another indication that she was beginning to think for herself.

“Go down that passageway, there, until it forks,” he said, waggling his hand across the room. “When you get there, take the left fork. A short time later you will come to a steel door. Behind it is another major node. Remember the one we crossed before? The one with the stone bridge?”

Vika nodded. “The bridge that collapsed.”

“That’s right. Go through that door, cross the bridge and through the steel door on the other side—”

“Is this bridge going to fall in, too?”

“No. At least, I don’t think so. Now listen. You need to go through the second steel door on the other side, then take the hallway to the left at the first intersection you come to. Go past two wooden doors on the right side of the hall, then take the next hallway to the right immediately after the second door, go to the fourth wall bracket with a light sphere—”

“What if there aren’t any light spheres? Some of these passageways don’t have them.”

Richard shook his head as he waved his hand for her to be quiet and listen. “There will be light spheres. At the fourth light sphere, take it out of its bracket and throw it on down the hallway as far as you can.”

She blinked, not sure she had heard him correctly. “If I do that, it will be pitch black.”

“That’s right. After you throw the sphere, then turn back and stand there in the darkness.”

Vika leaned toward him, confused by the strange order. “Stand in the darkness. Just stand there?”

“Yes. Facing the way you came from, take one pace from the center of that hallway toward your left. Keep your knife in your right hand. Then wait.”

The Mord-Sith leaned in a little more toward him. “Wait. All right. Wait for what?”

“You’ll know when it happens.”

“But you promised me that I would—”

“Vika! You need to follow my instructions exactly!”

She straightened at his sudden tone. “Yes, Lord Rahl.”

“Do you remember it all?”

“I think so.”

“There can be no thinking so. You must remember it exactly and follow every bit of it as I laid it out. Repeat it back to me. And hurry, we don’t have much time.”

“Much time for what?” Shale interrupted.

Kahlan hushed her. Shale pressed her lips tight with a look of dissatisfaction as she crossed her arms and remained silent.

Vika looked from Shale back to Richard. She gestured behind. “Take this passageway to the fork. Take the left fork to the steel door. Go through the steel door, cross the bridge, and then go through the steel door on the other side. Take the left hallway at the second—”

“First,” he corrected, holding up a finger. “Take the left hallway at the first intersection you come to.”

Vika was nodding, trying to commit it to memory. “The left hallway at the first intersection. Then go past two wooden doors on the right side of the hall. Take the next right immediately after the second door, go to the fourth light sphere, take it out of the bracket and throw it as far as I can down the hallway, then turn back and stand there in the darkness.”

“That’s right. Then what?” he asked her.

“Facing the way I came, I’m to take one step to my left, then wait. Oh yes, and hold my knife at the ready in my right hand.”

“Good.” Richard grabbed her by her shoulders. “Now repeat it back to me again. You have to get it right, Vika. If you take a wrong turn down here we’ll likely never find you. If you take a wrong turn you will die all alone like all the dried-up corpses we’ve found down here. I suppose that would be better than dying old and toothless in bed, but dead is still dead.”

Vika smiled that he knew what Mord-Sith always said was their worst fear. Then she nodded as she looked up at him and repeated the instructions. She hesitated in a few places. Once she finished, Richard made her repeat it again, then another time until he was sure she had every turn correct.

Shale’s suspicion was clearly evident in her expression. “How do you know all this? How do you know all these places, these corridors, and where these turns are?”

“I studied the plans of this place, remember?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t explain how—”

“We don’t have time to discuss this,” he said, cutting her off and letting her know by his tone that he wanted her to stop asking him questions.

“What about your promise that I could cut him?” Vika asked. “Why can’t I go with you so that I can—”

“Do you think I would lie to you?”

That made her blink. “No, Lord Rahl.”

“Good, because I wouldn’t. Now get going. We don’t have much time. Hurry, but don’t run or you might make a mistake.”

After a brief look at her sisters of the Agiel, she turned and rushed off on her mission, her red leather quickly vanishing in the dim distance down the passageway.

Richard turned back to the suspicious sorceress. “I need you to think something into existence.”

Startled by the unexpected request, Shale cocked her head. “What do you want me to think up?”

“Something that will distract Michec. Something that will throw him off. Maybe even scare him.”

“I told you. He isn’t afraid of snakes.”

“I didn’t say snakes. I said something to distract him and hopefully scare him.”

“I don’t know that I can conjure something big and scary enough to worry a witch man.”

“You told me that it isn’t big and scary that matters. What matters is what works. That’s what we need: something that works. I need you to think up something that will get Michec’s attention. Alarm him. Something that will distract him—distract and hopefully frighten him. If you can make him scream and frantic to get away that would be perfect.”

Shale looked on the verge of panic. She lifted her arms and let them flop down at her sides.

“And how in the world do you suggest I do that!”

“Use your head, Shale. It will come to you when you need it. I know it will. I trust you. Now, I need you to go about three dozen paces down the next passageway over, the one he went down, but no closer—I don’t want him to know you’re in there—then set loose whatever it is you can conjure and send it on down the rest of the way to attack him. After you do that, come back here to this passageway and come after us as fast as you can. I may need you to help with something else. I’m not sure yet.”

Shale stood staring at him with her jaw hanging. “You’re not sure, yet,” she repeated in astonishment.

“We’re wasting what little time we have,” he told her. “We can’t let this opportunity slip away. We may never get another. Get over there, count your heartbeats until you get to a hundred, then do what I asked. Conjure something formidable and send it on down the hall, then hurry over here to us.” Richard turned to the others before Shale could object or argue. “The rest of you, come with me.”

Richard left Shale to do as instructed as he led Kahlan and the five remaining Mord-Sith to rush into the twin to the spiraled passageway Michec had taken in order to trap them.