Witch's Oath

23

“Just as I thought,” Richard said as he came to a stop when he saw the swarm of wasps flow around a corner to swoop down and disappear in a low, round passageway made of brick. He gestured ahead, then to the round opening at the side. “The blood trail goes that way, but the wasps went down here. The blood was a trick.”

Vika leaned down, looking into the circular passageway where the wasps had gone. “There aren’t any light spheres in this tube. We’ll need to get some and take them with us.”

Taking her cue, the rest of the Mord-Sith raced up the hall, and each lifted a glass sphere from a bracket and brought it back.

“What is this place, anyway?” Kahlan asked as she leaned down a little so she wouldn’t hit her head as she peered into the dark, brick pipe. “It doesn’t look like anything else we’ve seen down here.”

“The complication is a low place beneath the People’s Palace.” Richard gestured off into the pipe she was peering into. “This is the lowest place in the complication. Water seeks the lowest level. This is an emergency drainage shaft in case there is ever torrential rain and the water manages to overwhelm the drainage system up above and flood all the way down here. This pipe drains the complication if needed.”

“That makes sense for water,” Kahlan said, “but why would Michec go this way?”

“He’s injured. I think he went in here to hide.”

“How can he hide in this shaft? It’s round. There’s no place for him to conceal himself.”

Richard glanced over at her. “He’s counting on us believing that. I’ve seen the plans. I know better.”

Before entering the round passage, Richard looked over at Shale. “Don’t forget, we can’t directly use magic on the witch man, even when he is wounded. He has already proven that. But when you sent wasps after him, he wasn’t able to capture you.”

“I think that’s because I wasn’t using magic against him, as I did the first time. I created angry wasps with a desire to attack. I wasn’t personally attacking him directly.”

“That seems like a questionable exception,” Kahlan said. “Are you sure he can’t turn your magic back on you like the first time?”

Shale pressed her lips tight a bit as she considered briefly. “No, no I don’t think so. The first time was a direct attack. The use of the wasps and the fire I made on the walls to each side of the passageway so Richard could see were tangential. Because they were indirect, that broke the link back to me. It doesn’t give him a direct route to return to the source, namely me, with his own power.”

“I hate magic,” Berdine muttered. “It makes no sense.”

Richard flashed her a brief smile and nod of agreement before he turned to the others. “We all survived back there because there were nine of us, and together we are stronger. We can’t directly use magic, but there is strength in all of us together. Remember that if we can find him.”

Like everyone else, Richard had to bend at the waist to be able to fit into the drainage pipe. Berdine, being the shortest, only had to tip her head to the forward a little in order to fit. Because the drainage shaft was round, and they were crouched over, they had to use their hands on the brick at the side from time to time to keep their balance. As they went farther in, the round shaft started going downhill in a gentle slope in order to drain the water.

In places water from above seeped through a series of round weep-holes in small blocks of stone set into the brick and accumulated at the bottom. The farther they went, the deeper the flowing water became, but it never reached more than ankle deep and since it was moving rather than stagnant it didn’t stink. When they came to side drains that emptied into the main drain they were in, Richard stopped.

“Which way?” Vika asked.

Richard thought through the plans in his mind. He looked back at all the faces watching him in the eerie light of the glass spheres.

“We need to get to the low point. This way, straight ahead.”

“Couldn’t you be wrong about where he would have gone?” Shale asked. “For some reason I can’t pick up his smell anymore. Couldn’t he have gone off down one of these pipes to the sides?”

“Of course,” Richard said without looking back as he started out again. He noticed dead wasps floating in the water.

“Then he may be planning ahead and instead of going where you think he is, he could be lurking in one of those side drains and be waiting for us in the darkness.”

Richard looked back over his shoulder but didn’t say anything as he kept going. He knew she was right, but he had a gut feeling born of growing up tracking wounded animals. He thought that he knew where Michec would have gone to ground.

After moving through the drainage pipe for a time, he turned back again and crossed a finger over his lips.

“We’re close,” he whispered. “Try to move as quietly as possible.”

He cautiously led them ahead until they reached a square opening in the floor of the drain tunnel. Water that was draining along the pipe from both directions cascaded over the edge and down into the darkness. He was glad to hear the sound it made, because it would help cover any sound they might make.

Richard leaned toward the others, holding out his arms to gather them all in close so they could hear him. “This is the place. I think he’s down in there.”

Kahlan glanced over at the square opening. “What is this opening?”

“Any water that makes it down here drains into this rock drain.”

“But what is it?” Kahlan asked.

“It’s a massive pit filled with crushed rock. At the sides, near the top, it has a number of small pipes leading to the edge of the plateau in case there is ever too much water for the rock drain to hold. Unless it’s a huge flood, the rock pit will hold all the water and let it slowly dissipate without damaging the foundation.”

Shale craned her neck to look over at the dark opening. “What makes you think Michec would have gone down there?”

“Because he’s an animal. Animals go to ground when they’re injured. They instinctively seek out a hole to hide in. It makes them feel safer.”

Shale looked skeptical. “Michec may be a beast, but he is also a person who is able to think. More than that, he’s a cunning person. People act differently than animals. You are just guessing that he’s down there hiding in a hole. He may be long gone.”

Richard bent over and scooped up some dead wasps. He held them up before her as he lifted an eyebrow.

Shale stared unhappily at the dead wasps, and then looked around, noticing that there were many more all over the floor. “Making conjured snakes vanish is one thing. They weren’t shielded. Killing conjured things that are shielded is altogether different. I can’t even begin to guess at his abilities and how dangerous he is.”

“How far down to the bottom?” Kahlan asked.

“There would be no reason for the top of the rock to be down deep in the pit. I believe the rock should come up pretty high. I doubt we could all stand up straight down in there.”

“Why not just let him bleed out?” Kahlan asked. “Why risk going in after him?”

“Because Shale said he just did something he shouldn’t be able to do.” Richard gave Kahlan a sympathetic look. “I’d like nothing more than to simply let him die in misery down there. But for all we know about his abilities he might be able to heal himself enough to survive. He didn’t seem concerned about cutting off the length of intestine hanging out of the gash Vika cut in him. We would never know if he managed to survive and would never expect him to come after us another time—until he unexpectedly showed up and killed us.”

“If we’re going down in there, I think it would be better if the Mother Confessor waited up here,” Cassia said. “It would be safer than her going down in there with us.”

“And what if I’m wrong?” Richard asked. “What if while we’re down in an empty dry pit looking for him, he’s really up here somewhere and he sneaks up from behind and murders her?”

The worry showed in Cassia’s expression. “There is that.”

“The nine of us need to stay together,” Richard told them. “There is no telling what Michec might do. Besides that, it may take all of us to kill him. Look at what he did with those vines. It took all of us to escape them.”

Kahlan turned to Shale. “Would his injuries limit his ability to use magic?”

Shale sighed. “I would like to think so, but since I don’t even know how powerful he is when he’s healthy, there is no way to be sure how much his injuries would limit his powers. Worse, even if his gift is limited, for all I know it still may be more than enough to kill us all. I think it best if we assume his present abilities are still quite lethal.”

“We need to go down there and eliminate him. That’s all there is to it,” Richard said. “There is supposed to be an iron ladder going down there. Kahlan, after we jump down, you take the ladder.”

She started to protest. “But—”

“You’re pregnant. If it’s a bigger drop than I think, I don’t want you to take a bad fall and lose the twins. No unnecessary risks.”

“You’re right,” she said in resignation. “The ladder it is.”

Richard gestured around at them all. “The rest of you gather around the opening and then all jump down with me, all at once. Except you, Cassia. Stay behind and follow Kahlan down to guard her back. Once we’re down there, we can’t waste time finding him. We need to be quick. The more surprise we have on our side, the better. We don’t want to give him time to do something that could stop us.”

He looked around until he got nods from everyone. “Enough talk. Let’s go.”