Witch's Oath

26

On their way out of the vast maze that was the complication, they passed between two columns at the end of the corridor and entered a sizable area with dozens of glass spheres in iron brackets lighting a formal stone floor made of black and white marble squares. The walls had decorative tiles. To each side there were a pair of white marble columns supporting tall arches with ornate carving. Richard knew that although it was a node, this one was a benign junction in the spell-form.

As the group crossed the large area and then passed between the two columns on the opposite side where the corridor continued on, something made Richard lag behind and then look back up over his left shoulder to where he could see through the tall arch to a part of the upper level where it crossed the lower one they were on.

A single Glee stood there in that gallery, looking down, watching. Somehow, Richard had known it would be there.

As the others continued on, carrying with them the soft murmur of conversation, Richard slowed to a stop and stared up at the dark figure. He realized that it hadn’t been watching all of them. It had only appeared to watch Richard. Its third eyelid blinked as they stared at each other.

Richard couldn’t help simply standing there, looking up at the still figure, the way it stood still looking down at him. He wondered if it could be the same individual he had seen on several previous occasions.

Almost as if in answer to the question in Richard’s mind, the Glee bowed its head. Richard was stunned to see it do so. It made no hostile move. It didn’t give him any other indication of its intentions, only that single bow, almost as if out of … respect.

And then it simply turned to scribbles and vanished back to its own world.

Left standing there staring up at an empty upper level, Richard had absolutely no idea what the sighting could possibly mean, but he felt a deep conviction that it had, in fact, been the same individual he had seen before. Of course, he had no way to know for sure. But if it really was the same one, he had now seen this particular Glee three times. The previous time it had spread its claws to show him that they were webbed. This time, it didn’t. It bowed its head instead. On none of those occasions had it shown any sign that it intended to attack.

If anything, Richard felt that on each occasion it had simply been observing him. Each time Richard had spotted the lone Glee, it had been after he had killed large numbers of its kind. And yet it did not try to attack him. This time, though, it showed up after they had killed the witch man. The thought occurred to him that not only was it a witch man, but a witch man who had made some kind of pact with the Golden Goddess.

He wondered if it could be an observer for the Golden Goddess, reporting back on any observed weakness. So far, all it had to report was a lot of dead Glee and now a dead witch.

Another thought occurred to him that ran a chill up his spine. It made him momentarily stop dead.

“Richard?”

He blinked and looked down at the corridor to see Kahlan standing there, turned halfway back, waiting for him.

He immediately trotted to catch up with her. As exhausted as she was, she managed to flash him her special smile. As exhausted as he was, he couldn’t help returning a smile, even if he didn’t think he could in any way match the radiance of hers. It warmed his heart to see that smile, her beautiful face, the love in her eyes.

He took her hand and hurried to catch up with the others at a shorter archway complex held up by polished but dusty marble pillars to either side. Just beyond were four openings in a wall of rough stone.

“Which way, Lord Rahl?” Vika asked. The gash on her forehead had stopped bleeding, but her face was still a mask of blood. It matched her red leather.

Richard gestured. “The one in the middle.”

She looked toward the wall and then frowned back at him. “There are four openings. There is no middle one.”

Richard nodded toward the openings. “Take the second from the right. Once into the darkness where you can’t see it yet, it forks. The others don’t. That makes five passageways. Take the left fork and that will be the middle one. It’s a concealed shortcut.”

Vika shook her head. “Only the Lord Rahl could see what no one else can.”

“It’s not magic. I saw the plans beforehand.”

“So did I,” Vika said. “All I remember of them is that it was a confusing mess.”

“It isn’t nearly so confusing for me but only because I understand spell-forms and the language of Creation.”

“I hate magic,” Berdine muttered.

The rest of the Mord-Sith nodded their fervent agreement.

Richard couldn’t help smiling his joy that they had all survived.

“We’ll be up and out of here shortly,” he told them. “Then we can all get cleaned up. Vika, you can finally wash the blood off your face.”

She shrugged her indifference. “I don’t mind blood.”

“Well, we are going to be up in the palace soon, where there will be other people. Seeing blood on a Mord-Sith in red leather scares people.”

“As well it should,” Vika said without a hint of humor.

These women were still mad, but he was encouraged that at times they showed glimmers of their humanity. At other times, though, they were simply stone-cold mad.

“What about getting to the Wizard’s Keep?” Shale pressed. “The witch man is dead, so we can now safely leave the palace without having to worry about him sabotaging our cause in your absence. We need to be on our way at once. It’s not safe for us here. The sooner we leave, the better. We can clean up later.”

Richard sighed. “It would probably be best to get something to eat.” He glanced at Berdine. She flashed him a smile. “It would also be good to get a proper night’s rest.”

He hooked a thumb behind his belt as he considered. “But with the extreme danger of the Glee attacking us unexpectedly while we’re still here, that would not be the safest thing to do.” He tipped his head toward Shale. “You have a good point. If they discover that we’re still here, they will continue their attacks. There is no telling how overpowering the next attack might be. We might not be able to stop them the next time. If they win just once, all is lost.

“The safest thing to do, the thing that would best protect Kahlan, the twins, and the future of our way of life, would be to do as we first intended when all this started and leave immediately in darkness.”

“You mean the plan when Michec captured me?” Vika asked.

Richard nodded. “The threat from Moravaska Michec has been eliminated, but the threat from the Glee most definitely hasn’t. We need to get back to our original plan of getting away from here and to the safety of the Keep.”

“I think I should be able to gather horses and supplies this time without any nasty surprises,” Vika said with a clear tone of relief.

“And I will make sure that we leave unseen so that the Glee won’t know where we went,” the sorceress said. “That should give us some breathing room.”

“It should be well after dark by the time we can get the horses and supplies,” Kahlan said. “While not the best for traveling, leaving in the dark would certainly help us evade any spying eyes.”

“Let’s get to it, then,” Richard said, as he started ahead.

As they finally went through the last of the locked doors, the guards were there to greet them.

“Lord Rahl!” exclaimed the first one to see them. Along with the rest of the men, he stood up straight and tall as he saluted with a fist to his heart.

“I hope everything went well for you?” the man asked.

“We accomplished what we needed to do,” Richard said without elaboration, locking the door behind them.

Berdine grinned at the guard. “We killed a witch.”

He blinked in shock. “A witch? But how could a witch possibly get in there?”

Richard handed the man the keys Michec had been using. “As it happens, he was also a pickpocket.”