Witch's Oath

27

By the time they made the long walk through the public areas of the palace where they had to worry about being seen by the goddess through the eyes of all the people in the halls, then along the routes hidden from the public where they didn’t have to worry about the goddess seeing them, and then they were finally back up at the stables, it was deep in the night. After the ordeal down in the complication, they were all exhausted, but escaping without the Glee knowing that they were gone—or where they had gone—was more important than sleep. They were all eager to make good their escape sight unseen and be on their way.

None of them talked as they waited in hiding up at the stables. They were preoccupied with their own thoughts and no one was much in the mood to talk. They knew they had an ordeal ahead of them and dangers they couldn’t yet imagine.

Vika rushed back behind the manure wagon and leaned down. “Everything is ready, Lord Rahl. Horses with supplies are gathered in the staging area. I told them that it was for a distant but routine patrol. I didn’t want them to know it was for you.”

Richard smiled. “Good thinking, Vika.”

“Besides the travel food that will keep, the kitchens had just finished a late-night meal for staff, so I was able to get us some freshly cooked food for when we’re able to stop.”

Berdine grinned. “I guess you are a favorite to all of us today.”

Richard ignored Berdine and looked back over his shoulder at Shale. “All right. Do what you need to do to hide us from the men in the stables so we can leave unseen.”

Shale gave him a look that was part witch woman and part sorceress. “What do you think I’ve been doing? I wanted to make sure we weren’t discovered waiting back here. We can go anytime. They won’t so much as notice us. Even if the Golden Goddess searches their minds, there will be nothing of us there for her to find or see. We just have to be sure not to linger, lest the spell wear off.”

Kahlan leaned in. “Is there anything special we need to do? Anything we need to wait for?”

“No,” Shale said as she stood. “We can mount up and be on our way. But the spell won’t last long.”

The witch woman walked out into the open and past a man headed to one of the stables. The rest of them cautiously followed her toward the waiting horses, feeling more than obvious. Richard looked around as they made their way across the grounds, but none of the stable workers appeared to notice them. They walked right past a man carrying rakes and shovels toward the first building. The man was whistling softly to himself and didn’t even look up.

When they reached the horses, they all checked the gear, and made sure the saddle girth straps were tight. They tested the security of the saddlebags and the sacks tied to each of the horses. The horses seemed calm. They were used to late-night patrols.

Richard hooked an unstrung bow and a quiver stuffed with arrows on the back of the saddle of one of the larger horses. When he was finished checking that everything was secure, he moved forward, keeping his hand on the side of the horse so it would know where he was. He spoke softly to it and finally stroked its neck. The horse tossed its head in response, as if to say, “Let’s go.” It was hard to tell in the weak light of lanterns hanging on the fronts of buildings, but the animal looked black.

Kahlan stroked the nose of the mare right behind, then scratched its forehead. It whinnied softly and nuzzled its head against her in appreciation of her gentle touch.

All of the others made similar quick introductions and, once done, mounted up. They all urged their horses ahead at a quick walk through an arched opening in a nearby inner wall. As they rode, Shale, swaying gently in the saddle in tune with her horse’s movements, held her hands out to the sides, palms up. She had already told Richard not to worry, that she wouldn’t fall off, that the horse would watch out for her safety. She assured them that it was what she needed to do to be sure that no one saw them.

After they went through the massive gates in the outer wall, they finally emerged at the road leading down the side of the plateau. The walls of the palace soared overhead. Richard slowed his horse to get closer to the witch woman. Her eyes were closed as she rode with her hands held out to the sides.

“We’re starting down, now,” he told her as he placed his horse strategically between her and the edge of the cliff.

“I know,” she answered, sounding unconcerned.

It made him a bit nervous to see her ride with her eyes closed and not holding on to anything, although her body moved fluidly with the rhythm of the horse’s gait. As they made the first switchback turn in the road that wound its way along the nearly sheer walls of the plateau, he looked over the edge, down into the darkness of the Azrith Plain far below.

“It’s a long drop. Maybe you should keep your eyes open?”

“The horse knows where it’s going,” Shale murmured.

“But still … don’t you want to watch to make sure your horse doesn’t, I don’t know, ride off the edge in the dark?”

“No. I’m afraid of heights. Better that I don’t look.”

Richard sighed. “Have it your way. Not much to see in the dark, anyway. But we’re going to be at the drawbridge soon. We don’t want those men to recognize us.”

“Send one of the Mord-Sith ahead to tell the soldiers to lower the bridge for a patrol,” Shale instructed. “When we go past them, they will see only soldiers on their way out to patrol. They will not recognize us or remember what we look like.”

Richard called Rikka forward and told her to do what Shale said, then he hurried his horse to catch up with Kahlan. Rikka rode out ahead of them to have the soldiers lower the drawbridge. He could see it in the distance, lit by a series of lanterns.

As they rode across it, their horses’ hooves clopped over the heavy wooden planks. A few of the men casually tapped a fist to their hearts. It was a greeting to fellow soldiers on their way out on patrol and not at all the more formal way they would have saluted superiors, especially the Lord Rahl. Richard was glad to see by that casual salute that none of the men recognized them.

It wasn’t long before they left the lamplight on the bridge far behind. The light from the palace high above them at least showed enough of the road to keep them from stepping off into a dark void.

By the time they reached the bottom of the plateau and the road leveled out onto the flat ground, Richard had finally started to relax a bit. As they rode out onto the Azrith Plain, Shale at last lowered her arms and opened her eyes.

Richard looked back over his shoulder to see the sprawling People’s Palace atop the enormous plateau. It seemed to blot out half the sky. Walls, towers, and ramparts rose up impossibly high. Torches, lanterns, and fires lit the palace. That firelight reflected off the low clouds enough to keep the darkness from being total.

While there wasn’t light enough to make out much of the features of the flat terrain and sparse vegetation, there was enough for him to see the shadowed shapes of everyone with him atop their horses. He was glad for that little bit of light, because he wanted to make sure that they stayed close together and that none of them accidentally became separated. They needed to stay together.

While the heavy cloud cover did reflect a little light, the farther they went the darker it became out on the vast plain. The only thing he could see well was the glowing palace in the distance behind them. He didn’t like riding horses in the dark, because if they happened to step in a hole, they could break a leg, but with the little bit of reflected light off the clouds, he thought it was an acceptable risk and one they had to take, at least until it got too dark to continue.

They kept on riding in silence for a time after the palace was no longer visible behind them. He knew that they all felt a sense of vulnerability out in the flat, open country, but Richard wanted to make absolutely sure that they would be far enough out of sight of anyone up in the palace looking out over the plain, so he kept them moving ahead.

When he was just able to make out some kind of feature ahead of them, some distortion in the ground, he dismounted and had everyone do the same, then walked his horse forward rather than let it ride blindly into possible trouble. As he walked carefully ahead, he could just make out that the ground dropped away into some kind of shallow gully, but he couldn’t see it as well as he’d like.

“Shale, can you light a small flame so we can see what this is?”

She handed the reins of her horse into the care of one of the Mord-Sith, and then she came forward. When she lit a small flame above her upturned palm, it was just enough to see the lay of the land. Slightly to the right, the ground slumped away, leading down to the bottom of what looked like a wash worn through dry ground by flash floods.

With Shale providing that small flame for light, they all filed down into the gully.

“This area is low enough that if there is anyone in the surrounding area, they won’t be able to see us,” he told them.

“Should we look for material for a fire?” Cassia asked.

“No,” Richard said. “A fire would reflect off the clouds and reveal our location. Anyone near would also be able to smell the smoke. We can light some travel candles to see by so we can have something to eat. If memory serves me, I think Berdine is hungry.”

Everyone laughed.

“Well, I admit,” she said, “the aroma of that fried chicken has been driving me crazy.”

After they broke out small candles in tin carrying housings, Shale lit them all, and they used the meager light to scout the area. A small stream through the gully bordered with scraggly vegetation and a few clumps of grass provided a place to picket the horses and finally gave them the opportunity to clean up and tend to wounds. The horses had eaten back at the stables only hours before, so Richard decided to save their valuable oats for when needed. After the horses were unsaddled, they munched on what clumps of grass they were able to find.

Once they found a suitable place to sit, they all gathered close together around a few of the travel candles, then eagerly unpacked the food. It was still warm and smelled wonderful.

Richard was well past tired, and he knew the others were as well, but he was hungry.

“We need to set up watches,” he told them. There were still dangers to be worried about. “Two people on each watch. That should let us all get a halfway decent sleep.”

“There are nine of us,” Kahlan said. “How do you want to manage that uneven division?”

“You’re pregnant. You don’t need to stand watch. You need the sleep for the twins.”

Kahlan opened her mouth, about to protest, but her better judgment apparently got the better of her. She pushed her long hair back over her shoulder. “All right. As tired as I am, I’m not going to argue. Neither are the twins.”

Richard smiled to himself at the thought of them. “Vika, you and I can take first watch. Then however the rest of you want to divide up is fine.”

They all grunted their agreement as they ate chicken.

“Can you pass me some of that hard cheese?” Kahlan asked.

Richard looked up from his piece of fried chicken. He finished chewing a mouthful and then swallowed.

“I like cheese,” he said, “but you hate cheese.”

“I know,” she said, seemingly unable to explain it, “but for some reason I’m really hungry for cheese.”

“Cravings,” Shale said with a smile.

Richard looked over at the sorceress. “What?”

Shale gestured with the bones of a chicken wing toward Kahlan. “She’s pregnant. She is having cravings.”

Richard blinked at the sorceress. “But she hates cheese.”

Shale’s smile widened. “Well, apparently, at least one of her babies likes it.”