Witch's Oath

31

“Thank you, Lord Rahl,” Vika said, “for providing us this meal.”

“Yes, thank you,” Berdine added. “It’s delicious!”

Between chewing, the rest of them chimed in with their thanks. Even Shale voiced her gratitude. Richard didn’t say anything, but he did smile at them all, even if Kahlan thought it looked forced. Now that it seemed they were finally moving into new territory, no longer in the strange wood, and back on course, as well as having a good meal, everyone was feeling better.

“Although we’ve spent a great deal of time with you,” Richard said to Shale without looking up, “we actually don’t know much about you. Are your parents still alive?”

Kahlan instantly went on alert. His recent mood suddenly made sense to her. Although it was an innocent enough question, and no one else would have thought it was anything unusual, she recognized the subtle difference in Richard’s tone of voice. That single question told her that Richard had asked that question not to make casual conversation, but as the Seeker.

It also told her that he knew the answer before asking the question. She didn’t know what he was up to, but she knew she would find out soon enough.

Shale’s gaze shifted uneasily among the rest of the group gathered close in around the warmth of the fire. The nights were getting colder and the wet chill seemed to go right to Kahlan’s bones. The only real relief she got from shivering was when she could cuddle up against Richard during the nights.

“No,” Shale finally answered. “My father passed a few years back.” Her gaze drifted down to the flames. “My mother when I was younger.”

Kahlan glanced around at all the faces watching the witch woman. “Mine too,” she said into the uncomfortable silence. “My mother died when I was young. I know how terrible that is.”

“Your mother was a witch woman, right?” Richard asked in a quiet voice, still without looking up. Again, Kahlan was aware that he already knew the answer, but for some reason he asked it anyway.

Shale nodded and devoted herself to pulling meat off with her teeth and then chewing. She clearly looked uneasy.

They all ate in silence for a short time.

“Tell me how your mother died,” Richard said at last.

Kahlan glanced up. There it was.

She had been right about her instinct. This time, though, it was not a question, it was a command.

With their heads down, the Mord-Sith shifted their eyes among themselves. No one said a word. The death of a mother was not a pleasant subject for any of them, and not something they talked about. But they all recognized this as something different.

“What does it matter?” Shale finally said. “She’s dead. That’s all that really matters.”

Richard didn’t look up as he used a finger and thumb to pull a strip of meat from the chunk on the skewer.

“She was burned as a witch, wasn’t she?”

Shale swallowed. “Lord Rahl …”

“Tell me what happened.”

“Why do you wish to bring up such terrible memories?”

“Tell me what happened,” he said in the same flat tone, still not looking up. The command in his words was clear, and Shale knew it.

Kahlan looked around at the Mord-Sith. They were all trying to look invisible. Except Berdine. She was watching attentively.

Kahlan reached over and put a hand on Shale’s knee. “You are among friends. Sometimes it helps to talk about such things among those who care about you.”

After a time, Shale finally let out a deep breath.

“All right.” She leaned her skewer with a large chunk of meat ready to be eaten against a rock. “It was a harsh time in the Northern Waste. The crops had done poorly, so there weren’t going to be enough reserves for the coming winter.

“The migration of the caribou had moved too far away that year for some reason, and the hunts were unsuccessful. The rains had swollen the rivers, and so catching salmon, the way we usually did, didn’t go nearly as well as usual. Ducks and geese were nowhere to be found. Elk, bighorns, black bear, antelope, deer were all scarce. Even the rabbit population had been nearly wiped out by people desperate for food.

“It is said that such times come along every once in a while. The animals seem to know it will be an especially harsh winter, so they change their usual habits.” She shrugged. “It is the way of nature. The animals for some reason pick a different route, a route they think will be better, or start sooner, and as a result the people in the place where I lived couldn’t find enough meat or fish to salt or smoke for the winter.

“My father went to try to see what he could do to help. You know, go to other places to try to barter for meat, offer his services in return for supplies we badly needed. My mother was a healer, so she stayed to take care of people.

“My father had a hard time finding any kind of help anywhere close, as they were having similar troubles, so he had to travel farther. He was gone for a long time. So long that people thought he had left for good. People started to whisper that he had run away from my mother.”

Shale stared off for a time before going on. “Rumors fed on themselves. Gossip led to yet more gossip, all the time getting wilder with ludicrous ideas.”

“That’s a dangerous stew,” Richard said. “So then they started to say that it was all because of a witch woman in their midst?”

Shale smiled sadly. “Yes. They said that she drove all the animals far away. Other gossip said that her incantations and spells had deliberately driven the fowl and fish away.” She looked up briefly. “My mother didn’t do ‘incantations,’ but that made no difference to them. They said she did and so people believed it.”

“Why would they think she would do that?” Berdine asked. “You know, chase the animals away. If she was a healer and helped them, why would they think she would do such a thing?”

Shale shrugged self-consciously as she rubbed her arms. “My mother had always cared for their needs. She was a kindhearted woman. Too kind. They began to see her kindness as somehow sinister. They said she was devious, hiding her cruelty behind a smile and her offers to help, when really, she intended them harm.

“As winter closed in, the rumors grew worse. They said that she had caused some of the new babies to be born dead, or their mothers to die in childbirth. They said that those things could only have been my mother’s fault.”

Kahlan slowly shook her head as she held the skewer over the fire, roasting another piece of meat. “Those aren’t rare occurrences. Birth is a difficult process. Newborn babies don’t always live, and mothers sometimes die in childbirth.”

“True enough, but people refused to see it that way. Once they got it in their heads that it was a witch causing their troubles, there was no changing their minds. It was easy to blame her when there was no way to know the real cause. Soon, everything bad that happened had to be the witch’s fault. There could be no other explanation, and none were sought or tolerated.

“My mother only had kindness in her heart and was horrified by the things they accused her of. She wept in despair. Her whole life, she had worked to show people that as a witch woman, she could be of help to them, that she could be a good part of their lives, that witch women needn’t be feared. She always taught me that as witch women it was our duty to serve the needs of others, that we must devote ourselves to their betterment.

“She didn’t believe it was necessary or much use to argue with people. Quarreling wasn’t in her nature, and besides, she was aware that it would do no good. She had done good and expected her actions to be enough proof of her true nature. When she didn’t wish to argue with people to deny the accusations, they somehow saw that as proof that she was guilty. When she finally did deny some of the more horrific accusations, they somehow saw that as proof of wackiness. Nothing my mother said would dissuade them of their beliefs.”

She fell silent and stared into the flames, into the memories.

“So they burned her alive,” Richard said.

Those words jolted Kahlan. This was where the Seeker had been headed. She just didn’t yet know why.

Shale nodded as she continued to stare into the flames. After a moment she cleared her throat.

“There came an unexpected warm spell that lasted weeks. During that unusual weather people started coming down with a sickness they had never seen before. Some of the weaker people, old people, and infants died in delirium from the fevers. They wouldn’t allow my mother to attend to the sick, saying that she was actually the cause of it. With every death, anger grew.

“In the middle of a dark night, they showed up and dragged my mother and me out of our home.” Shale glanced up. “I was a witch woman, too, after all. I was being trained in the evil ways of a witch by my mother, they said. Everyone was yelling and screaming to kill the witches. I was terrified.

“My mother pleaded with them—calling most by name, as she had healed many of them at one time or another, saved many of their lives before, birthed their children—that she would admit to anything they wanted if they would simply leave me be.

“They were having none of it. They said both of us were witches and we both needed to burn.

“They threw me in a wood box, where firewood was stored, and nailed it shut to make sure I didn’t get away until after they were finished with my mother and could come back for me. The sides had open slats for air circulation, so I could see out. Inside that dark box, crammed in atop the firewood, I watched what they did. I can still remember the smell of that firewood box.

“The men tied my mother to a long wooden rail and made her wait there on the cold, wet ground, helpless, as they built a huge, roaring fire in the center of town. The whole time she called them out by name, begging them to spare her daughter. That was all she cared about. While the men built the fire, women surrounded her, calling her names as they spit on her.

“And then three or four men lifted each end of the wooden rail and walked it over to the roaring fire. As everyone cheered, they heaved that rail with my mother tied helpless to it atop the blaze.

“In my dreams, I still hear her screams.”

Shale stopped then, working to maintain her composure.

“Then, after my mother’s screams finally stopped, they came for me.…”

Shale stopped there, and it seemed she might not go on as she stared into the flames, seeing dark memories. Her face was stone.

“Then,” she finally said, “I taught them why they should fear witches.”

“How many of them did you kill?” Richard asked.

Shale shrugged. “I didn’t keep a count. Once I broke out of that box, with my mother dead, I knew my life had changed forever. Her lessons of kindness had earned the hatred of people and gotten her murdered.

“I first took down the ones who had been guarding me to make sure I didn’t escape. Once I started in on the rest, some managed to run and get away. But I knew who they all were. After I finished with those I caught near the fire, I hunted down every last person who had taken part in murdering my mother. I saw to it that not one of them had an easy death.”

Richard tossed another stick of wood in the fire. “And so that is why you can’t burn a witch, not even one as evil as Michec.”

Shale nodded slowly as she stared into memories. “That is why.”

“What happened when your father finally returned?” Kahlan asked.

Shale huffed. “What do you think happened? He was devastated. He didn’t approve of what I had done, but he understood it. He was a hollow man after that. The life had gone out of him. His wife was dead and his daughter, the witch, had killed half the people in our town.”

“What about everyone else after that?” Richard asked. “Not everyone took part in your mother’s murder. And there were other people in the Northern Waste, other settled places. I presume you had to move, but you continued to live in the Waste.”

Shale looked up at him, fire in her dark eyes. “After that, in the new places we moved to, I continued to help those in need. I healed people as my mother had taught me. I birthed babies. I attended the sick and did what I could when something could be done and comforted those for whom nothing could be done. I proved to people that I had a good side, a kind side.

“But from that day on, everyone in the Northern Waste knew the name Shale. What they hadn’t realized when they burned my mother was that I was more than merely a witch woman, like my mother. I am also a sorceress, and that made me oh so much more dangerous.

“Needless to say, there were no more witch burnings. Those living in the Waste fear to even have that thought. Those in the Waste know that I am a witch in every sense, and more.

“They know that I don’t live by their grace; they live by mine.”

Bitterness soured Shale’s expression. “You just don’t understand what it is like to see your mother burned to death.”

The witch woman stood, then, and walked off into the darkness.