Witch's Oath

32

Kahlan found Shale a short distance away, standing alone among a stand of birch trees, staring off into the darkness. She put a comforting hand on the witch woman’s shoulder and gave it a gentle jostle.

“I’m sorry for all those terrible things that happened,” Kahlan told her.

With her fingertips, Shale wiped a tear from under each eye. “Thank you. It’s just that he doesn’t understand what it’s like to see your mother, a good woman who never harmed anyone, burned to death.”

Kahlan leaned in and whispered. “Oh but he does.”

Shale shook her head as she looked over at Kahlan. “How could he?”

Kahlan squeezed with the hand on Shale’s shoulder. “When Richard was a boy their house burned down. His mother burned to death inside. Richard couldn’t save her.”

Shale clearly looked shocked. “I had no idea.”

“As with you, it’s not a story one is eager to tell.”

“Then why did he want me to tell it?”

Kahlan pursed her lips, trying to think how to explain it when she herself wasn’t yet entirely sure.

“This is about something more,” she finally said. “When I first met Richard, Darken Rahl had invaded the Midlands. I came looking for the help of a Seeker. Richard’s grandfather was a wizard, but Richard never knew it. His grandfather also happened to be the great wizard who had long been the caretaker of the Sword of Truth, an ancient weapon of great power.

“I urged Richard’s grandfather to name a new Seeker. Because of the great need, he finally agreed. To my shock, he gave the sword to Richard and named him Seeker. Not because it was his choice, but, as he told me, because by Richard’s actions and his life, he had revealed himself in a hundred little ways to be the one who had been born the true Seeker of Truth.

“That is how he came to have that ancient weapon and the title Seeker. The Sword of Truth is more than merely a weapon. It carries with it not only great power, but great responsibility that transcends the man alone. Only a true Seeker could understand that, and not use it merely to seek power for himself. That is how he came to be bonded to that singular blade.

“Richard always seeks to understand things, to seek answers. It’s his nature, the way he was born, not something created in him by that weapon. The questions he asked you were not to hurt you, but because he needs answers to pieces of a larger puzzle.

“I don’t know what that puzzle is—I often don’t at first when he gets like this—but I do know we are all in grave danger and he sees something in the large picture about that danger that the rest of us don’t see. He is seeking answers; he is not seeking to hurt you. You are part of that larger picture, and as such, part of the solution. He needs to know every facet of how you fit into it all.

“Richard knows very well that there are forces beyond life and death. Despite Michec being dead, Richard has concerns about the very real possibility of a threat of some kind, somehow surviving Michec’s death. That is why he asked you to burn the witch man’s body. He considered it essential.

“When you refused, that threw him off. It made no sense to him why you wouldn’t do something that, in his mind, was so obviously necessary to ensure our safety. He is fighting—we are all fighting—against evil, and in that fight, there can be no quarter given, no mercy granted. He had to know why you refused so he can reassure himself that your reasons were sound.

“You just did that, and in so doing you showed us that you also fight evil, don’t give quarter, and don’t grant mercy to those who are undeserving.”

It surprised Kahlan when Shale turned and gave her a hug. “Thank you, Mother Confessor, for explaining it to me in a way that I could understand, not the way he would have done it.”

Kahlan smiled as they parted. “All of us—all nine of us—have lost our mothers when we were yet too young. The Mord-Sith all live with the horror of what was done to their mothers. Richard lives with the horror of his mother burning to death. My mother was lost to the horror of a terrible disease, but the loss hurts no less. We all lost our mothers and we all understand your pain. Never doubt that.”

Shale nodded. “You are the Mother Confessor to us all, now.”

Kahlan smiled. “Come on back and finish eating. You need your strength. We have a long and dangerous journey ahead of us. And, knowing Richard, he has more questions. Richard always has more questions. Sometimes it can be exasperating, but it never done out of malice.”

As they walked together back through the birch stand and into the flickering firelight, everyone watched the two of them return, but were apparently reluctant to ask what had happened.

Shale rubbed her hands together, hesitating before saying anything. “I didn’t finish my story,” she finally told Richard in a much calmer tone as she offered him a smile. “Would you like me to tell you the rest?”

He returned the smile. “I’d like that.”

Shale took a deep breath as she sat again and folded her legs. “Well, not everyone where we lived had been a part of that mob. Many hid in their houses, afraid to speak up against those filled with bloodlust, afraid to be accused along with my mother, afraid to be treated the same by people possessed by such fanaticism.”

Richard shifted his legs to get more comfortable. “Human beings have an infinite capacity for ignorance and intolerance. As a result, they can be profoundly dangerous. Others rightly fear them.”

“Indeed that’s what happened,” Shale said as she held her hands out before the fire to get them warm. “I treated the people of the Waste with help and kindness, just as my mother taught me, but only when they merited it. I didn’t hold against the innocent the sins of the guilty. I treat each person for who they are. I treat evil people for what they are. It’s as simple as that, and why I’m feared in the Northern Waste. Those who simply don’t wish the help of a witch woman, I leave to themselves.”

Richard smiled. “I, too, have met good people who didn’t want anything to do with magic. That doesn’t make them bad.”

Shale couldn’t help nodding at their shared experience with those who rejected or feared magic.

“News reached even the Northern Waste of the terrible things that had happened to the south of us. Fortunately, for the people there, we were far from the horrors of the war.

“From what I heard, though, I learned that you were one of those who fought against mindless brutality and hate, that as the Lord Rahl you fought that everyone might be able to live their own lives free of mindless persecution. While that was part of why I wanted to come here, there just seemed to be something more driving me to come.”

“More?” he asked, looking up. “More, like what?”

Shale shrugged. “I don’t know. Just an internal uneasiness, a nagging sense that I needed to come south. I’d like to think it’s because after all that I learned about you and the Mother Confessor, I wanted to be a part of what you had created, to feel that my life and my abilities were worth something valuable to you, whereas they weren’t by many others. Also I felt I had to warn you and the Mother Confessor of the strange killings that, as we all learned later, turned out to be the Glee.”

“We are glad you came, and we are in your debt for that and for so much more,” Richard said in a soft, kind voice that somehow melted away the hard feelings of the questions.

“I know now, after the Mother Confessor spoke with me, that you are the Seeker. I didn’t really know much about that before, or what it meant. I understand, now, that as the Seeker you are asking all these questions for a reason, not out of malice, even if I don’t yet understand the reason. So, please go on and ask what you need to ask. I know now that you must have some deeper purpose.”

Richard smiled as he handed her another piece of meat. “Berdine ate the piece you left.”

“I thought she was done!” Berdine protested. “I didn’t want it to go to waste, what with it already being cooked and all.”

Shale let out a bit of a laugh as she took the meat and skewered it. “That’s all right, Berdine. Easy enough to cook another. So what do you want to know about, Lord Rahl?”

“I want to know about the things Michec said just before he died.”

As she held the chunk of meat on her skewer over the crackling flames, uncertainty colored her features. “He said something? I’m sorry, but I didn’t hear him say anything. I was concentrating with all my strength, trying to hold back those vines he had around his wrists. He intended to also try to strangle you with them. Only by me holding them back was I able to stop him from conjuring more in order to do just that.”

“Oh. Well, it’s understandable that you were preoccupied.”

“So, what did he say?”

“He said he was only following orders—the ‘queen’s’ orders.”

Shale frowned darkly at him from across the fire. “What queen?”

Richard shrugged. “I don’t know. So then you have no idea, either?”

She pushed her dark hair back over her shoulder. “Not a clue.”

“He also said, ‘If you think this witch’s oath begins and ends with me, you are a fool.’”

“Ah. I can see why that would be bothering you and why you wanted to know more about me.” Creases tightened between her eyebrows. “But I thought it was his witch’s oath that he was going to kill us.”

“Apparently not. He said it didn’t begin with him, and it wouldn’t end with him. I think he was telling the truth.”

“That is disturbing.” She considered a moment. “What do you think it could mean?”

“I don’t know.” Richard looked up with that raptor gaze of his. “He said to ask you.”

Shale looked startled. “Me! How should I know?”

Richard shrugged as he pulled off a strip of meat. “That’s what he said. What do you know about witch’s oaths?”

Shale rested her elbows on her knees as she thought it over. “I didn’t know any witch women other than my mother. She never spoke of a witch’s oath, as such. What do you think he meant?”

Richard shrugged. “From the way he put it, as if it was something quite solemn and serious, it sounded to me like he was saying that once a witch gives an oath, it is somehow the duty of every witch to see to it that such an oath is carried out.”

Again, Shale looked surprised. “I can see why you were disturbed by the things he said. But I’m afraid I just don’t know anything about such oaths.” Her eyes narrowed with a memory. “Now that you mention it, though, my mother sometimes said that she had given an oath to help people, and that as a witch woman it was my duty to follow that oath. Out of respect for her, I often felt compelled to help people. Do you think that was what she meant? That it was a witch’s duty to follow such an oath?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know a whole lot about witch women,” he said. “I was hoping you could fill in some of the blanks.”

“Sorry. It’s as puzzling to me as it is to you.”

“Did you see the glint in his eye, after he was dead?”

She paused her chewing. “Glint? No, I saw no such thing.”

“I did,” Kahlan said, suddenly feeling alarmed.

Richard looked over at her. “You saw it too?” When she nodded, his brow drew down. “Then it wasn’t my imagination.”

“Maybe I was just too far away to see it,” Shale suggested.

Richard fed another stick of wood into the fire. “Whatever it was, he is nothing but ashes, now.”

Kahlan couldn’t help wondering if such a witch’s oath somehow lived on.