Witch's Oath

34

Richard reined in his horse and pulled it sideways to block the others. “It’s too dangerous to ride our horses any farther,” he told them. “We need to get off here and go the rest of the way in on foot.”

Once they had handed the reins of their horses to the Mord-Sith, he told them that he wanted them all to wait where they were and take care of the horses. They weren’t happy about leaving Richard and Kahlan without their protection, but because it involved dangerous magic, they were happy to keep their distance. Only Vika insisted on coming with them. Richard agreed with a nod.

Richard led Shale, Kahlan, and Vika on foot forward through an eerie stand of dead spruce. The silver-gray skeletons stood in dried, cracked, black ground that had once been thick mud. The grove of spruce were devoid of all but a few stubby, bare branches draped with long trailers of dull green moss that hung motionless in the dead-still air. The place smelled as dead as it looked. Kahlan walked behind with Vika, gazing warily around at the dead trees.

The ground descended gradually into a wet area growing thick with bog weed that now had died off until next spring. The long reeds around the open water had previously been blown over by heavy gusts of wind and were likewise brown and dead. It was difficult to slog their way through the tangled mat. Small, unseen things darted away in the murky water.

Bugs buzzed around their heads. Kahlan had to use her fingernails to pull out biting flies crawling on her neck under her hair. From time to time Richard and Vika tried to swish the cloud of insects away. It did little good. They all swatted at the flies that bit them. Shale held her dark cloak tightly closed against the insects. That morning there had already been a frost, so she knew that while the bugs were a nuisance, they would all soon be gone with the first hard freeze.

Kahlan didn’t hear any other sounds, but she kept looking around for anything unexpected. She was sure the place had to be full of snakes so she was careful of where she stepped.

As they came up through thick grasses onto higher ground, Richard lifted a hand to bring them all to a halt.

“This is the place.”

“This is what you’re worried about?” Shale looked off in both directions. “I don’t see anything.”

“Stay where you are and watch,” he said.

He walked forward cautiously. As he did, Kahlan could see a green glow, at first hardly perceptible, form around him. It grew brighter in the area immediately around him until after a few more steps it brightened to a sheet of glowing green light that looked like it was pressing in around him. The ominous, wavy, distorted green wall grew larger with every step he took. The green light was stronger close to him and faded away to the sides and above.

Kahlan was able to see the forest and sky beyond the lighter portion of the wavering green light. As Richard finally turned and walked back to them, the green glow faded until he was far enough away, where it vanished completely.

Kahlan folded her arms, feeling a little sick at seeing such a thing again. She never thought she would. She did her best to force the terrible memories it brought back from her mind.

“What does it feel like when you get close like that?” Shale asked in a low voice, finally concerned. “I don’t see why you say it’s an opening to the underworld. I admit, it’s strange-enough-looking, but it doesn’t look like a wall of death, as you described it to us. It’s just that unusual green light.”

“You would know why if you got close to it,” Vika told her.

Shale stared at the Mord-Sith a moment, then turned back to Richard. “I need to get closer. I need to be as close as possible if I’m to try to sense the nature of its magic.”

Richard nodded his agreement. “Now that I’ve shown you that much of its characteristics, I’ll take you in so you can see it and feel it for yourself.” He gestured to Vika. “Why don’t you wait here.”

The Mord-Sith nodded. “Seeing it once is enough for me.”

Shale didn’t look the least bit reluctant to see what didn’t look all that frightening from where they were. When Richard started out, Kahlan, knowing what was coming, walked beside Shale.

“Easy, now,” Richard said as he finally locked arms with the sorceress.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Just keep hold of my arm. I’ll stop you when we’ve gone far enough.”

“What do you mean, when we’ve gone far enough?”

Despite her reluctance, Kahlan locked her arm with Shale’s other arm. “It’s best if you let us hold on to you. You’ll see.”

As they walked closer and a faint green glow began, it was different-looking than when they had watched from the outside as Richard walked close by himself. It almost felt like it was humming. Shale looked up and then to the sides.

As they went farther in, Kahlan started hearing that awful, high-pitched buzzing sound, like a thousand bumblebees. With each step, the sound became not only louder but deeper in tone. Kahlan knew, though, what the sound actually was. That knowledge ran a shiver up her spine.

As they continued in, the green light deepened in color. The woods all around became darker, too, as if it were twilight.

Abruptly, an entire sheet of green materialized, the greenish glow everywhere around them. Kahlan looked back. She could no longer see the others. The woods and everything beyond had been swallowed in darkness. The cloud of insects dispersed rather than go any farther in.

“Easy,” Richard warned them as he stepped carefully.

After a few more steps, the green vanished as the whole world darkened to black. It felt like a moonless, starless night, where she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. The buzzing vibrating deep in Kahlan’s chest was so strong that it was starting to make her feel sick to her stomach.

She put a hand over her babies, suddenly worried, wondering if it was a mistake to take them close to such an evil place.

The darkness abruptly became a distinct, darkly transparent wall, like looking out on a night through glass that had grease smeared all over it. Kahlan could see the shapes moving beyond.

“This is as far as we dare go,” Richard said.

Kahlan realized that she was putting pressure on Shale’s arm to draw her back. She eased up on the pressure to let her go farther forward. The sorceress needed to know what they were really facing. They had to let her get a little closer.

Shale’s jaw fell open as inky black shapes swept by, close, in the gloom on the other side of that dark wall. Kahlan knew they were specters in the deep, the dead in their lair. The swirl of inky shapes was at first bewitching, but Kahlan knew better.

She felt overwhelmed by the darkness and then began to feel that old sense of longing for what lay beyond. She heard voices murmur her name, calling to her. Kahlan knew they would be calling to Richard by name. By the way that Shale’s eyes opened wider, she knew they were calling to her by name as well. Those thousands of distant voices of the souls beyond were the buzzing they had heard at first. Now, each of those sounds resolved into uncountable individual voices, the appeals of the dead.

When Shale cried out and tried to lift her arms toward the dark wall, Richard and Kahlan had to forcefully pull her arms back. She let out a long, mournful wail. As they pulled the sorceress back, she struggled to reach out toward the dead, to get to them, trying to tear herself out of Richard’s and Kahlan’s arms. As they dragged her back, she dug in her heels, not wanting to be pulled away from what she saw.

When they were far enough back, Shale sagged in their arms, weeping. Knowing the agony of what she had seen, Kahlan felt a pang of sadness for her. She wished they hadn’t had to show it to her, but she needed to see it to truly understand. Richard and Kahlan had to continue struggling, pulling the sorceress back away from the wall of death.

When they were far enough back, to where Vika waited, Shale finally grasped the magnitude of what she had seen and reacted in horror to what she had tried to do. As she fell to tears, Kahlan took the sorceress in her arms.

“Think of something else,” Kahlan told her. “Shale, listen to me. You have to think of something else. Try to remember every town you passed through on your way to come to the People’s Palace. Think. Try to remember them in order.”

After a few moments Shale pushed back and swallowed. “I’m all right.”

Hooking her arm through Shale’s to be safe, Kahlan ushered her back away until they reached the others.

She finally stood on her own, wiping tears from her cheeks. “I’ve never in my life felt magic that powerful.”

“It’s not something pleasant, that’s for sure,” Richard said. “I have absolutely no idea why it’s here. All I can tell you is that it shouldn’t be. As far as I know, there is no one powerful enough to call up that boundary. I’m sorry for what you saw in there, but I felt that you needed to see it, feel it, for yourself.”

Shale stared in wonder at him. She looked too stunned to speak. Kahlan knew, though, that it wasn’t the world of the dead that had her looking so shocked. It was something else.

The sorceress abruptly reached out and put fingers to Richard’s temples. “Hold still.”

Richard turned a worried glance toward Kahlan, as if to ask what to do.

“Do as she asks,” Kahlan said. “Hold still.”

From not far away, the Mord-Sith, looking in ill humor, all watched. They didn’t particularly like anyone but Kahlan touching Lord Rahl. It aroused their protective instincts. Kahlan held a hand out low in their direction, letting them know it was all right and to stand down.

All at once, Shale drew both hands back with a gasp, as if the touch had burned her fingers. She took a step back away from Richard, clearly in fear.

Kahlan was alarmed by her reaction. “What is it?”

Shale’s terrified eyes looked from Kahlan back to Richard.

“Shale,” Kahlan asked again, “what is it that you sense?”

Shale blinked at her. “It’s him.”

Both Richard and Kahlan shared a bewildered look.

“What are you talking about?” Kahlan asked. “What’s him?”

Shale gathered her long, dark hair together and held it in both fists. She drew her lower lip through her teeth.

Her face had gone ashen. “It’s his.”

Growing impatient, Kahlan made a face. “His what?”

She hesitated. “The boundary. It’s Lord Rahl’s magic.”

Richard closed the distance to the sorceress and grabbed her by an arm. “What are you talking about?”

“You created this, this …” She waggled a hand toward where they had just been. “… this boundary. This fracture in the world of life. This opening into the world of death. It’s your magic that created it. I can feel it. I can feel your gift in its composition. You did this.”