Witch's Oath

36

As they followed the natural lay of the land to begin the ascent up into the mountains to try to find a pass, the forest thinned as it struggled to grow among the granite ledges and masses of rock that rose up all around. The exposed rock was covered in colorful medallions of lichen. Fluffy moss and small plants with deep green, heart-shaped leaves grew in low clefts in the ledges.

In the more rocky places, scraggly trees struggled to hold on to the rock with roots like claws. The roots grew in fat, twisting clusters over and around walls of stone and down over granite that looked like disorderly stacks of giant blocks. Ferns found a home in the crooks of those roots, and in the ferns, dirt collected to allow spotted mushrooms and other small plants to grow. Thin trailers of vines hung down from small ledges in the stone. Where water seeped down sheets of sloped granite, green slime grew, and in the laps of rock that collected the water small, colorful frogs waited for bugs.

Squirrels in the upper branches followed the progress of the invaders, chattering warnings as they leaped from branch to branch. Mockingbirds flitted about, or called out as they flicked their long tails. Richard saw ravens perched on branches high up in the larger spruce trees, watching them pass below. When they took to wing, the massive trees left plenty of space for them under the canopy to swoop through the forest. They sent out loud calls as they soared among the trees.

Richard heard a strange moan from Kahlan. He slowed and turned in his saddle.

“What’s wrong?”

Kahlan doubled over. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

He leaped off his horse when he saw her start to slump to the side and begin to slide off her saddle. He rushed in under her just in time to catch her fall enough to ease her limp form to the ground. The others all jumped off their horses when they saw her go down.

Kahlan crossed her arms over her middle as she let out a groan of agony. As Richard brushed her hair back from her face so he could see her eyes, he saw that she was covered in sweat. Her pupils were dilated. She looked up at him with panic in those green eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

She clutched his sleeve, pulling herself up toward him, and opened her mouth, but she couldn’t bring forth words before the pain overwhelmed her and her arm went slack. Her eyes rolled up in her head as she sagged back to the ground.

He put a hand to the side of her face and called her name again. He didn’t think she had even heard him that time.

Shale rushed in and urgently dropped to the ground on the other side of Kahlan. The sorceress took one look at Kahlan’s ashen face and immediately started unbuttoning her shirt stretched tight over her round belly.

“Loosen her trousers,” she told Richard. After a quick look, she said, “Get them off. She’s bleeding.”

Richard felt numb. He did as the sorceress asked and then sat back on his heels. He didn’t know what to do. He had never felt so afraid and helpless.

Shale placed the flats of her hands on the sides of Kahlan’s belly, then on the top and near the bottom. She lifted Kahlan’s eyelids, looking into her eyes. She put an ear to Kahlan’s chest and listened to her heart and her breathing.

She looked up at last, her expression grim.

“She’s miscarrying.”

Richard blinked, the words seeming to come at him from some faraway place.

“What?”

“She’s losing the babies.”

“She can’t,” he said.

Shale looked up at him with as bleak an expression as he’d ever seen. “If we don’t act quickly, we are going to lose her as well.”

Richard sat frozen in terror, his skin feeling icy cold with goose bumps. He couldn’t lose her. She couldn’t lose her children.

Shale placed one hand on Kahlan’s belly and the other on her forehead. She muttered a curse under her breath.

Richard looked up at the Mord-Sith all standing around them, as if to implore their help. They looked as alarmed and lost as he felt.

Kahlan groaned again as she folded both arms across her middle and sat halfway up with the cramping pain that made her cry out. She muttered something incoherently.

Shale put an arm under Kahlan’s head and helped her ease back down. Vale rushed to her horse and quickly returned. She reached in to hand the sorceress a folded blanket. Shale put it under Kahlan’s head. Someone gave Richard another blanket, which he laid over Kahlan’s bare legs. Sweat was pouring off her face despite the chilly air.

“But she will be all right,” Richard insisted.

Ignoring his words, Shale finally sat back up on her heels. “I need you to do something.”

“Anything. Name it.”

“I need you to get me some mother’s breath.”

Richard’s mind felt blank. “Mother’s breath?”

Shale glanced up, giving him a look as if to say she didn’t have time for questions. “Yes, it’s a plant with leaves that—”

“I know what it is,” Vika said. “I grew up in mountainous country. That’s where mother’s breath grows—in the high country.”

Richard looked around frantically. “Would there be any around here?”

Vika took a worried look over her shoulder at the mountains towering above them. She pointed.

“It grows much higher up, near the tree line. There is already snow in a lot of places up there. Mother’s breath dies out when the snows come.”

Richard shot to his feet, snatching up the reins to his horse. “We need to get up there and find some.”

Shale looked up at them both. “I need the whole plant, roots and all.”

Vika cast a troubled look up the mountain. “It’s liable to be covered in snow by now. Snow kills off mother’s breath until it comes back in the spring.”

Shale shook her head vehemently. “It can’t be dead and dry. If it’s not still living and supple it turns to a poison that would kill her.”

“It’s an extremely rare plant.” Vika hesitated. “I’ve only seen it a few times in my whole life. It doesn’t grow in many places. What if we can’t find any?”

Shale gave them both a look. “She’s losing the babies. I don’t know if I can save her. Go find the mother’s breath. It’s her only chance, now.”

“What about the twins?” Richard asked.

Shale pointedly wouldn’t look up at him. “Go. Hurry.”

Richard and Vika shared a look; then each stuffed a foot in a stirrup and leaped up into their saddles.

“The rest of you,” Richard said, gesturing to the Mord-Sith, “watch over them until we’re back.”

He looked down at Kahlan. Her eyes were half closed. She trembled in pain. She truly did look like she was dying. Richard swallowed and gestured to Vika.

“Let’s go.”