Witch's Oath

4

“Richard,” Shale finally whispered into the haunting silence, “how in the world did you just do that? For that matter, what in the world did you just do?”

Richard had no real answer. Truth be told, he was at a loss to understand what he had just done, much less explain it to her. He had simply acted out of instinct—a war wizard’s instinct.

“I ended the threat,” he said in simple explanation, without trying to embellish with guesses about what he couldn’t explain.

“No … well, yes, but what I mean, is how could you possibly do that? That was clearly magic. Michec blocked us from using our magic in this room. For that matter, how did your sword work? Your sword shouldn’t work in here either. You shouldn’t be able to use your gift in here.”

Richard arched an eyebrow at her. “And you believe that?”

“Of course.” Her brow tightened. “I could feel that I couldn’t use my gift. It was blocked. How were you able to use yours?”

“He’s not a wizard, but he used Wizard’s First Rule.”

Her face twisted with bewilderment. “Wizard’s what?”

Richard wet his lips. “I don’t think that a witch man even as powerful as Michec could do something like block us from our gift. But you were afraid it was true, so you believed it. By believing it, in a way you made it true. You blocked your gift because in your own mind you believed a block was there. You expected to be blocked from your ability. I don’t think Michec really has the ability to do such a thing. At least not to us. To the Mord-Sith, yes, because he was a trainer to Mord-Sith, but not us. Sometimes a trick is the best magic.”

“But how did you know?”

Richard showed her a crooked smile. “A lesson my grandfather taught me. I just wish I hadn’t been so slow to remember the lesson and realize what was really happening. If I had realized that lesson sooner, I would have been able to kill Michec while still hanging from the chain.

“Without thinking, while I thought my gift was blocked, I expected the magic of the sword to work when I grabbed the hilt. When it did, I suddenly realized there couldn’t be a block or I wouldn’t be able to feel its power bonding with me. It was just a trick. I had been believing it because I was afraid it was true.”

Shale shook her head. “I wish I had realized it. I could have done something.”

“We all believed it because Michec is a scary character. That’s how such a trick works. It has to be convincing. Michec is convincing, but he has limitations.”

Richard turned to Kahlan and held her bloody face gently in his hands. He kissed her forehead, relieved beyond words that she was safe, at least for the moment. He hated to see all that blood on her face. He briefly released a flow of Subtractive Magic as he held her head between his hands, making the blood on her face vanish and easing a little more of her pain.

“Do you think you can hold on for a bit?” he whispered to her. “I need to help Vika.”

Kahlan nodded. “Michec did no serious damage to me. Don’t worry about me. You have to help Vika if you can.”

As Richard turned, an astonished Shale hooked his arm. With her other hand she waggled a finger at Kahlan. “How did you make the blood on her face vanish?”

“Subtractive Magic. I told you. There is no block on our gift.” He held both hands out, still in the manacles. “Now, show me I’m right by using your gift to get these off me.”

Giving him a dark look, she opened her mouth to question him, but then put her hands around the manacles. She closed her eyes as she concentrated on the task. Richard heard a snap as the lock on the metal bands broke. He twisted his hands, and to his great relief the manacles with the chain still attached fell open and dropped to the floor.

“Thanks. See? Your gift was there all the time.” He gestured toward the opening to the room off in the distance. “Now, keep a sharp lookout for Michec. He’s out there somewhere and he is not going to so easily give up. I have to help Vika before he shows up again.”

The sorceress tightened her grip on his arm. Her eyes reflected the pain of sympathy, and regret. She hesitated briefly, then leaned in close and spoke softly so that Vika wouldn’t hear.

“Lord Rahl, her wounds are too grievous to heal. Healing is part of my ability, something I’ve done my whole life. I know what is possible and what is not possible. There is nothing that can be done for her. You must believe me that I know what I’m talking about. She cannot be healed of a gut wound that serious, to say nothing of what else he did to that poor girl.

“But beyond that, even if it were within the scope of the possible, a complex healing takes many hours. An extremely complex healing can take days. Michec is still down here, somewhere. He is not going to give up on a witch’s oath. He will come back after us all. Do you think he won’t kill Kahlan as well after he is finished with her?”

Richard frowned at her. “Are you saying we should run? That I should flee because of a witch’s oath?” He gestured around at the room full of skinned corpses, some of them now sliced in half by the magic he used to stop the Glee. “That I should abandon the People’s Palace to Michec knowing full well what a monster he is and what he will do?”

“No …” She shook her head in exasperation. “No. It’s not that. It’s just that with such grave danger to you and the Mother Confessor—and to your children—we don’t have the luxury of that much time for a futile attempt to heal Vika. Nor can you afford the distraction of a protracted attempt that is doomed to fail in the end. The most you can do for Vika now is to grant her the mercy of a quick death. She has earned that much.”

Richard bit back his anger at her words and instead said, “Let me handle this.”

Seeing the look in his eyes, Shale finally relented with a nod. He gently pulled away from her grasp on his arm. Kahlan, then, touched him with an expression of anguish over the grim situation. Richard looked at both of them briefly, at the pain he saw in their eyes. The resolve they saw in his eyes kept them both from saying anything.

And then, something back in the darkness caught his eye. Past Kahlan and Shale, in the distance, in the dim greenish light, he saw a single Glee just standing there, watching. He remembered seeing a single Glee before, after a previous battle when he killed a large group of them.

He stared at the dark shape. It stared back.

And then it did the oddest thing. Without moving, it turned its hands over and spread the three claws of each hand and just stood there like that for a moment. He saw, then, that the Glee’s hands were webbed between each claw.

It wasn’t at all an aggressive posture. If he didn’t know better, he would say it was acknowledgment of Richard and what he had just done. As soon as the Glee knew they had made eye contact, and it had shown him its webbed hands, the air turned to scribbles as it vanished back into its own world.

Richard wondered if it could possibly be the same one he had seen before, the same lone Glee. Or if it was a scout of some sort come to see what had happened and report back to the Golden Goddess.

He also wondered why the Glee would have webbed claws, if they were predators.

Whatever its purpose, Richard didn’t have time to consider it any longer. He had much more important things to tend to.

His gaze refocused on the two women in front of him. “I have to help Vika.”