Chapter 17

RICHARD PLACED THE LAMP on the side of the table, close to the wall, and lit it with a stick from the fire. The sound of gentle rain and night creatures drifted in from the window. The chirps and calls of small animals going about their nocturnal lives were familiar to him, comforting sounds of home. Home. His last night in his homeland, and then he was to cross into the Midlands. As his father had done. He smiled to himself at the irony. His father had brought the Book of Counted Shadows out of the Midlands, and now he was taking it back.

He sat down on the log round, across from Kahlan and Adie. " So, tell me, how do we find the pass? "

Adie leaned back in her chair and swept her hand through the air. " You already have. You be in the pass. The mouth of it anyway."

" And what do we need to know to get through it? "

" The pass be a void in the underworld, but it still be a land of the dead. You be living. The beasts hunt the living if the living be big enough to be of interest." Richard looked at Kahlan's impassive face, then back to Adie. " What beasts? "

Adie's long finger pointed to each wall of the room in turn. " They be the bones of the beasts. Your friends were touched by things of the underworld. The bones confuse their powers. That be why I said your friends were being helped from the moment you brought them in here. The bones cause the magic poison to leave their bodies, letting the death sleep lift. The bones keep the evil away from here. The beasts cannot find me because they feel the evil of the bones and it blinds them, makes them think I be one of them."

Richard leaned forward. " If we took some of the bones with us, would that protect us? "

Adie smiled her little smile, making her eyes wrinkle. " Very good. That be exactly what you must do. These bones of the dead have the magic to help protect you. But there be more. Listen carefully to what I tell you."

Richard folded his fingers together and nodded.

" You cannot take your horses, the trail be too small for them. There be places they cannot fit. You must not wander from the trail-it be very dangerous to do so. And you must not stop to sleep. It will take one day, one night, and most of the next day to cross."

" Why can't we stop to sleep? " Richard asked.

Adie looked to each of them with her white eyes. " There be other things, besides the beasts, in the pass. They will get you if you stop long enough."

" Things? " Kahlan asked.

Adie nodded. " I go into the pass often. If you are careful, it be safe enough. If you are not careful, there, be things that will get you." Her raspy voice lowered bitterly. " I became overconfident. One day I was walking a long time, and became very tired. I was sure of myself, sure I knew the dangers well, so I sat against a tree and took a small nap. For a few minutes only." She put her hand on her leg, rubbing it slowly. " When I was asleep, a gripper fixed itself on my ankle."

Kahlan scrunched up her features. " What's a gripper? "

Adie regarded her in silence for a minute. " A gripper be an animal that has armor all over his back, spikes all around the bottom edge. Many legs underneath, each with a sharp, hooked claw at the end, a mouth like a leech with teeth all around. He wraps himself around, so only his armor is out. With his claws he digs into the flesh to hold tight so you cannot pull him off, and then he fixes his mouth to you, sucking the blood from you, tightening with the claws all the time."

Kahlan put her hand reassuringly on Adie's arm. The light from the lamp made the old woman's white eyes a pale shade of orange. Richard didn't move, his muscles tense.

" I had my axe with me." Kahlan closed her eyes as her head lowered. Adie went on. " I tried to kill the gripper, or at least get him off me. I knew that if I did not, he would suck all the lifeblood from me. His armor be harder than the axe. I was very angry with myself. The grippers be one of the slowest creatures in the pass, but he be faster than a sleeping fool." She looked into Richard's eyes. " There be only one thing I could do to save my life. I could stand the pain no longer; his teeth were scraping into the bone. I tied a strip of cloth tight around my thigh, and laid my lower leg across a log. I used the axe to chop off my foot and ankle."

The silence in the small house was brittle. Only Richard's eyes moved, to meet Kahlan's. He saw sorrow there for the old woman, saw his own sorrow reflected. He couldn't imagine the resolve it would take to use an axe to cut off your own foot. His stomach felt sick. Adie's thin lips spread in a grim smile. With one hand she reached across the table to take Richard's hand, and with the other hand, took Kahlan's. She held their hands in a firm grip.

" I tell you this story not to have you feel sorry for me. I tell you only so you two will not become prey to something in the pass. Confidence can be a dangerous thing. Fear can keep you safe, sometimes."

" Then I think we shall be very safe, " Richard said.

Adie continued to smile, and gave a single nod. " Good. There be one more thing. There be a place halfway through the pass, where the two walls of the boundary come very close together, almost touching. It be called the Narrows. When you come to a rock the size of this house, split down the middle, that be the place. You must pass through the rock. Do not go around it even though you may want to; death be that way. And then beyond, you must pass between the walls of the boundary. It be the most dangerous place in the pass." She put a hand on Kahlan's shoulder, and squeezed Richard's hand tighter, looking to each in turn. " They will call to you from the boundary. They will want you to come to them."

" Who? " Kahlan asked.

Adie leaned closer to her. " The dead. It could be anyone you know who be dead. Your mother."

Kahlan bit her bottom lip. " Is it really them? "

Adie shook her head. " I don't know, child. But I do not believe it to be."

" I don't think so, either, " Richard said, almost more to reassure himself.

" Good, " Adie rasped. " Keep thinking so. It will help you resist. You will be tempted to go to them. If you do, you are lost. And remember, in the Narrows it be even more important to keep on the path the whole way through. A step or two off to either side and you have gone too far; the walls of the boundary be that close. You will not be able to step back. Ever."

Richard let out a deep breath. " Adie; the boundary is failing. Before he was struck down, Zedd told me he could see the change. Chase said you couldn't see into it before, and that now underworld beings were getting out. Do you think it will still be safe to go through the Narrows? "

" Safe? I never said it be safe. It never be safe to go through the Narrows. Many who were keen with greed, but not strong of will, have tried to go through and never come out the other side." She leaned closer to him. " As long as the boundary be there still, so too must be the pass. Stay on the trail. Keep in mind your purpose. Help each other if need be, and you will get across."

Adie studied his face. Richard turned to Kahlan's green eyes. He wondered if Kahlan and he could resist the boundary. He remembered what it felt like to want to go into it, to long for it. In the Narrows, it would be on both sides of them. He knew how frightened Kahlan was of the underworld, with good reason; she had been in it. He wasn't anxious to go anywhere near it himself.

Richard frowned in thought. " You said the Narrows were in the center of the pass. Won't it be night? How will we see to stay on the trail? "

Adie put her hand on Kahlan's shoulder to help herself up. " Come, " she said as she put the crutch under her arm. They followed slowly behind as she worked her way to the shelves. Her slender fingers clutched a leather pouch. She loosened the drawstring and dumped something in her palm.

She turned to Richard. " Hold out your hand."

He held his hand palm up in front of her. She put her hand over his, and he felt a smooth weight. In her native tongue she spoke a few words under he; breath.

`" The words say I give you this of my own free will."

Richard saw that in his palm rested a rock about the size of a grouse egg. Smooth and polished, it was so dark it seemed as if it could suck the light from the room. He couldn't even discern a surface, other than a layer of gloss. Beneath that was a void of blackness.

" This be a night stone, " she said in a measured rasp.

" And what do I do with it? "

Adie hesitated, her gaze darting briefly to the window. " When it be dark, and you have need enough, take out the night stone and it will give off light so you may find your way. It only works for its owner, and then only if it be given of its last owner's free will. I will tell the wizard you have it. He has magic to find it, so he will be able to find you."

Richard hesitated. " Adie, this must be valuable. I don't feel right accepting it."

" Everything is valuable under the right conditions. To a man dying of thirst, water be more precious than gold. To a drowning man, water be of little worth and great trouble. Right now, you be a very thirsty man. I thirst for Darken Rahl to be stopped. Take the night stone. If you feel the weight of obligation, you may return it to me one day."

Richard nodded, slipped the stone into the leather pouch and then into his pocket. Adie turned to the shelf once more and retrieved a delicate necklace, holding it up for Kahlan to see. A few red and yellow beads were to each side of a small round bone. Kahlan's eyes brightened, her mouth opened in surprise.

" It is just like my mother's, " she said with delight

Adie placed it over her head while Kahlan lifted clear her mass of dark hair. Kahlan looked down at the necklace, touching it between her finger and thumb, smiling.

" For now it will hide you from the beasts in the pass, and someday, when you carry a child of your own, it will protect her, and help her to grow strong like you."

Kahlan put her arms around the old woman, hugging her tight for a long time. When they separated, Kahlan's face bore a distressed expression, and she spoke in the language Richard didn't understand. Adie simply smiled and patted her shoulder sympathetically.

" You two should sleep now."

" What about me? Shouldn't I have a bone to hide me from the beasts? "

Adie studied his face, then looked down at his chest. Slowly, she reached out. Her fingers uncurled and touched his shirt tentatively, touched the tooth underneath. She pulled her hand back and looked back up into his eyes. Somehow she knew about the tooth being there. Richard held his breath.

" You need no bone, Hartlander. The beasts cannot see you."

His father had told him the thing guarding the book had been an evil beast. He realized the tooth was the reason the things from the boundary hadn't been able to find him, as they had the others. If it hadn't been for the tooth, he would have been struck down as Zedd and Chase were, and Kahlan would be in the underworld now. Richard tried to keep his face from betraying any emotion. Adie seemed to get the hint and remained silent. Kahlan seemed confused but didn't ask.

" Sleep now, " Adie said.

Kahlan refused Adie's offer of her bed. She and Richard laid their bedrolls near the fire, and Adie retired to her room. Richard put a few more logs in the fire, remembering how Kahlan liked to be by a fire. He sat by Zedd and Chase for a few minutes, smoothing the old man's white hair, listening to his even breathing. He hated to leave his friends behind. He was afraid of what was ahead. He wondered if Zedd had an idea of where to look for one of the boxes. Richard wished he knew what Zedd's plan was. Maybe it was some sort of wizard's trick to try on Darken Rahl

Kahlan sat on the floor by the fire with her legs crossed, watching him. When he came back to his blanket, she lay down on her back, pulling the blanket up to her waist. The house was quiet -and felt safe. Rain continued to fall outside. It felt good being by the fire. He was tired. Richard turned toward Kahlan, his elbow on the floor and his head propped in his hand. She stared up at the ceiling, turning the bone on the necklace between her finger and thumb. He watched her breast rise and fall with her breathing.

" Richard, " she whispered while continuing to stare at the ceiling, " I'm sorry we have to leave them behind."

" I know, " he whispered back. " Me too."

" I hope you do not feel I forced you to do it, because of what I said when we were in the swamp."

" No. It was the right decision. Every day brings winter closer. It will do us no good to wait with them, while Rahl gets the boxes. Then we will all be dead. The truth is the truth. I can't be angry at you for saying it."

He listened to the fire snap and hiss as he watched her face, the way her hair lay across the floor. He could see a vein in her neck pulsing with her heartbeat. He thought that she had the most delicious-looking neck he had ever seen. Sometimes she looked so beautiful, he could hardly stand to look at her, and at the same time, could not look away. She still held the necklace in her fingers.

" Kahlan? " She turned to his eyes. " When Adie told you the necklace would protect you and someday your child, what did you say to her? "

She gazed at him a long moment. " I thanked her, but I told her I did not think I would live long enough to have a child."

Richard felt bumps rise on the skin of his arms. " Why would you say that? "

Her eyes moved in little flicks as she studied different places on his face. " Richard, " she said quietly, " madness is loose in my homeland, madness you cannot imagine. I am but one. They are many. I have seen people better than me go against it and be slaughtered. I. am not saying I think we will fail, but I do not think I will live to know."

Even if she wasn't saying it, Richard knew she didn't think he would live either. She was trying not to frighten him, but she thought he would die in the effort, too. That was why she hadn't wanted Zedd to give him the Sword of Truth, to make him Seeker. He felt as if his heart were coming up into his throat. She believed she was leading them to their death.

Maybe she was right, he mused. After all, she knew more about what they were up against than he did. She must be terrified to go back to the Midlands. But then, there was no place to hide. The night wisp had said that to run was a sure death.

Richard kissed the. end of his finger and then touched it against the bone on the necklace. He looked back up into her soft eyes.

" I add my oath of protection to the bone, " he said in a whisper. " To you now and to any child you may bear in the future. I would trade no day I spend with you for a life of safe slavery. I accepted the post of Seeker of my own free will. And if Darken Rahl takes the whole world into madness, then we will die with a sword in our hands, not chains on our wings. We will not allow it to be easy for them to kill us; they will pay a high price. We will fight with our last breath if need be, and in our death, let us inflict a wound on him that will fester until it claims him."

A smile spread across her face, until her eyes were caught up in it. " If Darken Rahl knew you as I do, he would have reason to lose sleep. I thank the good spirits the Seeker has no cause to come after me in anger." She laid her head down on her arm. " You have an odd talent for making me feel better, Richard Cypher, even when telling me of my death."

He smiled. " That's what friends are for."

Richard watched her for a while after she closed her eyes, until sleep gently took him. His last thoughts before it came, were of her.

-+---

The first hint of morning was damp and dreary, but the rain had stopped. Kahlan had given Adie a parting hug. Richard faced the old woman, looking into her white eyes.

" I must ask you to do an important task. You must give Chase a message from the Seeker. Tell him he is to go back to Hartland and warn the First Councilor that the boundary will be down soon. Have him tell Michael to gather the army to protect Westland from Rahl's forces. They must be prepared to fight at any invasion. They must not let Westland fall as did, the Midlands. Any forces that come across must be deemed invaders. Have him tell Michael that Rahl is the one who killed our father and those who come, do not come in peace. We are at war, and I am already joined in battle. If my brother or the army fails to heed my warning, then Chase is to abandon the service of the government and gather the boundary wardens to stand against Rahl's legions. His army was virtually unopposed when they took the Midlands. If they have to shed blood freely to take Westland, maybe they will lose their spirit. Tell him to show no mercy to the enemy, take no prisoners. I take no joy in giving these orders, but it's the way Rahl fights, and either we meet him on his terms or we die on them. If Westland is taken, I expect the wardens to extract a terrible price before they fall. After Chase has the army and wardens in place, he is free to come to my aid, if he chooses to do so, as above all else we must stop Rahl from getting all three boxes." Richard looked down at the ground. " Have him tell my brother that I love him and I miss him." He looked up and gauged Adie's expression. " Can you remember all that? "

" I do not think I could forget if I wanted to. I will tell the warden your words. What would you have me tell the wizard? "

Richard smiled. " That I'm sorry we couldn't wait for him, but I know he will understand. When he is able, he will find us by the night stone. I hope by then to have found one of the boxes."

" Strength to the Seeker, " Adie said in a rasp, " and you too, child. Grim times lie ahead."