Severed Souls(119)

It felt like he was watching himself walk along through the thick forest, after having gone through the motions of saying words over his grandfather before Nicci had ignited it all. The flames had been hot, burning with a kind of rage at the terrible task they had been called upon to perform. Nicci had seen to it that those flames made quick work of it.

He kept thinking of things he wanted to ask Zedd, things he wanted to say, things he wanted to remember to talk to him about. None of it seemed real. He wanted to recall it all, to pull the river of time back and somehow change its course.

He knew how Zedd thought and what he believed. He knew Zedd’s reasoning on just about every subject. He thought about the advice Zedd would give him at that moment. When he realized what Zedd would say, he turned and took Nicci’s arm. With Kahlan on his right, he pulled Nicci close on his left as they walked among the forest monarchs. The ground was flat enough that the three of them could walk side by side.

“Only you and Zedd could heal us, as long as you had the containment field,” he said, “right?”

“And possibly Irena,” Nicci said. “I don’t know her ability. It’s an incredibly complex task, but it’s possible she may be able to do it.”

“I don’t think it’s wise to count on her,” Kahlan said, glancing back to make sure the woman was out of earshot before looking past him to Nicci. “We don’t know enough about her ability. She could make a mistake at a critical juncture in the conjuring. I wouldn’t want to put Richard’s life in the hands of someone untested in such things.”

“Nor would I,” Nicci said. “At least, not as long as we don’t have to.”

Still holding her by her upper arm, Richard helped Nicci step over a split in the rock and then checked the woods around them before he went on.

“Then for the sake of argument, let’s say that you and Zedd are the only two that we were positive could heal us. Let’s say we assume that Irena wouldn’t know enough, or wouldn’t have the experience or ability that would be necessary. Let’s just say we have to count her out. While Samantha is obviously quite gifted, I’m sure she doesn’t have the knowledge or training to do such a thing, so we have to count her out as well.”

“That leaves me,” Nicci said. “I told you I could do it.”

“Right. The three of us—you, Kahlan, and me—have to get there, though, in order to do it. There were two of you, and now Zedd is dead. I find that more than suspicious. But in any event, that means that we now have only you to count on.”

“I’m not letting you out of my sight, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“It is. But it also means that we have to assume that, because you are one of the two who can heal us, you are a target in much the way Zedd was. I want you in our shadow every step the rest of the way there. Not just so that you can watch over us, but so that I can watch over you.”

“Richard, I can take pretty good care of myself.”

“So could Zedd.”

She met his gaze and then conceded with a nod. “You’ve got it. You and Kahlan are going to get very tired of turning around, though, and bumping into me.”

Richard couldn’t make himself smile. “Thanks, Nicci. Kahlan and I are counting on you.”

“I wish that my power worked,” Kahlan said. “Then I’d be able to protect her as well. But you can believe I know how to use my knife and I intend to have it at the ready every moment. I hope you don’t get tired of turning around and bumping into me.”

“Never,” Nicci said with a smile meant to reassure them.





CHAPTER

58

By midmorning they reached the edge of a prominence where Richard was able to get a partial view out over the landscape of smaller mountains ahead and the lower reaches of the forest spread out far below. Saavedra was nowhere in sight, yet, but he only had a partial view and there were a lot of rugged walls of rock that he couldn’t see beyond, so it was possible that when they were able to get farther down and beyond some of the difficult terrain they might be able to spot it.

From where they stood, they could easily see that there was higher ground ahead in places. Once they got down into the lower forest, though, they would be blind to what lay ahead. They needed to be aware of the nuances of the lay of the land in order to know how to avoid going off in certain directions or they would end up having to backtrack. They couldn’t afford that.

He could see that they were still going to have a lot of ground to cover before they had any hope of reaching Saavedra. He could also see that they had some tricky country to get through as they made their way lower down through the mountains. It all looked pretty easy when viewed from up high, but experience had taught him what to look for when picking a route.