“My name is Richard,” he said when the one who had thumped his staff came to a halt.
The man waited without saying anything.
“It is urgent that we get to Saavedra,” Richard told them.
“Not to us,” the man said in a voice muffled by the skull he was wearing over his head.
Richard noticed that more figures covered in the same pitch-black straw and wearing the same kind of steer skulls had emerged from behind trees. They gathered, closing in around the interlopers. He knew that the soldiers could easily handle the numbers, but he didn’t think they could handle the occult powers that he feared these people could wield.
“We mean you and your people no harm,” Richard said. “We only wish to pass through here and we will be on our way.”
The straw man looked among several of those beside Richard. “There is evil among you.”
Richard wasn’t sure what he meant. “Evil?”
“You,” the man said, tipping his staff toward Richard. “You have it in you.” He tipped his staff toward Kahlan. “She does as well.”
Richard nodded. “We’re sick. That is why we need to get to Saavedra. We need to get there so we can be cured of this sickness. But you needn’t worry, you cannot catch it from us.”
“We know that.”
Richard wondered if that was true, and if so, how the man could know. Of course, he was able to recognize the poison in him and Kahlan, and it certainly was evil. Richard suspected it was an indication of the abilities of their occult powers. Jit had occult abilities, and this poison had come from her, so in a way, it made sense that they would recognize it.
“We mean you no harm,” Richard said. “We only wish to pass peacefully through your land. We will hurry and pass through quickly and be swiftly on our way.”
“You may only pass if the oracle says that you may pass.”
Richard shrugged. “That sounds fair. I would be happy to speak with your oracle.”
The head with horns swiveled as the man apparently looked through the eye holes in the skull at the people to each side of Richard.
“You do not choose who will speak to the oracle,” he said. “The oracle chooses who will speak to her.”
Richard deliberately didn’t react to the man’s hostile tone, but instead tried to appear calm and agreeable. Even so, he was only a twitch away from drawing his sword if matters took a turn for the worse.
“All right. Will you take us to your oracle, then?”
The man appraised them for a moment longer. He thumped his staff, causing the top end to flicker with little flashes.
“We are the people of the straw. Come with us.”
He and the other straw figures turned and started weaving their way among the dark trunks of trees, through the eerie misty haze, toward where Richard had last seen Hunter.
Richard glanced over at Nicci before taking up Kahlan’s hand and starting out after the people of the straw.
CHAPTER
63
The walk through the strange forest of gnarled trees was longer than Richard had thought it might be. The ground, never getting much light below the thick canopy, was dead-looking, with very little growing in the crusty black ground. There was a bit of weedy growth that spiderwebbed across the ground, but what wasn’t dead was brown and sickly-looking. Richard knew of trees with roots that were poisonous to other plants. It kept other things from growing up and crowding out the trees.
Richard wished that Zedd were with them. Richard’s grandfather would surely have something to say about this place and the people of the straw. Richard wished that he had his grandfather’s advice. And his company. Even though he was gone, Zedd was always in Richard’s thoughts. Even those times when they had been far apart, Richard had always been comforted by the knowledge that he was somewhere. Now he was gone.
The world felt like a dead and lonely place without the old wizard, his grandfather, his friend, his most trusted advisor. It seemed impossible that Zedd wasn’t alive and well, somewhere. For Richard’s entire life Zedd had always been alive, always been there for him.
Richard wanted his grandfather back. He knew that would never happen, but he would one day have his hands around the throat of the person responsible for Zedd’s murder.
After a time they arrived at a more open area with a tight cluster of buildings set in the expanse in the dark forest. All the buildings were square, all of them one-story. They appeared to be made of the same muddy straw as that covering the people. Even though the forest had opened up to the sky, the sky was so dark with threatening, leaden clouds that it didn’t do much to brighten the scene. Everything, from the trees to the straw men to the black straw buildings, was dark and dead and dismal-looking.