At the same time, if they had an oracle, he was sure that there would occasionally be people come from great distances to see her.
The straw man turned to Richard. “Through this blind woman, the oracle will pick the one who will be allowed to speak to her.”
As the woman groped blindly with a hand, the straw man reached out, took hold of her hand, and placed it on his staff. He molded her fingers around the shaft.
When she nodded that she was ready, he stepped aside.
The blindfolded woman shuffled forward, using the staff to help her feel her way. When she got close to the line of strangers, she stopped, her chin held up, trying to sense who stood before her, but she couldn’t. She began shuffling ahead again, this time walking down the line of strangers. She kept going until she reached the last soldier, and then she returned, holding her chin up as she blindly made progress back, trying to sense something of each one of those waiting before her.
Finally, she returned to a stop not far away. She turned toward them as she placed her second hand on the staff. Richard knew that they didn’t have any time to waste. If this ceremony didn’t end pretty soon he was going to have to put an end to it himself. The palm of his left hand rested on the hilt of his sword. They needed to get to the containment field in Saavedra. These people were either going to help or he would have to sweep them aside and get through the pass.
Finally, the blindfolded woman tipped the staff forward to tap Kahlan once on each shoulder.
“You,” she said. “The oracle will see you, and no one else.”
Richard was about to say he wouldn’t allow it when Kahlan stepped forward and spoke before he had a chance.
“Thank you. Please take me to the oracle at once. We have no time to spare.”
Two of the straw men crossed their staffs before Richard when he started to take a step forward.
“You will wait while the oracle speaks with her,” the straw man said.
Kahlan held a hand back toward Richard, urging him to stay put. “It’s all right, Richard. Just wait here.”
“I don’t like—”
“I am the Mother Confessor. I have been doing this sort of thing my whole life. We don’t have any time to waste. Let me get this over with so we can be on our way. That’s what matters.”
He wanted to say that when she had done this sort of thing in the past, she had always had access to her power. Now, she didn’t. But she was right that this would be the fastest way to get past, and less risky than a fight.
As long as it went well.
Richard heaved a sigh. “You’re right. We will wait here.”
“Call out if you need help,” Nicci said. “I will hear you.”
Kahlan nodded and then followed after the blindfolded woman with the staff.
Richard didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he did know that he didn’t like it one bit.
CHAPTER
64
Kahlan followed the blindfolded woman as she walked through the center of their village. The woman in the henna-colored blouse seemed to be better able to navigate now that she was holding the staff one of the straw men had given her, almost as if it were showing her the way as she walked down the center of the opening between buildings. The people of the village stood to the sides, silently watching her pass. Children, holding the frames of window openings, rested their chins on their hands. None of them spoke.
Kahlan didn’t like how somber they appeared to be over what they were witnessing.
It reminded her of people watching a funeral procession.
“What is your name?” Kahlan asked the woman she was following.
The woman, walking with her chin lifted, turned an ear back toward Kahlan. “I am the one the oracle has chosen to use. I am the one who is in service to her this day.”
“I see,” Kahlan said half to herself.
At the far edge of the village they plunged back into the somber woods made up entirely of the strange trees. The ground, still barren, dead, and dark, started to incline under the obscuring canopy of leaves. After a time until Kahlan noticed rock bluffs to the sides funneling them ahead.
When they came to a place where the passage narrowed somewhat, more normal-looking trees began to take over from the strange forest. Shrubs and plants dotted the ground among white birch and linden thick with fragrant, fluffy yellowish blossoms.
The blindfolded woman stopped at the fringes of where the dark trees grew.
“This is as far as I am allowed to go,” she said.
“And what am I to do?” Kahlan asked.
The woman tilted the staff ahead. “You are to go on alone. I cannot go beyond here. You must go the rest of the way alone.”
“How will I know the way?”
The woman tilted the staff again. “The oracle is that way. You will find her if you go that way.” When she sensed Kahlan hesitating, she tilted her head in gesture back toward the village. “This is your last chance to turn back. Think carefully on what you are about to do. Not many are pleased to hear what the oracle would tell them.”