Severed Souls(131)

She had no idea what had happened in this place, but she told herself that if she didn’t get permission for her and everyone with her to pass, and they tried to pass without that permission, they very well might end up here, with grass growing up out of their bones.

But if she didn’t get permission to pass, she and Richard would be dead within days. Nicci had told her how short their remaining lives would be if the poison was not removed.

With no time to waste, she couldn’t worry about the dead she was walking over. Her only concern now had to be for the living, not only her and Richard, but everyone else who depended on them.

Making her way through the monarch oaks, eyeing songbirds flitting about up in the branches, she saw that the trees gave way to a central area that looked like it should have been sunlit, but the murky day would not cooperate. She could see someone—no doubt the oracle—sitting on a stone bench near the center of that open area.

Kahlan wasted no time contemplating what she had to do, or what she might say. She marched straight toward the woman.

When she finally reached her, Kahlan came to a stop, waiting behind the woman sitting sideways on the gray granite bench, facing away. Her hair was a thick mass of dozens and dozens of matted ropy locks of hair hanging loosely down on all sides. Her hair was bright red.

“Good afternoon, Mother Confessor,” the woman said in a silken voice without turning. “Thank you for coming.”

It was then that Kahlan noticed Hunter sitting quietly off to the side, watching with big green eyes.

Kahlan knew in that instant that there was a lot more going on than she had at first realized.





CHAPTER

65

The woman on the bench finally turned, gazing up at Kahlan for a moment before standing. Her gray dress looked far too elegant for the woods. Kahlan saw no home, or building of any sort.

The woman’s piercing sky-blue eyes made her tight thatch of ropy red locks by contrast look all the more red. They were the sort of eyes that could easily be cruel. They were the kind of eyes that had witnessed many terrible things.

Kahlan thought that the oracle might have been rather attractive, had she not painted her lips black.

“Thank you for seeing me,” Kahlan said.

The woman gracefully bowed her head. “Of course. I am honored to have the Mother Confessor herself come to see me. My name is Red.”

“Red,” Kahlan repeated, glancing to the woman’s strange hair, thinking that the name was pretty obvious.

The woman’s black lips widened in a slightly amused smile. “You think I am called Red because of my hair.”

“It had crossed my mind,” Kahlan said.

“Of course it did. But you would be wrong.” The tolerant smile stayed on her face, not touching any other of her smooth features. “I am called Red because there have been times when this pass through the mountains”—she swept an arm out first in the direction Kahlan needed to go and then in the direction from which they had come—“has run red with blood. There have been times when I have turned this pass to a river of blood.” She shrugged. “So, that was how I came to be called Red. The hair came after.” The smile widened. “Because I liked the name.”

“I see,” Kahlan said.

“You needn’t sound so reproachful, Mother Confessor. After all, there have been times when you, too, have turned the countryside red with blood.”

“That’s true,” Kahlan admitted. She sought to clarify the idea with a bit of context. “Sometimes people need killing.”

Red laughed. “Yes, indeed they do.” The laughter died out as she leaned a bit closer, looking hard into Kahlan’s eyes. “I’m glad that you feel that way.”

Kahlan glanced over at Hunter sitting quietly, watching.

She gestured at him. “Do you know that small creature?”

Red didn’t bother looking. “So cute, isn’t he? His mother is a … protector of mine. I would not describe her as cute, though. You would never guess from looking at the little fellow just how big she is, or how ferocious. He is quite the good little boy. I sent him to you.”

Kahlan frowned. “Why?”

“To make sure that you made it here. I put the thorn in his paw so that you two would become friends. Though he is still small, like his mother, he is quite the fierce protector.”

Kahlan was still frowning. “How did you know that he would find me, or that I would find the thorn and take it out? For that matter, how did you know that we would come this way?”

“Oh come now, Mother Confessor, what kind of oracle would I be if I did not see such important events in the flow of time.”

The flow of time … It suddenly came to Kahlan why the clear spring coming up from the boulder and the cathedral of trees looked familiar.