Severed Souls(147)
The man bowed his nearly bald head covered over with wisps of gray hair. “If you say so, Lord Rahl. I am but a humble scribe and such things are above my station in life.”
“No, they aren’t,” Richard said, holding up an admonishing finger. “You are entitled to live your life for your own ends, just as everyone else is. Your former master, Hannis Arc, will likely not be coming back here. He has gone off to bring misery and suffering, like he has inflicted here, to the rest of the world. Unless I can stop him.
“The prophecy you have recorded here might be of help to me in finding a way to stop Hannis Arc from hurting a great many people, the way Darken Rahl did.”
Mohler smiled the slightest bit. Richard thought it looked genuine, like a small ray of sunlight coming from within.
His voice lowered. “I will be here to assist you, Lord Rahl, should you wish my help.”
Richard nodded. “Thank you, Mohler. I would like it very much if you would show me the prophecy you are in charge of maintaining, but maybe later, after we’ve rested.”
“Of course, Lord Rahl. I will leave you, then, until I am needed.”
Richard watched the old scribe shuffle off toward the grand stairs at the far end of the room, wondering if the prophecy Hannis Arc had used might be of help in finding out exactly what he planned, or even a way to stop him and the dead spirit king.
CHAPTER
73
Once the scribe had disappeared up the stairs, Richard turned back to those waiting with him.
“We’re in luck. They have horses here. Once we’re healed and I take a quick look at the prophecies that Hannis Arc used, and if we hurry, we might still be able to beat him and Sulachan back to the Palace of the Prophets. First, though, it’s time we finally got rid of Jit’s poison.”
He pulled Irena forward by her arm. “Where is the containment field? Show us the way.”
Irena nodded. “Gladly, Richard. At last! This way,” she said, pointing to the right, off between columns holding up a balcony above a dark gallery below it.
She looked thrilled to finally be the center of importance, to finally be able to fulfill her role. She hurried on ahead of them, leading the way, with a gleeful Samantha right on her heels. Samantha, proud of her mother’s part in saving their lives, flashed a wide grin back over her shoulder.
Richard couldn’t help feeling cheered himself. He acknowledged the smile with a brief one of his own.
He couldn’t wait for Kahlan to be healed. He could tell by the dull look in her green eyes that the darkness within was growing ever stronger. He wanted her healed first.
He was also pretty sure that after the poison was out of her, Kahlan would be herself again and realize the need to stop the threat from Hannis Arc and Emperor Sulachan. It aggravated him, every time he thought about it, how his blood had been used to bring the spirit of Sulachan back from the dead. Richard needed to set that right. Once well again, Kahlan would feel the same.
In the corridor beyond the gallery, when Irena headed down the first set of stairs she came to, Richard signaled to the men. Several of them took up stations, guarding the stairwell at the top. He didn’t know what was below, but while they went to find out, he wanted men watching their backs.
The rest of the group—Richard, Kahlan, Nicci, Commander Fister, and all the men with them—funneled down a wide stairwell after Irena and Samantha. Kahlan’s hand found his. She gave it a silent squeeze that he returned.
At the bottom of the stairs, Nicci used her gift to send sparks of flame into lamps hung at intervals along the wall so they could see as they followed a series of utilitarian passageways toward a door at the end. It was a simple oak door but looked heavily built. With a silent signal from Commander Fister, one of the men drew his axe and rushed out in front of everyone else to get to the door first.
“Is that really necessary?” Irena asked, puzzling back at the commander as they all hurried down the hall toward the door.
“It is,” he said without apology or bothering to tell her why. To the commander, the need seemed not only obvious, but routine and hardly worthy of explanation.
Irena shrugged. “I guess it can’t hurt to be on the safe side.”
They all slowed and waited as the man with the axe took a lamp from the wall and then slipped behind the door to check the hall beyond. When he returned and gave them the all-clear, everyone swiftly followed Irena into the darkness beyond.
She stopped not far ahead where light spheres brightened in her presence. She lifted one of the glass spheres resting in a row of iron brackets and handed it to Nicci, then gave one to Samantha, and finally she took one for herself. The light spheres were powered by the gift, and started glowing brighter with greenish light as each woman took one. Since Richard was cut off from his gift, it wouldn’t do him any good to take one, so, like some of the men, he took a cold torch from the assortment standing on end in a woven wicker basket to the side.