“Lord Rahl,” one of the officers asked, “what is it? What happened?”
“There were five people here—just a moment ago.” Richard gestured with his sword. “They came up behind me and were standing right there.”
The soldiers briefly scanned the darkness, and then, without further word, at least a dozen men dashed away into the woods to search for the intruders. Although dawn was starting to bring a weak gray light to the quiet forest, it was still dark enough that Richard knew it would be easy to miss someone hiding in such dense woods. All the strangers would have to do would be to crouch in the darkness among thickets of bushes or saplings and they could easily be missed.
But he didn’t think these five were crouching and hiding.
He knew otherwise.
He knew that they had vanished.
CHAPTER
2
“What is it?” Nicci called out as she pushed her way through the tight ring of towering soldiers. Her gaze quickly swept over his sword, probably checking to see if it was bloody. Despite the size of the men and their fearsome weapons, Nicci’s gift probably made her more deadly than all of the men put together. Had his own gift been working, he would have been able to see the aura of her power shimmering around her.
“Five people came up behind me as I was standing watch,” Richard told her as Zedd rushed in through the gap Nicci had created. “I didn’t know they were there until one of them touched my shoulder.”
Nicci did a double take. “They walked right up and one of them touched you?”
Like Nicci, the old wizard looked incredulous. Though Richard knew his grandfather well, from time to time he was amazed at what Zedd was able to do with his ability, as well as his uncanny knowledge about the most arcane of subjects.
“People?” Zedd peered to each side behind Richard and Kahlan. “What people?”
The young Samantha and her mother, Irena, rushed up behind Zedd. Despite only being in her mid-teens, Samantha had proven to have remarkable abilities as a sorceress. Richard didn’t yet know much of anything about her mother’s gift, but if Samantha was any indication, her mother was potentially quite formidable.
Despite the knowledge, abilities, and power of the people gathered around him, they were in a dangerous land that put all of them at risk. The fact that five people had been able to walk right up on them, and then vanish, only served to highlight the perils of the Dark Lands.
“Are you all right, Lord Rahl?” Irena asked with a look of concern as she reached out to touch Richard’s arm.
He nodded as Nicci subtly but protectively stepped in close enough to move Irena aside.
“They snuck up behind you?” Nicci tilted her head toward Richard. “Five people snuck up behind you?”
Exasperated that he was being ignored, Zedd waved an arm. “What five people?” he demanded again before Richard could answer Nicci. “Where are they?”
Richard gestured behind in frustration. “They were right there, and then they were gone.”
Zedd cocked his head as his bushy brow drew down. He peered intently with one eye. “Gone?”
“Yes, gone. I don’t know where they went. I didn’t see them come and I didn’t see them leave. When I turned back around to keep an eye on them they were simply gone.”
Samantha lifted her chin, sniffing the air. Her features had yet to fully take on the more sharply defined form of full adulthood. The soft contour of her nose wrinkled.
“What’s that smell?” she asked, rather urgently, before Zedd or anyone else could say anything more. “It’s fading now, but it seems like I remember it from somewhere.”
Everyone looked around, distracted by the strange question and her tone of alarm.
Kahlan frowned. “Now that you mention it, I remember it from somewhere, too.”
Richard methodically studied the shadows, still looking for any sign of the five strangers. “It’s sulfur.”
Samantha pushed some of the matted mass of her black hair back from her face as she peered up at him. “Sulfur?”
“Yes—the smell of death,” Richard said, still gazing off into the darkness, still looking for any sign of the strangers.
“No,” Kahlan said, tapping a thumb against the handle of the knife sheathed at her belt as she tried to recall. “The spirits know I’ve been around that stench enough. This was certainly unpleasant, but it’s not the smell of death. It’s something else.”
“That’s not what he means,” Nicci said in a dark and disquieting tone as she shared a knowing look with Richard when he turned back to them.
“It’s the smell of the world of the dead,” Richard said in an equally somber voice to all the faces watching him. “Like a doorway to the underworld itself was briefly cracked open.”