As she came around, sword-first, Commander Fister was right there, sword in hand, about to come to her aid. He skidded to a halt just out of reach of her sword’s point.
He put both hands up. “Easy. It’s me.” Just behind him lay the crumpled forms of the two who had tried to tackle him. It was obvious that their attempt to get his sword arm under control had failed. One had taken a deep wound across the middle of his face, the other across his ribs deep enough to almost cut him in two.
Kahlan knew, of course, how holding the sword liberated its rage, but remembering it was entirely different from once again experiencing it. The power of it, the fury of it, the thundering rage of it raced through her unchecked. She could feel herself panting with that rage, feel her jaw clench with her own anger that had been liberated by the weapon.
It was like grabbing hold of a bolt of lightning and having it at her command.
Now that she had given it a taste of blood, it demanded more.
Kahlan spotted Sergeant Remkin and Jenkins, each with a group of men, racing across the encampment toward the gorge. It would take them little time to climb up into position and out of sight. She knew that with many of the men now gone, their defensive lines were dangerously fragile. The rage from the sword wanted her to join the men at the line, cutting down the Shun-tuk trying to break through.
But she knew better than to give in to that need. Protecting Richard was her first priority and that meant following his plan, but they were going to have to move quickly before they were overrun, and then they had to make a coordinated, controlled retreat.
She knew that trying to retreat while under attack was a dangerous maneuver that required discipline in executing the plan, lest it turn into a panicked rout. She had a plan, she just needed to make sure it went right.
Kahlan screamed Zedd’s and Nicci’s names. When they turned to look, Kahlan waved an arm and used the sword to urge them to rush to her. Before abandoning his ground, Zedd unleashed a wall of fire and choking smoke to cover his retreat. Nicci used a gathering of air to cast a gusting wall of wind off to another side that lifted a torrent of dirt and debris toward the Shun-tuk running in from the darkness of the woods. With the blinding wall of dust and dirt loaded with sticks, branches, dirt, sand, and rocks hurtling at them, to say nothing of a rolling wall of flames, the half people hesitated, cowering and covering their faces with their arms.
Zedd and Nicci used the opening to race toward Kahlan and the commander standing beside the horse with an unconscious Richard laid out over its back.
“Dear spirit!” Zedd cried. “What happened?”
Nicci squatted down to look up at Richard’s face. With one hand she held his head and with her other used her thumb to lift an eyelid. “He’s in danger of—”
“We all are,” Kahlan said, cutting her off. “Leave him for now.”
“But—” Zedd started.
“Be quiet, both of you, and listen. There’s no time to explain it all.”
The commander turned and swiftly beheaded a Shun-tuk as he ran past them intent on jumping a soldier from behind.
“We’re listening,” Zedd said.
“When Commander Fister gives the command, all the men are going to abandon the line all at once and race to follow behind us.” Kahlan pointed with the sword toward the corner of the encampment at the edge of the rock wall where the brook came down through the gorge. “We all need to get up that gorge as fast as we can. All of us. Zedd, hang back and then as our men clear the open area of the encampment and the Shun-tuk pour in behind them, lay down wizard’s fire across this entire open area.”
“They aren’t all touched by ordinary magic,” he reminded her.
“I know, but many are, and even for the ones who aren’t, it will cause confusion and buy us a head start.”
“Head start for what?” Nicci asked.
“They can sense that Richard is unconscious. They will come after him, and us, as we race up the gorge.”
Nearly apoplectic, Zedd threw his arms up. “We’re using Richard as bait?”
“Yes.”
“Whose crazy idea was that!”
“Your grandson’s.”
Zedd grimaced. “Of course it was.”
“As they come across the open area, kill as many as you can with wizard’s fire as we head up the gorge, then we need to get the rest of these bloodthirsty half people to chase us. We have men taking up positions along the slopes to either side. Once we get far enough up the gorge, with the Shun-tuk coming after us, those men will close the back door.
“In such a narrow space a small number of men can hold back many times their numbers. While the Shun-tuk are confined, you need to lay wizard’s fire down through the narrow chasm and fry every one of them that will burn. Then, our men will come in from both ends at once and cut them to pieces.”