His eyes looked vacant. He had put everything he had into the creation of the conflagration. He had been determined to make sure he used every ounce of effort he could muster to protect them, to protect his unconscious grandson.
Zedd blinked. “What?”
“You did good, Zedd. You have given us a chance.” Kahlan again tugged his sleeve. “Now come on—we have to go.”
The old wizard looked more than exhausted, but he kept up with Kahlan as she started pulling the horse ahead into the gorge. The horse was only too glad to be led away from the burning nightmare behind them. Kahlan knew that the wizard’s fire would continue to burn for quite a while and continue to catch victims in its fiery snare. Those with even a little of it on them would be incapacitated and it would be months before they healed, if ever. Many of those burned would die within hours or days. Yet more, those not vaporized by the intensity of the fire, but who had been close enough to inhale the noxious heat, would die in breathless agony within a short time.
As Kahlan pulled the horse up the dark gorge, Nicci stepped up beside her. “I’ve never seen him do that before,” she whispered to Kahlan. “I think he put everything he had into it to try to stop even those with occult powers.”
Kahlan glanced over at the sorceress. “Do you think it worked?”
“No. But it was a noble effort. I know what such things take to create, and that took more than a lot. I hope he saved some for when we get them farther up into the gorge. When we do, I’ll help him with some Subtractive Magic.”
The sorceress quickly moved out in front of Kahlan and cast her hand out. A flame floated ahead, gently lifting up through the air, among the pine boughs. It was not fire meant to be destructive, but a small flame meant to show them where they were going and light the ground enough that they wouldn’t trip over tree roots and rocks.
Nicci turned to the tightly packed group of men following behind them. “Keep your eyes ahead. They need to adjust to the darkness. Try not to look back because once we get farther in Zedd is going to be laying down more wizard’s fire behind us. Within the confines of the gorge it will be even brighter. It will help blind the enemy to the darkness of the trail ahead and slow them down. Don’t look back and let it blind you too.”
The men following behind nodded that they understood.
Nicci led the way, with Kahlan right behind her. They had to pick their way carefully along the side of the brook, frequently over slick, moss-covered rocks. While Kahlan, in her official capacity as a Confessor, had traveled the countryside her whole life, Nicci had grown up in cities and until she met Richard had rarely set foot on dirt. Being with Richard for as long as she had been, she had learned how to walk in the woods, which was fortunate because there was no trail up the gorge. They were in uncharted wilderness and had to pick their way as best they could.
Sometimes some of the men had to rush out ahead to hack away at fallen limbs or saplings to clear them out of the way for the horse. Kahlan was especially careful to let the horse pick where it wanted to step. They couldn’t afford to have it break a leg.
The small lights Nicci released from time to time revealed rock walls rising up in places. The sheer rock faces were wet with water seeping through the tiniest cracks. Slime grew in long strings that hung down, their tips dripping water. Where there were rocky hillsides, cedar trees grew down close to the brook. In places up higher on those steep hillsides, where they could get a good foothold, towering pines grew. Where it was too rocky or steep for the forest monarchs, smaller trees and shrubs with roots fanning out like claws clung to the rugged hillside.
The terrain at the bottom of the gorge would not be easy to traverse in the daytime. At night it was quite difficult, but not entirely impossible. Picking their way up the ever-rising ground was slow going, though. At least it would be no easier for the Shun-tuk.
With the cliffs and perilously steep hillsides, Kahlan was confident that the Shun-tuk would not be able to get out around them, especially since the fastest route was the one they were taking at the bottom of the gorge where the footing was better. The slopes were far trickier to traverse. Traveling that way would be slower and dangerous. That meant that Richard had been right, and by going this way they would be able to funnel the Shun-tuk into a narrow space.
The trees up ahead suddenly lit with bright yellow light as Zedd, bringing up the rear, unleashed more wizard’s fire back at the enemy following them. It lit the way for them.
The jolt of another explosion shook the ground. She could feel the thump from the concussion deep in her chest. Kahlan didn’t know how many Shun-tuk it was killing, or how many were getting through. She and everyone else were being careful not to look back and be night-blinded by the intensity of the thunderous blasts.