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He lifted an eyebrow. "And if you are killed in this, then what greater evil will break its bounds?"
"That is what you three are supposed to prevent—my being killed."
She started for the door. Chandalen gently gripped her arm and brought her to a halt. He spoke calmly.
"It will be dark soon. We can rest here tonight, and cook food. We can leave in the morning after we are rested."
"The moon will be up soon to light our way. We have no time to waste." She leaned toward him. "I am going on, now. If you are as strong as you say, you will go with me. If you are not, you may rest here."
Chandalen put his hands on his hips. His lips tightened as he let out a deep breath. He appraised her with frustration.
"You cannot walk more than Chandalen. We go, too."
Kahlan gave him a quick, tight smile, and swept through the door. The brothers snatched up their bows and jumped to fall in behind her while Chandalen bent to tie on his snowshoes.
31
Richard watched the horses eating grass that wasn't there, and scratched his itchy beard. The surface of the valley was baked and barren, but the horses seemed contented in their grazing, as if there was lush green grass beneath their feet. Illusion, it seemed, deluded and enticed even the horses. He wondered what wasn't there that he was going to see.
Sister Verna at last moved, pulling up on Jessup's lead line, pulling him away from his browsing. "This way."
Ominous, dark clouds hugged the ground ahead, boiling as if alive and eagerly awaiting them. Richard pulled the other two horses on, following after the Sister. She had told them that they must walk because the horses could be suddenly spooked by things unseen and could carry them, helpless, into a spell.
Sister Verna abruptly altered her course across the featureless ground, taking them a little to the right. The dark cloud of dust and dirt lifted and tumbled, driven by the gusts that, as of yet, didn't touch them. Sister Verna looked over her shoulder, her expression as dark as the cloud.
"Whatever you see, you ignore it. Whatever it is, it isn't real. You just ignore it. Do you understand?"
"What am I going to see?"
She redirected her attention to the way ahead. Her white blouse was damp with sweat, as was his shirt. "I can't tell you. The spells seek those things in your own mind you fear or long for, so everyone sees different things. Yet some visions are the same. Some fears are the same in all of us. Some of the magic we will see is not visions, but real. Like those clouds of dust."
"And what did you see the last time that you are so afraid of?"
She walked in silence for a time. "One I loved."
"If he was a loved one, why would you be afraid to see him?"
"Because he tried to kill me."
Richard blinked at the stinging sweat in his eyes. "He? Do you have a man you love, Sister?"
She watched the ground as she walked. "Not anymore." Her voice was soft with sorrow. She glanced up at him a moment, before seeking the ground once more with her eyes. "When I was young, I had a love. Jedidiah."
She was silent, so he asked. "He is not your love anymore?" She shook her head. "Why not?"
Pausing only a moment, she wiped her brow with a finger before moving on. "I was young, perhaps younger than you, when I left the Palace of the Prophets. Left to find you. We did not know if you had been born yet. We knew that if you had not been, you would be, but we didn't know when, so three Sisters were sent.
"But that was many years ago. I have spent better than half my life away from the Palace. From Jedidiah." She stopped again, peering first right, then left, before starting ahead once more. "He will have long ago forgotten me, and found another."
"If he really loved you, Sister, he won't have forgotten you and found another. You haven't forgotten him."
She gave a tug on her horse's line, pulling him away from something he wanted to investigate. "Too many years have passed. We have grown older apart. I have grown old. We are not the same people we were. He is one with the gift, and has his own life. It would not include me."
"You are not old, Sister. If you really love each other, time shouldn't matter." He wondered if he was talking about her, or himself.Sister Verna gave a soft, private laugh. "Youth. Youth holds much hope, but not much wisdom. I know the ways of people. Of men. He has been too long from my skirts. He will long ago have sought another."
Richard felt himself blushing in the heat. "Love has more to it than that."
"Ah, so you know so much of love, yes? You, too, will soon be searching the charms of a new pair of pretty legs."
Richard was about to vent a rush of sudden anger, when Sister Verna stopped. She looked up. The dark cloud swirled in, closing in on them.
From somewhere, Richard heard the faint sound of someone screaming his name.
"Something is wrong," Sister Verna whispered to herself.
"What is it?"
She ignored him, pulling Jessup to the left. "This way."
Lightning lit the air about them. A blinding bolt struck the ground ahead, sending a shower of the chalky earth skyward. The ground shook with the impact. Every muscle flinched from the nearness of the strike.
When the lightning tore the dark wall open for an instant, Richard saw Kahlan. She was standing, watching him. And then she was gone.
"Kahlan?"
Sister Verna reversed course. "This way. Now! Richard, I told you, it is not real. Whatever you saw, you must ignore it."
He knew it was an illusion, but the sight ran a sharp pang of longing through him. He groaned inwardly. Why did the magic have to attract him with visions of her? His own mind, Sister Verna had said, would bring forth the things he feared, or those for which he longed. Which was this, he wondered, fear or longing?
"Is the lightning real?"
"Real enough to kill us. But it is not lightning in the sense of what you know. This is a storm of spells that are battling each other. The lightning is a discharge of their power as they fight each other. At the same time, it also seeks to destroy any intruder. Our way is among the gaps in their battle."
Again, he heard the distant scream of his name, but it wasn't Kahlan's voice. It was a man's voice.
Another lightning bolt struck directly in front of them. He and the Sister both protectively threw an arm up before their faces. The horses didn't start. It must be as the Sister said; horses would have panicked had it been real lightning.
As the dirt thrown up by the lightning rained down around them, Sister Verna turned and snatched him by his shirtsleeve.
"Richard, listen to me. Something is wrong. The way is shifting too fast. I am not able to feel it as I should be able to."
"Why would that be? You have been through here before. You were able to do it before."
"I don't know. We don't know a great deal about this place. It is tainted with magic we don't entirely understand. It could be that the magic has learned to recognize me, from when I was here before. Going through more than twice is not possible. Going through the second time is said to be more difficult that the first. It could just be that. But it might be something else."
"What something else? You mean me?"
