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The sliph had also already told them that much. Rikka had been there, guarding the well, when the sliph had unexpectedly returned. They were all surprised that the sliph had returned at all, much less returned to tell them what had happened.
The silver creature had abruptly been eager to talk—up to a point—to tell them what had happened to Richard. It wasn't because the sliph wanted to tell where she had been with one of her travelers, but rather that Richard, her master, had told the sliph to tell them that he was safe and where he had gone. She was eager to do his bidding.
Unfortunately, the sliph's nature was to be secretive, and they weren't able to get straight answers from her on much more of it. Zedd had said that the sliph wasn't being perverse; she simply couldn't help the way others had created her. She was being true to her nature. He said that they would just have to go along with the sliph's way of revealing information and do their best to learn what they could from her.
Zedd had also detected on the sliph the trace residue power left by a witch woman. They were pretty sure that it had to be Six. They weren't sure what Six was up to, but at least they knew from the sliph that Richard had somehow escaped her clutches.
"But where is he? Did the sliph take you there? Take you where she said she left him?"
"She did." Nicci glanced at the Mord-Sith and then laid a hand on Zedd's shoulder. "After we got to the place where the sliph had taken him, she then told us where he had gone: to the land of the night wisps. We still had to travel some distance to get there."
Zedd stared in astonishment. "The night wisps?"
"Yes. But Richard wasn't there."
"At least he's alive. It sounds like he was acting on his own volition, and not that of a witch woman," Zedd said, sounding a little relieved. "What did they say? What were the wisps able to tell you?"
Nicci heaved a sigh. "I wish you could travel so that you could have gone there, Zedd. Maybe they would have told you more than they would tell us. They wouldn't even allow us to enter beyond this strange, dead forest."
"Dead forest? What dead forest?"
Nicci lifted her hands. "I don't know, Zedd. I'm no expert in the outdoors. There was this vast area of oaks but they were all dead—"
"The oak wood is dead?" Zedd leaned closer to her. "Are you serious? The oaks are dead?".
Nicci shrugged. "I guess. They were oak trees. Richard taught me what an oak was. These were all dead, though."
Zedd glanced away as he scratched an eyebrow. "Were there bones among these oaks?"
"Yes, that's right," Cara said, nodding. "There were bones scattered everywhere among those dead trees."
"Bags," Zedd cursed under his breath.
"Why?" Nicci asked. "What is it?"
Zedd looked up. "Bui you talked to the wisps?"
Nicci nodded. "Tam, he said his name was."
Zedd rubbed his chin as he stared off in thought. "Tam… don't know him."
"There was another, named Jass," Nicci added.
Zedd's mouth twisted as he considered the name. "I'm afraid I don't know that one, either."
"Jass said that Richard was looking for a woman that the wisps should know."
"That would have to be Kahlan," Zedd said with a knowing nod.
"That's what we figured, too," Cara said.
"But why would he go to the wisps to look for her?" His question sounded more for himself than for Nicci, but she answered it anyway.
"The sliph wouldn't tell us about any of that part, only where she took him. Apparently, Richard wasn't specific enough about what he instructed the sliph to tell us. She won't go beyond her explicit instructions. Like you said, it's her nature.
"The wisps wouldn't tell us why he had been there, either. They said that his reasons for being there were his own and were not necessarily for others to know. They said that they couldn't reveal such things on his behalf."
"Not for others—but, but…" His voice ended in sputtering agitation. Zedd looked back at both of them. "But didn't they tell you anything about what Richard was doing there? Anything at all? We have to know why he would go to the wisps. He was on his way here, and then something happened to cost him his gift while traveling—probably something involving Six—so he went to the wisps? Why? What did they tell him? What happened when he was there?"
"I'm sorry, Zedd," Nicci said. "We really weren't able to find out much. The sliph did tell us some of it—what happened to Richard, where she took him, and that he went to the wisps—but she either doesn't know anything more, or she simply doesn't want to tell us the rest of it for some reason. Richard never returned to the sliph, but because he can no longer travel that only makes sense. It could be that the sliph really doesn't know any more.
"Richard would probably have started out on foot. I imagine he would head back here, to the Keep. After all, that's where he was going when something went wrong in the sliph. For some reason he went to the wisps, but that may have had more to do with geography than anything else—he was much closer to them than coming all the way back here, so he may have decided to make a quick stop there before heading back to us. It may be nothing more than that.
"As far as the wisps, they wouldn't tell us much either. They wouldn't let us go beyond the dead trees, into those huge, ancient trees beyond. But there is some good news in it. We at least know for sure that Richard is alive, and that he went to the land of the wisps. That's what matters?Richard is alive. Knowing Richard, he will try to find a horse as soon as possible and will probably show up here before we know it."
Zedd squeezed her arm. "You're right, my dear." It was a gesture that Nicci found comforting, almost as if it were a connection to Richard himself. It was the kind of reassurance Richard himself would have offered at such a troubling moment.
Zedd suddenly frowned. "You said the wisps wouldn't let you into the big pines?"
Nicci nodded. "That's right. They wouldn't let us proceed any farther than the dead oak woods, or allow us to see the other wisps."
"In a way it makes sense." Zedd ran a finger up along his temple as he considered. "The wisps are secretive creatures, and don't generally a
llow anyone into their land, but it seems odd under the circumstances—and with word from me—that they wouldn't welcome you in."
"They're dying."
Zedd's eyes turned up at her. "What?"
"Tarn said that the wisps were dying out and that was why they didn't want us to enter. He said that it's a time of great strife among the wisps, great sadness and worry. They didn't want strangers among them right now."
"Dear spirits," Zedd whispered. "Richard was right."
Nicci's insides tightened with anxiety. "What are you talking about? Richard is right about what?"
"The oaks dying. They protect the land of the wisps. The wisps are dying, too. It's part of a cascade of events. Richard already told us why, in this very room. As if I needed yet more reason to believe him."
"Yet more reason? What do you mean by that?"
He took Nicci's elbow and turned her toward the spell-forms floating above the table. "Look here."
"Zedd," Nicci said in admonition, "that's the Chainfire verification web—and it looks suspiciously like an interior perspective."
"That's right."
"I know I'm right. The question is, what's going on? What are you up to?"
"I found a way to ignite a kind of simulation of an interior perspective?one without you needing to be in it. It isn't the same in every respect," he said with a dismissive gesture, "but for the purpose I had in mind it was good enough."
Nicci was astonished that he had been able to do such a thing. It was also somewhat disquieting to again see the very thing that had almost taken her life. But that wasn't at all what she found most disturbing.
"Why are there two of them?" she asked. "There is only one Chainfire spell. Why are there two spell-forms here?"
Zedd flashed her a wry smile. "Ah, there is the trick of it. You see, Richard claimed that the chimes had been present in the world of life. If that were true, their presence would have contaminated the world of life, would have contaminated magic. And yet none of us has seen any evidence of it. That is the paradox of such contamination; it erodes your ability to detect its presence. I wanted to find a way to see if Richard was right—"
