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"Yes, I wish to travel," Nicci said breathlessly as she scooped up her pack. Cara must have put it there for her. "Thanks," she said to the Mord-Sith.
Richard held his hand out as Nicci slipped an arm through a strap and lifted the pack onto her back. "Come on."
Nicci took his hand, letting him hoist her up onto the wall with one mighty pull. Nicci's heart felt as if it was coming up into her throat. She had traveled before so she knew the overwhelming ecstasy of the experience, and yet she could not help being afraid to breathe in the living quicksilver of the sliph. Such a concept just went against the very idea of the breath of life.
"You will be pleased," the sliph said as Nicci joined the others. Nicci didn't argue.
"Let's go," Richard said. "I wish to travel."
A shiny arm lifted out of the pool to surround Richard and Cara, but not Nicci.
"Wait!" Nicci said. "I must go with them." The sliph stilled. "Listen to me, Richard. You have to take Cara and my hands. Don't let go for anything."
"Nicci, you've done this before. It will be—"
"Listen! Cara and I are trusting you, and you have to trust us. You can't get separated from us. Not for anything. Not for so much as an instant. If that happens then you are lost to us. If that happens then whatever you have planned won't happen."
Richard studied her face silently for a moment. "Did Jebra have a vision of something happening?"
"Only if you get separated from us. Only if you are alone."
"What did she see?"
"The witch woman, Six. Jebra called her 'the dark witch.'"
Richard studied her face a moment. "Shota is going after Six."
"That may be, but Six has already usurped Shota's authority in her own territory."
"Maybe for the moment. But I'd not want to be her when Shota catches her. Shota covered her throne with the hide of the last person who came to take her home, and he was a wizard."
"I don't doubt how dangerous Shota is, but we don't know how dangerous Six is. The gift is different in different individuals. Shota could in the end turn out to be no match for Six's ability. I do know that the Sisters of the Dark were afraid of her. Jebra had a terrible vision and says that you must not be allowed to be alone. I don't intend to allow her vision any chance to come to pass."
He must have read the resolve in Nicci's face, because he nodded. "All right." He took her hand and then took Cara's. "Don't let go, then, and then we won't have to worry about it."
Nicci squeezed his hand in agreement. She leaned past him to address Cara. "Do you understand? We can't let him out of our sight. Not for an instant."
Cara's brow drew down in a dark frown. "Since when have I ever wanted to allow him out of my sight?"
"Where do you wish to travel?" the sliph asked.
Nicci glanced to Richard and Cara and realized that the question was directed to her.
"To where they are going."
The silver face turned sly. "I cannot reveal what my other clients do when they are in me. Tell me what you wish and I will please you."
Nicci twitched a frown at Richard.
"She never reveals anything about anyone else; it's a kind of professional confidence. We're going to the People's Palace."
"The People's Palace," Nicci said. "I wish to travel to the People's Palace."
"She's going with Cara and me," Richard told the sliph. "To the same place. Do you understand? She is to stay with us as we travel there."
"Yes, Master. We will travel." The face, looking like a highly polished statue, smiled. "You will be pleased."
The liquid silver arm tightened around all three of them, drawing them off the wall. Nicci's hand tightened on Richard's.
As they plunged into the total darkness of the sliph, Nicci held her breath. She knew she had to breathe, but the very idea of breathing the silvery liquid terrified her.
Breathe.
At last she did, a desperate gasp drawing the sliph into her lungs. Colors, light, and shapes melted together all around her in a spectacular display. Nicci tightly held Richard's hand as they glided into the silken distance. It was a glorious, lazy, floating sensation of a headlong rush at impossible speed.
She drew in another dizzying breath of the sliph's essence. It was a glorious release from everything that haunted her, from the crushing weight on her soul. She was left with only that connection to Richard. There was nothing else. There was no one else.
It was rapture.
She never wanted it to end.
* * *
CHAPTER 23
Kahlan watched as the three Sisters peered into the distance, watching for any movement. With the sun going down, the shadows were beginning to melt together into a gloomy haze. At the horizon to the south a sliver of fading daylight shone beneath menacing gray clouds that towered into a dark violet sky. The cloud tops were touched by a wash of red light that lent the evening an odd, dreamlike quality.
The sky in this place, so often filled with monumental, billowing clouds, seemed overpoweringly immense, leaving Kahlan feeling tiny and insignificant. The flat plains to the south stretched endlessly to the lonely horizon. Little vegetation grew in such a desolate place, and what did grow was found mostly in the low-lying places.
The clouds sweeping across the landscape dragged columns of rain but, as vast as the place was, the rains never seemed any more than a distant, isolated phenomenon. Kahlan suspected that if one were to stand in the same spot for a year waiting for one of those random showers to pass overhead, it would likely not happen. The barren landscape made life seem fragile and forlorn. Only the mountains to the north and east seemed able to comb rain from the parade of clouds. As a result, the trees didn't venture down from their mountain refuge.
When the horses snorted and stamped their hooves, Kahlan pulled the reins tighter and absently rubbed one of the animals under its jaw to reassure it that all was well. The horse gently nudged her, wanting more. As she waited, Kahlan turned away from the haunting desolation and gave the horse a more attentive scratch.
In the distance she could see where the wall of mountains dwindled into a massive headland. That headland, like the tail of some sleeping beast, looked to be the southern tip of the mountains they had been following south. Kahlan wished she were back in those mountains. The mountains gave her a sense of sanctuary, probably because, unlike the open plains, she didn't feel like anyone for miles around could see her. Out on the plain she felt naked and exposed. She realized that she didn't really know why she should feel that way, since she could hardly be in a worse circumstance than being a forgotten slave to the Sisters.
Kahlan thought that she could see what looked like buildings up on the distant headland. If her eyes weren't tricking her, the buildings looked like they were probably no more than ruins. If they really were buildings, then few of the structures appeared to have roofs. What at first made no sense finally began to when she considered if what might have been walls had actually crumbled long ago; that would explain the odd shapes. She didn't see any sign of people. They, too, were probably long forgotten.
Even if they really were abandoned buildings, long deserted places made the Sisters no less wary than everything else did. Their wariness seemed to be born of a sense of complete and total dominion nearly within their grasp. In this place, though, Kahlan shared their edginess.
The three Sisters had been silent for most of the day, speaking only when necessary. The back of Kahlan's shoulder still throbbed in pain where Sister Ulicia had unexpectedly struck her. It had not been punishment for any transgression—real or imagined—but rather had been delivered with a stern warning not to cause any trouble. The Sisters sometimes sought to express their superiority over others, even if it was by showing that they could hurt Kahlan just because they wanted to. She had to school her thoughts lest one of the Sisters pick up on what Kahlan thought of her treatment. She'd swallowed her dignity along with her thoughts and simply said, "Yes, Sister."
Ka
hlan didn't think that it was a good idea to go stumbling around in the dark, especially when they were beginning to come upon a landscape deeply rutted and eroded in places by runoff from the high ground. The horses could easily break a leg in such conditions. But, in their ambition to get to Caska, the Sisters hadn't wanted to stop when evening had begun to engulf them. What the Sisters wanted, the Sisters got. Kahlan wasn't looking forward to eventually setting up camp in the dark.
"I think there's someone out there," Sister Armina said in a quiet voice as she stared out into the darkness.
