The commander nodded. “You have my oath, Mother Confessor. No one will get near him as long as I’m alive.”
Kahlan held back her tears. There was too much to do to give in to emotion.
“One condition in all of this, Mother Confessor,” the commander said. “I’m not telling Zedd and Nicci about this plan. You have to tell them. If I tell them, they will fry me up and have me for breakfast.”
That time Kahlan finally managed a brief smile as she saw men running toward them. One of them tugged the horse along behind.
CHAPTER
21
Two of the soldiers helped Commander Fister lift Richard’s limp body over the back of the horse while the other held the reins. Seeing Richard in this condition was sobering for the men. This was the Lord Rahl who had believed in them, liberated them from servitude to Darken Rahl, and then led them through the long and terrible war with the Old World. He had survived countless dangers and done the impossible—brought peace and prosperity they had never imagined possible in their lifetimes. Now, he was unconscious and the situation looked grim.
After getting Richard laid over the back of the mare, the men helped the commander quickly lash him down with ropes. They didn’t pause to ask questions. The men of the First File stayed focused and did their job regardless of what was going on.
Commander Fister seized one of the men, Sergeant Remkin, by the shoulder. “How many men do we have left?”
“Before the battle we had close to a hundred. I know that I’ve seen some go down, though I don’t know how many we’ve lost, but there has to be something less than that by now.”
“All right. Get three dozen men together as fast as you can.” The commander pointed with his sword. “We’re going to take Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor around the side of the cliff over there and up the gorge. Divide the men. You take half up on the slope to the far side. Have them spread out and hide on the hillside.” He gestured to the other man. “Jenkins, you take the other half onto the left slope and do the same—spread out and hide.”
The sergeant glanced back in the darkness to appraise the barely visible pass. “Consider it done, Commander. Then what?”
“Once the two of you have your men in place, the rest of us will head up the gorge with Lord Rahl. We want the Shun-tuk to chase us, thinking this is their chance to finish us off. Once we get far enough in that the Shun-tuk are in the gorge and coming after us, Remkin, you use a mockingbird signal and bring the men on both sides down to shut the back door. Once we have them trapped in the ravine, stay well back at first because Zedd is going to lay down an inferno of wizard’s fire to incinerate as many as we can.”
“Then hammer them on your anvil?” Sergeant Remkin guessed.
“Right,” the commander said with a firm nod. “As you select men along the line, spread the word and let the others know the plan. Don’t leave undefended gaps when you pick out your men. Now get going and get your men in place. We’re having enough trouble holding them back the way it is. Once you take those men and leave, we won’t be able to hold the line for long before the rest of us get overrun, so you won’t have much time.”
The sergeant tapped a fist to his heart in salute. He turned to Jenkins and the man who had brought the horse. “Let’s go. Since we’re going to be climbing the slopes in the dark, be sure to pick men you know were raised in rugged country. We need ones who know how to move quickly in mountainous terrain.”
“When you pick men from the line,” the commander reminded them again, “have the remaining men pull back a little to shrink the front perimeter in order to close the gaps so we don’t make a weak spot for the enemy to break through.”
Kahlan could hear the worry in his voice. She knew that once the men left, the rest of them wouldn’t be able to hold the line for long.
“Jenkins,” the sergeant said, “just pick your men and get moving. You can explain the plan on the way up onto the right slope. I’ll do the same.”
As the two men raced off into the darkness, Kahlan turned to Samantha. “Find your mother. Tell her we’re leaving and we need her with us to help protect Richard. Hurry, now.”
Samantha nodded and ran off across the camp, dodging around big soldiers, to look for her mother.
Several Shun-tuk suddenly leaped out of the night onto Commander Fister, trying to pin his sword arm to his body. Even as they grappled to get him under control, both opened their mouths, trying to bite into him.
Kahlan spun back toward Richard lying over the horse to get his sword. She turned just in time to see a Shun-tuk racing right toward her out of the darkness. A thick layer of cracked white coating made his face look like an old clay pot about to fall apart.
As his arm stretched out to grab her, she snatched the palm of his hand and used his forward momentum to bend it down as hard as she could. He stumbled, sinking forward, helpless from the excruciatingly painful pressure on his wrist. She felt the joint pop. As he cried out in pain, Kahlan rammed the elbow of her other arm into the center of his face. She could not only hear bones in the center of his face break, she could feel them shatter.
As the man fell, curled into a ball on the ground, using his good hand to cover the blood gushing from his face, Kahlan saw another Shun-tuk racing in. His eyes were wild, his mouth opened wide, teeth bared, intent on taking her down with a bite to her neck.
Without pause, Kahlan yanked Richard’s sword out of the scabbard, spun, and drove the blade right through his open mouth as he ran up on her. It came out at the base of his skull, severing his brain stem.
He dropped so fast with a boneless dead weight that she just managed to yank the sword free before it was ripped from her hand. She swung around, ready for any threat from the other side.
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 stick
s, 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.”
“What makes you think—” Zedd began.
“That’s the plan Richard laid out. He let himself go unconscious so that they will follow us. What we’re doing here is not going to save us. We have to do something else or we are all going to die right here. This is the best chance we have. He put his life at great risk for this to work, for us to have a chance, so I’m not about to listen to any argument. Got it?”
“Got it,” Zedd said a little more quietly.
“As soon as we make it up the gorge and after we get things under control,” Kahlan said to Nicci, “then you and Zedd can revive Richard.”
Kahlan could see that Zedd wanted to say something, but when he saw the look in her eyes, a look filled with the rage of the ancient weapon in her fist, he kept his mouth closed.
Nicci, on the other hand, had to speak. “Some of them have occult powers. We don’t even know what they are capable of.”
With the sword in her hand and its anger unleashed, the plan no longer felt crazy to her. It felt like a chance to kill the Shun-tuk before the Shun-tuk killed them.
“They can use those powers here as well. Sooner or later, they will. At least when we have them hemmed in up in the gorge they can’t scatter. That at least gives us a chance to cut them down. Even those with abilities, gifted or otherwise, will die when we run them through with swords.”
“You’re right,” Nicci said with a sigh. “Let’s get to it, then.”
Kahlan spotted Samantha running toward them with her mother in tow. She judged that the men would have to be in place on the slopes by now, or soon would be. With her free hand, Kahlan snatched up the reins of the horse near the bit.
“Come on,” she said to the people crowded around her, “let’s go kill these bastards.”
CHAPTER
22
At the far edge of the encampment near the brook, the commander used his thumb and a finger in the corners of his mouth to let out a loud whistle. The rising and falling notes, which all the men recognized, were the signal to begin the retreat.
Without hesitation, the men immediately turned and raced toward the spot where Kahlan and the others waited. Along the way they snatched up what gear they had, slinging packs and supplies over a shoulder.
As the men cleared the open area, the Shun-tuk were caught by surprise at how abruptly the soldiers abandoned the defensive line they had fought so hard to hold. For that brief moment they were confused and didn’t know what was happening, what to expect, or exactly how to respond. The swiftness of the surprise gave the men a small head start. It wasn’t much, but Kahlan knew that in battle such small windows of opportunity could mean the difference between life and death.
In preparation, Zedd had already formed a liquid ball of wizard’s fire between his outstretched hands. The sinister flame burned and tumbled and rolled like a thing alive as it hung in midair between his palms, hissing and spitting spiraling sparks.
Kahlan could see into the liquid core of the sphere, as if it were a world unto itself, a transparent, glowing, burning, full moon. This was a relic of ancient power, most of which had been lost over time. This was a window into the kind of power that used to exist in the world—the kind of power that Emperor Sulachan had once wielded, and now again brought back to the world of life.
Zedd held the spellbinding sight there between his palms, a lethal, obedient servant to his wishes, as he waited for the right moment. The lines and creases of his weathered face looked calm in the hissing, flickering light of his creation.
He appeared utterly tranquil as he waited to unleash the contained cataclysm he calmly carried between his hands.
Kahlan understood that calm. When she was about to release her power, she, too, went dead calm. All emotion was alien in that pristine moment where she alone was in control of such ancient power.
Wizard’s fire was legend among most people. It was so rarely seen, and by so few, that many people dismissed it as an ancient myth, a relic of past times. To those who believed it was real, especially those few who had ever actually seen it, wizard’s fire was greatly feared. Most who had seen it saw it in the instant before it killed them.
Kahlan had seen Zedd use wizard’s fire a number of times. It had been a necessity in the war, one of the few circumstances where there was a purpose for such violent destruction.
The wizards Kahlan had grown up with had lived their entire lives without ever once conjuring and unleashing such devastating power. It was likely most would not even know how.
Zedd knew how.
Kahlan noticed, though, that in the times he had used it before, Zedd had never seemed this calm. She had also never seen him hold it so close, like a special, beautiful treasure, for so long. And it was beautiful. It was terrifyingly exquisite.
Usually, he cast it out almost as fast as he could conjure the rare substance. This time, he was keeping it in place, as if letting it come to know the world it had just been born into, letting it gather strength. She noticed, too, that the whorls of colors as it burned seemed more intense than she remembered.
Zedd used wizard’s fire only in the most desperate of circumstances to save lives. This time, the lives he was trying to save were not only all of theirs, but that of the Lord Rahl himself, who just happened to be his grandson.
Knowing what was coming, Kahlan snatched up a torn strip of a tunic and covered the horse�
��s eyes to keep it relatively calm. Warhorses were used to battle and trained for explosions and fire, but she suspected that this one was not.
At the far side of the encampment, along what had formerly been the defensive front line protecting their encampment, the Shun-tuk rapidly realized that those defenses were abruptly gone and, much like a dam bursting, they flooded into the void of the open ledge. They had clear ground to cover and prey they wanted. Now, there was nothing to stop them.
As the last of the soldiers of the First File finally raced past the old wizard, Zedd flung his arms open. At his command, the tightly contained, turbulent furnace of power expanded in an instant and roared away.
The entire area of the open ledge at the foot of the cliff and the towering spruce and pine trees of the forest around them lit under the blinding intensity of yellow-orange flames. Night seemed to turn to day.
The tumbling, liquid inferno raced across the abandoned encampment, shrieking with terrifying menace. The sound it made was so deafening that it caused the Shun-tuk to hesitate. They hunched down, cringing as they covered their ears. Wizard’s fire always howled, but this shrieked with painful intensity.
The tumbling globe of liquid flame remained airborne, passing just above the granite ledge where hundreds of dead Shun-tuk lay sprawled. It lit the entire bloody scene, brightly illuminating the whitewashed dead in such stark relief as it passed above them that it made them look supernatural, like a graveyard of dead spirits.
Kahlan spotted men of the First File lying dead among the Shun-tuk. They were beyond help, now. At least their remains would be turned to ash rather than be eaten by the half people. Dead was dead, and it couldn’t matter to them any longer, but it mattered to Kahlan. Being incinerated somehow seemed better than having the unholy half dead feeding on the remains.
The wizard’s fire, a tumbling, burning fury, hit the ground with such thundering force it shook the trees. Pine needles rained down, igniting as they fell, looking like burning rain. As it crashed down, the dense, blazing, molten orb burst apart, splashing the brightly burning liquid fire out across the open ground. Like a towering rogue wave it swamped the advancing horde of Shun-tuk. It actually lifted many of them up into the air, like so much flotsam, and carried them along in the flow as they were incinerated.
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