Kahlan took a deep breath. She knew the woman wasn’t going to let them pass until Kahlan at least heard her out. “Fine, let’s hear it, then, but be quick about it. I don’t have long to live unless I get this sickness out of me.”
“Yes,” Red drawled again. “The call of death from that vile creature, Jit.”
Kahlan cast a suspicious look at the woman. “You know of Jit, and the poison in us?”
Red rolled her eyes. “I am a witch woman. Of course I know of important matters that involve central figures such as you and Lord Rahl. It is all part of the larger issue. It’s part of why you must perform the task I have for you.”
“You mean killing someone for you.”
“That’s right.” She took a deep breath of her own as she considered how to begin. “Well, since you are rapidly running out of time, I will try to make this as short as I can.”
“I would appreciate that,” Kahlan said, not really wanting to hear it. She thought about the field of skulls and realized that at least listening to what Red had to say was probably wise. They needed to be on their way. Fighting their way through was not a risk they needed. Listening would take less time.
“You see, Mother Confessor, I have seen the demon. He is here, in the world of life.”
“The demon?”
“The one called Sulachan. He has long been dead. He belongs in the world of the dead and—”
“You expect me to kill Sulachan?” Kahlan was incredulous.
“No, not exactly. Not directly, anyway. What I expect is for you to make it possible for him to be sent back to the underworld, where he belongs.”
Kahlan certainly wanted Sulachan and his scheme stopped. Since Red seemed to have the same objective, Kahlan suddenly became more interested. “Make it possible.… How am I supposed to do that?”
“I am trying to explain the larger picture, if you would allow me. You said you were in a hurry.”
Kahlan nodded. “Sorry. Go on.”
“Sulachan is an ancient evil that blighted the world. He died long ago and belongs in the world of the dead. By all that is right, he should not be a problem for us today, but he is.
“In life, he was a sickly man. He was also a man of vision. Evil vision, deranged vision, but vision nonetheless. Knowing he was slowly dying, he began making preparations long before he ever passed over into the world of the dead. Despite being sickly, he was a powerful wizard, possessing both the gift and occult powers.”
“I don’t understand this business with occult powers,” Kahlan said. “I’ve never encountered them before. Why do they suddenly seem to be springing up all over?”
Red swept an arm around. “Everything requires balance. That balance runs the gamut from the minuscule to the most central elements. Conflict seeks balance, balance is often achieved by conflict. Heat and cold; darkness and light; bad balanced by good; hate by love—that sort of thing. Smaller parts, such as the good spirits versus demons, are part of a larger balance of life versus death. All elements are built from smaller, balanced elements.
“The gift itself is balanced between Additive Magic and Subtractive Magic. Yet on a larger scale, the totality of that internal balance within the gift—the gift itself—is balanced by occult powers.
“Back in the great war, those like Sulachan were defeating the gifted. That threatened to throw the worlds of life and death out of balance. The gifted prevailed, though, sealing those with occult powers behind the barrier. The gift thus gained dominance. But because everything always seeks balance, they knew the seals on the barrier could not last forever, and indeed they haven’t. Occult powers have been leaking out for some time, and now they are once again fully free and among us.”
“I see,” Kahlan said, considering the repercussions. “So, you were saying about Sulachan dying?”
“With his own abilities and the help of many others whom he commanded, he manipulated powers in the underworld before he died—occult powers—to prepare his place there.
“His spirit has been working for the three thousand years since his death to reconnect with the forces he had put into place here in this world when he had been alive.”
“Forces—you mean like the half people?”
“Yes. He knew that they could not be contained forever. He knew that one day they would be freed from their exile, and then be able to work to call his spirit back from the world of the dead into his body in the world of life.
“He also used the spirits of the dead he reanimated, drawing their spirits out of their eternal rest in the underworld to do his bidding. Once he pulled them away from their link to the gift that had taken them beyond the veil, they lost that connection and no longer knew where they belonged. He used them as his ethereal messengers between worlds.
“Lastly, Sulachan managed to enlist the essential help of the man who used to live a couple of days in that direction,” she said, flicking a hand in the direction of Saavedra off through the pass.
“Hannis Arc,” Kahlan said. “He ruled Fajin Province from the citadel in Saavedra.”
“He ruled much of Fajin Province, but not all,” she said, looking abruptly venomous. “I hold sway here.
“But that is the man,” she said, retracting her fangs a bit. “Hannis Arc benefited profoundly from the occult powers leaking out from behind the barrier. As a result, he has been able to tamper with the very nature of the Grace—the very way the world of life exists—bending those laws in order to bring Sulachan’s spirit back into this world.”
“And your abilities are powered by what the Grace represents,” Kahlan said, “so your very existence is at stake.”
“That’s right. As are your abilities, and Lord Rahl’s, were you not sick with Jit’s touch.
“Sulachan wants to bend those forces until they break. Hannis Arc wants to rule the world of life. He helped Sulachan fulfill his ambitions in return for Sulachan’s help.
“Both men also know that there are always those who are all too eager to help them. Those minions serve to provide an audience of sycophants for evil such as Sulachan and Hannis Arc bring into the world. In return, they earn the table scraps of praise from the depraved.
“While powerfully gifted and possessing occult powers able to mine prophecy and bring Sulachan’s spirit back through the veil, Hannis Arc didn’t have the army necessary to accomplish his more ambitious goals of rule. For that, he needed help. So, he brought Sulachan back to provide that help.”
“One hand washes the other,” Kahlan said.
“Yes. They formed an alliance. Hannis Arc would do what was needed in this world to bring Sulachan back from the dead. Among other things, that meant using the invaluable blood of the bringer of death—your husband—to call Sulachan back from the dead. One of those matters of balance I spoke of.
“In return, Sulachan provided the army of half people and all the revived corpses Hannis Arc could ever need for conquest. Hannis Arc in turn continues to provide the worldly occult powers necessary to sustain Sulachan here in this world. And so on, round and round it goes, both locked together helping each other, but each with motives of his own, each using the other because he has to.
“Each man also thinks he controls the other. For now they both work together toward the same ends. For now, they share the same goals and need each other.
“But they are like two vipers, each with the tail of the other in his mouth. Unfortunately, we will all be long dead and in the merciless hands of the Keeper before that alliance ever comes to be inconvenient for either.
“By then, if they are not stopped first, it will be too late for this world because Sulachan ultimately wishes to destroy the boundary between the world of life and the world of the dead. The balance of Creation itself would be broken.
“That would be a bad thing. A very bad thing.
“Thus, we must act or we all die.”
CHAPTER
67
“Look, Red,” Kahlan said, “you don’t need to explain the consequences to m
e. I am quite aware of what it would mean.”
“Are you, really?” Red asked. “It would mean not only the end of the natural order of life as we know it, but the Keeper would have me. Do you have any idea of how much the Keeper of the underworld lusts to get witch women into his clutches—outside the natural order of the Grace?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Shota told me all about it. But you are hardly the only one. All of us would be in an eternity of agony should Sulachan and Hannis Arc succeed. It’s not only about you, Red, it’s about everyone.” Kahlan leaned closer. “Everyone.”
Red showed a cunning smile, as if that had been her point all along. “And don’t you ever forget it, Mother Confessor. I may have my own self-interest, but that self-interest just happens to be the same as everyone else’s. My fate would be everyone’s fate. The Keeper would be loosed on the world, on all of us. The dead would feed on the living.”
Red straightened a bit and smoothed her gray dress at her hips. “I’m not sure that you truly comprehend the horror of what that would mean, or that you actually grasp the true enormity of it. Once Sulachan and Hannis Arc destroy the boundary between life and death, there is no putting it back together. All of Creation would be forever out of balance. In such a chaotic, unbalanced state, it would mean the end of all of existence. Creation itself would eventually wink out of existence, like an ember dying.
“But in the grand scale of time, that could still mean a thousand years, or ten thousand years, of ceaseless agony for all of us on the wrong side of that doomed struggle.
“Sulachan, in his arrogant delusions, believes he can control such forces and bend them to his will. Hannis Arc, in his lust for power, sees a thousand years of reign as an eternity. They make the perfect lethal pair: delusion and lust, both possessing great power individually, multiplied by their alliance and driven by their objectives, both cheered on by those who hate, gleeful at the obscenity of lost hope.
“Once such forces of chaos are loosed, there would be no one capable of putting them back. Once everything has spun out of control, it is only a matter of time before it is all over. Life—existence—would be extinguished.
“Therefore, Sulachan and Hannis Arc must be stopped before they can ever bring such insanity to pass.”
Kahlan let out an impatient sigh. “Red, I know all of this. You aren’t really telling me anything new. I already know how vital it is that they are stopped.
“That is precisely what we are trying to do, and you are wasting my time in that effort. We need to get through the pass and, after we are healed, we are going to try to stop the threat. Get to the point or send us on our way.”
Red folded her arms and leaned one shoulder in toward Kahlan. “I am trying to put the nature of what you must do into context so that you will understand how vital it is.”
Kahlan pressed a hand to her forehead. She could feel the evil inside her clawing to be freed. It was going to be that way for everyone. She took a breath, trying to be patient.
“Red, I’m dying. Believe me, I get the context. I don’t have a lot of time left to do anything to help you. We need to be on our way. I get it that they must be stopped or they will do something irreversible. Would you please just tell me what it is that you think you need me to do?”
Red leveled a sharp look at her. “It is not what I think, it is what I know. I see events in the flow of time. And what I see is that there is only one person who has the potential to stop all of these horrors I have described from coming to pass.”
“And who would that be?” Kahlan asked as patiently as possible.
“You know very well, Mother Confessor, who that would be,” Red said with a scowl. “It is the pebble in the pond, the bringer of death, the Lord Rahl, the one, your husband.”
Kahlan let out a deep sigh. “Again, we know that. Does the flow of time you witch women like to swim around in tell you if he will succeed?”
“It doesn’t work that way. I do not choose what I wish to see in the flow of time.”
“Great, so all you can do is tell me what I already know, and that you don’t know if we will succeed. That’s great. Thank you. Now may we pass?”
Red’s scowl was back. “I don’t get to pick out the answers I need or would like. I don’t get to ask questions and have them answered. The flow of time reveals to me what it will reveal. Nothing more, nothing less. I have no say in it. I am but a messenger.”
“That’s because it’s prophecy,” Kahlan said.
“In a way. In this case, it reveals to me only that your husband has the potential to succeed. It does not reveal if he will.”
Kahlan threw her arms up. “What good, then, is all this flow-of-time prophecy business if it only tells you potential? I could easily have told you that Richard has the potential to stop all this from happening without you needing to bother to peer into the flow of time!”
Rather than getting angry at Kahlan’s tone, Red became more calm, even sorrowful. “That much of it is muddy, but many other events in the flow of time are crystal clear. I can see those things with absolute certainty.”
“But not in this case,” Kahlan said, contemplating leaving the witch woman and going back to get Richard and the rest of them. Since Red knew that Richard was important, Kahlan figured that she wasn’t likely to put up a fight if they simply barged right through the middle of her little lair.
“No, not in this case.” It was Red, this time, who let out a patient sigh. “You see, Mother Confessor, in the unique case of that husband of yours, his free will mucks up events in the flow of time.”
Kahlan frowned. “Why is that?”
“Because he is a pebble in the pond. He causes ripples in events. Because he acts on free will, and he is gifted, it can’t be foreseen how those ripples will interact with other people and other events. Prophecy does not work so well with that man of yours.”
“If it’s any consolation, we’ve always had that problem with prophecy,” Kahlan said. “That’s why we don’t pay it much heed.”
Red leaned closer. “Well, in this case, you had better.”
“Why?”
“Because while I may not know if he will succeed, I know that if he is dead he will not have a chance to try. If he dies, our fate is sealed and we all die.
“I’m trying to help you keep him alive so that he can do what he needs to do in order to give us a chance. If you don’t listen to me, he is going to die. That is not a potential, but a hard, cold certainty.
“I know how to read events in the flow of time. I know those things that are only a potential, and I know those that will happen with an absolute certainty. In this particular case, it is not a maybe, or a potential. It is a dead certain event.…
“He is going to die before he has a chance to fulfill his potential unless you do what you need to do to prevent it. Only you can prevent his death. Only you can stop it.
“Now, do you want him to live or not?
“It’s all up to you, Mother Confessor.”
CHAPTER
68
Kahlan stared back into Red’s fierce blue eyes. “All right, I’m listening. What is it you see in the flow of time that is so certain?”
“Nicci is going to kill Richard.”
“Kill him?” Kahlan blinked in disbelief. “Why would she kill Richard? Dear spirits, the woman loves him!”
“That is why she will kill him … because she loves him.”
Kahlan shook her head, as if trying to shake it clear of lunacy.
“You really ought to meet Shota,” Kahlan said. “You’d like her. You both see events in the flow of time and think you understand their true meaning when you don’t. You’re both crazy.”
“I’m not crazy. I would wager that this Shota has given you information that has been vital, as this is. I’m telling you what will happen in the flow of time if that flow is allowed to run its course. I’m trying to make you see what is at stake.”
“I haven’t got time
for this nonsense.”
As Kahlan started to leave, Red grabbed her arm and turned her back. “Nicci knows that Richard’s heart belongs to you. She loves him, but she cannot have him. The flow of time says that because of that, she will kill him.”
Kahlan pressed her hands to the sides of her head, exasperated with the pointless, circular conversation, wishing she could shut it out. “You said yourself that this flow of time you look into only holds potential, not certainty.”
Red shook her head emphatically. “No, that is not what I said. I said that because he is the pebble in the pond, Richard’s free will muddies my ability to see how the events he is central to will unfold. It is only undefined potential in his case. But I see other things with absolute clarity.”
Kahlan glared, no longer even able to remain polite.
“So you say.”
Red gestured angrily toward Hunter. “I sent him because I saw that you would all come this way and would have been killed back there in the chasms had I not acted. It was important that none of you die back there. I could see in that same flow that you would befriend Hunter, as you call him, and follow him when you most needed his help—but only if I sent him to save you.
“It wasn’t potential; it was a certainty. I saw the different tributaries, branches, and backwaters in the flow of time and I worked to keep you on the course that would save your lives. Here you stand as a result. I would say that shows I understand the meaning of what I see in the flow of time quite well, wouldn’t you?
“While it doesn’t work that way with Richard, it does with the people around him. It worked that way with you. It wasn’t chance or potential, it was only the deliberate choices I made to effect the outcome that kept you all alive.
“Perhaps, as you say, this witch woman, Shota, only thinks she understands the true meaning of the things she sees in the flow of time, but don’t judge me by her inadequacies. I know what I’m talking about, and I know what I’m doing.”
Red leaned closer and pointed a finger at Kahlan’s face. “I’m telling you, Mother Confessor, and you had better listen to me—Nicci is going to kill Richard unless you kill her first.
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