“That does not mean you will succeed, only that you have the chance. No matter how small, it is within you. Know also that there are forces to defeat you before you could bring your chance to bear. The old wizard does not have the power to stop Rahl. That’s why he gave you the sword. I do not have the power to stop Rahl. But I do have the power to be of aid to you. That’s all I wish to do. In so doing I help myself. I do not want to die. If Rahl wins, I will.”
“I know all this. That’s why I said you would answer my question without my having to use the wish.”
“But there are other things I know, Richard, that you do not.”
Her beautiful face studied him with a sadness that hurt. Her eyes had the same fire in them that Kahlan’s had; the fire of intelligence. Richard felt the need in her, the need to help him. He feared suddenly what it was she knew, because he realized that it wasn’t meant to hurt him, it was simply truth. Richard saw Samuel watching the sword and became aware of his own left hand, resting around the hilt, aware of how tightly he was gripping it, and how the raised letters of the word Truth were pressing painfully into his palm.
“Shota, what are these things you know?”
“The easiest first,” she sighed. “You know the way you stopped the wizard’s fire with the sword? Practice the move. I gave you that test for a reason. Zedd will use the wizard’s fire against you. Only the next time, it will be for real. The flow of time does not say who will prevail, only that you have a chance to beat him.”
Richard’s eyes widened. “That can’t be true….”
“True,” she said, clipping off his words, “as a tooth given by a father to show the keeper of the book, to show the truth of how it was taken.”
That rattled him to his bones.
“And no, I don’t know who the keeper is.” Her eyes burned into him. “You will have to find him yourself.”
Richard could hardly draw a breath, could hardly make himself ask the next question. “If that was the easy part, then what is the hard?”
Auburn hair tumbled off her shoulder as Shota looked away from his eyes, to Kahlan, who stood stone still while the snakes writhed on her. “I know what she is, and how it is she is a threat to me….” Her voice trailed off. She turned back to him. “It is obvious you do not know what she is, or perhaps you would not be with her. Kahlan has a power. Magic power.”
“That much I know,” Richard offered cautiously.
“Richard,” Shota said, trying to find the words for something she found difficult, “I am a witch woman. As I said, one of my powers is that I can see things as they will come to pass. It is one reason fools fear me.” Her face drew closer to his, uncomfortably close. Her breath smelled of roses. “Please, Richard, don’t be one of these fools; don’t fear me because of things I have no control over. I’m able to see the truth of events that will come to be; I do not dictate or control them. And just because I see them, that does not mean I’m at all happy about them. It is only by action in the present that we can change what otherwise will come to pass. Have the wisdom to use the truth to your advantage, don’t simply rail against it.”
“And what truth do you see, Shota?” he whispered.
Her eyes had an intensity that halted his breath, her voice the sharp edge of a blade.
“Kahlan has a power, and if she isn’t killed, she will use that power against you.” She watched his eyes carefully as she spoke. “There can be no doubt of the truth of this. Your sword can protect you from the wizard’s fire, but it will not protect you from her touch.”
Richard felt the stab of her words, as if they cut through his heart.
“No!” Kahlan whispered. They both looked at her, her face wrinkled with pain at Shota’s words. “I wouldn’t! Shota, I swear, I couldn’t do that to him.”
Tears ran down her cheeks. Shota stepped close to her and reached through the snakes, touching her face tenderly, to comfort her.
“If you are not killed, child, I am afraid you will.” As a tear rolled down, her thumb brushed it back. “You have already come close, once,” Shota said with surprising compassion. “Within a breath.” She nodded slightly to herself. “This is true, is it not? Tell him. Tell him if I am speaking the truth.”
Kahlan’s eyes snapped to Richard. He looked into the depths of her green eyes and remembered the three times she had touched him when he had been holding the sword, and how that touch made the magic jump in warning. The last time, with the Mud People when the shadow things had come, the magic’s reaction had been so strong that he almost put the sword through her before he realized who it was. Kahlan’s eyebrows wrinkled together, her gaze shrinking from his. She bit her bottom lip as a little moan escaped her throat.
“Is this true?” Richard asked in a whisper, his heart in his throat. “Have you come within a breath of using your power against me, as Shota says?”
Kahlan’s face drained of color. She let out a loud, painful moan. She closed her eyes and cried in a long, agonizing wail. “Please, Shota. Kill me. You must. I am sworn to protect Richard, to stop Rahl. Please,” she cried in choking sobs. “It’s the only way. You must kill me.”
“I cannot,” Shota whispered. “I have granted a wish. A very foolish one.”
Richard could hardly stand the pain of seeing Kahlan like this, asking to die. The lump in his throat threatened to choke him.
Kahlan suddenly cried out and threw up her arms, to make the snakes bite her. Richard lunged for them, but they were gone. Kahlan held out her arms, looking for snakes that were no longer there.
“I’m sorry, Kahlan. If I were to let them bite you, it would break the wish I granted.”
Kahlan collapsed to her knees, crying with her face against the ground, her fingers digging into the earth. “I’m so sorry, Richard,” she wept. Her fists grabbed at the grass, then his pants legs. “Please, Richard,” she sobbed. “Please. I’m sworn to protect you. So many have already died. Take the sword and kill me. Do it. Please, Richard, kill me.”
“Kahlan… I could never…” He couldn’t make any more words come.
“Richard,” Shota said, nearly in tears herself, “if she isn’t killed, then before Rahl opens the boxes, she will use her power against you. There is no doubt of this. None. It cannot be changed if she lives. I granted your wish, I cannot kill her. So you must.”
“No!” he shrieked.
Kahlan wailed again in anguish and pulled her knife. As she brought it up to plunge it into herself, Richard grabbed her wrist.
“Please, Richard,” she cried, falling against him, “you don’t understand. I have to. If I live I will be responsible for what Rahl will do. For everything that will happen.”
Richard pulled her up by her wrist, held her to him with one arm as she cried, held her arm twisted behind her back so she couldn’t use the knife on herself. He glared angrily at Shota, who stood with her hands loose at her sides, watching. Was any of this possible? Could it be true? He wished he had listened to Kahlan and never come here.
He relaxed his pressure on Kahlan’s arm when he realized by the way she cried that he was hurting her. He wondered numbly if he should let her kill herself. His hand shook.
“Please, Richard,” Shota said, tears in her own eyes, “hate me for who I am if you will, but do not hate me for telling you the truth.”
“The truth as you see it, Shota! But maybe not the truth as it will be. I will not kill Kahlan on your word.”
Shota nodded sadly, looking at him through wet eyes.
“Queen Milena has the last box of Orden.” She spoke in a voice barely more than a whisper. “But heed this warning: she will not have it for long. If, that is, you choose to believe the truth, as I see it.” She turned to her companion. “Samuel,” she said gently, “guide them out of the Reach. Do not take anything that belongs to them. I would be very displeased if you did. That includes the Sword of Truth.”
Richard saw a tear run down her cheek as she turned without looking at him and began w
alking up the road. She stopped in midstride and stood a moment; her beautiful auburn hair lay upon her shoulders and partway down the back of the wispy dress. Her head came up, but didn’t turn back to him.
“When this is over,” she said in a voice that broke with emotion, “and if you should happen to win… don’t ever come here again. If you do… I will kill you.”
She walked on, toward her palace.
“Shota,” he whispered hoarsely, “I’m sorry.”
She did not stop or turn, but continued on.
32
When she came around the corner, she almost bumped into his legs, he was walking so quietly. She looked up the long silver robes to his face, far up in the air.
“Giller! You scared me!”
His hands were each stuck in the other sleeve. “Sorry, Rachel, I didn’t mean to frighten you.” He looked both ways down the hall and then lowered himself to the floor. “What are you about?”
“Errands,” she told him, letting out a deep breath. “Princess Violet says I’m to go yell at the cooks for her, and then I’m to go to the washwomen and tell them that she found a gravy stain on one of her dresses, and that she would never get gravy on one of her dresses, and that they must have done it, and if she ever finds they do that again, she’ll have their heads chopped off. I don’t want to say that to them, they’re nice.” She touched the pretty silver braiding on the sleeve of Giller’s robes. “But she said that if I don’t say it, I’ll be in a lot of trouble.”
Giller nodded. “Well, just do as she says, I’m sure the washwomen will know they aren’t really your words.”
Rachel looked in his big dark eyes. “Everyone knows she gets her own gravy on her own dresses.”
Giller laughed a quiet laugh. “You’re right, I’ve seen her do it myself. But it brings no fortune to pull the tail of a sleeping badger.” She didn’t understand, and made a face. “That means you will get in trouble if you point it out to her, so it’s best to keep still.”
Rachel nodded; she knew that that was true. Giller looked up and down the hall again, but there was no one else there.
He leaned closer and whispered, “I’m sorry I haven’t been able to talk to you, to check. Did you find your trouble doll?”
She nodded with a smile. “Thank you so much, Giller. She’s wonderful. I’ve been put out twice more since you gave her to me. She told me how I mustn’t talk to you unless you say it’s safe, so I just waited, like she said. We talked and talked, and she made me feel so much better.”
“I’m glad, child.” He smiled.
“I named her Sara. A doll’s got to have a name, you know.”
“Is that so?” He lifted an eyebrow. “I never knew that. Well, Sara is a fine name for her then.”
Rachel grinned; she was happy that Giller liked her doll’s name. She put one arm around his neck and her face by his ear. “Sara’s been telling me her troubles too,” she whispered. “I promised her I would help you. I never knew you wanted to run away too. When can we leave, Giller? I’m getting so afraid of Princess Violet.”
His big hand patted her back when she hugged him. “Soon, child. But there are things we must prepare first, so we aren’t found out. We wouldn’t want anyone to follow us, to find us and bring us back, now, would we?”
Rachel shook her head against his shoulder; then she heard footsteps. Giller stood up, looking down the hall.
“Rachel, it would be very bad if we were seen talking. Someone might… find out about the doll. About Sara.”
“I better go,” she said in a hurry.
“No time. Stand against the wall, show me how brave, and quiet you can be.”
She did what he told her and he stood in front of her, hiding her behind his robes. Rachel heard the clinking of armor. Just some guards, she thought. Then she heard the little barks. The Queen’s dog! It must be the Queen and her guards! They would be in a fine mess if the Queen found her hiding behind the wizard’s robes. She might find out about the doll! She scrunched up tighter in the dark folds. The robes moved a little when Giller bowed.
“Your Majesty,” Giller said as he stood back up.
“Giller!” she said in her mean voice. “What are you doing lurking about up here?”
“Lurking, Your Majesty? It was my understanding I was in your employ to see to it there was no lurking going on. I was merely checking the magic seal on the jewel room to make sure it hadn’t been tampered with.” Rachel heard the little dog sniffing around the bottom of Giller’s robes. “If it is your wish, Your Majesty, I will leave matters to the fates, and not investigate where I feel a worry.” The little dog came around the side of the robes, close to her; she could hear the sniff, sniff, sniff. Rachel wished he would leave, before she got found out. “We will all just go to bed at night with a simple prayer to the good spirits that when Father Rahl arrives, all will be well. And if anything is amiss, well, we can simply tell him we didn’t want to have any lurking about, so we didn’t check. Perhaps he will be understanding.”
The little dog started to growl. Rachel was getting tears in her eyes.
“Don’t get your feathers ruffled, Giller, I was simply asking.” Rachel could see the little black nose sticking under the robes. “Precious, what have you found there? What is it, my little Precious?”
The dog growled and gave out a little bark. Giller backed up a little, pushing her tighter to the wall. Rachel tried to think about Sara, wishing she were with her right now.
“What is it, Precious? What do you smell?”
“I’m afraid, Your Majesty, I have also been lurking about in the stables, I’m quite sure that is what your dog smells.” Giller’s hand went into his robes right by her head.
“The stables?” Her mean voice wasn’t quite gone. “What could there possibly be for you to investigate in the stables?” Rachel could hear her voice getting louder; the Queen was bending over, to get her dog. “What are you doing there, Precious?”
Rachel sucked the hem of her dress, to keep from making a noise as she shook. Giller’s hand came out of his robe. She saw a pinch of something between his thumb and finger. The dog pushed his head under the robe and started barking. Giller opened his fingers, and sparkling dust dropped down on the dog’s head. The dog started sneezing. Then Rachel saw the Queen’s hand come and pull him away.
“There, there, my little Precious. It’s all right now. Poor little thing.” Rachel could hear her kissing the dog’s nose the way she liked to do all the time; then she sneezed, too. “As you were saying, Giller? What business does a wizard have in the stables?”
“As I was saying, Your Majesty”—Giller’s voice could get kind of mean, too, but Rachel thought it was funny when it was the Queen he was sounding mean to—“if you were an assassin, and you wanted to come into a Queen’s castle and put a big fat arrow through her, do you think you would rather walk right in the main gate, bold as day? Or would you rather ride with your long bow in a wagon, hiding, maybe under some hay, or behind some sacks? Then come out in the dark of the stables.”
“Well… I… but, are there, do you think… have you found something…”
“But, since you don’t want me lurking about in the stables either, well, I’ll just scratch that off my list too! But if you don’t mind, from now on, when we are in public view I will be standing well clear of you. I don’t want to be in the way if some of your subjects choose to show their love for their Queen from afar.”
“Wizard Giller”—her voice got real nice, like when she talked to the dog—“please forgive me. I have been on edge lately, what with Father Rahl coming soon. I just want everything to go well; then we will all have what we want. I know you only have my best interest at heart. Please, do carry on, and forget the momentary foolishness of a lady.”
“As you wish, Your Majesty.” He bowed again.
The Queen started hurrying away, down the hall, sneezing; then Rachel heard her thumping footsteps and the clinking armor stop.
“By the way, wizard Giller,” she called back, “did I tell you? A messenger came. He said Father Rahl will be here sooner than expected. Much sooner. Tomorrow in fact. He will be expecting the box, of course, to seal the alliance. Please see to it.”
Giller’s leg jerked so hard it almost knocked Rachel over. “Of course. Your Majesty.” He bowed again.
Giller waited until the Queen was gone and then pulled Rachel up with big hands around her waist and held her against his hip with an arm. His cheeks weren’t red, as they usually were; they were more white. He put his finger against her lips, and she knew he wanted her to keep quiet. He stretched his neck, looking up and down the hall again.
“Tomorrow!” he muttered to himself. “Curse the spirits, I’m not ready.”
“What’s wrong, Giller?”
“Rachel,” he whispered, his big hook nose close to hers, “is the Princess in her room right now?”
“No,” Rachel whispered back. “She went to pick out fabric for a new dress, for when Father Rahl comes to visit.”
“Do you know where the Princess keeps her key to the jewel room?”
“Yes. If she doesn’t have it with her, she keeps it in the desk. In the drawer on the side by the window.”
He started off down the hall, toward Princess Violet’s room. His feet were so quiet on the carpets that she couldn’t even hear his footsteps as he carried her. “Change of plans, child. Can you be brave for me? And Sara?”
She nodded that she could and put her arms around his neck to hold on as he walked fast. He went past all the dark wooden doors that were pointed at the tops, until he got to the biggest one, a double door set back in a little hall, with stone carving all around. That was the Princess’s room. He squeezed her tight.
“All right,” he whispered, “you go in and get the key. I’ll stay out here and stand guard.”
He set her down on the floor. “Hurry now.” He closed the door behind her.
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