Soul of the Fire

by Terry Goodkind

  “The chimes are ancient beings spawned in the underworld. The Grace must be breached to bring them into the world of life. Being from the underworld, they were conjured from the Subtractive side alone, and so create an imbalance once in this world. Magic needs balance. Being totally Subtractive, their mere presence here requires Additive Magic for them to exist in this state, since existence is a form of Additive power, and so the chimes drain magic away from this world as long as they’re here.”

  Cara, never being one with any outward appearance of an aptitude for magic, appeared only more confused than ever by his answer. Richard understood her confusion. He didn’t know much about magic, either, and barely had a grasp of what he had just told her. He wasn’t even convinced it was accurate.

  “But how do they do that?” she asked.

  “You might think of the world of life as like a barrel of water. The chimes are a hole in that barrel that has just been uncorked, letting the water drain away. Once the water all drains off, the barrel will dry out, the staves will shrink, and it will no longer be the container it once was. You might say it is then a dead shell, only resembling what it once was.

  “The chimes’ mere existence here drains magic away from the world of life, like that hole in the barrel, but also, as a way to bring them into this world, they were conjured as creatures. They have a nature of their own. They can kill.

  “Being creatures of magic they have the ability, if they wish, to take on the appearance of the creature they kill—such as a chicken—but they retain all the power of what they truly are. When I shot the chicken with an arrow, the chime fled its phantom form. From the beginning, the real chicken had been lying dead behind the wall; the chime only borrowed its form as a pattern—as a disguise—to taunt us.”

  Cara took on the unfamiliar countenance of worry. “You mean to tell me”—she glanced at the people around her—“that anyone here could really be a chime?”

  “From what I gather, they’re conjured creatures and have no soul, so they can’t take on the appearance of a person—just animals. According to Zedd, the converse is true; Jagang has a soul and so can only enter the mind of a person because a soul is needed.

  “When the wizards created weapons out of people, those things they created still had souls. That was how they could be controlled, at least to some extent. The chimes, once here, could not be governed. That was one of the things that made them so dangerous. It’s like trying to reason with lightning.”

  “All right”—Cara held up a finger as if making a mental note for herself—“so it couldn’t be a person. That’s good.” She gestured to the sky. “But could it be that one of those meadowlarks is a chime?”

  Richard glanced up at the yellow-breasted birds flitting past. “I guess so. If it could be a chicken, it surely could kill any animal and take its form. It wouldn’t need to, though.” Richard pointed at the wet ground. “It could just as easily be hiding in that puddle at your feet. Some apparently have an affinity for water.”

  Cara looked down at the puddle and then took a step back.

  “You mean the chime that killed Juni was hiding in the water? Stalking him?”

  Richard glanced briefly at Chandalen and then with a single nod acknowledged his belief that it was so.

  “Chimes hide, or wait, in dark places,” he went on. “They somehow travel along the edges of things, such as cracks in rock, or along the water’s edge. I’m assuming so, anyway; the way Kolo put it was that they slip along borders, where this meets that. Some hide in fire, and they can travel on sparks.”

  He glanced at Kahlan out of the corner of his eye as he recalled the way the house of the dead—where Juni’s body lay—had burst into flame. “When annoyed or angered, they will sometimes burn a place down, just for spite.

  “It was said that some are of such beauty that to see them is to take your breath away—forever. They are only vaguely visible, unless you catch their attention. Kolo’s journal made it sound like once the victim sees them, they’re partially shaped by the victim’s own desire, and that desire is irresistible. That must be how they were able to seduce people to their death.

  “Maybe that’s what happened to Juni. Maybe he saw something so beautiful that he abandoned his weapons, his judgment, even his common sense and followed it down into the water where he drowned.

  “Yet others crave attention and like to be worshiped. I guess, because they came from the underworld, they share the Keeper’s hunger for veneration. It was said that some even protected those who uncritically revered them, but it’s a dangerous balancing act. It lulls them, according to what Kolo said. But if you stop worshiping them, they will turn on you.

  “They enjoy most the hunt, never tiring of it. They hunt people. They are without mercy. They enjoy especially killing with fire.

  “The full translation of their name from High D’Haran roughly means ‘the chimes of doom,’ or ‘the chimes of death.’”

  Du Chaillu was scowlingly silent. The Baka Tau Mana blade masters for the most part managed to continue to look indifferent, aloof, and relaxed, but they had a new restiveness in their posture that to Richard was inescapable.

  “Either way,” Cara said with a sigh, “I think we can grasp the idea.”

  Chandalen, listening attentively, finally spoke up. “But you do not believe this, Mother Confessor? You believe what Zedd had to say, that it is not these chimes of death?”

  Kahlan met Richard’s gaze before addressing Chandalen. Her tone wasn’t harsh.

  “Zedd’s explanation of the problem is in many ways similar, and so could just as easily account for what’s happened, but being similar, it would be no less dangerous. The important difference, from what he told us, is that when we get to Aydindril we will be able to halt the trouble. I reluctantly hold Zedd was right. I don’t believe it’s the chimes.”

  “I wish that were the case, I really do, because as you said when we get to Aydindril we could counter it,” Richard said. “but it’s the chimes. I would guess Zedd simply wanted to get us out of harm’s way while he saw to trying to solve the problem of sending the chimes back to the underworld.”

  “Lord Rahl is the magic against magic,” Cara said to Kahlan. “He would know best about this. He believes it is the chimes, so it must be the chimes.”

  Sighing in frustration, Kahlan pushed her long hair back over her shoulder.

  “Richard, you’re talking yourself into believing this is the chimes. By talking about it as being true, you’re starting to convince Cara, just as you’ve convinced yourself. Just because you’re afraid of it being true, you’re giving it more credence than it deserves.”

  She was obviously reminding him of the Wizard’s First Rule, suggesting that he was believing a lie.

  Richard weighed the fiery determination so evident in her green eyes. He needed her to help him. He couldn’t face this alone.

  He finally decided he had no choice. Asking everyone to wait, he put an arm around her shoulders and walked her away so he could be sure the others wouldn’t hear.

  He needed her to believe in him. He no longer had any choice.

  He had to tell her.

  29

  Kahlan went willingly as he walked her off through the wet grass, more content to argue with him alone than in front of everyone else. For Richard’s part, he didn’t want to tell her what he had to say in front of others.

  Over his shoulder, Richard saw Chandalen’s hunters leaning casually on their spears, spears dipped in poison. They looked to lazily wait for Richard and Kahlan to finish their talk and return. He knew there was nothing lazy about them. He could see they were strategically positioned to keep the Baka Tau Mana under guard. This was their land, after all, and despite them knowing Richard, the Baka Tau Mana were outsiders.

  The Baka Tau Mana, for their part, looked completely indifferent to the Mud People hunters. The blade masters spoke a few nonchalant words to one another, looked out at the storm clouds on the horizon, or
stretched and yawned.

  Richard had fought Baka Ban Mana blade masters; he knew they were anything but indifferent. They were poised to kill. Having lived a tenuous existence surrounded by enemies bent on destroying them, their nature, by training, was to be prepared to kill at any moment.

  When Richard had been with Sister Verna and they had first encountered the blade masters, he had asked her if they were dangerous. Sister Verna told him that when she was young, she had seen a Baka Ban Mana blade master who had gotten into the garrison in Tanimura kill nearly fifty well-armed soldiers before he was taken down. She said they fought as if they were invincible spirits, and that some people believed they were.

  Richard wouldn’t like some small lapse in judgment or misstep in understanding to bring the Mud People and the Baka Tau Mana to a fight. They were all too good at fighting.

  Cara, looking anything but dispassionate, painted them all with her glares.

  Like the three sides of a triangle, the Mud People, the Baka Tau Mana, and Cara were all part of the same struggle. They were all allied to Richard and Kahlan, and to their cause, even though each looked at the world differently. They all valued most of the same things in life. Family, friends, hard work, honesty, duty, loyalty, freedom.

  Kahlan placed her hand gently but insistently on his chest.

  “Richard, despite anything else I’m feeling at the moment, I know your heart is in the right place, but you simply aren’t being reasonable. You’re the Seeker of Truth; you have to stop insisting you’re right and see the truth of this. We can stop the Sisters’ magic and their Lurk. Zedd and Ann will counter the spell. Why are you being so obstinate?”

  “Kahlan,” he said, keeping his voice low, “the chicken thing was a chime.”

  She absently, unconsciously, fingered the dark stone on the delicate gold chain around her neck. “Richard, you know I love you and you know I believe in you, but in this case I’ve just about—”

  “Kahlan,” he said, cutting her off. He knew what she thought and what she had to say. Now he wanted her only to listen. He waited until her eyes told him she would.

  “You called the chimes into this world.

  “You didn’t do it intentionally, or to cause harm—no one would believe otherwise. You did it to save me. I was near death and needed your help, so I’m part of this, too. Without my actions, yours would not have been necessary.”

  “Don’t forget our ancestors. Had they not borne children, we wouldn’t have been born to commit our crimes. I suppose you’ll want to hold them to account, too?”

  He wet his lips as he gently gripped her shoulders. “I’m just saying that giving help is the thing that started this. That does not, however, in any sense, make you guilty of malicious intent. You must understand that. But because you spoke the words completing the spell, that makes you inadvertently responsible. You brought the chimes into this world.

  “For some reason, Zedd didn’t want us to know. I wish he would have trusted us with the truth, but he didn’t. I’m sure he had reasons that to him seemed important enough to make him lie to us. For all I know, maybe they were.”

  Kahlan put her fingertips to her forehead, closed her eyes, and sighed with forbearance. “Richard, I agree there are puzzling aspects to what Zedd did, and there are matters yet to be answered, but that doesn’t mean we have to leap to a different answer just for the sake of having one. Zedd is First Wizard; we must trust in what he’s asked us to do.”

  Richard touched her cheek. He wished he could be alone with her, really alone, and he could try to make up for his foolish forgetfulness. He dearly didn’t want to be telling her these things, but he had to.

  “Please, Kahlan, listen to what I have to say, and then you decide? I want to be wrong, I really do. You decide.

  “When the Mud People hunters were guarding us in the spirit house, the chimes were outside. One of them killed a chicken just because they like to kill.

  “When Juni heard the noise, the same as I heard it, he investigated but found nothing. He then insulted the spirit of the killer in order to bring it out in the open. It came out in the open, and killed him for insulting them.”

  “I insulted the chicken thing, so why didn’t it kill me?” Kahlan wearily wiped a hand across her eyes. “Answer me that, Richard. Why didn’t it kill me?”

  He gazed into her beautiful green eyes for a moment as he gathered his courage.

  “The chime told you why, Kahlan.”

  “What?” she said with a squint. “What are you talking about?”

  “That chicken thing wasn’t a Lurk. It was a chime, and it wasn’t calling you by your title of Mother Confessor. It was a chime. It said what it meant.

  “It called you ‘Mother.’”

  Kahlan stared at him in startled wide-eyed shock.

  “They respect you,” he said, “to some limited extent, anyway, because you brought them into the world of life. You gave them life. They consider you their life-giver, their mother. You only assumed the chicken thing was going to add the word ‘Confessor’ after it called you ‘Mother’ because you are so used to hearing yourself called by that title.

  “But the chime wasn’t calling you by title, Kahlan. It was calling you by the name it meant: Mother.”

  He could almost see the truth of his words inundating her carefully constructed fortress of rationale. Some truths, after a certain point, could be felt viscerally, and at that point everything clicked with the finality of a dead bolt on a prison of truth.

  Kahlan’s eyes filled with tears.

  She pressed closer to him, into the comfort and understanding of his arms. She gasped a sob against his chest and then angrily wiped her cheek as a tear rolled down.

  “I think that was the only thing that saved you,” he said softly as he hugged her. “I wouldn’t want to again trust your life to their charity.”

  “We have to stop them.” She stifled another sob. “Dear spirits, we have to stop them.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you know what to do?” she asked. “Do you have any idea how to send them back to the world of the dead?”

  “Not yet. To find a solution, the first thing to be done is to recognize the true problem. I guess we’ve done that, now?”

  Kahlan nodded as she wiped at her eyes. As quickly as understanding had brought tears, resolve banished them.

  “Why would the chimes have been outside the spirit house?”

  While they had been together after being married, exulting in their love, something had been outside the door exulting in death. It made him feel sick at his stomach just to think about it.

  “I don’t know. Maybe the chimes wanted to be near you.”

  Kahlan simply nodded. She understood. Near their mother.

  Richard remembered the stricken look on Kahlan’s face when Nissel brought the stillborn baby into the house of the dead. The chimes had caused that, too. It was only the beginning.

  “What’s a fatal Grace? You mentioned it before, yesterday, when we went to see Zedd and Ann.”

  “Most of the stories about the chimes that I recounted came from an early report. Because Kolo was frightened, he wrote at greater length than usual. The report he quoted said at the end, ‘Mark well my words: Beware the chimes, and if need be great, draw for yourself thrice on the barren earth, in sand and salt and blood, a fatal Grace.”

  “And what does that mean?”

  “I don’t know. I was hoping maybe Zedd or Ann might know. He knows all about the Grace. I thought he might know about this.”

  “But do you think this fatal Grace would stop the chimes?”

  “I just don’t know, Kahlan. It occurred to me that it might be desperate advice on suicide.”

  Kahlan nodded absently as she mulled over the words from Kolo’s journal.

  “I could understand if it was advice on suicide. I could feel its evil,” she said as she stared off into her visions. “When I was in the house where the Mud People prepared bodies
for burial, and the chicken thing—the chime—was in there with me, I could feel its evil. Dear spirits, it was awful.

  “It was pecking out Juni’s eyes. Even though he was dead, it still wanted to peck out his eyes.”

  He pulled her into his arms again. “I know.”

  She pushed away with rekindled hope. “Yesterday, with Zedd and Ann, you told us Kolo said they were quite alarmed at first, but after investigating they discovered the chimes were a simple weapon and easily overcome.”

  “Yes, but Kolo only reported the relief at the Wizard’s Keep when they discovered it wasn’t the problem to counter they at first thought it would be. He didn’t write down the solution. They sent a wizard they called the Mountain to see to it. Obviously, he did.”

  “Do you have any idea if there are any weapons that would be effective against them? Juni was heavily armed, and it didn’t do him any good, but might there be others?”

  “Kolo never gave any indication. Arrows didn’t kill the chicken thing, and fire certainly isn’t going to harm them.

  “However, Zedd was emphatic that I retrieve the Sword of Truth. If he lied about it being a Lurk, that may have been to keep us away from harm. I don’t believe he would lie about the sword. He wanted me to get it, and he said it might be the only magic that would still work to protect us. I believe him in that much of it.”

  “Why do you suppose the chicken thing fled from you? I mean, if they consider me their mother, I could understand them maybe having some kind of… reverence, for me, and being reluctant to harm me, but if they’re so powerful, why would they run from you? You only shot at them with an arrow. You said arrows couldn’t hurt them. Why would it run from you?”