Into Darkness Page 23

  Wispy clouds drifted past some of the higher spires and towers, making the place seem as though it lived in the clouds.

  Out ahead, off across the stone bridge, Kahlan could see the gaping entrance of the arched stone passageway where the road tunneled under the base of the outer Keep wall. The portcullis was up.

  Kahlan brought her horse to a stop to take it all in. The site of the Keep seemed to bring her mood to a low point of despair. They had spoken little the last few days, mostly because Kahlan had not been in a mood to talk and everyone seemed to realize it. When they saw her stop, everyone else slowed to a stop as well.

  Kahlan turned in her saddle and looked back at Shale. “How long until I give birth?”

  The sorceress was ready with an answer. “From my experience, the babies will come any day now. It is difficult to say precisely when, but I don’t think it will be longer than three or four days, at most.”

  “You’ve been awfully quiet for the last few days,” Richard said. “What’s wrong?”

  Kahlan felt tears well up. Fears she had been keeping to herself wouldn’t let her have a moment of peace. Even when she slept, those fears haunted her. And now those fears were about to be realized.

  Richard, right beside her, pulled in the reins and rested his wrists on the horn of his saddle. When he glanced back at the others, they waited back where they were.

  “Kahlan, what’s wrong? I know you and I know that something is bothering you. This should be a joyous time. Our children are about to be born. We have reached the Keep, where they will be safe.”

  She nodded, too ashamed of her fears to speak. Richard’s words only seemed to bring it to the surface, making the tears start to flow all the harder.

  Richard leaned over in his saddle to get closer so he could speak privately, assuming it was something she didn’t want the others to hear. “Kahlan, what’s wrong? You can tell me.”

  Kahlan couldn’t bear to tell him. How could she? These were his children, too, the children of D’Hara, the children the world needed.

  Or were they?

  “Kahlan, please tell me what’s bothering you,” he pressed in a whisper.

  She couldn’t hold it back from him any longer.

  “You know what’s wrong. Shota said that one of our children will be a monster. She saw into the flow of time. While she got her prophecies wrong in the sense of how they would come about, you know as well as I that in the end they always proved true. She was positive about this one because it was so clear-cut. I want these children so badly, but I’m terrified that one of them is going to be the monster she predicted.”

  Richard relaxed a bit. “Is that all?”

  She wiped a tear from her cheek. “Is that all? It’s everything. It’s everything we have wanted, it’s everything our world needs, and yet one of them is destined to be a monster who will destroy lives.”

  He smiled a little. “I don’t believe in destiny any more than I believed in blindly following prophecy, and neither do you.”

  “This is not destiny. This is a vision from a witch woman who had seen it in the flow of time. Now that their birth approaches, I can’t bear the thought of one of them being that monster that we bring into the world.”

  Richard took a deep breath and let it out as he considered a bit. “Do you think me a monster?” he finally asked her.

  “You?” She frowned at him. “No. What does that have to do with it?”

  Richard shrugged. “Darken Rahl was a monster.”

  “So what?”

  “His father, Panis Rahl, was a monster, as was his father, and his father before that. The House of Rahl was a whole line of tyrants. Every Rahl who became a Lord Rahl was a monster and each bred a monster for a son.”

  “What does that have to do with it?” she said.

  “I am the son of a monster. By that logic, I should be a monster as well.”

  “But you were raised by a good man and so you didn’t turn out to be like Darken Rahl.”

  Richard winked at her. “Exactly.”

  Unsure, Kahlan squinted at him. “What’s your point?”

  Richard smiled. “Had Shota looked into her flow of time when I was conceived, what do you suppose she would have seen? Yet another monster in the making. Prophecy, after all, is in many ways merely the essence of potential. Though it would have been possible, I’m not the monster she would have seen. Monsters aren’t necessarily bred and born to be monsters. Evil people are mostly created by how they grow up—either by the terrible way they were raised, or by the terrible things they experienced that shaped them into who they turn out to be.

  “Our children will grow up to be good people because we will raise them to be good people.”

  Kahlan stared at him a moment. “Are you so sure of that?”

  His smile widened. “Kahlan, if it wasn’t true, then I would be a monster the way all of the men in the Rahl line of rule were monsters. But I’m not like them because I was raised differently, by a good man.”

  She gave him a look from under her brow. “Your brother was a monster.”

  Richard drew a deep breath. “True enough. But I don’t think it was because of birth or that he was predestined to be a monster. I think he was weak and didn’t use his head. He made a lot of bad choices. His friends and the people he associated with encouraged those bad choices. In a way, they urged him on to be the evil person he became. But I don’t think he was born a monster the way Shota meant.”

  Kahlan finally smiled over at him as she wiped away the last of her tears. “You always make me feel better when I think things are hopeless. Please don’t ever stop making me feel better.”

  Richard bowed his head to her. “By your command, my lady, it shall be so. Now, can we get you into the Keep so that you can bring our two children into the world?”

  Kahlan leaned over and touched his arm. “You are going to be a good father.”

  At that, they started out again. The rest followed behind.

  46

  Kahlan rode close beside Richard as they crossed the stone bridge. She felt as if a weight of dread had been lifted from her. She had been secretly terrified that Shota’s prediction that one of their children would be a monster would turn out to be true, but she hadn’t wanted to burden Richard with her fears. The world had seemed a dark and threatening place. She had felt doomed, without a way out.

  Richard had just made the sun come out again. Her spirits had been cheered to the point that dread suddenly turned to expectant joy at the thought of the fast-approaching birth. In the past, Shota’s prophecies had always turned out to be true, but in ways that never brought about the kind of doom she had predicted. With this one, like the others, they could work to make sure that things turned out well.

  He offered her a smile, reassuring her, but she could see in his gray eyes that he was worried about things other than one of their children being a monster. She knew that, like her, he was worried about the lives of all the people down in the city once the Golden Goddess found out where they were. They both knew that she would use the lives of those people to try to force them to give themselves up.

  On the one hand, she felt dreadful that their coming to Aydindril could result in the death of so many people in the city she loved. But on the other hand, if they didn’t retreat to the safety of the Keep, then they and their children would end up being hunted and eventually slaughtered. If that happened, then in the long run, everyone in the world would be naked before the onslaught of the Glee and everyone in their world would be hunted to extinction.

  That was always the dilemma with hostages, but the end result of giving in was why Kahlan never submitted to hostage negotiations. As cruel as it seemed on the surface, sacrificing hostages was for the greater good.

  She hated that such a phrase was what Shota had used, but in this case, it was the cold reality. Giving in to such evil only resulted in more death in the end.

  At least at the People’s Palace there had been a lot
of soldiers of the First File to help protect people. Even so a great many of those people had died. Here, there was no large force like that. There was only Richard, and he couldn’t be everywhere at once.

  The only solution she could see was that the threat from the Glee had to be ended by force, but she had absolutely no idea how they could accomplish such a thing. The Golden Goddess, after all, was off in another world. Even if they wanted to try to kill her, they had no way to get at her.

  Kahlan smiled when Richard looked her way again, feeling better at least about how he had said they would raise their children. What he said made sense.

  As they rode over the bridge, she looked down over the edge of the bridge’s stone wall at the side. The rock walls below the bridge dropped away seemingly forever. In one place on the far wall of the chasm, a thin stream of water, as usually happened for several days after rain, emerged from a crack in the rock. The water tumbling down turned to mist before it ever reached the bottom far below. There were often clouds floating by below the bridge, but there were none this day.

  “It’s good to be home,” she said to Richard.

  He nodded. “It’s been a long time, and a long journey.”

  It seemed too simple a statement for all the effort of finally arriving after deciding to leave the People’s Palace and all they had gone through, from Michec to Shota to all the battles with the Glee.

  Once across the bridge, they quickened their pace up the road. When they were almost to the opening in the outer Keep wall, and before they went in, Kahlan turned to have a look at the city she had so missed.

  When she did, her breath suddenly caught.

  Everyone else heard her gasp. They all wheeled their horses around to see what she was seeing.

  To their astonishment, there on the bridge where they had been only moments before stood a lone Glee.

  “Dear spirits,” Kahlan said under her breath.

  Everyone else drew their horses close together, both to protect Kahlan and as they prepared for a fight. All their heads swiveled as they frantically scanned the countryside for others, looked for the rest of the Glee about to ambush them before they could get into the safety of the Keep. The Mord-Sith all had their Agiel in their fists. Rikka and Cassia threw a leg over their horses’ necks and leaped to the ground, drawing their knives in addition to the Agiel they had in their other hand.

  Unlike Shale and the Mord-Sith, who looked ready for the expected battle, Richard merely stared at the single dark figure on the bridge. Kahlan was surprised that he didn’t look alarmed. She could see that his posture was relaxed in his saddle as he watched the Glee. Much to Kahlan’s surprise, he merely studied the creature, which was just standing there looking back at them.

  “Something looks a little different than I remember about the Glee I’ve seen before,” Kahlan finally said when no one else spoke, “or maybe I just never before saw them standing still like that for so long.”

  Shale frowned back over her shoulder. “What do you mean? Different how?”

  “I’m not sure, but I don’t really remember them having that slight greenish iridescence across the tops of their heads.”

  “That’s because the others you’ve seen before don’t have that sheen of color.” Richard sounded calm and not the least bit worried.

  The way he said it made Kahlan think he had seen a Glee like this before.

  She frowned over at him. “What are you talking about?”

  Just then the Glee did the strangest thing.

  It opened its arms out a little to the sides, and turned its claws palm-out, toward them. When it did it spread its arms a little. She saw webbing she had never noticed before between the individual claws of the Glee.

  And then it bowed its head.

  Kahlan, Shale, and the Mord-Sith stared in astonishment.

  Richard let out a sigh. “Bags,” he said to himself, but loud enough that Kahlan heard it.

  “What in the world could this mean?” she asked him.

  Richard finally looked away from the creature and regarded her with an expression that bordered on regret.

  “It means I want you all to get into the Keep.”

  Kahlan’s frown tightened. “You know this creature, don’t you? I can’t imagine how, but you know it.”

  Staring off at the Glee again, Richard nodded as the Glee stared back at him.

  “Get inside,” he said. “All of you.”

  Kahlan grabbed his shirtsleeve in her fist. “Richard, what are you going to do? The twins are due any moment. I need you here. Our children need a father. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I can see in your eyes that you are getting one of your crazy ideas.”

  He finally looked back to her with an iron determination in his raptor gaze. “I need to end this.”

  She shook her head, as if trying to clear what didn’t make sense. “End it? What in the world are you talking about?”

  “I’m not sure.” He stared off again at the dark creature. “I want you all to get inside. I will be back with you as soon as I can. It may only be a few minutes … but I have a funny feeling it may be longer.”

  “Longer? What are you talking about? How much longer?” Kahlan quickly glanced around at the others all staring at him before she leaned closer. “What are you going to do?”

  Shale was looking apoplectic. The Mord-Sith all looked back and forth between Richard and the creature, unsure if they should go attack it, or stand their ground. A firm look from Richard told them to stay where they were.

  Kahlan again grabbed his shirt. “Richard, answer me. What are you going to do?”

  He had that look she knew so well. The ferocity of it softened when he turned to her, but it didn’t leave entirely.

  “I don’t know yet, but I suspect that this is a sign that the city is about to be attacked. I have to stop it.”

  He kissed the ends of his first two fingers, pressed them to her lips, and then pressed them to the twins.

  “Richard—”

  He gathered up his horse’s reins. “I have to see what I can do, or this ordeal will never end, and countless people will die. I am the Lord Rahl, the leader of the D’Haran Empire. It is up to me to protect our people. I intend to do just that. Now get inside. All of you. Shale, I am counting on you to take care of Kahlan when the babies come.”

  “You mean you will be gone that long?” she asked.

  “I don’t know, but if I am, I want you to take care of Kahlan when she gives birth.”

  “Of course, Lord Rahl.”

  His gaze slid from Shale to the Mord-Sith. “Do as I say. I want you all to get Kahlan into the Keep where she will be safe. Don’t delay for anything. Do it right now. The people in there will help you protect her.”

  “Only if you take Vika with you,” Kahlan said.

  “It’s not his decision to make,” Vika told her. “That decision has already been made. You had better do as he asks and get inside the Keep where you will be safe. I promise you, I won’t leave Lord Rahl’s side.”

  47

  Richard dismounted and handed the reins to Berdine. Nyda took the reins to Vika’s horse as she slipped to the ground. He gave the rest of them a commanding gesture to get into the Keep. They all recognized the seriousness of the command. Reluctantly, they all followed his orders and rode off toward the arched opening in the Keep wall. He watched Kahlan, with Mord-Sith surrounding her, ride in under the arch and then inside until he knew she was no longer in danger.

  Just before she disappeared inside, she turned back to give him a last, brief look. Finally, she disappeared through the opening in the wall, to be greeted by people he could see waiting inside. He wasn’t able to see who they were, but he hoped there were Sisters of Light among them who would be able to protect her. He hoped Chase was still at the Keep. He would certainly protect her.

  “Lord Rahl, what are you planning?” Vika asked. “The Mother Confessor said that you have a crazy idea.”

  Richar
d nodded as he continued to share a look with the lone Glee. “She isn’t wrong.”

  “So, what is your crazy idea this time?” she asked with a long-suffering sigh.

  He flashed her a smile. “I think that Glee wants to talk to us. Let’s go find out what it has to say.”

  “The Glee don’t talk. They only come to kill.”

  “My crazy idea is that I don’t think that this one intends us any harm.”

  She nodded as she started after him. “That is indeed a crazy idea. If you are wrong, and it’s a trap?”

  “Then we will deal with it.”

  Together, Richard and Vika walked back down the road toward the bridge, scanning the area for trouble as they went. He looked back over his shoulder, up at those ramparts and crenellations in the walls he could see from such a low perspective, but he didn’t see anyone. Kahlan was now safe inside the fortress.

  The Glee on the bridge had not moved from where it stood, waiting. Richard continually swept his gaze in every direction, looking for a mass attack, but not actually expecting one. Vika also kept up a sweep of the area, especially the woods, but unlike him, she did expect an attack.

  Each time he looked back at the Glee, it hadn’t moved. It watched him coming with big, glossy black eyes. Occasionally its third eyelid would blink across the surface to keep it wet.

  The creature, with its soft, moist, mottled black skin, hairless head, big glossy eyes, two small holes for a nose, and wicked claws, looked completely alien standing there on the bridge built by men. Glee weren’t typically anxious. But given how uneasy this one appeared, he thought it must be here for a reason it felt was important enough to overcome its apprehension.

  As Richard slowed to a halt in front of the dark creature, he held his hand back and out to the side a little to let Vika know that he wanted her to stay back out of his way and give him room in case he needed to draw his sword. He really didn’t think that was going to be necessary, but as he had learned so often before, it was better to be prepared to act and not need to, than to not be prepared and find out all too suddenly that you should have been ready.