The Scribbly Man Read online

  8

  Richard, his arms folded over his chest, leaned his shoulders back against one of the small granite columns that stood on each side of the corridor as he brooded. That corridor was the only way into the entry area outside the master bedroom. The single broad corridor led out to a network of passageways. Soldiers were stationed back a ways in that corridor as well as in every branching hall. The large entry area outside the master bedroom was elaborately decorated with raised panels of book-matched crotch mahogany polished to a high luster. Detailed layers of crown molding finished off the look.

  Richard’s gaze was locked on the double doors on the opposite side of the entryway. They were carved with ornate designs that mimicked the spell-form the palace itself was laid out to. Kahlan was on the other side of those closed doors. He was beside himself with worry about what was going on and why it was taking so long. If he could, he would have willed the doors open.

  As he agonized about Kahlan, he also thought about his meeting with the Estorians. He didn’t trust anything they had told him, even if he had to admit that on the surface it had all seemed to ring true. But these were diplomats who were versed in making any argument sound reasonable. For all Richard knew, they could be lying through their teeth and they could have all been part of an elaborate plot to assassinate him and Kahlan. Richard was no longer taking anything for granted. His suspicious, questioning nature was on full alert.

  For the time being, the Estorians weren’t going anywhere. Their tent had been rolled up by the soldiers and put in storage. Meanwhile, Richard saw to it that they all were placed in “guest” rooms and asked not to leave until the situation could be straightened out.

  To ensure they didn’t decide to leave, they were being heavily guarded with instructions that they remain confined. Richard didn’t want them wandering off in case more questions came up, or if anything they said turned out not to be true. He especially didn’t want them wandering around loose in the palace if it turned out they were part of an assassination plot.

  Richard shifted his weight to his other leg as he waited. The soldiers stationed in the corridors had told him that Shale hadn’t come out yet. Neither had any of the Mord-Sith in there watching over Kahlan.

  Since it was deep in the middle of the night, Richard had sent Vika off, against her objections, to get some sleep. She complied, but grumbled as she stormed off like a pouty child sent to bed early.

  The constant worry was wearing on him. He considered going in to see what was happening and why it was taking so long, but he didn’t want to interrupt the sorceress if the healing was at a critical juncture. He knew from experience that in the very intense process of healing a seriously injured person, he wouldn’t want someone coming up to tap him on the shoulder and ask how it was going.

  Just then the door opened. It was Shale coming out.

  Richard rushed across the elaborate, deep-blue-and-orange-carpeted entryway to meet her. She was once again in the black outfit she had been wearing when he had first seen her.

  He knew that, with a witch woman, there was no telling what their clothing really looked like or for that matter what they even really looked like. They somehow had the ability to bend things into an illusion, or perhaps it was an ability to alter a viewer’s vision to what they expected to see. Shota had been able to change her appearance at will. From his experience, a witch woman showed you only what she wanted you to see, or what you expected to see, not what was really there to see. Shale obviously had at least some of that same ability. He wondered how much she wanted him to see of her true self.

  As she approached, before he could even ask, Shale lifted a hand. “Your wife is going to be fine, Lord Rahl. I am relieved to report that she is past the biggest danger. There is more I will need to do, but for now I want to let her get some sleep. For the rest of the healing she first needs a good night’s sleep.”

  Richard craned sideways to look into the room before Berdine closed the double doors. She flashed him a smile that looked more brave than happy. He was able to look past her to see Kahlan lying in the bed, her hands folded over her stomach, her eyes closed. She looked to be resting peacefully. He was also relieved to see that she was in a clean nightdress, rather than her bloody, white Confessor dress.

  “What do you mean?” Richard asked, looking back at Shale. “What more do you need to do?”

  The sorceress let out a weary sigh. “There was another puncture wound in her right side that we didn’t see before because of all the blood. It was another wound from a claw—like the one that tore up her left arm. I think that whatever attacked her must have impaled her with a claw into her side to incapacitate her while it tore her arm apart with its other claw. It caused a kind of wasting damage to some internal organs.”

  Richard’s alarm rose to a new level. “Wasting damage—you mean like from snake venom?”

  “Something like that. Fortunately it moves through the victim more like molasses than venom so it’s not as aggressive as a viper’s poison would be. It’s as lethal, just not as fast. I found that it had caused similar tissue damage in her arm.”

  “So then she’s been poisoned?”

  “Yes… but not exactly.” Shale made a face, trying to think of how to explain it. She looked up when it came to her. “You know how when a cat claws you it may not look very bad, but then in a day or two your whole arm is red and swollen to twice its size?”

  “I suppose so.”

  “It’s something like that. More than an infection and less than poison. I’m able to heal it, but it’s more complicated than simply healing an ordinary wound.”

  “But she is well, now?”

  “She’s resting comfortably for now. She still has damage and I will need to finish the healing. What is to come is a painful process of tearing apart tissues that have attached improperly after the attack and then setting them right. I healed those things that were urgent and I put her into a deep sleep so that she could rest more easily.

  “Rest will help stabilize her so that her body can heal some of the other things on her own. Rest is a great medicine. Tomorrow, or maybe the next day, when she has a good dose of that medicine and is strong enough to handle it, I will be able to finish.”

  “But in the meantime, aren’t those things not yet healed, or attached improperly, a danger to her?”

  Shale smiled in a way that said she found his worry endearing but overwrought.

  “Lord Rahl, trust me. I know what I’m doing. Everything is under control and proceeding as it needs to.”

  When he didn’t seem all that relieved, Shale pressed the flat of her hand to his chest. He felt the warmth of magic meant to reassure him radiating from that hand through his body. While it was a nice gesture, he didn’t appreciate it.

  “I swear to you,” Shale said, taking her hand back, “she is past the danger that threatened her life. When she has rested and regained enough strength I will finish it and you will have your beautiful lady back, good as before. All right?”

  Richard nodded as he walked off a few paces, letting his fingertips drag over the smooth surface of the eight-sided marble tabletop sitting in the middle of the entryway. The colorful flowers in the three vases in the center lent a calming aroma to the entire room. It reminded him of the outdoors where he had grown up. He took a deep breath of that fragrance and let it out slowly, relieved to have his agony of worry eased somewhat.

  “Thank you, Shale. You’ve saved her twice. First, when you alerted me to how careless I was being, and then with the healing.”

  As his grandfather had often warned him, peacetime was sometimes more dangerous than war. He had let his guard down. He could just imagine Zedd’s scowl at him being so careless. He vowed not to let it happen again.

  “I’m glad I was here to help,” Shale said from behind him.

  He looked back over his shoulder, giving her a more critical look. “Your clothes are black, again.”

  She knitted her fingers together in
front of her as she twisted her mouth, looking up as she thought how to answer what was obviously a question.

  “You don’t know much about women’s dress, do you?”

  Richard shrugged at the strange question. “I know what I like looking at. But I have a feeling you mean something else.”

  She smiled. “Women don’t like wearing the same dress as another woman to an important gathering—or any gathering, for that matter. It is well known that the Mother Confessor wears a white dress. While not the same dress, I still did not want to come before you both in the great hall appearing to disrespect her by also wearing her traditional white.”

  Richard was a bit surprised. “I guess you put more thought into it than I would have.”

  “That’s because you’re a man.”

  “And why did you come here in the first place?”

  She was momentarily caught off guard. “You ask strange questions out of the blue, Lord Rahl.”

  “I am the Seeker.” He tapped the hilt of his sword. “I carry the Sword of Truth. I ask those things which need asking. So why did you really come here?”

  “I told you, I came to offer the loyalty of the Northern Waste to the D’Haran Empire.”

  “I’m not in a very good mood, Shale. That’s an excuse. Tell me the real reason you’re here.”

  9

  Shale sagged a little as she wiped a weary hand back across her face. “I’d prefer not to have to get into it just now, not after what’s happened today, and not after I spent so much time and energy in a difficult healing, but I can see that you aren’t going to be satisfied until you know the truth. I will give you the gist of it, but ask that we discuss it in detail later, after I have had some rest.”

  Richard shrugged. “Fair enough.”

  “I admit there is more to why I’m here. You say you ask those things which need to be asked. There are things which I need to ask as well. I came for answers to those things.”

  “Such as?”

  Her bewitching eyes looked up at him from under her brow. “Such as why are the stars not where they belong in the sky? Why are the stars all jumbled up so that I no longer recognize them?”

  Richard let out a long sigh. “Oh, that.”

  Her look darkened. “Yes, that. I have a feeling that only you could be responsible.”

  Richard lifted a hand in a gesture reflecting his discomfort about the subject. “I had to initiate a star shift. It was an act of desperation.”

  “I see that you are going to make me chase you round and round and then strangle you until you answer.” She gave him the kind of dangerously sober look that seemed unique to witch women. “What is a star shift, Lord Rahl,” she said slowly and carefully, “and what was the desperation?”

  “It had to do with an evil that had festered for thousands of years, and a war that had never really ended. An emperor from that time rose up from the grave, tearing the veil between life and death in the process. He intended to join the underworld and the world of life, foolishly believing he could rule over it all.”

  Her mouth opened in surprise. “Combining them would have only destroyed both!”

  Richard’s brow lifted. “Glad you grasp the problem. To stop him from finishing what he had already begun to do, I had to use the boxes of Orden for their true purpose—initiating a star shift.”

  “Boxes of Orden?”

  “Ancient magic, constructed spell and all that,” he said with a dismissive gesture that said that wasn’t the important point.

  “And that put this evil spirit back in his grave where he belonged?”

  “It did,” Richard said. “It healed the veil and ended the ancient war that had smoldered all that time only to finally reignite. I can’t begin to know how many people died because of that evil man. People we all know and loved died. Too many good souls never had a chance to live their lives because of him. Many more would have died if I hadn’t done something. Everyone would have died. I had to put a stop to it.

  “I did it in the only way that could work. It changed our world, I admit that. But I don’t regret what I did. It saved life itself.”

  “But how is it possible for the stars to be different?”

  “The ancient magic I used was the only thing that had the power to close the breach and stop the worlds of life and death from imploding. It’s a bit like a constructed spell. Once initiated, it runs routines according to its internal protocol. That power, once ignited, ultimately shifted the stars.”

  She looked even more upset. “But how could you have unleashed such a—”

  “Had I not done as I did we would all be dead right now. Do you understand? Dead. Worse than that, the worlds of life and death would have come together and both would have ceased to exist. Everyone forever would have ceased to exist. We were all out of time. It was either the star shift or no world of life, simple as that. I chose life.

  “Some of the changes caused by the star shift are known—such as the stars suddenly being unfamiliar to us. But it altered other things as well. We don’t yet know the extent of the changes.”

  She peered up at him in dismay. “Are you sure? There was no other way?”

  “None,” he said with finality. “It wasn’t a situation of my choosing. Like I say, it was an act of desperation.”

  Shale fell quiet for a time as she looked off, trying to comprehend such a monumental event.

  “Besides being a sorceress,” she finally said, her voice weaker, “I am also a witch woman. Some of my ability as a sorceress, such as healing, still works as always.” She looked up expectantly at him. “But other things, such as my ability to see into the flow of time, seem to be lost to me. That ability is part of who I am, what I am, and now I can’t call it forth.

  “This is in part the reason I came to see you—to ask how soon can I expect my ability to see into the flow of time to be restored to normal?”

  Richard let out a sigh as he considered how to tell her. “Part of the key to saving the world of life was that it was necessary to end prophecy. The star shift was a way to do that. I’m afraid that a witch woman’s ability to see into the flow of time is a form of prophecy. I had to end all forms of prophecy.”

  “End prophecy?” She looked both dumbfounded and horrified. “How could you do such a thing? How could you possibly take it upon yourself to destroy such a fundamental part of the lives of so many people?”

  “That’s where you are wrong,” he said, leaning closer, “and that was the key to our survival. Prophecy is alien to the world of life. It was long ago sent here from the timeless world of the dead. Having that corrosive force here in this world was part of how that ancient, dead emperor was destroying the veil separating life and death. I had to end prophecy by sending it back to the world of the dead where it belongs. The star shift was the only way of doing it. I’m afraid that your ability to see into the flow of time will never return.”

  Tears welled up in her eyes. “But that’s who I am. It’s part of me.”

  “An alien part,” he said. “Would you keep an arm eaten away by gangrene because that dying arm was ‘a part of you’? No. To preserve life you would cut it off before it could kill you. That’s what I did. Cutting off that arm would certainly hurt, but it would also keep you alive.

  “Prophecy was never meant to be part of who witch women really are. It was a crutch that in part gave witch women such a fearsome reputation. Believe me, witch women can be plenty fearsome without needing to see into the flow of time. That alien ability was also sometimes the cause of great harm.

  “In the past, the false prophecies of a witch woman nearly killed me, nearly killed Kahlan. Witch women have had otherworldly power for so long they came to believe it was part of them, but it’s not. It was in reality death lurking within you. I’ve ended it.”

  He knew by her expression that he had not heard the last of it, so he thought he needed to end the argument before it could fester in her.

  “It’s done, Shale. The
re is no putting it back to the way it was, any more than it is possible for me to put the stars back where they were. The spell has run its course. It is over and done.

  “Our lives have all changed—mine included. Life is about change. Change has both good and bad elements to it. You can either deal with the way things have changed and move forward, or you can let bitterness about what’s lost in the past rob you of your future.

  “I’m afraid that what happened here today with this business about a goddess is one of those bad changes brought about by the star shift. I don’t like it and I don’t yet know what it means, but we have to figure it out and deal with it.”

  She nodded distantly. “I guess so.”

  “When I was starting to heal Kahlan,” Richard said, changing the subject to get her mind off it, “you told me that there was something else going on, and that if I kept going I would kill her. What was it you felt?”

  “It was that poison I told you about. Those claws planted the infection or poison in her during the attack. One of my healing talents—I’m not sure I can adequately explain it—is that I can, in a way, see what is happening inside the person I’m healing. I could tell that your gift had a dangerous effect on that poison. I don’t know if it was an intended effect or simply that the two could not coexist. They were oil and water, you might say. Had I not stopped you, the Mother Confessor would have gone on to suffer a lingering death, but only after it had killed you first.”

  Richard was taken aback. “Do you think it was deliberate? That it was meant for me?”

  “When I first probed for her injuries, I could feel your gift seeping into her. I could also feel that malevolence being drawn to your gift. Your gift attracted it. Had you kept the contact with her, it would have used that link to seep into you and kill you as surely as a bite from a viper.”

  “Why didn’t it react to your gift the same way?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not entirely sure of the reason, but I could see that it was drawn to your gift. I was able to get around it, allowing me to come in behind it and choke it off. Our gift is different. You are a war wizard, I am, among other things, a healer. Maybe your aggressive ability with your gift drew it.”