“You mean you are going to go see if the boundary is over on that side, too,” Kahlan said, obviously realizing what he was up to.
“We need to know for sure if there is a way through or not.”
“Then we should all go,” Kahlan said.
Everyone else shifted their gazes between the two of them, not wanting to get in the middle of what was Kahlan’s obvious displeasure at the plan and Richard’s clear determination.
“No,” he said, “we should not all go. I can travel faster by myself. There is no reason to expose you to the dangers and the difficult hike if it turns out to be for nothing, like it did on the other side. If I find a way through, I’ll come back and by then you all will be rested and ready to travel.”
“You’re not going alone,” Vika finally said. “I’m going with you.”
“Not this time.”
“Why?” Kahlan said. “Why can’t you at least take Vika?”
“Because with me gone, I want everyone else to be here to protect you, that’s why.”
Vika clearly looked upset. “Lord Rahl, I—”
“I want you to stay here and protect the Mother Confessor. We don’t know what dangers might be about. She carries our children, our hope for the future of our world. I want her protected.” He stood, lifting his pack, slinging it up on one shoulder. He picked up his bow from where it was leaning against the shelter. “The subject is not open to debate. Check the fishing lines. Hopefully you can all have some fresh fish. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“You said that we have to all stay together,” Berdine said, “for that Law of Nines thing.”
“I’m doing what I think best,” he said. “It doesn’t take nine of us to trudge through deep snow to scout the terrain. Scouting ahead is what I’m good at.”
Berdine pointed off through the trees to where the ravens had roosted. “Can you at least shoot a few with your bow so that their number will be less, like ours will?”
“It can’t be done,” Richard said.
“Why not?”
“Because the ravens would not allow it.”
Berdine wrinkled up her nose. “Not allow it? What are you talking about?”
Richard gestured to the birds perched on branches in the pines. “Watch.”
He turned his back on them as he quickly strung the bow. He gripped it in one hand as he pulled an arrow from the quiver over his shoulder. He quickly nocked the arrow in the string, and then turned around toward the ravens. Before he could even raise the bow to aim, all the ravens started squawking as they took to wing and, in an instant, had vanished back into the trees.
Richard cocked an eyebrow at Berdine as he replaced the arrow in the quiver and hooked the bow over his shoulder.
“Like I said before, ravens are crazy smart. But those are not merely ravens. I want Kahlan protected while I’m gone.” His gaze swept over everyone watching him. “Is that clear?”
Once Shale and all the Mord-Sith nodded, he sat on the edge of the rocks and bent to tie the snowshoes he had made to his boots.
“That’s pretty creepy,” Berdine said as she looked again to see that the ravens had vanished. “It’s like they’re watching us.”
“They are, so they will be back,” he said. “Now, all of you watch over Kahlan for me until I get back. Please,” he added.
Without waiting for them to raise objections, Richard started out, pleased to discover how well the snowshoes worked. It would make it a lot easier to cover ground quickly.
10
As he expected, one of the thirteen ravens left the others to follow him as he quickly made his way through the woods. It flew through the forest, weaving in and out among the branches as if they weren’t even there to get out ahead of him, and then with a quick flutter of its black wings settled on a branch to wait for him to pass underneath. As he did, it would turn its head to look down at him with one black, glossy eye.
The bird’s black eyes reminded him of the eyes of the Glee. It was wearisome the way there was always someone or something watching them so that they were never completely alone, to know instead that they were always being observed for any sign of weakness and for the right time to attack.
He knew that if he wanted to, he could kill the raven—what he had done before with the bow was just to show the others that these were not merely wild ravens so that they would be on alert—but he also knew that killing it would accomplish nothing, so he didn’t want to reveal his ability before it became necessary.
Besides, the animal itself was innocent. It was merely being used, much the same way the goddess looked through the eyes of unsuspecting people. He actually rather liked ravens, although they were often quite noisy.
Richard was happy to find that the snowshoes made for much easier progress over the snow. They weren’t perfect, but they worked. Rather than his legs sinking in with each step, he could simply walk on the surface almost as well as he could on the bare ground.
He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it the day before as they had struggled to make their way up the mountain to the notch he’d spotted. He guessed that he was letting himself become too focused with worry of what was going on and with what he had been hoping would be their way out. He supposed that he simply wasn’t thinking straight.
He reprimanded himself that such lapses could be fatal. They were in a lot of trouble, more trouble than any of the others realized, and he needed to think clearly. That was the only thing that was going to save them.
He wasn’t concerned about leaving the rest of them back at camp. He knew they weren’t in danger there. The danger was in that fortress town built across the pass. That was where the spider waited at the center of this web.
They had discovered that to the left of the fortress town in the pass the boundary blocked their way. He needed to see if there was a way around the pass on the other side so that they could make it to the Wizard’s Keep without having to go into that fortress. He had to know if they had a choice or if the boundary continued on to the right of the town.
As the day wore on, he continued to push, making more progress than he ever could have if he had let Kahlan and the others come with him. Kahlan never complained about the physical challenges, but with her being pregnant it was difficult for her to push as hard as she would like to or as hard as he could alone. Before she had become pregnant with the twins, he would never have had any doubt that she could keep up with him. At times, if anything, he had trouble keeping up with her. But he knew that now she couldn’t.
When he finally made it above the tree line, he stopped and turned back to see the raven sitting on a bare limb, watching him. He turned and started ahead, panting with the effort and the thin air at this altitude.
After a time, he paused and with a hand shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight as he scanned the mountainside. While the place he spotted was far from ideal, and he knew it likely wouldn’t be a way they could cross the mountains, he headed for the spot anyway, because it would serve his purpose to confirm what he suspected. In such a life-and-death situation, he dared not leave any stone—or escape route—unturned.
It was sometime in the mid-afternoon when he had to remove his snowshoes to start climbing bare rock that had been blown mostly clean of snow by the howling winds. At least those winds were now calm. It was hard climbing, but he was able to keep going without stopping to rest. Some of the places were so high that he had to jump and grab an edge with his fingers and then pull himself up. After such places, he had to lie on his back and catch his breath in the thin air.
His legs ached, and the altitude was not only causing him to become easily winded, it was starting to make him feel sick. The answer, he knew, was to reach the place that would tell him one way or the other what he needed to know, and then he could start back down.