Richard stood and retrieved a glowing sphere from a nearby bracket on the wall. It grew even brighter in his hands. With one hand, he held the light sphere out through the doorway to show her.
Shale staggered to her feet, finally standing with Kahlan’s help. Once she had her balance, she went to the doorway to see what he wanted to show her. She put a hand on the doorframe for support as she leaned in a little and looked down into the gloom.
“Water? Why is there no floor? What is water doing down in there?” She shot Richard an angry look. “Why would there be water in there? That’s just crazy!”
“I don’t know,” he said. “What I do know is that the complication spell-form doesn’t call for it. It could simply be a deep pit that over time filled with water.”
Kahlan wondered if it could be something else.
“Well, that’s just—”
“I told you to get behind me,” Richard said, cutting off the sorceress’s heated rant before it could get a good start. He lowered his head, giving her a serious look from under his brow. “You should have listened to me. I knew what I was doing. My sword acts as a shield against conjured fire. You would have been safe behind me, but instead, thinking you were protecting her, you dove with Kahlan through this doorway. I appreciate that you thought you were saving her from the fire, but as you can see, there is no floor and you both ended up nearly drowning. Had it simply been a deep pit, you both could have fallen to your deaths. In a way, it’s fortunate that the pit is filled with water.”
“Very foul water,” Kahlan added. “We both were fortunate that Richard was able to help us get back out. He pulled you up while you were unconscious. He saved your life.”
Shale looked between the two of them, appearing mortified. “I could sense myself at the veil. How did you manage to bring me back from the brink of death? What did you do?”
Richard arched an eyebrow. “You aren’t the only one who can use your gift to heal.”
Shale had calmed down considerably. “Thank you. None of that could have been easy.”
“It had to be Michec who conjured that fire. We must be getting close, so he tried to kill us. Fortunately, you and Kahlan survived your little swim.”
Shale put her hand to her head and winced. “Why does my head hurt?”
“You hit your head on something down there when we fell in,” Kahlan told her. “I think you cracked your skull on a decapitated head that was bobbing in the water.”
Shale made a face that revealed her disgust. “There are human remains down there?”
“Yes.” Kahlan shuddered as she flicked a waxy white chunk of flesh off her leg. She could see that it looked like human skin on one side of it. “But what I don’t understand is how some kind of creature could be living down there.”
“Creature?” Shale asked, her alarm rising again. “What creature?”
“I don’t know. I thought it might be a snake nearly as thick as my leg that had me, but with the way it whipped me around under the water, I think it had to have been something big and powerful that grabbed me with a tentacle. Richard attacked it with his knife and managed to get it off me. But how could something that big live down there? Other than the random person who fell in, and a lot of bugs, what would it eat?”
Shale considered briefly. “I suspect it might not have been a real creature.”
Kahlan’s jaw dropped. “Not real? Are you kidding me? It was real enough to whip me around underwater and nearly drown me.”
“I think you must be right that a monster of that size couldn’t live down there.” The sorceress gazed off down the hall. “A witch man could have conjured such a thing. Michec probably knew we fell in and conjured it. That’s the most likely explanation. It had to be him trying to kill you.”
“Considering how real it behaved, how powerful it was, and how it reacted and bled when Richard cut it, if it wasn’t real then how are we to be able to tell what’s real from what’s not?” Kahlan asked.
Shale regarded her with a grim expression. “With any kind of witch that powerful, you often can’t.”
“Then how can we possibly fight back?”
“When you are fighting the illusion, you are, in a way, fighting the witch. When you cut the thing attacking you, slashing it as Lord Rahl apparently did, you are, in a way, harming the witch, because the illusion is partially an extension of them. Odd as it may seem, it’s not entirely an illusion, not an independent creature. It’s conjured but also real and as such, in certain aspects, connected to them.”
“We don’t have time to discuss it right now,” Richard interrupted. “We’re all alive. We need to go after Michec. I have a feeling that Nyda, Cassia, Vale, Berdine, and Rikka don’t have any defense against the man, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to capture Vika. Come on. Conjured fire and creatures, real or not, I need to catch him before he can get far.”
“What are we going to do when we catch him?” Shale asked.
“Kill him,” Richard said without pause as he started out.
22
Richard lifted his arm out to the side to keep Kahlan and Shale back. He could tell by the route they had taken that they were near the heart of the spell-form. They all felt the increased sense of danger.
He wanted to carefully peek around the corner to see what lay ahead, and he didn’t want either Shale or Kahlan showing themselves. Not that they were going to be able to sneak up on the witch man. He obviously knew they were coming after him. Besides whatever gifted ability he might have, their mere presence made the light spheres begin to glow. Even with their faint green glow off down the halls, it was hard to see, because the stone walls of the passages in the complication were so dark it seemed to suck up the light.
While the lights beginning to illuminate made it possible to see, it would also alert anyone to their presence, which made stealth impossible.
Even before looking, Richard felt something. He couldn’t quite determine what it was he felt, but it gave him a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. He decided that the feeling had to be from the continual state of heightened tension. His grandfather would have told him to fear what he knew, not what he was afraid of. But Zedd hadn’t ever given him any advice on complication spells or witch men.
Richard slowly moved his head out just enough so that he could see down the dark passageway with one eye.
In the faint green glow, he saw something down low far off down the dark stone hallway. He couldn’t quite figure out what it was.
As he squinted, he suddenly realized what it was he was looking at.
Richard let out a curse under his breath. He held up a finger without looking back to prevent Kahlan asking what would have made him use that kind of language.
As slowly and quietly as possible, Richard drew his sword. The gleaming black blade hissed with lethal fury as it came out of the scabbard, its power joining with his own rising anger, eager to be unleashed on the enemy. It was a contest as to what lusted to kill Michec more, Richard’s rage or the sword’s.
Kahlan leaned in close behind him. “What is it?” she whispered.
He looked back over his shoulder. “I think I see the Mord-Sith.”
“You think?” Shale asked.
“What about Michec?” Kahlan whispered. “Do you see him?”
Richard peered into the distance, then looked back over his shoulder. “No. There is a broad opening of some kind. It’s a lot wider than a doorway or an intersection with a hall. There is light coming from inside—light from light spheres. That means there has to be someone inside. I’ll give you one guess as to who that would be.”
“No need to guess,” Shale said. “Not only can I smell him, I can sense him with my gift. I can sense how powerful he is. Let me tell you, it’s an uncomfortable feeling.”