“We aren’t out to steal them,” Richard said. “We merely need you to collect what we need. The stables provide horses and supplies to the Lord Rahl all the time. That’s what you are doing this time as well. It’s nothing unusual.”
Vika nodded. “I got the horses for you the last time, remember?”
“When we went down to see Nolo’s people,” he said as he turned back to watch the stablehands leading the horses into the stables to unsaddle, water, and feed them.
Vika nodded. “That’s right. I’ve been to the stables many times before. The soldiers and workers aren’t going to dare to ask a Mord-Sith why she wants a dozen and a half horses and supplies. I’ve been here a number of times and they know it’s always on orders from Lord Rahl. Not you, Lord Rahl—your father. That Lord Rahl. Anyway, they won’t give a second thought to my request for horses and supplies.”
“That hardly seems like the secrecy we need,” Kahlan said. “The whole point is that we don’t want the goddess to know that we’re collecting horses, otherwise she will be watching to see where we are headed. If these men know, then it’s possible if not probable she would know as well.”
Shale gestured dismissively. “Leave that to me.”
Richard looked over at her. “What can you do?”
“She’s a witch woman,” Kahlan reminded him in a low voice so that the stablehands wouldn’t hear her.
Richard turned his frown toward her. “What does that have to do with it?”
Kahlan put a hand on the side of his shoulder. “Witch women are masters of illusion, remember? People see what a witch woman wants them to see. Red appeared beautiful and young to me, much like Shale, but she appeared to others as an elderly woman.”
When Richard looked back over his shoulder at Shale, she showed him a sly smile. “Let me worry about the solution to this problem.”
Richard realized that he knew what Kahlan meant. Witch women could make you see what they wanted you to see. More than once Shota had appeared to him as his mother. He knew what Shota looked like, or at least how she presented herself to him when she wasn’t creating the illusion that she was his mother. But he couldn’t be entirely sure if that was her real appearance or not. He suspected that the same thing was true of Shale.
“All right,” he said to Vika. “Why don’t you go and tell the stable master that you need a dozen and a half horses, with saddles for nine of them. And supplies. We will need traveling supplies—food, water, sleeping gear. He doesn’t need to know who it’s all for. Let him assume what he will. Have them hitched over there at that staging area. Once he gets what we need, we will let Shale do her part so we can collect the horses and leave. The sooner the better, so be quick about it.”
Vika gave him the kind of smooth, confident smile that few people other than a Mord-Sith could do so well. “No problem. Wait here. I’ll be back as soon as I arrange it.”
4
Shale leaned in impatiently. “What could be taking her so long?”
Richard let out a frustrated sigh. “I can’t imagine. They should have been able to have the horses saddled and the supplies ready long ago.”
“Could the soldiers or stable workers be giving her any grief?” Kahlan asked.
Richard turned an incredulous look on her. “A Mord-Sith. Give a Mord-Sith grief.”
Kahlan let out an exasperated sigh. “I guess that was kind of a silly question.”
It had long since grown dark. For a time, the stars had been out, but as they waited clouds had rolled in. It was starting to smell like rain was on the way.
Richard leaned out a little, scanning the area, but he still couldn’t see Vika anywhere. What was just as troubling, he couldn’t see any sign that the stable workers were hurrying to carry out her instructions. He had long ago expected to see the freshly saddled horses brought out to the staging area while the supplies were collected and loaded.
Vika had walked over to the buildings, around the corner of one of them, and that was the last they saw of her.
“Maybe they’re having trouble getting supplies together,” Kahlan suggested. “Maybe they had to send someone down to the storehouses to get the kind of traveling food we need.”
Richard nodded as he watched the entire area, looking for any sign of Vika. “I suppose that could be the case. It could be that the kind of supplies she asked for have to be collected from a distant storehouse. But still, I can’t imagine Vika not coming back and telling us what the delay was all about.”
“Well, maybe she slipped and fell and hit her head or something,” Shale whispered. “Maybe she’s hurt and needs help.”
Richard bit his lower lip as he considered. The same thought had occurred to him as well, but he hadn’t heard anything. It seemed like if she had fallen, then in the quiet of the night they would have heard her calling out, or something. Besides that, there were a few stable workers occasionally coming and going from all the buildings. If she had fallen, it seemed like one of them would have seen her on the ground. A Mord-Sith in red leather would be hard to miss. Although, it had grown dark …
An impatient Berdine leaned close. “Lord Rahl, it couldn’t possibly have taken this long. This doesn’t make sense. She could have had a hundred horses saddled and out here by now.”
“More than that,” Kahlan added, “there hasn’t been any sign that the stable staff are seeing to her orders. They all seem to be calmly going about their other work. No one is rushing to take care of the things she would have asked for. Surely men would have come running when a Mord-Sith demanded horses to be saddled. Besides that, we would have seen other people rushing off to get supplies. No one is rushing anywhere.”
“You’re all right.” Richard scratched his eyebrow as he considered what to do. “Something is wrong, I can feel it. I need to find out what’s going on.”
He abruptly stood up. His feet were numb from squatting down for so long. He rotated each ankle in turn to get the blood started back into his feet as he looked around. All five of the Mord-Sith stood up with him. He turned to Kahlan and Shale, still crouched down behind the manure wagon.
“Berdine, you come with me. Shale, Rikka, Nyda, Cassia, Vale—in case there is some kind of trouble please stay close to Kahlan for now. For all we know, one of the Glee could have snatched her. It shouldn’t take long to find out what’s going on.”
The four Mord-Sith squatted back down near Kahlan. If there was any kind of trouble, he knew that in a heartbeat they would all bring their Agiel up into a fist and at the ready to defend her.
Richard gestured. “Come on, Berdine. It all looks peaceful enough, so something is obviously wrong. Keep a sharp lookout for anything that doesn’t look right to you. Be ready for one of those hateful things to pop out of nowhere.”
Berdine nodded and then fell in beside him after he went around the manure cart and started across the open stable area. The aroma of haystacks near each building was a pleasant change from the smell of manure. They hadn’t gone far when some of the men saw them. They all abruptly changed course from what they were doing and rushed over to Richard and Berdine.
“Lord Rahl!” one of them called back into the quiet night in case any of the other workers hadn’t seen him. “It’s Lord Rahl!”
So much for stealth, Richard thought. Men who had heard the call ran out of buildings. In short order there were fifteen or twenty men gathered around and more in the distance were coming.