Kahlan could tell that Richard’s patience was wearing thin, and he had a time keeping his composure at the question.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” he finally told her. “I need to collect wood.”
The Mord-Sith noticed his quiet annoyance and busied themselves with clearing the ground for a place for the fire and collecting stones to make a fire ring. Kahlan knew they were all hungry, but no one said so. The mood was tense and none of them wanted to test Richard. For that matter, neither did Kahlan. She knew that something was bothering him.
Richard stacked wood for a fire over strips of birch bark and small sticks wiped on pine sap for kindling. He looked up at Shale and gestured. She knew what he meant and, with a flick of her hand, ignited a healthy flame in among the kindling. After the fire was burning hot he added new wood and after a time raked some of the glowing coals to the side and used them to cook some of the meat.
They used their knives to make long, sharp poles from young saplings in order to skewer and cook pieces of meat. Richard sliced off generous portions of the venison backstrap. It was the tenderest cut and everyone was eager to eat, but they merely said thanks when Richard handed each of them a piece and stuck them on their skewers. He set a number of chunks aside for anyone who wanted more. A few of the Mord-Sith hardly charred the outside of their pieces before sinking their teeth into the meat. They all moaned with pleasure and rolled their eyes at the taste.
The meal did as much for everyone’s spirits as it did for their stomachs.
31
“Thank you, Lord Rahl,” Vika said, “for providing us this meal.”
“Yes, thank you,” Berdine added. “It’s delicious!”
Between chewing, the rest of them chimed in with their thanks. Even Shale voiced her gratitude. Richard didn’t say anything, but he did smile at them all, even if Kahlan thought it looked forced. Now that it seemed they were finally moving into new territory, no longer in the strange wood, and back on course, as well as having a good meal, everyone was feeling better.
“Although we’ve spent a great deal of time with you,” Richard said to Shale without looking up, “we actually don’t know much about you. Are your parents still alive?”
Kahlan instantly went on alert. His recent mood suddenly made sense to her. Although it was an innocent enough question, and no one else would have thought it was anything unusual, she recognized the subtle difference in Richard’s tone of voice. That single question told her that Richard had asked that question not to make casual conversation, but as the Seeker.
It also told her that he knew the answer before asking the question. She didn’t know what he was up to, but she knew she would find out soon enough.
Shale’s gaze shifted uneasily among the rest of the group gathered close in around the warmth of the fire. The nights were getting colder and the wet chill seemed to go right to Kahlan’s bones. The only real relief she got from shivering was when she could cuddle up against Richard during the nights.
“No,” Shale finally answered. “My father passed a few years back.” Her gaze drifted down to the flames. “My mother when I was younger.”
Kahlan glanced around at all the faces watching the witch woman. “Mine too,” she said into the uncomfortable silence. “My mother died when I was young. I know how terrible that is.”
“Your mother was a witch woman, right?” Richard asked in a quiet voice, still without looking up. Again, Kahlan was aware that he already knew the answer, but for some reason he asked it anyway.
Shale nodded and devoted herself to pulling meat off with her teeth and then chewing. She clearly looked uneasy.
They all ate in silence for a short time.
“Tell me how your mother died,” Richard said at last.
Kahlan glanced up. There it was.
She had been right about her instinct. This time, though, it was not a question, it was a command.
With their heads down, the Mord-Sith shifted their eyes among themselves. No one said a word. The death of a mother was not a pleasant subject for any of them, and not something they talked about. But they all recognized this as something different.
“What does it matter?” Shale finally said. “She’s dead. That’s all that really matters.”
Richard didn’t look up as he used a finger and thumb to pull a strip of meat from the chunk on the skewer.
“She was burned as a witch, wasn’t she?”
Shale swallowed. “Lord Rahl …”
“Tell me what happened.”
“Why do you wish to bring up such terrible memories?”
“Tell me what happened,” he said in the same flat tone, still not looking up. The command in his words was clear, and Shale knew it.
Kahlan looked around at the Mord-Sith. They were all trying to look invisible. Except Berdine. She was watching attentively.
Kahlan reached over and put a hand on Shale’s knee. “You are among friends. Sometimes it helps to talk about such things among those who care about you.”
After a time, Shale finally let out a deep breath.
“All right.” She leaned her skewer with a large chunk of meat ready to be eaten against a rock. “It was a harsh time in the Northern Waste. The crops had done poorly, so there weren’t going to be enough reserves for the coming winter.
“The migration of the caribou had moved too far away that year for some reason, and the hunts were unsuccessful. The rains had swollen the rivers, and so catching salmon, the way we usually did, didn’t go nearly as well as usual. Ducks and geese were nowhere to be found. Elk, bighorns, black bear, antelope, deer were all scarce. Even the rabbit population had been nearly wiped out by people desperate for food.
“It is said that such times come along every once in a while. The animals seem to know it will be an especially harsh winter, so they change their usual habits.” She shrugged. “It is the way of nature. The animals for some reason pick a different route, a route they think will be better, or start sooner, and as a result the people in the place where I lived couldn’t find enough meat or fish to salt or smoke for the winter.
“My father went to try to see what he could do to help. You know, go to other places to try to barter for meat, offer his services in return for supplies we badly needed. My mother was a healer, so she stayed to take care of people.
“My father had a hard time finding any kind of help anywhere close, as they were having similar troubles, so he had to travel farther. He was gone for a long time. So long that people thought he had left for good. People started to whisper that he had run away from my mother.”
Shale stared off for a time before going on. “Rumors fed on themselves. Gossip led to yet more gossip, all the time getting wilder with ludicrous ideas.”
“That’s a dangerous stew,” Richard said. “So then they started to say that it was all because of a witch woman in their midst?”
Shale smiled sadly. “Yes. They said that she drove all the animals far away. Other gossip said that her incantations and spells had deliberately driven the fowl and fish away.” She looked up briefly. “My mother didn’t do ‘incantations,’ but that made no difference to them. They said she did and so people believed it.”
“Why would they think she would do that?” Berdine asked. “You know, chase the animals away. If she was a healer and helped them, why would they think she would do such a thing?”
Shale shrugged self-consciously as she rubbed her arms. “My mother had always cared for their needs. She was a kindhearted woman. Too kind. They began to see her kindness as somehow sinister. They said she was devious, hiding her cruelty behind a smile and her offers to help, when really, she intended them harm.
“As winter closed in, the rumors grew worse. They said that she had caused some of the new babies to be born dead, or their mothers to die in childbirth. They said that those things could only have been my mother’s fault.”