Richard rested his forearms across his knees. "I don't suppose there is any way for you to take me back to the Keep?"
"Yes, Master. If you wish to travel, I can take you."
Richard sat up straighter. "You can? How?"
"You must simply acquire the required magic, and then I can take you again. Then we will travel. You will be pleased."
Acquire the required magic. He didn't even know how to use the magic he had—or used to have. He couldn't imagine what had happened to his gift, and he had absolutely no idea how to get it back. There had been any number of times he'd wanted to be rid if it, but now that it had actually happened all he could think about was getting it back.
When his gift had failed, the beast had apparently lost him in the sliph. As consolation to losing his gift, it seemed the beast would be one less problem he had to face at the moment—his gift, after all, had been the mechanism by which the beast was keyed to him, the way in which it hunted him. There was supposed to be balance in magic; perhaps that was the balance to losing it.
Richard raked his fingers back through his hair. "At least Nicci and Cara made it through and are safe." He looked up at the sliph. "You're sure that they're all right?"
"Yes, Master. They are safe. I took them to the Keep, where they had wished to travel. They had what was required to travel."
"And you told them where I was. You told them what had happened."
She looked surprised by what had sounded more like a mandate than a question. "No, Master. I would never reveal what I do with another."
"Oh, great," he muttered. He worked to keep his exasperation in check. "But you've told me about others."
"You are my master. I do things with you that I would not do with anyone else."
"Sliph, they are my friends. They're probably frantic with worry for me. You must tell them what they need to know."
The silver head tilted toward him. "Master, I cannot betray you. I would not."
"It's not a betrayal. I'm telling you that it's all right to tell them what happened."
The sliph looked like she thought this was just about the strangest request she had ever had. "Master, you wish me to tell others about us, about what we do when we are together?"
"Sliph, try to understand. You are no longer a whore."
"But people use me for their pleasure."
"It's not the same thing." Richard raked his fingers back through his hair, trying not to sound angry. "Listen, wizards in ancient times changed you from who you were, from what you were."
The sliph nodded solemnly. "I know, Master. I remember. I was the one it happened to, after all."
"You're different now. It's not the same. You can't equate the two things. They're different."
"I have been given a duty to serve others in this capacity. My nature is still within me."
"But there are some of us who use you who greatly value your help."
"I have always been valued for what I do."
"This is different from what you did before." Richard didn't want to be having this argument. He had more important matters to worry about. "Sliph, when you travel with us you are often helping to save lives. When you traveled with us to the People's Palace, you were helping me to end the war. You are doing a good thing."
"If you say so. Master. But you must understand that those who created me made me the way I am. They used what I once was to create me as I am now. I can be no way other than the way I am. I cannot wish myself to be different, any more than you can travel now simply by wishing it."
Richard sighed. "I suppose not."
With one hand he snapped dry twigs in half as he thought it over. He shared a long look with the beautiful face watching him, hanging on his every word. Finally, he spoke softly.
"There are times when there is no other way, and you must trust others. This is one of those times."
Something about his words clearly struck home. The beautiful, liquid face came a little closer.
"You are the one," the sliph whispered.
"The one? Which one?"
"The one Baraccus told me would come."
The hair on the back of Richard's neck stood on end.
"You knew Baraccus?"
"He was once my master, like you are, now."
"Of course," Richard whispered to himself. "He was First Wizard."
"He is the one who insisted that I possess the emergency elements I told you about. He also directed that there be this emergency portal. Had he not done those things, you would have died. He was very wise."
"Very wise," Richard agreed as he stared wide-eyed at the sliph. "You said that Baraccus told you something about one who would come?"
The sliph nodded. "He was kind to me. His wife hated me, but Baraccus was kind to me."
"You knew his wife, too?"
"Magda."
"Why would she hate you?"
"Because Baraccus was kind to me. And because I took him away from her."
"You mean, you took him away when he wished to travel."
"Of course. When I would tell him that he would be pleased, she would fold her arms and glare at me."
Richard smiled a little. "She was jealous."
"She loved him and did not want him to leave her. When I would return with him after we traveled, she would often be there, waiting for him. He would always smile when he saw her, and she would smile in turn."
"And what was it that Baraccus said about me?"
"He told me the same thing that you just did, that there are times when there is no other way, and you must trust others. Those were his words, just as they were yours. He said that one day another master would say those exact same words, and then add exactly the same words you did: 'This is one of those times.'
"He told me that if a master ever said these words, that meant that they were the right one and I was to tell them some things."
Richard could feel every hair on his arms stand on end.
"You took Magda Searus somewhere, didn't you?"
"Yes, Master. After that I never saw Baraccus again. But before, when he told me that someday someone would say those words, he told me to tell them his message."
"He left a message?" When she nodded, he rolled his hand. "So what is it?"
" 'I am sorry. I don't know the answers that would save you. If I did, please believe that I would give them eagerly. But I know the good in you. I believe in you. I do know that you have within you what you must to succeed. There will be times when you doubt yourself. Do not give up. Remember then that I believe in you, that I know you can accomplish what you must. You are a rare person. Believe in yourself.
" 'Know that I believe you are the one who can do it.' "
Richard sat frozen. The words echoed around in his head. They were oddly familiar.
"I've heard almost those exact words before."
The sliph glided a little closer, her features tightening. "You have?"
Richard concentrated as he ran the words through his mind again, trying to recall…
And then he did. It was right after Shota had told him about Baraccus. Just before she left, she'd said those very words to him. There was something about those words, spoken by Shota, that had aroused an indistinct memory.
"It was Shota, the witch woman," Richard said as he frowned in recollection. "She told me those words."
The sliph retreated. "I am sorry, Master. You have failed the test."
Richard looked up at her. "What test?"
"The test Baraccus just gave you. I am sorry, but you have failed his test. I can tell you nothing more."
Without further word, the sliph abruptly vanished into the black hole in the stone.
Richard threw himself down on his stomach, leaning down into the hole. "No! Wait! Don't leave!"
His own voice echoed up out of the empty, black shaft.
The sliph was gone. Without his gift, he had no way to call her back.
* * *
CHAPTER 34
&n
bsp; Nicci heard a soft knock at the door. Zedd looked up but he didn't stand. Cara, hands clasped behind her back, gazing out the window, looked back over her shoulder. Nicci, standing closest to the door, pulled it open. The small flame in the lamp on the table was not up to the task of chasing the gloom from the room, but it cast what warm light it could across the face of the tall prophet.
"What's going on?" Nathan asked in his deep voice. He cast a suspicious look around at those in the room. "Rikka wouldn't say much other than that you and Cara were back and Zedd wanted to see me immediately."
"That's right," Zedd said. "Come in, please."
Nathan glanced around the somber room as he strode in. "Where's Richard."
Nicci swallowed. "He didn't make it back with us."
"Didn't make it back?" He paused to take in the bleak look on Nicci's face. "Dear spirits…"
Zedd, sitting at Jebra's side at the bed, didn't look up. Jebra was unconscious. When they tried to close her eyes her lids would pop open again. They finally quit trying and let her stare up at the ceiling.
Zedd had already tended to her broken leg as best he could. She was very fortunate that Cara was not only quick but strong, and that she had been able to catch Jebra's ankle just in time as her dead weight had toppled outward from the balcony. Still, her momentum had whipped the seer down around and under the balcony, where her leg smacked a support strut that broke her leg. Nicci suspected that the woman had been unconscious the moment she started falling.
It had been a bad break. Zedd had set to work immediately on her injury, but because of the unusual state Jebra was in he had not been able to heal the break. All he had been able to do was set it, splint it, and add enough of his gift to help it begin to mend. When she finally awoke he would be able to finish the healing. If she awoke. Nicci had her doubts.
Nicci knew that Jebra's broken leg was the least of the woman's problems. Despite everything they had tried, they had been unable to arouse her from her catatonic state. Zedd had tried. Nicci had tried. She had even tried dangerous conjuring involving Subtractive Magic. Zedd had been against it at first, but when Nicci confronted him with the stark nature of their choices he grudgingly agreed.
Unfortunately, even that hadn't helped. Jebra's mind was locked away from them. Whatever magic the witch woman had used on her was something they were unable to break. Whatever had been done didn't appear to Nicci to be intended to be reversible. If they knew its nature perhaps they might stand a chance of breaking the spell, but they didn't know its makeup.
Nathan bent and touched two fingers to the unconscious woman's temple. He straightened and helplessly shook his head at Zedd's questioning expression.
Nicci had never seen anything like it. Zedd, on the other hand, had in the beginning rubbed his chin as he brooded. He'd muttered that there was something oddly familiar about its nature. What, he couldn't say. Despite how insistent Nicci had been, and despite his own desperate desire to do something, Zedd was at his wits' end that he could not pinpoint why he felt that he had seen some aspect of such conjuring before.
He was, after all, he had reminded them, the First Wizard, and he had spent a good portion of his life studying such things. He believed that he should be able to identify what kind of web had been spun around the woman. Nicci knew that if Jebra had been conscious it would have made the job a great deal easier, but Zedd wasn't willing to use an excuse for his own failure to identify what the conjuring involved.
Nicci heard a commotion out in the hallway. Nathan stuck his head out the doorway for a look.
"What is it?" a voice in the distance called out. It was Ann, rushing up the hall, escorted by Rikka. She finally reached the door. "What's going on?"
As she came into the room, laboring to catch her breath, Nathan laid a big hand on her shoulder. "Something has happened to Richard."
Strands of gray hair stuck out from the loose bun at the back of her head like a plume of ruffled feathers. Her calculating gaze swept over those in the room, assessing the degree of seriousness she saw in each of them. It was the kind of swift, lean evaluation Nicci associated with Ann.
As the Prelate of the Sisters of the Light, she had always had a commanding presence that could strike fear into just about anyone, from high-ranking Sister to stableboys. Even though Nicci was no longer a Sister of the Light, her guard always went up whenever the former prelate came into the room. The woman's short stature in no way diminished the air of looming menace that seemed to surround her.
Ann turned an intent look up at Nathan. "What happened? Is the boy hurt—"
"I don't know, yet," Nathan said, holding up a hand to forestall a flood of questions before they could landslide in on him. "Let the woman explain."
"All we know for sure," Nicci said when Ann turned a hot glare on her, "is that while we were traveling in the sliph back here from the People's Palace, the beast attacked us. Cara and I tried to help Richard fight it off, then we were separated from him. As soon as that happened I felt some kind of extrinsic magic. Next thing we knew, Cara and I were back at the Keep. Richard wasn't with us. We have no idea what happened to him after he was touched by the strange power I sensed. We never saw the beast again, either.
"After we got back here, Jebra was attacked by a web that I could discern had been cast by the same person who cast the power that touched Richard in the sliph. Because Zedd recognized its unique composition, we know now that it was power conjured by a witch woman."
"And my Agiel doesn't work," Cara said, holding the weapon up. "Our bond to Lord Rahl is broken. We can no longer sense him."
"Dear Creator," Ann whispered as her gaze dropped away.
Zedd gestured to the woman lying in the bed before him. "Whatever power it is that this witch woman cast, it left Jebra unconscious. We can't rouse her. Although I know that it was a witch woman's spell that somehow took her, I can't figure out how a witch woman could do such a thing—cast such webs from afar. From my experience they not only keep to themselves but can't accomplish things of this nature. It's beyond their ability."
"Are you are certain that it was a witch woman?" Ann asked.
Zedd took a deep breath as he considered the question seriously. "I've had dealings with a witch woman before. Once a cat has had its claws in you, you don't soon forget what it feels like. I don't know the specific person who did this, but I know the feel of this. It was a witch woman."
Nicci folded her arms. "I think we have a pretty good idea who the witch woman was: Six. And don't forget, just because you recognize the signature of a witch woman's power, that doesn't mean that the same limits necessarily apply to the individual who did this. After all, for someone to recognize your power as that of a wizard doesn't mean that they know your limits or would know your real potential."
"True enough," Zedd admitted with a sigh.
Nathan waved off the topic of witch women. "Did Jebra say anything else about the vision she had? Anything at all?"
Zedd shared a look with Nicci. "Well, not until this spell took her. Just before she went into this state, we heard her say, 'Stars. Stars fallen to ground. Stars among the grass.'"
"Stars…" Nathan repeated as he paced in the small room, holding an elbow with one hand and tapping the tips of the fingers of the other to his chin. He finally turned toward Zedd. "I'm afraid that such a prophecy means nothing to me. It's probable that she only spoke a fragment aloud. In that case, it could easily be that there isn't enough for me to go on."
Nicci's heart sank. She had been hoping that the prophet would be able to decipher the seer's prophecy.
Ann scratched the side of her nose, searching for words. "So it is possible, then, that we…" She cleared her throat. "… that we have lost Richard. That this witch woman killed him."
Cara took an aggressive step forward. "Lord Rahl is not dead!"
In the echoing silence, Zedd rose from the chair. He cast Cara a cautionary glance before addressing Ann. "I don't think so, either."
&nbs
p; Ann looked from Cara's heated expression to Zedd. "I know why she doesn't believe it is so. Why don't you?"
He gestured down at Jebra. "Because of this woman lying here in this bed."
Ann frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Well, the first vision Jebra has had in several years is about Richard."
"That's right," Nicci put in. "Her vision was about what was going to happen to him. She told me—specifically—not to let him be alone, not for an instant."
Ann arched an eyebrow. "And yet you did."
Nicci ignored the affront. "Yes. Not deliberately, but because of the beast. The beast was an unforeseeable factor, a random event."
When Ann only looked more perplexed, Zedd explained. "We believe that it was this witch woman's plan to touch Richard with her power. But the beast dropped in at just the wrong moment, spoiling up her carefully constructed plan."
Ann's frown deepened. "In what way?"
"The beast caused her to miss getting Richard, as she had planned," Nicci said. "Because of the beast, she lost Richard in the sliph, just as we did. Now she has a problem. She has to find him."
"So she did the same thing we did," Zedd said. "She came here, or at least she sent her power here, to find out from the seer where he will be."
"She was seeking prophecy?" Ann asked. "Witch women see things in the flow of time. Why would she need the seer?"
Zedd spread his hands. "Yes, they see things but, as I'm sure Nathan can explain better than I could, they can't see exactly what they want to see, when they want to see it."
Nathan was nodding his agreement. "There is a random element to prophecy. It comes when it comes, not when you wish it to come. Perhaps the wizards of ancient times knew the keys to using prophecy at will, but if they did, they did not pass such knowledge on. It is seldom that you can pick and choose with prophecy what events you want to see."
Zedd lifted a finger, stressing his point. "Six probably saw, either through her ability or her conjuring having to do with the events, that Jebra had already had a vision revealing what would happen to Richard and where he would be next, so she simply stole into Jebra's mind to steal the answer."