Red clasped her fingers together around one knee. “I don’t think you understand.”
Kahlan did. “You killed them. You slaughtered them all.”
Nicci looked up, her gaze moving suspiciously from Kahlan to Red. “Witch women can’t personally take direct action to alter events of consequence.”
“True.” A smile widened on Red’s lips. “We don’t interfere with events in the flow of time–events of consequence, as you put it. While we see such events and try to use what we see to help those involved, those events must be allowed to run their course.
“For example, I told the Mother Confessor that you would kill Richard, and that she must kill you if she was to prevent that from happening. She chose a different path. As much as I advocated against such a choice, it was her choice to make. I could not kill you myself, I could only let her know what was going to happen if she did not act. The flow of time played out as I feared it would. It played out as I had warned.”
Cassia frowned and looked up before taking another bite of rabbit from the forked stick. “If you knew something bad was going to happen, like Lord Rahl dying, and you did not act to prevent it, then the death is your responsibility.”
“It might seem that way to someone who does not understand such things, but we can’t impose ourselves overtly, directly. That is just the way it is for witch women. While it might seem to others, like you, that such action would be the right thing to do, what others don’t see is that our altering events directly endangers the Grace itself.”
Cassia clearly wasn’t satisfied with the answer. “How does it do that?” she pressed.
“The Grace may seem simple,” the witch woman said, “but it is complexity beyond what most people could begin to understand. The demon understands such things. By using forces within the Grace, he seeks to destroy it. For example, he used Richard’s lifeblood to breach the veil. Things such as that endanger the stability, the balance, of the Grace and therefore of the world of life.
“It is the same way with a witch woman. It would be difficult to explain the tenets of our existence to one who is not specifically gifted as a witch woman, but take my word for it that restrictions exist for me just as they exist for you.”
Cassia looked first to one side and then to her sister Mord-Sith on the other side. “We have no restrictions. Except to follow orders.”
“Does your Agiel work?”
“Well, no.”
“That’s because it needs the bond to the Lord Rahl in order to function. That’s a restriction. That’s why your Agiel doesn’t work. Even if it does, there are restrictions to how it works. For example, you can’t use it on a Confessor–unless of course you want to die a horrific death.”
Cassia stared down at the meat on her stick without answering.
Red gestured around herself. “My restrictions have to do with the nature of all things, and they exist for sound reasons. One of those restrictions is that we can, if we choose, use what we find of events in the flow of time to help those involved understand the choices they have in the events that are to unfold, but we are not free to directly take part in those events we see. You might say that our place is to be advisors.
“If we directly, personally, take part in that flow, take actions ourselves, then the balance is destroyed because we would be acting on what we see. That is an unbalanced use of power, and all power must be balanced or it can be destructive. We could lose much more than we could ever gain.”
“You acted with Emperor Sulachan’s forces,” Cassia pointed out. “The Mother Confessor said that you killed them.”
“That was different. That army of half people took a route that brought them into the sanctuary of my home. That is sacred ground. That changes everything.
“Once they came, they intended to rip my flesh from my bones and devour it, thinking it possessed my soul and they could take it for themselves. They would have killed me to steal something that is not able to be stolen.
“The balance within our nature allows for us to respond to a direct threat to our lives.” The witch woman’s expression turned icy. “My valley pass ran red with their blood,” she said in a chilling, quiet tone. “Their corpses lay in heaps and mounds, food for my worms.”
Cassia finally swallowed her bite of rabbit. “Your worms?”
“Don’t ask,” Kahlan told the Mord-Sith under her breath. “So you killed them all?” she asked Red, wanting to get back to business.
“All but one.” Red looked up from the memory. “I’m afraid that it left the pass a bloody mess. Their blood ran in rivers and covers everything. And that is to say nothing of all the viscera and rotting corpses. The stench is quite unpleasant, I can assure you. Hardly the place to receive guests until they are all turned to nothing but bleached bones beneath the grasses. Besides, by coming here I met you somewhat in the middle and that saves you precious time.”
Red looked deliberately at Nicci. “You expressed a concern about time. I saw the flow of time, of course, and I knew the urgency of why you would come to me, so I thought to help you by meeting you partway.”
“That isn’t a violation of directly participating?” Cassia asked.
Red smiled indulgently. “No. That isn’t how it works. I came to advise. That is something I am born to do.”
“What do you mean you killed all but one?” Kahlan asked. “You said you killed all but one.”
“It’s rather complex, but basically since I interfered with events directly, even though I had every right to defend myself, I had to leave one of the enemy alive.”
Kahlan thought that was rather odd. “Why would you need to leave one of them alive?”
“To balance what happened. Even one is enough to fulfill the need for balance.”
Kahlan wasn’t satisfied. “How does leaving one alive balance killing a horde of them?”
She gestured among the five women before her. “I had to leave one for you to kill, since you are the ones this horde was after. You are the ones central to events. I had to leave one for you to kill to bring you into direct contact with the event in the flow. That makes you part of it. That is the balance, not the numbers involved.”
Red’s gaze finally moved deliberately to Nicci. “Speaking of killing, and the events in the flow of time, you realize that the Mother Confessor drastically altered the flow by sparing your life. She made the conscious decision to save your life.”
Nicci didn’t show any reaction. “It’s only fitting.”
Red looked genuinely puzzled. “In what way?”
“Her husband saved my soul.”
A small smile finally returned to Red’s lips. “You may have the chance to return the favor and save his.”
CHAPTER
9
“That’s what we’re here about,” Kahlan said, eager to get to the heart of the matter. “I was murdered–just as you predicted–but I came back from the world of the dead. We need you to help us do the same for Richard.”
Red watched her, but her expression showed nothing. “You failed to do as I told you you must. As a result, Richard Rahl’s life was lost, as I told you it would be.”
An edge crept into her voice. “He was the only chance we had of stopping Sulachan and preserving the world of life. I told you how to save him, and yet you chose not to heed my warning. Now he is in the grip of the dark ones, being dragged ever downward on a long descent into eternity.”
“I know that. We need you to help us get him back. We need you to tell us what we can do.”
Red blinked. “You can’t do anything. He’s dead.”
“So was I,” Kahlan said. “If I came back, maybe there is a way he can as well.”
Red shook her head. “I told you how to save his life. You chose not to take that chance offered in the flow of time. All that can be done now is for us to try to free his soul from the clutches of evil in the underworld so that he might have a chance to stop Sulachan from the other side. That is the only chance I se
e in the flow of time.”
Kahlan did her best to keep her temper under control. “I have fought my entire life for others. I have fought that they might live and so they could live the lives they want to live. Now, I fight for myself, for my own chance to live the life I want to live … with Richard.”
Red’s expression darkened. “I gave you the chance to save him, Mother Confessor. You chose not to take it. You made the choice. Because of that, he is lost to us.”
Kahlan’s fists tightened. “You are not the only one who has restrictions, who must balance things. I, too, have to live by my own sense of what life means. I can’t take an innocent life. I couldn’t kill Nicci or I would be violating who I am and what I stand for.”
“We are near the tipping point,” Nicci said before Kahlan lost control of their purpose. “Once such forces as Sulachan controls are loosed, there will be no one and nothing able to put them back where they belong. Once everything has spun out of control, it is only a matter of time before it is all over. Life–existence–would be extinguished.
“Emperor Sulachan and Hannis Arc arrogantly think they will be able to control the forces of chaos, use them to rule what they will bring about. They are deluded.
“Your abilities are powered by what the Grace represents. Sulachan wants to bend those forces until they break. That threatens the entire world of life–it means your very existence is at stake as well.”
“I know what is at stake,” Red said in warning. “In this case, acting upon that danger is dangerous in and of itself.”
“What do you mean?” Kahlan asked.
The witch woman leaned forward. “You are seeking to meddle in the world of the dead, in the forces of the underworld.”
“What is it you think we are here for?” Kahlan growled.
Red blinked. “To help Richard’s soul escape the trap he is in and go to the good spirits. If he does that, he has a chance to marshal those forces to cut off Sulachan’s power. His power is both Subtractive and occult–both are underworld forces. If Richard can do something about that from the other side, we might be able to stop the darkness that will soon smother the world of life. In that way you will also help the man you love so much to find eternal peace.”
“He can work to do that from this side,” Kahlan insisted. “We need his soul brought back to the world of life.”
Red was momentarily struck speechless with anger. “He’s dead!”
“Prophecy says that he is the only one with a chance to stop the grim fate Sulachan and Hannis Arc are trying to bring about.”
“Yes, prophecy says he is the one. The flow of time tells me he is the only one with a chance. But from the other side. That is how the flow of time tells me he has a chance to stop Sulachan. With him dead, now, that is the only way.”
Kahlan wiped a trembling hand back across her eyes. Before she could say anything, Nicci spoke first.
“Red, I lived at the Palace of the Prophets. I lived there a very long time. While I was there, I studied prophecy, as all the Sisters did. Richard is named in many ways in many of those prophecies. I saw him mentioned throughout thousands of years of writing, although at the time I did not fully comprehend it all or connect it to him.
“Our prelate knew who he was, though, and she protected Richard since before he was born. She knew he was the pebble in the pond, the one who would be born to do what must be done. Many prophecies named him as the only one who would be able to stop one with Emperor Sulachan’s power by ending prophecy itself. They don’t say how, only that he is the one who can.
“Richard is the only chance we all have. He is the only one with the potential to save the world of life. To save life, he must be here, in the world of life.
“Even the first Confessor, Magda Searus, saw that three thousand years ago and did what she could to help him.” Nicci gestured to the ring with the Grace on it that Kahlan was wearing. “The first Confessor sent this ring across time by leaving it for Richard to discover along with the message that he is the one meant to fight for what the symbol on this ring represents, to fight the battle begun by Sulachan in her time. That ring, that duty, has now come full circle, from the first Confessor, to the last, just as Sulachan first threatened the people in the time of Magda Searus, and he has now returned to threaten life in our time.
“The Mother Confessor, the descendant of the very first Confessor, has now come here to you, come with the weight of the responsibility she carries across the ages, to ask you for your help in finding a way to do what must be done.
“If you do not help her, then Richard’s soul will be lost for all time. Our only chance will be lost. We all will die. You will die–not only die, but fall into the hands of the Keeper of the underworld.
“To do those things, Richard needs to be here in this world. Every prophecy says as much.”
Blood went to Red’s face as she leaned toward the sorceress. “Do you now begin to comprehend what I saw in the flow of time? Do you now begin to see why she should have done what I told her to do? Had she done as I told her she must, Richard would be alive.”
“No he wouldn’t!” Nicci said as she shot to her feet. “Don’t you see? Your view is limited because you can’t see what Richard will do. His involvement obscures your view of the flow of time with events involving him. Had the Mother Confessor done as you said, what would actually be the result?”
Red swept an arm out in an angry gesture. “Richard would be alive to do as you say he must to stop Sulachan.”
“No, he wouldn’t. That’s the point. Because you see the flow of time it sometimes blinds you. You can’t see Richard’s actions because he is a pebble in the pond. You can’t see what more there is in that flow.”
Red cooled a little and folded her arms. “I’m listening.”
Nicci gestured down at Kahlan. “What would have happened had she killed me? She would still have been murdered, just as you saw, right?”
“Well, yes.”
“But I would not have been there to heal her damaged body.”
“Right,” Red said, “so you also would not have been there to end Richard’s life. He would be alive.”
Nicci was shaking her head emphatically. “No. Only for the moment.”
The witch woman frowned down at Kahlan a moment before turning her gaze back up to Nicci. “What are you talking about?”
“Richard would have done it himself. Had I not been there to do it, he would have ended his own life in order to go after Kahlan. When he asked me to stop his heart, he told me that he didn’t want to live in a world without her. He said that if I wouldn’t do it he would use the sword to do it himself.
“Had I not been there to heal her body right after she was stabbed to death, and then stop Richard’s heart, Kahlan would be dead, her body damaged beyond the ability to be a vessel for her spirit, with no hope of being healed, but Richard would have done the same thing. He would still have ended his own life to go to the world of the dead to either try to find a way to bring her back, or to protect her from the dark ones so she could have eternal peace and he could be with her there.”
Red paced off a ways, considering. Kahlan couldn’t see her face. After a time she turned back.
“Dear spirits,” she whispered. “You may be right. He is as headstrong as they come when he has the bit between his teeth.
“With such a free will, and being gifted, it can’t be foreseen how the ripples he creates will interact with other people and other events. Doing as I said very well might have resulted in events turning out exactly as you say, with him dead in the end, and the Mother Confessor as well.”
“I know they would,” Nicci said. “Not because I can see the flow of events in time, but because I know the man’s heart. He has often said that he would go to the underworld to get Kahlan. He meant those words. He was dead serious. He would have ended his own life to go after what matters to him more than life itself.
“Had it happened your way, the three of us w
ould all be dead. Instead, with the way it happened, it leaves Kahlan and me still alive. That means we can work to change things. Had it not happened this way, there would be no hope, but now, with us alive and able to work on the problem, there is at least a chance.
“Sulachan and Hannis Arc must be stopped before they can ever bring the insanity of their scheme to pass. You may know about the flow of time, Red, but I know more about prophecy than you will ever know, and I can tell you with absolute certainty, that our only chance–your only chance–is Richard.”
“Yes.” Red swallowed. “And now he is dead.”
CHAPTER
10
“Yes, he is dead, but so was I,” Kahlan said. “I came back and so must he. There has to be a way. It’s the only chance we have.”
Red slowly shook her head. “I saw you coming, but because your purpose involves Richard, and I can’t see events surrounding him very well, I thought you must be coming to seek my help to get his spirit free of the dark ones who have him. That’s what I thought you would want. My intention was to help you free his spirit so he could work to help us from the other side of the veil and then go on to find peace with the good spirits.”
“That’s not good enough,” Kahlan said. “You need to help us bring his spirit back to this world, help us bring him back to life so he can stop Sulachan.”
Red looked exasperated. “But it’s not like it was with you. You were dead very briefly. He is well beyond that point. Sometimes, if it is done quickly enough a person can be pulled back through the veil. But in this case too much time has passed. Richard is beyond that point.”
“You know that I had the Hedge Maid’s poisonous touch of death in me,” Kahlan said. “That touch was tainted with death and brought to this world. But the balance was that in the world of the dead that touch also carried the spark of life. Like me, Richard had the same taint of death in life. That means that his spirit would still have to carry that spark of life. At least for a time.”
Red shook her head without looking up. “As remarkable as it was, I understand how it was possible for such a thing to work for you. The difference is he has been dead too long. Your body was healed and you came back to it almost immediately. His soul may indeed still carry that spark, but the connection between worlds weakens in a very short time as his body breaks down and decomposes. Even with that spark, there is nothing viable for his spirit to return to.”