Kahlan checked the others. They were still several strides ahead. Even though Richard was supposed to be leading, Cara, ever protective, had put herself ahead of him.
Although she couldn’t understand the words, Kahlan could tell that Ann was making cheery small talk with Richard. As much as they seemed to nettle each other, when it suited them Zedd and Ann worked together as effortlessly as teeth and tongue.
Zedd’s sticklike fingers tightened on her arm. Richard wasn’t the only one with a bone between his teeth.
Kahlan heaved a sigh and told him. “I suspect that Richard believes there is a chicken monster on the loose.”
Kahlan had covered her nose and mouth against the stench, but dropped her hands to her sides when the two women looked up from their work. Both smiled to the small troop shuffling in the door, shaking off water, looking like they’d fallen in a river.
The two women were working on Juni’s body, decorating it with black-and-white mud designs. They had already woven decorative grass bands around his wrists and ankles and had fixed a leather fillet around his head with grass positioned under it in the manner of hunters going out on a hunt.
Juni was laid out on a mud-brick platform, one of four such raised work areas. Dark stains drooled down the sides of each. A layer of fetid straw covered the floor. When a body was brought in, the straw was kicked up against the base of the platform to absorb draining fluids.
The straw was alive with vermin. When there were no bodies, the door was left open so the chickens could feast on the bugs and keep them down.
Off to the right of the door was the only window. When no one was attending a body, supple deerskin shut out light so the deceased might have peace. The women had pulled the deerskin to the side and hooked it behind a peg in the wall to let the gloomy light seep into the cramped room.
Bodies were not prepared at night, so as not to strain the peace of the soul going over to the other side. Reverence for the departing soul was fundamental to the Mud People; these new spirits might someday be called upon to help their people still living.
Both women were older and smiling as if their sunny nature could not be masked with a somber faç ade even for such grim work. Kahlan assumed them to be specialists in the task of insuring that the dead were properly adorned before they were laid in the ground.
Kahlan could see the fragrant oils that were rubbed over the body still glistening where the mud was yet to be applied. The oils failed to shroud the gagging stink of the tainted straw and platforms. She didn’t understand why the straw wasn’t changed more often. But then, for all she knew, perhaps it was; there was no escaping the consequence of the process of death and decay.
Probably for that reason the dead were buried quickly—either the day they died or at the latest the next. Juni would not be made to wait long before he was put in the ground. Then his spirit, seeing that all was as it should be, could turn to those of his kind in the spirit world.
Kahlan bent close to the two women. Out of reverence for the dead, she whispered. “Zedd and Ann, here”—she lifted a hand, indicating the two—“would like to look at Juni.”
The women bowed from the waist and stepped back, with a finger hooking their pots of black and white mud off the platform and out of the way. Richard watched as his grandfather and Ann put their hands lightly to Juni, inspecting him, no doubt with magic. While Zedd and Ann conferred in hushed tones as they conducted their examination, Kahlan turned to the two women and told them what a fine job they were doing, and how sorry she was about the young hunter’s death.
Having had enough of looking at his dead guardian, Richard joined her. He slipped an arm around her waist and asked her to relate his sentiments. Kahlan added his words to hers.
It wasn’t long before Zedd and Ann nudged Richard and Kahlan to the side. Smiling, they gestured the women back to their chore.
“As you suspected,” Zedd whispered, “his neck is not broken. I could find no injury to his head. I’d say he drowned.”
“And how do you suppose that could have happened?” A scintilla of sarcasm laced Richard’s voice.
Zedd squeezed Richard’s shoulder. “You were sick once, and you passed out. Remember? There was nothing sinister to it. Did you crack your skull? No. You slumped to the floor, where I found you. Remember? It could be something as simple as that.”
“But Juni showed no signs—”
Everyone turned as the old healer, Nissel, shambled in the door cradling a small bundle in her arms. She paused for an instant at seeing everyone in the small room, before she turned to another of the platforms for the dead. She laid the bundle tenderly on the cold brick. Kahlan put a hand over her heart as she saw Nissel unwrap a newborn baby.
“What happened?” Kahlan asked.
“Not the joyous event I expected it to would be.” Nissel’s sorrowful eyes met Kahlan’s gaze. “The child was born dead.”
“Dear spirits,” Kahlan whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
Richard brushed a shiny green bug off Kahlan’s shoulder. “What happened to the baby?”
Nissel shrugged when Kahlan spoke his question. “I have watched the mother for months. Everything had seemed to point to a joyous event. I foresaw no problem, but the child was stillborn.”
“How is the mother?”
Nissel’s gaze sank to the floor. “For now she weeps her heart out, but the mother will soon be well.” She forced a smile. “It happens. Not all children are strong enough to live. The woman will have others.”
Richard leaned close after the exchange appeared to be finished. “What did she say?”
Kahlan stamped twice to dislodge a centipede wriggling up her leg. “The baby just wasn’t strong enough, and was stillborn.”
Frowning, he looked over at the heartbreaking death. “Wasn’t strong enough…”
Kahlan watched him stare at the small form, still, bloodless, unreal-looking. A new child was a uniquely beautiful entity, but this, lacking the soul its mother had given it so that it might stay in this world, was naked ugliness.
Kahlan asked when Juni would be buried. One of the two women glanced at the small death. “We will need to prepare another. Tomorrow, they will both be put to their eternal rest.”
As they went out the door, Richard turned and looked up into the waterfall of rain. A chicken perched in the low eaves overhead fluffed its feathers. Richard’s gaze lingered a moment.
The reasoning that had been so clearly evident on his face turned to resolution.
Richard peered up the passageway.
He whistled as he beckoned with an arm. Their guardian hunters started toward them.
As the hunters were jogging to a halt, Richard grasped Kahlan’s upper arm in his big hand. “Tell them I want them to go get more men. I want them to gather up all the chickens—”
“What!” Kahlan wrenched her arm from his grip. “Richard, I’m not going to ask them that. They’ll think you’ve gone crazy!”
Zedd stuck his head between them. “What’s going on?”
“He wants the men to gather up all the chickens just because one of them is perched above the door.”
“It wasn’t there when we arrived. I looked.”
Zedd turned and squinted up in the rain. “What chicken?”
Kahlan and Richard both looked for themselves. The chicken was gone.
“It probably went searching for a drier roost,” Kahlan growled. “Or one more peaceful.”
Zedd wiped rain from his eyes. “Richard, I want to know what this is about.”
“A chicken was killed outside the spirit house. Juni spat at the honor of whatever killed that chicken. Not long after, Juni died. I threw a stick at the chicken in the window, and not long after, it attacked that little boy. It was my fault Ungi got clawed. I don’t want to make the same mistake again.”
Zedd, to Kahlan’s surprise, spoke calmly. “Richard, you’re bridging some yawning chasms with gossamer reasoning.”
“The bird man said one of the chickens wasn’t a chicken.”
Zedd frowned. “Really?”
“He’d been drinking,” Kahlan pointed out.
“Zedd, you named me the Seeker. If you wish to reconsider your choice, then do it now. If not, then let me do my job. If I’m wrong you can all lecture me later.”
Richard took Zedd’s silence for acquiescence and again grasped Kahlan’s arm, if a little more gently than the first time. Conviction ignited his gray eyes.