“No, come on, be serious.”
Kahlan sighed and studied the cliff for a time. She looked around at the mountains, especially the nearest to the left a little, the one rising up so prominently from the water’s edge.
“Well,” she said at last, “it’s darker than the rock of the mountains around here.”
“Good. What else strikes you about it?”
She studied the wall a while longer. “It’s an unusual color. I’ve seen it before.”
She suddenly looked up at him. “The Dominie Dirtch.”
Richard smiled. “That’s what I think, too. The Dominie Dirtch have that same shade of color as that rock over there, but none of the mountains around have it.”
Her face screwed up in an incredulous frown. “Are you saying that the Dominie Dirtch were cut from this stone—way up here in the mountains—and hauled all the way down to where they are today?”
Richard shrugged. “Could be, I guess, although I don’t know much about moving stonework on such a large scale. I studied the Dominie Dirtch; they looked to be carved of one piece of rock. They weren’t assembled. At least the one we saw.”
“Then… what?”
“Joseph Ander was a wizard, and the wizards of his time were able to do things even Zedd would find astounding. Perhaps Joseph simply used this rock as a starting place.”
“What do you mean? How?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know as much about magic as you—maybe you could tell me. But what if he simply took a small rock from here for each Dominie Dirtch and then when he got to where they are today, made them big.”
“Made them big?”
Richard opened his hands in a helpless gesture. “I don’t know. Used magic to make the rock grow, or even used the structure of the grain in the rock as a sort of guide to reproduce it with Additive Magic into the Dominie Dirtch.”
“I was thinking you were going to come up with something silly,” Kahlan said. “That actually makes sense, as far as I know about magic.”
Richard was relieved not to have embarrassed himself. “I think I’ll take a swim over to the cave, and see what’s there.”
“Nothing, from what I learned. Just a hot cave. It doesn’t go in far—maybe twenty feet.”
“Well, I don’t particularly like caves, but I guess it can’t hurt to go have a look.”
Richard pulled off his shirt. He turned to the water.
“Aren’t you going to take off your pants?”
Richard glanced back to see her sly grin.
“I thought I’d wash the smell of horse off them.”
“Oh,” Kahlan said in exaggerated disappointment.
Smiling, Richard turned back to the water to jump in. Just before he could, a raven came screeching down at him. Richard had to leap back lest the big black bird hit him.
Arm extended behind him, Richard backed Kahlan off the rock.
The bird cawed. The loud cry echoed off the mountains. The raven swooped down before them again, narrowly missing Richard’s head. Gaining height, the bird circled. The air whistled through its feathers as it dove at them, driving them back from the water.
“Is that bird crazy?” Kahlan asked. “Maybe it’s protecting a nest? Or do all ravens behave like that?”
Richard had a grip on her arm, ushering her back to the trees. “Ravens are intelligent birds, and they will protect their nest, but they can be odd, too. I fear this one is more than a raven.”
“More? What do you mean?”
The bird settled on a branch and ruffled its glossy black feathers, looking pleased with itself, as ravens were wont to do.
Richard took his shirt when she held it out. “I’d say it’s a chime.”
Even at the distance, the bird seemed to hear him. It flapped its wings, hopping back and forth on the branch, looking quite agitated.
“Remember at the library? The raven outside the window, making such a fuss?”
“Dear spirits,” she breathed in worry. “Do you think this could be the same one? You think it followed us all this way?”
Richard glanced back at her. “What if it’s a chime, and heard us, and came up here to wait for us?”
Kahlan now looked genuinely frightened. “What should we do?”
They reached their horses. Richard yanked his bow off the saddle. He pulled a steel-tipped arrow from the quiver.
“I think I should kill it.”
The instant Richard came out from behind the horse, the bird spotted the bow and leaped—almost flinched—into the air with a loud squawk, as if it hadn’t expected him to resort to a weapon.
When Richard nocked the arrow, the bird took wing, fleeing with frantic calls and screeches.
“Well,” Richard murmured, “wasn’t that weird.”
“At least we now know it was a chime. The one you shot back at the Mud People’s village—the chicken that wasn’t a chicken—must have let the other chimes know.”
Perplexed, Richard shook his head. “I guess.”
“Richard, I don’t want you swimming that lake. There could be chimes waiting in it. It would be foolish to swim when the chimes are loose.”
“But they seem afraid of me.”
She put her hand on the side of his neck to keep his gaze.
“What if they’re just lulling you into overconfidence, and want to get you out into the middle of deep water? Can you imagine? Zedd told us to stay away from water.”
She rubbed her arms, looking suddenly chilled.
“Richard, please, let’s get out of here? There’s something about this place…”
Richard threw on his shirt and then drew her close.
“I think you’re right. There’s no need to push our luck, not after a run-in with that raven-that-isn’t-a-raven. Besides, Du Chaillu would be so angry we got killed she’d have her baby before it was time.”
Kahlan clutched his shirt in her fists. She had a suddenly stricken look. “Richard… do you think we could…”
“Could what?”
She released his shirt and patted his chest. “Could get out of here.”
“I think we should.”
They rushed back, both now eager to be away from the lake. He helped her up onto her horse. “I think we found what we came for, anyway—the rock the Dominie Dirtch was made from. I think that we need to change our plans.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think we better get back to Fairfield and look through all those books again, in the light of what we now know.”