The plan, too, was designed to keep in mind Richard’s admonition about not attacking directly into the Order. Zedd wasn’t sure about the validity of Richard’s warning, but knew better than to so openly tempt ruin.
Hopefully, once they enticed the enemy into that tighter terrain, terrain more defensible, the Order would lose some of their advantage and their advance could be halted. Once the Imperial Order was stalled, the D’Harans could begin working the enemy down to size. The D’Harans thought nothing of being outnumbered; it just gave them a better opportunity to prove themselves.
Zedd stared off, imagining the hillsides darkened with the enemy pouring forth. He was already seeing the lethal powers he would unleash.
He knew, too, that in battle things rarely went as planned.
“Don’t you worry, General, today the Imperial Order is going to begin paying a terrible price for its aggression.”
The grinning general clapped Zedd on the side of the shoulder. “Good man.”
General Reibisch charged off, calling for his aides and his horse, collecting a growing crowd of men around him as he went.
It had begun.
Chapter 30
Arms resting on his thighs, Richard crouched in the belly of the beast.
“Well?” Nicci asked from atop her horse.
Richard stood beside a rib bone that towered to well over twice his height. He shielded his eyes against the golden sunlight as he briefly scanned the empty horizon behind himself. He looked back at Nicci, her hair honeyed by the low sun.
“I’d say it was a dragon.”
When her mare began to dance sideways, trying to put distance between itself and the expanse of bones, Nicci took the slack out of the reins.
“Dragon,” she repeated in a flat voice.
Here and there dried scraps of meat stuck to the bones. Richard swished a hand at the cloud of flies buzzing around him. The faint stench of decay hung over the site. As he stepped out of the cage of giant rib bones standing belly-up, he gestured toward the head, nestled in a bed of brown grass. There was enough room to walk between the ribs without them touching his shoulders.
“I recognize the teeth. I had a dragon’s tooth, once.”
Nicci looked skeptical. “Well, whatever it is, if you’ve seen enough, let’s be on our way.”
Richard brushed his hands clean. The stallion snorted and stepped away from him when he approached. The horse didn’t like the smell of death, and didn’t trust Richard after having been near it. Richard stroked the glossy black neck.
“Steady, Boy,” he said in a comforting voice. “Easy now.”
When she saw Richard finally mount up, Nicci turned her dappled mare and started off once more. The late-afternoon light cast long, clawed shadows of the rib bones toward him, as if reaching out, calling him back to the ghost of some terrible end. He glanced back over his shoulder at the length of the skeletal remains, stretched out in the middle of an empty, gently rolling grassland, before urging his stallion into a trot to catch up with Nicci. His horse needed little encouragement to be away from the dying place, and happily sprang into his easy loping gallop, instead.
In the month or so Richard had spent with the horse, the two of them had become used to each other. The horse was willing enough, but never really friendly. Richard wasn’t interested enough to go to the effort of doing more; making friends with a horse was just about the last of his concerns. Nicci hadn’t known if the horses had names, and didn’t seem interested in naming animals, so Richard simply called the black stallion “Boy,” and Nicci’s dappled gray mare “Girl,” and left it at that. Nicci seemed neither pleased or displeased about him naming the horses; she simply went along with his convention.
“Do you actually believe it’s the remains of a dragon?” Nicci asked when he caught up with her.
The stallion slowed and, glad to be back in the herd, gave the mare’s flanks a nuzzle. Girl merely turned her closest ear toward him in recognition.
“It’s about the right size, as I remember.”
Nicci tossed her head to flick her hair back over her shoulder. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
Richard frowned his puzzlement. “You saw it. What else could it possibly be?”
She conceded with a sigh. “I just thought it was the bones of some long-extinct beast.”
“With flies still buzzing around it? It still had a few bits of sinew dried to the bones. It’s not some ancient thing. It couldn’t be much older than six months—possibly much less.”
She was watching him from the corner of her eye, again. “So, they really do have dragons in the New World?”
“In the Midlands, anyway. Where I grew up there were none. Dragons, as I understand it, have magic. There was no magic in Westland. When I came here I…saw a red dragon. From what I heard, they’re very rare.”
And now there was at least one less.
Nicci was little concerned about the remains of an animal, even if it was a dragon. Richard had long ago decided that, as much as he lusted to crush her skull, he would have a better chance of figuring a way out of his situation if he didn’t antagonize her. Battling another person sapped your own strength, making it more difficult to reason your way out of the trouble. He kept his mind focused on what was most important to him.
He couldn’t force himself to pretend to befriend Nicci, but he tried to give her no cause to become angry enough to hurt Kahlan. So far, it had been successful. Nicci didn’t seem easily inclined to anger, anyway. When she became displeased, she submerged back into an indifference which seemed to smother her distant rancor.
They finally reached the road from where they had spotted the white speck that had turned out to be the remains of the dragon.
“What was it like growing up in a place with no magic?”
Richard shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s just the way it was. It was normal.”
“And you were happy? Growing up without magic, I mean?”
“Yes. Very happy.” The frown returned to his face. “Why?”
“And yet, you fight to keep magic in the world, so other children will have to grow up with it. Am I right?”
“Yes.”
“The Order wishes to rid the world of magic, so that people can grow up happy, without the poisonous fog of magic always outside their door.” She glanced over at him. “They want children to grow up much like you did. And yet you fight this.”
It was not a question, so Richard chose not to turn it into one for her. What the Order chose to do was not his concern. He turned his thoughts to other things.
They were traveling east-southeast on a road traversed by the odd trader. They had smiled and nodded at two that day. The road, as it took the easiest route across the rolling hills, had that afternoon begun to turn more to the south. As they crested a rise, Richard spotted a flock of sheep in the far distance. Not far ahead, they had been told, was a town where they could pick up some needed provisions. The horses could use some grain, too.
Over his left shoulder, to the northeast, snowcapped mountains turning pink in the late sunlight rose up out of the foothills. To his right, the ground rolled off into the wilds. Beyond the town, it wouldn’t be too far until they crossed the Kern River. They were not far at all from what used to be the wasteland where the great barrier had stood.
They were close to cutting south into the Old World.
Even though there was no longer a barrier to prevent his return once they crossed over, he felt downhearted about leaving the New World. It was like leaving Kahlan’s world. Like leaving her by one more degree. As fiercely as he loved her, he could feel her slipping farther and farther into the distance.
Nicci’s blond hair fluttered in the breeze as she turned toward him. “It’s said they used to have dragons in the Old World, too.”
Richard brought himself out of his brooding.
“But no more?” he asked. She shook her head. “How long ago was that?”
“Long a