Richard had them all wait in the hallway as he quickly changed into the things from his pack. When he emerged, Kahlan’s breath was taken by what she saw.
Over a black shirt he wore a black, open-sided tunic decorated with strange symbols snaking along a wide gold band running all the way around its squared edges. A wide, multilayered leather belt bearing more of the emblems cinched the magnificent tunic at his waist. The ancient, tooled-leather baldric holding the gold-and silver-wrought scabbard for the Sword of Truth crossed over his right shoulder. At each wrist was a wide, leather-padded silver band bearing linked rings encompassing more of the strange symbols. Black boots over his black trousers also had pins with yet more of the rounded designs. His broad shoulders bore a cape that appeared to be made of spun gold.
He looked like Kahlan’s idea of what a war wizard should look like. He looked like a commander of kings. He looked like Lord Rahl.
Kahlan had no trouble at all understanding why Nicci was in love with him. She was just about the luckiest woman in the world. She was also a woman worthy of this man.
“Let’s hurry,” he said to Shota.
Shota, strolling at a steady pace down the center of the halls, her filmy gray dress flowing out behind, led them through secondary, unadorned passageways in the castle as if it were deserted. From time to time she waved a hand toward a door or a passageway, as if to ward off anyone from bothering them. That must have been exactly what she was doing, because no one intercepted the small company of people hurrying through the hallways.
They all paused behind the witch woman when she finally stopped at a heavy oak door. She gave them all a look as if to ask if they were ready, then threw open the heavy oak door. When they went through the doorway into the overcast day, Richard’s cape billowed out behind. Out on the rampart they were confronted by a huge beast with glossy red scales and a forest of black-tipped spikes on its back.
Flame roared across the rampart, kicking dirt and gravel in every direction. They all shrank back.
“That’s not Scarlet,” Richard said. “I thought it might be Scarlet.”
“You know a dragon?” Kahlan asked.
“Yes, so do you, but not this one. This one is bigger, and a whole lot meaner-looking.”
The heat from rolling flames again drove them back. Shota, unconcerned, singing a soft song, casually walked forward. The flames stopped. The dragon brought its head floating downward toward her, tilting it to the side, as if curious. As Shota whispered things Kahlan couldn’t hear, the dragon snorted softly in a contented manner.
Shota, stroking her fingers under the dragon’s chin, turned back to them. “Richard, come speak with this handsome fellow.”
The dragon almost sounded like it was purring at her words.
Richard hurried forward. “I have a dragon friend,” he said up to the beast. “Maybe you know her. Her name is Scarlet.”
The massive creature threw its head back and fired a column of flame skyward. Its spiked tail swished across the rampart, knocking large blocks off the stone wall over the side.
The red head swung back down. The lips drew back in a snarl to reveal wicked-looking fangs.
“Scarlet is my mother,” the dragon growled.
Richard looked pleasantly surprised. “Scarlet is your mother? Are you Gregory?”
The dragon drew closer yet, sniffing at Richard as it frowned. Richard’s cape billowed up with each puff of air.
“Who are you, little man?”
“I’m Richard Rahl. The last time I saw you, you were an egg.” Richard, as if talking to an old friend, made a half circle with his arms. “You were this big.”
“Richard Rahl.” Gregory grinned, its hostility evaporating. “My mother has told me of you.”
Richard laid a hand on Gregory’s snout. His voice turned gentle with concern. “Is she all right? Magic is failing. I’ve been worried how it might harm her.”
Gregory snorted a puff of smoke. “She is very sick. She grows weaker by the day. I am stronger and still able to fly. I bring her food, but the witch woman kept me from being able to do so. I don’t know how to help her. I worry that she will be lost to me.”
Richard nodded sadly. “It’s the taint caused by the chimes having been in this world. That taint is destroying all magic.”
Gregory nodded his huge head. “Then the red dragons are doomed.”
“As are we all. Unless I can stop that taint.”
The big head cocked to the side so that Gregory could peer at Richard with one yellow eye. “You can do that?”
“Possibly, but I’m not sure how, yet. I do know that I need to get to the People’s Palace if I am to try.”
“The People’s Palace? Where the dark army waits?”
Richard nodded. “That’s right. I may be the only one who can stop that taint. Will you take us there?”
“I am free, now. A free dragon does not serve man.”
“I’m not asking you to be my servant, only to fly us to D’Hara so that I can try to save all of us who want to live free, including you and your mother.”
Gregory’s head glided closer to Zedd, Tom, and Rikka. He thought it over briefly, looking back at Richard.
“All of you?”
“All of us,” Richard said. “I need the help of my friends, here. It’s our only chance to stop all the terrible things that are about to happen.”
Gregory’s head came down close until his snout nudged Richard’s chest, pushing him back a half step. “My mother told me the story of how you saved me when I was but an egg. If I do this, we will be even.”
“Even,” Richard agreed.
Gregory lowered his body down onto the rampart as much as possible. “Let us be off, then.”
Richard told the rest of them how to get up and how to hold on to the spikes and projections. He went up first, settling himself astride the dragon’s back at the base of its long neck, then helped pull Zedd, Tom, and Rikka up behind him. Zedd muttered under his breath the whole time. Richard told him to stop cursing.
Kahlan was last. Richard leaned down, took her hand, and pulled her up behind him. As she adjusted herself on the dragon’s back behind him, she saw him pull a white cloth out of his pocket, looking at it.
Kahlan, her arms around him, whispered in his ear. “I’m afraid.”
He smiled over his shoulder. “You get dizzy flying on dragons, but you don’t get sick. Just hold on tight and close your eyes if you want.”
It struck her how easy it was being close to him, and how gentle and natural he was with her. He seemed to come alive when she was near him.
“What’s that you have?” she asked, tilting her head toward the white cloth. It had an ink spot on one side and another just like it on the opposite side.
“Something from before,” he said in a distracted sort of way. He was obviously not thinking about her question. He was thinking about the white cloth with the two ink spots.
He stuffed the cloth back in his pocket and looked down at the rampart. “Shota, are you coming?”
“No. I’m returning to Agaden Reach, to my home. I will wait there for the end, or for you to stop that end from coming.”
Richard nodded. Kahlan didn’t think that he looked at all confident. “Thank you for all you’ve done, Shota.”
“Make me proud, Richard.”
He smiled at her briefly. “I’ll do my best.”
“That’s all any of us can do,” she said.
Richard patted the dragon’s glossy red scales. “Gregory, let’s get going. We don’t have much time.”
Gregory let out a brief blast of flame. As it curled away into black smoke, the dragon’s immense wings lifted and then snapped down with tremendous yet graceful force. Kahlan felt them lift into the air. It felt like her stomach turned upside down.
CHAPTER 59
As they marched through the empty, magnificent marble halls of the People’s Palace, Richard knew where everyone had gone because he could hear th
e soft chanting echoing through the passageways.
“Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours.”
It was the devotion to the Lord Rahl. Even at a time like this, even when their world was about to end, everyone at the People’s Palace went to the devotion when they heard the call of the bell. He supposed that this was a time when these people needed him the most and the devotion was their way to acknowledge that bond. Or maybe it was meant to remind him of his part in that bond and his responsibilities to protect them.