Severed Souls (Sword of Truth 14)

Wizard’s fire burned with unparalleled intensity. It was sticky, and once it was stuck fast, not only could you not get it off, you couldn’t extinguish the flame. It burned until its power was spent. So much as a drop of it stuck to a leg could burn down to the bone. To say that it was excruciatingly painful did not begin to describe the horror of it. Those touched by even a speck of it could think of nothing but getting it off.

Kahlan had seen men in battle splashed with small amounts of it on an arm or hand. They would use their own sword to hack off the limbs to prevent the wizard’s fire from climbing up onto the rest of them. Others, in their mad panic to escape it, would accidentally run into pools of it.

In the blindingly intense light of the exploding sea of fire, Kahlan could see silhouetted Shun-tuk reduced momentarily to little more than black skeletons. In the next instant, even that much vaporized to nothing.

For the most part, as they ran they tried not to look back because of the intensity of the light. It was so blindingly bright that, like the rest of them, Kahlan not only had to turn her face from it, she also squinted against the painful illumination. The wave of heat it gave off felt like it might ignite her hair and melt her skin.

The fire made the horse carrying Richard more than a little skittish. Kahlan kept a firm hold on the reins up near the bit to prevent it from bolting. She was thankful that she had covered the horse’s eyes.

She had no idea of how many of the Shun-tuk were consumed in the burning sea of wizard’s fire, or how many might not be harmed by it at all. She had trouble imagining anyone who would not be harmed by it. She did know that now that it had been unleashed, there was no time to worry about it.

“Let’s go,” she said as she took hold of Zedd’s sleeve.

His eyes looked vacant. He had put everything he had into the creation of the conflagration. He had been determined to make sure he used every ounce of effort he could muster to protect them, to protect his unconscious grandson.

Zedd blinked. “What?”

“You did good, Zedd. You have given us a chance.” Kahlan again tugged his sleeve. “Now come on—we have to go.”

The old wizard looked more than exhausted, but he kept up with Kahlan as she started pulling the horse ahead into the gorge. The horse was only too glad to be led away from the burning nightmare behind them. Kahlan knew that the wizard’s fire would continue to burn for quite a while and continue to catch victims in its fiery snare. Those with even a little of it on them would be incapacitated and it would be months before they healed, if ever. Many of those burned would die within hours or days. Yet more, those not vaporized by the intensity of the fire, but who had been close enough to inhale the noxious heat, would die in breathless agony within a short time.

As Kahlan pulled the horse up the dark gorge, Nicci stepped up beside her. “I’ve never seen him do that before,” she whispered to Kahlan. “I think he put everything he had into it to try to stop even those with occult powers.”

Kahlan glanced over at the sorceress. “Do you think it worked?”

“No. But it was a noble effort. I know what such things take to create, and that took more than a lot. I hope he saved some for when we get them farther up into the gorge. When we do, I’ll help him with some Subtractive Magic.”

The sorceress quickly moved out in front of Kahlan and cast her hand out. A flame floated ahead, gently lifting up through the air, among the pine boughs. It was not fire meant to be destructive, but a small flame meant to show them where they were going and light the ground enough that they wouldn’t trip over tree roots and rocks.

Nicci turned to the tightly packed group of men following behind them. “Keep your eyes ahead. They need to adjust to the darkness. Try not to look back because once we get farther in Zedd is going to be laying down more wizard’s fire behind us. Within the confines of the gorge it will be even brighter. It will help blind the enemy to the darkness of the trail ahead and slow them down. Don’t look back and let it blind you too.”

The men following behind nodded that they understood.

Nicci led the way, with Kahlan right behind her. They had to pick their way carefully along the side of the brook, frequently over slick, moss-covered rocks. While Kahlan, in her official capacity as a Confessor, had traveled the countryside her whole life, Nicci had grown up in cities and until she met Richard had rarely set foot on dirt. Being with Richard for as long as she had been, she had learned how to walk in the woods, which was fortunate because there was no trail up the gorge. They were in uncharted wilderness and had to pick their way as best they could.

Sometimes some of the men had to rush out ahead to hack away at fallen limbs or saplings to clear them out of the way for the horse. Kahlan was especially careful to let the horse pick where it wanted to step. They couldn’t afford to have it break a leg.

The small lights Nicci released from time to time revealed rock walls rising up in places. The sheer rock faces were wet with water seeping through the tiniest cracks. Slime grew in long strings that hung down, their tips dripping water. Where there were rocky hillsides, cedar trees grew down close to the brook. In places up higher on those steep hillsides, where they could get a good foothold, towering pines grew. Where it was too rocky or steep for the forest monarchs, smaller trees and shrubs with roots fanning out like claws clung to the rugged hillside.

The terrain at the bottom of the gorge would not be easy to traverse in the daytime. At night it was quite difficult, but not entirely impossible. Picking their way up the ever-rising ground was slow going, though. At least it would be no easier for the Shun-tuk.

With the cliffs and perilously steep hillsides, Kahlan was confident that the Shun-tuk would not be able to get out around them, especially since the fastest route was the one they were taking at the bottom of the gorge where the footing was better. The slopes were far trickier to traverse. Traveling that way would be slower and dangerous. That meant that Richard had been right, and by going this way they would be able to funnel the Shun-tuk into a narrow space.

The trees up ahead suddenly lit with bright yellow light as Zedd, bringing up the rear, unleashed more wizard’s fire back at the enemy following them. It lit the way for them.

The jolt of another explosion shook the ground. She could feel the thump from the concussion deep in her chest. Kahlan didn’t know how many Shun-tuk it was killing, or how many were getting through. She and everyone else were being careful not to look back and be night-blinded by the intensity of the thunderous blasts.

Nicci raced back to help Zedd. When Kahlan heard the ripping sound, like tearing canvas, and saw the white light on the treetops around them, Kahlan knew that the sorceress was using a mix of Additive and Subtractive Magic on the enemy. It was as violently destructive as wizard’s fire, but she doubted that it would affect those with occult abilities any more than did wizard’s fire. At least it would be deadly to those without such protection and reduce their numbers.

With the sword in her hand and its attendant rage, she was eager to encounter some of the enemy that got through. Richard’s life was in great peril because of these half people. All of their lives were. She had to resist the urge to turn back and fight.

The time was not yet right. It would come soon enough, she knew, and when it did then her sword—Richard’s sword—would taste their blood.

CHAPTER

23

From time to time Kahlan glanced back over her shoulder at her unconscious husband draped over the back of the horse. He was helpless and depending on her. She intended not to let him down. She was determined to get them through the danger, get them to relative safety, and especially get them back to the People’s Palace so that Zedd and Nicci could remove the poison that was slowly killing them both.

She was sick and tired of not being able to live her life with him, of not being able to be alone with him, of not being able to have a normal conversation with him, of not being able to make love to him, of not being able to love

him in the most simple and joyful of ways because they were always desperately fighting not only for their lives, but so that everyone else could have those things.

The peace that had begun to settle in after the war had been a wonderful taste of all those things. Cara’s marriage celebration at the People’s Palace had been a brief sample of life the way it should be. But all too soon that joy had turned to ashes for Cara and Ben, and for everyone else.

Having the Sword of Truth in her hand inflamed those feelings and brought them boiling to the surface.

Now they were once again in a fight for their lives. If they were to survive this time, if they were to live, they not only needed to escape the Shun-tuk chasing them, they also needed to get home.

But home back in the heart of D’Hara was a long way off.

Without horses, it was going to be a long and difficult journey, especially with her and Richard so weakened. There was no choice, of course. Her thought was to try to find some towns or cities along the way where they could get some horses.

Off in the distance behind them, Kahlan could hear the thunderous explosions from Zedd’s wizard’s fire rolling up the gorge, punctuated by the sharp thunder of Nicci’s dark lightning. Sometimes, she could hear the screams of the dying. The sounds reverberated off the walls of the gorge, like a war emanating from the spirit world, as if it were an otherworldly battle between good and evil.

The gorge narrowed as they climbed higher, with rock walls soaring up in the darkness to either side. It felt like they were climbing up through a deep split in the mountains—a crack in the world itself. Intermittently the walls to each side, normally hidden in the darkness, were suddenly revealed in the flashes of light from the explosions in the distance behind.

Irena remained close to the horse as gifted help to defend Richard if need be. She watched all around, looking for any sign of trouble. Kahlan didn’t know what Irena’s capabilities were, or if she could be of any help to Zedd and Nicci in reviving Richard.

Kahlan wanted to get to safety so that they could work on bringing him back to consciousness. She knew what a terrifyingly forsaken experience Richard was enduring. The longer the blackness lasted, the worse it became, and the more dangerous. She was eager for Zedd and Nicci to help him, but at the moment the Shun-tuk were a more urgent threat.