“Once such forces of chaos are loosed, there would be no one capable of putting them back. Once everything has spun out of control, it is only a matter of time before it is all over. Life—existence—would be extinguished.
“Therefore, Sulachan and Hannis Arc must be stopped before they can ever bring such insanity to pass.”
Kahlan let out an impatient sigh. “Red, I know all of this. You aren’t really telling me anything new. I already know how vital it is that they are stopped.
“That is precisely what we are trying to do, and you are wasting my time in that effort. We need to get through the pass and, after we are healed, we are going to try to stop the threat. Get to the point or send us on our way.”
Red folded her arms and leaned one shoulder in toward Kahlan. “I am trying to put the nature of what you must do into context so that you will understand how vital it is.”
Kahlan pressed a hand to her forehead. She could feel the evil inside her clawing to be freed. It was going to be that way for everyone. She took a breath, trying to be patient.
“Red, I’m dying. Believe me, I get the context. I don’t have a lot of time left to do anything to help you. We need to be on our way. I get it that they must be stopped or they will do something irreversible. Would you please just tell me what it is that you think you need me to do?”
Red leveled a sharp look at her. “It is not what I think, it is what I know. I see events in the flow of time. And what I see is that there is only one person who has the potential to stop all of these horrors I have described from coming to pass.”
“And who would that be?” Kahlan asked as patiently as possible.
“You know very well, Mother Confessor, who that would be,” Red said with a scowl. “It is the pebble in the pond, the bringer of death, the Lord Rahl, the one, your husband.”
Kahlan let out a deep sigh. “Again, we know that. Does the flow of time you witch women like to swim around in tell you if he will succeed?”
“It doesn’t work that way. I do not choose what I wish to see in the flow of time.”
“Great, so all you can do is tell me what I already know, and that you don’t know if we will succeed. That’s great. Thank you. Now may we pass?”
Red’s scowl was back. “I don’t get to pick out the answers I need or would like. I don’t get to ask questions and have them answered. The flow of time reveals to me what it will reveal. Nothing more, nothing less. I have no say in it. I am but a messenger.”
“That’s because it’s prophecy,” Kahlan said.
“In a way. In this case, it reveals to me only that your husband has the potential to succeed. It does not reveal if he will.”
Kahlan threw her arms up. “What good, then, is all this flow-of-time prophecy business if it only tells you potential? I could easily have told you that Richard has the potential to stop all this from happening without you needing to bother to peer into the flow of time!”
Rather than getting angry at Kahlan’s tone, Red became more calm, even sorrowful. “That much of it is muddy, but many other events in the flow of time are crystal clear. I can see those things with absolute certainty.”
“But not in this case,” Kahlan said, contemplating leaving the witch woman and going back to get Richard and the rest of them. Since Red knew that Richard was important, Kahlan figured that she wasn’t likely to put up a fight if they simply barged right through the middle of her little lair.
“No, not in this case.” It was Red, this time, who let out a patient sigh. “You see, Mother Confessor, in the unique case of that husband of yours, his free will mucks up events in the flow of time.”
Kahlan frowned. “Why is that?”
“Because he is a pebble in the pond. He causes ripples in events. Because he acts on free will, and he is gifted, it can’t be foreseen how those ripples will interact with other people and other events. Prophecy does not work so well with that man of yours.”
“If it’s any consolation, we’ve always had that problem with prophecy,” Kahlan said. “That’s why we don’t pay it much heed.”
Red leaned closer. “Well, in this case, you had better.”
“Why?”
“Because while I may not know if he will succeed, I know that if he is dead he will not have a chance to try. If he dies, our fate is sealed and we all die.
“I’m trying to help you keep him alive so that he can do what he needs to do in order to give us a chance. If you don’t listen to me, he is going to die. That is not a potential, but a hard, cold certainty.
“I know how to read events in the flow of time. I know those things that are only a potential, and I know those that will happen with an absolute certainty. In this particular case, it is not a maybe, or a potential. It is a dead certain event.…
“He is going to die before he has a chance to fulfill his potential unless you do what you need to do to prevent it. Only you can prevent his death. Only you can stop it.
“Now, do you want him to live or not?
“It’s all up to you, Mother Confessor.”
CHAPTER
68
Kahlan stared back into Red’s fierce blue eyes. “All right, I’m listening. What is it you see in the flow of time that is so certain?”
“Nicci is going to kill Richard.”
“Kill him?” Kahlan blinked in disbelief. “Why would she kill Richard? Dear spirits, the woman loves him!”
“That is why she will kill him … because she loves him.”
Kahlan shook her head, as if trying to shake it clear of lunacy.
“You really ought to meet Shota,” Kahlan said. “You’d like her. You both see events in the flow of time and think you understand their true meaning when you don’t. You’re both crazy.”
“I’m not crazy. I would wager that this Shota has given you information that has been vital, as this is. I’m telling you what will happen in the flow of time if that flow is allowed to run its course. I’m trying to make you see what is at stake.”
“I haven’t got time
for this nonsense.”
As Kahlan started to leave, Red grabbed her arm and turned her back. “Nicci knows that Richard’s heart belongs to you. She loves him, but she cannot have him. The flow of time says that because of that, she will kill him.”
Kahlan pressed her hands to the sides of her head, exasperated with the pointless, circular conversation, wishing she could shut it out. “You said yourself that this flow of time you look into only holds potential, not certainty.”
Red shook her head emphatically. “No, that is not what I said. I said that because he is the pebble in the pond, Richard’s free will muddies my ability to see how the events he is central to will unfold. It is only undefined potential in his case. But I see other things with absolute clarity.”
Kahlan glared, no longer even able to remain polite.
“So you say.”
Red gestured angrily toward Hunter. “I sent him because I saw that you would all come this way and would have been killed back there in the chasms had I not acted. It was important that none of you die back there. I could see in that same flow that you would befriend Hunter, as you call him, and follow him when you most needed his help—but only if I sent him to save you.
“It wasn’t potential; it was a certainty. I saw the different tributaries, branches, and backwaters in the flow of time and I worked to keep you on the course that would save your lives. Here you stand as a result. I would say that shows I understand the meaning of what I see in the flow of time quite well, wouldn’t you?
“While it doesn’t work that way with Richard, it does with the people around him. It worked that way with you. It wasn’t chance or potential, it was only the deliberate choices I made to effect the outcome that kept you all alive.
“Perhaps, as you say, this witch woman, Shota, only thinks she understands the true meaning of the things she sees in the flow of time, but don’t judge me by her inadequacies. I know what I’m talking about, and I know what I’m doing.”
Red leaned closer and pointed a finger at Kahlan’s face. “I’m telling you, Mother Confessor, and you had better listen to me—Nicci is going to kill Richard unless you kill her first.