Severed Souls (33 page)

“Containment fields are quite rare,” Zedd said with a heavy sigh. “I hardly think we'll find one in the Dark Lands, of all places.”

“Yes, you will,” she said.

Zedd's brow drew down, hooding his eyes as he looked intently at her. “Where?”

“Ah, so now you want to listen to me?”

“This is a matter of life and death, Irena. There is no time for games. If you know of any closer containment fields, then tell us where they are.”

“I only know of one, actually,” she said. “It's at the citadel.”

Everyone stared at her.

“A real, functioning containment field?” Zedd asked. “From a time when our ancestors still possessed such powers that could create such wonders?”

Irena nodded, looking a bit confused at their skepticism.

“A real containment field?” he pressed, again. “A real, working containment field. At the citadel. In Saavedra. In the heart of the Dark Lands.”

Again, Irena nodded.

“I have been to important palaces, built back in those ancient times,” Nicci said, “that weren't important enough to possess a containment field. I find it more than a little difficult to believe that there would be one out here in the Dark Lands, at a petty citadel in Saavedra. How can you be so sure that you're right?”

“I've been there,” she said. “I've seen it.”

Nicci still looked more than a little skeptical. “What would a containment field be doing out here in the Dark Lands?”

“Well,” she said, “I imagine that it was placed there because of the barrier being so close. My suspicion is that the people who built the barrier thought it would be a good idea to have one handy, if need be, when the barrier finally failed, or maybe for when the occult forces started seeping out before it failed.”

“That actually makes a lot of sense,” Richard said. “Naja said that they knew the barrier would fail. They knew what we would face when it did. They might have left it there as a precaution to help us, for just such a problem as Jit created.”

Zedd rubbed his chin. “That's true.…”

Richard had an even more disturbing thought. “Those people back then knew a lot more about prophecy than we do. They knew a great deal about the events happening now. They may even have known that the Mother Confessor and I would need it.”

Zedd arched a bushy eyebrow. “That doesn't seem entirely outside the realm of possibility.”

“They might have known it would be needed,” Samantha said, silent up until then, “because you are the one.”

Zedd's frown was back. “The one? What one?”

“The one to stop what is happening now.”

Zedd could only let out a deep sigh before looking back at Irena with the more important matter at hand. “Do you know how to get to Saavedra?”

She pointed to the southeast. “It's off in that direction. It's certainly a lot closer than the palace.”

Richard frowned. “You live in the remote village of Stroyza. What were you doing at the citadel in Saavedra?”

The woman looked flustered to be questioned about her reasons. “Well, after my sister Millicent and her husband had been at the abbey for a time, I feared for them. I had heard that people taken to the abbey were usually never seen again. We don't get much news in Stroyza, so I don't know what goes on there. But I had heard of relatives going to the abbey to plead for their loved ones to be released from service to the abbot.

“Knowing that such pleas never worked, and since I am a sorceress, I went instead to the citadel in Saavedra to plead directly to the bishop to try to get my gifted sister and her husband released because they were needed for our important duty at Stroyza. I thought that perhaps I could appeal to him as one of the gifted in his service and get him to order their release.”

“What did Hannis Arc have to say?” Richard asked.

Irena rubbed the palms of her hands on her knees. “I met with the bishop's scribe every morning, asking for an audience. One was never granted. The scribe told me the bishop was a busy man. I asked him to relay the request, but I never got an audience so I never was able to petition directly to the bishop for the release of my sister.

“But while I was there, waiting every day in hopes of an audience being granted, pacing or sitting around the citadel's grand entrance, the guards got used to me being around. They had heard me speak with the scribe every morning and so they knew what I wanted, but they could do nothing to help me.

“One day the captain of the guards who felt sorry for me asked, since I was a sorceress in service, if I would like to have a tour of the citadel to help pass the time while I awaited word on my petition. Being from a very tiny village, it was a rare opportunity. Even though I was distraught, I accepted the offer. During that tour, he showed me the containment field. It was deep down underground.”

“Why would he show you a containment field?” Nicci asked. “They are usually heavily guarded and often shielded.”

Irena's gaze roamed as she tried to recall the event. “Well, the guard told me that the area around it gave people gooseflesh, so they stayed well away from the place. He said that being a sorceress, he thought I would appreciate seeing it.

“Since I'm from Stroyza, I don't know what is commonly done elsewhere to protect such places. While he stood outside I briefly went into the stone room. It was pretty plain, old, and covered with dust. There were shackles on one wall. I was more concerned about speaking with the bishop than inspecting the room. There really wasn't anything to see, anyway, so I left.

“But the point is, it was a containment field—I could feel the power of the shields as I walked through the doorway—and it's a lot closer than the People's Palace. We can make it there in time. We can heal Richard and Kahlan there. It's their only chance.”

Zedd and Nicci stared at each other. They both smiled.

“We're fortunate that Hannis Arc is no longer at the citadel to interfere,” Richard said. “Unfortunately, he is headed to the People's Palace. I had planned to push and get around them so we could reach the palace first. We need to alert the people there. But at least Hannis Arc will not be at the citadel.”

 

CHAPTER

45

Irena leaned in. “If as you say, Hannis Arc has deserted the citadel, then that makes it all that much easier to borrow the containment field so that we can heal the two of you.”

In the back of his mind, Richard remembered Zedd's frequent admonition,
Nothing is ever easy
.

He looked over at his grandfather. “What do you think?”

Zedd's hazel eyes turned to look from under his brow at Irena, and then back at Richard. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Richard wasn't surprised that Zedd was thinking the same thing he was: the palace was a known quantity; the citadel wasn't. He looked over at Nicci. He noticed that she had not eaten much of her stew.

“Well?”

“Well,” she said, “if there really is a functioning containment field there, it's your only chance to live. I just hope Zedd and I can keep you and Kahlan alive until we can get there.”

Richard nodded before looking to Kahlan's green eyes. “What do you think?”

“I want to live, and I want you to live. I don't really see that we have any alternative.”

Richard didn't see one, either, but that didn't mean he had to be happy about it. A lot of other lives were at stake. He needed to get to the palace.

He let out a deep sigh as he gazed up at the darkening sky. All the leaves had stilled as the light breeze had died out. Night was closing in around them. Their time was running out. Kahlan's time was running out. The palace was too far.

More than anything else, he could not bear the thought of Kahlan dying. He would do anything he had to do—anything—to keep her alive and out of the clutches of what Sulachan had waiting for her in the underworld. While he feared his own fate there, he feared any harm coming to Kahlan far more.

“All right,” he said with finality to all the people watching him, “we go to the citadel. That means a change of other plans, though.”

“What do you mean?” Zedd asked.

“No one at the People's Palace has any idea what is coming their way. Hannis Arc and Emperor Sulachan have an army of half people and all the dead they could possibly need. The palace is built to withstand a siege from an army, but this is something different. Everyone at that palace needs to understand the nature of what is headed there so they can prepare.”

“Prepare?” Irena exclaimed. “The people there have no chance. If they stay they will be trapped there and slaughtered. Hannis Arc and his forces will kill anyone who resists.

“The situation is hopeless. The palace has to be evacuated. It's the only chance those people have.”

Richard regarded her alarm calmly. “Accepting that a situation is hopeless ensures that it is. Defeat is not an option I accept. We need to figure out a way to win.”

Zedd cleared his throat. “While I don't agree with Irena that the situation is hopeless, I don't see how we can fight this threat. A number of painful lessons have shown us that magic doesn't work against many of the half people. Hannis Arc and Emperor Sulachan have powerful occult abilities. Perhaps even more frightening, they and many of the half people can raise the dead to send against us. I don't need to remind you that it's pretty hard to kill someone who is already dead.”

“You're right,” Richard said. “Magic doesn't work all that well against most of the half people, and weapons don't work well against the dead they send at us. But our small force here has proven that we can fight against great numbers of the half people. We also know that, as difficult as it is, we can defeat their dead warriors. They can be stopped with any kind of fire, for one thing, and they can be hacked to pieces.

“The spirit king, risen from the dead, is from that ancient time when people wielded powers that no longer exist. In the world the way it is now, I doubt he has any equal. Hannis Arc, too, is able to wield powerful occult sorcery. After all, Hannis Arc did bring Sulachan back from the world of the dead. I can't even imagine the two of them working together.”

“That's what I mean,” Irena insisted. “Trying to fight such occult powers is hopeless!”

“If you accept that it's hopeless, then you are doomed to that fate.”

Irena spread her arms in frustration. “How do you propose we fight such powers? Magic doesn't work against them!”

“Really? Well, despite their frightening occult powers, and their numbers, little Samantha, here, proved all by herself that they are vulnerable in some ways to what can be done with magic if you are not willing to accept failure.”

Samantha silently beamed with pride.

“I'm not saying it will be easy,” Richard told them. “I'm saying that it must be done. We can't let them take the world into the nightmare they envision.”

Everyone looked grim.

“The people at the palace don't stand a chance unless they understand the true nature of what's coming and are prepared,” Kahlan said with quiet resignation. “We need to warn them.”

Richard nodded. “Exactly.”

“But warn them to do what?” Zedd asked. “I certainly don't think we should give up hope, or abandon the palace as Irena suggested, but how can the people there fight what's headed their way? Out on the Azrith Plain there are no cliffs we can bring down on top of them.”

“There are gifted there,” Richard said. “There are Sisters of the Light there. Nathan is there. Most of his life has been spent studying prophecy, history, and all sorts of forgotten matters having to do with magic. He often knows about things we've never even heard of before. He may be able to provide valuable information on what we can do. If nothing else, he can lay down wizard's fire on the legions of walking dead.

“Also, the palace has natural defenses. As long as they know what is coming, they can shut the great inner door, and they can seal off the tombs so that Sulachan can't raise the dead within the palace. The First File is there and they have special weapons, remember?”

Nicci frowned. “Special weapons?”

“Nathan found red-fletched bolts for the crossbows. They were relics from the great war left hidden in the palace. They have some kind of ancient power that can penetrate shields and magic. Since they were from back in that time, maybe they can take down those with occult powers the way they can the gifted.”

Zedd nodded in thought. “Richard is right. The palace must be defended. There are incredibly valuable and dangerous things there—books of magic and items of great power. It would be disastrous if Hannis Arc got his hands on them.”

Richard rubbed his forehead as he considered. “The First File will never surrender. It's not in their nature. We need to warn them what is coming so they can prepare as best they can. They will hold off Hannis Arc and Sulachan's army.”

“For a time,” Kahlan said.

“For a time,” Richard agreed. “If Hannis Arc and that unholy spirit king aren't stopped … The First File must hold the palace. At least until we can be cured at the citadel and get there.

“Until then, they need to send the army out to help protect the cities in the way of the advancing horde. They need to do what they can to keep Hannis Arc from capturing cities and laying waste to the places on the way to the palace.”

“Do you seriously think any of that is going to work, or do any good at all?” Irena asked.

“Yes,” Richard said. “I will make it work. I will not allow the world to be lost to this madness. I am the Lord Rahl. The people of D'Hara are depending on me to be the magic against magic. I will not abandon them to such a threat. I will find a way. There is no other option.