“And your spice soup be wonderful,” she added, with a hint of surprise.
“Yes.” Kahlan winked at him. “It’s as good as I make.”
“Kahlan has told me about Darken Rahl, and about the boundary failing,” Adie said. “It explains much. She has told me that you know of the pass, and wish to cross into the Midlands. Now you must decide what you will do.” She took a spoonful of soup.
“What do you mean?”
“They must be awakened every day to drink, and they must be fed a gruel. Your friends be asleep for many days, five, maybe ten. You must decide, as Seeker, if you are to wait for them, or go on. We cannot help you; you must decide.”
“That would be a lot of work for you to do by yourself.”
Adie nodded. “Yes. But it not be as much work as going after the boxes, as stopping Darken Rahl.” She ate some more soup as she watched him.
Richard stirred his spoon around absently in his bowl. There was a long silence. He looked to Kahlan, but she showed nothing. He knew she didn’t want to interfere with his decision. He looked back down at his soup.
“Every day that passes,” he said quietly at last, “brings Rahl closer to the last box. Zedd told me he has a plan. That does not mean it is a good plan. And there may not be time to use it when he awakes at last. We could lose before we start.” He looked up into Kahlan’s green eyes. “We can’t wait. We can’t take the chance; too much is at risk. We must leave without him.” Kahlan gave him a smile of reassurance. “I wasn’t planning on letting Chase go with us anyway. I have a more important job for him.”
Adie reached across the table and put her weathered hand on his. It felt soft and warm. “It not be an easy choice to make. It not be easy to be Seeker. That which lies ahead be difficult beyond your worst fears.”
He forced a smile. “At least I still have my guide.”
The three of them sat in silence, considering what must be done.
“You both will have a good sleep tonight,” Adie said. “You will need it. After supper, I will tell you what you will need to know to get through the pass.” She looked to each of them in turn; her voice became even raspier. “And I will tell you how I lost my foot.”
17
Richard placed the lamp on the side of the table, close to the wall, and lit it with a stick from the fire. The sound of gentle rain and night creatures drifted in from the window. The chirps and calls of small animals going about their nocturnal lives were familiar to him, comforting sounds of home. Home. His last night in his homeland, and then he was to cross into the Midlands. As his father had done. He smiled to himself at the irony. His father had brought the Book of Counted Shadows out of the Midlands, and now he was taking it back.
He sat down on the log round, across from Kahlan and Adie. “So, tell me, how do we find the pass?”
Adie leaned back in her chair and swept her hand through the air. “You already have. You be in the pass. The mouth of it anyway.”
“And what do we need to know to get through it?”
“The pass be a void in the underworld, but it still be a land of the dead. You be living. The beasts hunt the living if the living be big enough to be of interest.”
Richard looked at Kahlan’s impassive face, then back to Adie. “What beasts?”
Adie’s long finger pointed to each wall of the room in turn. “They be the bones of the beasts. Your friends were touched by things of the underworld. The bones confuse their powers. That be why I said your friends were being helped from the moment you brought them in here. The bones cause the magic poison to leave their bodies, letting the death sleep lift. The bones keep the evil away from here. The beasts cannot find me because they feel the evil of the bones and it blinds them, makes them think I be one of them.”
Richard leaned forward. “If we took some of the bones with us, would that protect us?”
Adie smiled her little smile, making her eyes wrinkle. “Very good. That be exactly what you must do. These bones of the dead have the magic to help protect you. But there be more. Listen carefully to what I tell you.”
Richard folded his fingers together and nodded.
“You cannot take your horses, the trail be too small for them. There be places they cannot fit. You must not wander from the trail—it be very dangerous to do so. And you must not stop to sleep. It will take one day, one night, and most of the next day to cross.”
“Why can’t we stop to sleep?” Richard asked.
Adie looked to each of them with her white eyes. “There be other things, besides the beasts, in the pass. They will get you if you stop long enough.”
“Things?” Kahlan asked.
Adie nodded. “I go into the pass often. If you are careful, it be safe enough. If you are not careful, there be things that will get you.” Her raspy voice lowered bitterly. “I became overconfident. One day I was walking a long time, and became very tired. I was sure of myself, sure I knew the dangers well, so I sat against a tree and took a small nap. For a few minutes only.” She put her hand on her leg, rubbing it slowly. “When I was asleep, a gripper fixed itself on my ankle.”
Kahlan scrunched up her features. “What’s a gripper?”
Adie regarded her in silence for a minute. “A gripper be an animal that has armor all over his back, spikes all around the bottom edge. Many legs underneath, each with a sharp, hooked claw at the end, a mouth like a leech with teeth all around. He wraps himself around, so only his armor is out. With his claws he digs into the flesh to hold tight so you cannot pull him off, and then he fixes his mouth to you, sucking the blood from you, tightening with the claws all the time.”
Kahlan put her hand reassuringly on Adie’s arm. The light from the lamp made the old woman’s white eyes a pale shade of orange. Richard didn’t move, his muscles tense.
“I had my axe with me.” Kahlan closed her eyes as her head lowered. Adie went on. “I tried to kill the gripper, or at least get him off me. I knew that if I did not, he would suck all the lifeblood from me. His armor be harder than the axe. I was very angry with myself. The gripper be one of the slowest creatures in the pass, but he be faster than a sleeping fool.” She looked into Richard’s eyes. “There be only one thing I could do to save my life. I could stand the pain no longer; his teet
h were scraping into the bone. I tied a strip of cloth tight around my thigh, and laid my lower leg across a log. I used the axe to chop off my foot and ankle.”
The silence in the small house was brittle. Only Richard’s eyes moved, to meet Kahlan’s. He saw sorrow there for the old woman, saw his own sorrow reflected. He couldn’t imagine the resolve it would take to use an axe to cut off your own foot. His stomach felt sick. Adie’s thin lips spread in a grim smile. With one hand she reached across the table to take Richard’s hand, and with the other hand, took Kahlan’s. She held their hands in a firm grip.
“I tell you this story not to have you feel sorry for me. I tell you only so you two will not become prey to something in the pass. Confidence can be a dangerous thing. Fear can keep you safe, sometimes.”
“Then I think we shall be very safe,” Richard said.
Adie continued to smile, and gave a single nod. “Good. There be one more thing. There be a place halfway through the pass, where the two walls of the boundary come very close together, almost touching. It be called the Narrows. When you come to a rock the size of this house, split down the middle, that be the place. You must pass through the rock. Do not go around it even though you may want to; death be that way. And then beyond, you must pass between the walls of the boundary. It be the most dangerous place in the pass.” She put a hand on Kahlan’s shoulder, and squeezed Richard’s hand tighter, looking to each in turn. “They will call to you from the boundary. They will want you to come to them.”
“Who?” Kahlan asked.
Adie leaned closer to her. “The dead. It could be anyone you know who be dead. Your mother.”
Kahlan bit her bottom lip. “Is it really them?”
Adie shook her head. “I don’t know, child. But I do not believe it to be.”
“I don’t think so, either,” Richard said, almost more to reassure himself.