“I’m sure Verna would delight in the challenge,” Nathan said. “Dear spirits, imagine what the Prelate would do with so much unexplored lore! She needs something to do, now that prophecy is gone. She could bring many Sisters with her.” He nodded slowly. “Yes, indeed, you would be in good hands.” He narrowed his eyes and added in a scolding tone, “But in the meantime, no more dabbling with spells.”
Gloria agreed. “We will put in checks and balances to insure that no disaster like Roland or Victoria ever happens again.”
One of the scholars fidgeted, looking at the rest of the uneasy audience. “But how will we find D’Hara?” He was a thin and rabbity young man named Oliver who had a habit of squinting, as if his eyesight had already waned from too much reading by dim candlelight. “I will volunteer to go, to accept the quest … so long as I know where I’m going.”
Nicci had little patience for the details. “Follow the old imperial roads. Head north. Make your way beyond the Phantom Coast to the main port cities of the Old World. Ask about the Lord Rahl.”
“That will be an arduous expedition, Oliver.” Franklin sounded uncertain.
“Yes, it will be,” Nicci said. “And we require it of you. Sometimes you must do things even though they are hard.”
“I will go with Oliver,” said a thin young memmer woman, Peretta, with tight ringlets of dark hair. “Not only is it an important mission, but every person here in Cliffwall, whether memmer or traditional scholar, has a mission to gather knowledge. And what could be a better way to seek knowledge than to explore the rest of the world?” She blinked her large brown eyes.
Oliver smiled and nodded at her. “I will be happy to have you.”
“You’ll both learn much. You’ll be great explorers.” Nathan patted the leather pouch at his side, which still carried his life book. “I will also want Cliffwall scholars to copy the maps I’ve drawn along the way, and take a summary of our expedition so far. The people of D’Hara need to know everything they can of the Old World.”
Franklin looked at the memmers, then at the rest of the scholars, and he gave a confident nod. “Do you think you can do this, Oliver and Peretta? Will you be ambitious enough to undertake this quest?”
Like a slowly exhaled breath, the audience began nodding and talking. Peretta sniffed. “Of course we will.”
Ready to go, Nathan had dressed in fine travel clothes again, his ornate scabbard belted at his waist, his brown cape from Renda Bay, a dark vest and ruffled shirt taken from Cliffwall stores. “After years of reading dusty old legends, some of you must want to become adventurers yourselves.” He laughed. “When you return from D’Hara, you will have earned your own place in history.”
* * *
Before her unexpected death, Mia had found for Nathan an old chart that clearly showed a place marked Kol Adair on the far eastern side of the great valley, over several lines of stark mountains.
Looking at the ancient map, Nathan was concerned at the prospect of crossing over such sheer and jagged crags. “Maybe it won’t be so bad. The cartographer could have exaggerated the extremity of the terrain.”
“We will know when we get there,” Nicci said.
“And we know where we need to go,” Bannon added.
The two men bade farewell to the people of Cliffwall, but Nicci said no good-byes; she simply set off, descending the path to the valley floor. They headed eastward into the now-recovering terrain at a brisk pace. Nicci sensed Mrra following them from a distance, and she acknowledged the sand panther’s presence through their tenuous bond.
They headed into the unknown.
CHAPTER 77
Leaving Cliffwall behind them, they crossed the wide, wounded valley for days before reaching the eastern foothills. The hills rose toward distant and far more rugged mountains that looked like the ridges on a dragon’s spine.
As they traveled, they found the remnants of old roads that had been all but erased by the life-absorbing Roland and by Victoria’s raging fecundity. They crossed terrain where once-thriving towns had been emptied and swallowed up. Now, the uninhabited wilderness was breathtaking in its sheer, empty silence.
Although Nicci didn’t feel like engaging in conversation, the silence and constant walking gave her too much time for internal reflection. There wasn’t a moment when she did not feel the loss of Thistle, but she tried to build up her inner walls and harden the scar. She had lost many people before, others she cared about, especially in the recent battles with Emperor Sulachan and his bloodthirsty, soulless hordes. Cara … Zedd …
Nicci had killed countless people herself. She was familiar with death, untroubled by blood on her hands. Her conscience was not heavy. She tried to convince herself that the orphan girl was just another death.
Just another death …
Topping a sparsely wooded ridge, Nicci, Bannon, and Nathan turned to look behind them. The vast valley now showed patches of healthy green growth and the flowing silver ribbons of streams. But it was neither a madness of life, nor a cracked desolation of death.
Nathan drew a satisfied breath. “You see? That is what we did, Sorceress.”
“It is what we set out to do. Now I’m done with the witch woman’s prediction.” Nicci turned and continued into the hills before she could think about the price they had paid for that achievement.
“Ah, but Sorceress, on such a journey as ours, is one ever truly done with saving the world?”
When they made camp that night, Mrra dragged a mountain-goat carcass into the meadow and dropped it there for their dinner. The sand panther had already fed, and she sat on the fringes of the clearing, watching Bannon cut fresh meat while Nathan built a campfire. “I want to prove I can do this without magic, though the process is certainly a lot less convenient.” He sighed. “Soon, though, I will be whole again.”
They contoured along streams through the hills, picking the best path that would keep them moving into the rising mountains. Since Bannon had grown up on an island and sailed the ocean, he had little instinct for finding a route through hilly terrain. Nicci led the way.
She scanned the rugged landscape and picked a switchbacked path up the slopes, across open parks, then into thick pine forests. As they gained altitude, the trees became sparser, then stunted. After thrashing through thickets of knee-high alpine willows, the three emerged into open windswept tundra with whistling grasses and low cushions of wildflowers. Mrra bounded on the rocks, ranging ahead to chase waddling marmots.
Bannon was out of breath, panting hard. He bent over, resting his palms on his knees. “The trail is steep, and the air is thin.”
Nathan did not commiserate. “I am a thousand years old, my boy, and I’m keeping up with you. Come, Kol Adair is ahead.”
“The air will grow thinner still,” said Nicci. “Our destination is much higher.”
Bannon squinted as the wind whipped his ginger hair like crackling flames around his head. “
When I grew up on Chiriya, I never imagined this.” He looked in curious amazement at the rugged lichen-covered rocks as they picked their way toward a steep pass ahead. “I’ve come so far from that place and from that life, not just in the miles I’ve traveled but in the things we’ve seen and done.” He gave his mentor a wan smile. “All the things you’ve taught me and all the experiences I’ve had, Nathan. Maybe this isn’t the perfect life that I dreamed about, but I am happy with it.”
He turned to Nicci, pressing her for a response. “Do you think I’ll ever see the D’Haran Empire for myself? You’ve told stories about those lands. Could I even meet Lord Rahl someday?”
“D’Hara is a long way from here,” Nicci said, pushing toward the top of the steep ridge ahead. “And we are heading in a different direction.”
Nathan was more encouraging. “Maybe you’ll see it someday, my boy, but why be in a hurry? This world has many lands, many people, and many sights to see.” He smiled and quoted what Red had shown him in the life book: “Future and Fate depend on both the journey and the destination.”
Because the slope was so steep, they stopped to catch their breath before reaching the summit of the pass. Nathan took out the Cliffwall charts, studied them again, and looked back at the mountains they had just crossed. “We should be close to our destination,” he said. “Very close.”
When Nicci set off again, her gaze fixed ahead, Bannon and Nathan hurried after her. Mrra ranged among the rocks, frustrated that the fat, furry marmots always managed to duck into shelter before the cat could catch them. Then one of the animals let out a high-pitched squeal as Mrra killed it for a snack.
The ground was hard and packed under Nicci’s boots while she worked her way up to the pass, leading the way, steeper and steeper. Finally, when she climbed her last steps to the top, the grand vista opened up before her, and even she stopped in her tracks, awestruck.
They had reached Kol Adair.