Soul of the Fire (95 page)

As they stood close, watching the waterfall, Richard was reluctant to break the spell of the dream, especially to talk about their purpose, but at last he did.

“
So, why is it called the Ovens?”

Kahlan lifted her chin to point. “Behind the waterfall is a cave that’s warm. Sometimes hot, I’m told.”

“
I wonder why Joseph Ander mentioned the place?”

Kahlan rested a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe even Joseph Ander appreciated a beautiful place.”

“
Maybe,” he mumbled as he searched the scene for a sign of why the wizard would have been interested in this spot. Richard didn’t think much of Joseph Ander’s sensibilities or that he had a keen appreciation of such natural beauty. While the man spoke at length about the beauty of nature, it was always in regard to the orderly makeup of a society.

Richard noted that all the rock of the mountains around them was a peculiar greenish gray, except the rock of the cliff across the lake, where the waterfall was. That rock was darker. Not a lot, but it was definitely different. It had more gray than green in it, probably because the grain of the granite had black flecks, although from the distance, it was hard to tell.

Richard raised his arm, pointing across the lake to the wall from which the water cascaded in a majestic downward arc.

“
Look at that rock, and tell me what you think of it.”

Kahlan, her white Mother Confessor’s dress glowing in the sunlight, almost looked like Richard’s dream-image of a good spirit. She blinked at him.

“
What do you mean? It’s a rock.”

“
I know, but look at it. Tell me what strikes you about it.”

She looked at the cliff and back at him. “It’s a big rock.”

“
No, come on, be serious.”

Kahlan sighed and studied the cliff for a time. She looked around at the mountains, especially the nearest to the left a little, the one rising up so prominently from the water’s edge.

“
Well,” she said at last, “it’s darker than the rock of the mountains around here.”

“
Good. What else strikes you about it?”

She studied the wall a while longer. “It’s an unusual color. I’ve seen it before.”

She suddenly looked up at him. “The Dominie Dirtch.”

Richard smiled. “That’s what I think, too. The Dominie Dirtch have that same shade of color as that rock over there, but none of the mountains around have it.”

Her face screwed up in an incredulous frown. “Are you saying that the Dominie Dirtch were cut from this stone—way up here in the mountains—and hauled all the way down to where they are today?”

Richard shrugged. “Could be, I guess, although I don’t know much about moving stonework on such a large scale. I studied the Dominie Dirtch; they looked to be carved of one piece of rock. They weren’t assembled. At least the one we saw.”

“
Then … what?”

“
Joseph Ander was a wizard, and the wizards of his time were able to do things even Zedd would find astounding. Perhaps Joseph simply used this rock as a starting place.”

“
What do you mean? How?”

“
I don’t know. I don’t know as much about magic as you—maybe you could tell me. But what if he simply took a small rock from here for each Dominie Dirtch and then when he got to where they are today, made them big.”

“
Made them big?”

Richard opened his hands in a helpless gesture. “I don’t know. Used magic to make the rock grow, or even used the structure of the grain in the rock as a sort of guide to reproduce it with Additive Magic into the Dominie Dirtch.”

“
I was thinking you were going to come up with something silly,” Kahlan said. “That actually makes sense, as far as I know about magic.”

Richard was relieved not to have embarrassed himself. “I think I’ll take a swim over to the cave, and see what’s there.”

“
Nothing, from what I learned. Just a hot cave. It doesn’t go in far—maybe twenty feet.”

“
Well, I don’t particularly like caves, but I guess it can’t hurt to go have a look.”

Richard pulled off his shirt. He turned to the water.

“
Aren’t you going to take off your pants?”

Richard glanced back to see her sly grin.

“
I thought I’d wash the smell of horse off them.”

“
Oh,” Kahlan said in exaggerated disappointment.

Smiling, Richard turned back to the water to jump in. Just before he could, a raven came screeching down at him. Richard had to leap back lest the big black bird hit him.

Arm extended behind him, Richard backed Kahlan off the rock.

The bird cawed. The loud cry echoed off the mountains. The raven swooped down before them again, narrowly missing Richard’s head. Gaining height, the bird circled. The air whistled through its feathers as it dove at them, driving them back from the water.

“
Is that bird crazy?” Kahlan asked. “Maybe it’s protecting a nest? Or do all ravens behave like that?”

Richard had a grip on her arm, ushering her back to the trees. “Ravens are intelligent birds, and they will protect their nest, but they can be odd, too. I fear this one is more than a raven.”

“
More? What do you mean?”

The bird settled on a branch and ruffled its glossy black feathers, looking pleased with itself, as ravens were wont to do.

Richard took his shirt when she held it out. “I’d say it’s a chime.”

Even at the distance, the bird seemed to hear him. It flapped its wings, hopping back and forth on the branch, looking quite agitated.

“
Remember at the library? The raven outside the window, making such a fuss?”

“
Dear spirits,” she breathed in worry. “Do you think this could be the same one? You think it followed us all this way?”

Richard glanced back at her. “What if it’s a chime, and heard us, and came up here to wait for us?”

Kahlan now looked genuinely frightened. “What should we do?”

They reached their horses. Richard yanked his bow off the saddle. He pulled a steel-tipped arrow from the quiver.

“
I think I should kill it.”

The instant Richard came out from behind the horse, the bird spotted the bow and leaped—almost flinched—into the air with a loud squawk, as if it hadn’t expected him to resort to a weapon.

When Richard nocked the arrow, the bird took wing, fleeing with frantic calls and screeches.

“
Well,” Richard murmured, “wasn’t that weird.”

“
At least we now know it was a chime. The one you shot back at the Mud People’s village—the chicken that wasn’t a chicken—must have let the other chimes know.”

Perplexed, Richard shook his head. “I guess.”

“
Richard, I don’t want you swimming that lake. There could be chimes waiting in it. It would be foolish to swim when the chimes are loose.”

“
But they seem afraid of me.”

She put her hand on the side of his neck to keep his gaze.

“
What if they’re just lulling you into overconfidence, and want to get you out into the middle of deep water? Can you imagine? Zedd told us to stay away from water.”

She rubbed her arms, looking suddenly chilled.

“
Richard, please, let’s get out of here? There’s something about this place …”

Richard threw on his shirt and then drew her close.

“
I think you’re right. There’s no need to push our luck, not after a run-in with that raven-that-isn’t-a-raven. Besides, Du Chaillu would be so angry we got killed she’d have her baby before it was time.”

Kahlan clutched his shirt in her fists. She had a suddenly stricken look. “Richard … do you think we could …”

“
Could what?”

She released his shirt and patted his chest. “Could get out of here.”

“
I think we should.”

They rushed back, both now eager to be away from the lake. He helped her up onto her horse. “I think we found what we came for, anyway—the rock the Dominie Dirtch was made from. I think that we need to change our plans.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
I think we better get back to Fairfield and look through all those books again, in the light of what we now know.”

“
But what about the vote? They places we’ve yet to visit?”

“
We were going to have to divide up the men anyway and send them out to to watch over the voting and counting and then returning the results to Fairfield. We can send them now and have the men speak to the people in each place first. There are men among them I would trust to speak for us. They’ve heard what we’ve had to say enough times.

“
We might as well divide them up here and get them on their way while we get back to the estate. Besides, we wouldn’t do wrong to see to making sure we convince all the people in Fairfield to vote to join us.”

Kahlan nodded. “Our first responsibility is the chimes. It won’t do us any good to win the vote if the chimes kill everyone.”

Richard’s eye was caught by something. He swung down from his saddle and tossed Kahlan the reins to his horse. He crossed the grass back to the clump of spruce.

“
What is it?” Kahlan called, eager to be off.

Richard lifted a drying bough. “A saddle. Someone’s left their things here, and covered them to keep them dry.”

“
Probably from that horse we saw,” she said

“
Maybe it belongs to a trapper, or something,” Richard said. “But it looks to have been here for a while.”

“
Well, unless you plan on stealing somebody’s things, Richard, let’s get out of here.”

When the raven let out a call, Richard hurried back to his horse. “Just seems strange, that’s all.”

As they started down the trail, Richard looked over his shoulder. He saw several ravens circling far up in the sky. He didn’t know which one was the raven-that-wasn’t-a-raven. Maybe they all were.

He took his bow from its place on the saddle and hooked it over his shoulder instead.

Dalton gazed out the window of his office as he listened to Stein reporting the number and location of Imperial Order soldiers now stationed as special Anderith guard troops inside Anderith. The Dominie Dirtch were as good as in Jagang’s hands. Should Lord Rahl bring his forces—if he even had any close enough—toward Anderith, he would quickly be a leader without an army to lead.

“
The emperor also sent word that he wishes me to personally express, on his behalf, his appreciation for the efficient cooperation he has been receiving. From my men’s reports, the Minister looks to have done a remarkable job of taking the teeth out of the Anderith army. They will present even less of an obstacle than we thought.”

Dalton looked back over his shoulder, but saw no smirk on the man’s face. He put his boots up on Dalton’s desk and leaned back in his chair to clean his fingernails with a dagger. Stein looked contented.

Dalton reached over and picked up the useless but valuable little book the woman had brought up from the library, the book once belonging to Joseph Ander. He set it on the other side of his desk so Stein’s boots wouldn’t damage it.

From what Teresa reported to him, Dalton thought Stein should have every reason to be contented, what with the number of women living their daydreams by tattling to eager ears the raw excitement they had found in the bed of the foreign savage. The more outrageously he treated them, the more delighted they were to gossip about it.

With the number of women offering themselves willingly, Dalton found it remarkable the man would so frequently still turn his lust on the unwilling. He guessed Stein found the thrill of vanquishing by force more satisfying.

“
Yes, the Anderith army looks real pretty, standing there behind the Dominie Dirtch.” Stein grinned. “But their false pride will be of little use to them when they must meet the true face of war.”

“
We have kept our part of the bargain.”

“
Believe me, Campbell, I know the worth of you and the Minister. Farming may be less glamorous than conquest, but without food, an army grinds to a halt. None of us wishes to take up the pastime of tending the land, but we wish to continue eating. We understand your worth in knowing how to keep the system going. You will be a valuable asset to our cause.