Stone of Tears

She nodded. “Warren and I will see to the people here who have been released from the spells. They will need guidance. I have been a Sister of the Light for nearly two hundred years. All I ever wanted was to help people who needed it. But you had help. There is no excuse for taking you, or others. I want to try to set some of this right.”

Warren gave Richard a firm hug. “Thanks, Richard. For everything. I look forward to seeing you again.”

Richard winked. “Try not to have any adventures.”

“I’ll go with you,” Chase said.

“No.” Richard wiped a hand over his face. “No, go home, Chase. Take Rachel to her new mother, and her brothers and sisters. Emma will be worried sick by now. She hasn’t seen you in ages. Go home to you wife and family. I’ll need to be returning home soon, too.”

Richard turned back to Sister Verna. “We must do something about those six Sisters. They’re sailing for Westland. The people there have no protection against magic. In West-land, those Sisters will be like hawks in a hatchery.”

“I think that journey will take them some time. You have time enough for them, Richard.”

“Good. Kahlan will want to wed before the Mud People. Then I may need to come and get some advice on how to handle those six. Talk to Nathan, and Ann. We can decide what to do then.”

“Be careful,” Warren said. He stood stoically with his hands in the opposite sleeves of his robes. “And I don’t just mean with yourself. Don’t forget the things Nathan and I have told you. Don’t forget that everyone else is in danger from what you can do with the Stone of Tears. I don’t think you have yet reached your time of choosing.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Scarlet lowered herself so he could climb up onto her shoulders. He gripped the black-tipped spines and hauled himself up. Richard gave a slap to a red scale.

“To D’Hara, my friend. Again.”

With a roar of flame, Scarlet launched into the sky.

Chapter 68

In the distance, in the predawn gloom, he could see the green glow. It rose from the People’s Palace, through the glass roof of the garden of life, like a beacon. Richard had seen that color of green from only one place. The underworld.

The icy wind tore at his clothes as Scarlet’s wings beat with a steady cadence. She had put strenuous effort into the flight to D’Hara. She understood the danger posed by the Keeper. The underworld would take her, too. And she hated Darken Rahl. He had stolen her egg before and used it to enslave her.

As she began her descent, she peered back, her ears turning toward him. There will be enough time, Richard. We can still make it to Aydindril. It is only just dawn.”

“I know you’ll get me there, Scarlet. I’ll try not to give you too much time to rest.”

Scarlet banked to the left, steepening their descent down toward the courtyard where they had been before. It was a place the huge dragon could land in the dark with room to spare. The palace’s vast jumble of roofs and walls rushed up toward them with frightening speed. Richard’s toes tingled with the feeling of floating off her back as she plummeted.

Suddenly, from the darkness below, a blinding flash of lightning crackled up all about them. It left yellow lines of afterimage in his vision. Before Richard could make sense of it, another came.

Scarlet roared in pain and pitched to the left. They dropped into a sickening spiral toward the ground. Richard gripped her spines as the huge dragon tried to recover.

On the vast steps rotating below, he saw the woman illuminated by the light of the next bolt of lightning she sent forth from her hands. Once again, Scarlet roared in pain. He couldn’t see the woman in the darkness when the lightning cut off.

Scarlet struggled to check the uncontrolled descent.

Richard knew that another bolt of the lightning would finish her. He tore the bow from his back and yanked an arrow from the quiver.

“Scarlet! Make fire so I can see her!”

As Richard drew the string to his cheek, Scarlet let out a fiery roar of pain and anger. In its red glow, he saw the woman raise her arms again. Before he could call the target, the spiral took her out of his line of sight.

“Scarlet! Look out!”

Scarlet drew back her right wing, and they tipped the other way. The yellow lightning streaked past to the left, just missing them. The ground was coming up fast.

In the flickering red light of the dragon’s blast of fire, Richard saw her raise her hands again. He drew the bowstring and twisted his body with their motion to keep her in sight.

Before she could disappear again, he called,the target. The instant it came to him, the arrow was away.

“Turn!”

Scarlet beat her right wing, making them wobble in the air as the yellow bolt erupted past, between the dragon’s neck and wing. Almost before it began, the lightning cut off.

A ripple of total blackness passed over them. The arrow had found its mark. The Keeper now had Sister Odette.

With a hard jolt, they hit the ground. Richard was thrown off, and tumbled across the ground. He sat up and shook his head, then sprang to his feet.