Wizard's First Rule

After a couple of hours during which they hurried to keep pace with Old John, the woods became thicker, darker, the trees bigger and closer together. The trail was rocky, hard to walk over, especially at this pace. Calls of strange birds echoed from the murk. The three came to a fork in the trail. Old John took to the right without a pause and kept going. Kahlan followed him. Richard stopped, uncertain about something, but he couldn't quite seem to squeeze it out of the back of his mind. Every time he tried, he found himself thinking again of Zedd. Kahlan heard him stop, and turned, then walked back.

"Which way to the witch woman?" he asked her.

"Left," Kahlan answered, a note of relief in her voice because the old man had gone right. She hooked a thumb under the front of her pack's shoulder strap and pointed with her chin to several stark spines of rock he could just see through the upper branches of the trees. "Those are some of the peaks that surround Agaden Reach." The snow-covered caps shone brightly in the high thin air. He had never seen such inhospitable-looking mountains. Ring of thorns indeed.

Richard looked off down the left trail. It looked to be little traveled, and disappeared quickly into the thick forest. Old John stopped and turned, his hands on his hips.

"You two coming?"

Richard looked back down the left trail. They had to get the last box before Rahl did. Even if Zedd needed them, they had to find out where the box was. That was his first duty.

"Do you think Zedd could wait?"

Old John shrugged, then pulled on his beard. "Don't know

But he. wouldn't have sent me if it wasn't important. It's up to you, my boy. But Zedd is this way."

Richard wished he didn't have to make this decision. He wished he knew if Zedd could wait. He wished he knew what Zedd wanted. Stop wishing and start thinking, he told himself.

He frowned up at the old man. "How far?"

Old John looked up at the late-afternoon sun off through the trees as he tugged some more on his beard. "If we don't stop early, and don't sleep late, we'll be there by midday tomorrow." He looked back to Richard, waiting.

Kahlan said nothing, but he knew what she was thinking. She would rather not go anywhere near Shota, and even if they went to Zedd first, it wasn't that far, they could always come back if they had to. And maybe Zedd knew where the box was, maybe he even had the last box, and they wouldn't have to go into Agaden Reach. It made more sense to go after Zedd. That was what she would say.

"You're right," he said to her.

She looked confused. "I said nothing."

Richard gave her a big grin. "I could hear you thinking. You're right. We'll go with Old John."

"I didn't know my thoughts were that loud," she muttered.

"If we don't stop at all," he called up to Old John, "we could be there before morning."

"I'm an old man," he complained, then sighed loudly. "But I know how anxious you are. And I know how badly he needs you." He wagged his finger at Richard. "I should have listened when Zedd warned me about you."

Richard laughed a little as he let Kahlan walk ahead of him. She strode fast to catch up with the old man, who was already on his way. He watched her absently as she walked, watched as she pulled a spiderweb off her face, spit some of it out of her mouth. Something nagged at him; something was wrong. He wished he could figure out what it was. He tried for a minute, but all he could think about was Zedd, how much he wanted to see him again, how he couldn't wait to talk to him. He ignored the feeling that there were eyes watching him

–+-

"Mostly, I miss my brother," she said to her doll. She looked away. "They said he died," she confided softly.

Rachel had been telling her doll her troubles for most of the day. All her troubles she could think of. When she got tears, the doll said she loved her, and it made her feel good. Sometimes it made her laugh.

Rachel put another small stick in the fire. It felt so good to be able to get warm, and have light. But she kept the fire small, just like Giller had told her. The fire kept her from being so afraid in the woods, especially at night. It would be night again soon. Sometimes there were noises in the woods at night that made her scared, made her cry. But being out here in the lonely woods was still better than being locked in the box.

"That was when I lived in that place I told you about. With the other children, before the Queen came and picked me. I liked it there a lot better than living with the Princess. They were nice to me there." She looked over at the doll to see if she was listening. "There was a man, Brophy, who came sometimes. People said mean things about him, but he was nice to us children. He was nice, like Giller. He gave me a doll, too, but the Queen wouldn't let me take it with me when I went to live at the castle. I didn't care, though, because I was so sad my brother died. I heard some people say he got murdered. I know that means he got killed. Why do people kill children?"