Wizard's First Rule

"On second thought, Rachel, I need to pick out something for tonight's dinner, so I need to go to the jewel room anyway. Meet me there in a little while."

"But, Princess…

"But nothing. After you deliver my message to the cooks, go get the key and wait for me in the jewel room. I'll be there as soon as I'm done with the fitting."

The Princess went up the grand stairs and disappeared.

What was she going to do now? Giller was going to meet her in the jewel room, too. She was breathing hard, as if she was going to cry. What was she going to do?

She was going to do as Giller said, that's what. She was going to be brave. So those people didn't get their heads chopped off. She stopped herself from crying and went down the steps to the kitchen. She wondered what Giller wanted a big loaf of bread for.

–+-

"Well, what do you think?" he whispered. "Any ideas?"

Kahlan was lying close, next to him on the ground, frowning while she looked over the edge to the scene below.

"I can't even imagine," she whispered back. "I have never seen so many short-tailed gars together in one place."

"What could they be burning?"

"They're not burning anything. The smoke is coming from the ground. This place is called Fire Spring. Those are vents where steam comes up from the ground, and from other openings water boils up from below, and more over there where other things boil, foul-smelling yellow liquid and thick mud. The fumes keep people away from this place. I have no idea what gars would be doing here."

"Well, look there, near the back where the hill rises up, where the biggest vent is. There's something on top of it, something egg-shaped, with steam coming out around it. They keep going up to look at it, to touch it."

She shook her head. "Your eyes are better than mine. I can't tell what it is, or even that it's round."

Richard could hear and feel rumbles from the ground, some followed by great belches of steam roaring from the vents. The awful suffocating smell of sulfur wafted up to where they hid in the stunted trees of the high ridge.

"Maybe we should go have a closer look," he whispered, half to himself, as he watched the gars moving about below.

"That would be beyond foolhardy," she whispered harshly. "It would be just plain stupid. One gar would be trouble enough, or have you forgotten so quickly. There must be dozens down there."

"I guess," he complained. "What's that behind them, just above, on the side of the hill? A cave?"

Her eyes went to the dark maw. "Yes. It's called the Shadrin's Cave. Some say it goes all the way through the mountain, to the valley on the other side. But I don't know of anyone who knows for sure, or who would want to find out."

He watched the gars tearing an animal apart, fighting over it. "What's a Shadrin?"

"The Shadrin is a beast that is supposed to live in the caves. Some say it's just a myth, others swear it is real, but nobody wants to go find out for sure."

He looked over at her as she watched the gars. "And what do you think?"

Kahlan shrugged. "I don't know. There are many places in the Midlands where there are supposed to be beasts. I have been to many, and found no beasts. Most of these stories are just that, stories. But not all."

Richard was glad she was talking. It was the most she had said in days. The odd behavior of the gars seemed to have over whelmed her with curiosity, and brought her, for the moment, out of her withdrawal. But they couldn't lie there talking; they were wasting time. Besides, if they stayed too long, the gars' flies would find them. They both crawled backward, clear of the edge, then crept farther away, keeping their heads down and their movements quiet. Kahlan withdrew once again into silence.

Once away from the gars, they started down the road again, to Tamarang, the border land of the Wilds, the land ruled by Queen Milena. Before they had gone far, they came to a divide in the road. Richard assumed they would go to the right, as Kahlan had said that Tamarang lay to the east. The gars and Fire Spring had been off to their left. Kahlan went down the left road.

"What're you doing?" He had had to watch her like a hawk since leaving Agaden Reach. He couldn't trust her anymore. All she wanted to do was die, and he knew she would manage it if he didn't watch her every- move.

She looked back at him with the same blank expression she had worn for days. "This is called an inverted fork. Up ahead, where it's hard to see because of the lay of the land and the heavy woods, the roads cross over each other and switch directions. Because of the thick trees, it's hard to tell where the sun is, which direction you are going. If we take the right fork here, we will end up with the gars. This one, to the left, goes to Tamarang."

He frowned. "Why would anyone go to the trouble to build a road like that?"