Chapter Eleven
At first, it had been hilarious, seeing Cara running from screaming villagers, until he'd noticed the fear on Cara's face. The mob was shouting something too, but it was too jumbled to make out what they were saying, and Dahlia appeared to be trying to yell something back at them, but that was lost too.
Richard turned to Kahlan, Zedd, and Shota, all of whom had a mildly confused, slightly annoyed expression. "What should we do?" Richard asked, but none of the others answered, so as the villagers neared, Richard drew the Sword of Truth, hoping its distinctive metallic ring would bring the villagers to their senses, but all it got him was a look from Kahlan that seemed to say 'are you insane?'
Richard turned to Zedd, who still seemed slightly stunned. "You have to do something!" He shouted hoping to be heard over the noise. "Throw some wizards fire at them, or something!"
Zedd had brought his hands up, and Richard could almost see the fire about to stream from his fingers, when the first person in the mob disappeared, but no one seemed to notice. Then came another, and another, and another, until the mob was down to one small boy and a dog.
Fire shot from Zedd's hands, but stopped just as quickly. Richard heard Kahlan say something about it, but it didn't quiet make sense, and then Dahlia and Cara were back with them. Richard looked around, and saw the tail of the dog disappear into the woods.
"What was that Zedd?" Cara said, not out of breath from the long sprint, but Dahlia was panting her arms over her head, standing next to her.
"I . . . I don't know. I don't know what came over me, the fire just shot out at nothing." Zedd looked to Kahlan, who seemed just as equally confused.
Dahlia looked up at Richard, the fear still in her eyes, "You saw them, didn't you Lord Rahl?"
Everyone looked at Richard all of a sudden, and all seemed to expect an answer from him, but he wasn't sure what he had seen. "I . . . um, I saw something, but it disappeared." Richard looked at Dahlia, relief spread across her face; perhaps she had been more afraid of what the villagers had thought than the angry mob.
"This has been happening for a while now Richard, ever since you picked up Leo Dane's Sword of Truth. Whole villages have been disappearing. I'm sure that most of them will return sporadically, but unless it is stopped, most of them will die." Shota looked solemnly around as she spoke, but her gave had always returned to Richard.
"So what disappeared, the last thing I remember is Shota telling Richard that he may have caused the end of the world." Cara didn't seem to remember that she hadn't been with them for that conversation.
"That's good, the boundaries haven't broken down too much, or she wouldn't remember the whole day, maybe the whole week." Shota said.
"I want to know why Dahlia remembers." Richard said turning to the woman.
"The Spell of Undoing that Zeddicus perform on her would have caused that." Shota said.
"But Cara –"
"Was not the center of the last spell." Shota concluded.
"The Spell of Undoing? What are you talking about?" Cara asked, she looked a little angry. Richard looked to Zedd and Kahlan, who seemed to be looking at each other. Dahlia seemed slightly confused as well, but Shota just seemed impatient.
"You must tell them at some point, Zeddicus. You were the one to perform the spells." Shota said. Richard was glad that he hadn't been picked for telling the Mord-Sith.
"Well, my dear, we had to perform the Spell of Undoing, because you were rebroken by Darken Rahl, but then things went wrong, and you were never a Mord-Sith, and then Dahlia killed you, so we tried the Spell of Undoing on her, and I ended up back with the three of you near the Pillars of Creation."
"I wouldn't have been rebroken." Cara whispered.
"I was a Mord-Sith?" Dahlia looked at Cara, and then down at herself.
"I would not have let that happen, no Agiel could have done that to me. I wouldn't-"
Zedd cut her off softly. "It was a magically enhanced Agiel. No one blames you for what happened, besides, I'm the only one who remembers it."
"How did they drag me in? Why would I even get that close to Darken Rahl?"
Cara asked.
Somehow Richard knew she'd want to hear the answer from him. "Dahlia told you your son was in danger, but he wasn't. Darken Rahl had killed him a long time ago." Cara turned to Dahlia, who looked nothing like the Mord-Sith that she had once been, but Richard didn't know how he remembered that.
"We must discuss how we are going to fix the rift in the worlds." Shota cut in.
Richard looked at her. "I need to warn Kahlan." He said, all of a sudden he remembered the fake smile that the other Kahlan had given him just before he returned home.
"Kahlan's right there, Richard." Cara said, rolling her eyes, but it was only have hearted, she seemed a world away, thinking of a son she had never seen.
"I mean the other one." Richard barely noticed the look that spread across Kahlan's face.
"You cannot go. The other you is dead." Shota said.
"It would be difficult, but not impossible though, right?" Richard said.
Shota opened her mouth. "It would require a great deal of magic, and the pain would probably kill you. It is not worth the effort that is required to send you."
"You and Zedd would be able to do it though?"
"Not alone. We would need another, equally as strong, and where would we find that?" Shota stared him down, daring him to speak.
"Your counter part in the other world would help us."
"She will not. I can assure you that she seeks nothing from you, life nor death, it does not concern her." Shota said.
"What about Nicci?" Everyone looked at him like he was crazy.
"Nicci is dead." Kahlan said, her eyes hardening.
"That is not a viable option, my boy." Zedd concluded.
"Verna? She could help." Richard said.
"Richard-" someone began, but he cut him or her off.
"I will not let them go without know what is happening. Especially if it is my fault that their world is going to be destroyed. I will let that happen." Richard proclaimed.
Everyone was silent for a moment, and then Shota spoke. "As you command, Lord Rahl."