Chapter Twenty-Four
"They have been gone a whole day, Captain. Don't try telling me that they're fine. We need to go help them." Kahlan had been up all night after her nightmare, and Richard and Cara still had not returned. She was extremely worried now.
She expected him to argue, like he had the entire night. "You're right, Mother Confessor. We need to go find them. Cara wouldn't have kept Lord Rahl away this long. They are in trouble."
"Thank you." She said, relieved that they were doing something. She had been sitting in the camp waiting for too long.
They packed everything up, and put out the fire. Meiffert carried Richard's pack and his own, why'll Kahlan carried Cara's. She didn't fail to notice that everyone's pack was considerably heavier than hers. She would speak to Richard about that latter.
They were only a little ways out of camp when Meiffert signaled her to stop. "Look at all of these tracks." He said, kneeling to the ground. Kahlan could see how the ground was worn away in a strange circle, with some one in the middle.
"You don't think that could be Richard, do you?" She said, pointing to the set of tracks that led to the center of the circle, and stopped.
"I fear that it is, Mother Confessor. Maybe you should go back to the camp, and wait there." He said, searching the ground for tracks leading away from the circle.
"No."
"Mother Confessor, this is no time to be brave. There appears to be at least forty men, and I don't think Lord Rahl – " Kahlan was tired of the 'Lord Rahl would kill me' excuse.
"If Cara couldn't rescue Richard by herself, what makes you think you can?" She didn't think Richard would do anything to Meiffert or Cara if she got hurt. He had given her knives to attack with, and he had tried to take the Rada' Han off of her.
"Lord Rahl would not – "
"Lord Rahl is not here. Now, you have no authority over me Captain Meiffert. I am the Mother Confessor of the Midlands, and I will go rescue Richard Rahl." Meiffert looked a little afraid, but Kahlan almost laughed at what she had said. She was the Mother Confessor, and she was going to go rescue the Lord Rahl. She wouldn't have thought such a statement was possible only a year ago.
"Mother Confessor, I . . . " He continued talking, but Kahlan ignored him. She, instead, followed the path to the town. She saw tracks leading into town, and even if they were no longer there, it would be a good place to start.
Kahlan heard the Captain running to catch up with her. He was mumbling something about 'stubborn women,' and Kahlan heard him mention Cara's name.
It didn't take very long for them to get to the small town, but Kahlan and Meiffert immediately noticed how all the people in the town were men. They also all looked to be carrying weapons. The town, which was actually a village, was too large for them to search every single building without being detected.
Meiffert pulled her into the woods, were foliage was blocking their view. "It seems that Cara has already tried to take on the band of guerrillas."
"How do you know?"
"Besides the fact that she didn't come back to camp, there were at least fifty sets of footprints back on the road. At least ten of those didn't make it back, and some of the footprints aren't fresh. Also," He pointed to a wall of a tavern, "do you see that blood stain? There are more like them all around this area, even on the road." Kahlan nodded.
"So what do you think we should do?" Kahlan had no real idea how many men were left, if what Meiffert said was true, there should be around thirty to forty. However, if they didn't bring all of their men to capture Richard, there was no telling how many men were actually in the village.
"We could try to sneak in, and find out were they took Lord Rahl, or we could walk in there and start killing people, like Cara did. Either way, I don't think are chances are very good." Meiffert was looking at the patrols as he was talking, and Kahlan started to notice a pattern.
"What if I asked them to release Richard?" Kahlan said. They all looked like people from the Midlands. They respected Kahlan, and she didn't think they would hurt her if she went to them.
"There is no possible way that Lord Rahl would allow this if he was here, Mother Confessor. With that in mind I will not allow you to go out there to try and negotiate – Mother Confessor! Wait!" Kahlan had walked into the town while Meiffert was trying to convince her not to go. She had seen the pattern in the way the guards patrolled, and had moved at the only time it was possible to breach the perimeter.
She probably should have warned Meiffert.
She made it safely through the line, and Meiffert was close on her heels. She had seen a dark building from the forest and headed straight towards it. It was their only chance to not be spotted by the next guard. She tried the doorknob, hoping that it wasn't locked.