Chapter Thirty-Eight
The palace was beautiful. There was no doubt about that, but it had a strange feeling to it that was hard to describe, almost like it was all an illusion, like the wall might not really be there if you reached out to touch them. Of course that was the first thing Cara decided needed to be touched. "Wait." Richard whispered, his voice echoing down the silent halls.
Cara's hand stopped, her hand a finger's width away from touching the wall. "What is it Richard?" Kahlan whispered from beside him, her voice penetrated through the silence.
"I don't know. Don't touch anything." He paused looking around. Something was wrong. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't want to wait around the entrance for very much longer. The doors were still open, but Richard knew that they wouldn't be able to get back through them. "Lets go."
He started down a hall, letting his instincts take over. His boots sounded like crashing stones as he walked down the corridor, and he was the stealthiest of the five companions.
The began to pass a collection of vases, Richard kept seeing them at out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look straight at them they were gone. He noticed the others looking around for them too, and stopped to let them catch up.
"Richard, what do you think they are?" Kahlan asked. Her voice was still a whisper, but the sound was abrupt and sudden.
"I can't tell." He looked around, Cara and Benjamin were standing close to each other behind Kahlan, but something was missing. He couldn't quite figure out what it was though. "Stay close to me. I don't like this."
He grabbed Kahlan's hand and started off again, but the shadowy vases kept distracting him. He knew that if he could only catch a glimpse of them he would know true beauty. He just needed to turn his head faster.
Maybe if he let go of Kahlan . . .
He couldn't do that. He knew something was wrong the vases were unimportant. He did know true beauty, that was Kahlan, but something kept pulling him back to the vases.
He stopped again, looking around to find . . . something, or was it someone. He was still holding on to Kahlan, but he felt like he was missing something else. "Do you think that we're missing something?" He asked Kahlan. She was staring off aimlessly at something behind him.
She slowly turned her head to face him, "What?" She asked.
Richard let go of her hand. Her eyes were dead. Not just empty of expression, but glassed over and her skin looked old and faded. She started to walk away, and Richard realized why the room looked like it wasn't there.
They were surrounded by think mist, but it wasn't white, it was clear. The rolling clouds of it disrupted the flow of light just enough to give every thing an unnatural feel, and after a few feet it was too much disruption to see through. Richard ran after Kahlan, catching her hand before she could float away into the mist like the others, the ones he was missing.
He couldn't remember their names.
"Kahlan." He whispered, but she didn't seem to hear him. He needed to speak louder, but her didn't want to disturb the mist. It didn't like noise.
Suddenly Richard understood. That was its weakness, noise. That's why he and Kahlan were the last to fall under its sway. The noise drove it away. "Kahlan." Richard had tried to speak loudly, but his voice had come out puny and small. He tried again. "Kahlan." He had almost sounded normal, his head was clearing, and he could see farther away. Kahlan had reacted to her name.
"Kahlan." She turned her head, blinking a few times, clearing the glass from her eyes. Her skin looked healthier.
"Richard?" She whispered.
"Kahlan." Richard said, glad his voice had come back. "We have to find . . . Cara." He remembered her name now, all the time he had spent with her, in this world and his own.
"Yes." She whispered back to him, her voice sounded a little stronger.
"And Benjamin." Richard said, a little louder, too loud if he was having a normal conversation.
"Benjamin and Cara." Kahlan said, her eyes had regained their normal intelligence, and she looked healthy again. "There was someone else." She said.
"Dell Bradstone." Richard said, suddenly remembering. Saying the name out loud helped him remember who they were. "Here, take my hand." Richard said. "I'm going to ask you questions so that we don't get sucked back into the mist."
"The mist?" Kahlan looked around, realization dawning on her face. "I see. You go first."
"Do you like dogs?" Richard asked, leading them around in a circle. They continued asking each other questions, until they came upon Cara.
"Cara!" Kahlan yelled, and the mist flew away. Cara fell to the ground coughing. Kahlan ran to her, Richard keeping pace, and not letting go of her hand. She fell to her knees, and Richard followed her. Noticing a lack of pressure closer to the floor.
"Mother Confessor?" He heard Cara whisper, but Richard was lowering his head to the floor. He could see farther along the floor, the mist was off the ground about one and a half feet up.
Richard heard Kahlan explaining to Cara what was happening and how they need to keep talking. "Kahlan, look at this." Richard said, easing her head to the ground.
"You can see the exit." Kahlan said, pointing towards a break in the wall across the room from them.
"Yes, and there are some boots." Richard said, "They have to be Benjamin's or Dell's."
"Benjamin?" Cara said, shock creeping onto her face. "I can't believe I forgot him." Her voice sounded back to normal, and she look as healthy as ever.
"Lets go." Richard said, heading off in the direction of the boots, dragging Kahlan and Cara with him. Every so often he'd drop to the ground to see if he was still headed in the right direction, while they asked each other questions.
They found him, but he almost looked dead, he leaning against a wall, next to an ancient corpse. Cara went to him talking in a soothing, yet loud voice until, he came around. While she talked to him, Richard went to the ground to search for another pair of boots, but there wasn't another one.
He stood up. "Richard." Kahlan said, almost screaming. He looked up, she was pointing at the ancient corpse that now had some remains of flesh on it.
Richard stooped down lower, taking a closer look at the corpse. "It's Dell." He said in astonishment.
"Who?" Benjamin asked, his eyes returning to their normal color. "Oh." He said without explanation, the effects of the mist wearing off.
"Dell. Dell, come on man, you can make it back." Slowly the corpse began to look like a starved human. "We don't have time for this. Can someone scream in his ear or something?" Richard asked.
Kahlan bent down close to him, and let out an inhuman shriek that reminded Richard of the blood red eyes that had accompanied the Con Dar.
The mist shot away, leaving a choking Dell on the floor, he was holding his ears. "Dell. It's all right. You're going to be all right. Tell me your name." Richard said.
"Chase Bradstone." He coughed out. "You, you're Richard." Dell said.
"Yes." Richard nodded his head, "Who's that?" Richard pointed behind him.
Dell squinted, "Shota." He sighed.
"What?" Richard spun around, but no one else seemed to notice the witch's presence.
"Hello again, Richard." She looked less aged now; the bags were gone from under her eyes, her skin more firm against her muscles.
"Shota." Richard couldn't muster much more of a greeting.
"You seem to have passed my second test. What did you think?" She asked, she seemed almost chipper, much different from the woman he had seen outside of the palace. "Anyways, I guess you really do love, that woman. I guess we'll have to see about the next test." Shota smiled at him, but he didn't return it, and the smile turned into a pout. "Don't be like that Richard. It's not like I'm the enemy, at least not yet."
Suddenly she was gone without warning, and so was the mist. In the center of the room on a marble pedestal were five broken vases; each had the one of their faces on it.
"We have to keep going." Richard said, pulling Dell off the floor.
Author's note: Sorry for the long wait. I got really busy, and then I was sure what to write. This chapter is longer that most of mine, so I hope it makes up for it. Again, I'm very sorry, with Winter Break coming up, I'll try to write at least two more chapters before next year.
IndependenceDayChild17