Red laughed. “Because I foresaw that you would kill Richard.” She must have seen the dark edge of Nicci’s anger, but she showed no glimmer of fear. “Surely you can understand. I had only the best of intentions. It was nothing personal.”
“And I did kill Richard, just as you predicted,” Nicci said, recalling how that decision had nearly torn her apart. “Stopped his heart so he could travel to the underworld and save Kahlan.”
“See? So it all worked out for the best, then. And I did help you to bring him back.” The crow on Red’s shoulder bobbed forward, as if nodding. The witch woman hardened her gaze. “Now, why have you come here?”
Nathan stood straight and tall. “We’ve been searching for days. I have a request to make.”
Widening her black smile, Red indicated the countless skulls around her in the glen. “I receive many requests. I look forward to hearing yours.”
CHAPTER 2
Without asking permission, Nathan adjusted his cape and took a seat beside the witch woman on the stone bench. He let out an exaggerated sigh. “I am a thousand years old, and sometimes I feel the age in my bones.”
Nicci looked at the wizard, not hiding her skepticism. She had traveled with him for many days and many miles, and he had seemed completely healthy and spry. She doubted such an obvious ploy for sympathy would work with Red.
The crow took wing from the witch woman’s bony shoulder and flapped up to settle on one of the lower branches of the enormous oak. The bird scolded Nathan from above.
Red shifted her legs and turned toward him. “A thousand years? You must have stories to tell.”
“I do indeed, and that is part of the reason I’m here. Since the Palace of the Prophets was destroyed, the antiaging spell has failed, so now I grow old as all mortals do.” He looked at Nicci with a twinkle in his eye. “The sorceress is aging too, although she certainly doesn’t show it.”
“‘Aging’ is another word for ‘living,’ old man,” Red said with a sharp chuckle. “And I presume you’d like to go on living.”
“I’ve just begun to live.” The wizard leaned back on the stone bench as if he were relaxing in a park. “Now … for my request. I have heard of a thing that witch women can do, and I’d be curious if you might do me the honor?”
Nicci also listened attentively, just as intrigued, since the wizard had refused to tell her his plans, despite the lengthy and arduous journey here from the People’s Palace.
Red tossed her thick braids, making them wriggle like restless snakes on her head. “Witch women have numerous skills, some wonderful, some dangerous. It depends on which ability interests you.”
He laced his fingers together over one knee. “The Sisters of the Light possessed journey books, spell-bonded journals in which they could record their travels and also send messages over great distances. But a life book … ah, now that is something different. Have you heard of it?”
Red’s intense pale eyes showed her interest. “I’ve heard of many things.” She paused for just a moment. “And, yes, that is one of the things I know.”
Nathan continued, as if he still needed to explain to the witch woman, or maybe it was for Nicci’s benefit. “A life book chronicles the journey of a person’s life, all the accomplishments and experiences.” He leaned closer to her, adjusting his vest with a tug. Overhead in the tree, the crow cawed.
“I would like to have a life book for myself, since I am starting a new phase of my existence, a new set of adventures.” He rubbed an imaginary stain from the sleeve of his ruffled shirt, and he looked back at her. “Can you work your storyteller magic?”
Nicci stood apart from them, watching. Once the wizard got an idea in his head, he was very insistent. She had led Nathan through the untracked wilds to find the skull-cluttered lair of the witch woman—all because he wanted to ask Red for a book? Nicci said with dry humor, “You lived in a tower for most of your life, Wizard. You think the sum of your experiences would fill an entire book?”
Hunter squatted in the dry oak leaves strewn all around. The feline creature snuffled the ground, nudging fallen acorns, equally unimpressed with Nathan’s request.
The wizard sniffed. “Given enough time, the interesting events of even a tedious life can fill a book.” Nathan turned back to Red. “I’ve always been a storyteller myself, and I wrote many popular tales. You may have heard of The Adventures of Bonnie Day? Or The Ballad of General Utros? Grand epics, and relevant to the human condition.”
Nicci made an acerbic observation. “You were born a prophet, Nathan Rahl. Some would say that your very profession was to make up stories.”
Nathan gave a dismissive gesture. “Yes, some would say that—and these days, with the great changes in the universe, I’m afraid telling stories is all a prophet can do.”
Red pursed her black lips as she considered. “The stories of your life might make a book, Nathan Rahl—and, yes, I do have the magic to extract it. I know a spell that can preserve everything you’ve already done in a single volume, and that will be the end of its own story.”
“Volume one,” Nathan said with delight. “And I am ready to start a new journey with my sidekick Nicci.”
Nicci bristled. “I am no one’s sidekick, Wizard. I am your companion, perhaps, but more accurately, your guardian and protector.”
Red said, “Each person is the main character of his own story. That may be how Nathan views you, Nicci—as part of his tale.”
“Then he would be wrong.” She refused to soften the edge of her tension. “Is this life book meant to be a biography? Or a work of fiction?”
Even Nathan chuckled at that.
The crow left its branch, swooped around the clearing, and settled on another bough, as if to get a better view.
The witch woman rose from the bench. “Your proposal interests me, Nathan Rahl. There is much you need to do—whether or not you know it yet.” When she cast a glance at Nicci, her ropy red locks swung like braided pendulums. “And I know much of your life as well, Nicci. Your past would constitute an epic. Since I am working the storyteller magic, would you like a life book of your own? It would be my pleasure.” Red had an unsettling hunger behind her sky-blue eyes. “And I also know there is an importance to you as well.”
Nicci thought of the catastrophes she had survived, the dark deeds she had done, the changes she had undergone, the damage and the triumphs she had left in her wake. She was important? Other than a handful of witnesses and victims along the way, the only one who knew that story was Nicci herself. She gave the witch woman a cold, hard look. “No, thank you.”
After a brief hesitation, the witch woman brushed her hands together dismissively and turned with a smile to the wizard. “So, a single life book for Nathan Rahl, then.” She left the bench and headed toward her cottage. “First, I will need supplies. There are preparations to make.” Red pushed aside the discolored leather hide that hung across the doorway and ducked inside.
Lowering her voice, Nicci turned toward Nathan. “What are you about, Wizard?”