Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

"Lord Rahl," Cara said as she tucked a wet wisp of hair back under the hood of her dark cloak and avoided looking at him, "shouldn't we be getting on to other important matters?"

"I have something important to show the three of you. Are you saying that you wish to wait here while I show Victor and Nicci?"

Her blue eyes turned up to him. "Of course not."

"Fine. Let's go."

Without further protest, they followed him at a quick pace as he headed in a northerly direction, deeper into the woods. They tiptoed from rock to rock to cross a broad ravine with dark eddies of murky water flowing through it. When Nicci nearly slipped and fell, Richard took her hand and helped her across. His big hand was warm, but not feverish, at least. She wished he would slow down and not stress his fragile health.

The gentle slope on the far side revealed itself only by degree as they climbed higher through the drizzle and trailers of low clouds. To the left loomed the dark shadow of a rocky rise. Nicci could hear the burbling rush of water tumbling down that rise.

As they went deeper into the swirling gray mist and dense green vegetation, huge birds lifted from their perches. Wings spread wide, the wary creatures silently glided away beyond sight. Harsh screeches of unseen animals echoed through the somber woods. With the mass of overlapping spruce and balsam boughs and the tangled dead limbs of ancient oaks draped with gossamer moss curtains, to say nothing of the gloomy drizzle, vines, and dense tangle of saplings struggling to reach up for the elusive light, it was not easy to see very far. Only lower to the forest floor, where the sunlight rarely reached, was it more open.

Farther into the sodden forest, dark trunks of trees stood clear of the brush and thick foliage like sentinels watching the three people move among their gathered army. The ground where Richard took them was easier traveling since it was more open and covered with soft, sprawling mats of pine needles. Nicci imagined that even on the sunniest of days, only thin streamers of sunlight ever penetrated all the way down to the forest floor. Off to the sides here and there she saw nearly impenetrable tangles of brush and tightly knitted walls of young conifers. The expanse under the towering pines made a natural but unmarked pathway.

At last Richard halted, lifting his arms out to his sides so that they wouldn't step out past him. Spread out before them was more of the same-sparse growth sprouting among the thick bed of brown needles. Following his direction, they squatted down beside him.

Richard gestured over his right shoulder. "Back that way is where Cara, Kahlan, and I came in on the night we camped-by where the battle took place. In various places around our camp are my tracks from when I stood second watch, and Cara's tracks from third watch. Kahlan had first watch that night. There are no tracks from her watch."

His glance to each of them in turn was a silent request to hear him out before they started arguing.

"Back that way," he said, pointing as he went on, "was where the soldiers were coming up through the woods. From over in that direction, Victor, you and your men came to join the battle. In nearly the same place are your tracks from when you carried me back to the farmhouse. Off that way, where I already showed you, are the tracks of other soldiers who came in and found their fellow soldiers dead.

"None of us or any of the soldiers has been up this way.

"Here, where we are now, there are no tracks. Look around. You'll see only my fresh tracks from this morning when I was searching. Other than that, there are no footprints from anyone else coming through here-in fact, there's no sign that anyone has ever been here. At least, it would appear that no one has ever been here before."

Victor idly rubbed his thumb on the steel shaft of the mace hanging from his belt. "But you think otherwise?"

"Yes. Even though there are no tracks, someone did come this way. And, they left evidence." Richard leaned out and with one finger touched a smooth rock about the size of a loaf of bread. "As they hurried past, they stumbled on this rock."

Victor seemed caught up in the story. "How can you tell?"

"Look carefully at the markings on the rock." As Victor leaned in a bit, Richard pointed. "See here, the way the top of the rock, where it was exposed to the air and weather, has the pale tannish yellow discoloration of lichen and such? And here-like the hull of a boat below the waterline —you can see the dark brown rime that shows where the belly of the rock had been lying beneath the ground.

"But it's not lying that way now. It's not settled into its socket in the ground, its recent resting place. It's now lifted a little out of that socket and turned partway over. See how a section of the dark bottom is now exposed? Were it out of the ground for longer, the dark color would be worn away and the lichen would begin to grow there, too. But it hasn't had that much time yet. This is recent."