Faith of the Fallen

"Then I'm confused," Warren said as he panted.

Kahlan came to a halt to let them all catch their breath. She lifted an arm back toward the enemy troops off beyond the ridge.

"Yes, if it were true that great numbers of troops were going out around us and heading north, that would concern us. But I don't believe they are."

Warren swiped a blond lock off his forehead. "You don't think all those men are heading north? Where, then?"

"Nowhere," Kahlan said.

"That many men? You've got to be joking."

She smiled at the look on his face. "I believe it's a trick. I think it's only a small number of men."

"But the scouts have been reporting mass numbers of men moving north for three days now!"

"Hush," Cara warned, getting even with an air of mock scolding.

Warren covered his mouth with both hands when he realized he'd shouted.

They had their breath back, so Kahlan started out again, taking them over the top of the little rise onto flatter ground, following their footsteps back the way they had come.

"Remember what the scouts said yesterday?" she asked him. "They tried to go over to the mountains on the other side to have a look at the lay of the land beyond and the enemy troops moving north through it, but the passes were too heavily guarded?"

"I remember."

"I think I've just figured out why." She gestured by looping her hand around as she went on. "I think what we're seeing is a relatively small group of the same men just going around in a big circle. We're only seeing them at the point where they pass up this valley. We see troops marching by continuously for days and we assume they're moving a lot of men, but I think it's just a circle of the same ones going round and round."

Warren stopped to stare at her. His face turned grave at the implications. "So if we're tricked into thinking they're moving an army up this way, then we will split our army in response and send part of them out after this phantom force."

"We're already outnumbered," Cara said as she nodded to herself, "but we have the advantage of defending terrain that suits our purpose. However, if they could reduce our numbers substantially simply by getting us to send a large percentage off on some mission, first, their entire army might finally be able to overrun a smaller number of remaining defenders."

"Makes sense." Warren stroked his chin in thought, looking back at the ridge. "What if you're wrong?"

Kahlan turned to look back toward the ridge, too. "Well, if I'm wrong, then. ."

Kahlan frowned at a fat old maple tree not ten feet away. She thought she saw the bark move. The dusting of snow on the scaly gray, furrowed bark began disappearing, melting away in an ever widening area. Like dross floating on the surface of a boiling cauldron, the bark moved.

Kahlan gasped as Warren seized her and Cara by the collar and flung them both down on their backs. The wind knocked from her lungs, Kahlan tried to sit up, but Warren dived to the ground between them, pinning them both down.

Before Kahlan had a chance to get her breath or ask what was wrong, blinding light flashed in the still woods. A deafening boom rent the air and jolted the ground beneath her. Splintered wood, from toothpick-size fragments to fence-post-size sections, howled past inches above her face.

Huge sections of wood thanked as they rebounded off rocks. Others spun, caroming off tree trunks. Pieces tumbling along the ground kicking up snow peppered with frozen chunks of dirt. The air went white as the shock from the blast blew a wall of snow up into the air.

If any of them had been standing, they would have been torn to shreds.

As soon as the last pieces of timber, trailing smoke, thudded to ground, Warren rolled toward her. "Gifted," he whispered.

Kahlan frowned at him. "What?"

"Gifted," he whispered again. "They focused their power to boil the frozen tree inside and make it explode. That's how we lost so many men when we gathered back in that valley during the first battle, back just before you came to us. They surprised us."

Kahlan nodded. She peeked up, but saw no one. She glanced over to see if Cara was all right.

"Where's Cara," she asked in an urgent whisper.

Warren cautiously peered off, searching the empty scene. Kahlan lifted herself a little on an elbow and saw only the disturbed snow where Cara had been.

"Dear Creator," Warren said. "You don't suppose they've snatched her, do you?"

Kahlan saw tracks where there had been none before, leading off to the side. "I think-"

A scream that would have made a brave man blanch reverberated through the trees. It trailed off in an agonizing echo.

:,Cara?" Warren asked.

"I don't think so."