Naked Empire

His head hurt and the poison deep within him made each breath catch. He wondered what would strike him down first, the power of his gift that was giving him the headaches, or Owen's poison.

He wondered, too, just how he was going to satisfy the demands of Owen and his men to free their empire so that he could have the antidote. The five of them, he, Kahlan, Cara, Jennsen, and Tom, hardly seemed the army needed to drive the Order out of Bandakar.

If he didn't, and if he couldn't get to the antidote, his life was coming to a close. This very well could be his final journey.

It seemed like he had just gotten back together with Kahlan after being separated from her for half his life. He wanted to be with her. He wanted the two of them to be able to be alone.

If he didn't think of something, all they had in each other, all they had ahead of them, was just about over. And that was without even considering the headaches of the gift.

Or the Imperial Order capturing the Wizard's Keep.

CHAPTER 32

Richard gripped the edge of the rock at the face of the opening to help pull himself up and out from the dark hole in the abrupt rise of granite before them. Once out, he brushed the sharp little granules of rock from his hands as he turned to the others.

"It goes through. It isn't easy, but it goes through."

He saw a dubious look on Tom's face, and a look of consternation on Owen's. Betty, her floppy ears perked ahead in what Richard thought could only be a goat frown, peered down into the narrow chasm and bleated.

"But I don't think we can," Owen complained. "What if…"

"We get stuck?" Richard asked.

Owen nodded.

"Well, you have an advantage over Tom and me," Richard said as he picked up his pack from nearby to the side where he'd left it. "You're not quite as big. If I made it through and back, then you can make it, Owen."

Owen waved a hand up the steep ascent to his right. "But what about that way? Couldn't we just go around?"

"I don't like going into dark, narrow places like this, either,"

Richard said. "But if we go around that way we have to go out on the ledges.

You heard what Cara said; it's narrow and dangerous. If it were the only way it would be another matter, but it's not.

"The races could spot us out there. Worse, if they wanted, they could attack us and we could easily fall or be forced over the edge. I don't like going in places like this, but I don't think I'd like to be out there on a windblown ledge no wider than the sole of my boot, with a fall of thousands of feet straight down if I make one slip, and then have one of those races suddenly show up to rip into me with their talons or those sharp beaks of theirs. Would you prefer that?"

Owen licked his lips as he bent at the waist and looked into the narrow passageway. "Well, I guess you're right."

"Richard," Kahlan asked in a whisper as the rest of them started taking off their packs so they could more easily fit through, "if this was a trail, as you suspect, why isn't there a better way through?"

"I think that sometime only in the last few thousand years this huge section of the mountain broke away and slid down, coming to rest at this angle, leaving a narrow passageway beneath it." He pointed up. "See up there? I think this entire portion down here used to be up there. I think it's now sitting right where the trail used to be."

"And there's no other way but this cave or the ledges?"

"I'm not saying that. I believe there's other old routes, but we would have to backtrack for most of a day to take the last fork I saw, and then there isn't any guarantee with that one, either. If you really want, though, we can go back and try."

Kahlan shook her head. "We can't afford to lose any time. We need to get to the antidote."

Richard nodded. He didn't know how he was supposed to rid an entire empire of the Imperial Order so they could get to the antidote, but he had a few ideas. He needed to get the antidote; he saw no reason he had to play by Owen's rules-or the Order's.

Kahlan gave the narrow, dark tunnel another look. "You're sure there aren't any snakes in there?"

"I didn't see any."

Tom handed Richard his sword. "I'll go last," he said. "If you make it through, I can."

Richard nodded as he laid the baldric over his shoulder. He turned the scabbard at his hip in order to clear the rock and then started in. He hugged his pack to his abdomen as he crouched to make it into the small space. The slab of rock above him lay at an angle, so that he couldn't remain upright, but had to twist sideways and back as he went into the darkness. The farther in he went, the darker it became. As the others followed him into the narrow passage, it blocked much of the light, making it even darker.