Soul of the Fire

Zedd managed a feeble smile. "I always could count on you, Richard. Always could."

"What can we do?" Kahlan asked. "You can count on us both."

"You see, we know what to do, but we can't manage it alone."

"Then we'll help you," Richard insisted. "What do you need?"

Zedd struggled to take a breath. "In the Keep."

Kahlan felt a surge of hope. The sliph would spare them weeks of travel over land. In the sliph she and Richard could get to the Keep in less than a day.

Seeming nearly insensate, Zedd's breath wheezed out. In frustration, Richard pressed his own temples between thumb and second finger of one hand. He took a deep breath. He dropped the hand to Zedd's shoulder and jostled gently.

"Zedd? What is it we can do to help? What about the Wizard's Keep? What's in the Keep?"

The old wizard swallowed lethargically. "In the Keep. Yes."

Richard took another shaky breath, trying to preserve calm and reassurance in his own voice. "All right. In the Keep. I understand that much. What is it you need to tell me about the Keep, Zedd?"

Zedd's tongue worked at wetting the roof of his mouth.

"Water."

Kahlan put a hand on Richard's shoulder, almost as if to keep him from springing up and bouncing off the ceiling. "I'll get it."

Nissel met her at the doorway but instead of the water Kahlan requested, handed her a warm cup. "Give him this. I have just finished making it. It is better than water. It will give him strength."

"Thank you, Nissel."

Kahlan hurried the cup to Zedd's lips. He gulped a few swallows. Kahlan offered the cup to Ann, and she finished it. Nissel leaned over Kahlan's shoulder to hand her a piece of tava bread spread with something that looked like honey and carried a faint smell; of mint, as if laced with a curative. Nissel whispered to Kahlan to get them to eat some.

"Here, Zedd," Kahlan said, "have a bite of tava with honey."

Holding up his hand, Zedd blocked' the proffered food from his mouth. "Maybe later."

Kahlan and Richard glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes. It was nearly unheard of for Zedd to refuse food. Cara must have taken her belief that it wasn't serious from the calm Nissel. While the old healer seemed unruffled by the condition of the two on the floor, Richard and Kahlan's concern was mounting by the moment.

"Zedd," Richard prompted, now that his grandfather had had a drink, "what about the Keep?"

Zedd opened his eyes. Kahlan thought them a bit brighter, the hazel color more limpid, less cloudy. He sluggishly grasped Richard's wrist.

"I think the tea is helping. More."

Kahlan twisted to the old woman. "He says the tea is helping. He would like more."

Pulling her head back, Nissel made a face. "Of course it helps. Why does he think I make it?"

She shook her head at such foolishness and shuffled off to the outer room to retrieve more tea. Kahlan was sure it wasn't her imagination that Zedd seemed just the tiniest bit more alert.

"Listen closely, my boy." He lifted a finger for emphasis. "In the Keep, there is a spell of great power. A sort of bottled antidote to the taint wafting through the world of life."

"And you need it?" Richard guessed.

Ann, too, looked to have been helped by the tea. "We tried to cast the counterspells, but our power has already deteriorated too much. We did not discover what was happening soon enough."

"But the vaporous spell in that bottle will do to the taint as the taint does to us," Zedd drawled.

"And thereby equalize the power so you can cast the counterspell and eliminate it," Richard impatiently finished in a rush.

"Yes," Zedd and Ann said as one.

Kahlan smiled eagerly. "It's not a problem, then. We can get the bottle for you."

Richard grinned his zeal. "We can get to the Keep through the sliph. We can retrieve this bottled spell of yours and be back with it in no time, almost."

Ann covered her eyes with a hand as she muttered a curse. "Zedd, did you never teach this boy anything?"

Richard's grin gave out. "Why? What's wrong with that?"

Nissel shuffled in carrying two clay cups of tea. She handed one to Kahlan and one to Richard. "Make them drink it all."

"Nissel says you must drink this down," Kahlan told them.

Ann sipped when Kahlan held the cup to her lips. Zedd wrinkled his nose, but then had to start swallowing as Richard poured the tea down his grandfather's gullet. Balking and coughing, he was forced to gulp it all or drown.

"Now, what's the problem with us getting this spell thing from the Keep?" Richard asked as his grandfather caught his breath.

"First of all," Zedd managed between gasps, "you don't need to bring it here. You must only break the bottle. The spell will be released. It doesn't need direction-it's already created."

Richard was nodding. "I can break a bottle. I'll break it."

"Listen. It's in a bottle designed to protect the magic. It will only be released if it's broken properly-with an object possessing the correct magic. Otherwise, it will simply evaporate without helping."

"What object? How do I break the bottle correctly?"