Stone of Tears

Tossidin nodded. “I do not know the way to tell you their numbers, but there were so many that if you stood in the same spot on the wide road they took, you would be there all day watching them pass.”

“Also,” Prindin said, “as they were going, others joined them, from the north where they had been waiting, and went with them.”

Kahlan’s eyes narrowed as she frowned in thought. “did they have many wagons? Big wagons?”

Prindin snorted a laugh. They must have hundreds. These men do not carry anything. They use wagons. They have victory, because they are many, but they are lazy. They ride in wagons, or use them to carry their things.”

“It takes a lot of supplies,” she said, “to support an army that big. And if they ride in wagons it keeps them fresh for fighting.”

“It also makes them soft,” Chandalen said defiantly. “If you carry what you need, like we do, then you grow strong. If you walk without carrying what you need, or ride in wagons, or on horses, then you grow soft. These men are not strong, like us.”

“They were strong enough to crush this city,” Kahlan said, looking up from under her eyebrows. “They were strong enough to win the battle and destroy their opponent.”

“Only because they are many,” Chandalen argued, “like the Jocopo, not because they are strong, or good fighters.”

“Large numbers,” she said, quietly, “has a strength all its own.”

None of the three men disagreed with that.

Prindin downed the last of his tea before speaking. “Their numbers are all gone now. They stay together as they go east.”

“East.” She thought a moment while the three waited. “did they go through a pass that has a thin rope bridge stretched above it? A bridge that can only be crossed by one person at a time, on foot?”

The brothers nodded.

Kahlan stood. “Jara Pass,” she whispered to herself as she turned to stare out the door. “It’s one of the few big enough for their wagons.”

There is more,” Tossidin said as he stood, too. “Maybe five days after they left, more men came here.” He held up the spread fingers of both hands. This many did the killing here.” He closed all but a lone little finger on his right hand. This many came here after it was done.”

Kahlan glanced to Chandalen. The ones who closed the doors.”

He nodded as the two brothers frowned.

They searched the city,” Tossidin went on. There were no people left here to kill, so they followed the tracks, followed those that went east, to join with them.”

“No,” Kahlan said. They were no allies of those who did this. They didn’t go to join them. They’re going after them, though.”

Prindin considered this a moment. Then if they catch the ones who did this, then they, too, will die. They have no numbers like those they chase. They will be like fleas trying to eat a dog.”

Kahlan snatched up her mantle and flung it around her shoulders. “Let’s get going. Jara Pass is wide and easy enough for large wagons, but it’s also very long and meandering. I know small passes—like the one that takes that rope bridge over the Jara, and then up through Harpies Cleft—that an army cannot travel, but we can, and it’s much shorter. What they travel in three or four days, we can travel in one.”

Chandalen stood, but did so in an easy manner. “Mother Confessor, following these men will not take us to Aydindril.”

“We have to go over one of the passes to get us to Aydindril. Harpies is as good as any.”

Chandalen still made no move to recover his mantle. “But that way lies an army of thousands. You wanted to get to Aydindril with as little trouble as possible. That way lies trouble.”

Kahlan squatted with her boot over a snowshoe, and began lacing on the binding. The faces of the dead young women wavered before her eyes. “I’m the Mother Confessor. I will not allow this to happen in the Midlands. It’s my responsibility.”

The men glanced uneasily at one another. The brothers moved to retrieve their snowshoes. Chandalen did not.

“You said your responsibility was to go to Aydindril as Richard With The Temper asked. You said you must do as he asked.”

Kahlan paused her work at the binding of the second snowshoe. Anguish seared though her. She considered Chan-dalen’s words, but only briefly. “I’m not abandoning that responsibility.” She finished the binding and stood. “But we’re Mud People. We have other responsibilities, too.”

“Other responsibilities?”

Kahlan tapped the bone knife that was tied to her arm, under her mantle. “To the spirits. The Jocopo, the Bantak, and now these men, have listened to spirits that would have them do great evil—spirits that come through the tear in the veil. We have responsibilities to the spirits of our ancestors, and their living descendants.”

She knew that to close the veil, she needed to reach Zedd, to get help for Richard. It was possible that Richard was the only one who could close the veil. Chandalen was right; they must reach Aydindril.

But the faces of the young women still filled her mind. The horror of what had been done to them still coursed through her.