Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind [243]
When she heard it clang shut, she started running. She ran fast as she could, not looking back, too afraid to know for sure if anyone was chasing her. After a time, she had to know, and finally stopped to check. No one. Out of breath, she sat down to rest on a fat root in the path.
She could see the outline of the castle against the starry sky, the notched top edge of the wall, the towers with lights in them. She was never going back there again, never. Her and Giller were going to run away to where people were nice and they were never going to come back. While she was panting, she heard a voice.
“Rachel?” It was Sara, she realized.
She laid Sara in her lap, on top of the bundle. “We’re safe now, Sara. We got away.”
Sara smiled. “I’m so glad, Rachel.”
“We’re never going back to that mean place again.”
“Rachel, Giller wants you to know something.”
She had to lean close; she could hardly hear Sara’s voice. “What?”
“That he can’t come with you. You must go on without him.”
Rachel started to get tears. “But I want him to come with me.”
“He would like to, more than anything, child, but he must stay and keep them from finding you, so you can get away. It’s the only way to keep you safe.”
“But I’ll be afraid by myself.”
“You won’t be by yourself, Rachel, you will have me with you. Always.”
“But what am I to do? Where am I to go?”
“You must run away. Giller says not to go to your old wayward pine, they will find you there.” Rachel’s eyes got big when she heard this. “Go to a different wayward pine, then the next day, another, just keep running away and hiding until the winter comes. Then find some nice people who will take good care of you.”
“All right, if Giller says so, that’s what I’ll do.”
“Rachel, Giller wants you to know he loves you.”
“I love Giller too,” Rachel said, “more than anything.”
The doll smiled.
All at once, the woods lit up with blue and yellow light. She looked up. Then came a sudden loud bang that made her jump. Her mouth dropped open; her eyes were wide as they would go.
A giant ball of fire came up from the castle, from behind the walls.
The ball of fire lifted into the air. Sparks dropped from it, and black smoke rolled away. The fire turned to black smoke as it went higher, until it was all dark again.
“Did you see that?” she asked Sara.
Sara didn’t say anything.
“I hope Giller is all right.”
She looked down at the doll, but she didn’t say anything, or even smile back.
Rachel hugged Sara to her and picked up the bundle.
“We better get going, like Giller said.”
When she went past the lake, she threw the key to her sleeping box as far as she could, out into the water, and smiled when she heard it splash.
Sara didn’t say anything as they rushed away from the castle, down the path. Rachel remembered what Giller said, that she shouldn’t go to the same wayward pine. She turned and went down a deer trail, through the bramble, in a new direction.
West.
CHAPTER 34
There was a sound. Small, soft, spitting.
In the fog of half sleep, half wake, it made no sense, no matter how hard he tried to understand it. Slowly at first, then with accelerating urgency, he came awake, aware of the aroma of cooking meat. Immediately, he regretted the experience of being conscious, the memories of what had happened, his longing for Kahlan. His knees were pulled up to his chest with his head resting against them. The bark of the tree at his back dug painfully into his flesh, and his muscles were cramped to near paralysis from sleeping in the same position all night. With his head against his knees he couldn’t see anything, except that it was only just beginning to lighten with dawn.
There was someone, or something, near him.
Continuing to feign sleep, he took assessment of where his hands were in relation to his weapons. The sword was a goodly reach, and then a long pull to draw it. The knife wasn’t. His fingertips were touching the hickory handle. Flexing his fingers slowly, carefully, he worked