“You would think,” she said, cryptically in a confidential voice.
Richard stood up straighter, finally feeling steady on his feet. “Let’s go have a look, then. It shouldn’t take long to find out one way or another.”
He took a step away from the well, then stopped and turned back. The silver face was staring at him.
“Thank you, Lucy. Is there anything you were supposed to tell us when you brought us here? Any message?”
“Message? No. I was simply to bring travelers to the Keep. That is my purpose.”
He considered all he had learned in the scrolls and how the people in the great war, like Sulachan, had been using that knowledge as well as prophecy in moves that spanned millennia. He had a thought and rephrased the question.
“Did you know who you would be bringing here?”
The silver face twitched in recognition. “Before, when I first came to be as I am now and was given my purpose, I was told that I might bring the shepherd here.”
Richard glanced at Kahlan before again addressing the restless, undulating quicksilver face. “The shepherd. Anything else you were told? Anything at all?”
“No, just that.”
“All right,” Richard said as he straightened the baldric on his shoulder and the sword at his hip. “I’m the shepherd, I guess, so you’ve completed your task. You may go back into the long sleep. There should be no reason to return from where you brought us, so we will likely never have need of your services again, but if we do, I will call you.”
“Are you saying that you are the shepherd?”
Richard nodded. “That’s right.”
“There is one thing I was supposed to tell the shepherd about this place.”
“And what would that be?”
“I was told to tell you that when you enter the place out there beyond my room, you must be careful.”
Richard looked toward the doorway and the strange cloth hanging just beyond. “‘Be careful out there.’” That sounded like good advice, but it seemed strange that they would have wanted to pass that message on but nothing as to why or what the danger might be. “Anything else? Were you told why we were to be careful?”
“No, that was all. I don’t know what it means, but that is what I was to tell you.”
Richard took a deep breath as he glanced again to the doorway. “Thank you for your service, Lucy. You may go back to sleep and be with your soul. Rest in peace.”
“That would please me.”
It would please him as well, but he didn’t say so.
With that, the reflective silver face melted back down into the churning silver pool, and then the entire liquid mass began to sink with ever-increasing speed. Richard looked over the side and saw one last reflection and then it was gone. He could see only darkness down in the well.
He turned back to the others. “That was strange.”
“Not as strange as what is beyond that doorway,” Nicci said.
“Well, there was no other way out of the caves of Stroyza except to come here. It’s not like we had any choice.”
None of them could argue.
CHAPTER 44
Rather than asking Nicci to explain, Richard started for the doorway to have a look for himself. Nicci brought a light sphere, while the two Mord-Sith had lanterns taken from pegs in the far wall where another half-dozen lanterns still hung, covered in a layer of dust so thick it made them look like they were carved from dirt.
Richard came to a stop when he saw the small symbol in the language of Creation carved into the stone over the doorway.
He turned and looked back at the four women. “That says ‘Sanctuary of Souls.’”
“Yes”–Nicci tilted her head toward the hanging–“and it fits with all of this.”
The thin, silklike material hung dead still over the outside of the doorway. Nicci held the light sphere closer so he could see all of the symbols in the language of Creation covering the sheer material of the cloth. The symbols appeared backward because they had been painted onto the other side with a brush and ink.
Even with the symbols being backward, he could make out the meaning of a number of the more familiar symbols. He puzzled at others, though, trying to think if he had ever seen them before. While he recognized some of the compositional elements, he couldn’t make sense of what they meant when combined. In the language of Creation, the sub-elements worked together to construct the primary expression, so the meaning of those sub-elements was to an extent dependent on how all the parts of the symbol worked together. While he thought some of the symbols looked somehow familiar, he couldn’t recall where he had seen them.
“I don’t recognize some of these symbols”–he gestured to several of the more complex emblems–“like this grouping, here.”
“You probably wouldn’t,” the sorceress said. “These are ward spells.”
Richard frowned back at her. “Ward spells? What are they warding?”
Nicci’s blue eyes turned up to look at him. “The dead.”
“How do you know?”
Nicci admonished him with a look. “I was a Sister of the Dark. These are things I recognize. They are dangerous spells and only used for the most dangerous of places.”
Richard couldn’t help thinking about the words “Sanctuary of Souls” above the door.
“And they are meant to ward the dead?”
“In this case, yes. They are designed to stop the dead or any minions of the world of the dead. They act something like shields. But shields, like those rolling stones back in the caves in Stroyza, often have to be constructed. For that reason, shields are often difficult to create. Because these kinds of wards can even be painted on a piece of cloth, they are considerably easier to put up.”
Richard felt the thin cloth between his fingers and thumb. “Then why aren’t wards like this used more often? Why bother with building shields when you can simply paint a few of the appropriate ward spells?”
Nicci gave him a look as if he had asked a stupid question. “Pretty hard to steal a giant rolling stone. Don’t you think that for people without the ability to create them on their own, this kind of ward would be much easier to steal and use for their own purpose?”
“I suppose so,” Richard admitted as he studied the flimsy hanging cloth. “So these particular wards are specifically meant to stop spirits?”
“Yes. In this case there is no doubt that they are meant to repel the dead from this doorway. Since they are facing anything coming from out there, they are obviously meant to keep spirits of the dead out of the room with Lucy’s well.”
“So then there are ghosts beyond this doorway?” Cassia asked.
Nicci drew her lower lip through her teeth as she studied the spell-forms on the cloth. “That would be my guess. I do know that spirits of the dead can’t cross such wards. These keep them on the other side. They could serve no other purpose. Such dangerous spell-forms would not be here unless it was absolutely necessary.”
“You mean they act something like the skrin,” Kahlan asked, “repelling spirits from the veil to keep them from crossing through and keep them in the underworld?”
Nicci smiled. “That’s a very good way to put it, Mother Confessor.”
Kahlan looked back at the cloth hanging. “It’s beginning to make sense why what is out beyond is called the Sanctuary of Souls.”
“Yes,” Nicci agreed. “In a way, while it keeps them from crossing, it also creates a sanctuary for them where they feel safe. The underworld, with the skrin, is like that, too–it keeps them on that side, but it also creates a sanctuary for spirits where they won’t be disturbed.”