knees, he scuttled into the dark. He could see that Tom, from his angle of approach, had no chance to get to her. "Tom, I'll get her." "I can reach her," the man said even as he was getting himself wedged tight. "No you can't," Richard said in a stern tone. "Wishing won't make it so. You'll just get yourself stuck. Listen to me. Back out, now, or your weight will help push you downhill and get you stuck so hard that we won't be able to get you out. Back up, now, while you're still able to. Go. Let me get her." Tom watched Richard moving around behind him, and then, making a face that showed how unhappy he was to be doing it, he started pushing himself back up into the darkness, where there was a few precious inches' more room that would let him make it back out. Richard worked his way through the tight spot and then moved down the slope so that he wouldn't be facing downhill as he tried to help Jennsen and possibly wedge himself in tighter than he wanted. If he wasn't careful, he would do the same thing Tom had been about to do. Down in the darkness, Jennsen cried in panic. Richard, flat on his belly, wiggled and snaked his way deeper, all the while moving to his left, down the pitch in the shelf of rock. "Jennsen, breathe. I'm coming. It's all right." "Richard! Please don't leave me here! Richard!" Richard spoke in a calm, quiet voice as he moved around behind her down into the tighter part of the cave. "I'm not going to leave you. You'll be fine. Just wait for me." "Richard! I can't move!" She grunted with effort. "I can't breathe! The ceiling is coming down! It's moving--I can feel it coming down. It's squeezing me! Please help me! Richard--please don't leave me!" "You're fine, Jennsen. The ceiling isn't moving. You're just stuck. I'll have you out in a minute." Even as he worked his way into the low spot, trying to get up close behind her, she was still struggling to move forward, making it worse-- there was no way she could go forward and make it out. As she kept struggling, though, she was slowly slipping deeper down the slope and with every frantic breath wedging herself in tighter. He could hear how desperately she was trying to breathe, to draw each shallow breath against the immovable compression of rock. Finally all the way back around behind her, Richard started pushing himself in the way she'd gone. She had gone into a narrow channel that closed down on the uphill side of her, so there could be no moving her sideways up the slope; he had to get her to back up the way she'd gone in. He had to get her to go away from the light and back into what she feared. The roof of rock scraped against his back, making it difficult to draw a full breath. He had to take shallow breaths as he moved deeper. The farther he went, he could not even breathe that deeply. The need for air, for a deep breath, made the pain of the poison feel like knives twisting in his ribs. Arms stretched forward, Richard used his boots to force himself in deeper, trying to ignore his own rising sense of panic. He reasoned with himself that there were others who knew where he was, that he wasn't alone. With the powerful feeling that a mountain of rock was crushing him, reasoning with himself was difficult, especially when the shallow split of rock he was pressed into hardly let him get any air as it was and he was desperately working himself deeper trying to reach Jennsen. He knew that he had to help pull her out of where she was stuck or she would die there. "Richard," she cried, "it hurts. I can't breathe. I'm stuck. Dear spirits, I can't breathe. Please, Richard, I'm scared." Richard stretched, trying to reach her ankle. It was too far away. He had to turn his head sideways to advance. Both ears scraped against rock. He wiggled, inching in tighter even though his better judgment was telling him that he was already in trouble. "Jennsen, please, I need you to help me. I need you to push back. Push back with your hands. Push back toward me." "No! I have to get out! I'm almost there!" "No, you're not almost there. You can't make it that way. You have to trust me. Jennsen, you've got to push back so I can reach you." "No! Please! I want out! I want out!" "I'll get you out, I promise. Just push back so I can reach you." With her blocking the light he couldn't tell if she was doing as he instructed or not. He squirmed in another inch, then another. His head was almost stuck. He couldn't imagine how she had gotten in as far as she had. "Jennsen, push back." His voice was strained. He couldn't get enough of a breath to talk and to breathe, too. His fingers stretched forward, reaching, stretching, reaching. His lungs burned for air. He just wanted to take a deep breath. He desperately needed a breath. Not being able to draw one was not only painful, but frightening. His heartbeat pounded in his ears. As high as they were in the mountains, the air was already thin and it was difficult to get enough air the way it was. Limited to taking shallow breaths was making him light-headed. If he didn't get back to where he could breathe soon, the two of them were going to be forever in this terrible place. The tips of Richard's fingers caught the edge of the sole of Jennsen's boot. He couldn't get a good grip on her foot, though. "Push back," he whispered into the dark. It was all he could do to keep his own panic in check. "Jennsen, do as I say. Push back. Do it." Jennsen's boot moved back into his hand. He snatched it in a tighter grip and immediately worked his way back a few inches. Pulling with all his might, he strained to drag her back with him. Try as he might, she wouldn't budge. She was either stuck tight, or was fighting to go forward. "Push back," he whispered again. "Use your hands, Jennsen. Push back toward me. Push." She was sobbing and crying something he couldn't make out. Richard wedged his boots, top and bottom, in the tight cleft and then pulled with all his might. His arm shook with the effort. He managed to draw her back a few inches. He wiggled himself back an equal distance and pulled again. With agonizing effort, he slowly, painstakingly, started drawing her out of the dead end she had fled into in a panicked attempt to get out. At times, she tried to squirm back toward the light. Richard, the rock compressing him tight, kept a firm hold of her boot and muscled her back yet more, not allowing her to take back any of the distance he gained. He couldn't straighten his head. That made it more difficult to use his muscles to move the both of them. With his head lying on the right, he reached back with his left arm and gripped a small lip of rock in the ceiling, using it to help haul them back. With his right arm, stretched forward and holding her by the boot, he drew her back inch by inch. As he reached back again for another handhold, Richard saw something not far to his left, down the slope, wedged where the rock narrowed. At first he thought it was a rock. As he struggled to draw Jennsen back, he stared at the thing also stuck in the rock. He reached to the side and touched it. It was smooth and didn't feel at all like the granite. As he began to make good progress backward he stretched to the side and managed to get his fingers around the thing. He pulled it to his side and continued to wiggle back. With great relief, he was finally back far enough to where he was able to get enough air. He lay still for a time, just catching his breath. Almost as much as air, though, he wanted out. While he talked to Jennsen, distracting her with instructions she only intermittently followed, he began forcing her back and to the right, where there was more room. Finally, he managed to move up beside her and seize her wrist. Once he had her, he started moving her back up the slope, into the darkness, into the tight place that he knew was the only true way out. With him up beside her, she was a little more cooperative. All the while, he kept reassuring her. "This is the way, Jennsen. This is the way. I'll not leave you. I'll get you out. This is the way. Just come with me and we'll be out in a few minutes." When they worked their way up into the dark, tight spot, she began struggling again, trying again to scramble for the light of the opening, but he was blocking her way. He stayed close at her side as he kept them both moving forward. She seemed to find strength in his constant assurances and his firm grip on her wrist. He was not about to let her get away from him again. When they pushed through to the place where the roof rose up a bit, she started weeping with expectant joy. He knew the feeling. Once the ceiling rose up a foot or two, he hurried as fast as he could to get her to the opening, to the light. The others were waiting right at the entrance to help pull them out. Richard held the thing he'd retrieved under his left arm as he helped push Jennsen out first. She rushed into Tom's waiting arms, but only until Richard crawled out and got to his feet. Then, crying with relief, Jennsen fled into his arms, clinging to him for dear life. "I'm so sorry," she said over and over as she cried. "I'm so sorry, Richard. I was so afraid." "I know," he comforted as he held her. He'd been in a similar situation before where he thought he might never get himself out of such a terrifying place, so he did understand. In such a stressful circumstance, where you feared you were about to die, it was easy to be overpowered by the blind need to escape--to live. "I feel so confused." "I don't like such tight places, either," he said. "I understand." "But I don't understand. I've never been afraid of places like that. Ever since I was very young I've hid in tight little places. Such places always made me feel safe because no one could find me or get to me. When you spend your life running and hiding from someone like Darken Rahl, you come to appreciate small, dark, concealed places. "I don't know what came over me. It was the strangest thing. It was like these thoughts that I wouldn't get out, that I couldn't breathe, that I would die, just started coming into my head. Feelings I've never had before just started to seep into me. They just seemed to overwhelm me. I've never done anything like that before." "Do you still feel these strange feelings?" "Yes," she said as she wept, "but they're starting to fade, now that I'm out, now that it's over." Everyone else had moved off a ways to give her the time she needed to set herself straight. They sat not far off waiting on an old log turned silver in the weather. Richard didn't try to rush her. He just held her and let her know she was safe. "I'm so sorry, Richard. I feel like such a fool." "No need. It's over, now." "You kept your promise," she said through her tears. Richard smiled, happy that he had. Owen, his face tense with worry, looked like he couldn't help himself from asking a question. "But Jennsen?" he asked as he stepped forward. "Why didn't you do magic to help yourself?" "I can't do magic any more than you can." He rubbed his palms on his hips. "You could if you let yourself. You are one who is able to touch magic." "Other people might be able to do magic, but I can't. I don't have any ability for it." "What others think is magic is only themselves tricking their senses and only blinds them to real magic. Our eyes blind us, our senses deceive us--as I explained before. Only those who have never seen magic, only those who have never used, sensed, perceived it, only those who do not have any ability or faculty for it, can actually understand it and therefore only they can be true practitioners of real magic. Magic must be based entirely on faith, if it is to be real. You must believe, and then you truly can see. You are one who can do magic." Richard and Jennsen stared at the man. "Richard," Kahlan said in an odd voice before he could say anything to Owen. "What's that." Richard blinked at her. "What?" She pointed. "That, there, under your arm. What is it?" "Oh," he said. "Something I found wedged in the rock near Jennsen, back in where she was stuck. In the dark, I couldn't tell what it was other than that it wasn't rock." He pulled it out to have a look. It was a statue. A statue in his likeness, wearing his war wizard's outfit. The cape was fixed in place as it swirled to the side of the legs, making the base wider than the waist. The lower portion of the figure was a translucent amber color, and through it could be seen a falling trickle of sand that had nearly filled the bottom half. The statue was not all amber, though, as Kahlan's had been. Near the middle, obscuring the narrowing where the sand dribbled through, the translucent amber of the bottom began darkening. The higher up the figure, the darker it became. The top--the shoulders and head--were as black as a night stone. A night stone was an underworld thing, and Richard remembered all too well what that wicked object had looked like. The top of the statue looked to be made of the same sinister material, all glossy and smooth and so black that it looked as if it might suck the light right out of the day. Richard's heart sank at seeing himself represented in such a way, as a talisman touched by death. "She made it," Owen said, shaking an accusatorial finger at Jennsen still sheltered under Richard's right arm. "She made it with magic. I told you she could. She spun it of evil magic back in that cave when she wasn't thinking. The magic took over and came out of her, then, when she wasn't thinking about how she couldn't do magic." Owen didn't have any idea what he was talking about. This was not a statue Jennsen made. This was the second warning beacon, meant to warn the one who could seal the breach. "Lord Rahl..." Richard looked up. It was Cara's voice. She was standing off a ways, her back to them, looking up at a small spot of sky off through the trees. Jennsen turned in his arms to see what had put the odd tone in Cara's voice. Holding his sister close, he stepped up behind Cara and peered up through the trees where she was looking. Through a thin area in the canopy of pine, he could see the rim of the mountain pass above them. Silhouetted against iron gray clouds stealing past was something man-made. It looked like a huge statue sitting atop the pass. CHAPTER 34 Icy wind tore at Richard's and Kahlan's clothes as they huddled close together at the edge of a thick stand of spruce trees. Low, ragged clouds raced by as if to escape the colossal, dark, swirling clouds building above them. Fat flakes of snow danced in the cold gusts. Richard's ears burned in the numbing cold. "What do you think?" Kahlan asked. Richard shook his head. "I don't know." He glanced behind them, back into the shelter of the trees. "Owen, are you sure you don't know what it is? You don't have any idea at all?" The roiling clouds made an ominous backdrop for the imposing statue sitting up on the ridge. "No, Lord Rahl. I've never been here before; none of us ever traveled this route. I don't know what it could be. Unless .. ." His words trailed off into the moan of the wind. "Unless what?" Owen shrank back, twisting the button on his coat as he glanced to the Mord-Sith on one side of him and Tom and Jennsen on the other. "There is a foretelling--from the ones who gave us our name and protected us by sealing the pass. It is taught that when they gave our empire its name, they also told us that one day a savior would come to us." Richard wanted to ask the man just what exactly it was he thought they needed saving from--if they had lived in such an enlightened culture where they were safe from the unenlightened "savages" of the rest of the world. Instead, he asked a simpler question he thought Owen might be able to answer. "So you think that maybe that's a statue of him, your savior?" Owen fidgeted, his shoulders finally working into a shrug. "He is not just a savior. The foretelling also says that he will destroy us." Richard frowned at the man, hoping this was not going to be another of his convoluted beliefs. "This savior of yours is going to destroy you. That makes no sense." Owen was quick to agree. "I know. No one understands it." "Maybe it's meant to say that someone will come to save your people," Jennsen suggested, "but he will fail and so only end up destroying them in the attempt." "Maybe." Owen's face twisted with the displeasure of having to contemplate such an outcome. "Maybe," Cara suggested in a grim tone, "it means this man will come, and after seeing your people, decide they aren't worth saving"-- she leaned toward Owen--"and decide to destroy them instead." Owen, as he stared up at Cara, seemed to be considering her words as a real possibility, rather than the sarcasm Richard knew them to be. "I don't think that is the meaning," Owen finally told her after earnest consideration. He turned back to Richard. "The foretelling, as it has been taught to us, you see, says, first, that a man will come who will destroy us. It then goes on to say that he is the one who will save us. 'Your destroyer will come and he will redeem you,' " Owen quoted. "That is how we have been taught the words, how they were told to my people when we were put here, beyond this pass." " 'Your destroyer will come and he will redeem you,' " Richard repeated. He took a patient breath. "Whatever it originally said has probably been confused and all jumbled up as it's been passed down. It probably no longer resembles the original saying." Rather than disagree, as Richard expected, Owen nodded. "Some believe, as you say, that over the time since we were protected and given our name, maybe the true words have been lost, or confused. Others believe that it has been passed down intact and must have important meaning. Some believe that the foretelling was meant to say only that a savior will come. Others think it means only that a destroyer will come." "And what do you believe?" Richard asked. Owen twiddled the button on his coat until Richard thought it might come off. "I believe that the foretelling is meant to say that a destroyer will come--and I believe that he is this man Nicholas, of the Order-- and then that a savior will come and save us. I believe that man is you, Lord Rahl. Nicholas is our destroyer. You are our savior." Richard knew from the book that prophecy didn't function with these people, with pillars of Creation. "What your people think is a foretelling," Richard said, "is probably nothing more than an old adage that people have gotten mixed up." Owen held his ground, if hesitantly. "We are taught that this is a foretelling. We are taught that those who named us told us this foretelling and that they wanted it passed down so all might know of it." Richard sighed, the wind pulling out a long cloud of his breath. "So you think that up there is a statue of me, put there thousands of years ago by the ones who protected you behind the boundary? How would they know, long before I was born, what I would look like in order to make a statue of me?" "The true reality knows everything that will be," Owen said by rote. He forced a half smile as he shrugged again. "After all, it made that little statue that you found look like you." Unhappy to be reminded of that, Richard turned away from the man. The small figure had been made to look like him by magic tied to the boundary, and, possibly, to a dead wizard in the underworld. Richard scanned the sky, the rocky slopes all around, the tree line. He didn't see any sign of life. The statue--they still couldn't quite make out what it was--sat distant up a treeless, rocky rise. It was yet quite a climb up to that rim of the pass, to that statue. Richard was not going to like it if it did indeed turn out to be a statue of him beneath the gathering gloom. He already didn't like it one bit that the second warning beacon was meant for him. It bound him to a responsibility, a duty, he neither wanted nor could accomplish. He had no idea how to restore the seal on Bandakar. Zedd had once created boundaries that were probably similar to the one that had been down here in the Old World, but even Zedd had used constructed magic he had found in the Keep. Such constructed spells had been created by ancient wizards with vast power and knowledge of such things. Zedd had told him that there were no more such spells. Richard certainly had no idea how to call forth a spell that could create such a boundary. More to the point, he didn't see how it would do any good even if he knew how. What had really been freed from Bandakar when the boundary failed was the trait of being born without any trace of the gift--that was why they had all been banished here in the first place. The Imperial Order was already breeding women from Bandakar in order to breed the gift out of mankind. There was no telling how far that trait had already spread. Breeding the women, as it sounded like they were doing, now, would gain them more children who were pristinely ungifted, children who would be indoctrinated in the teachings of the Order. When they started using the men for breeding, the number of such children would vastly increase. A woman could have a child every year. In the same time, a man could sire a great number of children bearing his pristinely ungifted trait. Despite the Order's creed of self-sacrifice, they had not yet, it would seem, been willing to sacrifice their women to such an undertaking. Raping the women in Bandakar and proclaiming it for the good of mankind was fine with the men of the Order. For the men ruling the Imperial Order to give over their own women to be bred, however, was quite another matter. Richard had no doubt that they eventually would start using their own women to this purpose, but that would come later. In the meantime, the Order would probably soon start using all the women captured and held as slaves for this purpose, breeding them to men from Bandakar. The Order's conquest of the New World would provide them with plenty more women for breeding stock. Whereas in ancient times those in the New World tried to limit the trait from spreading in man, the Imperial Order would do whatever they could to accelerate it. "Richard," Kahlan asked in a low voice, so the others farther back in the trees wouldn't hear, "what do you think it means that the second warning beacon, the one for you, is turning black like the night stone? Do you think it means to show you the time you have left to get the antidote?" Since he had only just found it, he hadn't given it much thought. Even so, he could interpret it only as a dire warning. The night stone was tied to the spirits of the dead--to the underworld. It could be, as Kahlan suggested, that the darkening was meant to show him how the poison was taking him, and that he was running out of time. For a number of reasons, though, he didn't believe that was the explanation. "I don't know for sure," he finally told her, "but I don't think it's a warning about the poison. I think that the way the statue is turning black is meant to represent, materially, how the gift is failing in me, how it's slowly beginning to kill me, how the underworld, the world of the dead, is slowly enshrouding me." Kahlan's hand slipped up on his arm, a gesture of comfort as well as worry. "That was my thought, too. I was hoping you would argue against it. This means that the gift might be more of a problem than the poison--if, after all, this dead wizard used the beacon to warn you about it." Richard wondered if the statue up on the ridge of the pass would hold any answers. He certainly didn't have any. To make it up there and see, they would have to leave the shelter of the forest and travel out in the open. Richard turned and signaled the others forward. "I don't think the races would be expecting us here," he said as they gathered around him. "If we really did manage to lose them they won't know where we went, what direction, so they won't know to look for us, here. I think we can make it up there without the races, and therefore Nicholas, knowing." "Besides," Tom said, "with those low clouds hugging most of the mountains, they may not be able to search." "Maybe," Richard said. It was getting late. In the distant mountains a wolf howled. On another slope across a deep cleft in the mountains, a second wolf answered. There would be more than two. Betty's ears perked toward the howls as she crowded against Jenn-sen's legs. "What if Nicholas uses something else?" Jennsen asked. Cara gripped the blond braid lying over the front of her shoulder as she scanned the woods to the sides. "Something else?" Jennsen pulled her cloak tighter around herself as the wind tried to lift it open. "Well, if he can look through a race's eyes, then maybe he can look through the eyes of something else." "You mean a wolf?" Cara asked. "You think that wolf you heard might be him." "I don't know," Jennsen admitted. "For that matter," Richard said, "if he can look through the black eyes of the races, maybe he could just as easily look through the eyes of a mouse." Tom swiped his windblown blond hair back from his forehead as he cast a wary glance at the sky. "Why do you think he always seems to use the races, then?" "Probably because they're better able to cover great distances," Richard said. "After all, he'd have a lot of trouble finding us with a mouse. "More than that, though, I think he likes the imagery of being with such creatures, likes thinking of himself as being part of a powerful predator. He is, after all, hunting us." "So you think we only have to worry about the races, then?" Jennsen asked. "I think he would prefer to watch through the races, but that isn't his end, only the means," Richard said. "He's after Kahlan and me. Since getting us is his end, I think he will turn to whatever means he must, if necessary. He very well might look through even the eyes of a mouse if it would help him get us." "If his end is having you," Cara said, "then Owen is helping his ends by bringing you right to him." Richard couldn't argue with that. For the moment, though, he had to go along with Owen's wishes. Soon enough, Richard intended to start doing things his own way. "For now," Richard said, "he's still trying to find us, so I expect that he will stick to the races, since they can cover great distances. But, since I've killed races with arrows, he must realize that we at least suspect someone is watching us through their eyes. As we get closer to him, I see no reason that in the future he might not use something else so we won't know he's watching us." Kahlan looked to be alarmed by the idea. "You mean, something like a wolf, or, or ... I don't know, maybe an owl?" "Owl, pigeon, sparrow. If I had to guess, then I'd guess that at least until he finds us he will use a bird." Kahlan huddled close beside him, using his body to block the wind. They were up high enough in the mountains that they were just beginning to encounter snow. From what Richard had seen of the Old World, it generally appeared too warm for snow. For there to be snow this time of year it could only be in the most imposing of mountains. Richard gestured to the icy flakes swirling in the air. "Owen, does it get cold in winter in Bandakar? Do you get snow?" "Winds come down from the north, following down our side of the mountains, I believe. In winter it gets cold. Every couple of years, we get a bit of snow, but it does not last long. Usually in the winter it rains more. I do not understand why it snows here, now, when it is summer." "Because of the elevation," Richard answered idly as he studied the rising slopes to each side. Higher yet, the snowpack was thick, and in places, where the wind blew drifts into overhangs, it would be treacherous. Trying to cross such precipitous, snow-covered slopes would be perilous, at best. Fortunately, they were nearing the highest point they would have to climb to make it over the pass, so they wouldn't have to traverse heavy snow. The bitterly cold wind, though, was making them all miserable. "I want to know what that thing is," Richard finally said, gesturing up at the statue on the rise. He looked around at the others to see if anyone objected. No one did. "And, I want to know why it's there." "Do you think we should wait for dark?" Cara asked. "Darkness will hide us better." Richard shook his head. "The races must be able to see pretty well in the dark--after all, that's when they hunt. If given a choice, I'd rather be in the open during the daylight, when I can see them coming." Richard hooked his bow under his leg and bent it enough to attach the bowstring. He drew an arrow from the leather quiver over his shoulder and nocked it, holding it at rest against the bow with his left hand. He scanned the sky, checking the clouds, and looking for any sign of the races. He wasn't entirely sure about the shadows among the trees, but the sky was clear of races. "I think we'd better be on our way." Richard's gaze swept across all their faces, first, making sure they were paying attention. "Walk on the rocks if at all possible. I don't want to leave a trail behind in the snow that Nicholas could spot through the eyes of the races." Nodding their understanding, they all followed after him, in single file, out onto the rocks. Owen, in front of the ever-watchful Mord-Sith, kept a wary eye toward the sky. Jennsen and Betty watched the woods to the sides. In the strong gusts, they all hunched against the wind and the stinging bite of icy crystals hitting their faces. In the thin air it was tiring climbing up the steep incline. Richard's legs burned with the effort. His lungs burned with the poison. By the look of the sheer walls of rock rising up into broken clouds to either side, Richard didn't see any way, other than the pass, for people to make it over the imposing mountains, at least, not without a journey of tremendous difficulty, hardship, and probably a great loss of life. Even then, he wasn't really certain that it was even possible. In places, as they trudged up the edge of the steep rise, he could see back through gaps in the rock walls of the mountains, under the dark bottom of clouds, to sunlight beyond the pass. None of them spoke as they climbed. From time to time they had to pause to catch their breath. They all kept an eye to the churning sky. Richard spotted a few small birds in the distance, but nothing of any size. As they approached the top, following a zigzagging course so they could more easily make it up without having to scale rock faces of jutting ledges, Richard caught glimpses of the statue sitting on a massive base of granite. From the high vantage point in the pass, he could now see that the rock on either side of the rise fell away in precipitous drops. The gorge at the bottom of either side dead-ended at vertical climbs of what would have to be thousands of feet. Whatever routes might have branched off lower down, they would have to converge before going up this rise; by the lay of the land, it became clear to him that this was the only way to make it through this entire section of the pass. He realized that anyone approaching Bandakar by this route would have to climb this ridge in the rise, and they would unavoidably come upon the monument. As he mounted the final cut between the snow-dusted boulders standing twice his height, Richard was able at last to take in the entire statue guarding the pass. And guarding the pass it was. This was a sentinel. The noble figure sitting atop a vast stone base was seated as he watchfully guarded the pass. In one hand the figure casually held a sword at the ready, its point resting on the ground. He appeared to be wearing leather armor, with his cape resting over his lap. The vigilant pose of the sentinel gave it a resolute presence. The clear impression was that this figure was set to ward what was beyond. The stone was worn by centuries of weather, but that weathering failed to wear away the power of the carving. This figure was carved, and it was placed, with great purpose. That it was out in the middle of nowhere, at the summit of a mountain pass no longer traveled and a trail possibly abandoned after this was set here, made it, to Richard, all the more arresting. He had carved stone, and he knew what had gone into this. It was not what he would call fine work, but it was powerfully executed. Just looking at it gave him goose bumps. "At least it doesn't look like you," Kahlan said. At least there was that. But this thing being there all alone for what very well might have been thousands of years was worrisome. "What I'd like to know," Richard said to her, "is why this second beacon was down there, down the hill, in that cave, and not up here." Kahlan shared a telling look with him. "If Jennsen hadn't done what she did, you would never have found it." Richard walked around the base of the statue, searching--for what he didn't know. Almost as soon as he started looking, he saw, on the front of the base, on the top of one of the decorative moldings, an odd void in the snow. It looked as if something had been sitting there and had then been taken away. It was a track, of sorts, a telltale. Richard thought the barren spot looked familiar. He pulled the warning beacon from his pack and checked the shape of the bottom. His thought confirmed, he placed the figure of himself in the void in the snow collected on the rim of the base. It was a perfect fit. The little figure had been here, with this statue. "How do you think it came to be down in the cave?" Cara asked in a suspicious voice. "Maybe it fell," Jennsen offered. "It's pretty windy up here. Maybe the wind blew it off and it tumbled down the hill." "And just managed to roll through the woods without being stopped by a tree, and then, neat as can be," Richard said, "roll right into the small opening of the cave, and then just happened to come to be stuck in the rock right near where you, by coincidence, ended up stuck. Stuck, I might add, in a terrifying place you aren't terrified of." Jennsen blinked in wonder. "When you put it like that. . ." Standing at the crown of the pass, in front of the statue right where the warning beacon would have rested, and now again rested, Richard could see that the spot held a commanding view of the approach to Bandakar. The mountains blocking off the view to either side were as formidable as anything he'd ever seen. The rise where the sentinel sat overlooked the approach into the pass back between those towering, snowcapped peaks. As high as they were, they were still only at the foothills of those mountains. The statue was not looking ahead, as might be expected of a guardian, but rather, its unflinching gaze was fixed a little to the right. Richard thought that was a bit odd. He wondered if maybe it was meant to show this sentinel keeping a vigilant eye on everything, on every potential threat. Standing as he was, directly in front of the statue's base, in front of where the warning beacon sat, Richard looked to the right, in the direction the man in the statue was looking. He could see the approach of the pass up through the mountains. Farther out, in the distance, he could see vast forests to the west, and beyond that, the low, barren mountains they had crossed. And, he could see a gap in those mountains. The eyes of the man in the statue were resolutely fixed upon what Richard now saw. "Dear spirits," he whispered. "What is it?" Kahlan asked. "What do you see?" "The Pillars of Creation." CHAPTER 35 Kahlan, standing beside Richard, squinted into the distance. From the base of the statue they had a commanding view of the approaches from the west. It seemed as if she could see half a world away. But she couldn't see what he saw. "I can't see the Pillars of Creation," she said. Richard leaned close, having her sight down his arm where he pointed. "There. That darker depression in the expanse of flat ground." Richard's eyes were better at seeing distant things than were hers. It was all rather hazy-looking, being so far away. "You can recognize where it lies by the landmarks, there"--he pointed off to the right, and then a little to the left--"and there. Those darker mountains in the distance that are a little higher than the rest have a unique shape. They serve as good reference points so you can find things." "Now that you point them out, I can see the land where we traveled from. I recognize those mountains." It seemed amazing, looking back on where they'd been, how high they were. She could see, spread out into the distance, the vast wasteland beyond the barren mountain range and, even if she couldn't make out the details of the dreadful place, she could see the darker depression in the valley. That depression she knew to be the Pillars of Creation. "Owen," Richard asked, "how far is this pass from your men--the men who were hiding with you in the hills?" Owen looked baffled by the question. "But Lord Rahl, I have never been up this portion of the pass before. I have never seen this statue. I have never been anywhere close to here before. It would be impossible for me to tell such a thing." "Not impossible," Richard said. "If you know what your home is like, you should be able to recognize landmarks around it--just as I was able to look out to the west and see the route we traveled to get here. Look around at those mountains back through the pass and see if you recognize anything." Owen, looking skeptical, walked the rest of the way up behind the statue and peered off to the east. He stood in the wind for a time, staring. He pointed at a mountain in the distance, through the pass. "I think I know that place." He sounded astonished. "I know the shape of that mountain. It looks a little different from this spot, but I think it's the same place I know." He shielded his eyes from the gusts of wind as he gazed to the east. He pointed again. "And that place! I know that place, too!" He rushed back to Richard. "You were right, Lord Rahl. I can see places I know." He stared off then as he whispered to himself. "I can tell where my home is, even though I've not been here. Just by seeing places I know." Kahlan had never seen anyone so astounded by something so simple. "So," Richard finally prompted, "how far do you think your men are from here?" Owen looked back over his shoulder. "Through that low place, then around that slope coming from the right..." He turned back to Richard. "We have been hiding in the land near where the seal on our empire used to be, where no one ever goes because it is near the place where death stalks, near the pass. I would guess maybe a full day's steady walk from here." He suddenly turned hesitant. "But I am wrong to be confident of what my eyes tell me. I may just be