Chase stared at the picture. Three weeks.” He looked up at the man with the long hair. Three weeks?” He pointed at the sun on the ground and held up most of his fingers three times. They’ve been gone three weeks?”

The man nodded and made some more of those funny words.

Siddin handed her another piece of flat bread with honey. It tasted wonderful. She tried to eat it slowly, but it was gone before she knew it. She had tasted honey only once before, back at the castle when she lived there as the Princess’s playmate. The Princess never let her have honey, said it wasn’t for the likes of her, but one of the cooks had given her some once.

Her stomach fluttered at the memory of how mean the Princess had been to her. She never wanted to live in a castle again. Now that she was Chase’s daughter, she would never have to. Every night she lay in her blankets, before she went to sleep, and wondered what the rest of her new family was like.

Chase said she would have sisters and brothers. And a real mother. He said she would have to mind her new mother. She could do that. It was easy to mind when someone loved you.

Chase loved her. He never really said it, but it was easy to tell. He put his huge arm around her, and stroked her hair, when she was afraid of sounds in the dark.

Siddin smiled at her as he licked the honey off his fingers. It was nice to see him again. When they had first come here she thought there was going to be trouble. Scary men, all painted with mud, and with grass stuck all over themselves, came up to them when they were still out on the grassland. She didn’t even see where they came from. They were just there all of a sudden.

Rachel was afraid at first, because the men pointed arrows at them, and their voices sounded scary and she couldn’t understand what they said, but Chase just got off the horse and held her in his arms while he watched them. He didn’t even draw his sword or anything. She didn’t think anything scared him. He was the bravest man she ever saw. The men had looked at her as she stared at them, and Chase stroked her hair and told her not to be afraid. The men stopped pointing the arrows at them, and led them to the village.

When they got here, she saw Siddin. Siddin knew her and Chase, from before when Kahlan had saved him from Queen Milena back in the castle. Zedd, Kahlan, Chase, Siddin, and she had all been together when they were running with the box. She couldn’t speak Siddin’s language, but he knew them, and told his father who they were. After that, everyone was real nice to them.

Chase pointed with one finger to one of the pictures of a person, the finger of his other hand to the other picture, and then held the fingers together and pointed away, moving his hands like they were going over hills. “Richard and Kahlan left three weeks ago, and they went north? To Aydindril?”

The men all shook their heads and started jabbering again. Siddin’s father held up his hand for quiet. He pointed at himself and the other men and held up three fingers, then he pointed at the picture on the ground that had a dress and said Kahlan’s name, and then he pointed north.

Chase pointed at the picture of the sun, then the picture of Kahlan, then at the men, holding up three fingers, then north. “Three weeks ago, Kahlan and three of your men went north, to Aydindril?”

The men all nodded and said “Kahlan” and “Aydindril.”

Chase put a knee to the ground as he leaned forward, tapping the picture of the other person. “But Richard went, too.” He pointed north again. “Richard went to Aydindril too. With Kahlan.”

The men all turned to the man with the long silver hair. He looked at Chase and then shook his head. The carved piece of bone hanging from a leather thong around his neck swung back and forth. He pointed down at the picture of the man with a sword, and then pointed in a different direction.

Chase stared at the man for a long minute; then he frowned, as if he didn’t understand. The man leaned over with the stick and drew three more people, each with a dress. He looked up from under his eyebrows as if he wanted to make sure Chase was watching, and then he drew an X across two of the figures. His eyes returned to Chase again as he folded his arms over his knees, waiting.

“What does that mean? Dead? Is that what you mean, they are dead?” The men stared, not moving. Chase pulled a single finger, like a knife, across his throat. “dead?”

The man with the silver hair gave one nod and said “dead,” but it sounded a little funny, the way he made the word seem longer than it should. He pointed with his stick to the picture of the sun, then the picture of Kahlan, and then he pointed over his shoulder to the way they went. He pointed to the sun again, then at the picture of Richard, then at the picture of the woman without the X, then he pointed in a different direction.

Chase stood. His chest rose and then fell as he let out the deep breath. He was awfully tall. He stared in the direction the man with the silver hair said Richard had gone. “East. That’s deeper into the wilds,” he whispered to himself. “Why isn’t he with Kahlan?” He rubbed his chin. Rachel thought he looked worried. It couldn’t be that he looked scared. Nothing scared Chase. “dear spirits, why would Richard go deeper into the wilds? What could possess Kahlan to let that boy go into the wilds? And who is he with?” The men all glanced at each other, as if they were wondering why Chase was talking to the air.

Chase squatted back down, all his leather creaking, and pointed at the drawing of the third woman and frowned and shrugged at the men. He pointed at the picture of Richard and the woman and pointed east again. He held the palms of his hands up near his shoulders as he shrugged and made faces to show he didn’t understand.

The man with the long silver hair gave Chase a sad look as he let out a long breath. He pointed at the third woman, the one without an X, and then he turned and took a rope from a man behind him. He wrapped the rope around his own neck. He looked to Chase’s frown and then he pointed to the picture of Richard. When Chase looked up and their eyes met, the man pulled the rope tight with a snap. He pointed east. He touched the stick to the picture of Kahlan and then pulled his fingers down his cheeks, from the corners of his eye, like tears, then pointed north.

Chase stood. It was almost a jump. His face was pale. “she took him,” he whispered. “This woman captured Richard, and took him into the wilds.”

Rachel stood next to him. “What does it mean, Chase? Why didn’t Kahlan go with him?”

He looked down at her. His face had an odd, still look that made her stomach knot up. “she went for help. She went to Aydindril. To get Zedd.”

No one made a sound. He stared back out to the east as he hooked a thumb behind his big silver belt buckle.

“Dear spirits,” he whispered to himself, “if Richard really did go into the wilds, turn him north. Don’t let him go to the south, or even Zedd won’t be able to help him.”

Rachel hugged her doll tight. “What’s the wilds?”

“A very bad place, little one.” He stared out unblinking toward the darkening sky. “A very bad place.”

The way he said it, all calm and quiet, gave her goose bumps.

Zedd could feel the muscles in the horse’s back flexing under him as he ducked beneath a branch while slowing the animal. Zedd favored riding bareback. If he needed to ride a horse, he preferred to let the animal feel as unencumbered as possible. He thought it only fair. Most seemed to appreciate his consideration, this one especially. She gave him more than she ever would have under a saddle, and he had taken everything she had given.

He had proffered his saddle and the rest of the tack to a man named Haff. Haff had the biggest ears Zedd had ever seen. How a man with ears the like of those had ever found a wife was a wonder. But have a wife he did, and four children, too, and he looked to have more need of the tack than Zedd. Not to ride, of course, but to sell. His crops and stores had been carried off by soldiers of the D’Haran army.