Warheart by Terry Goodkind Read Free Book Online

beside a shallow stream.
    Kahlan saw Hunter sitting on a rocky ledge in the shadows to the right, beside the crystal-clear water moving slowly past.
    â€œI smell meat cooking,” Vale said.
    Kahlan smelled it, too. She could see the wisps of smoke from the cook fire.
    â€œIt’s the witch woman,” Nicci said in a low voice, her gaze remaining locked on what she was seeing.
    â€œAre you sure?” Kahlan whispered back. “From this distance I can’t make out who it is.”
    â€œI don’t need to see her,” Nicci said. “I can sense her power with my gift. It’s hard to miss.”
    â€œThat’s disturbing,” Cassia muttered. “I hate magic.”
    Without waiting to discuss a plan, Kahlan started toward the figure in the distance. Her plan was to find out if Red could help them, and if she could, to make sure she did. It was no more complicated than that.
    When they got close enough Kahlan could see that there appeared to be something cooking on several spits above a bed of glowing coals. The witch woman stood bent over, tending to the coals with a stout stick.
    As they got closer, Kahlan could see that Red was wearing an elegant gray dress that looked completely out of place in the wilds of the Dark Lands. It looked more like something one would wear to a palace ball. It made Kahlan, who was wet and filthy from mud, her hands dotted with spots of sticky sap, feel like a beggar.
    The woman’s bewitching sky-blue eyes made her tight thatch of ropy red locks, by contrast, look all the more red. The gray dress, by its lack of color, served to make the dazzling color of the witch woman’s eyes and hair stand out all the more. Although it would seem to make sense, Kahlan knew that the woman’s red hair was not where she had gotten her name.
    The witch woman at last looked up with those piercing blue eyes. “Ah, there you are, Mother Confessor. Right on time.”
    â€œOn time for what?” Kahlan asked suspiciously as she came to a halt not far away.
    Red glanced around and spread her arms as if it were obvious. “Why, lunch, of course.”
    â€œYou were expecting us?” Kahlan asked.
    Red frowned. “Yes, of course.” She gestured off toward the ledge outcropping where Hunter sat watching. “I sent your little friend to get you.”
    Kahlan nodded. “I thought that might be the case.” She held a hand out to her right. “This is Cassia, Laurin, and Vale.” She lifted her other hand out. “This is Nicci.”
    Red smiled indulgently. “Yes, I know, the sorceress you were supposed to kill.”
    Kahlan ignored the reprimand. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought them with me.”
    Red shrugged. “No, of course not. I have my own protection. I don’t begrudge you yours. In fact, considering the deteriorating state of affairs, I consider it a mark of wisdom.”
    â€œThat’s what I needed to talk to you about … the state of affairs and all that is at stake. At stake for all of us.”
    â€œYes, yes, now won’t you all pull up a rock, so to speak, and have a seat? Lunch is ready.”
    Kahlan and Nicci shared a look.
    â€œYou made us all lunch?” Kahlan asked.
    â€œYes,” Red said. “I’ve been expecting the five of you, and I know that you are all hungry. I don’t think it’s wise to have a serious discussion about the world of the dead on an empty stomach.”

 
    CHAPTER
    8
    Beside the stream, low rocks lay scattered through the area of gravel in more than enough numbers for each of them to have their choice of places to sit close to the fire. Kahlan had more urgent matters on her mind than lunch, but it did smell good and she was starving.
    Red used a forked stick to push sizzling meat off the spits onto a flat rock where a pile of already cooked meat was cooling. It appeared by how much there was that she had been cooking all