Nicci sat in silence, staring up at the stars, still trying to understand the new patterns, but she could find no message there. She listened with suspicion to every rustle of underbrush and clatter of loose pebbles in the night, but the sounds were merely caused by scurrying rodents.
At last she had time to think. She pondered the D’Haran Empire, the sprawling Old World, this mostly unknown continent that Lord Rahl needed her to explore. How was she to save the world? The very idea seemed laughable. Right now, her most immediate concern was the Lifedrinker, whatever he was. His Scar was spreading, encompassing a greater and greater swath of land. And he had already attacked them with his dust people.
That was the Lifedrinker’s first mistake, Nicci thought. It was personal now.
She needed to know more about the evil wizard, what his goal was, how and why he had sucked dry those other townspeople from the valley and turned them into his reanimated servants. Was it just his appetite? Stealing more souls, absorbing their energy? The Lifedrinker’s dark magic, whatever it was, had spread like a potent poison more deadly than thousands of deathrise flowers, like the one she still kept with her, wrapped in her dress pocket.
She knew they needed to find the place called Cliffwall.
Having seen the people of Verdun Springs dragged beneath the dusty ground, including Thistle’s aunt and uncle, Nicci felt a powerful resolve. She had a deep hatred for oppression, for the destruction or enslavement of good people. The Lifedrinker was the epitome of tyranny, and Nicci considered it part of her mission for Richard to put an end to the threat. Prophecy or not, that was what she knew she had to do.
The orphan girl woke before dawn, instantly alert. Thistle looked around, saw Nicci, and scuttled over to be next to her. The two sat in silence for a long moment before the girl spoke. “I can lead us to Cliffwall—I know I can. There, you’ll meet the scholars and learn the information you need to destroy the Lifedrinker. I hate him! And I will take you there.”
“I believe you,” Nicci said. “And you will prove it to us soon enough. Nathan and I are both scholars of magic. If the answer is there, we will find it.” She narrowed her blue eyes and looked down at the lost little girl. “Regardless of what is in the library, I swear to you, we will find a way to rid the world of the man who did this.”
Thistle gave a solemn nod. Unshed tears welled in her large eyes. “And after that, can I stay with you? I … don’t have anyone else.” When her voice cracked at the end, the girl covered it with a loud clearing of her throat. She looked away, as if ashamed of her desperation.
Nicci could not imagine bringing this child, however talented she might be, along on their difficult journey to Kol Adair. But Thistle had already been broken so badly in one night that the sorceress simply answered with, “We shall see,” rather than dashing her hopes.
*
They were ready to move as soon as dawn broke. Thistle shook Bannon and Nathan by the shoulders to wake them. “It might take several days to get to Cliffwall, and the canyonlands up in the plateau can be a maze, but if you follow me”—she gave them a forced smile—“I’ll keep you safe and on track.”
Bannon tied back his loose hair. “But we don’t have any water or food. We don’t have our packs.”
The girl placed her fists on her raggedy skirt and lifted her chin. “I’ll find what we need.” She sprang off and led them along the top of the bluff, then into even higher canyonlands away from the once-fertile valley that was now the Scar. The seemingly endless expanse of slickrock rippled with upthrust fins of red rock formations, like the backbones of some mythical monster.
The landscape was scored with a dizzyingly complex labyrinth of cracks and canyons, deep gorges that spilled into oblivion with no exits that Nicci could see. The muted reds and tans were interspersed with dark green splashes of pi?on pines, mesquite scrub, even tall cacti. Down in the sheltered canyons, a fuzz of pale green mixed with spiky black branches showed where thick tamarisks clogged the channels. This was a healthy desert with natural vegetation; the spreading stain of the Lifedrinker had not extended this far … but Nicci suspected that would change before long.
Nathan shaded his eyes and looked out across the desert highlands. “It is beautiful, I’ll grant you that.” He placed a hand on the leather pouch that still held his life book, one of the few things he had managed to keep with him. “But I despair at the thought of mapping it. How can we not get lost?”
Thistle said, “I already told you, I’ll be your guide. I can show you where Cliffwall has been hidden for thousands of years. I’ve explored it all. I know where I’m going.”
“You explored all of this?” Bannon sounded skeptical.
She huffed. “I am eleven summers old.”
“I see no reason to doubt her.” Nicci followed as the girl set off, prancing from rock to rock, scrambling up steep slopes while Bannon and Nathan worked hard to keep up.
Thistle guided them along the fingers of canyon rims, then back around again to a deeper cut. As they rested, the orphan girl stayed near Nicci, and gazed back at the barren emptiness of the Scar, many miles behind them. Thistle gave a long wistful sigh, her face a mask of sadness. “I heard people talk about how beautiful this land was once, with forests, rivers, crops. Like a paradise, the perfect place to live. When my aunt and uncle talked about it, they would begin to cry, saying how much it had changed in just my lifetime. It sounded so wonderful.” She sniffled. “That’s why Uncle Marcus and Aunt Luna insisted on staying here. They said our valley would come back … someday.” She looked at Nicci. “You’re going to bring it back, Nicci, and I’ll help you. I will! Together we’ll fight. We’ll bring all the life back to this valley.”
The girl showed such adamant hope that Nicci did not wish to disappoint her. “Perhaps we will.”
Toward the end of a long day of traveling, Thistle led them to the lip of a wide canyon and found an impossible trail that took them painstakingly down toward the bottom. “There’ll be water here and a place to camp.”
Indeed, Thistle knew exactly where to find an excellent shelter under an overhang, where they built a campfire of brittle tamarisk and mesquite wood that burned hot with fragrant smoke. A seep of water provided all they needed to drink and to wash.
As twilight closed in, the girl darted off into the winding canyon and returned a short while later with four lizards for them to eat. They roasted the reptiles whole, and Nicci crunched the crispy scaled skin, bones and all.
Thistle led them onward for three days, climbing higher into the plateau through desert scrub, mesquite, sagebrush, creosote bush, and spiky yucca. They entered the uplands well above Verdun Springs, circling around the foothills that enclosed the vast valley and up into the high plateau.