Blood 46

Chapter 45
Richard is reading Kolo's journal, and we're once again reminded of how he mastered High D'Haran in two weeks. \~/ He reads for a bit about how his ancestor, Alric Rahl, claimed to have devised a way to protect his people from the dream walkers: “in order for others to be protected […] they had to pledge undying fidelity to him.” Richard realizes that this was the origin of the present-day bond between the scum commoners of D'Hara and their all-powerful Master Rahl, and “felt pride at his ancestor's benevolent act.”
Okay, first, this was not a benevolent act. They were at war. Alric Rahl was trying to counter a weapon the other side possessed, pure and simple; nothing we've seen suggests any particular altruism on his part. If the enemy has a way to mindrape your soldiers, protecting them isn't an act of benevolence; it's an act of sound strategy, regardless of whether you're a hero or a tyrant. \~/
Second, if Alric was motivated by benevolence, why did he include a pledge of absolute loyalty to himself as a condition of protection? Why couldn't he make a more generalized anti-dream walker spell? Alternately, why not make the identical spell available to his allies, and let each nation's people swear loyalty to their own individual rulers, and thus be protected? \~/
Richard reads more, about how the Ancient Wizards made “things of magic” out of people, and sometimes even wizards (not just scum commoners who didn't matter), and the other side would have to come up with a counter-monster. Blah blah, the wizards hoped to put the sliph to sleep, the Temple of the Winds was removed somehow and this was significant, blah blah.
Richard finally goes to sleep, only to be awakened by a messenger. To summarize, said messenger found Orsk's corpse and a fragment of Lunetta's distinctive cloak among the remains of a battle, and Richard deduces that the Red Sheep have captured Kahlan and they're taking her south to Europe. This inspires Richard to jump on his horse and gallop frantically for Wizard's Keep, while Cara runs out behind him yelling for him to take off his cloak of invisibility. Richard does not, thinking about how the Misters are his friends, which is surely a good thing.
(spoiler: no, it's not)
We travel next to Brogan and Lunetta, who are in the Big Stone Witch House. Brogan meets Sister Leoma, and they bitch at each other for a while with each mocking the other, before Leoma attempts without success to befriend Lunetta. Leoma leaves, and Brogan explains to his sister that all the women here are Satanists. Furthermore, Brogan has concluded that God himself is a Satanist.
Um.
How . . . how does that work?
You know what? Brogan has clearly cracked, so I'm not even going to bother trying to parse his broken logic. Moving on.
Back to Richard, who is in the Well Room where Kolo's journal was found. He attempts to awaken the sliph by yelling down the well, but a random Mister pops up and informs him that he needs to use his gift. For no particular reason (and no, I don't consider “a war wizard's powers operate through need and instinct” to be anything more than a lazy cop-out) he is able to cast exactly the spell he needs, exactly when he needs it. \~/
The sliph awakens and rises out of the well, proving to be a big blobby creature made of what resembles living quicksilver, but with the face of a woman. So pretty much this, only bigger and silver:
The sliph addresses Richard as “Master” and asks if he wishes to travel. In a rather well-written scene, we learn that Terry Goodkind can write with unusual idioms and speech-patterns when he so chooses, making all the times he chose not to do so even more glaring. In any case, the sliph informs Richard that, in order to travel, he has to . . . get inside her. No, not like that! He also has to breathe her instead of air, which understandably freaks him out a bit. Since Richard has both Plus Magic and Minus Magic, she can take him to Europe, but if he brings the Sword of the Homicidal Hobo along, anyone inside the sliph will die.
Richard briefly considers letting his Mister friend guard the sword, but decides against it. Instead, he once again calls up the Sue Magic of Plot Convenience \~/ and buries the sword's blade in the stone floor, thus protecting it from anyone who doesn't have access to a hammer and chisel. Mr Mister very considerately tosses Richard a yabree, the stupid two-bladed weapon the Misters use, so he won't be unarmed, telling him that soon “The yabree will sing to you.” How nice.
So the sliph scoops Richard up as he remembers Mrs Rencliffe, thus reminding the readers that he is, in fact, violating Wizard's Third Rule.
Drinks: 5
<Previous Chapter  -  Next Chapter>