To make matters all the worse, Richard knew that Shota was also right in one very important way. While he worked toward helping Kahlan, he was failing everyone else. He had been the one who, to a large extent, had made people believe in the idea, the very real possibility, of a free D'Hara, of a place where it was possible for people to live and work toward their own goals in their own lives.

He was only too aware that he was also largely responsible for the great barrier coming down, allowing Emperor Jagang to lead the Imperial Order into the New World to threaten the newfound freedom in the New World.

How many people would be at risk, or lose their lives, while he pursued this one person that he loved? What would Kahlan want him to do? He knew how much she cared for the people of the Midlands, the people she had once ruled. She would want him to forget her and to try to save them. She would say that there was too much at stake to come after her.

But if it was he who was missing, she would not abandon him for anything or anyone.

Despite what Kahlan might say, it was her life that was important to him, her life that meant the world to him.

He wondered if perhaps Shota was right, that he was merely using the concept of the danger Kahlan's disappearance represented for the rest of the world, as an excuse.

He decided that the best thing to do for the moment, until he could think of a better way to get the help he needed, and to buy himself time to gather his courage, to harden his resolve, was to change the subject.

"What about this thing," Richard asked, gesturing vaguely, "this beast, that's chasing me." The passion was gone from his voice. He realized how tired he was from the long trek over the pass, to say nothing of the blur of days riding up from the Old World. "Is there anything you can tell me about it?"

He felt on safer ground with this question because the beast could interfere not only with his search for Kahlan, but with the mission Shota was urging him to return to.

She watched him for a moment, her voice finally coming much softer, as had his, as if without realizing it they had reached a wordless truce to lower the level of antagonism. "The beast that hunts you is no longer the beast it once was, the beast it was as it was created. Events have caused it to mutate."

"Mutate?" Cara asked, looking alarmed. "What do you mean? What has it become?"

Shota appraised them both, as if to make sure they were paying attention.

"It has become a blood beast."

CHAPTER 41

"A blood beast?" Richard asked.

Cara moved close to his side. "What's a blood beast?"

Shota took a breath before explaining. "It is no longer simply a beast linked to the underworld, as it was when it was created. It was inadvertently given a taste of your blood, Richard. What's worse, it was given that taste through Subtractive Magic-magic also linked to the underworld. That event changed it into a blood beast."

"So — what does that mean?" Cara asked.

Shota leaned closer, her voice dropping to little more than a whisper. "That means that it is now oh so much more dangerous." She straightened after she was sure she had made the intended impression. "I'm not an expert on ancient weapons created in the great war, but I believe that once such a beast as this one has tasted the blood of its mark in such a way, there is no turning it back, ever."

"All right, so it won't give up." Richard rested his palm on the hilt of his sword. "What can you tell me to help me kill it, then? Or at least stop it, or send it back to the underworld. What does it do, precisely, how does it know that.»

"No, no." Shota waved a dismissive hand. "You are trying to think of this in terms of some ordinary threat hunting you. You're trying to put a nature to it, trying to give it a defining behavior. It has none. That is the peculiarity of this thing-the absence of a defining description, of a makeup. At least one that is of any use, since its nature is precisely that it has none. Because of that it therefore cannot be predicted."

"That makes no sense." Richard folded his arms, wondering if Shota really knew as much about this beast as she said she did. "It has to function by some fundamental nature. It has to behave in certain ways that we can at least come to understand and therefore begin to anticipate. We just need to figure it out. It can't possibly have no nature."

"Don't you see, Richard? Right from the beginning, here you are trying to figure it out. Don't you suppose that Jagang would know that you will try to figure it out so that you can defeat it? Haven't you done that sort of thing with him in the past? He has figured out your nature, and to counter you he has created a weapon that, for that very reason, has no nature.

"You are the Seeker. You seek answers to the nature of people, or things, or situations. To a greater or lesser extent, all people do. Had the blood beast a specific nature, its actions could then be learned and understood. If something can be understood enough to predict its behavior, then precautions can be taken, a plan to counter it can be made. Decoding its nature is essential to effective action being taken. That's why this thing has no nature-so that you can't do those things to stop it."

Richard ran his fingers back though his hair. "That doesn't make any sense."

"It's not supposed to. That, too, is part of its trait-to have no trait. To make no sense in order to foil you."

"I agree with Lord Rahl," Cara said. "It still has to have some kind of makeup, some way of acting and reacting. Even people who think they are being clever by trying to be unpredictable still fall into patterns even though they may not realize it. This beast can't just run around hither and thither hoping to come across Lord Rahl napping."

"In order to prevent it from being understood and stopped, this beast was intentionally created as a creature of chaos. It was conjured to attack and kill you, but beyond that mission, it functions toward that end through disordered means." Shota gathered up another floating point of her dress as she spoke. "Today it attacks with claws. Tomorrow it spits poison. The next day it burns with fire, or crushes with a blow, or sinks fangs into you. It attacks by random action. It does not choose a course of action based on analysis, previous experience, or even the situation at hand."

Richard pinched the bridge of his nose as he thought about her explanation. So far, it seemed like Shota was right in that there had been no pattern to the attacks. They had come in completely different ways-so different, in fact, that they had questioned whether or not it was really the same beast Nicci had warned was after him.

"But Lord Rahl has evaded this beast several times now. He has proven that it can be bested."

Shota smiled at the very idea, as if a child had come up with the assertion. She strolled off a ways and then returned as she considered the problem. The twitch of her brow told Richard that she had come up with a better way to explain it.

"Think of the blood beast as if it were rain," she said. "Imagine that you want to stay out of the rain, like you would want to avoid being caught by the beast. Imagine that your goal is to stay dry. Today you may be inside when the rain comes, so you remain dry. Another day the rain may come on the other side of the valley and you again stay dry. Another day you leave an area just before the rain begins. Another day, you may decide not to travel, and there the rain visits. Maybe on another day as you walk down a road the rain moves in and falls in the field to your right, but on the road and to your left it remains dry. Each time the random rain event missed you, and you stayed dry-sometimes because you took preventative measures, such as staying inside, and sometimes by sheer chance.