“What is to become of me?”
“You will go on. There is nothing else you can do.”
“I don’t want to go on. And what of Samuel? Is that what is to become of me?”
Zedd shook his head. “I’m sorry, Richard. I don’t know. I gave you the sword against my own heart, because I had to, for everyone else. The magic of the Sword of Truth does that to a Seeker, in the end. The prophecies say that the one who truly masters the sword’s magic, and in so doing makes the blade turn white, will be protected from that fate. But I don’t know how it’s to be done. I don’t even know what it means. I didn’t have the courage to tell you. I’m sorry. If you want, you may strike me dead for what I’ve done to you. Only, promise me first that you will go on and stop Darken Rahl.”
Richard laughed bitterly through the tears. “Strike you dead. That’s a joke. You’re all I have, all I’m allowed to love. How could I kill that? It’s myself I should kill.”
“Don’t say such a thing,” Zedd whispered. “Richard, I know how you feel about the magic. I walked away from it too. Sometimes events happen that you have to deal with. You are all I have left. I went after the book because I didn’t want you to be in danger. I would do anything to spare you hurt. But I cannot spare you this. We must stop Darken Rahl, not just for ourselves, but for all the others who have no chance.”
Richard scrubbed his eyes. “I know. I won’t quit until it’s finished. I promise. Then maybe I can give up the sword, before it’s too late for me.”
“Go and get some sleep. Each day will get a little better for you. If it’s any consolation, although I don’t know why Seekers end up like Samuel, I truly don’t believe it will happen to you. But if it does, it won’t happen for some time, and therefore, that can only mean you have defeated Darken Rahl, and all the people of the lands will be safe. Know that if it happens I will always take care of you. If we can stop Rahl, maybe I can help you find the secret to turning the blade white.”
Richard nodded and rose to his feet, pulling his cloak around himself. “Thank you, my friend. Sorry I’ve been so hard on you tonight. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. Maybe the good spirits have deserted me. I’m sorry I can’t tell you what Shota said.
“And Zedd, be careful tonight. There’s something out there. It’s been following us for days. I don’t know what it is, I haven’t had the time to snap a circle on it. But I don’t think it means us harm, at least it hasn’t so far, but you never know in the Midlands.”
“I will be careful.”
Richard started to walk away. Zedd called his name. He stopped and turned.
“Just be glad she cares for you as much as she does. If she didn’t, she might have touched you.”
Richard stared back at him a long moment. “I’m afraid, in a way, she already has.”
Kahlan picked her way along in the dark among the rocks and trees, and found Zedd sitting on a rock, watching her come, his legs crossed under him.
“I would have come and woke you when it was time,” he said.
She went and sat next to him, hugging her cloak around herself. “I know, but I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I would come and sit with you.”
“Did you bring anything to eat?”
She reached in her cloak, pulling out a small bundle. “Here.” She smiled. “Some rabbit and biscuits.”
While Zedd rubbed his hands together and started right in, she watched out into the night, thinking how to put the question she had come to ask him. It didn’t take him long to finish the snack.
“Wonderful, dear one, wonderful. That’s all you brought?”
Kahlan laughed. “I also brought some berries.” She pulled out a cloth bundle. “I thought you might like something sweet. Can I share them with you?”
He eyed her up and down. “I guess you’re small enough, you couldn’t eat that many.”
She laughed again and took a small handful from the open bundle in his hands. “I think I know why Richard is so good at finding food. Growing up around you, he had to be good, or he would starve.”
“I would never let him starve,” he protested. “I care for him too much.”
“I know. Me, too.”
He chewed a few berries. “I want to thank you for keeping your word.”
“My word?”
Zedd peered up at her as he hunched over the bundle, eating berries one at a time. “Your word not to touch him, not to use your power on him.”
“Oh.” She looked off into the night, gathering her courage. “Zedd, you are the only wizard left, other than Giller. I am the last Confessor. You have lived in the Midlands, you have lived in Aydindril. You are the only one who knows what it is like to be a Confessor. I tried to explain it to Richard, but it takes a lifetime to truly understand, and then, I think none but another Confessor or a wizard can really understand.”
Zedd patted her arm. “You may be right.”
“I have no one. I can have no one. You can’t imagine what that’s like. Please, Zedd.” Her eyebrows wrinkled together. “Please, can you use your magic to remove this from me? Can you take the Confessor’s magic from me, and let me be a normal woman?”
She felt as if she was hanging by a thin strand over a gaping, dark, bottomless pit. She twisted on the end of the strand while she watched his eyes.
His head bent. He didn’t look up. “There is only one way to release you from the magic. Mother Confessor.”
Her heart leapt into her throat. “How?” she whispered.
His eyes came to hers. They were filled with pain. “I could kill you.”
She felt the strand of hope break. She put all her effort to making her face show nothing, a Confessor’s face, as she felt herself disappearing down into the blackness. “Thank you, wizard Zorander, for hearing my request. I didn’t really think there was, I just thought I would ask. I appreciate your honesty. You better go get some sleep now.”
He nodded. “First, you must tell me what Shota said.”
She maintained her expression. “Ask the Seeker. It is to him she spoke; I was covered with snakes at the time.”
“Snakes.” Zedd lifted an eyebrow. “Shota must have liked you. I have seen her do worse.”
Kahlan held his eyes. “She did worse to me, too.”
“I asked Richard. He won’t tell me. You must.”
“You would have me step between two friends? You would ask me to betray his trust? No, thank you.”
“Richard is smart, perhaps the smartest Seeker I have ever seen, but he knows very little of the Midlands. He has seen only a tiny portion of it. In some ways it’s his best defense and strongest asset. He found where the last box is by going to Shota. No Seeker from the Midlands would have done that. You have spent your whole life here, you know many of the dangers. There are creatures here who could use the magic of the Sword of Truth against him. There are creatures who would suck the magic from him and kill him with it. There are dangers of every kind. We don’t have the time to teach him all he needs to know, so we must protect him, so he can do his job. I must know what Shota said so I can judge if it’s important; if we need to protect him.”
“Zedd, please, he is my only friend. Don’t ask me to betray his trust.”
“Dear one, he is not your only friend. I’m your friend too. Help me protect him. I will keep it from him that you told me.”
She gave him a meaningful glare. “He has an uncanny way of finding out things you wish him not to know.”
Zedd gave a knowing smile at that; then his face hardened. “Mother Confessor, this is not a request, this is an order. I expect you to treat it as such.”
Kahlan folded her arms, half turning away from him as she bristled. She could hardly believe he was doing this to her. She no longer had a say in the matter. “Shota said Richard was the only one who has a chance to stop Darken Rahl. She doesn’t know how, or why, but he is the only one with a chance.”
Zedd waited in silence. “Go on.”
Kahl
an gritted her teeth. “She said you would try to kill him, that you would use wizard’s fire against him, and that he has a chance to beat you. There is a chance you will fail.”