His old friend placed his hands on Richard’s shoulders and looked hard into his eyes. Zedd’s features were set in grim warning.
“Now I have to tell you something you are not going to like.” His fingers tightened, almost painfully. “You cannot use the Sword of Truth on Darken Rahl.”
“What!”
Zedd gave him a shake. “He is too powerful. The magic of Orden protects him during his year of search. If you try to use the sword, you will be dead before it reaches him.”
“This is crazy! First you want me to be the Seeker and take the sword, now you tell me I can’t use it!” Richard was furious. He felt cheated.
“Just against Rahl, it won’t work against him! Richard, I didn’t make the magic, I only know how it works. Darken Rahl knows how it works too. He may try to make you use the sword against him. He knows it would kill you. If you give in to the rage and use the sword against him, he will win. You will be dead and he will have the boxes.”
Kahlan’s brow wrinkled in frustration. “Zedd, I agree with Richard. This makes it impossible. If he cannot use his most important weapon, then…”
Zedd cut her off. “No! This”—he rapped Richard on the head with his knuckles—“this is a Seeker’s most important weapon.” He jabbed his long finger at the center of Richard’s chest. “And this.”
Everyone stood in silence for a moment.
“The Seeker is the weapon,” Zedd said with emphasis. “The sword is just a tool. You can find another way. You must.”
Richard thought he should be upset, that he should feel angry, frustrated, overwhelmed, but he didn’t. His first view of his options lifted from him, letting him see beyond. He felt strangely calm and determined.
“I’m sorry, my boy. I wish I could change the magic, but I…”
Richard put his hand on Zedd’s shoulder. “It’s all right, my friend. You’re right. We must stop Rahl. That’s all that matters. I have to know the truth to succeed, and you have given me the truth. Now it’s up to me to use it. If we gain one of the boxes, justice will have Rahl. I don’t need to see it. I need only know it is done. I said I wouldn’t be an assassin, and so I shall not be. The sword will be invaluable, I’m sure, but as you said, it’s only a tool, and that’s the purpose I will put it to. The magic of the sword isn’t an end in itself. I can’t allow myself to make that mistake, or I will be only a pretend Seeker.”
In the gathering gloom, Zedd patted Richard affectionately on the shoulder. “You have gotten it all right, my boy. All of it.” He broke into a broad grin. “I have chosen the Seeker well. I am proud of myself.” Richard and Kahlan laughed at Zedd’s self-congratulation.
Kahlan’s smile faded. “Zedd, I cut down the tree you planted in memory of your wife. That bothers me. I’m deeply sorry for doing it.”
“Don’t be, dear one, her memory has aided us. She has helped show the Seeker the truth, there could be no more fitting tribute to her.”
Richard didn’t hear them talking. Already he was looking to the east, to the massive wall of mountains, trying to think of solutions. Cross the boundary, he thought, cross the boundary without going through it. How? What if it was impossible? What if there was no way across the boundary? Would they be stuck here while Darken Rahl searched for the boxes? Were they to die without a chance? He wished there were more time and fewer limitations. Richard reprimanded himself for wasting time wishing.
If only he knew it could be done, then he could find out how. Something in the back of his mind nagged at him, insisting that it could be done, insisting he knew the truth of it. There was a way, there had to be. If he only knew that it was possible.
All around them, the night was coming alive with sounds. Frogs called from the ponds and streams, night birds from the trees, and insects from the grass. From the distant hills came the cry of wolves, mournful and plaintive against the dark wall of mountains. Somehow they had to cross those mountains, cross the unknown.
The mountains were like the boundary, he thought. You couldn’t go through them, but you could cross them. You had only to find a pass. A pass. Was it possible? Could there be one?
Then it struck him like a bolt of lightning.
The book.
Richard spun on his heels, excited. To his surprise Zedd and Kahlan were both standing quietly, watching him, as if waiting for a pronouncement.
“Zedd, have you ever helped anyone other than yourself go through the boundary?”
“Like who?”
“Anyone! Yes or no!”
“No. No one.”
“Can anyone other than a wizard send a person through the boundary?”
Zedd shook his head emphatically. “None but a wizard. And Darken Rahl, of course.”
Richard frowned at him. “Our lives depend on this, Zedd. Swear. You have never, ever, sent anyone other than yourself through the boundary. True?”
“True as a boiling bog full of toasted toads. Why? What have you thought of? Do you have a way?”
Richard ignored the question, too deep in his own stream of thought to answer, and instead turned back to the mountains. It was true; there was a pass across the boundary! His father had found it, and used it! That was the only way the Book of Counted Shadows could have been in Westland. He couldn’t have brought it with him when he moved here, before the boundary, and he couldn’t have found it in Westland; the book had magic. The boundary wouldn’t have worked if magic had been here then. Magic could only be brought into Westland after the boundary was up.
His father had found a pass, gone into the Midlands, and brought the book back. Richard was shocked and excited at the same time. His father had done it! He had gone across the boundary. Richard was elated. Now he knew there was a way across; it could be done. He still had to find the pass, but that didn’t matter for now. There was a pass; that was what mattered.
Richard turned back to the other two. “We will go have supper.”
“I put a stew on, just before you awoke, and there is fresh bread,” Kahlan offered.
“Bags!” Zedd threw his scarecrow arms up into the air. “It’s about time someone remembered supper!”
Richard gave a little smile in the dark. “After we’ve eaten, we’ll make preparations, decide what we need to take, what we can carry, get our provisions together and packed tonight. We’ll need to get a good night’s sleep. We leave at first light.” He turned and headed for the house. The faint glow of the fire coming from the windows offered warmth and light.
Zedd held up an arm. “Where are we headed, my boy?”
“The Midlands,” Richard called back over his shoulder.
Zedd was halfway through his second bowl of stew before he could bring himself to stop eating long enough to talk. “So, what have you figured out? Is there truly a way to cross the boundary?”
“There is.”
“Are you sure? How can it be? How can we cross without going through?”
Richard smiled as he stirred his stew. “You don’t have to get wet to cross a river.”
The lamp light flickered on their faces as Kahlan and Zedd frowned in puzzlement. Kahlan turned and threw a small piece of meat to the cat, who was sitting on his haunches, waiting for any handout. Zedd ate another slab of bread before he was able to ask his next question.
“And how do you know there is a way across?”