Blood of the Fold (Sword of Truth 3)

Zedd shook his head. “No. You will be the Mother Confessor who had the strength to save the people of the Midlands.”

She put a hand to her heart. “I’m not so sure.”

Zedd stepped closer. “Kahlan, Richard is the Seeker of Truth. He carries the Sword of Truth. I am the one who named him. As First Wizard, I recognized him as the one with the instincts of the Seeker.

“He is acting on those instincts. Richard is a rare person. He reacts as the Seeker, and with the use of the gift. He is doing what he thinks he must. We must put our faith in him, even if we don’t fully understand why he is doing what he is doing. Bags, he may not even fully understand why he’s doing what he is doing.”

“Read the letter again to yourself,” Adie said. “Listen to his words with your heart and you will feel his heart in them. And remember, too, that there may be things he didn’t dare to put on the paper in case it be captured.”

Kahlan wiped the back of her hand across her nose. “I know it sounds selfish, but that’s not it. I am the Mother Confessor; a trust has been passed down to me from all those who have gone before me. When I was chosen, that trust was put into my hands. It became my responsibility. When I ascended to Mother Confessor, I swore oaths.”

With a bony finger, Zedd lifted her chin. “An oath to protect your people. There is no sacrifice too great for that.”

“Maybe so. I will think on it.” Besides her tears, Kahlan fought to keep down the hackles of anger. “I love Richard, but I would never do something like this to him. I just don’t think he understands what he is doing to me—to the Mother Confessors before me who have given their lives.”

“I think he does,” Adie said in a soft rasp.

Zedd’s face suddenly went nearly as white as his hair. “Bags,” he whispered. “You don’t think Richard would be foolish enough to go into the Keep, do you.”

Kahlan’s head came up. “There are spells to protect the Keep. Richard doesn’t know how to use his magic. He won’t know how to get past them.”

Zedd leaned closer to her. “You said he has Subtractive Magic, in addition to his Additive. The spells are Additive. If Richard has any use of his Subtractive, he will be able to walk right through even the most powerful of the spells I put on the Keep.”

Kahlan gasped. “He told me that at the Palace of the Prophets he was able to simply walk through all the shields because they were Additive. The only one that stopped him was the perimeter shield and that was because it had Subtractive, too.”

“If that boy goes into the Keep, there are things in there that could kill him in a heartbeat. That’s why we put shields there—so no one can get near them. Bags, there are shields that even I have not dared pass through. For someone that doesn’t know what he’s doing, that place is a death trap.”

Zedd grabbed her by the shoulders. “Kahlan, do you think he would go into the Keep?”

“I don’t know, Zedd. You practically raised him. You would know better than I.”

“He wouldn’t go in there. He knows how dangerous magic can be. He’s a smart boy.”

“Unless he wants something.”

He peered at her with one eye. “Wants something? What do you mean?”

Kahlan wiped the last of the tears from her cheek. “Well, when we were with the Mud People, he wanted a gathering. The Bird Man warned him that it would be dangerous. An owl brought a spirit message. It hit him right in the head, cut his scalp, and then dropped to the ground dead. The Bird Man said it was a dire warning from the spirits of the danger to Richard. Richard called the gathering anyway. That was when Darken Rahl came back from the underworld. If Richard wants something, nothing will stop him.”

Zedd winced. “But he doesn’t want anything right now. He has no need to go in there.”

“Zedd, you know Richard. He likes to learn things. He may decide to just go have a peek, out of curiosity.”

“A peek can be just as deadly.”

“He said in the letter that one of his guards was killed.” Kahlan frowned. “In fact, he said ‘she.’ Why would his guard be a woman?”

Zedd flailed his arms impatiently. “I don’t know. What were you going to say about the guard being killed?”

“For all we know, it could be that someone from the Order is already in the Keep, and killed her by using magic from the Keep. Or, it could be that he fears the mriswith want to take the Keep, and he will go there to try to protect it.”

Zedd ran a thumb down his smooth jaw. “He has no idea of the dangers in Aydindril, but worse, he has no inkling of the deadly nature of the things in the Keep. I remember telling him one time that objects of magic, like the Sword of Truth, and books, were kept there. I never thought to say many were dangerous.”

Kahlan clutched his arm. “Books? You told him that there were books there?”

Zedd grunted. “Big mistake.”

Kahlan let out a sigh. “I should say so.”

Zedd threw his arms up. “We have to get to Aydindril at once!” He gripped Kahlan by her shoulders. “Richard doesn’t have control of his gift. If the Order uses magic to take the Keep, Richard won’t be able to stop them. We could lose this war before we have a chance to fight back.”

Kahlan’s fists tightened. “I can’t believe it. We’ve spent weeks running from Aydindril, and now we have to run back there. It will take weeks more.”

“The sun has already set on the days we made those choices. We must concentrate on what we can do tomorrow; we can’t relive yesterday.”

Kahlan eyed Gratch. “Richard sent us a letter. We can send him one back, and warn him.”

“That won’t help him hold the Keep should they use magic.”

Kahlan’s head was spinning with fragments of thoughts and hurried solutions. “Gratch, could you carry one of us back to Richard?”

Gratch eyed each of them, his gaze lingering on the wizard. At last, he shook his head.

Kahlan chewed her lower lip in frustration. Zedd paced back and forth before the fire, muttering to himself. Adie stared off in thought. Kahlan suddenly gasped.

“Zedd! Could you use magic?”

Zedd halted his pacing and looked up. “What sort of magic?”

“Like you did with the wagon today. Lifting it with magic.”

“I can’t fly, dear one. Just lift things.”

“But could you make us lighter, like the wagon, so that Gratch could then carry us?”

Zedd twisted up his wrinkled face. “No. It would be too hard to maintain the effort. It works on spiritless things, like rocks or wagons, but it’s altogether another matter to do it to living things. I could lift us all up a bit, but only for a few minutes.”

“Could you do it for just yourself? Could you make yourself light enough so that Gratch could carry you?”

Zedd brightened. “Yes, perhaps. It would take a great effort to maintain it for that much time, but I think I might be able to do it.”

“Could you do it, too, Adie?”

Adie sagged in her chair. “No. I do not have the power he does. I could not do it.”

Kahlan swallowed back her apprehension. “Then you have to go, Zedd. You can get to Aydindril weeks before we could travel there. Richard needs you right now. We can’t wait. Every minute’s delay is a danger to our side.”

Zedd threw his skinny arms up. “I can’t leave you defenseless!”

“I have Adie.”

“What if the mriswith come, as Richard is worried about? Then you wouldn’t have Gratch. Adie can’t help with a mriswith.”

Kahlan clutched his black sleeve. “If Richard goes in the Keep, he could be killed. If the Order gets the Wizard’s Keep, and the magic in it, then we are all dead. This is more important than my life. This is about what happened to everyone in Ebinissia. If we let them win, then a great many will die, and the living will be condemned to slavery. Magic will be extinguished. This is a battle decision.

“Besides, no mriswith has come yet. Just because they’ve attacked Aydind

ril, that doesn’t mean they will attack anywhere else. Anyway, the spell hides my identity. No one knows the Mother Confessor is alive, or that I am she. They have no reason to come after me.”

“Flawless logic. I can see why you were chosen as the Mother Confessor. But I still think it’s foolhardy.” Zedd appealed to the sorceress. “What do you think?”