The Bird Man greeted them with the gentle slaps customary in the village proper.
He embraced Kahlan in a fatherly hug. “The fever is over. Our ancestor’s spirit must have been a help to you.” Kahlan nodded. “I am glad you are home. It will be good to wed you and Richard with the Temper. Everything is prepared.”
“What did he say?” Richard asked.
“Everything is prepared for our wedding.”
Richard scowled. “It makes me nervous when people know things that we haven’t told them.”
“Richard with the Temper is upset? He is not happy with our preparations?”
“No, it’s not that,” Kahlan said. “Everything is wonderful. It’s just that we don’t understand how you could know we would be here to be married. We’re puzzled. We didn’t know ourselves until just a couple of days ago.”
The Bird Man pointed to one of the open pole structures shaded under a grass roof. “That man over there told us.”
“Really,” Richard said, after Kahlan translated, his scowl growing. “Well, I think it’s about time we go see this man who seems to know more about us than we do.”
As they turned away, Kahlan caught the Bird Man scratching a cheek to screen a smile.
They had to work at making their way through the throng. The entire village was out in the open area, celebrating. Musicians and dancers entranced children and adults alike. People paused to talk to Richard and Kahlan as they passed. Young people, especially young girls, who were always painfully shy in the past, now boldly offered congratulations. It was as festive an event as Kahlan had ever seen.
At various open pole structures where food was being prepared, people, beguiled by the different aromas, crowded around to sample the fare. A contingent of young women carried bowls and platters, and passed around food.
Kahlan saw special women at one of the cook fires preparing a singular offering served only at gatherings. No one congregated to sample it. This dish was presented only by those women, according to strick protocol, and by invitation only.
Cara didn’t like how close people crowded in around her charges, but she did her best to remain tolerant while at the same time watchful and prepared to react. She wasn’t gripping her Agiel, but Kahlan knew that it was never more than a flick away.
Young women were carrying platters of the more traditional food to and from the pole building where the Bird Man had pointed them. Richard, holding Kahlan by the hand, pushed his way through the crowd around the platform.
They finally made it to the head of the crowd, at the platform. Richard and Kahlan froze in shock.
“Zedd—” Richard whispered.
Reposing in his splendid violet and black robes, the regal effect somewhat diminished by the way his wavy white hair stuck out in its typical disarray, was Richard’s grandfather. The rawboned old wizard glanced up from the platform as young women offered him platters of food to sample. A squat woman in a dark dress and cloak sat cross-legged beside him.
“Zedd!” Richard bounded onto the platform.
Zedd smiled and waved. “Oh, there you are, my boy.”
“You’re alive! I knew you were alive!”
“Well, of course I’m—”
That was all he got out before Richard scooped him up, squeezing so hard that Zedd lost his wind with a whoosh.
Zedd’s fists beat on Richard’s shoulders. “Richard!” he squeaked. “Bags, Richard! You’re going to crush me! Leave go!”
Richard set him down only to have Kahlan rush to embrace him. “Richard kept saying you were alive, but I didn’t believe him.”
The woman rose up. “Good to see you, Richard.”
“Ann? You’re alive too!”
She smiled. “No thanks to your fool grandfather.” Her knowing eyes turned to Kahlan. “And this could be none other than the Mother Confessor herself.”
Richard hugged her before the introductions. Zedd took a bite of a rice cake while he watched.
Richard brought Cara forward. She spoke before he had a chance. “I am Lord Rahl’s bodyguard.”
Richard looked to her eyes. “This is Cara, and she is more than a guard. She is our friend. Cara, this is my grandfather, Zedd, and Annalina Aldurren, Prelate of the Sisters of the Light.”
“Retired Prelate,” Ann said. “Pleased to meet a friend of Richard.”
Richard turned back to Zedd. “I can’t believe you’re here. This is the best surprise we could possibly have. But what’s this about you knowing we were coming to get married?”
Zedd spoke with his mouth full. “Read it. Read all about it.”
“Read it? Where?”
“In the Jocopo Treasure.”
Kahlan leaned in. “There’s writing on all that gold?”
Zedd waved the rice cake. “No, no, not the gold—the Jocopo Treasure. The prophecies. All those scrolls. They were the Jocopo Treasure. We burned them to keep them out of the hands of the Imperial Order. I read a few, before I destroyed them. That’s where I read the prophecy about you two being married. Ann figured out the day. She’s quite knowledgeable about prophecy.”
“Well, it wasn’t a difficult prophecy,” Ann said. “None of them were. That was why they were so dangerous, if Jagang had captured them. He nearly did.”
“So, you two came to destroy the prophecies?” Richard asked.
“Yes.” Zedd threw up his hands with a huff. “Oh, but a terrible time of it we’ve had, though.”
“Yes, just terrible,” Ann confirmed.
Zedd shook a sticklike finger at Richard. “While you’ve been larking about in Aydindril, we’ve had real trouble.”
“Trouble? What sort of trouble?”
“Awful trouble,” Ann said.
“Yes,” Zedd agreed. “We were captured, and held in the most horrid of conditions. It was awful. Simply awful. We barely got away with our lives.”
“Who captured you?”
“The Nangtong.”
Kahlan cleared her throat. “The Nangtong? Why would the Nangtong capture you?”
Zedd tugged his robes straight. “They were going to sacrifice us. Human sacrifices, we almost were. We were in mortal danger the entire time.”
Kahlan squinted skeptically. “The Nangtong are daring to engage in their forbidden rites?”
“Something about red moons,” Zedd offered. “They feared the worst, and were only trying to protect themselve
s.”
Kahlan cocked her head. “Nonetheless, I will have to pay them a visit and see to this.”
“You could have been killed,” Richard said.
“Piffle. A wizard and a sorceress are smarter than a wandering band of Nangtong. Aren’t we, Ann?”
Ann blinked. “Well—”
“Well, yes, as Ann says, it was more complicated than that.” Zedd turned away from her. “But it was just awful, I can assure you. And then we were sold into slavery.”
Richard’s brow lifted. “Slavery!”
“Indeed. To the Si Doak. We were forced to labor as slaves. But the Si Doak didn’t like us, for some reason, something about Ann being unsatisfactory, and they decided to sell us to cannibals.”
Richard’s jaw dropped. “Cannibals?”
Zedd grinned. “Fortunately, the cannibals turned out to be the Mud People. Chandalen was the one they approached. He knew me, of course, from when we were together before, so he played along, and bought us to get us away from our bondage to the Si Doak.”
“And why couldn’t you get away from the Si Doak?” Kahlan asked. “You’re a wizard. Ann is a sorceress.”
Zedd pointed at his bare wrists. “They put magic wristbands on us. We were helpless.” He looked up. “Quite helpless. It was terrible. We were helpless slaves under the lash.”
“That sounds dreadful,” Richard said. “Then how did you get the bands off?”
Zedd threw his arms up. “We couldn’t.”
Richard pressed one hand to his forehead and held the other up. “Well, they’re off now.”
Zedd scratched his chin. “Well, now they are. The bands are held on with magic. I—we—were smart enough to know better than to try to use magic. That would have bound them on even harder. We just had to wait, without using magic, until they lost their power. Once we were away from the Si Doak, and were burning the scrolls, they came undone, and fell off.”
“So, that was your plan all along?”
“Of course it was!”
Ann nodded. “Trust in the Creator to reveal His plan.”
Zedd shook a finger up at Richard. “Magic is dangerous, Richard. As you will learn, someday, the hardest part of being a wizard is knowing when not to use magic. This was one of those times.