Faith of the Fallen (Sword of Truth 6)

“I do,” Warren said in a confident tone.

“Then, it being of your free will, I accept you, sorceress, as being agreeable and give my joyful blessing to this union.” Zedd raised outstretched arms up into the air. “I ask the good spirits to smile on this woman’s oath.”

“Then, it being of your free will, I accept you, wizard, as being agreeable and give my joyful blessing to this union.” Adie raised outstretched arms up into the air. “I ask the good spirits to smile on this man’s oath.”

The four of them crossed their arms and joined hands. With heads bowed, the air in the center of their circle glowed with a living light shining on the union. The brilliant flare sent a golden ray skyward, as if carrying the oath to the good spirits.

Together, Zedd and Adie said, “From this time forward, you are forever joined as husband and wife, both by oath, by love, and now by gift.”

The magical light dissolved from the bottom up until it was but a solitary star directly above them in an empty, late-afternoon sky.

In the silent winter air tens of thousands of spellbound eyes watched a trembling Verna meet Warren’s kiss to seal a wedding unlike any they were likely to ever see again: the marriage of a sorceress and a wizard, bound by more than any mere oath—bound also by a covenant of magic.

When Verna and Warren parted, both wearing broad smiles, the crowd went wild. Cheers, along with hats, rose into the air.

Both beaming, Verna and Warren joined hands after they turned to the soldiers. They waved with their free arms high in the air. Soldiers cheered, applauded, and whistled as if it were their own sister or best friend who was just married.

The voices of the choir then built in an extended note that reverberated through the trees all around. It made Kahlan’s skin tingle with the quality of its haunting tone. The sound brought a reverent hush to the valley.

Cara leaned close to Kahlan and whispered in astonishment that the choir was singing an ancient D’Haran wedding ceremonial song, the origin of which went back thousands of years. Since the men had gone off to practice alone, Kahlan hadn’t heard it before the wedding. It was so powerful it swept her emotions away with the rise and fall of the joined voices. Verna and Warren stood on the edge of the platform, likewise gripped by the achingly beautiful song to their union.

Flutes joined in, and then drums. The soldiers, mostly D’Haran, smiled as they listened to the music they knew well. It struck Kahlan then, since she had so long thought of D’Hara as an enemy land, that she had never really thought of D’Harans as having traditions that could be meaningful, or stirring, or beloved.

Kahlan glanced over at Cara, standing beside her, smiling distantly as she listened to the music. There was an entire land of D’Hara that was largely a mystery to Kahlan; she had only seen their soldiers. She knew nothing of their women—other than the Mord-Sith, and they were hardly typical—or their children, or their homes, or their customs. She had come to think of them as joined together at last, but she now realized that they were a people she didn’t know, a people with their own heritage.

“It’s beautiful,” Kahlan whispered to Cara.

Cara nodded blissfully, carried away on the strains of music that was an old acquaintance to her, and a exotic wonder to Kahlan.

As the choir came to the end of their tribute to the newly wedded couple, Verna reached back and squeezed Kahlan’s hand. It was an apology of sorts—an acknowledgment of how difficult this ceremony must be for Kahlan.

Refusing to let that hurt tarnish this joyous event, Kahlan beamed at Verna’s quick glance. She came forward, standing behind Warren and Verna with an arm around each. The noise of the crowd trailed off so Kahlan could speak.

“These two people belong together. Perhaps they always have. Now they forever shall be. May the good spirits be with them always.”

With one voice, the entire crowd repeated the prayer.

“I want to thank Verna and Warren from the bottom of my heart,” Kahlan said as she gazed out at the tens of thousands of faces watching, “for reminding us what life is really about. There is no more eloquent demonstration of the simple yet deep meaning of our cause than this wedding today.”

Heads as far as she could see bobbed in agreement.

“Now,” Kahlan called out, “who wants to see these two have the first dance?”

The men cheered and hooted as they spread back to open up the central area. Musicians lined up along the benches at the sides.

As they waited for Verna and Warren to make their way down to the dance area, Kahlan draped an arm over Zedd’s shoulder and kissed his cheek.

“This is the best idea you ever had, wizard.”

He took her in with hazel eyes that seemed to see all the way to a person’s soul.

“Are you all right, dear one? I know this has to be hard.”

Kahlan nodded, holding her grin firmly in place. “I’m fine. It has to be hard on you, twice over.”

A smile took him unexpectedly. “There you go again, Mother Confessor. Worrying about others.”

Kahlan watched a laughing Verna and Warren, arm in arm, dancing lightly across the open area ringed by applauding soldiers.

“When they’re done,” Kahlan asked, “and after you’ve given your first to Adie, would you dance with me, sir? Stand in for him? I’m sure he would want that.”

Kahlan couldn’t bring herself to say his name at that moment, or the spell of the joyful celebration would have been broken.

Zedd lifted an eyebrow with playful delight. “What makes you think I can dance?”

Kahlan laughed. “Because there isn’t anything you can’t do.”

“I be able to name a number of things this skinny old man can’t do,” Adie said with a smile as she shuffled up behind him.

When the dance was done, and others began joining in as the newly married couple began the second, Zedd and Adie went out in the ring to have a dance and show the young people how it was done. Kahlan stood at the edge of the circle with Cara close at her side. General Meiffert, laughing and shaking men’s hands, slapping others on the back, made his way over.

“Mother Confessor!” He was pushed up close by the press of the crowd. “Mother Confessor, this is a wonderful day, isn’t it? Have you ever seen the likes of it?”

Kahlan couldn’t help but to smile at his delight. “No, General Meiffert, I don’t think I have.”

He glanced briefly at Cara. He stood awkwardly a moment, then turned to watch the dancing. Despite how well the men had come to know her, Kahlan was still a Confessor—a woman people feared to be near, much less touch. No one was likely to ask a Confessor to dance.

Or a Mord-Sith.

“General?” Kahlan asked, tapping him on the back of his shoulder. “General, could you do me a great personal favor?”

“Well, of course, Mother Confessor,” he stammered. “Anything. What is it I can do?”

Kahlan gestured out at the dance area and the soldiers and Sisters ringing it. “Would you please dance? I know we’re supposed to be on guard for any mischief, but I think it would let the men see the true festive nature of this party, were their general to go out there and dance.”

“Dance?”

“Yes. Please?”

“But, I—that is, I don’t know who…”

“Oh, do please stop trying to get out of it.” Kahlan turned, as if suddenly struck with a thought. “Cara. Would you go out there with him and dance so his men will see that it’s all right to join in?”

Cara’s blue eyes shifted between Kahlan and the general. “Well, I don’t see how—”

“Do it for me? Please, Cara?” Kahlan turned back to the general. “I believe I heard someone mention that your given name is Benjamin?”

He scratched his temple. “That’s right, Mother Confessor.”

Kahlan turned back to Cara. “Cara, Benjamin, here, needs a partner for a dance. How about you? Please? Do it for me?”

Cara cleared her throat. “W

ell, all right. For you, then, Mother Confessor.”

“And don’t break his ribs, or anything. We have need of his talents.”

Cara scowled back over her shoulder as a smiling Benjamin led her away.

Kahlan folded her arms and grinned as she watched the man take Cara in his arms. It was just about a perfect day. Just about.

Kahlan was watching Benjamin gracefully swirl Cara around, and other soldiers pulling suddenly shy Sisters out of the line at the edge of the dance area, when Captain Ryan stumbled up.

He straightened before her. “Mother Confessor…uh, well, we’ve been through a lot together and, if I’m not being too forward, could I ask you to…you know, dance?”

Kahlan blinked in surprise at the tall, young, broad Galean.