Blood of the Fold (Sword of Truth 3)

Zedd finally broke the quiet. “They all think the Mother Confessor is dead. If we let them know you’re alive, then you become a target, and it would bring the Order down on us before we could gather a strong enough force.”

Kahlan turned and gripped his robes. “Zedd, I’m tired of being dead.”

He patted her hand on his arm. “You’re the queen of Galea, and you can use your influence in that way, for now. If the Imperial Order finds out you’re alive, then we’ll have more trouble than we’re prepared to handle.”

“If we’re going to unite the Midlands, then they need a Mother Confessor.”

“Kahlan, I know you don’t want to do anything to jeopardize the lives of those men out there. They’ve just won a costly battle; they aren’t strong enough yet. We need more gathered to our side. If anyone knows you are the Mother Confessor, then you become a target and they will have to fight to protect you. If you must fight, it must be for the right reasons. We don’t need more problems than we can handle right now.”

Kahlan pressed the tips of her fingers together as she stared into the fire. “Zedd, I am the Mother Confessor. I’m terrified I will be the Mother Confessor who presides over the destruction of the Midlands. I was born a Confessor. It’s more than my job. It is who I am.”

Zedd hugged her shoulders. “Dear one, you are still the Mother Confessor. That’s why we must hide your identity for now. We need the Mother Confessor. When the time comes, you will rule over the Midlands again, a Midlands stronger than it has ever been. Have patience.”

“Patience,” she muttered.

“Ah, well,” he said with a grin, “there is magic in patience, too, you know.”

“Zedd be right,” Adie said from her chair. “The wolf does not survive if he announces to the herd he be a wolf. He makes his plans of attack, and only at the last moment, lets the prey know that it be he, the wolf, who be after them.”

Kahlan rubbed her arms. There was more to it—another reason.

“Zedd,” she whispered with the pain of it, “I can’t stand this spell any longer. It’s driving me mad. I can feel it all the time, like death walking in my flesh with me.”

Zedd pulled her head to his shoulder. “My daughter used to say the same thing. Those very words, in fact, ‘like death walking in my flesh with me.’”

“How did she stand it all those years?”

Zedd sighed. “Well, when Darken Rahl raped her, I knew that if he thought she was alive, he would come after her. There was no choice. I wanted to protect her more than I wanted to go after him. I took her to the Midlands, where Richard was born, and then she had another reason to hide. If Darken Rahl ever knew, he might have come after Richard, too, so she had to endure it.”

Kahlan shuddered. “All those years. I wouldn’t have the strength. How could she stand it?”

“Well, there was no alternative, for one thing, and for another, she said that after a time she became used to it a bit, and it wasn’t so bad as it was in the beginning. The feeling will ease a bit over time. You will get used to it, and hopefully, you will not have to go on long like this.”

“I hope so,” Kahlan said.

The firelight flickering on Zedd’s thin face. “She also said that having Richard lessened the burden.”

Kahlan’s heart leapt at the mere mention aloud of his name. She grinned. “That will surely help.” She clutched Zedd’s arm. “He’ll be here soon. He won’t let anything hold him back. He’ll be here in a couple of weeks at the most. Dear spirits, how will I ever wait that long?”

Zedd chuckled. “You have as little patience as that boy. You two were made for each other.” He brushed back her hair. “Your eyes look better already, dear one.”

“Then when Richard is with us, and we start pulling the Midlands back together, you can take this death spell off me. Then the Midlands will have a Mother Confessor again.”

“It can’t be soon enough for me, either.”

Kahlan frowned. “Zedd, if you go away to see Queen Cathryn, and I need to get this spell off, how can I do it?”

Zedd looked back to the flames. “You can’t. If you were to announce that you were the Mother Confessor, people would believe you no more than if Jebra were to announce that she was the Mother Confessor. The spell won’t leave because you simply declare who you are.”

“Then how do I get it off?”

Zedd sighed. “Only I can do that.”

Kahlan felt a sudden flush of fear. She didn’t want to voice it, but she would be trapped with the spell if anything happened to Zedd.

“But surely there must be another way to remove the spell. Perhaps Richard?”

Zedd shook his head. “Even if Richard knew how to be a wizard, he could not remove the web. Only I can do it.”

“And that’s the only way?”

“Yes.” He looked back to her eyes. “Unless, of course, another with the gift were to deduce your true identity. If such a man were to see you, understand who you were, and name you aloud, then it would break the spell, and all would once again know your identity.”

There was no hope of that. She felt her hopes sink. Kahlan squatted and shoved another stick of wood in the fire. The only way she was going to get the death spell off was for Zedd to do it, and he wasn’t going to do it until he was good and ready.

As Mother Confessor, she would not order a wizard to do something both knew was wrong.

Kahlan watched the sparks swirling up. She brightened. Richard would be with her soon, and it wouldn’t be so bad, then. When Richard was with her she wouldn’t think about the spell; she would be too busy kissing him.

“What’s funny?” Zedd asked.

“What? Oh, nothing.” She stood and brushed her hands off on her pants. “I think I’ll go check on the men. Maybe some cold air will get this spell off my mind.”

The cold air did feel good. She stood in the clearing outside the small farmhouse and took a deep breath. The woodsmoke smelled good. She recalled the previous days when they were on the march, and her feet and fingers felt frozen, when her ears burned with the bite of cold, and her nose ran, how she daydreamed about woodsmoke because it meant the warmth of a fire.

Kahlan strolled across the field outside the house. She stared up at the stars, her breath drifting slowly in the still air. She could see small fires dotting the valley beyond, and she could hear the murmurs of conversation of the men sitting around the fires. She was glad they, too, could have fires this night. Soon they would be to Ebinissia and they could be warm again.

Kahlan took a deep breath of the cold air, trying to forget the spel

l. The whole sky was aglitter with stars, like sparks from a huge fire. She wondered what Richard was doing right now, and if we was riding hard, or getting sleep. She longed to see him, but she also wanted him to get enough sleep. When he finally reached her, she could sleep in his arms. She grinned at the thought.

Kahlan frowned as a swath of stars went dark. Almost as soon as they darkened, they winked back to points of light. Had she really seen them go dark for an instant? Must be her imagination, she thought.

She heard a thud as something hit the ground. No alarm went up. Only one thing could get through the ring of defenders and not raise and alarm. She tingled in sudden gooseflesh, and it wasn’t the spell.

Kahlan yanked her knife free.

34

She saw glowing green eyes. In the faint light coming from the small winter moon and the stars, she saw a great hulk step toward her. Kahlan wanted to cry out, but her voice wasn’t there.

When the huge beast’s lips drew back, she saw the entire length of its prodigious fangs. She staggered back a step. She was squeezing the knife handle so hard that her fingers ached. If she was quick, and if she didn’t panic, she might have a chance. If she called out, would Zedd hear her? Would anyone hear her? Even if they did, they were too far away. They wouldn’t be able to get to her in time.

In the dim light she could see by its size that it was a short-tailed gar. It would have to be a short-tailed gar; they were the smartest, the biggest, the most deadly. Dear spirits, why couldn’t it be a long-tailed gar?

Kahlan stared as it lifted something from its chest. Why was it just standing there? Where were its blood flies? It looked down, looked up at her, and looked down again. The eyes glowed a menacing green. Its lips drew back farther, vapor clouding the air when it let out a gurgling sound.

Kahlan’s eyes went wide. Could it be? “Gratch?”

The gar suddenly started jumping up and down, howling with excitement and flapping its wings.

Kahlan sagged with heady relief. She sheathed her knife and stepped closer to the towering beast, but she was still cautious.