Confessor (65 page)

“There was no time,” Richard said, cutting him off. “Sometimes one has only an instant to do something, and in such circumstances every eventuality can’t be considered or addressed. In that cusp of opportunity not every circumstance can be recognized, much less planned for or dealt with.

“Sometimes it’s more important to seize the chance and do what you can, even knowing that it won’t likely account for everything, every problem, than it is to do nothing.

“Only later can one go over the what-ifs and should-haves.

“I had to act. I did the very best I could before it was too late.”

Zedd smiled and then gripped Richard’s shoulder, giving it a jostle. “You did good, my boy. You did good.”

“Yes, he certainly did,” Nicci said.

They all turned to see her making her way down the path, a big smile on her face.

“I just checked. The army of the Imperial Order is gone from the Azrith Plain. There are a few men left, those like Bruce, who want the chance to live free to try to make something of their lives.”

A cheer went up from all those in the room at hearing confirmation that the vast army of the Imperial Order was gone.

As soon as Nicci was close, Kahlan immediately embraced her. She finally pushed back and smiled knowingly at Nicci.

“Only someone who truly loves him would do all you did to get me back. You are more than a friend to us.”

“Richard taught me that to love someone means that you sometimes are fulfilled the most by putting their deepest desires above your own. I won’t deny loving him, Kahlan, but I still couldn’t be happier for both of you. To see you both together, and so much in love, brings me profound joy.”

Nicci turned her attention to Richard. She was looking serious to the point of disquiet. “I want to know how you could create a distant world on the other side of nowhere and send everyone there.”

“Well,” he began, “I read in the books on Ordenic theory that the gateway that was created could bend magic around in a way to counter Chainfire. That gave me an idea.”

He pulled the folded white cloth from his pocket. “See here? A drop of ink fell here.”

Zedd leaned in. “So what?”

Richard unfolded the white cloth. “Look,” he said, pointing to the two spots on opposite sides of the cloth. “When
the cloth is folded, these two spots are touching. When you unfold it, they are on opposite ends of the cloth.

“The power of Orden is able to bend existence—in effect Orden
is
the bend in existence that is able to undo Chainfire and restore memory. So in effect, I used Orden’s power to create an impression of this world. Orden sent those people through the gateway to that other world that was actually right here in the same place, and then when I pulled the sword back out of the box and closed off the gateway, that other world is now on the other side of existence—just like this spot that was once touching the original is now on the other side of the cloth.”

“You mean,” Zedd said, deep in thought as he rubbed his chin, “Orden created a gateway that momentarily joined the two places in order to allow those who wished a world without magic to step across, and then it separated the worlds forever.”

“You’re a quick study,” Richard said, teasingly.

Zedd swatted Richard’s shoulder.

Richard took a few steps to lay a hand on Verna’s shoulder. “It was Warren who gave me the spark of the idea. It was he who first told me that the boxes of Orden were a gateway, a conduit through the underworld. I couldn’t have done it without Warren. He helped us all with his knowledge.”

Verna, her eyes brimming with tears, rubbed Richard’s back affectionately in appreciation.

Richard lifted the amulet he wore around his neck, the one once worn by wizard Baraccus.

“This amulet illustrates the dance with death. It’s about more than just fighting with the sword, or even about living life. This emblem also contains what I needed to go to the underworld, the world of the dead. This is part of what Baraccus intended for me to understand.

“But this amulet also represents that final movement of
the dance with death, the killing thrust, that was needed to use the boxes of Orden.”

Kahlan circled her arm around his waist. “You have done wizard Baraccus proud, Richard.”

“You have done us all proud,” Zedd said.

Nicci’s blue eyes sparkled with her smile. “He certainly has.”

Zedd smiled in a manner Richard had not seen in a very long time. It was the old Zedd, Richard’s grandfather, advisor, and friend. Zedd spoke with quiet pride.

“What all those ancient wizards tried to do with the great barrier to the south, and what I, as First Wizard, tried to do with the boundaries, you actually did, Richard.

“You eliminated the threat to prevent them from ever harming us again, but you left life for the future. All those children of those people will have a chance to learn from the mistakes of their parents and, possibly, they will learn and grow and rise above hatred of others as a way of life. You have given them a world to live out their hatred of life, a world to take into a thousand years of darkness, but you have also given future generations the chance for a rebirth of mankind there, who hopefully will embrace life and the nobility of the human spirit.

“You have given both worlds the gift of life, and you did it through strength without hate.”

A balmy breeze lifted Jennsen’s red hair as she stared at the ornate letter “R” engraved on the silver handle of her knife.

“Thinking about your brother?” Tom asked as he walked up to her, bringing her out of her memories.

She smiled up at her husband as she hugged him with one arm. “Yes, but only good thoughts.”

“I miss Lord Rahl, too.”

He pulled out his own knife to gaze at it. It was the twin of Jennsen’s. His had the same ornate letter “R” for the House of Rahl. Tom had spent the better portion of his young adult life as a member of the special forces that served covertly to protect the Lord Rahl. That was how he had earned the right to carry that knife.

Jennsen leaned a shoulder against the doorframe. “It seems you only just got a Lord Rahl worth serving when you gave it all up to come here with me.”

“You know,” he said, smiling as he slipped his knife back in its sheath, “I rather like my new life with my new wife.”

She hugged her arms around the bear of a man. “You do, do you?” she asked in a teasing way.

“I like my new name, too,” he added. “I’m finally used to it. You know, comfortable with it.”

When they married, Tom had taken her name, Rahl, so that they could carry it on in the new world. It seemed only fitting that the man who had given them their new life should be remembered in some fashion.

In every other way he was vanishing from memory.

It was surprising to Jennsen how so many people no longer even remembered the place they came from, their old world. It was just as Richard said: the Chainfire spell was taking their memory and those blank places were being rebuilt with new memories, new beliefs, about who they were. Since the Chainfire spell and the taint within it were both Subtractive Magic, it had affected even the pristinely ungifted, so even they were continuing to lose track of who and what they had been.

For the most part, magic had become no more than superstition. Wizards and sorceresses were even less important. They had become no more than tales told around campfires to scare people for a good laugh. Dragons were becoming only folklore. In this world there were no dragons.

Any who possessed magic were fading away. Their ability was dying out, smothered by the taint from the chimes. Day by day they became more powerless. Eventually they would merely be old hags living by themselves in swampy places and considered crazy by most folk.

Any trace of the gift that survived, if not withered away by the taint of the chimes they’d brought with them into their world, would eventually be completely eliminated by descendants of the pristinely ungifted. It would be only a matter of generations before there was no trace of the gift left in mankind—just the way the Order had once said they wanted it.

Everyone was concerned with more important things
now. Their lives now revolved around the hard work of survival when there was no one who accomplished anything worthwhile. People had forgotten how to do things, how to create things. Even what had once seemed the most common of things, such as construction methods, was being lost. The people here never knew how to create—they had depended on others to build and create. It would take future generations to discover them all over again.

Those from the old life, those who created, who invented, who made life easier for everyone, and who were the object of such hatred, were not in this world to help make life better. The people left, for the most part, were left to eke out an existence as best they could.

For most, living in such a dark age, sickness and death were their constant companion. As they had in the world they had been banished from, they turned to superstition and a grim, fatalistic acceptance of the misery of life and its accompanying devotion to their faith.

It seemed that everywhere Tom and Jennsen traveled to trade for supplies, they saw places of worship going up as the hope for mankind’s salvation from misery. Men of God traveled the countryside to spread the word, and demand devotion to Him.

Jennsen and her people kept mostly to themselves, enjoying the fruits of their own labor and the simple joy of being left alone by tyrants and brutes. Some of them, though, had started keeping the symbols of the religious beliefs pressed on them. It seemed easier for them to go along than to question, to accept prepackaged beliefs than to think for themselves.

Jennsen knew that their world was going to be one that sank into a very dark age, but she also knew that within that dark world, she and those with her could carve out their own small place of happiness, joy, and laughter. The rest of the world was too busy suffering to bother with the
remote area of a few quiet people. Some of the pristinely ungifted, though, as their memories of the old world vanished, had left to go out among the cities and far-off places.

Unknowingly, they carried the pristinely ungifted trait. It would continue to spread to the far corners of the world.

“How is the garden coming?” she asked Tom as he knocked mud off his boots.

He scratched his head of blond hair as he grinned. “Things are coming up, Jenn. Can you believe it? I’m growing things—me, Tom Rahl. I’m finding it more than agreeable.

“And I think the sow is going to have her litter any time now. I tell you, Betty is beside herself. The way her tail is wagging, I have the feeling that she thinks the piglets are going to be hers.”

Betty, Jennsen’s brown goat, loved her new home. She got to be near Tom and Jennsen all the time and she could rule the roost. Betty had a couple of horses she was in love with, a mule she tolerated, and chickens that were beneath her. She would soon have her own kids.

Tom leaned his shoulders back against the wall and folded his arms as he gazed out appreciatively at the beautiful spring countryside. “I think we’ll do just fine, Jenn.”

She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Good, because I’m going to have a baby.”

He looked thunderstruck for a moment; then he leaped in the air with a wild hoot.

“You are! Jennsen, that’s wonderful! We’re bringing a new little Rahl into the new world? Really?”

Jennsen laughed, nodding at his enthusiasm.

She wished that Richard and Kahlan knew, that they could come visit once she eventually had her baby.

But Richard and Kahlan were in another world.

She had come to love the broad sunlit fields, the trees, the beautiful mountains beyond, and the cozy house they
had built. It was home. A home filled with love and life. She wished that her mother could see her place in the world. She wished Richard and Kahlan could see her new home, the place Tom and she had built out of nothing. She knew how proud Richard would be.

Jennsen knew that Richard was real, but to the rest of her friends in the new world, Richard and all that he embodied, all that he represented, everything they once had known…was passing into the shrouded realm of legend and myth.

Kahlan stopped every step, it seemed, to greet people. She rose up on her toes to gaze out over the crowd, trying to see people she was looking for, people she was excited about seeing again. It seemed like the entire world was assembled in the expansive corridors of the People’s Palace. She couldn’t ever recall seeing so many people come out for anything.

But then, this was a special event, something no one had ever seen before. No one wanted to miss it.

The world was a different place. With so many people devoted to hatred vanished out of this world and into their own, there was a rebirth, it seemed, of spirit. With fewer people to produce by the toil of labor, the need for food and other goods had spurred labor-saving innovation and inventions. Every day she heard of accomplishments, of new things being developed. The opportunities for individuals to create and prosper were no longer restrained. It seemed the world was in flower.

Kahlan stopped when someone caught her arm. She turned to see Jillian, with her grandfather. Kahlan hugged the girl tightly and told her grandfather what a brave young woman she had been, and how she had helped to save
them all by casting dreams. Her grandfather beamed with pride.

Kahlan was besieged by people all wanting to take her hand, to tell her how beautiful she looked, to ask if she and Richard were well. The crowds seemed to float her along. It was a delight to see such celebration, such joy and goodwill come together like this.

Several members of the crypt staff stopped her to express their excitement at being invited. She hugged one of the women to stop her from talking. Since Richard had unleashed the power of Orden and grown them their tongues back, Kahlan didn’t think that any of the crypt staff had stopped talking.

Kahlan spotted Nathan strolling through the hallway. His full head of straight white hair hung to broad shoulders holding a blue velvet cape over a ruffled white shirt. He was wearing an elegant sword at his hip—he said that it made him look dashing. He had an attractive woman on each arm, so she guessed that it worked. Kahlan hoped that Richard was as ruggedly handsome wearing his sword when he was a thousand years old.

She waved at Nathan across a sea of people. He pointed, to signify that he would see her with Richard. She headed in that direction. When she spotted Verna, Kahlan caught the prelate’s arm.

“Verna, you came!”

Verna smiled like the sunshine. “I wouldn’t think of missing such a thing.”

“How is life at the Wizard’s Keep? Are your Sisters happy there?”

Verna’s smile widened. “Kahlan, I can’t begin to tell you.

We’ve found a few new gifted boys. They’ve come to join us and we’ve been teaching them. It’s so much different than before, so much better. It’s all so new and exciting with
a First Wizard to help. Seeing such young boys coming to know their gift is wondrous.”

“And life with Zedd at the Keep?”

“Zedd has never seemed so happy. With a Keep full of people you would think he would be grumpy, but I tell you, Kahlan, the man has come alive. He’s like a child himself again to have Chase and Emma living there now, with all their children, and the boys learning their gift. The place is full of life again.”

Kahlan was getting choked up just hearing about it. “That sounds wonderful, Verna.”

“When are you coming for a visit? Everyone wants to see you and Richard again. Zedd has seen to it that people have come in to repair the damage to the Confessors’ Palace. It’s looking majestic again. It’s ready for you to come back to visit your home whenever you wish. You won’t believe all the staff who have returned and are hoping you and Richard will spend some time there.”

It was such a joy for Kahlan to know that so many people were sincere in their desire to have her around. She had grown up a Confessor, a woman feared by all. Now, because of Richard and all that had happened, she was loved as herself, and as the Mother Confessor.

“Soon, Verna, soon. Richard has been talking about wanting to get out. The palace is driving him nuts. He is surrounded by marble and the man wants to go look at trees.”

Verna kissed Kahlan’s cheek before Kahlan started on her way again. She had gone only a short distance when the square-jawed Captain Zimmer saw her and tapped his fist to his chest in salute.

“Have any ears to show me, Captain?”

He smiled knowingly. “Sorry, Mother Confessor. Haven’t needed to collect any, lately—thanks to you and Lord Rahl.”

She gave his shoulder a squeeze as she moved on.

She finally spotted Richard through the crowd. He turned to look at her, almost as if he could sense her presence. She didn’t doubt that he could.

The sight of him, as it always did, made her weak with joy. He looked magnificent in his black war-wizard outfit, fitting attire for the occasion.

When she reached him, and he circled an arm gently around her waist, drawing her close to kiss her, the rest of the world, the thousands of people, most of them no doubt watching, vanished from her mind.

“I love you,” he whispered in her ear. “You are the most beautiful woman here.”

“I don’t know, Lord Rahl,” she said with a playful smile, “some more might show up. Better not judge too quickly.”

Richard saw Victor Cascella, with his wolfish grin, tap his fist to his heart in salute. Richard, smiling at the blacksmith, returned the salute in kind.

Kahlan spotted Zedd, then. She threw her arms around the old man. “Zedd!”

“Don’t squeeze the life out of me.”

She pulled back, gripping his arms. “I’m so glad you came!”

His grin was infectious. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world, dear one.”

“Are you enjoying yourself? Have you had anything to eat?”

“I would be enjoying it more if Richard would leave me be so I could sample a few of the delightful-looking treats.”

Richard made a face. “Zedd, the kitchen staff run when they see you.”

“Well, if they don’t like to cook, they shouldn’t have become cooks.”

Kahlan felt someone grab her hand. “Rachel!” She bent and hugged the girl. “How are you?”

“Wonderful. Zedd has been teaching me to draw. When he’s not eating.”

Kahlan laughed. “Do you like living at the Keep?”

Rachel beamed. “It’s the most fun ever. I have brothers and sisters and friends. And Chase and Emma, of course. I think Chase really likes being a Keep warden.”

“I bet he does,” Richard said.

“And someday,” Rachel added, “we may move to Tamarang to live in the castle. But Zedd says that I’m a long way from ready for that.”

Rachel had been born with royal blood that carried the ability to draw spells in the sacred caves. She was, technically, the queen of Tamarang. Someday, she was going to make a grand queen and draw wonderful things.

“Zedd,” Kahlan said, “have you seen Adie?”

“Yes.” Zedd smiled to himself. “Friedrich Gilder makes her happy. If ever there was a woman who deserved to find happiness, I think it’s Adie. Lucky for her she traveled to the Keep back when the palace was under siege and ran into Friedrich. The two of them just seemed to hit it off. Now that Aydindril is back full of life, Friedrich has more work gilding than he can handle. I can hardly get him to do any work for us at the Keep.”

“And you’re all right?” Kahlan asked.

His brows lifted. “Well I will be when you and Richard come and stay for a while.” He shook a finger at Richard. “I tell you, Richard, sometimes I feel like you’ve gone off to the underworld, to live at the Temple of the Winds.”

Richard leveled an even look at his grandfather. “The Temple of the Winds isn’t in the underworld.”

“Of course it is. It was banished there during—”

“I brought it back.”

Zedd stiffened. “What?”

Richard nodded with the slightest smile. “When I went to
the underworld before I opened the power of Orden, I did a few little things. While the gateway of Orden was open I was able to put the temple back where it belongs—in this world. It was designed, created, and built by the mind of man. The things in it were the creations of the mind of man. It belongs to man. I brought it back to those of us who value such genius.”

Zedd still hadn’t blinked. “But it’s dangerous.”

“I know. I made sure that for now no one but me can get in. I figured that when you’re not busy, you and I can go visit it. It’s quite a remarkable place, actually. In the Hall of Sky the ceiling of stone is like a window showing the sky across its surface. It’s so beautiful. I’d love to be the one to show you a place that no one else has seen in three thousand years.”

Zedd’s jaw was hanging. He held up a finger. “Richard, did you do anything else while the gateway of Orden was open?”

Richard shrugged. “A few things.”

“Like what?”

“Well, for one thing, I fixed it so that red fruit in the Midlands is no longer poison, just like I promised you I would a long time ago.”

“What else?”

“Well, I—oh, look, it’s time to start. I have to go. We’ll talk later.”

Zedd’s brow drew down. “You had better believe we will.”

Taking Kahlan’s hand, Richard ascended the steps to the platform of the devotion square. Egan and Ulic stood with their hands casually clasped, waiting for the Lord Rahl. Richard took his place, Kahlan at his side.

The crowd spread out through the vast hallway quieted.

When Kahlan finally saw her coming, she smiled so broadly that it made her cheeks hurt. The crowd parted along the seemingly endless red carpet for the couple ap
proaching the platform. The escorts followed in a long trail.

Cara, looking positively radiant, ascended the steps with Benjamin at her side, holding his arm. He looked magnificent in his dress uniform. Benjamin was now General Meiffert, Commander of the First File at the People’s Palace.

Cara, like all the Mord-Sith following behind, was wearing her white leather. With Benjamin’s dark uniform they made a stunning couple. In a way it reminded Kahlan of her in her white Confessor’s dress and Richard in his black war-wizard outfit.

Nicci, as beautiful as ever, smiled as she stood among the Mord-Sith to represent Cara as her official witness.

“Are you ready?” Richard asked.

Cara and Benjamin nodded, too giddy to answer, Kahlan thought.

Richard leaned down a little, fixing Benjamin in his raptor glare. “Ben, don’t you ever hurt her, do you hear me?”

“Lord Rahl, I don’t think I could hurt her if I wanted to.”

“You know what I mean.”

Benjamin smiled broadly. “I know what you mean, Lord Rahl.”

“Good,” Richard said with a smile as he straightened.

“But I can still hurt him if I want, right?” Cara asked.

Richard lifted an eyebrow. “No.”

Cara grinned.

Richard looked out over the silent crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to be a part of something wonderful: the start of the life of Cara and Benjamin Meiffert together.

“They both have proven themselves to be the finest examples of the kind of people we all hope to be. Strong, wise, loyal to those they care about, and willing to overcome everything to embrace the highest values we have: life. They wish to share that life with each other.”

Richard’s voice broke just a bit. “No one in this room is more proud of that, or them, than I am.

“Cara, Benjamin, both of you are bound not by these words spoken before us all, but by your own hearts. These are simple words, but in simple things there is great power.”

Kahlan recognized the words from their own wedding. She thought that he could offer no greater respect for them than to use some of those same words for Cara and Benjamin.

Richard cleared his throat and paused for a moment to compose himself.

“Cara, will you have Benjamin as your husband, and will you love and honor him for all time?”

“I will,” Cara said in a clear voice that carried over the crowd.

“Benjamin,” Kahlan said, “will you have Cara as your wife, and will you love and honor her for all time?”

“I will,” he said in an equally clear voice.

“Then before your friends and loved ones, your people,” Richard said, “you are now wedded for all time.”

Cara and Benjamin came together in an embrace, kissing, as the Mord-Sith behind them cried and the crowd went wild.

When the noise finally died down, and the kiss finally ended, Richard held out a hand, inviting them to come and stand beside him and Kahlan. Berdine was still crying tears of joy on Nyda’s shoulder. Kahlan saw that Rikka, tears brimming, wore a pink ribbon in her hair that Nicci had given her.

Richard stood tall and proud as he looked out over all the faces watching him. If Kahlan didn’t see all the thousands gathered, she would have thought the halls were empty, it was that quiet.

Richard spoke, then, in a voice that all could hear.

“To exist in this vast universe for a speck of time is the
great gift of life. Our tiny sliver of time is our gift of life. It is our only life. The universe will go on, indifferent to our brief existence, but while we are here we touch not just part of that vastness, but also the lives around us. Life is the gift each of us has been given. Each life is our own and no one else’s. It is precious beyond all counting. It is the greatest value we can have. Cherish it for what it truly is.”

Cara put her arms around his neck. “Thank you, Richard, for everything.”

“It is my great honor, Cara,” he said as he hugged her.

“Oh, by the way,” Cara whispered in his ear, “Shota stopped to see me just a little while ago. She wanted me to give you a message.”

“Really? What message?”

“She said that if you ever come back to Agaden Reach she will kill you.”

Richard pulled back in surprise. “Really? She said that?”

Cara nodded, grinning. “But she was smiling when she said it.”

And then the bell calling people to devotion rang.

Before anyone could move, Richard again spoke.

“There will be no more devotions. None of you have to kneel before me or anyone else.

“Your life is yours alone. Rise up and live it.”