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  　The captain gestured up the road. "The scouts said there's a 【创建和谐家园】all, upland valley not far ahead. There's an abandoned farm there where Cyrilla will be comfortable for the night."

  　She drew a strand of hair back from her face and hooked it behind an ear, noting that Cyrilla was no longer referred to as "queen." Kahlan was queen now, and Prince Harold had made sure all knew it. "All right, send word ahead, then. Go; the valley secured and set up camp. Post sentries and scout the area. If the surrounding slopes are deserted, and the valley is cut off from view, then let the men have fires, but keep them 【创建和谐家园】all."

  　Captain Ryan 【创建和谐家园】iled and tapped a fist to his heart in salute. Fires would be a luxury, and hot food would do the men good. They deserved it, after the hard march. They were almost home; tomorrow they would be there. Then the worst of the work would begin: taking care of the dead, and putting Ebinissia back to order. Kahlan would not let the Imperial Order's victory over Ebinissia stand. The Midlands would have the city back, and it would live again to strike back.

  　"Did you take care of Stephens?" she asked the captain.

  　"Zedd helped us find a place, and the men are taking care of it. Poor Stephens. He fought all through the battles against the Order, when we started with five thousand, saw four of every five of his companions killed, and he ends up dying in an accident after it's over. I know he would have wanted to die defending the Midlands."

  　"He did," Kahlan said. "It's not over; we won only a battle, though an important one. We are still at war with the Imperial Order, and he was a soldier in that war.

  　He was helping with our effort, and died in the line of duty, just as much as those men kilted in combat. There is no difference. He died a hero of the Midlands."

  　Captain Ryan stuffed his hands in the pockets of his heavy, brown wool coat. "I think the men would appreciate hearing those words, and would find courage in them. Before we move on, could you say something over his grave? It would mean a lot for the men to know their queen will miss him."

  　Kahlan 【创建和谐家园】iled. "Of course. Captain. It would be my honor." Kahlan stared after the captain as he moved off to see to things. "I shouldn't have been pushing on after dark."

  　Zedd stroked a reassuring hand along the back of her head. "Accidents can happen in broad daylight. This very likely would have happened in the morning, had we stopped sooner, and then it would be blamed on being still half asleep." "I still feel to blame. It just doesn't seem fair." His 【创建和谐家园】ile marked no humor. "Fate does not seek our consent."

  　CHAPTER 33

  　If there were any bodies at the farm, the men had removed them by the time Kahlan reached it. They had started a fire in the roughly built hearth, but it hadn't had time to thaw the iron chill from the deserted home.

  　Cyrilla was carefully carried to the remains of a straw mattress in a back bedroom. There was another cramped room with two pallets, probably for children, and the main room with a table and little else. By the broken bits of a cupboard and chest, and the remains of personal items, Kahlan knew the Order had been through here on their way to Ebinissia. She wondered again what the men had done with the bodies; she didn't want to find them in the night if she had to go outside to relieve herself.

  　Zedd peered around at the room as he rubbed his hands on his stomach.

  　"How long until dinner is ready?" he asked in a cheery tone.

  　He wore heavy maroon robes with black sleeves and cowled shoulders. Three rows of silver brocade circled the cuffs of his sleeves. Thicker, gold brocade ran around the neck and down the front, the outfit gathered at the waist with a red satin belt set with a gold buckle. Zedd hated the flashy accoutrements that Adie had insisted he purchase as a disguise. He preferred his simple robes, but they were long gone, as was his fancy hat with the long feather that he had "lost" somewhere along the way.

  　Kahlan grinned in spite of herself. "I don't know. What are you cooking?"

  　"Me? Cook? Well, I suppose . .."

  　"Dear spirits, spare us that man's cooking," Adie said from the doorway. "We would be better served to eat bark and bugs."

  　Adie limped into the room, followed by Jebra, the seer, and Ahern, the coach driver who had carried Zedd and Adie on their recent journeys. Chandalen, who had accompanied Kahlan from the Mud People's village months ago, had departed after Kahlan had been with Richard one wondrous night in a place between worlds. He wanted to return to his home and people. She couldn't blame him; she knew what it was to miss friends and loved ones.

  　With Zedd and Adie, she felt as if they were almost all together. When Richard caught up with them, then truly they would all be together again. Though it would probably be weeks yet, Kahlan still couldn't help being excited by each breath, because each breath brought her one moment closer to having her arms around him.

  　"My bones do be too old for this weather," Adie said as she crossed the room.

  　Kahlan retrieved a simple wooden chair and dragged it along as she took Adie's arm and walked her to the fire. She put the chair close to the flames and urged the sorceress to sit and warm herself. Unlike Zedd's original clothes, Adie's simple,

  　flaxen robes, with yellow and red beads sewn at the neck in ancient symbols of her profession, had survived their journey. Zedd scowled every time he saw them thinking it more than a little odd that her simple robes had managed to make the journey and his had been lost.

  　Adie always 【创建和谐家园】iled and said it was a wonder and insisted that he looked grand in his fine clothes. Kahlan suspected she really did like him better in his new outfit. Kahlan, too, thought Zedd looked grand, though not so wizardlike as his traditional fashion made him look. Wizards of his high rank wore the simplest robes. There was no rank above Zedd: First Wizard.

  　"Thank you, child," Adie said as she warmed her hands near the flames.

  　"Orsk," Kahlan called.

  　The big man scurried forward. The scar over his missing eye was white in the firelight. "Yes, mistress?" He stood ready to carry out her instructions. What they might be was of no importance to him, his only concern being that he had a chance to please her.

  　"There's no pot in here. Could you get us one, so we can make some dinner?"

  　His dark leather uniform creaked as he bowed and turned to hurry from the room. Orsk had been a O'Haran soldier from the Imperial Order's camp. He had tried to kill her, and in the struggle she touched him with her power, the magic of the Confessors destroying forever who he had been and filling him with blind loyalty to her. That blind loyalty and devotion was a wearing presence to Kahlan, a constant reminder of what and who she was.

  　She tried not to see the man he had been: a D'Haran soldier who had joined with the Imperial Order, one of the killers who had participated in the slaughter of the helpless women and children of Ebinissia. As the Mother Confessor, she had sworn no mercy on any of the men of the Order, and there had been none. Only Orsk still lived. Though he lived, the man who had fought for the Order was dead.

  　Because of the death spell Zedd had cast over her to aid in their escape from Aydindril, few knew Kahlan as the Mother Confessor. Orsk only knew her as his mistress. Zedd, of course; Adie; Jebra; Ahern; Chandalen; her half brother, Prince Harold; and Captain Ryan knew her true identity, but everyone else thought the Mother Confessor was dead. The men she had fought with knew her only as their queen. Their memory of her being the Mother Confessor had been confused and muddled into remembering her as Queen Kahlan, no less their leader, but not the Mother Confessor.

  　After snow had been melted, Jebra and Kahlan added beans and bacon, cut up a few sweet roots to toss into the pot, and spooned in some molasses. Zedd stood rubbing his hands as he watched the ingredients being added. Kahlan grinned at his childlike eagerness and, from a pack, retrieved some hard bread for him. He was pleased, and ate the bread while the beans boiled,

  　While dinner cooked, Kahlan thawed leftover soup they had brought in a 【创建和谐家园】all pot and took it in to Cyrilla. She set a candle on a slat she stuck in a crack in the wall and sat on the edge of the bed in the quiet room. She wiped a warm cloth on her half sister's forehead for a while, and was happy to see Cyrilla's eyes open. A panicked gaze darted around the dim room. Kahlan grabbed Cyrilla's jaw and forced her to look up into her eyes.

  　"It's me, Kahlan, my sister. You are safe, alone with me. You are safe. Be at ease. Everything is all right."

  　"Kahlan?" Cyrilla clutched at Kahlan's white fur mantle. "You promised. You won't go back on your word. You mustn't."

  　Kahlan 【创建和谐家园】iled. "I promised, and I will keep the promise. I am the queen of Galea, and will be the queen until the day you wish the crown back."

  　Cyrilla sagged back in relief, still clutching the fur mantle. "Thank you, my queen."

  　Kahlan urged her to sit up. "Come on, now. I've brought you some warm soup."

  　Cyrilla turned her face from the spoon. "I'm not hungry."

  　"If you want me to be the queen, then you must treat me as queen." A questioning frown came to Cyrilla's face. Kahlan 【创建和谐家园】iled. "This is an order from your queen. You will eat the soup."

  　Only then would Cyrilla eat. When she had finished it all, and had started shaking and crying again, Kahlan hugged her tight until she slipped into a trancelike state, staring blindly up at nothing. Kahlan tucked the heavy blankets tight around her and kissed her forehead.

  　Zedd had scrounged up a couple barrels, a bench, a stool from the barn, and somewhere found another chair. He had asked Prince Harold and Captain Ryan to join Adie, Jebra, Ahern, Orsk, Kahlan, and himself for dinner. They were close to Ebinissia, and had to talk about their plans. Everyone crowded around the 【创建和谐家园】all table as Kahlan broke up hard bread and Jebra dished out steaming bowls of beans from the pot sitting in the fire. When the seer was finished, she sat down on the short bench beside Kahlan, all the while giving Zedd puzzled looks.

  　Prince Harold, a barrel-chested man with a head of long, thick, dark hair, reminded Kahlan of her father. Harold had only that day returned with his scouts from Ebinissia.

  　"What news have you from your home," she asked him.

  　He broke his bread with his thick fingers. "Well," he sighed, "it was the same as you described it. It doesn't look as if anyone else has been there, I think it'll be safe enough for us there. With the Order's army destroyed—"

  　"The one in this area," Kahlan corrected.

  　He conceded the point with a wave of his bread. "I don't think we'll have any trouble for now. We don't have many men yet, but they're good men, and we have enough to protect the city from up in the passes in the mountains all around, as long as they don't come in numbers like before. Until the Order brings more men, I think we can hold the city." He gestured toward Zedd. "And we have a wizard."

  　Zedd, busy spooning beans into his mouth, only slowed enough to grunt in agreement.

  　Captain Ryan swallowed a big mouthful of beans. "Prince Harold is right. We know these mountains. We can defend the city until they bring a large force. By then, maybe we'll have more men joining with us, and we can start to move."

  　Harold dunked his bread in his bowl, scooping up a chunk of bacon. "Adie, what do you judge our chances of getting help from Nicobarese?"

  　"My homeland be in turmoil. When Zedd and I were there, we learned that the king be dead. The Blood of the Fold has moved to seize power, but not all the people be pleased about it. The sorceresses be most displeased. If the Blood takes

  　power, those women will be hunted down and killed. I expect them to back the forces in the army who resist the Blood."

  　"With civil war," Zedd said, interrupting his speedy spoon work, "it doesn't bode well for sending troops to aid the Midlands."

  　Adie sighed. "Zedd be right."

  　"Maybe some of the sorceresses could help?" Kahlan asked.

  　Adie stirred her spoon in her beans. "Maybe."

  　Kahlan looked to her half brother. "But you have troops from other areas you can call in."

  　Harold nodded. "We sure do. At least sixty or seventy thousand, perhaps as many as a hundred thousand could be marshaled, though not all of those will be well trained or well armed. It'll take time to get them organized, but when we do, then Ebinissia will be a force to be reckoned with."

  　"We had nearly that many here before," Captain Ryan reminded them without looking up from his bowl, "and it wasn't enough."

  　"True," Harold said flourishing his bread. "But that's just for a beginning." He looked to Kahlan. "You can bring more of the lands together, can't you?"

  　"That's our hope," she said. "We must rally the Midlands around us, if we're to have a chance."

  　"What about Sanderia?" Captain Ryan asked. "Their lances are the best in the Midlands."

  　"And Lifany," Harold said. "They make a lot of weapons, and know how to use them."

  　Kahlan picked a soft pinch out of the center of her bread. "Sanderia relies on Kelton for summer grazing for their sheep herds. Lifany buys iron from Kelton, and sells them grain. Herjborgue relies on Sanderia's wool. I think they all might go where Keiton goes."

  　Harold stabbed his spoon into his beans. "There were Keltish dead among the ones who attacked Ebinissia."

  　"And Galeans." Kahlan put the bread in her mouth and chewed for a moment as she watched him clench his spoon as if it were a knife. He glared into his bowl.

  　"There were insurgents and murderers from many lands who joined them," she said after she had swallowed. "That does not mean their homelands will. Prince Fyren of Kelton had committed his land to the Imperial Order, but he's dead, now. We are not at war with Kelton; they are part of the Midlands. We are at war with the Imperial Order. We need to stand together. If Kelton joins with us, the others will almost have to, but if they go with the Order, then we will have trouble convincing the others to join us. We need to win over Kelton and bond them to us."

  　"I'd bet on Kelton joining with the Order," Ahern said. Everyone turned his way. He shrugged. "I'm Keltish. I can tell you that they'll go where the Crown goes; its the way of our people. With Fyren dead, then that would make Duchess Lumholtz next in line. She and her hu【创建和谐家园】and, the duke, will go to the side they think will win, no matter who that may be. At least that's my opinion from what I've heard about her."

  　"That's foolish!" Harold threw his spoon down. "As much as I don't trust Keltans—no offense intended, Ahern—and know their scheming ways, at the heart

  　of it, they're Midlanders. They may want to grab whatever scrap of a farm lies on a disputed border and call it Keltish, but the people are still Midlanders.

  　"The spirits know that Cyrilla and I had our fights, but when it came to trouble, we stood together. Same with our lands; when D'Hara attacked last summer, we fought to protect Kelton, despite some of our disagreements. If it means the future of the Midlands, they'll go with us. The Midlands means more than what anyone come new to the crown has to say about it." Harold snatched up his spoon and waved it at Ahern. "What have you to say about that?"

  　Ahern shrugged. "Nothing, I guess."

  　Zedd's eyes moved between the two men. "We are not here to argue. We are here to fight a war. Speak what you believe, Ahern, You are Keltish, and would know more of it than we."

  　Ahern scratched his windburned face as he thought on Zedd's words. "General Baldwin, the commander of all Kellish forces, and his generals, Bradford, Cutter, and Emerson, will go where the Crown goes. I don't know the men, I'm just a driver, but I go a lot of places and I hear a lot of talk, and that's what's always said of them. People have a joke that if the queen tossed her crown out the window and it caught on a buck's antlers, the whole of the army would be grazin' on grass within a month."

  　"And from the talk you hear, do you really believe this duchess become queen will go with the Order just for a chance at power, if it means breaking with the Midlands?" Zedd asked.

  　Ahern shrugged. "It's just my opinion, understand, but I think it would be so."

  　As Kahlan spooned out a sweet root without looking up, she spoke. "Ahern's right. I know Cathryn Lumhollz, and her hu【创建和谐家园】and, the duke. She will be queen, and even though she takes counsel from her hu【创建和谐家园】and, she is of like mind anyway. Prince Fyren would have been king, and I thought he would have stuck with us no matter what, but someone from the Order won him to their side, and he betrayed us. I'm sure the Order will make Cathryn Lumholtz similar offers. She will see power in those offers."

  　Harold reached across the table and snatched up some more bread.”If she does, and Ahern's right, then we've lost Kelton. If we've lost Kelton, then we've got the first crack of ruin."

  　"This not be good," Adie observed. "Nicobarese be in trouble, Galea be weakened when so many of her army be killed in Ebinissia, and Kelton be leaning toward the Order, and with her will go a number of lands that be trade partners."

  　"And then there are some of the others who when—''

  　"Enough." The quiet, clear ring of authority in Kahlan's voice lowered a pall of silence over the table. She remembered what Richard always said when they were in more trouble than they knew how to wiggle out of: think of the solution, not the problem. If your mind was filled only with thoughts of why you were going to lose, then you couldn't think of how to win.

  　"Stop telling me why we can't bring the Midlands back together, and why we can't win. We already know there are problems. We need to discuss the solutions."

  　Zedd 【创建和谐家园】iled over his spoon. "Well put, Mother Confessor. I think we must have some ideas. For one, there are a number of 【创建和谐家园】aller lands that will remain loyal to

  　the Midlands no matter what. We must gather their representatives in Ebinissia and begin rebuilding the council."

  　"That's right," Kahlan said. "They might not be as powerful as Kelton, but there is a quality to numbers that has influence."

  　Kahlan opened her fur mantle. The crackling fire was warming the room a bit and the food was warming her belly, but it was worry that was beginning to make her sweat. She couldn't wait for Richard to join them; he would have ideas. Richard never sat around letting events dictate as they would. She watched the others as they bent over their bowls, each with a frown as they pondered their options.

  　"Well," Adie said as she set her spoon down, "I be sure we could get some sorceresses from Nicobarese to join with us. They would be a powerful aid. While some would refuse to fight, as it be against their convictions, they would not be averse to helping in other ways. None want to see the Blood, or their allies, the Imperial Order, take the Midlands. Most know the terror of times past, and would not want them to come anew."

  　"Good," Kahlan said. "That's good. Do you think you could go there and convince them to join with us, maybe get some of the regular army to help, too? After all, the civil war is a part of the larger war, and it would not be going on if at least some didn't want to aid the Midlands."

  　Adie's completely white eyes regarded Kahlan for a moment. "For something this important, of course I will try."

  　Kahlan nodded. "Thank you, Adie." She looked to the others. "What else? Any ideas?"

  　Harold rested an elbow on the table as he frowned in thought. He waggled his spoon. "I think if I sent some officers, as an official delegation, to some of the 【创建和谐家园】aller lands, they could be convinced to send representatives to Ebinissia. Most hold Galea in high regard, and know how the Midlands has protected their freedom. They will come to our aid."

  　"And perhaps," Zedd said with a sly 【创建和谐家园】ile, "if I went to visit this Queen Lumholtz, as First Wizard, mind you, I could convince her that the Midlands is not without power of its own."

  　Kahlan knew Cathryn Lumholtz, but she didn't want to douse the warm hope of Zedd's idea. She was the one, after all, who had said they needed to think of solutions instead of the problems.

  　What held her in the grip of terror, was the thought of being the Mother Confessor who lost the Midlands.

  　When dinner was finished, Prince Harold and Captain Ryan went to see to the men. Ahern threw his longcoat around his broad shoulders and said he had to check on his team.

  　After they were gone, Zedd caught Jebra's arm as she went about helping Kahlan collect the bowls.

  　"Do you want to tell me, now, what it is you're seeing every time you look my way?"

  　Jebra turned her blue eyes from his gaze and gathered another spoon into her hand with the others. "It's nothing."

  　"I would like to be the judge of that, if you don't mind."