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  　"Shota, I know you're speaking the truth, but how can it be that I would betray Richard? I'm telling you the truth; I would die before I would betray him. My heart won't allow me to betray him. I couldn't."

  　Shota 【创建和谐家园】oothed a loose wisp of her dress. "Think. Mother Confessor, and you will see that you are wrong, just as I showed you that you were wrong that I could no longer harm you."

  　"How? How could I do such a thing, when I know it isn't in me-for any reason-to betray him?"

  　Shota took a patient breath. "It is not nearly so difficult as you wish to think. What if you knew, for example, that you had only one way to save his life, and that way was to betray him, but in so doing, you would lose his love? Would you make the sacrifice of his love to preserve his life? The truth, now."

  　Kahlan swallowed past the lump in her throat. "Yes. I would betray him if it was to save his life."

  　"So, you see, it is not as impossible an event as you imagined." "I guess not," Kahlan said in a 【创建和谐家园】all voice. She pushed at a few crumbs on the table. "Shota, what is the purpose of all this? Why would the future hold that Richard will marry Nadine, and that I will marry another man? There must be a reason. It goes against everything we both want, so there must be some force pushing events down that path."

  　Shota said after a moment's deliberation, "The Temple of the Winds hunts Richard. The spirits have a hand in this." Kahlan's face sank wearily into her hands.

  　"You said to Nadine, 'May the spirits have mercy on him.' What did you mean by that?"

  　"The underworld contains more than just the good spirits. The spirits-good, and the evil-are all involved in this."

  　Kahlan didn't want to talk anymore. It was too painful, talking about the ruination of her dreams and hopes as if they were pieces on a game board. "To what purpose?" she mumbled. "The plague." Kahlan looked up. "What?"

  　"It has something to do with the plague, and the thing of magic the dream walker stole from the Temple of the Winds."

  　"You mean that it could be that this could somehow be part of our attempt to find the magic to stop the plague?"

  　"I believe it is so," the witch woman said at last. "You and Richard are desperately seeking a way to stop the plague and save the lives of countless people. I see in the future that you each wed other people.

  　"For what other reason would both of you make such a sacrifice?" "But why would it be necessary-"

  　"You seek something I cannot answer. I cannot alter what will be, nor do I know the reason for it. We are forced to consider the possibilities. Think.

  　"If the only way to save all those people from dying in a firestorm of plague were for Richard and you to sacrifice your life together, perhaps, say, to prove your true devotion to protecting innocent lives, would you both do such a thing?"

  　Kahlan put her trembling hands in her lap, under the table. She had seen the pain in Richard's eyes when he had watched that boy die. She knew her own pain. They had both seen innocent, sick children, who were going to die. How many more would die?

  　She would never be able to live with herself if the only way to save those children was to sacrifice her love, and she refused.

  　"How could we not? Even if it would kill us, how could we not? But how could the good spirits demand such a price?"

  　Kahlan suddenly remembered Denna's spirit taking the Keeper's mark from Richard, and freely choosing to go in Richard's place to eternal torment at the Keeper's hands. That it turned out that Denna didn't have to face that fate didn't matter; she thought that she would, and had sacrificed her soul in the place of one she loved.

  　The branches of a nearby maple tree clacked together in the gentle breeze. Kahlan could hear the flags atop Shota's palace snapping in the wind. The air tasted of spring. The grasses were a bright, new green. Life was beginning to bud all around. Kahlan's heart felt like dead ashes.

  　"Then I will tell you one other thing," Shota said, as if from a great distance. Kahlan listened from the bottom of a well of despair. "You have not heard the last message from the winds. You will receive one more, involving the moon. This will be the consequential communion.

  　"Do not ignore it, nor di【创建和谐家园】iss it. Your future, Richard's future, and the future of all those innocent people will hinge on this event. Both of you must use all you have learned in order to comprehend the chance you will be offered." "Chance? Chance for what?"

  　Shota's gaze riveted Kahlan. "The chance to carry out your most solemn duty. The chance to save all the innocent lives of those who depend upon you to do what they cannot." "How soon?" "I only know it will not be long."

  　Kahlan nodded. She wondered why she wasn't crying. It seemed as if this was the most devastating personal tragedy she could imagine-losing Richard-and yet, she wasn't crying. She guessed she would, but not now, not here.

  　Kahlan stared at the table. "Shota, you would try to stop us from having a child, wouldn't you? A boy child?" "Yes."

  　"You would try to kill our son, if we had one, wouldn't you?" "Yes."

  　"Then how do I know that this isn't just some plot on your part to prevent us from having a child?" "You will have to judge the truth of my words with your own mind and heart."

  　316

  　Kahlan remembered the dying boy's words, and the prophecy. Somehow, she had known all along that she would never marry Richard. It was all just an impossible dream.

  　When she was young, Kahlan had asked her mother about growing up and having a love. a hu【创建和谐家园】and, a home. Her mother had stood before her, beautiful, radiant. statuesque, but wearing her Confessors face. Confessors don't have love, Kahlan. They have duty. Richard was born a war wizard. He had been born for a purpose. Duty. She watched the breeze roll a few of the crumbs from the table. "I believe you," Kahlan whispered. "I wish I didn't, but I do. You're telling me the truth." There was nothing else to say. Kahlan stood. She had to lock her knees to stay upright on her trembling legs. She tried to remember where the sliph's well was, but she couldn't seem to make her mind work. "Thank you for the tea," she heard herself say. "It was lovely." If Shota answered, Kahlan didn't hear it.

  　"Shota?" Kahlan grasped the back of the chair to steady herself. "Could you point me in the right direction? I can't seem to remember . . ."

  　Shota was there, taking her arm. "I will walk partway with you, child," Shota said in a soft, compassionate voice, "so you may find your way."

  　They walked the road in silence. Kahlan tried to find cheer in the warm spring morning. It was still so cold in Aydindril. It had been snowing when she left. Still, she couldn't find any cheer in the fine day.

  　As they climbed the stone steps cut into the cliff, Kahlan fought to regain a sense of purpose. If she and Richard could somehow save all those people from the plague, it would be a wonderful thing. Most wouldn't care about the sacrifice they made, but that wouldn't lessen the relief she would feel in the sound of a child's laughter, or the sight of a mother's joy in her child's safety.

  　There would still be things to live for. She could fill the void with the happiness to be seen in the eyes of her people. She would have done something no other could do. She and Richard would have stopped Jagang from harming all those people.

  　Near the top of the cliff, Kahlan paused at a turn in the steps and looked out at Agaden Reach. It truly was a beautiful place, this valley nestled among the peaks of jagged mountains.

  　She remembered that the Keeper had sent a wizard and a screeling to kill Shota. Shota had barely escaped with her life. She had vowed to regain her home.

  　"I'm glad you got your home back. I'm glad for you, Shota. I really am. Agaden Reach belongs to you." "Thank you. Mother Confessor."

  　Kahlan looked to the witch woman's almond eyes. "What did you do to the wizard who chased you out?"

  　"What I said I would do. I tied him up by his thumbs, and I skinned him alive. I sat back and watched as his magic bled from his skinless carcass." She turned and gestured back down into the green valley. "I covered the seat of my throne with his hide."

  　Kahlan remembered that that was precisely what Shota had promised to do. It was 【创建和谐家园】all wonder that even wizards rarely dared to enter Agaden Reach; Shota was

  　more than a match for a wizard. One wizard, at least, had learned that lesson too late.

  　"I can't say I blame you-the Keeper sending him to kill you and all. If the Keeper had gotten you, well, I know how much you feared that."

  　"I owe you and Richard a debt. Richard prevented the Keeper from having us all."

  　'I'm glad the wizard didn't send you to the Keeper, Shota." Kahlan really meant it. She still knew Shota was dangerous, but the witch woman seemed also to have a compassion that Kahlan hadn't expected.

  　"Do you know what he said to me, this wizard?" Shota asked. "He said he forgave me. Can you believe it? He granted me forgiveness. And then he begged mine."

  　The wind carried some of Kahlan's hair across her face. She pulled it back. "Seems a strange thing for him to say, considering."

  　"The Wizard's Fourth Rule, he called it. He said that there was magic in forgiveness, in the Fourth Rule. Magic to heal. In forgiveness you grant, and more so in the forgiveness you receive."

  　"I guess the Keeper's minion would say anything to try to get away with what he had done, and to get away from you. I can understand you not being in the mood to forgive him."

  　Light seemed to vanish into the ageless depths of Shota's eyes. "He forgot to place the word 'sincere' before 'forgiveness.' "

  　CHAPTER 42

  　Kahlan watched the witch woman disappear back into the gloomy forest. Vines hanging down from craggy branches reached out to touch their mistress as she passed, while tendrils and roots stretched up to brush her leg. She vanished into a shroud of mist. Unseen creatures called in low whistles and clicks from the direction she had gone.

  　Kahlan turned back to the moss-covered boulder Shota had shown her and, just beyond, found the sliph's well. The silver face of the sliph rose from beyond the round, stone wall, to watch as Kahlan approached. Kahlan almost wished the sliph hadn't come, as if somehow, if Kahlan couldn't get back, none of the things she had learned would come to pass.

  　How was she going to look into Richard's eyes and not scream in anguish? How was she ever going to be able to go on? How would she find the will to live? "Do you wish to travel?" the sliph asked. "No, but I must."

  　The sliph frowned, as if well puzzled. "If you wish to travel, I will be ready." Kahlan sank to the ground, put her back to the sliph's well, and folded her legs under herself. Was she to give up this easily? Was she to submit meekly to the fates? She didn't have a choice. Think of the solution, not the problem.

  　Somehow, things didn't seem as desperate as they had back in the reach. There had to be a way to solve this. Richard would not so easily give in. He would fight for her. She would fight for him. They loved each other, and that was more important than anything else.

  　Kahlan's mind felt as if it were in a fog. She tried to focus with more resolve. She couldn't just give up. She had to face this with her old determination.

  　She knew that witch women bewitched people. They didn't necessarily do it out of malice; it was just the way they were. It was like a person not being able to help the fact that they were tall, or short, or the color of their hair. Witch women bewitched people because that was the way their magic worked.

  　Shota had bewitched Richard, to an extent. Only the magic of the Sword of Truth saved him the first time. The Sword of Truth.

  　Richard was the Seeker. This was the kind of thing a Seeker did: solved problems. She was in love with the Seeker. He would not so easily give up.

  　Kahlan plucked a leaf and tore little strips from it as she began to reconsider everything she had been told by Shota. How much of it dare she believe? It was all beginning to seem like a dream, from which she was just coming awake. Matters could not possibly be as desperate as she had thought. Her father had told her never to give up. to fight with every breath, with the last

  　breath if need be. Nor would Richard give in easily. This wasn't ended yet. The future was still the future, and despite what Shota said, the matter was not yet decided.

  　Something at her shoulder was bothering her. As she thought, she flicked her hand at it, and then went back to tearing strips off the big leaf. There had to be a way to solve this.

  　When she swatted at her shoulder again, her fingers hit the bone knife. It felt warm.

  　Kahlan drew the knife and held it in her lap. The knife was warm. It seemed to pulse and vibrate. It grew so hot that it became uncomfortable to hold.

  　Kahlan watched, wide-eyed, as the black feathers stood up. They danced and waved and twisted in a breeze. Her hair hung limp. The air was dead still. There was no breeze. Kahlan shot to her feet. "Sliph!"

  　The sliph's silver face was right there, close. Kahlan backed away a bit. "Sliph, I need to travel."

  　"Come, we will travel. Where do you wish to go?" "The Mud People. I need to go to the Mud People." The liquid features contorted in thought. "I do not know this place." "It's not a place. They're people. People-" Kahlan tapped her chest-"they're people, like me."

  　"I know different peoples, but not these Mud People." Kahlan pushed back her hair, trying to think. "They live in the wilds." "I know places in the wilds. Which one do you wish to travel to? Name it, and we will travel. You will be pleased."

  　"Well. it's a place that's flat. It's a grassland. Flat grassland. No mountains, like here." Kahlan gestured around, but realized that the sliph could see only trees. "I know several places like that." "Which places? Maybe I'll recognize them." "I can travel to a place overlooking the Callisidrin River-" "To the west of the Callisidrin. The Mud People are farther west." "I can travel to Tondelen Vale, the Harja Rift, Kea Plains, Sealan, Herkon Split. Anderith, Pickton, the Jocopo Treasure-"

  　''The what? What was the last one?" She knew most of the rest of the places the sliph named, but they weren't close to the Mud People. "The Jocopo Treasure. Do you wish to travel there?"

  　Kahlan held out the warm bone knife-grandfather's knife. Chandalen had told her how the Jocopo had made war on the Mud People, and the ancestor spirits had guided Chandalen's grandfather in how to defend his people against the Jocopo. Chandalen had said they used to trade with the Jocopo, before their war. The Jocopo had to be close to the Mud People. "Say the last place again," Kahlan said. "The Jocopo Treasure."

  　At the echoing words, the black feathers danced and twisted. Kahlan shoved the bone knife back in the band around her upper arm. She sprang up onto the stone wall.

  　"That's where I wish to go: the Jocopo Treasure. I wish to travel to the Jocopo Treasure. Can you take me there, sliph?"

  　A silver arm swept her off the stone wall. "Come. We will travel to the Jocopo Treasure. You will be pleased."

  　Kahlan gasped one quick breath before she was plunged into the quicksilver froth. She let the breath go, and inhaled the sliph, but this time, numbed by troubling thoughts of losing Richard, of his marrying Nadine, she felt no rapture.

  　Zedd cackled like a madman. Ann was upside down in his vision. He stuck out his tongue at her and blew, making a long, crude sound.

  　"You needn't attempt to pretend," she growled. "It seems to be your natural state."

  　Zedd moved his legs as if trying to walk upside down through the air. The blood was rushing to his head.

  　"Do you wish to die with your dignity?" he asked her. "Or would you rather live." ' I'll not play a fool."

  　"That's the word-play! Don't just sit there in the mud. Play in it!" She leaned over, putting her head close to his. He was standing on it in the mud. "Zedd, you can't possibly think such a thing would work."

  　"You said it yourself. You are mucking about with a crazy man. It was your suggestion." "I suggested no such thing!"

  　"Perhaps you didn't suggest it, but you were the one who gave me the inspiration. I'll be happy to give you full credit, when we tell people the story."

  　"Tell people! In the first place, it won't work. In the second place, I realize full well that you would be only too delighted to tell people. That's just one more reason why I won't do it."

  　Zedd howled like a coyote. He stiffened his legs and his spine, letting himself topple like a felled tree. Mud splashed on Ann. Fuming, she wiped a 【创建和谐家园】all splat from her nose.

  　At the tall stick fence, grim-faced Nangtong guards watched the two prisoners, the two sacrifices. Zedd and Ann had sat in the mud with their backs to one another and untied the ropes binding their wrists. The guards, armed with spears and bows, didn't seem to care; the prisoners couldn't get away. Zedd knew they were right.

  　Happy people had begun to stop by the pigpen at dawn. As the morning wore on, the crowd grew as more people stopped by to chatter with the guards and take a look at the fine offerings. Apparently, everyone was in a good mood because they now had a sacrifice for the spirits. Their lives would be safe after the unhappy spirits were appeased.

  　The guards and the people of the Nangtong village, watching from the other side of the fence, were now looking less pleased. They fidgeted with the cloth covering their faces, making sure it hid enough, and that it was secure. The guards began wiping more ash on their faces and bodies. Apparently, one couldn't be too careful, lest the spirits recognize them.

  　Zedd tucked his head down between his knees and rolled himself through the wet, sticky slop. He laughed maniacally as he rolled in a circle around Ann's squat figure sitting on the cold ground. "Would you stop that!"

  　Zedd spread supine in the mud before her. He swept his rigid arms and legs through the mud.

  　"Ann," he said in a low tone, "we have important business. I think we might have better success if we attempt to carry out those tasks in this world, rather than in the underworld, after we are dead." "I know we can't help if we're dead."

  　"It would stand to reason, then, that we need to get away, now, wouldn't it?" "Of course it would," she grumbled. "But I don't think-" Zedd plopped himself down in her lap. She winced in disgust. Her nose wrinkled when he rested his muddy arms around her neck.

  　"Ann, if we do nothing, we die. If we try to fight these people, we will die. Without the use of our magic, we can't escape them. Our only option is to convince them to let us go. We can't speak their language, and even if we could, I doubt we would be able to persuade them." "Yes, but-"