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  　Richard looked down, wide-eyed, speechless, to the companion.

  　"My sword! Gimme!" Samuel started to reach out. Shota spoke his name in caution without taking her gaze from Richard, and the little creature instantly withdrew his arms, nuzzling back against her hip. "My sword," he complained to himself in a low voice.

  　"Why does he look like that?" Richard asked cautiously, afraid of the answer.

  　"You really don't know, do you?" Shota lifted an eyebrow as she studied his face. Her sad 【创建和谐家园】ile returned. "The magic. Did the wizard not warn you?"

  　Richard shook his head slowly, unable to form words. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth.

  　"Well, I suggest you have a talk with him."

  　He forced himself to speak, but barely. "You mean, the magic will do this to me?"

  　"I'm sorry, Richard, I can't answer that." She gave a heavy sigh. "One of my talents is that I have vision for the flow of time, the way events flow into the future. But this is a type of magic, wizard's magic, that I cannot see; I am blind to it. I can't see how it flows forward.

  　"Samuel was the last Seeker. He came here many years back, desperate for help. But I could do nothing for him, other than take pity on him. Then the old wizard came, suddenly, one day, and took the sword." She lifted an eyebrow meaningfully. "It was a very unpleasant experience-for both of us. I'm afraid I must admit I do not think kindly of the old wizard." Her face softened again. "To this day, Samuel thinks of the Sword of Truth as his. But I know better. The wizards, for all ages, are the caretakers of the sword, and therein its magic, and only assign it to mere Seekers for a time."

  　Richard remembered Zedd telling him that while the last pretend Seeker was distracted by a witch woman, he had gone and taken the sword back. This was the Seeker; this was the witch woman. Kahlan was wrong. There was at least one wizard who would dare to go into Agaden Reach.

  　"Maybe, it's because he wasn't a real Seeker," Richard managed, trying to reassure himself. His tongue still felt thick.

  　Her face was set in a frown of true concern. "Maybe. I just don't know."

  　"That must be it," he whispered. "It has to be. Zedd would have warned me otherwise. He's my friend."

  　She gave him a grave expression. "Richard, there are more important things at stake than friendship. Zedd knows this, and so do you; after all, you chose these things over his life when you had to."

  　Richard looked up at Zedd. How he wanted to talk to him. He needed him so badly right now. Could that be true, could he have chosen the box over Zedd's life that easily, without a second thought? "Shota, you promised to let him go."

  　Shota's eyes studied his face a moment. "I'm sorry, Richard." She waved her hand through the air in the direction of Zedd. Zedd wavered, and then disappeared. "That was only a little deception. A demonstration. It wasn't really the old wizard."

  　Richard thought he should feel angry, but he didn't. He felt just a little hurt at the deception, yet sad that Zedd wasn't here, with him. Then a wave of icy dread washed through him, raising bumps on his arms again.

  　"Is that really Kahlan? Or have you already killed her, and presented me with her image, another trick? Another demonstration?"

  　Shota's breast rose and fell as she took a deep breath. "I'm afraid," she sighed, "that she is real enough. And therein lies the problem."

  　Shota put her arm through his, taking him to stand in front of Kahlan. Samuel followed and stood by them. His arms were so long that as he stood erect, his yellow eyes moving warily back and forth between them, he casually drew lines and circles in the dirt of the road with his fingers.

  　Shota regarded Kahlan for a moment, seemingly lost in thought, as if pondering a dilemma. Richard just wanted the snakes off her. Despite the witch woman's words of help and friendship, Kahlan was still terrified, and it wasn't the snakes. It was Shota that her eyes followed, the way the eyes of an animal in a trap follow the trapper, not the trap.

  　"Richard," Shota asked, while she held Kahlan's stare, "would you be able to kill her if you had to? If she was a threat to your success, would you have the courage to kill her? If it meant the lives of everyone else? The truth, now."

  　Despite the disarming tone of Shota's voice, her words went through him like an ice dagger. Richard met Kahlan's widening eyes, then looked to the woman beside him. "She is my guide. I need her," he said simply, offhandedly.

  　Big almond eyes stared back at him. "That, Seeker, is not the question I asked."

  　Richard didn't say anything; he tried to betray nothing with his face.

  　Shota gave a 【创建和谐家园】ile of regret. "As I thought. And that is why you made a mistake with your wish."

  　"I made no mistake," Richard protested. "If I hadn't used it as I did, you would have killed her!"

  　"Yes," Shota nodded grimly, "I would have. The image of Zedd was a test. You passed the test, and as a reward, I gave you a wish, not that you might have something you want, but that I might do an onerous deed for you, because you lack the required courage. That was your second test. That test, dear boy, you failed. I must honor your wish. That is your mistake; you should have let me kill her for you."

  　"You're mad! First you try to tell me how you're not evil, how I should judge you by your actions, and now you prove your true self by telling me how I made a mistake by not allowing you to kill Kahlan! And for what! Some perceived threat? She has done nothing to threaten you, nor would she. She wishes only to stop Darken Rahl, same as me. Same as you!"

  　Shota listened patiently until he finished. The timeless look passed across her eyes again. "Were you not listening when I said not all acts are as they seem? That some are meant to save you? Once again you judge too quickly, without knowing all the facts."

  　"Kahlan is my friend. That is the only fact that matters."

  　Shota took a breath, as if she were trying to remain patient, as if she were trying to teach something to a child. Her expression made him feel somehow stupid.

  　"Richard. Listen to me. Darken Rahl has put the boxes of Orden in play. If he succeeds, there will be no one with the power to restrain him. Ever. A great many people will die. You. Me. It's in my own interest to help you because you are the only one who has a chance to stop him. How, or why, I don't know, but I can see the flow of power. You are the only one with a chance.

  　"That does not mean you will succeed, only that you have the chance. No matter how 【创建和谐家园】all, it is within you. Know also that there are forces to defeat you before you could bring your chance to bear. The old wizard does not have the power to stop Rahl. That's why he gave you the sword. I do not have the power to stop Rahl. But I do have the power to be of aid to you. That's all I wish to do. In so doing I help myself. I do not want to die. If Rahl wins, I will."

  　"I know all this. That's why I said you would answer my question without my having to use the wish."

  　"But there are other things I know, Richard, that you do not."

  　Her beautiful face studied him with a sadness that hurt. Her eyes had the same fire in them that Kahlan's had; the tire of intelligence. Richard felt the need in her, the need to help him. He feared suddenly what it was she knew, because he realized that it wasn't meant to hurt him, it was simply truth. Richard saw Samuel watching the sword and became aware of his own left hand, resting around the hilt, aware of how tightly he was gripping it, and how the raised letters of the word Truth were pressing painfully into his palm

  　"Shota, what are these things you know?"

  　"The easiest first," she sighed. "You know the way you stopped the wizard's fire with the sword? Practice the move. I gave you that test for a reason. Zedd will use the wizard's fire against you. Only the next time, it will be for real. The flow of time does not say who will prevail, only that you have a chance to beat him."

  　Richard's eyes widened. "That can't be true . .. ."

  　"True," she said, clipping off his words, "as a tooth given by a father to show the keeper of the book, to show the truth of how it was taken."

  　That rattled him to his bones.

  　"And no, I don't know who the keeper is." Her eyes burned into him. "You will have to find him yourself."

  　Richard could hardly draw a breath, could hardly make himself ask the next question. "If that was the easy part, then what is the hard?"

  　Auburn hair tumbled off her shoulder as Shota looked away from his eyes, to Kahlan, who stood stone still while the snakes writhed on her. "I know what she is, and how it is she is a threat to me . . . ." Her voice trailed off. She turned back to him. "It is obvious you do not know what she is, or perhaps you would not be with her. Kahlan has a power. Magic power."

  　"That much I know," Richard offered cautiously.

  　"Richard," Shota said, trying to find the words for something she found difficult, "I am a witch woman. As I said, one of my powers is that I can see things as they will come to pass. It is one reason fools' fear me." Her face drew closer to his, uncomfortably close. Her breath 【创建和谐家园】elled of roses. "Please, Richard, don't be one of these fools; don't fear me because of things I have no control over. I'm able to see the truth of events that will come to be; I do not dictate or control them. And just because I see them, that does not mean I'm at all happy about them. It is only by action in the present that we can change what otherwise will come to pass. Have the wisdom to use the truth to your advantage, don't simply rail against it."

  　"And what truth do you see, Shota?" he whispered.

  　Her eyes had an intensity that halted his breath, her voice the sharp edge of a blade

  　".Kahlan has a power, and if she isn't killed, she will use that power against you." She watched his eyes carefully as she spoke. "There can be no doubt of the truth of this. Your sword can protect you from the wizard's fire, but it will not protect you from her touch."

  　Richard felt the stab of her words, as if they cut through his heart.