circled…
Chapter 48
Richard stood alone, hands clasped behind his back, staring at…
Chapter 49
Henrik lifted his head from gulping water out of the…
Chapter 50
After a frightening race along the trail as it tunneled…
Chapter 51
As Henrik made his way along the causeway made of…
Chapter 52
Jit sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, nested…
Chapter 53
The man glanced down at the warm, wet place growing…
Chapter 54
Henrik feared to take a step toward the Hedge Maid.
Chapter 55
As the Hedge Maid started out toward a shadowy opening…
Chapter 56
Henrik thought that the winds must have stilled to make…
Chapter 57
Kahlan woke with a start, panting in terror. A blur…
Chapter 58
Still drifting back from that distant place that felt completely…
Chapter 59
What’s this about me and my gift?” Nathan asked as…
Chapter 60
With his foot, Richard flipped over the carpet. He didn’t…
Chapter 61
The situation calls for a choice, and I’ve made it,”…
Chapter 62
The group with Queen Orneta fell silent as the Mord-Sith…
Chapter 63
Before the woman could prod her with the weapon, Orneta…
Chapter 64
Ludwig was pouring himself a last glass of wine when…
Chapter 65
Richard was shocked and angry.
Chapter 66
Kahlan woke to the feel of warm breath on her…
Chapter 67
Kahlan slowly pulled in a deep breath, preparing herself.
Chapter 68
It was deep in the middle of the night by…
Chapter 69
When the violence of the wizard’s fire at last subsided,…
Chapter 70
Well isn’t that something,” Zedd said as he stepped out…
Chapter 71
Nicci stepped up beside Richard. “Darkness has found it?”
Chapter 72
When Richard had finished filling the bin with metal strips,…
Chapter 73
Kahlan woke, confused at feeling herself rocking. She winced as…
Chapter 74
Anything at all?” Richard asked Berdine in a quiet voice.
Chapter 75
In the distance, paths meandered through elaborate gardens, but the…
Chapter 76
Patrols that had spotted Richard ran up to see what…
Chapter 77
Kahlan woke with a start. She squinted out at the…
Chapter 78
As Kahlan guided her horse among immense pines, she frequently…
Chapter 79
Kahlan was confounded at the construction of the enclosed, candlelit…
Chapter 80
Kahlan ran the words through her mind again, not sure…
Chapter 81
Richard stood staring through the soft haze of drizzle at…
Chapter 82
Crouched low, Richard made his way along the top of…
Chapter 83
Richard dropped into a crouch as he landed. Glowing, hooded…
Chapter 84
It came to him.
Chapter 85
In a blink, before the Hedge Maid could have second…
Chapter 86
If he lives,” Cara said, “I’m going to kill him.”
About the Author
Other Books by Terry Goodkind
About the Publisher
CHAPTER 1
There is darkness,” the boy said.
Richard frowned, not sure that he had understood the whispered words. He glanced back over his shoulder at the concern on Kahlan’s face. She didn’t look to have understood the meaning any more than he had.
The boy lay on a tattered carpet placed on the bare ground just outside a tent covered with strings of colorful beads. The tightly packed market outside the palace had become a small city made up of thousands of tents, wagons, and stands. Throngs of people who had come from near and far for the grand wedding the day before flocked to the marketplace, buying everything from souvenirs and jewelry to fresh bread and cooked meats, to exotic drinks and potions, to colorful beads.
The boy’s chest rose a little with each shallow breath, but his eyes remained closed. Richard leaned down closer to the frail child. “Darkness?”
The boy nodded weakly. “There is darkness all around.”
There was, of course, no darkness. Streamers of morning sunlight played over the crowds of people coursing by the thousands through the haphazard streets between the tents and wagons. Richard didn’t think that the boy saw anything of the festive atmosphere all around.
The child’s words, on the surface so soft, carried some other meaning, something more, something grim, about another place entirely.
From the corner of his eye, Richard saw people slow as they passed, watching the Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor stopped to see an ill boy and his mother. The market out beyond was filled with lilting music, conversation, laughter, and animated bargaining. For most of the people passing nearby, seeing the Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor was a once-in-a-lifetime event, one of many over the last few days, that would be recounted back in their homelands for years to come.
Guards of the First File stood not far away, also watching attentively, but they mostly watched the nearby crowds shuffling through the market. The soldiers wanted to make sure that those crowds didn’t close in too tightly, even though there was no real reason to expect any sort of trouble.
Everyone was, after all, in a good mood. The years of war had ended. There was peace and growing prosperity. The wedding the day before seemed to mark a new beginning, a celebration of a world of possibilities never before imagined.
Set amid that sunlit exuberance, the boy’s words felt to Richard like a shadow that didn’t belong.
Kahlan squatted down beside him. Her satiny white dress, the iconic symbol of her standing as the Mother Confessor, seemed to glow under the early-spring sky, as if she were a good spirit come among them. Richard