“Commands the wind! What does that mean?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea.”

Kahlan frowned and looked down as she picked at the rock. “Zedd, what does it say about me in the books of prophecies?”

He was watching her when her eyes came back up. “I’m sorry, dear one, I can’t tell you that. You would be too frightened to ever sleep again.”

She nodded. “I feel very foolish now, for wanting to kill myself because of Shota’s prophecy. To keep it from coming true, I mean. You must think me stupid.”

“Kahlan, until it comes to be, we can’t know. But you shouldn’t feel foolish. It could be that it’s just as it says, that Richard is the only one with a chance, and you will betray us, and take him, and thus give victory to Rahl. There is a chance you should have done it to save us all.”

“You are not making me feel any better.”

“It could also be that Richard will somehow be a traitor, and you will save us all.”

She gave him a dark look. “Either way, I don’t like it.”

“Prophecies are not meant for people to see. They can cause more trouble than you could believe—there have been wars over them. Even I don’t understand most of them. If we had the wizards of old, the experts in the prophecies, maybe they could help us, but without them to guide us, it is best to leave Shota’s prophecy be. The first page of one of the books of prophecies says: ‘Take these Prophecies to mind, not to heart.’ It is the only thing on the whole page, in a book half as big as a good-size table. Each letter is gilded. It is that important.

“The prophecy from Shota is different somehow, from those in books, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Prophecy given directly from one to another, is meant to be an aid to that person. Shota was trying to help Richard. Shota herself wouldn’t even know how it is meant to help, though—she was only the channel. Someday, it may mean something to Richard, it may aid him. There is no way to tell, though: I was hoping I would be able to understand it, and help him. He doesn’t take to riddles. Unfortunately, it is of the kind called a Forked Prophecy, and I can be of no aid.”

“Forked, that means it can go different ways?”

“Yes. It could mean what it says, or just about anything else. Forked Prophecies are almost always useless. Hardly better than a guess. Richard was right in his choice not to be guided by it. I would like to think it’s because I have taught him well, but it could be his instinct. He had the instincts of a Seeker.”

“Zedd, why don’t you just tell him these things, like you have told me? Doesn’t he have a right to know all this?”

Zedd stared off into the night for a long time. “It’s difficult to explain. You see, Richard has a feel for things.” He made an odd frown. “Have you ever shot a bow?”

Kahlan smiled. She drew her knees up, folded her fingers together over them, and rested her chin on her fingers. “Girls are not supposed to do such things. So I took it up as a diversion when I was young. Before I began taking confessions.”

Zedd gave a little laugh. “Have you ever been able to feel the target? Have you ever been able to ignore all the noise in your head and hear the silence, and know where the arrow is going to go?”

She nodded with her chin still resting on her fingers. “Only a couple of times. But I know what you’re talking about.”

“Well, Richard can feel the target like that almost at will. Sometimes I think he could even hit it if he closed his eyes.

“When I have asked him how he does it, he shrugs and can’t explain. He simply says he can feel where the arrow is to go. He can do it all day long. But if I start telling him things, like how fast the wind is, how many feet away the target is, or that the bow was outside the night before and it was a humid night, affecting the draw, well, then he can’t even hit the ground. The thinking interferes with the feeling.

“He does the same thing with people. He’s relentless in the search for an answer. He has been heading for the box like an arrow. He has never been to the Midlands before, yet he found a way through the boundary, and has found the answers he needed to keep going, to seek out the target. That is the way of a true Seeker. The problem is, if I give him too much information, he starts doing what he thinks I want him to do, instead of what he feels. I have to point him in the right direction, toward the target, and then let him go. Let him find it himself.”

“That’s pretty cynical. He is a human being, not an arrow. He only does that because he thinks so much of you, and he would do anything to please you. You are an idol to him. He loves you very much.”

He gave her a somber look. “There is no way I could be any more proud of him, or love him any more, but if he doesn’t stop Darken Rahl, I will be a dead idol. Sometimes, wizards must use people to accomplish what must be done.”

“I guess I know how you feel not telling him what you wish you could.”

Zedd rose. “I’m sorry the two of you have had a hard time of it. Maybe with me here, it will be easier. Good night, dear one.” He started off into the darkness.

“Zedd?” He stopped and looked back toward her, a dark form against the moonlit forest. “You had a wife.”

“I did.”

She cleared her throat and swallowed. “What was it like? Loving someone more than life itself, and being able to be with them, and having them love you back?”

Zedd stood still and silent for a long time, staring at her in the darkness. She waited, wishing she could see his face. She decided he wasn’t going to answer.

Kahlan held her chin up. “Wizard Zorander, I am not making a request. This is an order. You will answer the question.”

She waited. His voice came softly. “It was like finding the other half of myself, and being complete, whole, for the first time in my life.”

“Thank you, Zedd.” She was glad he couldn’t see her tears as she struggled to hold her voice steady. “I was just wondering.”

Chapter 37

Richard woke when he heard Kahlan come back and toss some wood in the fire. Light was just starting to creep across the tips of distant mountains, casting them in a soft pink glow, dark clouds behind making the snowcapped peaks stand out all the more. Zedd lay on his back, eyes wide open, snoring. Richard rubbed the sleep from his eyes and yawned.

“How about some tava-root porridge?” he whispered, wanting to let Zedd sleep.

“Sounds good,” she whispered back.

Richard pulled the roots from his pack and began peeling them with his knife while Kahlan retrieved a pot.

When he finished cutting them up, he tossed the roots in with the water she had added from a skin. “This is the last of them. We’ll have to start digging some more roots tonight, but I doubt we’ll find tava. Not in this rocky ground.”

“I picked some berries.”

Together they warmed their hands at the fire. More than a queen, he thought. He tried to imagine a queen in fine robes and a crown, picking berries.

“You see anything while you were on watch?”

She shook her head. Then she seemed to remember something and her face came up. “But one time, I did hear something strange. It was down here, near the camp. It was like a growl, then a yelp. I almost came and woke you, but it was gone as soon as it started, and I didn’t hear it again.”

“Really.” He glanced over each shoulder. “Down here. Wonder what that was about. I guess I was so tired it didn’t wake me.”

Richard mashed the pot of roots when they were done and added a little sugar. Kahlan dished up the porridge and added a big handful of berries on top of each.

“Why don’t you wake him,” she said.

Richard smiled. “Watch this.”

He tapped his spoon a few times against the side of the tin bowl. Zedd made a short snort, and sat bolt upright.