Chase and the second guard tumbled to the ground, both grunting with lethal intent as they rolled over each other trying to gain advantage. The guard cried out. Chase came to his feet. The other didn’t. He gave a glance at Darken Rahl, and ran off down the path Michael had taken. Zedd saw a glimpse of Kahlan’s dress as she disappeared in another direction.

Zedd stood as Richard did, spellbound, their stares riveted to Darken Rahl as he struggled, trapped in the grip of the magic of Orden. Violet light and dark shadows held him tight in the air above the black hole.

“Richard!” Rahl shrieked. “What have you done!”

The Seeker stepped closer to the circle of black sand. “Why, only what you wanted, Master Rahl,” he said innocently. “I have told you what you wanted to hear.”

“But it was the truth! You told the words true!”

Richard nodded. “Yes, I did. I just didn’t tell you all of them. I left out most of the paragraph at the end. Be cautioned. The effect of the boxes is fluid. It shifts with the intent. To be Master of all, so you may help others, shift one box to the right. To be Master of all—so all will do your bidding, shift one box to the left. Rule as you have chosen. Your information was correct—the box with two shadows was the one that would kill you.”

“But you had to do as I said! You were touched by a Confessor’s power!”

Richard Smiled. “Was I? Wizard’s First Rule. It’s the first rule because it’s the most important. You should have guarded better against it. That’s the price of arrogance. I accept my vulnerability, you don’t.

“I didn’t like the choices you gave me. I couldn’t win by your rules, so I made some new ones. The book said you had to confirm the truth with the use of a Confessor. You only thought you had done that. Wizard’s First Rule. You believed because you wanted to. I have beaten you.”

“It can’t be! It’s not possible! How could you have known how to do this!”

“You taught me: nothing, including magic, is one-dimensional. Look at the whole, you said—nothing that exists has only one side. Look at the whole.” Richard shook his head slowly. “You should never have taught me something you didn’t want me to know. Once you teach me something, it’s mine to use. Thank you, Father Rahl, for teaching me the most important thing I will ever learn—how to love Kahlan.”

Darken Rahl’s face distorted in pain. He laughed and screamed.

Richard looked around. “Where’s Kahlan?”

Zedd pointed a long finger. “I saw her leave that way.” Richard slid the sword back into its scabbard as he turned his eyes to the figure held in the shadows and light. “Good-bye, Father Rahl. I trust you will die without my watching it.”

“Richard!” Rahl shrieked as he watched the Seeker stride away. “Richard!”

Zedd stood alone with Darken Rahl. He watched as transparent fingers of smoke entwined around the white robes, pinning Rahl’s arms to his sides. Zedd stepped closer, the blue eyes coming to the old wizard.

“Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander, you have won this much of it, but maybe not all of it.”

“Arrogant to the end?”

Rahl smiled. “Tell me who he is.”

Zedd shrugged. “The Seeker.”

Rahl laughed, struggling in pain. The blue-eyed gaze, came back to Zedd. “He is your son, isn’t he? I have at least been defeated by wizard blood. You are his father.”

Zedd shook his head slowly, a wistful smile coming to his lips. “He is my grandson.”

“You lie! Why put a web around him, hide his father’s identity, if it is not you!”

“I put a web around him because I did not want him to know who the blue-eyed bastard was who raped his mother and gave him life.”

Darken Rahl’s eyes widened. “Your daughter was killed. My father told me so.”

“A little trick, to keep her safe.” Zedd’s expression darkened. “Though you didn’t know who she was, you hurt her. Without intending it, you also gave her happiness. You gave her Richard.”

“I am his father?” Rahl whispered.

“When you raped my daughter, I knew I couldn’t harm you, and my first thought was to comfort her, protect her, so I took her to Westland. She met a young man, a man widowed with a baby son. George Cypher was a good, kind man—I was proud to have him as my daughter’s husband. George loved Richard as his own, but he knew the truth, except about me, who I was—that was hidden by the web.

“I could have hated Richard for his father’s crimes, but chose instead to love him for himself. He turned out to be quite a man, don’t you think? You have been defeated by the heir you wanted. An heir born with the gift. That is rare. Richard is the true Seeker. From the Rahl blood, he has the rage of the anger, the capacity for violence. But it’s balanced with Zorander blood, the capacity for love, understanding, and forgiveness.”

Darken Rahl shimmered in the shadows of the magic or Orden. He twisted in pain as he became transparent as smoke. “To think, the Zorander and Rahl bloodlines, joined in one. Yet he is still my heir. In a way,” he managed, “I have won.”

Zedd shook his head. “You have lost, in more ways than one.”

Vapor, smoke, shadows, and light spun in a roar. The ground shook violently. The sorcerer’s sand, now black as pitch, was sucked into the vortex. The whole of it rotated over the abyss, the sounds of the world of life and the underworld mixing in a terrible howl.

Darken Rahl’s voice came hollow, empty, dead. “Read the prophecies, old man. Things may not yet be as final as you think. I am an agent.”

A point of blinding light ignited in the center of the spinning mass. Zedd shielded his eyes. Beams of white-hot light shot upward, through the windows overhead, into the sky, and downward, into the blackness of the abyss. There was a piercing shriek. The air shimmered with the heat, light, and sound. A flash lit everything around to white, and then there was silence.

Cautiously, Zedd took his hands from his eyes. It was gone. The whole of it was gone. Winter sunlight warmed the ground where only moments before the black abyss had been. The sorcerer’s sand was gone. The bare circle of earth it had covered was whole. The rupture between worlds healed. At least Zedd hoped it was.

The wizard felt his power seeping back into his bones. The ones who had drawn the spell against him were gone. The effect of the spell was gone.

He stood before the altar, spread his arms into the sunlight, and closed his eyes.

“I recall the webs. I am who I was before: Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander, Wizard of the First Order. Let all know it once more. And the rest, too.” The people of D’Hara were linked to the House of Rahl, a link forged in magic long ago by those who would rule—a link that chained the people of D’Hara to the House of Rahl, and House of Rahl to them. With the webs removed, that link to the gift would be felt by many, and let them know that Richard was now Master Rahl.

Zedd would have to tell Richard that Darken Rahl was his father, but not this day. He would have to find the words first. There were many things to tell him, but not this day.

Richard found her, kneeling before one of the deserted devotion pools. The gag was still tied around her neck, left there when she had pulled it from her mouth. Kahlan hunched over in tears, her long hair cascading off her shoulders as she leaned forward, the knife gripped in both fists, the point held to her chest. Her shoulders shook with her sobs. Richard came to a stop next to the folds of her white dress.

“Don’t do that,” he whispered.

“I must. I love you,” Kahlan gave a little moan. “I have touched you with my power. I would rather die than be your mistress. It is the only way to release you.” She gave a tearful shudder. “I would like you to give me a kiss, and then leave me. I don’t want you to see it.”