Kahlan sat on the floor by the fire with her legs crossed, watching him. When he came back to his blanket, she lay down on her back, pulling the blanket up to her waist. The house was quiet—and felt safe. Rain continued to fall outside. It felt good being by the fire. He was tired. Richard turned toward Kahlan, his elbow on the floor and his head propped in his hand. She stared up at the ceiling, turning the bone on the necklace between her finger and thumb. He watched her breast rise and fall with her breathing.

“Richard,” she whispered while continuing to stare at the ceiling, “I’m sorry we have to leave them behind.”

“I know,” he whispered back. “Me too.”

“I hope you do not feel I forced you to do it, because of what I said when we were in the swamp.”

“No. It was the right decision. Every day brings winter closer. It will do us no good to wait with them, while Rahl gets the boxes. Then we will all be dead. The truth is the truth. I can’t be angry at you for saying it.”

He listened to the fire snap and hiss as he watched her face, the way her hair lay across the floor. He could see a vein in her neck pulsing with her heartbeat. He thought that she had the most delicious-looking neck he had ever seen. Sometimes she looked so beautiful, he could hardly stand to look at her, and at the same time, could not look away. She still held the necklace in her fingers.

“Kahlan?” She turned to his eyes. “When Adie told you the necklace would protect you and someday your child, what did you say to her?”

She gazed at him a long moment. “I thanked her, but I told her I did not think I would live long enough to have a child.”

Richard felt bumps rise on the skin of his arms. “Why would you say that?”

Her eyes moved in little flicks as she studied different places on his face. “Richard,” she said quietly, “madness is loose in my homeland, madness you cannot imagine. I am but one. They are many. I have seen people better than me go against it and be slaughtered. I am not saying I think we will fail, but I do not think I will live to know.”

Even if she wasn’t saying it, Richard knew she didn’t think he would live either. She was trying not to frighten him, but she thought he would die in the effort, too. That was why she hadn’t wanted Zedd to give him the Sword of Truth, to make him Seeker. He felt as if his heart were coming up into his throat. She believed she was leading them to their death.

Maybe she was right, he mused. After all, she knew more about what they were up against than he did. She must be terrified to go back to the Midlands. But then, there was no place to hide. The night wisp had said that to run was a sure death.

Richard kissed the end of his finger and then touched it against the bone on the necklace. He looked back up into her soft eyes.

“I add my oath of protection to the bone,” he said in a whisper. “To you now and to any child you may bear in the future. I would trade no day I spend with you for a life of safe slavery. I accepted the post of Seeker of my own free will. And if Darken Rahl takes the whole world into madness, then we will die with a sword in our hands, not chains on our wings. We will not allow it to be easy for them to kill us—they will pay a high price. We will fight with our last breath if need be, and in our death, let us inflict a wound on him that will fester until it claims him.”

A smile spread across her face, until her eyes were caught up in it. “If Darken Rahl knew you as I do, he would have reason to lose sleep. I thank the good spirits the Seeker has no cause to come after me in anger.” She laid her head down on her arm. “You have an odd talent for making me feel better, Richard Cypher, even when telling me of my death.”

He smiled. “That’s what friends are for.”

Richard watched her for a while after she closed her eyes, until sleep gently took him. His last thoughts before it came, were of her.

The first hint of morning was damp and dreary, but the rain had stopped. Kahlan had given Adie a parting hug. Richard faced the old woman, looking into her white eyes.

“I must ask you to do an important task. You must give Chase a message from the Seeker. Tell him he is to go back to Hartland and warn the First Councilor that the boundary will be down soon. Have him tell Michael to gather the army to protect Westland from Rahl’s forces. They must be prepared to fight at any invasion. They must not let Westland fall as did the Midlands. Any forces that come across must be deemed invaders. Have him tell Michael that Rahl is the one who killed our father and those who come do not come in peace. We are at war, and I am already joined in battle. If my brother or the army fails to heed my warning, then Chase is to abandon the service of the government and gather the boundary wardens to stand against Rahl’s legions. His army was virtually unopposed when they took the Midlands. If they have to shed blood freely to take Westland, maybe they will lose their spirit. Tell him to show no mercy to the enemy, take no prisoners. I take no joy in giving these orders, but it’s the way Rahl fights, and either we meet him on his terms or we die on them. If Westland is taken, I expect the wardens to extract a terrible price before they fall. After Chase has the army and wardens in place, he is free to come to my aid, if he chooses to do so, as above all else we must stop Rahl from getting all three boxes.” Richard looked down at the ground. “Have him tell my brother that I love him and I miss him.” He looked up and gauged Adie’s expression. “Can you remember all that?”

“I do not think I could forget if I wanted to. I will tell the warden your words. What would you have me tell the wizard?”

Richard smiled. “That I’m sorry we couldn’t wait for him, but I know he will understand. When he is able, he will find us by the night stone. I hope by then to have found one of the boxes.”

“Strength to the Seeker,” Adie said in a rasp, “and you too, child. Grim times lie ahead.”

Chapter 18

The trail was wide enough to allow Richard and Kahlan to walk side by side after they left Adie’s place. Clouds hung thick and threatening, but the rain held off. Both wrapped their cloaks tight. Damp, brown pine needles matted the path through the forest. There was little brush among the big trees, allowing an open view for a good distance. Ferns covered the ground in feathery swaths through the trees, and dead wood lay in it here and there as if asleep in a bed. Squirrels scolded the two of them as they hiked along, while birds sang with monotonous conviction.

Richard picked at the branch of a small balsam fir as they walked past, stripping the needles between his thumb and the crook of his first finger.

“Adie is more than she seems,” he said at last.

Kahlan looked up at him as they walked. “She is a sorceress.”

Richard glanced sideways at her in surprise. “Really? I don’t know exactly what a sorceress is.”

“Well, she is more than us, but less than a wizard.”

Richard smelled the aromatic fragrance of the balsam needles, then cast them aside. Maybe she was more than he, Richard thought, but he wasn’t at all sure she was more than Kahlan. He remembered the look on Adie’s face when Kahlan had grabbed her by the wrist. It had been a look of fear. He remembered the look on Zedd’s face when he had first seen her. What power did she have that could frighten a sorceress and a wizard? What had she done that had caused thunder without sound? She had done it twice that he knew of, once with the quad, and once with Shar, the night wisp. Richard remembered the pain that had followed. A sorceress greater than Kahlan? He wondered.

“What’s Adie doing living here, in the pass?”