Zedd was First Wizard. For someone of his ability, defending the Wizard's Keep wouldn't be too difficult. He also had Adie there with him to help. The old sorceress, alone, could probably defend a place such as the Keep. Zedd knew what the Keep would mean to Jagang, could he gain it. Zedd would protect the Keep no matter what.

"There's no way for Jagang to get past the barriers in that place,"

Kahlan said. That much of it was one worry they could set aside. "Jagang knows that and might not waste time holding an army there for nothing."

"You may be right, but that still doesn't do us any good-it's too far."

Too far. Kahlan seized Richard's arm and dragged him to a halt. "The sliph. If we can find one of her wells, we could travel in the sliph. If nothing else, we know there's the well down here in the Old World- in Tanimura. Even that's a lot closer than a journey overland all the way to Aydindril."

Richard looked north. "That might work. We wouldn't have to make it past Jagang's army. We could come right up inside the Keep." He put his arm around her shoulders. "First, though, we have to see to this other business."

Kahlan grinned. "All right. We take care of me first, then we see to taking care of you."

She felt a heady sense of relief that there was a solution at hand. The rest of them couldn't travel in the sliph-they didn't have the required magic-but Richard, Kahlan, and Cara certainly could. They could come up right in the Keep itself.

The Keep was immense, and thousands of years old. Kahlan had spent much of her life there, but she had seen only a fraction of the place. Even Zedd hadn't seen it all, because of some of the shields that had been placed there ages ago by those with both sides of the gift, and Zedd had only the Additive side. Rare and dangerous items of magic had been stored there for eons, along with records and countless books. By now it was possible that Zedd and Adie had found something in the Keep that would help drive the Imperial Order back to the Old World.

Not only would going to the Keep be a way to solve Richard's problem with the gift, but it might provide them with something they needed to swing the tide of the war back to their side.

Suddenly, seeing Zedd, Aydindril, and the Keep seemed only a short time away.

With a renewed sense of optimism, Kahlan squeezed Richard's hand. She knew that he wanted to keep scouting ahead. "I'm going to go back and see how Jennsen is doing."

As Richard moved on and Kahlan slowed, letting the wagon catch up with her, another dozen black-tipped races drifted in on the air currents high above the burning plain. They stayed close to the sun, and well out of range of Richard's arrows, but they stayed within sight.

Tom handed a waterskin down to Kahlan when the bouncing wagon rattled up beside her. She was so dry that she gulped the hot water without caring how bad it tasted. As she let the wagon roll past, she put a boot in the iron rung and boosted herself up and over the side.

Jennsen looked to be happy for the company as Kahlan climbed in. Kahlan returned the smile before sitting beside Richard's sister and the puling Betty.

"How is she?" Kahlan asked, gently stroking Betty's floppy ears.

Jennsen shook her head. "I've never seen her like this. It's breaking my heart. It reminds me of how hard it was for me when I lost my mother.

It's breaking my heart."

As she sat back on her heels, Kahlan squeezed Jennsen's hand sympathetically. "I know it's hard, but it's easier for an animal to get over something like this than for people to do the same. Don't compare it to you and your mother. Sad as this is, it's different. Betty can have more kids and she'll forget all about this. You or I never could."

Before the words were out, Kahlan felt a sudden stab of pain for the unborn child she had lost. How could she ever get over losing her and Richard's child? Even if she ever had others, she would never be able to forget what was lost at the hands of brutes.

She idly turned the small dark stone on the necklace she wore, wondering if she ever would have a child, wondering if there would ever be a world safe for a child of theirs.

"Are you all right?"

Kahlan realized that Jennsen was watching her face.

Kahlan forced herself to put on a smile. "I'm just sad for Betty."

Jennsen ran a tender hand over the top of Betty's head. "Me too."

"But I know that she'll be all right."

Kahlan watched the endless expanse of ground slowly slide by to either side of the wagon. Waves of heat made the horizon liquid, with detached pools of ground floating up into the sky. Still, they saw nothing growing.

The land was slowly rising, though, as they came ever closer to distant mountains. She knew that it was only a matter of time until they reached life again, but right then it felt like they never would.

"I don't understand about something," Jennsen said. "You told me how I shouldn't do anything rash, when it came to magic, unless I was sure of what would happen. You said it was dangerous. You said not to act in matters of magic until you can be sure of the consequence."

Kahlan knew what Jennsen was driving at. "That's right."

"Well, that back there pretty much seemed like one of those stabs in the dark you warned me about."

"I also told you that sometimes you had no choice but to act immediately. That's what Richard did. I know him. He used his best judgment."

Jennsen looked to be satisfied. "I'm not suggesting that he was wrong.

I'm just saying that I don't understand. It seemed pretty reckless to me.

How am I supposed to know what you mean when you tell me not to do anything reckless if it involves magic?"

Kahlan smiled. "Welcome to life with Richard. Half the time I don't know what's in his head. I've often thought he was acting recklessly and it turned out to be the right thing, the only thing, he could have done. That's part of the reason he was named Seeker. I'm sure he took into account things he sensed that even I couldn't."

"But how does he know those things? How can he know what to do?"

"Oftentimes he's just as confused as you, or even me. But he's different, too, and he's sure when we wouldn't be."

"Different?"

Kahlan looked over at the young woman, at her red hair shining in the afternoon sunlight. "He was born with both sides of the gift. All those born with the gift in the last three thousand years have been born with Additive Magic only. Some, like Darken Rahl and the Sisters of the Dark, have been able to use Subtractive Magic, but only through the Keeper's help-not on their own. Richard alone has been born with Subtractive Magic."

"That's what you mentioned last night, but I don't know anything about magic, so I don't know what that means."

"We're not exactly sure of everything it means ourselves. Additive Magic uses what is there, and adds to it, or changes it somehow. The magic of the Sword of Truth, for example, uses anger, and adds to it, takes power from it, adds to it until it's something else. With Additive, for example, the gifted can heal.

"Subtractive Magic is the undoing of things. It can take things and make them nothing. According to Zedd, Subtractive Magic is the counter to Additive, as night is to day. Yet it is all part of the same thing.

"Commanding Subtractive, as Darken Rahl did, is one thing, but to be born with it is quite another.

"Long ago, unlike now, being born with the gift-both sides of the gift-was common. The great war then resulted in a barrier sealing the New World off from the Old. That's kept the peace all this time, but things have changed since then. After that time, not only have those born with the gift gradually become exceedingly rare, but those who have been born with the gift haven't been born with the Subtractive side of it.