"You, Kahlan Amnell, be the Mother Confessor. I see you for who you be, and you be the Mother Confessor."

Kahlan's muscles locked tight, her breath held prisoner in her lungs. How could he know that? Had Zedd removed the spell? Had something happened to Zedd? Dear spirits, if anything happened to Zedd. .

With a cry of rage, she brought the sword around in a mighty swing. At the same time, the woman in the tattered rages flung a hand out. With a grunt of effort, Adie cast out a shield. The blow of air from the woman atop the horse brushed past Kahlan's face, flicking her hair out. Adie's shield had saved her.

Kahlan's sword flashed in the moonlight. The night air cracked as her blade sundered the horse's leg under Brogan.

The horse screamed as it thudded to the ground, pitching Brogan into the trees. At the same time, a gout of flame from Adie enveloped the other horse's head. It reared wildly, throwing the woman whom Kahlan now knew to be a sorceress, too.

Kahlan snatched Adie's hand and yanked her away. They scrambled desperately into the brush. All around, she could hear men and horses crashing through the trees. Kahlan didn't try to think where she was going; she simply ran.

There was one thing she hadn't resorted to, yet; she was saving her power as her last recourse. It could only be used once, and then would take hours to recover. Most Confessors took a day or two to recover their magic. The fact that Kahlan could recover her power within a couple of hours marked her as one of the most powerful Confessors to have ever been born. That power didn't seem like much, now. One chance.

"Adie." Kahlan gasped, trying to catch her breath. "If you can, if they catch us, try to slow one of the two women."

Adie didn't need further explanation. She understood; both the women chasing them were sorceresses. If Kahlan had to use her power, that would be the best use of it.

Kahlan ducked at a flash of light. A tree beside them crashed down with a deafening roar. As the snow cleared in rolling clouds, the other woman, the one who had been afoot, marched forward.

Beside the woman was a dark, scaled creature, looking half man, half lizard. Kahlan heard a cry come from her throat. It felt as if her bones wanted to jump out of her unmoving flesh.

"I've had quite enough of this nonsense," the woman said as she strode forward, the scaled thing at her side.

Mriswith. It had to be mriswith. Richard had described them to her. This nightmare creature could only be a mriswith.

Adie darted closer, casting sparkling light toward the woman. The woman flicked her hand, almost indifferently, and Adie went down, the sparkles settling harmlessly to the snow.

The woman bent, took Adie's wrist, and cast her away like a chicken for later plucking. Kahlan burst into action, diving forward with her sword.

The thing, the mriswith, swept before her like a gust of wind. She saw its dark cape billow open as it spun past. She heard the ring of steel.

She realized she was on her knees. Her empty sword hand tingled and stung. How could it move that fast? When she looked up, the woman was closer. Her hand came up, and the air shimmered. Kahlan felt a blow to her face.

She blinked the blood from her eyes, seeing the woman lift her hand again, her fingers curling.

The woman's arms suddenly splayed in the air as she was hit from behind by a mighty wallop. Adie must have used everything she had left. The invisible blast of magic from Adie, hard as a hammer, threw the woman forward. Kahlan caught her hand as she tried desperately to snatch it back.

It was too late. Everything slowed in Kahlan's mind. The sorceress seemed to be suspended in midair, Kahlan gripping her hand. Time was Kahlan's, now. She had all the time in the world.

The sorceress began to gasp. She began to look up. She began to flinch. In the calm center of her power, her magic, Kahlan was in control. The woman had no chance.

As Kahlan watched, she could feel the magic within, the Confessor's magic, rip through every fiber of her being, screaming onward.

In that timeless place of her mind, Kahlan released her power.

Thunder without sound jolted the night.

As the concussion slammed through the air, even the stars above seemed to stagger, as if a celestial fist had struck the great, silent bell of the night sky.

The shock shuddered the trees. A ring of snow lifted, billowing outward in a ring.

The impact of magic had knocked the mriswith from its feet.

The woman looked up, her eyes wide, her muscles slack.

"Mistress," she whispered, "command me."

Men were crashing through the trees. The mriswith was staggering to its feet.

"Protect me!"

The sorceress sprang up, spinning with a hand out. The night ignited.

Lightning ripped through the trees in an arc. Tree trunks exploded as the twisting line of light sliced across them. Splintered wood spun through the air, trailing smoke. Men were no less naked before the rending violence than were the trees. Not so much as a scream escaped their lungs, nor would it have been heard above the pandemonium.

The mriswith vaulted toward her. Scales, like the feathers of a bird hit by a rock from a sling, filled the air.

The night roared with fire. The air was rife with flame, flesh, and bone.

Kahlan wiped blood from her eyes, trying to see, as she scooted backward across the snow. She had to get away. She had to find Adie.

She bumped into something. She thought it must be a tree. A fist snatched her by the hair. She reached for her power, realizing too late that it was gone.

Kahlan spit blood from her mouth. Her ears rang. And then there was pain. She couldn't push herself up. Her head felt as if a tree had fallen on it. She heard a voice above her.

"Lunetta, put a stop to this at once."

Kahian turned her head in the snow and saw the sorceress she had touched with her power seem to grow bigger, to come apart. Her arms went in two different directions. That was all Kahlan could recognize as a cloud of red misted the air where the woman had been.

Kahlan slumped into the numbing snow. No. She couldn't give up. She twisted up onto her knees, pulling her knife. Brogan's boot caught her in the middle.

Looking up at the stars, she tried to draw a breath, She couldn't. Cold panic swept through her as she tried to get air. It wouldn't come. Her stomach muscles clenched in spasms, but she couldn't get a breath.

Brogan knelt beside her, pulling her up by her shirt. Breath finally came in convulsing coughing, choking, pulls.

"At last," he whispered. "At last, I have the prize of prizes — the Keeper's most precious pet, the Mother Confessor herself. Oh, you have no idea how I've dreamed of this day." He backhanded her across the jaw. "No idea at all."

Kahlan labored for air as Brogan twisted the knife from her grip. She fought to keep her mind from going black. She had to remain conscious if she was to think, if she was to fight.

"Lunetta!"

"Yes, my lord general, I be here."

Kahlan felt the buttons on her shirt pop off as he ripped it open. She weakly lifted an arm to check his hands. He batted the arm away. Her arms felt too heavy to lift.

“First, Lunetta, we must take her before her power returns. Then we will have all the time we want to question her before she pays for her crimes."

He leaned closer in the moonlight, leaning a knee into her gut, holding her down. She fought to get air back into her lungs, but then it rushed out with a scream as his brutal fingers wrenched her left nipple.

She saw the knife come up in his other hand.

With wide eyes, she saw a white glimmer before Brogan's grin. In the moonlight, three blades poised before his bloodless face. Kahlan's eyes, along with Brogan's, turned to see two mriswith above them.