She finally looked up. "When I reached the commanders, down close to the playing field, I saw that the men starting up a new game weren't using the ball that they usually used." She cleared her throat. "They were using Queen Cyrilla's head for the ball."

Jebra sought to fill the uncomfortable silence. "Anyway, life in Galea had been changed forever. What was once a center of commerce is now little more than a vast army camp from where continuing campaigns against some of the free areas of the New World are launched. The farms out in the country, run by forced labor, don't produce as they once did. Crops fail or are poor. The needs of the vast armed forces in Galea are huge. Food is always scarce but the supplies that regularly come up from the Old World keep the soldiers fed well enough to carry on.

"I worked day and night as a slave to the needs of the Imperial Order commanders. I never again had any visions after the one about Queen Cyrilla. It seemed odd to me to be without my visions. I'd had them my whole life, but after that terrible vision about Queen Cyrilla a couple of years back, no more came. My gift as a Seer seems to have vanished. My vision has gone dark."

By the glance from Nicci, Richard knew that she suspected what he was thinking.

"Eventually," Jebra said, "I was one day snatched away from the middle of all those troops. It was Shota who somehow got me out. I'm not entirely sure how it happened. I just recall that she was there with me. I started to ask something but she told me to keep my mouth shut and to start walking. I remember turning back once to look and there was the army spread out across the valley and up into the hills, but they were a great distance behind us. I don't know how it had happened, really, that we were so far away." She frowned into her dim memories. "We were just walking. And here I am. I'm afraid, though, that because my visions have gone dark I can no longer be of any help to you."

Richard thought she should know the truth, so he told her. "Your vision probably went dark because several years back the chimes were in this world for a time. They were banished back to the underworld, but the damage was done. I think that the presence of the chimes in the world of life began the disintegration of magic. It must be that it disrupted your ability. Your gifted vision is probably lost, or, even if it returns in part or for a time, it will eventually be completely extinguished."

Jebra looked dazed by the news. "My whole life I have frequently wished that I had never been born with the vision of a Seer. In many ways it made me an outcast. I often wept at night, wishing to be free of my visions, wishing they would leave me be.

"But now that you tell me that my wish has been granted, I don't think that I ever really meant it."

"That's the problem with wishes," Zedd said as he sighed. "They tend to be things that — "

"The chimes?" Shota interrupted. By her tone of voice as well as her frown, Richard knew that she wasn't interested in hearing about wishes. "If such a thing were true, then why has there been no other evidence of it?"

"There has been," Richard said with a shrug. "Creatures of magic, such as the dragons, have not been seen in the last couple of years."

"Dragons?" Shota coiled a long wavy lock of hair around a finger as she appraised him silently for a moment. "Richard, people can go for a lifetime and never catch a glimpse of a dragon."

"And what of Jebra's visions going dark? After the chimes were in this world her visions ceased. Like other things of magic, her unique ability is flickering out. I'm sure that we aren't even aware of most of them."

"I would be aware of them."

"Not necessarily." Richard raked his hair back off his forehead. "The problem is, Chainfire — which I first heard about from you — is a spell that was ignited by four Sisters of the Dark to make everyone forget Kahlan. That spell is contaminated by the chimes, so besides Kahlan, people are forgetting other things as well, such as dragons."

Shota looked anything but convinced. "I would still be aware of such things because of the way they flow forward in time."

"And what about this other witch woman, Six? I thought that you said that she was masking your ability to see the flow of time."

Shota ignored his question and pulled the finger free of the skein of auburn hair. As she folded her arms. Her almond-shaped eyes remained fixed on him.

"If the shadow of the Order darkens mankind, none of it will matter, now, will it? They will put an end to all magic, as well as all hope."

Richard didn't answer. Instead he turned to the still waters, to his brooding thoughts.

Shota tilted her head, gesturing toward the steps as she spoke quietly to Jebra. "Go up there and see Zedd. I need to talk to Richard."

CHAPTER 17

As Shota glided closer to Richard she cast Nicci a threatening glare. He wondered why Shota hadn't also told Nicci to go back up the steps with Jebra to talk to Zedd. He surmised, though, that the witch woman probably knew that Nicci wouldn't follow any such orders. He certainly didn't want to see them in a test of wills. He had enough to worry about without those on the same side battling among themselves.

When Richard glanced over and saw Jebra ascending the steps he also saw that Ann and Nathan had already made their way around the room to stand near him as well. When she reached him, Zedd circled a comforting arm around Jebra's shoulders as he murmured words of reassurance, but his gaze was on Richard. Richard appreciated his grandfather watching out for him and keeping an eye on the witch woman just in case she had any ideas about pulling one of her tricks. Zedd probably knew far better than any of them just what Shota was capable of. He also harbored a deep mistrust of the woman, not sharing at all Richard's view that Shota, at her core, was driven by the same convictions as they were.

As much as he might appreciate her central purpose, Richard was well aware that Shota sometimes pursued that purpose in ways that had in the past caused him no end of grief. What she viewed as help sometimes ended up being nothing but trouble for him.

He was all too aware that Shota also on occasion had her own agenda — such as when she had given the sword to Samuel. Richard suspected that she was up to something now as well, he just didn't know what or what was behind it. He wondered if it might have something to do with eliminating the other witch woman.

"Richard," Shota said in a soft, sympathetic tone, "you have heard the nature of the terror that is descending upon us. You are the only one who can stop it. I don't know why it is so, but I do know that it is."

Richard did not spare her for her gentle tone or her concern about their common enemy. "You dare to express your deep distress over the suffering and death brought by the Order and your conviction that only I can do something to stop the threat, and yet you conspired to withhold information just so that you could wrest the Sword of Truth from me?"

She didn't rise to the challenge. "There was no conspiring, as you put it. It was a fair trade — value for value." Her voice remained serene. "Besides, the sword would not be of any help to you in this, Richard."

"A poor excuse for you giving it to that murderous Samuel."

Shota arched an eyebrow. "And, as it turns out, had I not, then those Sisters of the Dark who stole the boxes of Orden would probably have united by now. With all three boxes together, they very well might have already opened one, very well might have already unleashed the power of Orden, very well might have already turned us all over to the Keeper of the dead. What good would the sword do you if the world of life were ended? It seems that Samuel, for whatever reason, has prevented a cataclysm."