Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

"I wake in a cold sweat in the dead of night not only seeing Kahlan's face, but the faces of people who will never have a chance at life if Jagang isn't stopped. When people tell me how all those people are depending on me, it breaks my heart-both because I want to help them, and because they think they need me, because they think that I, one man, can be the difference in a war involving millions of people. How dare they put that much responsibility on me?"

She came closer yet and gently put a hand to the side of his arm, rubbing up and down in a reassuring gesture. "Richard, you know that I wouldn't want you to do anything that you thought was wrong. Not even when it was to let you believe she was dead based on what I knew wasn't good evidence, even though I believe that evidence, if for other reasons."

"I know."

"But since that night when you dug up the grave, while you've been wandering around thinking about what you can do, I, too, have been doing a lot of thinking."

Richard flicked small stone fragments from the top of the well, not wanting to have to look up at her. "And what have you come up with?"

"Among other things, as I watched you walk the ramparts, a troublesome idea came to me. I haven't said anything about it yet partly because I don't know for sure if it could be the answer to what is happening to you, and partly because if it is, then it would be even more trouble than any mere delusion caused by your injury. I don't know if it's really the answer, but I fear that it very well might be. Mostly, though, I haven't said anything because the evidence is gone, so I have no way of proving it, but I think the time has arrived to broach the subject."

"Evidence?" Richard asked. "You said that the evidence is gone?"

Nicci nodded. "The arrow you were shot with. I fear that this may have all been caused by that arrow, but in a different and far more disturbing way than we've realized."

Richard was taken aback by her grave expression. "What do you mean?"

"Did you see who shot the arrow that hit you? Who held the crossbow?"

Richard took a deep breath while staring off as he sifted through the dim snatches of mental images of the morning of the fight. He'd only just awakened after hearing the howl of a wolf. Shadowy tree limbs had appeared to move about in the darkness. Then there had been soldiers all around him. He'd had to fight off men from all sides rushing in at him. He remembered quite vividly the feeling of holding the Sword of Truth, of feeling the wire wound hilt in his hand, of its power surging through him.

He recalled seeing men back in the trees shooting arrows at him. Most had bows, but there had been some with crossbows. That would have been rather typical for such a patrol of Imperial Order troops.

"No — I can't say as I recall seeing who shot the bolt that hit me. Why? What is it that you've come up with?"

Nicci appraised his eyes for what seemed an eternity. Her ageless eyes sometimes reminded him of others with magic; Ann, the old Prelate; Verna, the new Prelate; Adie; Shota; and — Kahlan.

"The barbs on that arrow made it impossible to get it out of you in any ordinary way in time to save your life. I was in a desperate hurry. I never gave any thought to checking the arrow before I used Subtractive Magic to take it out of existence."

Richard didn't like the direction toward which her worry seemed to be drifting. "Check it for what?"

"A spell. A diabolically simple spell that would be profoundly destructive."

Richard was now sure he didn't like her idea even though he hadn't heard it, yet.

"What kind of spell?"

"A glamour spell."

"Glamour?" Richard frowned. "How would that work?"

"Well, think of it as a love potion."

Richard stared at her in surprise. "A love potion?"

"Yes, after a fashion." She lightly tapped the fingers of opposite hands together as she reflected on how best to explain it. "A glamour spell would cause you to have a mental vision of a woman, a real woman would be the normal object of the spell, but as I thought about it I realized that it would work just as well for an imaginary woman. Either way, it would make you fall in love with her. But even that is a rather weak way of describing such a powerful spell. Under a glamour spell the woman would become an obsession. Such an obsession would be to the exclusion of almost everything else.

"A glamour spell is a kind of dark secret among sorceresses, usually taught by a gifted mother. Such a spell would be used to make a specific person fixate on the subject of the spell, usually a real individual-the sorceress herself, in most cases. Like I said, it's a kind of love spell.