Wizard's First Rule

Her beautiful face studied him with a sadness that hurt. Her eyes had the same fire in them that Kahlan's had; the tire of intelligence. Richard felt the need in her, the need to help him. He feared suddenly what it was she knew, because he realized that it wasn't meant to hurt him, it was simply truth. Richard saw Samuel watching the sword and became aware of his own left hand, resting around the hilt, aware of how tightly he was gripping it, and how the raised letters of the word Truth were pressing painfully into his palm

"Shota, what are these things you know?"

"The easiest first," she sighed. "You know the way you stopped the wizard's fire with the sword? Practice the move. I gave you that test for a reason. Zedd will use the wizard's fire against you. Only the next time, it will be for real. The flow of time does not say who will prevail, only that you have a chance to beat him."

Richard's eyes widened. "That can't be true…"

"True," she said, clipping off his words, "as a tooth given by a father to show the keeper of the book, to show the truth of how it was taken."

That rattled him to his bones.

"And no, I don't know who the keeper is." Her eyes burned into him. "You will have to find him yourself."

Richard could hardly draw a breath, could hardly make himself ask the next question. "If that was the easy part, then what is the hard?"

Auburn hair tumbled off her shoulder as Shota looked away from his eyes, to Kahlan, who stood stone still while the snakes writhed on her. "I know what she is, and how it is she is a threat to me…" Her voice trailed off. She turned back to him. "It is obvious you do not know what she is, or perhaps you would not be with her. Kahlan has a power. Magic power."

"That much I know," Richard offered cautiously.

"Richard," Shota said, trying to find the words for something she found difficult, "I am a witch woman. As I said, one of my powers is that I can see things as they will come to pass. It is one reason fools' fear me." Her face drew closer to his, uncomfortably close. Her breath smelled of roses. "Please, Richard, don't be one of these fools; don't fear me because of things I have no control over. I'm able to see the truth of events that will come to be; I do not dictate or control them. And just because I see them, that does not mean I'm at all happy about them. It is only by action in the present that we can change what otherwise will come to pass. Have the wisdom to use the truth to your advantage, don't simply rail against it."

"And what truth do you see, Shota?" he whispered.

Her eyes had an intensity that halted his breath, her voice the sharp edge of a blade

".Kahlan has a power, and if she isn't killed, she will use that power against you." She watched his eyes carefully as she spoke. "There can be no doubt of the truth of this. Your sword can protect you from the wizard's fire, but it will not protect you from her touch."

Richard felt the stab of her words, as if they cut through his heart.

"No!" Kahlan whispered. They both looked at her, her face wrinkled with pain at Shota's words. "I wouldn't! Shota, I swear, I couldn't do that to him."

Tears ran down her cheeks. Shota stepped close to her and reached through the snakes, touching her face tenderly, to comfort her.

"If you are not killed, child, I am afraid you will." As a tear rolled down, her thumb brushed it back. "You have already come close, once," Shota said with surprising compassion. "Within a breath." She nodded slightly to herself. "This is true, is it not? Tell him. Tell him if I am speaking the truth."

Kahlan's eyes snapped to Richard. He looked into the depths of her green eyes and remembered the three times she had touched him when he had been holding the sword, and how that touch made the magic jump in warning. The last time, with the Mud People when the shadow things had come, the magic's reaction had been so strong that he almost put the sword through her before he realized who it was. Kahlan's eyebrows wrinkled together, her eyes shrinking from his gaze. She bit her bottom lip as a little moan escaped her throat.

"Is this true?" Richard asked in a whisper, his heart in his throat. "Have you come within a breath of using your power against me, as Shota says?"

Kahlan's face drained of color. She let out a loud, painful moan. She closed her eyes and cried in a long, agonizing wail, "Please, Shota. Kill me. You must. I am sworn to protect Richard, to stop Rahl. Please," she cried in choking sobs. "It's the only way. You must kill me."

"I cannot," Shota whispered. "I have granted a wish. A very foolish one."

Richard could hardly stand the pain of seeing Kahlan like this, asking to die. The lump in his throat threatened to choke him

Kahlan suddenly cried out and threw up her arms, to make the snakes bite her. Richard lunged for them, but they were gone. Kahlan held out her arms, looking for snakes that were no longer there.

"I'm sorry, Kahlan. If I were to let them bite you, it would break the wish I granted."