Wizard's First Rule

"We better hurry before she gets too far ahead. She won't wait for us." The wizard picked up Kahlan's pack, stuffing gear into it. "We better at least grab some of our supplies." He smoothed a wrinkle on the pack. "Chase, I don't think we are going to return from this; the Con Dar is a suicide venture. You have a family. There is no need for you to go."

Chase didn't look up. "What's a Mord-Sith?" he asked quietly.

The wizard swallowed hard, his hands gripping the pack so firmly they shook. "Mord-Sith are trained from a young age in the art of torture, and the use of a merciless weapon of pain, called an Agiel. That was the red thing hanging from Darken Rahl's neck. Mord-Sith are used against those with magic. They have the power to take a person's magic, and use it against them." Zedd's voice broke, "Richard would not have known that. He had no chance. The only purpose in life for a Mord-Sith, the only thing they live for, is to torture to death those with magic."

Chase rammed a fistful of blanket into the pack. "I'm going."

Zedd nodded his understanding. "I will be glad for your company."

"Are these Mord-Sith a danger to us?"

"Not to you, you have no magic, and not to wizards, I have protection."

"What about to Kahlan."

Zedd shook his head. "A Confessor's magic is different from any other. The touch of a Confessor's magic is death to a Mord-Sith. A very bad death. I saw it once. I don't want to ever see it again." Zedd's eyes glided over the bloody mess, thinking of what they had done to Kahlan, and what they almost did. "I guess," he whispered, "I have seen a lot of things I wish to never see again."

As Zedd hoisted Kahlan's pack to his shoulder, there was an impact to the air, thunder with no sound. They both ran to the trail, ran for Kahlan. They had only gone a short distance when they found the last man, sprawled across the way where he had lain in wait. His own sword jutted from his chest. Both his hands held the hilt in a death grip.

They both kept running until they caught up with her. She strode purposefully along, eyes ahead, disinterested in what was about her. Her Confessor's dress flowed and flapped behind her like a flame in wind. Zedd had always thought Confessors looked beautiful in their dresses, especially the white of the Mother Confessor.

But he saw it now for what it really was. Battle armor

CHAPTER 48

WATER FROM THE DRIZZLE collecting on Richard's face ran down his nose, hanging in a drip at the end, tickling. He angrily wiped it off. He was so tired that he hardly knew what he was doing anymore. The only thing he knew for sure was that he couldn't find Kahlan, and Zedd, and Chase. He had searched relentlessly, going down endless trails and roads, back and forth, crisscrossing his way toward the People's Palace, and had not seen a sign of them. There were trails and paths everywhere, and he knew he had searched only a fraction of them. He had stopped only for a few hours at night, mostly to rest the horse, and then he had sometimes searched on foot. Since he had left his brother, the clouds had hung low and thick, limiting visibility. He was furious that they had to come now, when he needed Scarlet more than ever.

He felt that everything was conspiring against him, that the fates did indeed work for Darken Rahl. Rahl would have Kahlan by now. It was too late; she must be in the People's Palace by now.

He urged the horse up the mountain trail, through stands of big spruce that grew on the steep ground. Spongy moss muffled the passing of the horse's hooves. Darkness hid nearly everything. As he rode higher, through the mist and darkness, the trees thinned, exposing him to the cold wind coming up the slope. It flapped his cloak and moaned in his ears. Black patches of cloud and mist blew across the trail. Richard pulled his hood up against the elements. Although he couldn't see anything, he knew he had reached the top of the mountain pass and was starting down the opposite side.

It was deep in the night. The dawn would bring the first day of winter. The last day of freedom.

Finding a small shelter of overhanging rock, Richard decided to get a few hours' sleep before the dawn that would be his last. He warily slid off the horse's wet back and tethered ii to a nearby scrub pine that hunched among long grass. He didn't even take his pack off, but simply rolled himself in his cloak under the rock and tried to sleep, thinking of Kahlan, thinking of what he would have to do to keep her out of the hands of a Mord-Sith. After he finished helping Darken Rahl open the box that would give him the power he sought, Rahl would kill him. Despite Darken Rahl's assurance that Richard Would be free to go about his life, what life could he have after he was touched by Kahlan's power?