Darken Rahl’s face distorted in pain. He laughed and screamed.
Richard looked around. “Where’s Kahlan?”
Zedd pointed a long finger. “I saw her leave that way.”
Richard slid the sword back into its scabbard as he turned his eyes to the figure held in the shadows and light. “Good-bye, Father Rahl. I trust you will die without my watching it.”
“Richard!” Rahl shrieked as he watched the Seeker stride away. “Richard!”
Zedd stood alone with Darken Rahl. He watched as transparent fingers of smoke entwined around the white robes, pinning Rahl’s arms to his sides. Zedd stepped closer, the blue eyes turning to the old wizard.
“Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander, you have won this much of it, but maybe not all of it.”
“Arrogant to the end?”
Rahl smiled. “Tell me who he is.”
Zedd shrugged. “The Seeker.”
Rahl laughed, struggling in pain. The blue-eyed gaze came back to Zedd. “He is your son, isn’t he? I have at least been defeated by wizard blood. You are his father.”
Zedd shook his head slowly, a wistful smile coming to his lips. “He is my grandson.”
“You lie! Why put a web around him, hide his father’s identity, if it is not you!”
“I put a web around him because I did not want him to know who the blue-eyed bastard was who raped his mother and gave him life.”
Darken Rahl’s eyes widened. “Your daughter was killed. My father told me so.”
“A little trick, to keep her safe.” Zedd’s expression darkened. “Though you didn’t know who she was, you hurt her. Without intending it, you also gave her happiness. You gave her Richard.”
“I am his father?” Rahl whispered.
“When you raped my daughter, I knew I couldn’t harm you, and my first thought was to comfort her, protect her, so I took her to Westland. She met a young man, a man widowed with a baby son. George Cypher was a good, kind man; I was proud to have him as my daughter’s husband. George loved Richard as his own, but he knew the truth, except about me, who I was; that was hidden by the web.
“I could have hated Richard for his father’s crimes, but chose instead to love him for himself. He turned out to be quite a man, don’t you think? You have been defeated by the heir you wanted. An heir born with the gift. That is rare. Richard is the true Seeker. From the Rahl blood, he has the rage of the anger, the capacity for violence. But it’s balanced with Zorander blood, the capacity for love, understanding, and forgiveness.”
Darken Rahl shimmered in the shadows of the magic of Orden. He twisted in pain as he became transparent as smoke. “To think, the Zorander and Rahl bloodlines, joined in one. Yet he is still my heir. In a way,” he managed, “I have won.”
Zedd shook his head. “You have lost, in more ways than one.”
Vapor, smoke, shadows, and light spun in a roar. The ground shook violently. The sorcerer’s sand, now black as pitch, was sucked into the vortex. The whole of it rotated over the abyss, the sounds of the world of life and the underworld mixing in a terrible howl.
Darken Rahl’s voice came hollow, empty, dead. “Read the prophecies, old man. Things may not yet be as final as you think. I am an agent.”
A point of blinding light ignited in the center of the spinning mass. Zedd shielded his eyes. Beams of white-hot light shot upward, through the windows overhead, into the sky, and downward, into the blackness of the abyss. There was a piercing shriek. The air shimmered with the heat, light, and sound. A flash lit everything around to white, and then there was silence.
Cautiously, Zedd took his hands from his eyes. It was gone. The whole of it was gone. Winter sunlight warmed the ground where only moments before the black abyss had been. The sorcerer’s sand was gone. The bare circle of earth it had covered was whole. The rupture between worlds healed. At least Zedd hoped it was.
The wizard felt his power seeping back into his bones. The ones who had drawn the spell against him were gone. The effect of the spell was gone.
He stood before the altar, spread his arms into the sunlight, and closed his eyes.
“I recall the webs. I am who I was before; Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander, Wizard of the First Order. Let all know it once more. And the rest, too.”
The people of D’Hara were linked to the House of Rahl, a link forged in magic long ago by those who would rule; a link that chained the people of D’Hara to the House of Rahl, and the House of Rahl to them. With the webs removed, that link to the gift would be felt by many, and let them know that Richard was now Master Rahl.
Zedd would have to tell Richard that Darken Rahl was his father, but not this day. He would have to find the words first. There were many things to tell him, but not this day.
Richard found her, kneeling before one of the deserted devotion pools. The gag was still tied around her neck, left there when she had pulled it from her mouth. Kahlan hunched over in tears, her long hair cascading off her shoulders as she leaned forward, the knife gripped in both fists, the point held to her chest. Her shoulders shook with her sobs. Richard came to a stop next to the folds of her white dress.
“Don’t do that,” he whispered.
“I must. I love you.” Kahlan moaned in misery. “I have touched you with my power. I would rather die than be your mistress. It is the only way to release you.” She shook with a tearful shudder. “I would like you to give me a kiss, and then leave me. I don’t want you to see it.”
“No.”
Her eyes snapped up to his. “What did you say?” she whispered.
Richard put his fists on his hips. “I said ‘no.’ I’m not going to kiss you with those silly things painted on your face. They nearly scared the life out of me.”
Her green eyes stared in disbelief. “You can deny me nothing, once I have touched you with my power.”
Richard squatted down close to her. He untied the gag from her neck. “Well, then, you have ordered me to kiss you”—he dunked the cloth in the water—“and I told you I won’t do it with this thing painted on your face.” He began wiping the lightning bolts from her skin. “So, I guess the only solution is to get rid of it.”
She knelt, frozen, while he cleaned the red off her face. Richard looked into her wide eyes when he finished. He tossed the rag aside, and knelt in front of her, slipping his arms around her waist.
“Richard, I touched you with the magic. I felt it. I heard it. I saw it. How could the power not have taken you?”
“Because I was protected.”
“Protected? How?”
“By my love for you. I realized I love you more than life itself, and I would rather give myself into your power than live without you. Nothing the magic could do to me could be worse than living without you. I was willing to give it all over to you. I offered the power everything I have. All of my love for you. Once I realized how much I loved you, was willing to be yours on any terms, I understood that there could be nothing for the magic to harm. I’m already devoted to you; it didn’t need to change me. I was protected, because I have already been touched, by your love. I had utter faith that you felt the same, and had no fear of what would happen. Had I had any doubt, the magic would have latched on to that crack and taken me, but I had no doubt. My love for you is smooth and seamless. My love for you protected me from the magic.”
She gave him her special smile. “You felt that way? You had no doubt?”
Richard smiled back. “Well, for a moment, when I saw those lightning bolts on your face, I have to admit, I was worried. I didn’t know what they were, what they meant. I pulled the sword, trying to gain time to think. But then I realized it didn’t matter; you were still Kahlan, and I still loved you, no matter what. I wanted you to touch me more than anything, to prove my love and devotion for you, but I had to put on an act for Darken Rahl’s benefit.”
“These symbols mean that I, too, gave everything over to you,” she whispered.
Kahlan circled her arms around his neck, kissing
him. They knelt on the tiles in front of the devotion pool, pressed against one another. Richard kissed her soft lips the way he had dreamed a thousand times of kissing her. He kissed her until he was dizzy, and then kissed her some more, not caring that bewildered people who passed watched them.
Richard had no idea how long they knelt there embracing, but decided at last that they had better go find Zedd. With her arm around his waist, her head leaning against him, they walked back to the Garden of Life, kissing once more before they went through the doors.
Zedd stood with one hand on a bony hip, the other stroking his chin, as he inspected the altar and other things behind it. Kahlan fell to her knees before him, taking his hands in hers, kissing them.
“Zedd, he loves me! He figured out how to make it work, with the magic. There was a way, and he found it.”
Zedd frowned down at her. “Well, it took him long enough.”
Kahlan came to her feet. “You knew how to do it?”
Zedd looked indignant at the question. “I’m a wizard of the First Order. Of course I knew.”
“And you never told us?”
Zedd smiled. “Had I told you, dear one, it wouldn’t have worked. The foreknowledge would have interjected a grain of doubt. That single grain would have caused failure. To be the true love of a Confessor, there must be total commitment, to get past the magic. Without the willingness to give himself over to you, selflessly, despite the knowledge of the consequence, it wouldn’t work.”
“You seem to know a lot about it.” Kahlan frowned. “I have never heard of it before. How often does this happen?”
Zedd rubbed his chin in thought, looking up at the windows. “Well, only once before that I know of.” His eyes rested on the two of them. “But you can tell no one, just as I wasn’t able to tell you. No matter how much pain it may cause, no matter the consequences, you can never tell. If even one other knows, it could be passed on, destroying forever the chance for others. It’s one of the ironies of magic; you have to accept failure before you can have success. It is also one of the burdens of magic; you must accept the results, even the death, of others, to protect the hope for the future. Selfishness costs the lives, the chances, of those yet unborn.”
Kahlan nodded. “I promise.”
“Me too,” Richard said. “Zedd, is it over? With Darken Rahl, I mean. Is he dead?”
Zedd gave Richard a look he found unexpectedly uncomfortable. “Darken Rahl is dead.” Zedd put a thin hand on Richard’s shoulder, his bony fingers gripping tightly. “You have gotten it right, Richard, all of it. You scared the wits out of me. I have never seen a performance to match it.”
Richard grinned in pride. “Just a little trick.”
Zedd nodded, his white hair sticking out in every direction, looking wild. “More than a trick, my boy. More than little.”
They all turned when they heard the sound of someone approaching. Chase came dragging Michael in by the scruff of his neck. His dirty white trousers and shirt spoke that he had not come willingly. Chase gave him a shove, forcing him in front of Richard.
Richard’s mood darkened at seeing his brother. Michael’s defiant eyes came up to meet Richard’s gaze.
“I’ll not be treated in this manner, little brother.” His voice was as condescending as it had ever been. “You don’t know what you’ve interfered with, what I was trying to do, how I would have helped everyone by uniting Westland and D’Hara. You have doomed the people to needless suffering that Darken Rahl could have spared. You are a fool.”
Richard thought about all he had been through, about all that Zedd, and Chase, and Kahlan had been through. He thought about all those he knew who had died at Rahl’s hands, and the countless number of dead he would never know of. The suffering, the cruelty, the brutality. He thought of all the tyrants allowed to flourish under Darken Rahl, all the way from Darken Rahl himself down to Princess Violet. He thought of those he had killed. He felt pain and grief at the things he had had to do.
The metallic ring of the Sword of Truth filled the air. Michael’s eyes went wide at seeing its point at his throat.
Richard leaned a little closer to his brother. “Give me the loser’s salute, Michael.”
Michael’s face turned crimson. “I would rather die first.”
Richard nodded as he straightened. He looked deep into his brother’s eyes as he took the sword away. Richard pulled the anger back, tried to make the sword turn white. It would not. He slid the blade home into its scabbard.
“I’m glad to see we have one thing in common, Michael. We would both die for what we believe in.” He took his gaze from Michael, to the big, crescent battle-axe hanging at Chase’s belt. His eyes came up to the boundary warden’s grim face. “Execute him,” he whispered. “Take his head to his personal guard. Tell them he was executed by my order, for treason against Westland. Westland will have to find a new First Councilor.”
Chase’s big fist grabbed Michael by the hair. Michael screamed out, falling to his knees, giving the loser’s salute.
“Richard! Please, I’m your brother! Don’t do this! Don’t let him kill me! I’m sorry, forgive me. I was wrong. Please, Richard, forgive me.”
Richard stared down at his brother, who was on his knees before him, his hands together, imploring. Richard held out the Agiel in his fist, feeling the pain it gave him, tolerating it, remembering it, the visions flashing through his mind. “Darken Rahl told you what he was going to do to me. You knew. You knew what was going to happen to me, and you were indifferent because it brought you personal gain. Michael, I forgive everything you have done against me.”
Michael sagged in relief. The Seeker stiffened. “But I cannot forgive what you have done against others. Others have forfeited their lives because of the things you have done. It is for those crimes that you are to be executed, not the ones against me.”
Michael screamed and cried as Chase dragged him away. Richard watched in pain, shaking, as his brother was taken to his execution.
Zedd placed his hand over Richard’s on the Agiel. “Let it go, Richard.”
Richard’s thoughts masked the pain it was giving him. He looked to Zedd, standing before him with his bony, leathery hand over his, saw things in his friend’s eyes he had never seen before, a shared understanding of the pain. He released the Agiel.
Kahlan’s eyes went to it as it fell against his chest. “Richard, do you have to keep that?”
“For now, I do. It was a promise I made to one who I killed. One who helped teach me how much I love you. Darken Rahl thought this would defeat me. Instead, it taught me how to defeat him. If I discard it now, I would be denying what is inside me, what I am.”
Kahlan put her hand on his arm. “Right now, I don’t understand, but someday, I hope I will.”
Richard looked around the Garden of Life, thinking about Darken Rahl’s death, and about his father’s death. He had seen justice done. He grieved a moment when his memories touched his father. But then the pain lifted as he realized that he had completed the task his father had given him. Richard had remembered every word of the secret book perfectly. His duty was done. His father could rest in peace.
Zedd straightened his robes with a huff. “Bags! A place this big must have something to eat, don’t you suppose?”
Richard grinned, put one arm around each of them as he led them out of the Garden of Life. He took them to a dining hall he remembered. People sat at tables as if nothing had changed. The three of them found a table in the corner. Servers brought plates of rice, vegetables, brown bread, cheese, and bowls of steaming spice soup. The surprised but smiling servers kept bringing more as Zedd resolutely emptied the plates of food.
Richard tried the cheese, and to his surprise found it had a sickening flavor. He threw it back on the table as he made a sour face.
“What’s the matter?” Zedd asked.
“That has to be the worst-tasting cheese I’ve ever eaten!”
Zedd sniffed it and took a bite. “
Nothing wrong with the cheese, my boy.”
“Fine, then you eat it.”
Zedd was only too happy to comply. Richard and Kahlan ate spice soup and brown bread, and smiled as they watched their old friend eat. Zedd had his fill at last, and they resumed their journey out of the People’s Palace.
As they strode through the halls, the bells tolled in a single, long peal, calling people to the devotion. Kahlan watched with a frown as everyone gathered at the squares, bowing to the center, chanting. Since Richard had changed the words in his devotion, he no longer felt the pull, the nervous need to join the people. They passed a number of squares as they continued on, each filled with people chanting. Richard wondered if he should do something about it, stop them somehow, but decided at last he had already done the most important part.
The three emerged from the cavernous halls out into the winter sunlight. The hillside of steps cascaded down before them, to the huge expanse of courtyard. The three paused at the brink. Richard gasped when he saw the numbers gathered there.
Spread out before them were thousands of men, standing tall in rank upon rank. At the head, at the base of the steps, stood Michael’s personal guard, formerly known as the Home Guard, before Michael took that name from them. Their mail, shields, and yellow banners shone brightly in the sun. Behind them, nearly a thousand men of the Westland army. Behind them, many more of the D’Haran forces. Chase stood before them all, his arms folded, looking up the steps. Next to him, planted in the ground, was a pole with Michael’s head atop it. Richard stood, stunned by the silence. If a man in the back, a half mile away, had coughed, he would have heard it.
Zedd’s hand on his back started him down the steps. It felt a little too much like a push. Kahlan took his arm, giving it a squeeze, and held herself tall as they descended the series of steps and expansive landings. Chase watched Richard’s eyes as he came. Richard saw Rachel beside him, clutching one arm around his leg, holding Sara in the other hand. Sharing the grip with the doll was Siddin’s hand. Siddin saw Kahlan and broke from the hand, running to meet her. Kahlan laughed and scooped him up in her arms. He grinned at Richard and jabbered something Richard didn’t understand, before throwing his arms around Kahlan’s neck. After she hugged him and whispered to him, she put him down, holding his hand tightly.