Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind [277]
“I would never let him starve,” he protested. “I care for him too much.”
“I know. Me, too.”
He chewed a few berries. “I want to thank you for keeping your word.”
“My word?”
Zedd peered up at her as he hunched over the bundle, eating berries one at a time. “Your word not to touch him, not to use your power on him.”
“Oh.” She looked off into the night, gathering her courage. “Zedd, you are the only wizard left, other than Giller. I am the last Confessor. You have lived in the Midlands, you have lived in Aydindril. You are the only one who knows what it is like to be a Confessor. I tried to explain it to Richard, but it takes a lifetime to truly understand, and then, I think none but another Confessor or a wizard can really understand.”
Zedd patted her arm. “You may be right.”
“I have no one. I can have no one. You can’t imagine what that’s like. Please, Zedd.” Her eyebrows wrinkled together. “Please, can you use your magic to remove this from me? Can you take the Confessor’s magic from me, and let me be a normal woman?”
She felt as if she was hanging by a thin strand over a gaping, dark, bottomless pit. She twisted on the end of the strand while she watched his eyes.
His head bent. He didn’t look up. “There is only one way to release you from the magic, Mother Confessor.”
Her heart leapt into her throat. “How?” she whispered.
His eyes came to hers. They were filled with pain. “I could kill you.”
She felt the strand of hope break. She put all her effort to making her face show nothing, a Confessor’s face, as she felt herself disappearing down into the blackness. “Thank you, wizard Zorander, for hearing my request. I didn’t really think there was, I just thought I would ask. I appreciate your honesty. You better go get some sleep now.”
He nodded. “First, you must tell me what Shota said.”
She maintained her expression. “Ask the Seeker. It is to him she spoke; I was covered with snakes at the time.”
“Snakes.” Zedd lifted an eyebrow. “Shota must have liked you. I have seen her do worse.”
Kahlan held his eyes. “She did worse to me, too.”
“I asked Richard. He won’t tell me. You must.”
“You would have me step between two friends? You would ask me to betray his trust? No, thank you.”
“Richard is smart, perhaps the smartest Seeker I have ever seen, but he knows very little of the Midlands. He has seen only a tiny portion of it. In some ways it’s his best defense and strongest asset. He found where the last box is by going to Shota. No Seeker from the Midlands would have done that. You have spent your whole life here, you know many of the dangers. There are creatures here who could use the magic of the Sword of Truth against him. There are creatures who would suck the magic from him and kill him with it. There are dangers of every kind. We don’t have the time to teach him all he needs to know, so we must protect him, so he can do his job. I must know what Shota said so I can judge if it’s important; if we need to protect him.”
“Zedd, please, he is my only friend. Don’t ask me to betray his trust.”
“Dear one, he is not your only friend. I’m your friend too. Help me protect him. I will keep it from him that you told me.”
She gave him a meaningful glare. “He has an uncanny way of finding out things you wish him not to know.”
Zedd gave a knowing smile at that; then his face hardened. “Mother Confessor, this is not a request, this is an order. I expect you to treat it as such.”
Kahlan folded her arms, half turning away from him as she bristled. She could hardly believe he was doing this to her. She no longer had a say in the matter. “Shota said Richard was the only one who has a chance to stop Darken Rahl. She doesn’t know how, or why, but he is the only one with a chance.”
Zedd waited in silence. “Go on.”
Kahlan gritted her teeth. “She said you would try to kill him, that you would use wizard’s fire against him, and that he has a chance to beat you. There is a chance you will fail.”
Silence settled around them again. “Mother Confessor