Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind [51]
“That sounded like the very thing you would do, but I couldn’t be sure then; I had to find a way to know. When you first saw Kahlan, and were angry that she had come here from the Midlands, I told you she had been attacked by a quad. I watched your eyes. They told me I was right. Only someone who had suffered a loss like yours would have had that look in his eyes. And, you changed your attitude toward her after I told you. Completely. Only someone who had known the terror personally would have that kind of empathy. But still I didn’t trust my instinct. I waited.”
He looked up at Zedd and held the other’s gaze while he spoke. “Your biggest mistake was when you told Kahlan she was safe here. You would not lie, especially about something like that. And you know what a quad is. How could an old man make it safe here, against a quad, without magic? He couldn’t, but one old wizard could. The next quad is nowhere to be found, you said so yourself; they ran into some trouble. I think they ran into some wizard trouble. You were as good as your word. You always are.”
Richard’s voice turned gentler. “I have always known, in a thousand little ways, that you were more than you claimed to be, that you were a special person. I have always been honored to have you as my friend. And I know that as my friend, you would do anything, anything you must, to help me if my life were in danger, just as I would do anything for you. I trust you with my life, and it is now in your hands.” Richard hated closing the trap in this fashion, but all their lives were at risk. There could be no games.
Zedd put his hands on the table and leaned forward. “I have never before been this proud of you, Richard.” His eyes told that he meant it. “You got it all right.” He stood and came around the table. When Richard stood, they hugged. “I have also never been this sad for you.” Zedd held Richard in a tight embrace for a moment longer. “Sit. I will be right back. I have something for you. Both of you sit and wait a moment.”
Zedd cleared the table; then, holding the plates in the crook of his arm, he strode to the house. Kahlan looked worried as she watched him go. Richard had thought that she would be happy to have found the wizard, but now she looked more frightened than anything else. Things were going differently from what he had expected.
When Zedd reappeared, he was carrying something long. Kahlan came to her feet. Richard realized Zedd’s fist clutched the scabbard of a sword. Kahlan put herself in front of him before he reached the table, grabbing fistfuls of his robes.
“Don’t do this, Zedd.” Her voice was desperate.
“It is not my choice.”
“Zedd, please no, choose someone else, not Richard….”
Zedd cut her off. “Kahlan! I warned you about this. I told you; he picks himself. If I choose someone other than the true one, we all die. If you have a better way… put words to it!”
He swept her aside, came to the side of the table opposite Richard, and slammed the sword down in front of him. Richard jumped. He looked from the sword up into Zedd’s fierce eyes as the other leaned over the table.
“This belongs to you,” the wizard said. Kahlan turned her back to them.
Richard’s gaze fell upon the sword. The silver scabbard gleamed with gold flourishes that embellished it in sweeps and waves. Steel crossguards swept out and down aggressively. Finely twisted silver wire covered the grip, and interwoven along the side of the braided silver, gold wire formed the word Truth. This, Richard thought, was the sword of a king. It was the finest weapon he had ever seen.
Slowly, he rose to his feet. Zedd picked up the scabbard by the point and held the hilt of the sword to Richard. “Draw it.”
As if in a trance, Richard closed his fingers around the hilt and pulled the sword free, the blade making a ringing, metallic sound that hung in the air. Richard had never heard a sword make a sound quite like it. His hand closed tightly around the grip, and in his palm and on his fingers opposite he could feel the bumps of the gold wire that spelled out the word Truth on