Terry Goodkind - Chainfire - Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

Richard blinked. “What do you mean, they only have two boxes? I thought they used Kahlan to steal all three. All three were in the Garden of Life.”

“Kahlan brought out one box. They gave it to Tovi and had her start out while they sent Kahlan back in for the other two . . .”

“Sent her back?” Richard frowned. “What are you leaving out?”

Nicci licked her lips, but she didn’t break his gaze. “The reason for Tovi’s scream.”

Richard felt his eyes watering. A lump rose in his throat.

Nicci laid a hand over his heart. “We’ll get her back, Richard.”

He clenched his teeth and nodded. “So then what happened?”

“The new Seeker surprised Tovi, stabbed her, and stole the box of Orden she was spiriting away from the People’s Palace.”

“We have to start a search. They can’t have gone far.”

“They are long gone, Richard. Just like they covered their tracks when they took Kahlan, they will have done the same this time. That is not the way to find them.”

Richard looked up. “Samuel. The Sword of Truth was a counter. When I gave him the sword, he must have recognized the truth about Kahlan.” His gaze roved the inside of the tent as he tried to think. “We need to think this through. Collect all the information we can and get ahead of them, instead of always being behind them.”

“I’ll help you, Richard. Anything you want, I will do. I will help you get her back. She belongs with you. I know that now.”

He nodded, thankful that her iron was back. “I think we had better set some things straight and then get some experienced help.”

She smiled a crooked smile. “That’s the Seeker I know.”

Outside the tent, men had begun to gather, all wanting to see the Lord Rahl.

Out of the crowd came Verna. “Richard! Thank the Creator—our prayers have been answered!” She threw her arms around him. “Richard, how are you?”

“Where have you been?”

“I was tending to some injured men. Scouts, who met a few of the enemy. General Meiffert sent word for me to return at once.”

“And the men?”

“Fine,” she said with a smile. “Now that you are finally with us for the final battle.”

He took up her hands. “Verna, you know you have had a hard time with me in the past.”

She grinned as she nodded that it was true. When she saw that he wasn’t smiling, her smile faded. “This is going to be one of those times,” he told her. “You are going to have to believe in me and what I say, or we might as well give up to the Order right now.”

Richard let go of her hand and climbed up on a crate to be better heard. He realized that a sea of men surrounded him.

Cara and General Meiffert were right near the front. “Lord Rahl, will you be able to lead us?” he asked.

“No,” he called out into the still dawn air.

Worried whispers spread back through the men. Richard held up his arms.

“Listen to me!” They quieted. “I don’t have much time. I don’t have the time to explain things as I wish I could. That is the way it is. I will give you the facts, and I will let you decide.

“The army of the Imperial Order has been slowed a bit down south.” Richard held up his hands to stifle the cheers. “I don’t have much time. Listen, now.

“You men are the steel against steel. I am the magic against magic. I now must pick one of those two for the coming battle.

“If I stay here and lead you, fight with you, then we are not going to have much of a chance. The enemy forces are huge. I don’t need to tell any of you men that much. If I stay and help you fight them, most of us will die.”

“I can tell you right off,” General Meiffert said, “that I don’t like that choice.”

Most of the men agreed that the grim picture he had just painted was not something they relished.

“What’s the alternative?” a man nearby called out.

“The alternative is that I let you men do your job and present the steel to keep the Order from choosing instead to run rampant through our lands.

“Meanwhile, I pledge to do my job of being the magic against magic. I will do what only I can and work to find a way to defeat the enemy without any of you men having to lose your life in battle with them. I want to find a way, with my power, to banish or destroy them before we have to fight them.

“I can’t guarantee that I will succeed. If I fail, I will die in the attempt and you men will have to face the enemy.”

“Do you think you can stop them with magic of some sort?” another man asked.

Nicci jumped up beside him. “Lord Rahl has already set people in the Old World against Jagang’s forces. We have fought battles in their own homeland in the hopes of taking away their support.

“If you insist on keeping Lord Rahl here, with you, then you are wasting his singular talent, and you might die as a result. I ask, as one who fights at his side, that you let him be the Lord Rahl, let him do as he must, while you do as you must.”

“I couldn’t say it any better,” Richard told them. “There it is, then. That is the choice I give you.”

Unexpectedly, men began going to their knees. Far and wide dust rose as men shuffled to make space to kneel down.

In one voice, the chant began.

“Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours.”

Richard watched out over the sea of men as the sun broke the horizon. The devotion was repeated a second time, and then a third time, as was customary in the field. Once it was done, men began to return to their feet.

“I guess that’s your answer, Lord Rahl,” General Meiffert said. “Go get the bastards.”

The men cheered their agreement.

Richard hopped down and took Nicci’s hand to help her down. She ignored the hand and jumped down of her own accord. Richard turned to Cara.

“Well, I have to go. We’re in a hurry. Look, Cara, I want you to know that I would be fine with it if you would like to stay with—the army.”

A dark frown descended over Cara as she folded her arms. “Are you crazy?” She looked up over her shoulder at the general. “I told you, the man is crazy. See what I have to put up with?”

General Meiffert nodded seriously. “I don’t know how you do it, Cara.”

“Training,” she confided. She trailed her fingertips across his cheek, smiling up at him in a way Richard had never seen her do before. “Take care of yourself, General.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He smiled at Nicci before bowing his head. “As per your orders, Mistress Nicci.”

Richard’s mind was already elsewhere. “Come on. Let’s get going.”

Marching down the frame and panel hall, Rikka leading the way, Cara and Nicci in tow, Richard reached the intersection and turned down a stone passageway with a towering vaulted ceiling that soared up for nearly two hundred feet. Fluted columns to the sides rose up at evenly spaced intervals. Through large windows at the top the massive exterior buttresses that supported the lofty walls could be seen. Streamers of light angled in high overhead and from small round windows down lower. Their boot strikes echoed like hammers through the cold hall.

Richard’s cape that looked like it was made from spun gold billowed behind him as if in a gathering storm. The gold symbols around the black tunic fairly glowed in the muted light. Passing each shaft of sunlight, the silver emblems in his boots, on his wide, multilayered leather belt, and on his leather-padded wristbands sent blades of light flashing around them, announcing the arrival of a war wizard.