Faith of the Fallen   ::   Goodkind Terry

"

Victor draped his massive arm around Kahlan's shoulders. "Come, Richard's wife, I will give you a taste of my lardo."

Cara, a dark look on her face, put a hand to the blacksmith's chest to stop him. She lifted his arm from Kahlan's shoulders.

"No one but Lord Rahl touches the Mother Confessor."

Victor gave Cara a quizzical look. "Have you ever had lardo?"

"No."

Victor slapped Cara on the back as he laughed. "Come, then, and I will give you lardo, too. Then you will see-anyone who eats lardo with me is my friend for life."

Kahlan took Kamil's place under one of Richard's arms, Victor under the other, and they made their way across newly free ground up to the blacksmith's shop, to have some lardo.



CHAPTER 71

Verna pulled the candle close. She warmed her hands over it a moment, then laid the journey book on the table. The sounds of the army camp outside her small tent were by now so familiar she almost didn't hear them.

It was a cold D'Haran winter night, but at least they and all the people they had helped were safely over the mountains. Verna understood their quiet anxiety: it was a new and mysterious place, D'Hara, a land once only a source of nightmares. At least they were safe for the time being. In the distance the wolves' long plaintive howls echoed through the frigid mountains, off the moonlit snow blanketing the seemingly endless, desolate, colossal slopes.

It was the proper phase of the moon, even if it was the moon in a new land, a strange and unknown land. Verna had checked for months, but there was never a message. She didn't really expect one, since Kahlan had thrown Ann's twinned journey book in the fire. But still, it was a journey book, an ancient thing of magic, and Ann was a resourceful woman. It didn't hurt to look.

Verna opened the little book with no real hope.

There, on the first page, was a message.

All it said, was, Verna, 1 am waiting, if you are there.

Verna drew the stylus from the spine and immediately began writing.

Prelate! You have been able to fix the damaged journey book? That's wonderful. Where are you? Are you well? Have you found Nathan?

Verna waited. Shortly, the reply began to appear.

Verna, 1 am well. 1 was able to restore the journey book with the help of some. . people. Strange people. But the important part is that it is restored for the most part. 1 am still searching for the prophet. I have some good clues on Nathan's whereabouts, and 1 am looking into them. But how are you, Verna? How goes the war? Warren? Kahlan? Is Zedd giving you much trouble? That man can try the patience of stone. Have you had word of Richard?

Verna stared at words on the page. A tear fell near Warren's name. She picked up the stylus once more, and slowly began her reply.

Oh, Prelate, some terrible things have happened.

1 am sorry, Verna, came the reply. Verna, 1 am here. I am going nowhere for the night. Take all the time you need. Tell me what happened. Tell me how you are, first. 1 worry so for you. Verna, 1 love you like a daughter.

You know 1 do.

Verna nodded to the book. She did know it.

And 1 love you, too, Prelate, Verna began. I fear my heart is broken.

-]--

Kahlan stood silently beside him in the warm midday breeze as Richard looked out over the river, at the city beyond. The city was peaceful, now.

Battle had raged for weeks, various factions struggling for power, lusting to be the new local incarnation of the Order, each faction swearing that they had the best interest of the people at heart, each promising that they would be compassionate in their rule, each pledging that life would be easier under their mandate because they would see to it that everyone of means contributed to the common good.

After decades of such altruistic tyranny, decay and death had been the only product of the business of the common good. Despite graveyards full of evidence and a people left impoverished, these aspirants to power offered only more of the same, and yet many still believed them simply because they uttered such good intentions.

While a great number of brothers and officials had been killed, some had escaped. Some of those, who had not fled, thought to take advantage of the confusion and establish control, thinking they could rein in the hunger for freedom, the ideas loosed, and put things back to the way they were.

The free people of Altur'Rang, their numbers growing daily, eradicated each of these factions as they emerged from under their rocks. Nicci had been no small aid in the bloody battles. She knew the methods of such people, where they went to ground, and pounced on them like a wolf on vermin.

The forces lusting to oversee the welfare and betterment of mankind came to greatly fear that which they had in fact created: Death's Mistress.

There was no telling, yet, if freedom's flame, now ignited, would spread through the Old World. It was still a very small flame in a vast and dark place, but Richard knew that such a flame burned brightly.

To the north, matters were not nearly so auspicious. With Nicci's magic withdrawn, Richard supposed that the D'Harans would know where he was, and send him messages. Cara was immensely relieved to be able to sense his location again through her bond.

He had listened quietly as Kahlan and Cara had told him all the details of the war, and how they had sent the people of Aydindril on a long and difficult journey to D'Hara before Jagang could march into the city in the spring. It would give them heart to know that Lord Rahl had struck a mighty blow against the Old World, to know that the Mother Confessor was with him, and that they were well. A number of men had requested the job of carrying that invaluable news north.

Soon, the D'Haran Empire and the people they were protecting who had fled their homes would know of the victory to the south. The messengers would actually be carrying a more precious commodity than that news: they would in reality be carrying hope.

Richard had also sent his grandfather the same word.

Richard could hardly believe that Warren, his friend, was gone. The terrible anguish, he knew, would be slow to fade.

Richard had sent one other thing north.

Nicci had told him of Brother Narev's importance to Emperor Jagang, of their long history together, and of their shared vision of the future of mankind. In the spring when Jagang finally, triumphantly, rode in to seize the Confessors' Palace, waiting for him there, before his empty victory, would be his mentor's head on a pike, topped by his creased brown cap.

Nicci had woven a spell around it, to preserve it, to keep scavengers away.