Confessor (5 page)

But it was the containment spell that had been drawn all around the box that had him alarmed. It had been drawn in blood. There were other charms, other spells, drawn on the tabletop, and they, too, were drawn in blood.

Zedd recognized some of the elements of the diagrams. He didn’t know of anyone living who could have drawn such charms. Such things were not entirely stable, making them dangerous beyond belief. Any number of spells could kill in an instant if done improperly. These spells, drawn in blood no less, were among the most perilous spells in existence. Employing them successfully was not something Zedd himself, with a lifetime of knowledge, training, and practice, would ever consider attempting.

Zedd had seen such terrible spells drawn only once before. Those had been drawn by Darken Rahl—Richard’s father—when Darken Rahl had been completing the conjuring involved in opening the boxes of Orden. Opening one of the boxes had cost him his life.

Around the box itself, in midair, lines of green and amber light traced yet more spells through space. They were somewhat reminiscent of the glowing green lines of the verification web they had done for the Chainfire spell in that very room, but this structure of three-dimensional formulas was materially different. And these glowing lines pulsed as if alive. He supposed that made sense. The power of Orden was the power of life itself.

Other lines, connected to intersections of the green and, in places, amber light, were as black as the box. Peering at them was like looking through slits into death itself. Subtractive Magic had been mingled with Additive to create a network of power the likes of which Zedd had never imagined he would see in his lifetime.

The whole web of light and darkness hung in space.

The box of Orden itself sat in the center of that web, like a fat black spider.

The Book of Life
lay open nearby.

“Nicci,” Zedd managed with only the greatest of difficulty, “what in the name of Creation have you done?”

When she reached the table, Nicci turned back and stared at him for an uncomfortably long moment.

“I have done nothing in the name of Creation. I have done it in the name of Richard Rahl.”

Zedd pulled his gaze away from the terrible thing within the glowing lines to stare at her. He was having difficulty drawing a breath.

“Nicci, what have you done?”

“The only thing I could do. The thing that had to be done. The thing that only I could do.”

The confluence of both sides of the gift holding the box of Orden within its glowing web was beyond imagining. It was the stuff of nightmares.

Zedd chose his words carefully. “Are you suggesting that you believe that you can put that box in play?”

The manner in which she slowly shook her head tightened his chest with dread. Her blue-eyed gaze riveted him in place.

“I have already put it in play.”

Zedd felt as if the floor might come apart under him and he might never stop falling. He wondered for just an instant if any of this was real. The whole room seemed to be swirling around him. His legs felt wobbly.

Cara’s hand came up under his arm to steady him.

“Are you out of your mind?” he asked, the heat rising in his voice as his legs stiffened.

“Zedd…” She took a step closer. “I had to.”

He couldn’t even make himself blink. “You had to? You
had
to?”

“Yes. I had to. It’s the only way.”

“The only way for what! The only way to end the world? The only way to destroy life itself?”

“No. The only way to give us a chance to survive. You know what the world is coming to. You know what the Imperial Order is going to do—what they are on the verge of doing. The world is at the brink. Mankind is staring into a thousand years of darkness at best. At worst, mankind may never again emerge into the light.

“You know that we are approaching paths in prophecy beyond which everything goes dark. Nathan has told you of those branches leading to a great void beyond which there is nothing. We stand staring into that void.”

“And have you ever thought that what you have just done very well might be the cause of it—the very thing that takes mankind, all life, into that void of extinction?”

“Sister Ulicia has already put the boxes of Orden in play. Do you think she and her Sisters of the Dark care about life? They work to unleash the Keeper of the underworld. If she succeeds, the world of life is doomed. You know what the boxes are, you know their power, you know what will happen if she is the one to rule the power of Orden.”

“But that doesn’t mean—”

“We have no choice.” Her gaze didn’t waver. “I had to.”

“And do you have any idea how to invoke Orden? How to command the boxes? How to know the correct box?”

“No, not yet,” she admitted.

“You don’t even have the other two!”

“We have a year to get them,” she said with calm determination. “We have a year from the first day of winter. A year from today.”

Zedd lifted his hands in fury and frustration. “Even if we could find them, you think that you would somehow be able to command the power of Orden? You think you can wield the power of Orden?”

“Not me,” she said in a near whisper.

Zedd cocked his head, unsure he had actually heard what he thought he’d heard. His suspicion flared into hot dread.

“What do you mean, not you? You just said that you put the boxes in play.”

Nicci stepped closer. She laid a hand gently on his forearm.

“When I opened the gateway I was asked to name the player. I named Richard. I put the boxes of Orden in play on behalf of Richard.”

Zedd stood thunderstruck.

He wanted to strike her dead.

He wanted to strangle her. He wanted to rip her limb from limb.

“You named Richard?”

She nodded. “It was the only way.”

Zedd ran the fingers of both hands back into his unruly thatch of wavy white hair, holding his head for fear it might come apart.

“The only way? Bags, woman! Are you out of your mind?”

“Zedd, calm down. I know it’s a surprise, but this is hardly
a whim. I’ve thought it through. Believe me, I’ve thought it all through. If we are to survive, if those who care about life are to survive, if there is to be a chance for life, if there is to be a chance for a future, then this is the only way.”

Zedd dropped heavily into one of the chairs at the table. Before he did something beyond retrieval, before he reacted out of blind rage, he told himself that he must keep his head. He tried to touch on all he knew about the boxes and what was happening, tried to remind himself of all the desperate things he’d had to do in his life. He tried to see it from her perspective.

He couldn’t.

“Nicci, Richard doesn’t know how to use his gift.”

“He will have to find a way.”

“He doesn’t know anything about the boxes of Orden!”

“We will have to teach him.”

“We don’t know enough about the boxes of Orden. We don’t know for sure which is the correct
Book of Counted Shadows.
Only the correct book works as the key to the boxes!”

“We will have to sort that out.”

“Dear spirits, Nicci, we don’t even know where Richard is!”

“We know that the witch woman tried to capture him in the sliph and failed. We know from what Rachel told us that Six apparently cut Richard off from his gift by drawing spells in the sacred caves in Tamarang. Rachel says that Six lost him when he was captured by the Imperial Order. For all we know, by now he may have escaped them as well and be on his way here. If not, we will have to find him.”

Zedd couldn’t seem to find a way to make her see and understand all that stood in their way. “What you’re suggesting is impossible!”

She smiled then, a sad smile. “A wizard I know and respect, a wizard who taught Richard to be the man he is,
also taught him to think of the solution, not the problem. Such advice has always served him well.”

Zedd was having none of it. He shot to his feet. “You had no right to do such a thing, Nicci. You have no right to decide this for his life. You had no right to name Richard to this!”

Her smile vanished to reveal the iron beneath. “I know Richard. I know how he fights for life. I know what it means to him. I know that there is nothing he would not do to preserve the value of life. I know that if he knew all the things I know, he would have wanted me to do as I have done.”

“Nicci, you don’t—”

“Zedd,” she said in a commanding tone of voice that cut him off, “I asked you if you trusted Richard with your life, with all life. You said that you did. Those words have meaning. You did not hem and haw, qualifying the bounds of your trust. Trusting someone with your life is as unequivocal as trust can be.

“Richard is the only one who can lead us in the final battle. While Jagang and the Order might be part of it, the battle over the power of Orden
is
the final battle. The Sisters of the Dark who command those boxes will make it so. One way or another, they will make sure of it. The only way Richard can lead us is for him to have the boxes in play. In that way, he truly is the fulfillment of prophecy:
fuer grissa ost drauka
—the bringer of death.

“But this is more than prophecy. Prophecy only expresses what we already know, that Richard is the one who has been leading us in defending the values we hold dear, the values that promote life.

“Richard himself named the terms of the engagement when he spoke to the D’Haran troops. As the Lord Rahl, the leader of the D’Haran Empire, he told those men how the war would be fought from now on: All or nothing.

“This can be no different. Richard is true to the core and would not expect everyone else to do what he himself would not do. He is the heart of all we believe. He would not betray us.

“We are now in it all the way. It now truly is all or nothing.”

Zedd threw his arms up. “But naming Richard the player is not the only way he can lead this battle, not the only way for him to succeed—but it very well might instead be the cause of him failing. What you have done could lead us all to ruin.”

Nicci’s blue eyes filled with the kind of conviction, resolve, and rage that told him she might reduce him to ash if he stood in the way of what she believed was necessary. For the first time he was seeing Death’s Mistress as those who stood in her way, stood before her full fury, saw her.

“Your love for your grandson is blinding you. He is more than your grandson.”

“My love for him doesn’t—”

Nicci thrust an arm out to point to the east, toward D’Hara. “Those Sisters of the Dark ignited the Chainfire event! Chainfire is burning unchecked through all of our memories. Such an event means far more than simply losing our memory of Kahlan.

“Who we are, what we are, what we can be, is moment by moment disintegrating. It’s not just about forgetting Kahlan. The vortex of that spell grows daily. The damage is multiplying on itself. We are unaware of the full extent of all we have lost already while day by day we lose yet more. Our very minds, or ability to think, to reason, are being eroded by that vile spell.

“Worse, the Chainfire spell is contaminated. Richard himself showed it to us. The contamination of the chimes is buried deep within the Chainfire spell that has infected everyone. The contamination carried by the Chainfire spell
is burning through the world of life. Besides destroying the nature of who and what we are, it’s destroying the fabric of magic itself. Without Richard we wouldn’t even be aware of it.

“The world not only stands at the brink due to Jagang and the Imperial Order, but it is being destroyed by the silent, unseen work of the Chainfire spell and the contamination within it.”

Nicci jabbed a finger at her temple. “Has that contamination already destroyed your ability to see what is at stake? Has it already taken your ability to think?

“The only counter to the Chainfire event is the boxes of Orden. That is the reason the boxes were created—they were created specifically as the only salvation should the Chainfire event ever be ignited.

“Those Sisters ignited Chainfire. To compound what they did, to make it irreversible, they themselves put the boxes in play, put the counter in play, naming themselves as the player. They believe that there is now no way for anyone to stop them. They may be right. I’ve read
The Book of Life,
the instructions for how Orden functions. It provides no way to halt the play once initiated. We can’t shut down Chainfire. We can’t halt the play of Orden. The world of life is about to spin out of control—just as they want.

“What is Richard fighting for? What are we all fighting for? Should we simply give up, say that it’s too hard, too risky to try to prevent our total annihilation? Should we shrink from the only chance we have? Shall we surrender everything that matters? Should we let Jagang slaughter all those who wish to be free? Let the Fellowship of Order enslave the world? Allow Chainfire to run rampant and destroy our memory of everything good? Let the contamination within that spell wipe magic from the world along with everything that depends on it for life? Shall we just sit down
and give up? Shall we let the world end at the hands of people who would destroy it all?

“Sister Ulicia opened the gateway to the power of Orden. She put the boxes in play. What is Richard supposed to do? He has to have the weapons he needs to fight this battle. I have just given him what he needs.

“The struggle is now truly in balance. The two sides of this battle are now fully engaged in the struggle that will decide it all.

“We have to trust Richard in this struggle.

“There was a time a few years back when you were faced with similar decisions. You knew your choices, your responsibilities, the risks, and the lethal consequences of inaction. You named Richard the Seeker of Truth.”

Zedd nodded, hardly able to summon his voice. “Yes, I did indeed.”

“And he lived up to everything you believed of him, and more, didn’t he?”

He couldn’t make himself stop trembling. “Yes, the boy did all I ever expected and more.”

“This is no different, Zedd. The Sisters of the Dark no longer have exclusive access to the power of Orden.” She brought an arm up and made a fist. “I have given Richard a chance—I have given us all a chance. In that sense, I have just put Richard into play, giving him what he must have to win this struggle.”