Blood of the Fold

Jebra looked up hopefully. "That may be it."

Kahlan offered her a smile. “Maybe it is. Your visions aren' t always of calamity."

As they all started to go back to cleaning up, Jebra spoke again. "Mother Confessor, we mustn't leave your sister alone with any ropes."

"What do you mean?"

Jebra let out a breath. "She is dreaming of hanging herself."

"You mean that you have seen a vision of her hanging herself?"

Jebra laid a concerned hand to Kahlan's arm. "Oh no. Mother Confessor, I've not seen that. It's just that I can see the aura, see that she is dreaming of doing it. It does not mean she will, only mat we must watch her, so she won't have the chance before she can recover."

"That sounds like sound advice," Zedd offered.

Jebra tied the leftover bread in a cloth. "I will sleep with her tonight."

"Thank you," Kahlan said. "Why don't you let me finish cleaning up, and you go to bed now, in case she wakes."

Zedd, Adie, and Kahlan shared the chores after Jebra took her bedroll into the room with Cyrilla. When they were finished, Zedd placed a chair before the fire for Adie. Kahlan loosely twined her fingers together and stood looking into the flames.

"Zedd, when we send the delegations to the smaller lands to ask them to come to a council in Ebinissia, it would be easier to convince them if it were an official delegation from the Mother Confessor."

Zedd finally broke the quiet. "They all think the Mother Confessor is dead. If we let them know you're alive, then you become a target, and it would bring the Order down on us before we could gather a strong enough force."

Kahlan turned and gripped his robes. "Zedd, I'm tired of being dead."

He patted her hand on his arm. "You're the queen of Galea, and you can use your influence in that way, for now. If the Imperial Order finds out you're alive, then we'll have more trouble than we're prepared to handle."

"If we're going to unite the Midlands, then they need a Mother Confessor."

"Kahlan, I know you don't want to do anything to jeopardize the lives of those men out there. They've just won a costly battle; they aren't strong enough yet We need more gathered to our side. If anyone knows you are the Mother Confessor then you become a target and they will have to fight to protect you. If you must fight, it must be for the right reasons. We don't need more problems than we can handle right now."

Kahlan pressed the tips of her fingers together as she stared into the fire. "Zedd, I am the Mother Confessor. I'm terrified I will be the Mother Confessor who presides over the destruction of the Midlands. I was born a Confessor. It's more than my job. It is who I am."

Zedd hugged her shoulders. "Dear one, you are still the Mother Confessor. That's why we must hide your identity for now. We need the Mother Confessor. When the time comes, you will rule over the Midlands again, a Midlands stronger than it has ever been. Have patience."

"Patience," she muttered.

"Ah, well," he said with a grin, "there is magic in patience, too, you know."

"Zedd be right, 1 Adie said from her chair. "The wolf does not survive if he announces to the herd he be a wolf. He makes his plans of attack, and only at the last moment, lets the prey know that it be he, the wolf, who be after them."

Kahlan rubbed her arms. There was more to it — another reason.

"Zedd," she whispered with the pain of it, "I can't stand this spell any longer. It's driving me mad. I can feel it all the time, like death walking in my flesh with me."

Zedd pulled her head to his shoulder. "My daughter used to say the same thing. Those very words, in fact, 'like death walking in my flesh with me. "

"How did she stand it all those years?"

Zedd sighed. "Well, when Darken Rahl raped her, I knew that if he thought she was alive, he would come after her. There was no choice. I wanted to protect her more than I wanted to go after him. I took her to the Midlands, where Richard was born, and then she had another reason to hide. If Darken Rahl ever knew, he might have come after Richard, too, so she had to endure it."

Kahlan shuddered. "All those years. I wouldn't have the strength. How could she stand it?"

"Well, there was no alternative, for one thing, and for another, she said that after a time she became used to it a bit, and it wasn't so bad as it was in the beginning. The feeling will ease a bit over time. You will get used to it, and hopefully, you will not have to go on long like this."

"I hope so," Kahlan said.

The firelight flickering on Zedd's thin face. "She also said that having Richard lessened the burden."

Kahlan's heart leapt at the mere mention aloud of his name. She grinned. "That will surely help." She clutched Zedd's arm. "He'll be here soon. He won't let anything hold him back. He'm be here in a couple of weeks at the most. Dear spirits, how will I ever wait that long?"

Zedd chuckled. "You have as little patience as that boy. You two were made for each other." He brushed back her hair. "Your eyes look better already, dear one."