Blood of the Fold

Richard started across the expanse of floor. “Embedded in the wasteland was a place called the Valley of the Lost, and running through it, from ocean to ocean, a barrier called the Towers of Perdition. The towers were set in place diree thousand years ago by wizards with unimaginable power. The spells of those towers have prevented almost anyone from crossing for the last three thousand years, and so the Old World beyond was forgotten in time."

Cara flashed a skeptical frown as their boot-strikes echoed around the dome. "How do you know this?"

"I was there, in the Old World, at the Palace of the Prophets, in a great city called Tanimura."

"Truly?" Raina asked. Richard nodded. She added a frown to Cara's. "And if no one can get through, then how did you?"

"It's a long story, but basically these women, the Sisters of the Light, took me there. We could cross because we have the gift, but not strong enough to draw the destructive power of the spells. No one else could get through, and so the Old and New Worlds remained separated by the towers and their spells.

"Now the barrier between the Old and New World has fallen. No one is safe. The Imperial Order is from the Old World. It's a long way, but they will come, and we must be prepared."

Cara eyed him suspiciously. "And if this barrier has been in place for three thousand years, how did this come to happen, now?"

Richard cleared his throat as they followed him up onto the dais. "Well, I guess it's my fault. I destroyed the towers' spells. They no longer stand as a barrier. The wasteland has been restored to the green meadowland it once was."

The two women appraised him silently. Cara leaned past him to speak to Raina. "And he says he doesn't know how to use magic."

Raina shifted her gaze to Richard. "So, what you are saying is that you have caused this war. You made it possible."

"No. Look, it's a long story." Richard raked back his hair. "Even before the barrier was down they were gaining allies here and had started their war. Ebinissia was destroyed before the barrier came down. But now there's nothing to hold them back, or slow them down. Don't underestimate them. They use wizards and sorceresses. They wish to destroy all magic."

"They wish to destroy all magic, yet they use magic themselves? Lord Rahl, that makes no sense," Cara scoffed.

"You want me to be the magic against magic. Why?" He pointed to the men on either end of the dais. "Because they can only be the steel against steel. It often takes magic to destroy magic."

Richard gestured, his finger including the two women. "You have magic. And to what purpose? To counter magic. As Mord-Sith, you are able to appropriate the magic of another and turn it against them. It's the same with them. They use magic to help them destroy magic, just as Darken Rahl used you to torture and kill those with magic who opposed him.

"You have magic; the Order will want to destroy you. I have magic; they'll want to destroy me. All D'Haran's have magic, through the bond; eventually the Order will see that and decide to exterminate the taint. Sooner or later, they'll come to crush D'Hara, just as they would crush the Midlands."

"The D'Haran troops will crush them, instead," Ulic said over his shoulder, as if stating with confidence that the sun would set this day as it always did.

Richard shot a glare at the man's back. "Until I came along, D'Harans joined with them, and in their name annihilated Ebinissia. The D'Harans here, in Aydindril, followed the commands of the Imperial Order."

His four guards fell silent. Cara stared at the ground before her feet as Raina let out a disheartened sigh.

"In the confusion of the war," Cara said at last, as if thinking aloud, "some of our troops out in the field would have felt the bond break, just as some of those at the palace did when you killed Darken Rahl. They would be like lost souls without a new Master Rahl to take up their bond. They may have simply joined with someone who would give them direction, take up the place of the bond. Now they have their bond back. We have a Master Rahl."

Richard slumped down in the Mother Confessor's chair. "That's what I'm hoping."

"All the more reason to return to D'Hara," Raina said. "We must protect you so you can continue to be the Master Rahl and our people will not join with the Imperial Order. If you are killed, and the bond is broken, then the army will once again turn to the Order for direction. Better to leave the Midlands to their own battles. It is not your job to save them from themselves."

"Everyone in the Midlands, then, will fall under the sword of the Imperial Order," Richard said in a soft voice. "They will be be treated as you were treated by Darken Rahl. No one will ever again be free. We can't let that happen as long as there's any chance we can stop them. It must be done now, before they gain any more of a foothold here in the Midlands."

Cara rolled her eyes. "The spirits save us from a man with a just cause. It is not up to you to lead them."