Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

Cara put her hands under her arms to warm them and remained silent. Satisfied that Richard was pleased, Nicci did the same for herself, moving both hands down her dress as if slowly pressing away the water.

When she finished, she was shivering and her teeth were chattering, but she and her black dress were dry.

Concerned by the way she wavered that she might pass out, Richard sat up and gently gripped her arm. "Are you all right?"

"I'm just exhausted," she admitted. "I've not had much sleep for days, on top of the effort of healing you and then the exertion of the traveling we did after the attack today. I'm afraid that it's all caught up with me. This bit of magic took what strength and warmth I had left. I just need to get some sleep, that's all. But even if you don't realize it, Richard, you need it even more. Lie back and sleep, now. Please. If we all lie close we can keep each other warm."

Dry, but weary and still cold, Richard wriggled into his bedroll. She was right; he did need rest. He couldn't get help for Kahlan if he wasn't rested.

Without hesitation, Cara pressed up close on his left to help get him warm. Nicci pushed in on his other side. The warmth was a relief. He hadn't realized how cold he was until the three of them crowded in tight together. He knew by how he felt that Nicci was right, that he wasn't fully well yet. At least he only needed rest and not magic.

"Do you think this beast could have taken Kahlan in order to get to me? he asked into the dark and quiet shelter.

Nicci was a moment in answering. "Such a creature needs no perverse method to get to you, Richard. From what the Sister said, and from what I fear I may have done, to say nothing of you having used your gift, the beast will be able to find you. From all those dead men back there, I fear it already has."

Richard felt the weight of guilt crush down upon him. If not for him, those men would be alive.

He had difficulty swallowing past the lump in his throat. He wished there were some way to undo what was done, some way to give them their lives and their futures back.

"Lord Rahl?" Cara whispered. "I would like to make a confession, if you will swear never to repeat it."

Richard had never heard her say such an odd thing. "All right. What is it that you wish to confess?"

Her answer was a while in coming, and then it was so soft he would not have been able to hear it were she not so close. "I'm afraid."

Almost against his better judgment, Richard lifted his arm around her shoulders and held her close. "Don't be. It's coming after me, not you."

She lifted her head and scowled at him. "That is the reason I'm afraid. After seeing what it did to those men, I'm afraid that it's coming for you and there is nothing I can do to protect you."

"Oh," Richard said. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm afraid of that, too."

Cara laid her head back down on his shoulder, content to stay under the protective comfort of his arm. The surrounding strum of the cicadas somehow made him feel more vulnerable. The seventeen-year cycle of the insects was inescapable, inexorable, unstoppable.

So was Jagang's beast. How could he hide from such a thing?

"So," Nicci asked, apparently trying to lighten the somber mood in the shelter, "where did you meet this woman of your dreams?"

Richard didn't know if she was trying to soften the question with a little humor, or if she was being sarcastic. If he didn't know better he would have thought it sounded like jealously.

He stared up in the darkness as he thought back to that day. "I was out in the woods, looking for evidence of who had killed my father-the man I grew up thinking was my father, George Cypher, the man who'd raised me. That was when I spotted Kahlan moving along a trail around Trunt Lake.

"Four men were following her. They were assassins sent by Darken Rahl to kill her. He had already killed all the other Confessors. She is the last."

"So you rescued her?" Cara asked.

"I helped her. Together we were able to kill the assassins.

"She'd come to Westland looking for a long-lost wizard. It turned out that Zedd was the great wizard she had been sent to find-he still held the position of First Wizard, even though he had given up the Midlands and fled to Westland before I was born. The whole time I grew up I never knew that Zedd was a wizard, or my grandfather. I only knew him as my best friend in the world."

He could sense Nicci looking at him, and feel her warm, soft breath against the side of his face. "Why did she want this great wizard?"

"Darken Rahl had put the boxes of Orden in play. It was everyone's worst nightmare." Richard clearly recalled his dread at hearing that news. "He had to be stopped before he opened the correct box. Kahlan had been sent to ask this long-vanished First Wizard to appoint a Seeker. After that first day when I saw her by Trunt Lake, my life was never again the same."

Into the silence, Cara asked, "So, was it love at first sight?"