Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

"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 ostdrauka-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.