Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

"I am free, now. A free dragon does not serve man."

"I'm not asking you to be my servant, only to fly us to D'Hara so that I can try to save all of us who want to live free, including you and your mother."

Gregory's head glided closer to Zedd, Tom, and Rikka. He thought it over briefly, looking back at Richard.

"All of you?"

"All of us," Richard said. "I need the help of my friends, here. It's our only chance to stop all the terrible things that are about to happen."

Gregory's head came down close until his snout nudged Richard's chest, pushing him back a half step. "My mother told me the story of how you saved me when I was but an egg. If I do this, we will be even."

"Even," Richard agreed.

Gregory lowered his body down onto the rampart as much as possible. "Let us be off, then."

Richard told the rest of them how to get up and how to hold on to the spikes and projections. He went up first, settling himself astride the dragon's back at the base of its long neck, then helped pull Zedd, Tom, and Rikka up behind him. Zedd muttered under his breath the whole time. Richard told him to stop cursing.

Kahlan was last. Richard leaned down, took her hand, and pulled her up behind him. As she adjusted herself on the dragon's back behind him, she saw him pull a white cloth out of his pocket, looking at it.

Kahlan, her arms around him, whispered in his ear. "I'm afraid."

He smiled over his shoulder. "You get dizzy flying on dragons, but you don't get sick. Just hold on tight and close your eyes if you want."

It struck her how easy it was being close to him, and how gentle and natural he was with her. He seemed to come alive when she was near him.

"What's that you have?" she asked, tilting her head toward the white cloth. It had an ink spot on one side and another just like it on the opposite side.

"Something from before," he said in a distracted sort of way. He was obviously not thinking about her question. He was thinking about the white cloth with the two ink spots.

He stuffed the cloth back in his pocket and looked down at the rampart. "Shota, are you coming?"

"No. I'm returning to Agaden Reach, to my home. I will wait there for the end, or for you to stop that end from coming."

Richard nodded. Kahlan didn't think that he looked at all confident. "Thank you for all you've done, Shota."

"Make me proud, Richard."

He smiled at her briefly. "I'll do my best."

"That's all any of us can do," she said.

Richard patted the dragon's glossy red scales. "Gregory, let's get going. We don't have much time."

Gregory let out a brief blast of flame. As it curled away into black smoke, the dragon's immense wings lifted and then snapped down with tremendous yet graceful force. Kahlan felt them lift into the air. It felt like her stomach turned upside down.

CHAPTER 59

As they marched through the empty, magnificent marble halls of the People's Palace, Richard knew where everyone had gone because he could hear the soft chanting echoing through the passageways.

"Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours."

It was the devotion to the Lord Rahl. Even at a time like this, even when their world was about to end, everyone at the People's Palace went to the devotion when they heard the call of the bell. He supposed that this was a time when these people needed him the most and the devotion was their way to acknowledge that bond. Or maybe it was meant to remind him of his part in that bond and his responsibilities to protect them.

"Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours."

Richard put his feelings about the devotion out of his mind. He felt like he was juggling a thousand thoughts all at once. He didn't know what to do. There were so many different questions overwhelming him all at once that he just couldn't seem to organize the mountain of problems into meaningful order. He didn't know where to start that arduous climb.

He felt inadequate to be the Master Rahl.

He did believe, though, that the seemingly endless problems were connected, that they were all pieces of the same puzzle, and that if he could just figure out what was at the core of what was bothering him, it would all begin to fit together.

He just needed a few years to figure it out. He would be lucky to have a few hours.

Once again he forced his mind back to the relevant issues. Baraccus had left him a message in a three-thousand-year-old book, a rule unwritten, and Richard didn't know what it meant. Now that he once again had access to his gift, he did at least now recall all of The Book of Counted Shadows, but it was most likely a false copy. Jagang had the original. Jagang had the boxes.