Temple of the Winds

Nadine didn't seem unhappy about this news either. Kahlan didn't say that Richard had had Michael executed for betraying the people he was supposed to be protecting, for his responsibility in the deaths of so many.

"Darken Rahl was trying to use magic that would have enslaved everyone under his rule. Richard escaped and killed hi< real father, and saved us all. Darken Rahl was a wizard."

"Wizard! And Richard defeated him?"

"Yes. We all owe Richard a great debt for saving us from what his father would have taken the world into. "Richard is a wizard, too."

Nadine laughed at what she thought was a joke. Kahlan didn't so much as smile. Cara stood stone-faced. Nadine's eyes widened. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"Yes. Zedd was his grandfather. Zedd was a wizard, as was Richard's real father. Richard was born with the gift, but he doesn't know very much about how to use it." "Zedd's gone, too."

"He came with us. in the beginning, tie's been fighting with us, and trying to help Richard, but a short time ago, in a battle, he was lost. I fear he was killed up at the Wizard's Keep. up on the mountain above Aydindril. Richard refuses to believe Zedd was killed." Kahlan shrugged. "Maybe he wasn't. That old man was the most resourceful person I've ever met other than Richard."

Nadine wiped her kerchief across her nose. "Richard and that crazy old man were best friends. That was what Richard meant, then. when he said that his grandfather taught him about herbs. Everyone comes to my father for remedies. My father knows just about everything about!herbs, and I hope someday to know half of what he knows, but my father always said that he wished he knew half as much as old Zedd. I never knew Zedd was Richard's grandfather."

"No one did, not even Richard. It's a long story. I'll tell you a bit of the more important parts." Kahlan looked down at her own hands nested in her lap. "After Richard stopped Darken Rahl, he was taken by the Sisters of the Light to the Old World, so that they could teach him to me his gift. They would have kept him at the Palace of the Prophets, in a web of magic that slowed time. They would have had him there for centuries. We thought he was lost to us.

"The Palace of the Prophets turned out to be infested with Sisters of the Dark, and they wanted to free the Keeper of the Underworld. They tried to use Richard to those ends, but he escaped his confinement and stopped them. In the process, the Towers of Perdition that kept the Old and New Worlds separated were destroyed.

"Now, Emperor Jagang, of the Imperial Order in the Old World, is no longer restrained by those towers and is trying)to bring all the world under his rule. He wants Richard dead for thwarting him. Janagang is powerful and has a huge army. We have been unwillingly cast into a war for our destiny, our freedom, and for our very existence. Richard leads us in that war.

"Zedd, acting in his capacity as First Wizard, named Richard the Seeker of Truth. It's an ancient post, created three thousand years ago in the great war that raged at that time. It's a solemn assignment of rectitude granted when there is grave need. A Seeker is above any law but his own, and backs his authority with the Sword of Truth and its attendant magic.

"Fate occasionally touches us all in ways we don't always understand, but it sometimes seems to have a death grip on Richard."

Nadine, her eyes wide, finally blinked "Richard? Why Richard? Why is he in the center of all this? He's just a woods guide. He's just a nobody from Hartland." "Just because kittens are born in the hearth oven, that doesn't make them muffins. No matter where they're born, it's their destiny to grow up to go out and kill rats. "Richard is a very special kind of wizard: a war wizard. He is the first wizard with both sides of the magic. Additive and Subtractive, to be born in three thousand years. Richard didn't choose to do all this; he does this because we are all depending on him to help us remain a free people. Richard isn't one to stand by and watch while people are hurt."

Nadine looked away. "I know." She fumbled with the kerchief in her fingers. "I kind of lied to you before." "About what?"

She heaved a sigh. "Well, when I told you about Tommy and Lester. I made it sound like it was me who knocked out their front teeth. The truth is, I was on my way to meet Richard. We were to go for a walk and look for some maple-leafed viburnum. My father needed some of the inner bark to make a decoction for a baby with colic, and he had run out. Richard knew where there was a patch.

"Anyway, when I was on my way through the woods, to Richard's place, I came across Tommy Lancaster and his friend Lester on their way back from hunting doves. I'd fended off Tommy's unwanted advances in front of some of his pals, and made him look a fool. I guess I kind of slapped him and called him a name.