Faith of the Fallen

Chapter 30

Arms resting on his thighs, Richard crouched in the belly of the beast.

“Well?” Nicci asked from atop her horse.

Richard stood beside a rib bone that towered to well over twice his height. He shielded his eyes against the golden sunlight as he briefly scanned the empty horizon behind himself. He looked back at Nicci, her hair honeyed by the low sun.

“I’d say it was a dragon.”

When her mare began to dance sideways, trying to put distance between itself and the expanse of bones, Nicci took the slack out of the reins.

“Dragon,” she repeated in a flat voice.

Here and there dried scraps of meat stuck to the bones. Richard swished a hand at the cloud of flies buzzing around him. The faint stench of decay hung over the site. As he stepped out of the cage of giant rib bones standing belly-up, he gestured toward the head, nestled in a bed of brown grass. There was enough room to walk between the ribs without them touching his shoulders.

“I recognize the teeth. I had a dragon’s tooth, once.”

Nicci looked skeptical. “Well, whatever it is, if you’ve seen enough, let’s be on our way.”

Richard brushed his hands clean. The stallion snorted and stepped away from him when he approached. The horse didn’t like the smell of death, and didn’t trust Richard after having been near it. Richard stroked the glossy black neck.

“Steady, Boy,” he said in a comforting voice. “Easy now.”

When she saw Richard finally mount up, Nicci turned her dappled mare and started off once more. The late-afternoon light cast long, clawed shadows of the rib bones toward him, as if reaching out, calling him back to the ghost of some terrible end. He glanced back over his shoulder at the length of the skeletal remains, stretched out in the middle of an empty, gently rolling grassland, before urging his stallion into a trot to catch up with Nicci. His horse needed little encouragement to be away from the dying place, and happily sprang into his easy loping gallop, instead.

In the month or so Richard had spent with the horse, the two of them had become used to each other. The horse was willing enough, but never really friendly. Richard wasn’t interested enough to go to the effort of doing more; making friends with a horse was just about the last of his concerns. Nicci hadn’t known if the horses had names, and didn’t seem interested in naming animals, so Richard simply called the black stallion “Boy,” and Nicci’s dappled gray mare “Girl,” and left it at that. Nicci seemed neither pleased or displeased about him naming the horses; she simply went along with his convention.

“Do you actually believe it’s the remains of a dragon?” Nicci asked when he caught up with her.

The stallion slowed and, glad to be back in the herd, gave the mare’s flanks a nuzzle. Girl merely turned her closest ear toward him in recognition.

“It’s about the right size, as I remember.”

Nicci tossed her head to flick her hair back over her shoulder. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

Richard frowned his puzzlement. “You saw it. What else could it possibly be?”

She conceded with a sigh. “I just thought it was the bones of some long-extinct beast.”

“With flies still buzzing around it? It still had a few bits of sinew dried to the bones. It’s not some ancient thing. It couldn’t be much older than six months—possibly much less.”

She was watching him from the corner of her eye, again. “So, they really do have dragons in the New World?”

“In the Midlands, anyway. Where I grew up there were none. Dragons, as I understand it, have magic. There was no magic in Westland. When I came here I . . . saw a red dragon. From what I heard, they’re very rare.”

And now there was at least one less.

Nicci was little concerned about the remains of an animal, even if it was a dragon. Richard had long ago decided that, as much as he lusted to crush her skull, he would have a better chance of figuring a way out of his situation if he didn’t antagonize her. Battling another person sapped your own strength, making it more difficult to reason your way out of the trouble. He kept his mind focused on what was most important to him.

He couldn’t force himself to pretend to befriend Nicci, but he tried to give her no cause to become angry enough to hurt Kahlan. So far, it had been successful. Nicci didn’t seem easily inclined to anger, anyway. When she became displeased, she submerged back into an indifference which seemed to smother her distant rancor.

They finally reached the road from where they had spotted the white speck that had turned out to be the remains of the dragon.

“What was it like growing up in a place with no magic?”

Richard shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s just the way it was. It was normal.”

“And you were happy? Growing up without magic, I mean?”

“Yes. Very happy.” The frown returned to his face. “Why?”

“And yet, you fight to keep magic in the world, so other children will have to grow up with it. Am I right?”

“Yes.”

“The Order wishes to rid the world of magic, so that people can grow up happy, without the poisonous fog of magic always outside their door.” She glanced over at him. “They want children to grow up much like you did. And yet you fight this.”

It was not a question, so Richard chose not to turn it into one for her. What the Order chose to do was not his concern. He turned his thoughts to other things.

They were traveling east-southeast on a road traversed by the odd trader. They had smiled and nodded at two that day. The road, as it took the easiest route across the rolling hills, had that afternoon begun to turn more to the south. As they crested a rise, Richard spotted a flock of sheep in the far distance. Not far ahead, they had been told, was a town where they could pick up some needed provisions.

The horses could use some grain, too.

Over his left shoulder, to the northeast, snowcapped mountains turning pink in the late sunlight rose up out of the foothills. To his right, the ground rolled off into the wilds. Beyond the town, it wouldn’t be too far until they crossed the Kern River. They were not far at all from what used to be the wasteland where the great barrier had stood.

They were close to cutting south into the Old World.

Even though there was no longer a barrier to prevent his return once they crossed over, he felt downhearted about leaving the New World. It was like leaving Kahlan’s world. Like leaving her by one more degree. As fiercely as he loved her, he could feel her slipping farther and farther into the distance.

Nicci’s blond hair fluttered in the breeze as she turned toward him.

“It’s said they used to have dragons in the Old World, too.”

Richard brought himself out of his brooding.

“But no more?” he asked. She shook her head. “How long ago was that?”

“Long ago. No one living has ever seen one—and that includes Sisters living at the palace.”

He thought about it as he rode, listening to the rhythmic clop of hooves. Nicci had proven forthcoming, so he asked, “Do you know why not?”

“I can only tell you what was taught to me, if you would like to hear it.” When Richard nodded, she went on. “During the great war, at the time when the barrier between the Old and New Worlds was raised, the wizards in the Old World worked toward revoking magic from the world. Dragons could not exist without magic, so they went extinct.”

“But they still existed here.”

“On the other side of the barrier. It may be that the old wizards’ suppression of magic, on their side, had only a local, or even temporary, effect. After all, magic still exists, so obviously they failed to achieve their ends.”

Richard was getting an uneasy feeling as he considered both Nicci’s words and the bones he had seen.

“Nicci, may I ask you a question, a serious question, about magic?”

She gazed over at him as she slowed her horse to an easy walk. “What is it you wish to know?”

“How long do you think a dragon could exist without magic?”

Nicci considered his question for a moment, but in the end let out a sigh. “I only know about the history of the dragons in the Old World as it was taught. As you know, words written that long ago are not always dependable. It would only be an educated guess. I would say it could be mere moments, possibly days—or even longer, but not a great deal longer. It’s a much simplified version of asking how long a fish could live out of water. Why do you ask?”

Richard raked his fingers back through his hair. “When the chimes were here, in this world, they drew away magic. All of the magic, or nearly all, anyway, was withdrawn from the world of life for a time.”

She turned her eyes back to the road. “My estimation is that the withdrawal was total, for a time, at least.”

That was what he had feared. Richard considered her words along with what he knew. “Not all creatures of magic depend on it. Us, for example; we are, in a way, creatures of magic, but we can live without it, too. I’m wondering if creatures that depended on magic for their very existence might not have made it through until the chimes were banished and magic was restored to the world of life.”

“Magic was not restored.”

Richard pulled his horse up short. “What?”

“Not in the way you are thinking about it.” Nicci circled around to face him. “Richard, while I have no direct knowledge with precisely what happened, such an event could not be without consequence.”

“Tell me what you know.”

She frowned in curiosity. “Why do you look so concerned?”

“Nicci, please, just tell me what you know?”

She folded her wrists over the horn of her saddle.

“Richard, magic is a complex matter, so there can be no certainty.” She held up a hand to forestall his cascade of questions. “This much, though, is certain. The world doesn’t stay the same. It changes continuously.

“Magic is not merely part of this world. Magic is the conduit between worlds. Do you understand?”

He thought he might. “I accidentally used magic to call forth the spirit of my father from the underworld. I banished him back to the underworld with the use of magic. The Mud People, for example, use magic to communicate with their spirit ancestors beyond the veil in the underworld. I had to go to the Temple of the Winds, in another world, when Jagang sent a Sister there to start a plague which she brought back from that world.”

“And what do all of those things have in common?”

“They used magic to bridge the gap between worlds.”

“Yes. But there is more. Those worlds exist, but they are dependent on this one to define them, are they not?”

“You mean, like life is created into this world, and after death, souls are taken by the Keeper to the underworld?”

“Yes. But more, do you see the connection?”

Richard was getting lost. He hadn’t grown up knowing anything about magic. “We’re caught between the two realms?”

“No, not exactly.” Her blue eyes flashed with intensity. She waited until his gaze steadied on hers, then she held up a finger to mark the importance of her words.

“Magic is a conduit between worlds. As magic diminishes, those other worlds are not just more distant to us, but the power of those worlds, in this world, diminishes. Do you see?”

Richard was getting goose bumps. “You mean, the other worlds have less influence, like . . . like a child who has grown and his parents have less influence over him.”

“Yes.” In the fading light her eyes seemed more blue than usual. “As the worlds grow more separate, it is something like a child growing and leaving home. But there is more to it, yet.”

She leaned forward ever so slightly in her saddle. “You see, those other worlds can be said to exist only by their relationship to life—to this world.” At that moment, she seemed like nothing to him so much as what she really was: a one hundred-and-eighty-year-old sorceress. “It might even be said,” she whispered in a voice that sounded like the shadows speaking, “that without magic to link those other worlds to this, those other worlds cease to exist.”

Richard swallowed. “You mean, just as the child grows and leaves home, the parents become less important to his existence. When they eventually grow old and die, even though they were once vital and strongly linked to him, when they now cease to exist, he lives on without them.”

“Exactly,” she hissed.

“The world changes,” he said almost to himself. “The world doesn’t stay the same. That’s what Jagang wants. He wants magic, and those other worlds, to cease to exist so that he will have this one all for himself.”

“No,” she said in a soft voice. “He wishes it not for himself, but for mankind.” Richard started to argue, but she cut him off. “I know Jagang. I’m telling you what he believes. He may enjoy the spoils, but in his heart, he believes he is doing this for mankind, not himself.”

Richard didn’t really believe her, but he didn’t see any point in quarreling with her. Either way, because of the changes taking place, such creatures as dragons might have already become extinct. Those white bones could very well have been the remains of the last red dragon.

“Because of events like the chimes, the world may already have irrevocably changed to a point where creatures of magic have died out,” she said as she stared out over the empty twilight. “In an evolving world such as I describe, magic, even such as ours, would soon die out, too. Do you see, now? Without that conduit to other worlds, worlds that may no longer exist, magic would not come into existence when offspring of the gifted are born.”

One thing was sure: when the time came, he was going to make Nicci extinct.

As they rode on, Richard gazed back over his shoulder at bones he could no longer see.

It was well after dark when they rode into the town. When Richard inquired of a passerby, he was told that the town, Ripply, was named after the rippling foothills. It was a quiet place, off in a nearly forgotten corner of the Midlands, its back to what used to be the wasteland from where no one ever returned. Many of the people grew wheat and raised sheep to provide themselves with trade goods, while keeping small animals and gardens for themselves.

There was a road coming in from the southwest, from Renwold, and other roads going off to the north. Ripply was a crossroads for trade between Renwold, the people of the wilds who traded at that outpost city, and villages to the north and east. Now, of course, Renwold was gone; the Imperial Order had sacked the city. Now, with only ghosts inhabiting the streets of Renwold, the people of the wilds who traded their goods there would suffer. The people from the towns and villages who came to Ripply would suffer, too; Ripply was falling on hard times.

Richard and Nicci created a small sensation. Strangers traveling through had become a sporadic event, what with Renwold gone. The two of them were tired, and there was an inn, but raucous drinking was going on there, and Richard didn’t want to have to deal with that kind of trouble. There was a well-kept stable at the other end of town from the inn, and the man who owned it offered to let them stay in the hayloft for a silver penny each.

The night was cold, and it would be warmer in the hayloft out of the wind, so Richard paid the man the penny each for themselves, and three more for the horses to be cared for and fed. The taciturn stable owner was so pleased with the extra penny for the horses that he told Richard he would tend their shoes while he had them.

When Richard thanked him and told him they were tired, the man smiled for the first time and said, “I’ll be seeing to your horses, then. I hope you and your wife sleep well. Good night, then.”

Richard followed Nicci up the rough wooden ladder at the back of the barn. They had a cold dinner sitting in the hay as they listened to the stable owner fetching grain and water for their horses. Richard and Nicci had only the bare bones of necessary conversation before they rolled themselves up in their cloaks and went to sleep. When they woke a little after dawn, they discovered a small gathering of skinny children and hollow-cheeked adults, come to see the “rich” folks traveling through.

Apparently, their horses, better than any that had boarded at the stable in a long time, had been the source of gossip and speculation.

When Richard greeted the people, he got back only vacant looks. When he and Nicci walked to the supply store, not far away past a few drab buildings, the people all followed, as if it were a king and queen come to town, and they all wanted to see what such highborn people did with their day. Goats and chickens wandering Ripply’s main street scattered before the procession. A milk cow cropping brown grass behind the leather shop paused for a look. A rooster atop a stump flapped his wings in annoyance.

When the bolder children asked who they were, Nicci told them that they were only travelers, husband and wife, looking for work. Such news was greeted with skeptical tittering. In her fine black dress, the people took Nicci for a queen looking for a kingdom. They thought only a little less of Richard.

When an older boy asked where they were going to look for work, as there was little to be found in Ripply, Nicci told them that they were going to the Old World. Some of the adults snatched up children and hurried away.

Yet more remained close on Richard and Nicci’s heels.

An older man who owned the supply store gently shooed the people away from his door when Richard went in. Once Richard had gone inside, he watched the people grow bolder and begin pawing at Nicci, begging for money, for medicine, for food. Nicci stayed outside with the people, asking them about their troubles and their needs. She moved through the crowd, inspecting the children. She had that blank look on her face that Richard didn’t like.

“What can I get you?” the proprietor asked.

“Ah, what about those people?” Richard asked instead.

He glanced out the sparkling-clean little window to see Nicci standing in the middle of the ragged group, talking about the Creator’s love for them. They all listened as if she were a good spirit come to comfort them.

“Well, they’re all sorts,” the shop owner said. “Most wandered in from the Old World after the barrier came down. Some are just no-good locals—drunks and such—who’d just as soon beg or steal as work. When strangers from the Old World came in, some of the people here joined their ways. We get traders through here, and men like that, with goods to protect, find they have less trouble if they’re generous with that sort. Some of them out there are folks who’ve had trouble—widows with children who can’t find a husband; things like that. A few of them will work for me, when I have work, but most won’t.”

Richard was about to give the man a list of their needs, when Nicci glided in the door.

“Richard, I need some money.”

Rather than argue with her, he passed her the saddlebag with the money.

She reached in and pulled out a handful of gold and silver. The shop owner’s eyes went wide when he saw how much she had in her fist. She paid him no heed. Richard stood slack jawed as he watched Nicci, back out with the crowd, giving away all the money. Arms waved and reached for her. People cried out all the louder. A few ran off with what she had given them.

Richard pulled open the saddlebag, peering in to see how much they had left. It wasn’t much. He could hardly believe what Nicci had just done. It made no sense.

“How about some barley flour, some oatmeal, some rice, some bacon, lentils, dried biscuits, and salt?” he asked the waiting proprietor.

“No oatmeal, but I’ve got the rest. How much do you want?”

Richard was running calculations through his head. They had a long journey, and Nicci had just given away most of their money. They’d used up the better portion of the supplies they had.

He laid six silver pennies on the counter. “Just what that will buy us.” He pulled his pack off his back and set it on the counter beside the money.

The man scooped up the coins and sighed at the money he had almost made. He began pulling the items down from a shelf and placing them in the pack. As he worked, Richard requested a few other small things he remembered as the man was going about getting the order. He parted with another penny.

Richard had only a few silver pennies, two silver crowns, and no gold left. Nicci had handed out more money than most of those people had ever seen in their entire lifetimes. Worried about what they were going to do for supplies in the future, Richard slung his pack onto his back when the shop proprietor had finished, and rushed out to see if he couldn’t slow Nicci down.

She was lecturing on the Creator’s love of every man and asking the people to forgive the cruelty of heartless and uncaring people, as she handed the last gold coin to an unshaven man without teeth. He grinned his thanks and then licked his parched lips. Richard knew how he would wet them.

There were yet more pleading hands thrusting toward her.

Worried, Richard seized Nicci’s arm and pulled her back. She turned toward him.

“We have to get back to the stables,” she said.

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Richard said, holding his anger in check. “Let’s hope the stableman is done with them by now so we can get out of here.”

“No,” she said with a look of grim finality in her eye. “We need to sell the horses.”

“What?” Richard blinked in angry astonishment. “May I at least ask why?”

“To share what we have with those who have nothing.”

Richard was beyond words. He just stared at her. How were they going to travel? He considered the question briefly, and decided that he didn’t really care how soon they got to wherever it was she was taking him. But they would have to carry everything. He was a woods guide, and used to walking with a pack, so he guessed he could walk. He let out his breath and turned toward the stables.

“We need to sell the horses,” Richard told the stable owner.

The man frowned, looked at the horses standing in their stalls, and then back at Richard. He looked thunderstruck.

“Those are mighty fine horses, mister. We don’t have horses like this around here.”

“You do now,” Nicci said.

He glanced uneasily at her. Most people were uneasy gazing at Nicci, either because of her startling beauty, or because of her cool, often denunciative, presence.

“I can’t pay what horses like this are worth.”

“We didn’t ask you to,” Nicci said in a dull voice. “We only asked to sell them to you. We need to sell them. We’ll take what you can give us.”

The man’s eyes shifted from Richard’s to Nicci’s and back. Richard could tell the man was uneasy about cheating them in such a way, but he couldn’t seem to figure out how to turn down such an offer.

“All I can pay is four silver marks for the both of them.”

Richard knew they were worth ten times that much.

“And the tack,” Nicci said.

The man scratched his cheek. “I guess I could throw in another silver, but that’s all I got to my name. I’m sorry, I know they’re worth more, but if you’re bound and determined for me to buy them off you, that’s all I got.”

“Is there anyone else in town who might buy them for more?” Richard asked.

“I don’t believe so, but to tell you the truth, son, it wouldn’t be hurting my feelings if you were to go ask around. I don’t like swindling folks, and I know you couldn’t call five silver marks for the horses and tack anything else but a swindle.”

The man kept glancing at Nicci, seeming to suspect that this transaction was beyond Richard’s ability to control. Her steady blue eyes could make any man fidget.

“We accept your offer,” Nicci said without any hesitation or uncertainty. “I’m sure it’s quite fair.”

The man sighed unhappily at his windfall. “I don’t have that much money on me. I’ll go in the house”—he lifted a thumb over his shoulder—“out back of the barn and get it, if you’d be so good as to wait a minute.”

Nicci nodded and he hurried on his way, not so much eager to consummate the deal, Richard thought, as he was eager to be out from under Nicci’s gaze.

Richard turned to her, feeling his face heating. “What’s this all about?” He saw through the partly open stable doors that the crowd of people who had followed them were still out there.

She ignored his question. “Get your things—whatever you can carry. As soon as he comes back, it’s time we were on our way.”

Richard pulled his glare from her. He stalked over to his gear, sitting outside Boy’s stall, and began stuffing everything he could into his pack.

He strapped the waterskins around his waist and flipped the saddlebags over his shoulders. He was sure the stable owner wouldn’t complain about not having the saddlebags with the rest of the tack. Richard thought that when they reached a more prosperous town, he could at least sell the saddlebags.

While he worked, Nicci put her belongings into a pack she could carry.

When the man came back with the money, he offered it to Richard. Nicci held out her hand.

“I’ll take it,” she said.

He glanced to Richard’s eyes once and then handed Nicci the money. “I threw in the silver pennies you paid me last night. That’s all I have, I swear.”

“Thank you,” Nicci said. “That was very generous of you to share what you have. That is the Creator’s way.”

Without another word, Nicci turned and strode through the dimly lit stable and out the door.

“It’s my way,” the man muttered under his breath to her back. “Creator had no say in it.”

Outside in the sunlight, Nicci began doling out the money she had just gotten for the horses. The people vied for her favor as she walked among them, speaking to them, asking questions, until she was out of sight, past the edge of the barn door.

Richard gave Boy a quick rub on the blaze of his forehead, hoisted his saddlebags onto his shoulder, and turned to the dumbfounded expression on the stable owner’s face. He and Richard shared a helpless look.

“I hope she’s a good wife to you,” the man finally said.

Richard wanted to say that Nicci was a Sister of the Dark, and that he was her prisoner, but in the end he decided that it could serve no purpose.

Nicci had made it clear to him that he was Richard Cypher, her husband, and she was Nicci Cypher, his wife. She had told him to stick to that story—for Kahlan’s sake.

“She’s just generous,” Richard said. “That’s why I married her. She’s good to people.”

Richard heard a woman’s cry, and shouting. He bolted for the partly open door and ran out into the bright morning sunlight. He didn’t see anyone. He raced around to the side of the barn, to where he heard scuffling.

A half dozen men had Nicci down on the ground, some swinging at her with their fists as she tried to fend them off with her bare hands. Others pawed at her, searching for a money pouch. They were fighting over the unearned before it was even out of her hands. A crowd of women, children, and other men stood around the scene in a circle, vultures waiting to pick the bones.

Richard crashed through the ring of people, seized the closest man by the back of his collar, and heaved him back. He was skinny, and flew through the air, crashing into the wall of the barn. The whole building shook.

Richard kicked another in the ribs, tumbling him off Nicci and through the dirt. A third man spun and took a mighty swing at Richard. Richard caught the fist and bent it down until he felt a snap as the man cried out. At that, the men all scattered in every direction.

Richard started after one of them, but Nicci suddenly flew at him, restraining him.

“Richard! No!”

In his rage to get at the men, Richard nearly smashed her face, but, when he realized it was her, lowered his fists to his sides as he glared at the crowd.

“Please, my lord, please, my lady;” one of the women wailed, “have mercy on us woeful folk. We’s just the Creator’s miserable wretches. Have mercy on us.”

“You’re a bunch of thieves!” Richard yelled. “Thieving from someone who was trying to help you!”

He made an effort to go after the lot of them, but Nicci held his wrists down. “Richard, no!”

The people vanished like mice before a hissing cat.

Nicci let Richard’s fists drop. He saw then that she had blood on her mouth.

“What’s the matter with you? Giving money to people who would rather rob you than wait for you to hand it to them willingly? Why would you give money to such vermin?”

“That’s enough. I’ll not stand here and listen to you insult the Creator’s children. Who are you to judge? Who are you, with a full belly, to say what’s right? You have no idea what those poor people have been through, and yet you are quick to judge.”

Richard took a purging breath. He reminded himself yet again of what he had to keep uppermost in his mind. It was not really Nicci he had been protecting.

He pulled a shirtsleeve from the corner of his pack, wet it with water from a waterskin hanging around his waist, and carefully wiped her bloody mouth and chin. She winced as he worked but without protest let him inspect her injury.

“It’s not bad,” he told her. “Just a cut in the corner of your mouth. Hold still, now.”

She stood quietly as he held her head in one hand while he cleaned the blood off the rest of her face with the other.

“Thank you, Richard.” She hesitated. “I was sure one of them was going to cut my throat.”

“Why didn’t you use your Han to protect yourself?”

“Have you forgotten? To do that, I would have to take power from the link keeping Kahlan alive.”

He looked into her blue eyes. “I guess I forgot. In that case, thank you for restraining yourself.”

Nicci said nothing as they walked out of the town of Ripply, carrying everything they owned on their backs. As cold as the day was, it wasn’t long before his brow was dotted with sweat.

Finally he could stand it no longer. “Do you mind telling me what that was all about?”

Her brow twitched. “Those people were needy.”

Richard pinched the bridge of his nose, pausing in an effort to remain civil to her. “And so you gave them all our money?”

“Are you so selfish that you would not share what you have? Are you so selfish that you would ask the hungry to starve, the unclothed to freeze, the sick to die? Does money mean more to you than people’s lives?”

Richard bit the inside of his cheek to check his temper. “And the horses? You virtually gave them away.”

“It was all we could get. Those people were in need. Under the circumstances, it was the best we could do. We acted with the most noble of intentions. It was our duty to not be selfish and to joyfully give these people what they needed.”

There was no road going their way as they walked on into what had not long ago been the wasteland from which no one returned. “We needed what we had,” he said.

Nicci glanced up into his eyes. “There are things you need to learn, Richard.”

“Is that right.”

“You have been lucky in life. You have had opportunities ordinary people never have. I want you to see how ordinary people must live, how they must struggle just to survive. When you live like them, you will understand why the Order is so necessary, why the Order is the only hope for mankind.

“When we get to where we’re going, we will have nothing. We will be just like all the other miserable people of this wretched world—with little chance to make it on our own. You don’t have any idea what that’s like. I want you to learn how the compassion of the Order helps ordinary people live with the dignity they are entitled to.”

Richard returned his gaze to the empty land stretching out before them.

A Sister of the Dark who couldn’t use her power, and a wizard who was forbidden from using his. He guessed they couldn’t get any more ordinary than that. “I thought it was you who wanted to learn,” he said. “I am also your teacher. Teachers sometimes learn more than their students.”