Into Darkness

45

As the nine of them rode through a woodland of massive oak trees with low spreading limbs, now bare of leaves, Kahlan worried about the people in Aydindril who had seen them arrive. They had taken out-of-the-way routes and bypassed main thoroughfares. Doing so enabled them to avoid being seen by most people, but they still had unavoidably been spotted by some. There was no telling how many more had looked down a rise, or out a window, or up a street and seen them race through the city. Still, it was only one of her worries, and not nearly the biggest one.

They all knew that being spotted created the danger of the Golden Goddess being able to look through the eyes of those people in her search for Richard and Kahlan, and then she would be able to find them. As soon as she did, there was no doubt in any of their minds that she would send hordes of her kind to finish them before they could reach the safety of the Wizard’s Keep. But they were close and would soon be under the protection of the defensive magic of the Keep.

All the way from Agaden Reach, they had traveled as fast as possible and the whole time managed not to be spotted by anyone. It had been a swift and exhausting journey up through the Midlands. She only wished that the original journey from the People’s Palace to the Keep had been as swift. Without the interference of the witch’s oath, it would have been.

Aydindril, however, was another thing altogether. It was no longer possible to avoid detection.

There were also people out on the road, both on foot and on horseback, as well as in wagons as they went about their business. They were all surprised to see their group ride past. Many of those people waved. Some cheered. Word of the sightings of the Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor, pregnant no less, would quickly spread throughout the city. By morning it was likely that everyone in Aydindril would know that the Lord Rahl and the pregnant Mother Confessor had finally returned. There would be rejoicing.

But with the Glee sure to attack at any moment, any rejoicing would soon turn to terror. While they would be safe up in the Keep, the people of Aydindril would have no such safety. Had it been possible to take a way in to the Keep without being seen, they would have done it, but there was no such way in. It had been inevitable that they were going to be seen, and even if it had been by only one person, that was enough to bring the Glee.

Kahlan’s spirits lifted a little as she at last saw the magnificent Confessors’ Palace. Set on an expanse of vibrant green grounds, the white stone of the palace atop a hill seemed to glow in the light of the setting sun. She slowed her horse to momentarily take in the sight. It had been so long since she had seen it that she had come to fear she never would again.

This was the ancestral home of the Confessors. It was where she had been born and where she had grown up. She ached to go straight there. More than anything, she wished the twins could be born there, where she had been born. Some of the same staff she knew growing up likely still lived and worked there. She knew they would be overjoyed to have the children of the Mother Confessor be born there, and to have little feet once more running through the halls. Kahlan wanted to bring life back to that home of the Confessors.

The palace, in addition to being the ancestral home of the Confessors, was also a seat of power for the Midlands. The larger lands of the Midlands had palaces down in the city for their ambassadors and members of the Central Council, which had ruled the collective lands of the Midlands. As the Mother Confessor, the last of a long line, Kahlan had reigned not only over the other Confessors when they were still alive, but, when need be, over the Central Council itself.

It was an authority that the Mother Confessor exerted only when the council could not reach agreement, or when they reached an agreement that she couldn’t accept as the best course for the Midlands. Some of the larger lands occasionally manipulated the council to the disadvantage of other, smaller lands. When that happened, the Mother Confessor would intervene, but otherwise she let the council manage the Midlands.

Even so, her authority was such that kings and queens sought the Mother Confessor’s advice and counsel. They were well aware that they ultimately answered to her, as did every ruler of every land of the Midlands. The council was the intermediary step to her final authority, and handled most of the mundane, day-to-day affairs. Kahlan used her role to sometimes speak for those in the Midlands who had no voice on the council.

That didn’t earn her any friends, but Confessors, and the Mother Confessor in particular, didn’t have friends anyway, because everyone greatly feared a Confessor’s power. Richard had been the first real friend she’d ever had, the first one not to shy away from her because of that power, the first to stand with her and protect her willingly for the person she was, not because of her ability or status.

The irony was that wizards had always protected Confessors, and Richard was a wizard, although he hadn’t known it at the time.

Up on the towering mountain beyond the palace they got their first glimpse of the dark, imposing walls of the Wizard’s Keep. While the Central Council ruled the Midlands, and the Mother Confessor had authority over that council, it was the dark, brooding Keep embedded high up in the rocky face of the mountain that was the dark threat backing the word of the Mother Confessor. The Wizard’s Keep had provided the wizards who always accompanied Confessors, including the Mother Confessor herself. The Keep, in a sense, was the muscle behind the Mother Confessor’s authority. While it hadn’t always been that way, during Kahlan’s lifetime the wizards at the Keep chose not to use their power in order to rule, preferring instead to let the Central Council rule the lands.

As they rode higher up on the road to the Keep, it offered spectacular views of the city of Aydindril spread out far below. Smoke came from many a chimney, as most places had fires going not just for preparation of food but to ward off the cold. Lamplight glowed in most of the homes and buildings, making the city seem to sparkle in the gathering dusk. People, carts, and wagons filled the streets of the city. The view of the city from the road up to the Keep had always been one of Kahlan’s favorite sights.

As they rode silently up the mountain along a series of switchbacks, the road finally emerged from a thick stand of spruce and pine trees before the bridge spanning a chasm that had always seemed to her like the mountain had split open, leaving a yawning abyss.

Beyond the bridge, the Wizard’s Keep above them was embedded in the rock of the massive, imposing mountain. The complex of the Keep was vast, and it seemed to be perched menacingly on the side of the mountain, as if ready to pounce on any threat. The Keep was enormous, and its walls of dark granite looked almost like cliff faces rising up before them, as if it were a part of the dark rock of the mountain itself. Above those imposing walls, the Keep was an intricate maze of ramparts, bastions, towers, connecting walkways, spires, and high bridges between sections of the structure.

Wispy clouds drifted past some of the higher spires and towers, making the place seem as though it lived in the clouds.

Out ahead, off across the stone bridge, Kahlan could see the gaping entrance of the arched stone passageway where the road tunneled under the base of the outer Keep wall. The portcullis was up.

Kahlan brought her horse to a stop to take it all in. The site of the Keep seemed to bring her mood to a low point of despair. They had spoken little the last few days, mostly because Kahlan had not been in a mood to talk and everyone seemed to realize it. When they saw her stop, everyone else slowed to a stop as well.

Kahlan turned in her saddle and looked back at Shale. “How long until I give birth?”

The sorceress was ready with an answer. “From my experience, the babies will come any day now. It is difficult to say precisely when, but I don’t think it will be longer than three or four days, at most.”

“You’ve been awfully quiet for the last few days,” Richard said. “What’s wrong?”

Kahlan felt tears well up. Fears she had been keeping to herself wouldn’t let her have a moment of peace. Even when she slept, those fears haunted her. And now those fears were about to be realized.

Richard, right beside her, pulled in the reins and rested his wrists on the horn of his saddle. When he glanced back at the others, they waited back where they were.

“Kahlan, what’s wrong? I know you and I know that something is bothering you. This should be a joyous time. Our children are about to be born. We have reached the Keep, where they will be safe.”

She nodded, too ashamed of her fears to speak. Richard’s words only seemed to bring it to the surface, making the tears start to flow all the harder.

Richard leaned over in his saddle to get closer so he could speak privately, assuming it was something she didn’t want the others to hear. “Kahlan, what’s wrong? You can tell me.”

Kahlan couldn’t bear to tell him. How could she? These were his children, too, the children of D’Hara, the children the world needed.

Or were they?

“Kahlan, please tell me what’s bothering you,” he pressed in a whisper.

She couldn’t hold it back from him any longer.

“You know what’s wrong. Shota said that one of our children will be a monster. She saw into the flow of time. While she got her prophecies wrong in the sense of how they would come about, you know as well as I that in the end they always proved true. She was positive about this one because it was so clear-cut. I want these children so badly, but I’m terrified that one of them is going to be the monster she predicted.”

Richard relaxed a bit. “Is that all?”

She wiped a tear from her cheek. “Is that all? It’s everything. It’s everything we have wanted, it’s everything our world needs, and yet one of them is destined to be a monster who will destroy lives.”

He smiled a little. “I don’t believe in destiny any more than I believed in blindly following prophecy, and neither do you.”

“This is not destiny. This is a vision from a witch woman who had seen it in the flow of time. Now that their birth approaches, I can’t bear the thought of one of them being that monster that we bring into the world.”

Richard took a deep breath and let it out as he considered a bit. “Do you think me a monster?” he finally asked her.

“You?” She frowned at him. “No. What does that have to do with it?”

Richard shrugged. “Darken Rahl was a monster.”

“So what?”

“His father, Panis Rahl, was a monster, as was his father, and his father before that. The House of Rahl was a whole line of tyrants. Every Rahl who became a Lord Rahl was a monster and each bred a monster for a son.”

“What does that have to do with it?” she said.

“I am the son of a monster. By that logic, I should be a monster as well.”

“But you were raised by a good man and so you didn’t turn out to be like Darken Rahl.”

Richard winked at her. “Exactly.”

Unsure, Kahlan squinted at him. “What’s your point?”

Richard smiled. “Had Shota looked into her flow of time when I was conceived, what do you suppose she would have seen? Yet another monster in the making. Prophecy, after all, is in many ways merely the essence of potential. Though it would have been possible, I’m not the monster she would have seen. Monsters aren’t necessarily bred and born to be monsters. Evil people are mostly created by how they grow up—either by the terrible way they were raised, or by the terrible things they experienced that shaped them into who they turn out to be.

“Our children will grow up to be good people because we will raise them to be good people.”

Kahlan stared at him a moment. “Are you so sure of that?”

His smile widened. “Kahlan, if it wasn’t true, then I would be a monster the way all of the men in the Rahl line of rule were monsters. But I’m not like them because I was raised differently, by a good man.”

She gave him a look from under her brow. “Your brother was a monster.”

Richard drew a deep breath. “True enough. But I don’t think it was because of birth or that he was predestined to be a monster. I think he was weak and didn’t use his head. He made a lot of bad choices. His friends and the people he associated with encouraged those bad choices. In a way, they urged him on to be the evil person he became. But I don’t think he was born a monster the way Shota meant.”

Kahlan finally smiled over at him as she wiped away the last of her tears. “You always make me feel better when I think things are hopeless. Please don’t ever stop making me feel better.”

Richard bowed his head to her. “By your command, my lady, it shall be so. Now, can we get you into the Keep so that you can bring our two children into the world?”

Kahlan leaned over and touched his arm. “You are going to be a good father.”

At that, they started out again. The rest followed behind.