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Richard felt his smooth face as he smile. "It's gone. I'm not going to have a beard anymore."
Gratch's nose wrinkled in disgust. He let out a gurgling growl of displeasure.
Richard laughed. "You'll get used to it." They sat together in the quiet of the dawn. "Do you know, Gratch, that I'm a wizard?"
Gratch gurgled a laugh and frowned dubiously. Richard wondered how a gar could know what a wizard was. Gratch never failed to astonish him with what he knew, with what he could grasp.
"No, really. I am. Here, let me show you; I'll make fire."
Richard held his palm out. He called the power from the calm center. Try as he might, nothing happened. He could not make so much as a spark. He sighed as Gratch howled in a roar of laughter, his wings flapping with the joke.
A sudden memory came to him—something Denna had told him. He had asked her how he had done all those things with magic. She had looked at him with that all-knowing smile of peace, and said, Be proud you made the right choices, Richard, the choices that allowed to happen what came about, but do not call arrogance to your heart by believing that all that happened was your doing.
Richard wondered where the line was. He realized he had a lot to learn before he was a real wizard. He wasn't even sure he wanted to be a wizard, but he now accepted who he was—one born with the gift, born to be the pebble in the pond, son of Darken Rahl, but lucky enough to have been raised by people who loved him. He felt the hilt of the sword at his elbow. It had been made for him.
He was the Seeker. The true Seeker.
Richard's thoughts again touched the spirit who had brought him more happiness than in life had brought him pain. He was deeply gratified that Denna had found peace. He could want nothing more for her, for someone he loved.
He came out of his thoughts and patted the gar's arm. "You wait here a minute, Gratch. I'll get you something."
Richard ran into the kitchen and retrieved a leg of mutton. As he ran back down the steps, Gratch danced from one foot to the other in excitement. Together, they sat on the steps, Richard eating his soup, and Gratch tearing into the meat with his fangs.
When they had finished, Gratch had even eaten the bone, Richard pulled out a long lock of Kahlan's hair.
"This is from the woman I love." Gratch considered, then looked up as he gently reached out. "I want you to have it. I told her about you, and what you mean to me. She will love you just as I love you, Gratch. She will never chase you away. You can be with us whenever you want, for as long as you want. Here, give it back a moment."
Gratch held out the length of hair. Richard took off the thong holding Scarlet's tooth. It would do him no good any longer; he had already called her with it. He tied the long lock of hair to the thong, and then hung the whole thing over Gratch's head.
With a claw, Gratch stroked the long hair. He gave a grin that wrinkled his nose and showed the full length of his fangs.
"I'm going to go to her now. Would you like to come along?"
Gratch nodded his enthusiasm, his head bobbing, his ears twitching, and his wings fluttering.
Richard looked down on the city. Troops were moving about. A lot of troops. Imperial Order troops. It wouldn't be long before they gained the courage to investigate the death of the council, even if it was at the hands of a wizard.Richard smiled. "Then I guess I better find a horse, and we can be on our way. I think it best if we were away from here."
He looked out on the brightening day. A breeze with a hint of warmth ruffled his mriswith cape. Before long it would be spring.
THE END
Epilogue
She considered the captain standing before her desk. He was asking an outrageous price. But then, what was the Palace’s gold to her? Before it was missed, she would be gone.
As she had feared, the boy was proving troublesome to tame. It was becoming important to cultivate other options. There were other ways of seeing to the Keeper’s wishes, other ways of keeping her oath.
“I agree to your price. In fact, I double it, just to insure your loyalty.”
She pushed the purse across the desk. Captain Blake licked his cracked lips as he watched it moving closer. He finally reached out and took it, testing its weight before tucking it in his coat.
“Very generous of you, Sister. You’re a woman who knows how to win a man’s loyalty.”
“You are not going to count it, Captain?”
His cold eyes weren’t touched by his servile smile. “Aye, Sister, I’ll be counting it when I get back to the Lady Sefa. When do you wish to sail?”
There were still a few matters, a few loose ends, to attend to. “Soon. I have paid you more than enough to have you at the ready, until I’m ready.”
“Aye, Sister, you have at that.” He scratched his scruffy chin. “I’m content to sit. I’m in no great hurry to be sailing to where you want to go.”
She leaned forward. “You are sure you can make the voyage.”
“Aye, Sister. The Lady Sefa has made the voyage before, and can again. Still, I’ve no itch to be off into those waters until I have to.” He straightened his tattered coat. “How many ladies will you be bringing?” An apologetic smile spread easily on his weathered face. “I’ll need to see to the proper accommodations.”
Sitting back, she again ground her teeth at the memory of Liliana pulling off her hood at the joining rite. Liliana had let every other Sister know her identity by doing that. Worse, she had been warned. It was more than a mistake; it was arrogance. Liliana was proving dangerously untrustworthy. With the power she was appropriating, there was no telling what she would do next. There was certainly no reason to take Liliana.
As for the others, why take them all? The Prelate had made a mistake by speaking her suspicions aloud, thinking a shield of Additive Magic would protect her. The Prelate would have cause to suspect six of the Sisters, but if the prelate were to die, there would be no reason for anyone, even Liliana, to suspect the others. Why take them, when they might prove useful here?
She was liking this plan more by the moment. “Myself and five others will be going.”
“Mind if I ask why you fine ladies want to be sailing out around the great barrier. Isn’t the Old World to your liking?”
She leveled a menacing glare on the man standing before her. “I have bought your ship, your crew, and you, for as long as I want them, and for whatever purpose I want them. Answering questions was not part of the bargain.”
“No, Sister. I just thought—”
“Your silence was.” Without taking her eyes from his, she flicked her wrist and brought a blade to hand. “I have always thought death too brief a lesson. I believe in long lessons. If I so much as suspect you have violated your part of the bargain, any part of it, they will find you still breathing, but without an inch of skin left anywhere on you. Do we understand each other?”
Captain Blake stared furiously at the blue and yellow carpet beneath his feet. “Aye, Sister.”
“Then that will be all, Captain. I will be seeing you soon. Be ready to sail the instant you see six Sisters coming.”
After he had gone, she pulled a spare dacra from a drawer and, resting an elbow on the desk, watched it spinning in her fingers as she thought. She didn’t like leaving matters to chance. Best if all the loose ends were taken care of.
Someone would have to eliminate Richard Rahl. Someone not going with them. She smiled. Someone expendable.
~
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The Wizard’s Rules
About Terry Goodkind
