The breeze fluttered the dry grass and in its passing pulled a stray wisp of hair across her face. Kahlan reached up and pulled it back as she waited. With eyes that seemed to have gone empty of passion, Ma Ban Grid searched her face. The spell had been broken.

His voice came soft and sincere. “I heard the spirits speak. I thought they were speaking the truth. It is as he says. I am an old fool.” He looked around at his silent men. “The Bantak have never before sought to bring death to others. We will not start now.”

He bowed his head and pulled his medallion over his wispy gray hair. He brought it up in both hands, offering it to her. “Please, Mother Confessor, give this to the Mud People. Tell them it is given in peace. We will start no war with them.” He glanced over. Richard returned the sword to its scabbard. Ma Ban Grid looked back to her. “Thank you for stopping us, far stopping me, from listening to false spirits and doing a terrible thing.”

Kahlan bowed her head to the old man. “I am thankful I was able to serve in time to prevent anyone from being hurt.”

Richard glanced to her. “Ask him how the spirits convinced him to do something against the nature of his people.”

“Ma Ban Grid, how did the spirits put the lust for war in your heart? The lust for killing?”

He stared off, unsure. “Their whispers came to me in the night. Made me feel the need. I have felt an urge to violence before, but never acted on it. This time, it seemed I could not hold it back. I had never felt this need so strongly before.”

The veil to the underworld, the spirit world, is torn.” Whispers spread back through the men as she told them Richard’s words. “False spirits may seek to speak to you again. Be on guard against them. I understand how you were tricked, and will hold no anger against you for it. But I expect you to be more cautious now that you have learned the truth and have been warned.”

“Thank you, wizard.” Ma Ban Grid nodded. “I will make it so.”

“Did the spirits” voices tell you anything else?”

The old man frowned in thought. “I don’t really remember their voices telling me what must be done. It was more of a feeling that filled me with the need. My son—he looked up—’the one who died… he was with me, and heard them also. I felt that the spirits spoke differently to him, somehow. His eyes were wild with hate. Even more than mine. He went as soon as we were visited by the spirits.” His gaze sank to the ground.

Richard regarded the spirit guide a long moment. His voice came softly. “I am sorry, Ma Ban Grid, that I had to kill your son. It wounds my heart to have done so. Know that had there been any other path, I would have taken it.”

The old man nodded, but couldn’t bring forth words. He looked around at his men. He seemed suddenly ashamed. “I don’t know what we are doing here,” he whispered. “This is not the Bantak way.”

“It is the fault of false spirits. I am glad we were here to help you see the truth of it,” Richard said.

He nodded again and turned to his men, looking about at them, and then walked off toward their homeland. Kahlan let out a heavy sigh. Richard watched warily as the Bantak plodded off into the sunrise, dragging spears behind.

“What do you make of that?” she asked when he turned to her at last.

He rested his hand on the hilt of the sword and turned to watch the Bantak. The Keeper is getting ahead of us.” He looked back to her eyes. “He has taken the effort to discredit you. To discredit the Mother Confessor. He is laying traps for us. He has plans, and I don’t have the slightest idea what they are.”

“What are we going to do?”

“What we planned to do. Tonight we have the gathering, and tomorrow we are married and leave for Aydindril.”

She studied his face. “You really are a wizard,” she said softly. “You used magic to break the Keeper’s spell.”

His expression didn’t change. “No, I’m not. It was just a little trick Zedd taught me. He said once that people are more afraid to die from magic than anything else, as if they would somehow be more dead. I used that fear and the Wizard’s First Rule to make them believe it. It was a stronger fear than the one the spirits gave them.”

“And what of turning the Sword of Truth white?”

He regarded her a long moment. “do you remember when Zedd showed us how the sword works? How it couldn’t harm anyone you think innocent?” She nodded. “Well, he was wrong. When it is white, you can kill anyone. Anyone. Even one you know to be innocent. Even one you love.” His eyes hardened. “I hate magic.”

“Richard, the gift has just helped you save the lives of many people.”

“At what cost?” he whispered. “Whenever I even think of turning the sword white, all I can remember is how I did it to you, how I almost killed you with it.”

“But you didn’t. Almost doesn’t make bread rise.”

“That doesn’t stop the pain of it. Or of having killed with the sword’s white magic, and of knowing what I am capable of. It makes me feel like a Rahl.” He let out a heavy breath and changed the subject. “I think we had better be very careful at the gathering tonight.”

“Richard… this puts a new light on things. We have been warned twice now of the danger of dealing with the spirits. Won’t you reconsider the gathering?”

He looked away. “What choice do I have? The Keeper seems to be ahead of us. Events are moving fast. The more we find out, the more we realize we don’t know. We must learn what we can.”

“But maybe the ancestors” spirits won’t be able to help us.”

Then we will have learned something. We can’t pass up the chance; too much is at risk. We have to try.” He gently took her hand. “Kahlan… I can’t allow myself to be responsible for this. To know it’s my fault.”

She waited until his eyes came up. “Why? Because Darken Rahl is your father? You think you are responsible because you are a Rahl?”

“Maybe. But Rahl or not, I can’t be responsible for the Keeper having everyone. For having you. I have to find a way to stop it. Darken Rahl haunts me from the grave. Somehow I have caused this. I don’t know how, but it’s my fault. I have to do whatever it takes to stop it, or everyone will suffer. And the Keeper will have you, forever.

That thought scares me more than anything in my life has ever scared me. It wakes me with nightmares. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to stop him from getting you. I won’t take a chance of missing anything, no matter the risk. I have to have the gathering.” His gaze held hers. “Even though I fear it might be a trap, I have to try.”

“A trap?… You think it might be a trap?”

“It could be. We have been warned. At least we can be alert for it.” He looked down at her hand in his. “I won’t have the sword in the gathering. Do you think you can call down the lightning if you have to?”

Kahlan shook her head. “I don’t know, Richard. I don’t know how I did it. It just happened. I don’t know how to control it.”

He nodded as he rubbed the back of her hand with his thumbs. “Well, maybe you won’t have to try. Maybe the ancestors” spirits will be able to help us. They helped us before.”

Richard reached up and gripped the Agiel. His gray eyes were filled with the pain of the headache. He sank down and put his head in his hands as she sat next to him. “I have to rest awhile before we go back. This headache is killing me.”

She feared he was right, that the headache really was killing him. She ached for the next day, when they could get to Zedd, get to help.

It was late afternoon by the time they returned to the celebration, the banquet. Richard’s head was a little better, but still hurt him enough to leave the pain in his eyes. The elders stood as the two of them approached the open pole shelter. The Bird Man stepped forward.

“What of the Bantak? Did you see them? There has been no word from Chandalen.”