"Richard, we simply can't afford this distraction. There are important things we need to talk about. That's why I was coming to you in the first place. Didn't you get the letter I sent?"

Richard paused. Letter — letter — "Yes," he said, at last remembering. "I did get your letter. I sent word to you-with a soldier Kahlan had touched with her power."

Richard caught Cara's brief glance up at Nicci-a surprised look that said that she didn't recall any such thing.

Nicci appraised him with an unreadable look. "The word you sent never found me."

Somewhat surprised, Richard gestured toward the New World. "His primary mission was to go north and assassinate Emperor Jagang. He was touched by a Confessor's power; he would die before ever abandoning her command. If he couldn't find you, he would have gone after Jagang. I suppose it's also possible that something happened to him first. There are perils enough in the Old World."

The look on Nicci's face made him feel like he had just offered her further evidence that he was losing his mind. "Do you honestly think, even in your wildest imaginings, that the dream walker can be so easily eliminated?"

"No, of course not." He pushed the bulge of a cooking pot in his pack back into place. "We expected that the soldier would probably be killed in the attempt. We sent him after Jagang because he was a murdering thug and deserved to die. But I also thought that there was a possibility that he might succeed. Even if he didn't, I wanted Jagang to at least lose some sleep knowing that any of his men could be assassins."

He could see by Nicci's too-calm expression that she thought that this, too, was no more than part of his elaborate delusion about a woman he had dreamed.

Richard recalled, then, what else had happened. "Nicci, I'm afraid that shortly after Sabar delivered your letter we were attacked. He died in that fight."

A furtive glance to Cara brought a nod in confirmation.

"Dear spirits," Nicci said in sorrow at hearing the news about young Sabar. Richard shared her sentiment.

He remembered Nicci's urgent warning in the letter about how Jagang had started to create weapons out of gifted people, as had been done three thousand years before in the great war. It was a frightening development that had been thought impossible, but Jagang had discovered a way to accomplish the task by using the Sisters of the Dark he held captive.

During the attack on their camp, Nicci's letter had been knocked into the fire. Richard hadn't had the chance to read the whole letter before it had been destroyed. He'd read enough, though, to understand the danger.

When he made for the table, where his sword lay, Nicci stepped in front of him. "Richard, I know it's hard, but you have to put this dream business behind you. We don't have time for it. We need to talk. If you got my letter, then at least you know that you can't.»

"Nicci," Richard said, silencing her, "I must do this." He laid a hand on her shoulder and spoke as patiently as he could, considering his sense of urgency, but by his tone let her know that he was not going to discuss it further. "If you come with us then we can talk later, when there is time and it doesn't interfere with what I need to do, but right now I don't have the time and neither does Kahlan."

Pressing the back of his hand against the side of her shoulder, Richard moved her aside and strode to the table.

As he lifted his sword by its polished scabbard, he briefly wondered why, when he had heard the wolf howl and he woke up, he'd thought the sword had been lying on the ground beside him. Maybe he had remembered a fragment of a dream. Impatient to get going, he dismissed it.

He slipped the ancient tooled-leather baldric over his head and quickly adjusted the scabbard at his left hip, making sure it was securely fastened. With two fingers he lifted the sword by the downswept crossguard, not only to be sure that it was clear in its sheath, but to check that the blade was sound. He couldn't remember everything that had happened in the fight and he didn't recall putting the sword away himself.

The polished steel gleamed through a film of dried blood.

Fragmented memories of the battle flashed through his mind. It had been sudden and unexpected, but once he had pulled the sword free in anger, unexpected no longer mattered. Being so heavily outnumbered, though, had mattered. He understood all too well that Nicci was right about him not being invincible.

Not long after he'd met Kahlan, Zedd, in his capacity as First Wizard, had named Richard to the post of Seeker and had given him the sword. Richard had hated the weapon because of what he mistakenly thought it represented. Zedd told him that the Sword of Truth-as it was named —was but a tool and that it was the intent of the individual wielding a sword that gave it meaning. That had never been so true as it was with this particular weapon.

The sword was now bonded to Richard, bonded to his intent, driven by his purpose. From the beginning, his intent and purpose had been to protect those he loved and cared about. To do that, he had come to realize that he had to help shape a world in which they could live in safety and peace.

It was that intent that gave the sword meaning for him.

The steel hissed as he slid it back into its scabbard.

His intent now was to find Kahlan. If the sword could help him accomplish that goal then he would not hesitate to put it to use.

He hoisted his pack and swung it around, settling it onto its familiar place on his back as he scanned the nearly barren room for any of his things he might have missed. On the floor beside the hearth he saw dried meat and travel biscuits. Beside them lay other bundled foodstuffs. Richard's and Cara's simple wooden bowls were there as well, one with broth and the other holding the remnants of porridge.

"Cara," he said as he swept up three waterskins and hung their straps around his neck, "be sure to get all the food that can travel and bring it along. Don't forget the bowls."

Cara nodded. She packed methodically, now that she realized he had no intention of leaving her behind.

Nicci caught his sleeve. "Richard, I mean it, we have to talk. It's important."

"Then do as I asked; get your things and come with me." He snatched up his bow and quiver. "You can talk all you want as long as you don't hold me up."

With a nod of resignation, Nicci finally abandoned her arguments and rushed to the back room to gather her own things. Far from minding having Nicci along, Richard wanted her help; her gift might be useful in finding Kahlan. In fact, finding Nicci so she could help him had been his intention when he first awoke before the attack and realized that Kahlan was missing.

Richard threw his hooded forest cloak around his shoulders and headed for the door. Cara looked up from beside the hearth, where she hurried to finish collecting her gear, and gave him a nod to let him know she'd be right behind him. He could see Nicci in the back room rushing to get her things before he got far.

In his urgent need to find Kahlan, Richard's imagination was beginning to get the better of him. He could see her hurt, see her in pain. The thought of Kahlan somewhere alone and in trouble made his heart quicken with dread.

Against his will, the crushing memory of the time she had been beaten nearly to death flooded forth. He had given up everything else and had taken her far away back into the mountains where no one could find them so that she would be safe and could have time to heal. That summer, after she had started to recover her strength, and before Nicci had shown up to capture him and take him away, had been one of the best summers of his life. How Cara could forget that special time was incomprehensible to him.

From force of habit, he lifted his sword to make sure it was clear in its scabbard before he threw open the simple plank door.