"After we got back here, Jebra was attacked by a web that I could discern had been cast by the same person who cast the power that touched Richard in the sliph. Because Zedd recognized its unique composition, we know now that it was power conjured by a witch woman."

"And my Agiel doesn't work," Cara said, holding the weapon up. "Our bond to Lord Rahl is broken. We can no longer sense him."

"Dear Creator," Ann whispered as her gaze dropped away.

Zedd gestured to the woman lying in the bed before him. "Whatever power it is that this witch woman cast, it left Jebra unconscious. We can't rouse her. Although I know that it was a witch woman's spell that somehow took her, I can't figure out how a witch woman could do such a thing — cast such webs from afar. From my experience they not only keep to themselves but can't accomplish things of this nature. It's beyond their ability."

"Are you are certain that it was a witch woman?" Ann asked.

Zedd took a deep breath as he considered the question seriously. "I've had dealings with a witch woman before. Once a cat has had its claws in you, you don't soon forget what it feels like. I don't know the specific person who did this, but I know the feel of this. It was a witch woman."

Nicci folded her arms. "I think we have a pretty good idea who the witch woman was: Six. And don't forget, just because you recognize the signature of a witch woman's power, that doesn't mean that the same limits necessarily apply to the individual who did this. After all, for someone to recognize your power as that of a wizard doesn't mean that they know your limits or would know your real potential."

"True enough," Zedd admitted with a sigh.

Nathan waved off the topic of witch women. "Did Jebra say anything else about the vision she had? Anything at all?"

Zedd shared a look with Nicci. "Well, not until this spell took her. Just before she went into this state, we heard her say, 'Stars. Stars fallen to ground. Stars among the grass. "

"Stars…" Nathan repeated as he paced in the small room, holding an elbow with one hand and tapping the tips of the fingers of the other to his chin. He finally turned toward Zedd. "I'm afraid that such a prophecy means nothing to me. It's probable that she only spoke a fragment aloud. In that case, it could easily be that there isn't enough for me to go on."

Nicci's heart sank. She had been hoping that the prophet would be able to decipher the seer's prophecy.

Ann scratched the side of her nose, searching for words. "So it is possible, then, that we…" She cleared her throat. "… that we have lost Richard. That this witch woman killed him."

Cara took an aggressive step forward. "Lord Rahl is not dead!"

In the echoing silence, Zedd rose from the chair. He cast Cara a cautionary glance before addressing Ann. "I don't think so, either."

Ann looked from Cara's heated expression to Zedd. "I know why she doesn't believe it is so. Why don't you?"

He gestured down at Jebra. "Because of this woman lying here in this bed."

Ann frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, the first vision Jebra has had in several years is about Richard."

"That's right," Nicci put in. "Her vision was about what was going to happen to him. She told me — specifically — not to let him be alone, not for an instant."

Ann arched an eyebrow. "And yet you did."

Nicci ignored the affront. "Yes. Not deliberately, but because of the beast. The beast was an unforeseeable factor, a random event."

When Ann only looked more perplexed, Zedd explained. "We believe that it was this witch woman's plan to touch Richard with her power. But the beast dropped in at just the wrong moment, spoiling up her carefully constructed plan."

Ann's frown deepened. "In what way?"

"The beast caused her to miss getting Richard, as she had planned," Nicci said. "Because of the beast, she lost Richard in the sliph, just as we did. Now she has a problem. She has to find him."

"So she did the same thing we did," Zedd said. "She came here, or at least she sent her power here, to find out from the seer where he will be."

"She was seeking prophecy?" Ann asked. "Witch women see things in the flow of time. Why would she need the seer?"

Zedd spread his hands. "Yes, they see things but, as I'm sure Nathan can explain better than I could, they can't see exactly what they want to see, when they want to see it."

Nathan was nodding his agreement. "There is a random element to prophecy. It comes when it comes, not when you wish it to come. Perhaps the wizards of ancient times knew the keys to using prophecy at will, but if they did, they did not pass such knowledge on. It is seldom that you can pick and choose with prophecy what events you want to see."

Zedd lifted a finger, stressing his point. "Six probably saw, either through her ability or her conjuring having to do with the events, that Jebra had already had a vision revealing what would happen to Richard and where he would be next, so she simply stole into Jebra's mind to steal the answer."

"I think that's why we can't wake Jebra," Nicci said. "I don't think that Six wants anyone else to be able to get the information that she already got. While Jebra spoke only a few words aloud, I would bet that Six extracted all of it — the entire vision — from Jebra's mind. I believe that Six then compelled Jebra to jump from that balcony to kill herself so that she couldn't reveal her vision to anyone else. Failing that, the spell rendered Jebra unconscious — like suicide, it's a whole lot easier than killing from afar, and just as good for her purpose."

Nathan's brow had drawn down as he listened. He rolled a hand as if turning over the event in his mind. "So you think that in her prophecy, Jebra was revealing that Richard is going to find stars that have fallen to the ground? That he will be at a place with stars among the grass? Like a place where meteorites are found?"

Zedd clasped his hands behind his back and nodded. "It rather seems that way."

Nathan stared off as he considered, nodding to himself from time to time. Ann didn't look so convinced.

"So you think that Richard is alive," she asked, "and that this witch woman, Six, somehow spelled him?"

Nicci gave the former prelate a single, firm nod. "That's the conclusion Zedd and I have reached."

Ann leaned closer to her former charge. "For what purpose? I can fathom reasons for Six murdering Richard, but why would she want to get her hands on him?"

Nicci didn't shy from the woman's steady gaze. "Six usurped the witch woman who lived up here — Shota. Why? Well, what did Six take? Shota's companion, Samuel," she said in answer to her own question. "And Samuel has the Sword of Truth, the sword he once carried."

Ann looked like she had just lost the thread of the story. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"What did Samuel use the sword for? What did he steal?" Nicci asked:

Ann's eyes went wide. "One of the boxes of Orden."

"From a Sister of the Dark," Nicci said, "with the help of the Sword of Truth."

Ann turned a flustered look on Zedd. "But why would this woman, Six, want Richard?"

Zedd's gaze sank to the floor as he rubbed the tips of his fingers across the furrows of his brow. "To open the correct box of Orden, one has to have a very important book. I think you two, of all people, should be quite familiar with that particular volume."

Nathan's jaw fell open with realization.

"The Book of Counted Shadows," Ann breathed.

Zedd nodded. "The only copy of that book now resides in Richard's head. He burned the original after he had memorized it."

"We have to find him first," Ann said.

Zedd grunted derisively at the very suggestion, lifting his eyebrows in mock wonder, as if he could never have divined such an idea without her help.