"You know it is."

A smile grew on Kahlan's lips. "I do now."

-]--

Kahlan wore her white Mother Confessor's dress. She was a bit surprised to notice that it fit a little loosely, but all things considered, she supposed it was to be expected. Because of the cold, she also wore the wolf fur mantle Richard had made for her, but draped it around her shoulders more like a stole. She stood with her back straight and chin held high, overseeing the ceremony and gazing out at the tens of thousands of quiet faces. Behind her was a rich verdant wall of woven boughs that enabled distant spectators to more easily pick out the six people up on the platform. An ethereal mist of silent breath lifted in the still, golden, lateafternoon air.

As he conducted the wedding ceremony, Zedd's back was to her. Kahlan was fascinated to see his wavy white hair, perpetually in disarray, now brushed and smoothed down. He wore his fine maroon robes with black sleeves and cowled shoulders. Silver brocade circled the cuffs, while gold brocade ran around the neck and down the front. A red satin belt set with a gold buckle gathered the outfit at his waist. Adie stood beside him, wearing her simple sorceress's robes with their yellow and red beads at the neckline.

Somehow, the contrast looked as grand.

Verna wore a rich violet dress done up with gold stitching at the square neckline.

The intricate gold needlework ran down the tight sleeves showing under slashed sham sleeves tied at the elbow with gold ribbon. The delicate smocking over the midriff extending in a funnel shape down into a gored skirt flaring nearly to the floor. Vema's wavy brown hair was festooned with blue, gold, and crimson flowers the sisters had made from little pieces of silk. With her serene smile, she made a beautiful sorceress bride standing beside the handsome blond groom in his violet wizard's robes.

Everyone seemed to lean in a little as the ceremony reached the climax.

"Do you, Vema, take this wizard to be your husband for life," Zedd went on in a clear tone that carried out over the crowd, "mindful of his gift and duty to it, and swear to both love and honor him without pause for as long as you live?"

"I do," Vema said in a silken voice.

"Do you, Warren," Adie said, her voice all the more raspy in contrast to Vema's, "take this sorceress to be your wife for life, mindful of her gift and duty to it, and swear to both love and honor her without pause for as long as you live?

"I do," Warren said in a confident tone.

"Then, it being of your free will, I accept you, sorceress, as being agreeable and give my joyful blessing to this union." Zedd raised outstretched arms up into the air. "I ask the good spirits to smile on this woman's oath."

"Then, it being of your free will, I accept you, wizard, as being agreeable and give my joyful blessing to this union." Adie raised outstretched arms up into the air. "I ask the good spirits to smile on this man's oath."

The four of them crossed their arms and joined hands. With heads bowed, the air in the center of their circle glowed with a living light shining on the union. The brilliant flare sent a golden ray skyward, as if carrying the oath to the good spirits.

Together, Zedd and Adie said, "From this time forward, you are forever joined as husband and wife, both by oath, by love, and now by gift."

The magical light dissolved from the bottom up until it was but a solitary star directly above them in an empty, late-afternoon sky.

In the silent winter air tens of thousands of spellbound eyes watched a trembling Vema meet Warren's kiss to seal a wedding unlike any they were likely to ever see again: the marriage of a sorceress and a wizard, bound by more than any mere oath-bound also by a covenant of magic.

When Vema and Warren parted, both wearing broad smiles, the crowd went wild. Cheers, along with hats, rose into the air.

Both beaming, Vema and Warren joined hands after they tumed to the soldiers. They waved with their free arms high in the air. Soldiers cheered, applauded, and whistled as if it were their own sister or best friend who was just married.

The voices of the choir then built in an extended note that reverberated through the trees all around. It made Kahlan's skin tingle with the quality of its haunting tone. The sound brought a reverent hush to the valley.

Cara leaned close to Kahlan and whispered in astonishment that the choir was singing an ancient D'Haran wedding ceremonial song, the origin of which went back thousands of years. Since the men had gone off to practice alone, Kahlan hadn't heard it before the wedding. It was so powerful it swept her emotions away with the rise and fall of the joined voices. Vema and Warren stood on the edge of the platform, likewise gripped by the achingly beautiful song to their union.

Flutes joined in, and then drums. The soldiers, mostly D'Haran, smiled as they listened to the music they knew well. It struck Kahlan then, since she had so long thought of D'Hara as an enemy land, that she had never really thought of D'Harans as having traditions that could be meaningful, or stirring, or beloved.

Kahlan glanced over at Cara, standing beside her, smiling distantly as she listened to the music. There was an entire land of D'Hara that was largely a mystery to Kahlan; she had only seen their soldiers. She knew nothing of their womenother than the Mord-Sith, and they were hardly typical-or their children, or their homes, or their customs. She had come to think of them as joined together at last, but she now realized that they were a people she didn't know, a people with their own heritage.

"It's beautiful," Kahlan whispered to Cara.

Cara nodded blissfully, carried away on the strains of music that was an old acquaintance to her, — and a exotic wonder to Kahlan.

As the choir came to the end of their tribute to the newly wedded couple, Verna reached back and squeezed Kahlan's hand. It was an apology of sorts-an acknowledgment of how difficult this ceremony must be for Kahlan.

Refusing to let that hurt tarnish this joyous event, Kahlan beamed at Verna's quick glance. She came forward, standing behind Warren and Verna with an arm around each. The noise of the crowd trailed off so Kahlan could speak.

"These two people belong together. Perhaps they always have. Now they forever shall be. May the good spirits be with them always."

With one voice, the entire crowd repeated the prayer.

"I want to thank Verna and Warren from the bottom of my heart," Kahlan said as she gazed out at the tens of thousands of faces watching, "for reminding us what life is really about. There is no more eloquent demonstration of the simple yet deep meaning of our cause than this wedding today."

Heads as far as she could see bobbed in agreement.

"Now," Kahlan called out, "who wants to see these two have the first dance?"

The men cheered and hooted as they spread back to open up the central area. Musicians lined up along the benches at the sides.

As they waited for Verna and Warren to make their way down to the dance area, Kahlan draped an arm over Zedd's shoulder and kissed his cheek.

"This is the best idea you ever had, wizard."

He took her in with hazel eyes that seemed to see all the way to a person's soul.

"Are you all right, dear one? I know this has to be hard."

Kahlan nodded, holding her grin firmly in place. "I'm fine. It has to be hard on you, twice over."

A smile took him unexpectedly. "There you go again, Mother Confessor.

Worrying about others."

Kahlan watched a laughing Verna and Warren, arm in arm, dancing lightly across the open area ringed by applauding soldiers.

"When they're done," Kahlan asked, "and after you've given your first to Adie, would you dance with me, sir? Stand in for him? I'm sure he would want that."