The pillars of creation

The Pillars of Creation Sword of Truth 07 Terry Goodkind Dedicated to the people in the United States Intelligence Community who, for decades, have valiantly fought to preserve life and liberty, while being ridiculed, condemned, demonized, and shackled by the jackals of evil Evil thinks not to beguile us by unveiling the terrible truth of its festering intent, but comes, instead, disguised in the diaphanous robes of virtue, whispering sweet-sounding lies intended to seduce us into the dark bed of our eternal graves - translated from Koloblicin’s Journal Chapter Picking through the dead man’s pockets, Jennsen Daggett came across the last thing in the world she would ever have expected to find Startled, she sat back on her heels The raw breeze ruffled her hair as she stared wide-eyed at the words written in precise, blocky letters on the small square of paper The paper had been folded in half twice, carefully, so that the edges had been even She blinked, half expecting the words to vanish, like some grim illusion They remained solid and all too real Foolish though she knew the thought was, she still felt as if the dead soldier might be watching her for any reaction Showing none, outwardly, anyway, she stole a look at his eyes They were dull and filmy She had heard people say of the deceased that they looked like they were only sleeping He didn’t His eyes looked dead His pale lips were taut, his face was waxy There was a purplish blush at the back of his bull neck Of course he wasn’t watching her He was no longer watching anything With his head turned to the side, toward her, though, it almost seemed as if he might be looking at her She could imagine he was Up on the rocky hill behind her, bare branches clattered together in the wind like bones clacking The paper in her trembling fingers seemed to be rattling with them Her heart, already thumping at a brisk pace, started to pound harder Jennsen prided herself in her levelheadedness She knew she was letting her imagination get carried away But she had never before seen a dead person, a person so grotesquely still It was dreadful seeing someone who didn’t breathe She swallowed in an attempt to compose her own breathing, if not her nerves Even if he was dead, Jennsen didn’t like him looking at her, so she stood, lifted the hem of her long skirts, and stepped around the body She carefully folded the small piece of paper over twice, the way it had been folded when she had found it, and slipped it into her pocket She would have to worry about that later Jennsen knew how her mother would react to those two words on the paper Determined to be finished with her search, she squatted on the other side of the man With his face turned away, it almost seemed as if he were looking back up at the trail from where he had fallen, as if he might be wondering what had happened and how he had come to be at the bottom of the steep, rocky gorge with his neck broken His cloak had no pockets Two pouches were secured to his belt One pouch held oil, whetstones, and a strop The other was packed with jerky Neither contained a name If he’d known better, as she did, he would have taken the long way along the bottom of the cliff, rather than traverse the trail across the top, where patches of black ice made it treacherous this time of year Even if he didn’t want to retreat the way he had come in order to climb down into the gorge, it would have been wiser for him to have made his way through the woods, despite the thick bramble that made travel difficult up there among the deadfall Done was done If she could find something that would tell her who he was, maybe she could find his kin, or someone who knew him They would want to know She clung to the safety of the pretense Almost against her will, Jennsen returned to wondering what he had been doing out here She feared that the carefully folded piece of paper told her only too clearly Still, there could be some other reason If she could just find it She had to move his arm a little if she was to look in his other pocket “Dear spirits forgive me,” she whispered as she grasped the dead limb His unbending arm moved only with difficulty Jennsen’s nose wrinkled with disgust He was as cold as the ground he lay on, as cold as the sporadic raindrops that fell from the iron sky This time of year, it was almost always snow driven before such a stiff west wind The unusual intermittent mist and drizzle had surely made the icy places on the trail at the top even slicker The dead man only proved it She knew that if she stayed much longer she would be caught out in the approaching winter rain She was well aware that people exposed to such weather risked their lives Fortunately, Jennsen wasn’t terribly far from home If she didn’t get home soon, though, her mother, worried at what could be taking so long, would probably come out after her Jennsen didn’t want her mother getting soaked, too Her mother would be waiting for the fish Jennsen had retrieved from baited lines in the lake For once, the lines they tended through holes in the ice had brought them a full stringer The fish were lying dead on the other side of the dead man, where she had dropped them after making her grim discovery He hadn’t been there earlier, or she would have seen him on her way out to the lake Taking a deep breath to gird her resolve, Jennsen made herself return to her search She imagined that some woman was probably wondering about her big, handsome soldier, worrying if he was safe, warm, and dry He was none of that Jennsen would want someone to tell her mother, if it were she who had fallen and broken her neck Her mother would understand if she delayed a bit to try to find out the man’s identity Jennsen reconsidered Her mother might understand, but she still wouldn’t want Jennsen anywhere near one of these soldiers But he was dead He couldn’t hurt anyone, now, much less her and her mother Her mother would be even more troubled once Jennsen showed her what was written on the little piece of paper Jennsen knew that what really drove her search was the hope for some other explanation She desperately wanted it to be something else That frantic need kept her beside his dead body when she wanted nothing so much as to run for home If she didn’t find anything to explain away his presence, then it would be best to cover him and hope that no one ever found him Even if she had to stay out in the rain, she should cover him over as quickly as possible She shouldn’t wait Then no one would ever know where he was She made herself push her hand down into his trouser pocket, all the way to the end The flesh of his thigh was stiff Her fingers hurriedly gathered up the nest of small objects at the bottom Gasping for breath at the awful task, she pulled it all out in her fist She bent close in the gathering gloom and opened her fingers for a look On top were a flint, bone buttons, a small ball of twine, and a folded handkerchief With one finger, she pushed the twine and handkerchief to the side, exposing a weighty clutch of coins-silver and gold She let out a soft whistle at the sight of such wealth She didn’t think that soldiers were rich, but this man had five gold marks among a larger number of silver marks A fortune by most any standard All the silver pennies-not copper, silverseemed insignificant by contrast, even though they alone were probably more than she had spent in the whole of her twenty years The thought occurred to her that it was the first time in her life that she had ever held gold-or even silver-marks The thought occurred to her that it might be plunder She found no trinket from a woman, as she had hoped, so as to soften her worry about what sort of man he had been Regrettably, nothing in the pocket told her anything of who he might be Her nose wrinkled as she went about the chore of returning his possessions to his pocket Some of the silver pennies spilled from her fist She picked them all up from the wet, frozen ground and forced her hand into his pocket again in order to return them all to their rightful place His pack might tell her more, but he was sprawled atop it, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to try to have a look, since it was likely to hold only supplies His pockets would have held anything he considered valuable Like the piece of paper She supposed all the evidence that she really needed was in plain sight He wore stiff leather armor under his dark cloak and tunic At his hip was a simple but ruggedly made and wickedly sharp soldier’s sword in a torn utilitarian black leather scabbard The sword was broken at midlength, no doubt in the long tumble from the trail Her eyes glided more carefully over the remarkable knife sheathed at his belt The hilt of the knife, gleaming in the gloom, was what had riveted her attention from the first instant The sight of it had held her frozen until she realized its owner was dead She was sure that no simple soldier would possess a knife that exquisitely crafted It had to be more expensive than any knife she had ever seen On the silver hilt was the ornate letter “R.” Even so, it was a thing of beauty From a young age, her mother had taught her to use a knife She wished her mother could have a knife as fine as this Jennsen Jennsen jumped at the whispered word Not now Dear spirits, not now Not here Jennsen Jennsen was not a woman who hated much in life, but she hated the voice that sometimes came to her She ignored it, now, as always, forcing her fingers to move, to try to discover if there was anything else about the man that she should know She checked the leather straps for concealed pockets but found none The tunic was a plain cut, without pockets Jennsen, came the voice again She gritted her teeth “Leave me be,” she said aloud, if under her breath Jennsen It sounded different, this time Almost as if the voice wasn’t in her head, as it always was “Leave me alone,” she growled Surrender, came the dead murmur She glanced up and saw the man’s dead eyes staring at her The first curtain of cold rain, billowing in the wind, felt like the icy fingers of spirits caressing her face Her heart galloped yet faster Her breath caught against her ragged pulls, like silk catching on dry skin With her wide-eyed gaze locked on the dead soldier’s face, she pushed with her feet, scuttling back across the gravel She was being silly She knew she was The man was dead He wasn’t looking at her He couldn’t be His stare was fixed in death, that’s all, like her stringer of dead fish-they weren’t looking at anything Neither was he She was being silly It only seemed he was looking at her But even if the dead eyes were staring at nothing, she would just as soon that they weren’t doing it in her direction Jennsen Beyond, above the sharp rise of granite, the pine trees swayed from side to side in the wind and the bare maple and oak waved their skeletal arms, but Jennsen kept her gaze fixed on the dead man as she listened for the voice The man’s lips were still She knew they would be The voice was in her head His face was still turned toward the trail from where he had fallen to his death She had thought his lifeless sight had been turned in that direction, too, but now his eyes seemed to be turned more toward her Jennsen curled her fingers around the hilt of her knife Jennsen “Leave me be I’ll not surrender.” She never knew what it was that the voice wanted her to surrender Despite going to have to listen to two of them.” Kahlan smiled and sat down, leaning back against the pillar where she had been tied, watching Richard, listening, stroking the ears of Betty’s twin kids Betty watched her two young ones, then, seeing them safe, peered hopefully up at Jennsen Her little tail started wagging in a blur “Betty?” Betty happily jumped up on her, eager for a reunion Jennsen tearfully hugged the goat before standing to face her brother “But why would you not as your ancestors? Why? How can you risk everything in that book?” Richard hooked his thumbs behind his belt and took a deep breath “Life is the future, not the past The past can teach us, through experience, how to accomplish things in the future, comfort us with cherished memories, and provide the foundation of what has already been accomplished But only the future holds life To live in the past is to embrace what is dead To live life to its fullest, each day must be created anew As rational, thinking beings, we must use our intellect, not a blind devotion to what has come before, to make rational choices.” “Life is the future, not the past,” Jennsen whispered to herself, considering all that life now held for her “Where did you ever hear such a thing?” Richard grinned “It’s the Wizard’s Seventh Rule.” Jennsen gazed up at him through her tears “You have given me a future, a life Thank you.” He embraced her, then, and Jennsen suddenly didn’t feel alone in the world She felt whole again It felt so good to be held as she wept with tears for her mother, and tears for the future, for the joy that there was life, and a future Kahlan rubbed Jennsen’s back “Welcome to the family.” When Jennsen wiped her eyes, and laughed at everything and nothing while she used her other hand to scratch Betty’s ears, she saw, then, Tom standing nearby Jennsen ran to him and fell into his arms “Oh, Tom You can’t know how glad I am to see you! Thank you for bringing me Betty.” “That’s me Goat delivery, as promised Turns out that Irma, the sausage lady, only wanted your goat to get herself a kid She has a billy and wanted a young one She kept one and let you have the other two.” “Betty had three?” Tom nodded “I’m afraid that I’ve become very fond of Betty and her two little ones.” “I can’t believe that you did that for me Tom, you’re wonderful.” “My mother always said so, too Don’t forget, you promised to tell Lord Rahl.” Jennsen laughed in delight “I promise! But, how in the world did you ever find me?” Tom smiled and pulled a knife from behind his back Jennsen was astonished to see that it was identical to the one she had “You see,” he explained, “I carry the knife in service to Lord Rahl.” “You do?” Richard asked “I’ve never even met you.” “Oh,” the Mord-Sith said, “Tom, here, is all right, Lord Rahl I can vouch for him.” “Why, thank you, Cara,” Tom said with a twinkle in his eye “And you knew all along, then,” Jennsen asked, “that I was making it all up?” Tom shrugged “I wouldn’t be a proper protector to Lord Rahl if I let such a suspicious person as you roam around, trying to harm, without doing my best to find out what you were up to I’ve kept tabs on you, followed you a goodly part of your journeying “ Jennsen swatted his shoulder “You’ve been spying on me!” “As a protector to Lord Rahl, I had to see what you were up to, and to make sure you didn’t harm Lord Rahl.” “Well,” she said, “I don’t think you were doing a very good job of it then “ “What you mean?” Tom asked with exaggerated indignation “I could have really stabbed him You just stood way over there the whole time, too far away to anything about it.” Tom smiled that boyish grin of his, but this time it was a little more mischievous than usual “Oh, I’d not have let you hurt Lord Rahl.” Tom turned and heaved his knife With blinding speed such as she had never seen, the blade flew across the valley, embedding itself with a thunk in one of the faraway fallen stone pillars Jennsen squinted and saw that it had been driven through something dark She followed Tom, Richard, Kahlan, and the Mord-Sith between towering columns and stone rubble to where the knife was stuck To Jennsen’s astonishment, it had impaled a leather pouch-right through the center being held up by a hand coming from beneath the huge section of fallen stone “Please,” came a muffled voice from under the rock, “please let me out I’ll pay you I can pay I have my own money.” It was Oba The rock had fallen on him when he ran It had landed on boulders that kept the main section of stone, big enough that twenty men couldn’t have joined hands around it, from collapsing to the ground, leaving a tiny space, trapping the man alive under the tons of rock Tom pulled his knife from the soft stone and retrieved the leather pouch He waved it in the air “Friedrich!” he called toward the wagon A man sat up “Friedrich! Is this yours?” Jennsen was astonished yet again, in this astonishing day, to see Friedrich Gilder, the husband of Althea, climb down from the wagon and make his way over to them “That’s mine,” he said He looked under the rock “You have more.” After a moment, the hand began passing out more leather and cloth purses “There, you have all my money Let me out, now.” “Oh,” Friedrich said, “I don’t think I could lift that rock Especially not for the man who is responsible for the death of my wife.” “Althea died?” Jennsen asked in shock “I’m afraid so My sunshine has gone from my life.” “I’m so sorry,” she whispered “She was a good woman.” Friedrich smiled “Yes, she was.” He pulled a small smooth stone from his pocket “But she left me this, and that much is a pleasure.” “Isn’t that odd,” Tom said in wonder He fished around in his pocket until he came up with something He opened his hand to reveal a small smooth stone sitting in his palm “I have one of those, too I always carry it as a good-luck charm.” Friedrich eyed him suspiciously He grinned at last “She has smiled on you, too, then.” “I can’t breathe,” came a muffled voice from under the rock “Please, it hurts I can’t move Let me out.” Richard held his hand out toward the rock There came a grinding sound and a sword floated from under the rock He bent and pulled his scabbard out, dragging the baldric out behind He wiped the dust off and placed the baldric over his shoulder, the scabbard at his hip The sword was magnificent, a proper weapon for the Lord Rahl Jennsen saw the gleaming gold word “TRUTH” on the hilt “You faced all those soldiers, and you didn’t even have your sword,” Jennsen said “I guess your magic was better defense.” Richard smiled as he shook his head “My ability works through need and anger With Kahlan taken, I had plenty of need, and a ready rage.” He lifted the hilt clear of the scabbard until she could again see the word spelled out in gold “This weapon works all the time.” “How did you know where we were?” Jennsen asked him “How did you know where Kahlan was?” Richard burnished a thumb over the single gold word on the hilt of his sword “My grandfather gave me this King Oba, there, stole it when, with the Keeper’s help, he captured Kahlan This sword is rather special I have a connection to it; I can sense where it is The Keeper no doubt induced Oba to take it in order to entice me here.” “Please,” Oba called, “I can’t breathe.” “Your grandfather?” Jennsen asked, ignoring Oba’s distress, his weeping “You mean, Wizard Zorander?” Richard’s whole face softened with a splendid grin “You’ve met Zedd, then He’s wonderful, isn’t he?” “He tried to kill me,” Jennsen muttered “Zedd?” Richard scoffed “Zedd’s harmless.” “Harmless? He-” The Mord-Sith, Cara, poked at Jennsen with the red rod she had-the Agiel “What are you doing?” Jennsen asked “Stop that.” “That doesn’t anything to you?” “No,” Jennsen said, scowling “No more than it did when Nyda did it.” Cara’s eyebrow went up “You’ve met Nyda?” She looked up at Richard “And she can still walk I’m impressed.” “She’s immune to magic,” Richard said “That’s why your Agiel won’t work on her, either.” Cara, with a sly smile, looked over at Kahlan “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Kahlan asked “She might just be able to solve our little problem,” Cara said, her wicked grin growing “Now, I suppose,” Richard said in ill humor, “you’re going to have her touch it, too.” “Well,” Cara said defensively, “someone has to You don’t want me to it again, you?” “No! “ “What are you three talking about?” Jennsen asked “We have some urgent problems,” Richard said “If you’d like to help, I think you just might have the special talent it takes to get us out of a serious bind.” “Really? You mean you want me to go with you?” “If you’re willing,” Kahlan said She leaned on Richard, looking like she was at the end of her strength “Tom,” Richard said, “might we-” “Of course!” Tom said, dashing over to offer his arm to Kahlan “Come on over I have some nice blankets in back where you can lay down-just ask Jennsen, they’re real comfortable I’ll drive you back up the easy way.” “That would be much appreciated,” Richard said “It’s just about dark We’d better stay here for the night and ride out as soon as it’s light enough Hopefully, before it gets too hot.” “The rest of them will want to sit back there with the Mother Confessor, I expect,” Tom whispered to Jennsen “If you don’t mind, you could ride up on the seat with me.” “First I want to know something-the truth, now,” Jennsen said “If you’re a defender to Lord Rahl, what would you have done, standing over there, if I had harmed Lord Rahl?” Tom looked down at her with a serious expression “Jennsen, if I really thought that you would or could, I’d have put this knife in you before you had the chance.” Jennsen smiled “Good I’ll ride with you, then My horse is up there,” she said pointing up past the Pillars of Creation “I’ve become good friends with Rusty.” Betty bleated at the sound of the horse’s name Jennsen laughed and scratched Betty’s fat middle “You remember Rusty?” Betty bleated that she did as her kids frolicked near by In the distance behind, Jennsen could hear the murdering Oba Rahl demanding to be let out She stopped and looked back, realizing that he, too, was a half brother A very evil one “I’m sorry I thought such terrible things about you,” she said, looking up at Richard He smiled as he held Kahlan close with one arm, and then pulled Jennsen close with the other “You used your head when confronted with the truth I couldn’t ask for any more than that.” The weight of the rock that had fallen was slowly crushing the sandstone boulders holding up the pillar trapping Oba It was only a matter of hours until Oba was crushed to death in his inescapable prison, or, if not, until he died of thirst After such a defeat, the Keeper wasn’t going to reward Oba with any help The Keeper would have eternity to make Oba suffer for failure Oba was a killer Jennsen suspected that Richard Rahl had no shred of mercy for someone like that, or anyone who hurt Kahlan He showed Oba none Oba Rahl would be buried forever with the Pillars of Creation Chapter 61 in the morning, Tom gave them a ride out among the towering Pillars of Creation The view in the early morning, with the sun throwing long shadows and lending striking colors to the landscape, was spectacular It was a sight that no one else had ever come out of the valley to report Rusty was happy to see Jennsen, and turned positively frisky when she saw Betty and her two kids Jennsen, with Richard and Kahlan at her side, went into the squat building and discovered that Sebastian, unable to reconcile his beliefs and his feelings, had granted Jennsen her last wish He had taken all the mountain fever roses he’d had in the tin He sat dead at the table Jennsen, sitting beside Tom, listened to Richard and Kahlan explain the whole story of how they came to be together Jennsen could hardly believe that he was so much different than she had ever thought His mother, having been raped by Darken Rahl, had run away with Zedd to protect Richard Richard grew up far away in Westland, not knowing anything at all about D’Hara, or the House of Rahl, or magic Richard had ended the evil rule of Darken Rahl Kahlan, having been hunted by real quads, had killed their commander With Richard as Lord Rahl, there were no more quads Jennsen felt proud and honored, now, that Richard had asked her to keep the knife with the ornate letter “R” on it He said she had earned the right to carry it She intended to keep it and hold sacred its true purpose Now, she truly was a protector, just like Tom As they rode along, Betty stood in the wagon beside Friedrich, with her front hooves up on the seat between Tom and Jennsen, each holding a sleeping little goat Rusty was tied behind, where Betty frequently went back to visit Richard, Kahlan, and Cara rode along at the side Jennsen turned to her brother after having considered what he’d just told her “So, you’re not making that up, then? It really said that about me in that book-The Pillars of Creation?” “It was speaking about those like you: ‘The most dangerous creature walking the world of life is the ungifted child of a Lord Rahl, because they are completely immune to magic Magic can’t harm them, can’t affect them, and even prophecy is blind to them.’ But I guess you turned out to prove the book wrong.” She thought it over Some of it still didn’t make sense to her “I don’t understand why the Keeper was using me Why was his voice in my head?” “Well, I only had time to translate a small bit of the book, and other parts are damaged But, from some of what I did read, I guess that the ungifted child, since he has no magic, is what the book calls a ‘hole in the world,’ “ Richard explained, “so they’re also a hole in the veilmaking you potentially a conduit between the world of life and the world of the dead In order for the Keeper to consume the world of life, he needed such a gateway The need for vengeance was the final key Your surrender to his wishes-when you went out in the woods with the Sisters of the Dark-had to be consummated by you being slain, by you completing the bargain with death by dying.” “So, if anyone had killed me-Sister Perdita, for example-after I went out in the woods with those Sisters of the Dark, wouldn’t that have opened such a gateway?” “No The Keeper needed a protector of the world of life It took the balance to your lack of the gift It took a gifted Rahl-the Lord Rahl, to accomplish such a thing,” Richard said “If I had killed you to save myself, or Kahlan, then the Keeper would have been loosed into this world through the breach created I had to force you to choose life, not death, if you were to live, and if the Keeper was to be kept in the underworld.” “I might have destroyed life,” Jennsen said, shaken at truly understanding how close she’d come to unleashing cataclysmic destruction “I’d not have let you,” Tom said, good-naturedly Jennsen put her hand on his arm, realizing that she had never had feelings before like she had for him The man positively made her heart sing His smile made her life worth living Betty stuck her nose in, wanting attention, and to see her sleeping babies “There is no greater treason to life than delivering the innocent to the Keeper of the Dead,” Cara said “But she didn’t,” Richard said “She used reason to discover the truth, and truth to embrace life.” “You sure know a lot about magic,” Jennsen said to Richard Kahlan and Cara laughed so hard that Jennsen thought they might fall off their horses “I don’t see what’s so funny,” Richard grumbled The two of them laughed all the harder Table of Contents Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Table of Contents Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 ... lines in the lake For once, the lines they tended through holes in the ice had brought them a full stringer The fish were lying dead on the other side of the dead man, where she had dropped them... dead weight Jennsen seized the soldier’s cloak at the shoulder to help Sebastian moved his hold to the cloak at the other shoulder and together they dragged the weight of the man, who loomed as dangerous... Sebastian tugged the straps of the pack down off the arms He unstrapped the short sword and set it aside He pulled off the weapons belt and tossed it atop the sword “Nothing too unusual in the pack,”