“But she is well, now?”
“She’s resting comfortably for now. She still has damage and I will need to finish the healing. What is to come is a painful process of tearing apart tissues that have attached improperly after the attack and then setting them right. I healed those things that were urgent and I put her into a deep sleep so that she could rest more easily.
“Rest will help stabilize her so that her body can heal some of the other things on her own. Rest is a great medicine. Tomorrow, or maybe the next day, when she has a good dose of that medicine and is strong enough to handle it, I will be able to finish.”
“But in the meantime, aren’t those things not yet healed, or attached improperly, a danger to her?”
Shale smiled in a way that said she found his worry endearing but overwrought.
“Lord Rahl, trust me. I know what I’m doing. Everything is under control and proceeding as it needs to.”
When he didn’t seem all that relieved, Shale pressed the flat of her hand to his chest. He felt the warmth of magic meant to reassure him radiating from that hand through his body. While it was a nice gesture, he didn’t appreciate it.
“I swear to you,” Shale said, taking her hand back, “she is past the danger that threatened her life. When she has rested and regained enough strength I will finish it and you will have your beautiful lady back, good as before. All right?”
Richard nodded as he walked off a few paces, letting his fingertips drag over the smooth surface of the eight-sided marble tabletop sitting in the middle of the entryway. The colorful flowers in the three vases in the center lent a calming aroma to the entire room. It reminded him of the outdoors where he had grown up. He took a deep breath of that fragrance and let it out slowly, relieved to have his agony of worry eased somewhat.
“Thank you, Shale. You’ve saved her twice. First, when you alerted me to how careless I was being, and then with the healing.”
As his grandfather had often warned him, peacetime was sometimes more dangerous than war. He had let his guard down. He could just imagine Zedd’s scowl at him being so careless. He vowed not to let it happen again.
“I’m glad I was here to help,” Shale said from behind him.
He looked back over his shoulder, giving her a more critical look. “Your clothes are black, again.”
She knitted her fingers together in front of her as she twisted her mouth, looking up as she thought how to answer what was obviously a question.
“You don’t know much about women’s dress, do you?”
Richard shrugged at the strange question. “I know what I like looking at. But I have a feeling you mean something else.”
She smiled. “Women don’t like wearing the same dress as another woman to an important gathering—or any gathering, for that matter. It is well known that the Mother Confessor wears a white dress. While not the same dress, I still did not want to come before you both in the great hall appearing to disrespect her by also wearing her traditional white.”
Richard was a bit surprised. “I guess you put more thought into it than I would have.”
“That’s because you’re a man.”
“And why did you come here in the first place?”
She was momentarily caught off guard. “You ask strange questions out of the blue, Lord Rahl.”
“I am the Seeker.” He tapped the hilt of his sword. “I carry the Sword of Truth. I ask those things which need asking. So why did you really come here?”
“I told you, I came to offer the loyalty of the Northern Waste to the D’Haran Empire.”
“I’m not in a very good mood, Shale. That’s an excuse. Tell me the real reason you’re here.”
9
Shale sagged a little as she wiped a weary hand back across her face. “I’d prefer not to have to get into it just now, not after what’s happened today, and not after I spent so much time and energy in a difficult healing, but I can see that you aren’t going to be satisfied until you know the truth. I will give you the gist of it, but ask that we discuss it in detail later, after I have had some rest.”
Richard shrugged. “Fair enough.”
“I admit there is more to why I’m here. You say you ask those things which need to be asked. There are things which I need to ask as well. I came for answers to those things.”
“Such as?”
Her bewitching eyes looked up at him from under her brow. “Such as why are the stars not where they belong in the sky? Why are the stars all jumbled up so that I no longer recognize them?”
Richard let out a long sigh. “Oh, that.”
Her look darkened. “Yes, that. I have a feeling that only you could be responsible.”
Richard lifted a hand in a gesture reflecting his discomfort about the subject. “I had to initiate a star shift. It was an act of desperation.”
“I see that you are going to make me chase you round and round and then strangle you until you answer.” She gave him the kind of dangerously sober look that seemed unique to witch women. “What is a star shift, Lord Rahl,” she said slowly and carefully, “and what was the desperation?”
“It had to do with an evil that had festered for thousands of years, and a war that had never really ended. An emperor from that time rose up from the grave, tearing the veil between life and death in the process. He intended to join the underworld and the world of life, foolishly believing he could rule over it all.”
Her mouth opened in surprise. “Combining them would have only destroyed both!”
Richard’s brow lifted. “Glad you grasp the problem. To stop him from finishing what he had already begun to do, I had to use the boxes of Orden for their true purpose—initiating a star shift.”
“Boxes of Orden?”
“Ancient magic, constructed spell and all that,” he said with a dismissive gesture that said that wasn’t the important point.
“And that put this evil spirit back in his grave where he belonged?”
“It did,” Richard said. “It healed the veil and ended the ancient war that had smoldered all that time only to finally reignite. I can’t begin to know how many people died because of that evil man. People we all know and loved died. Too many good souls never had a chance to live their lives because of him. Many more would have died if I hadn’t done something. Everyone would have died. I had to put a stop to it.
“I did it in the only way that could work. It changed our world, I admit that. But I don’t regret what I did. It saved life itself.”
“But how is it possible for the stars to be different?”
“The ancient magic I used was the only thing that had the power to close the breach and stop the worlds of life and death from imploding. It’s a bit like a constructed spell. Once initiated, it runs routines according to its internal protocol. That power, once ignited, ultimately shifted the stars.”
She looked even more upset. “But how could you have unleashed such a—”
“Had I not done as I did we would all be dead right now. Do you understand? Dead. Worse than that, the worlds of life and death would have come together and both would have ceased to exist. Everyone forever would have ceased to exist. We were all out of time. It was either the star shift or no world of life, simple as that. I chose life.
“Some of the changes caused by the star shift are known—such as the stars suddenly being unfamiliar to us. But it altered other things as well. We don’t yet know the extent of the changes.”
She peered up at him in dismay. “Are you sure? There was no other way?”
“None,” he said with finality. “It wasn’t a situation of my choosing. Like I say, it was an act of desperation.”
Shale fell quiet for a time as she looked off, trying to comprehend such a monumental event.