Naked Empire

Je

Richard surveyed Je

"You would bear offspring like you."

Je

"Even then and every time," Richard said with quiet certitude. "You are a broken link in the chain of the gift. According to the book, once the line of all those born with the spark of the gift, including those with the gift as it is in me, going back thousands of years, going back forever, is broken, it is broken for all time. It ca

"That's why the Lord Rahl always hunted down ungifted offspring and eliminated them. You would be the genesis of something the world has never had before: those untouched by the gift. Every offspring of every descendant would end the line of the spark of the gift in everyone they married. The world, mankind, would be changed forever.

"This is the reason the book calls those like you 'pillars of Creation. »

The silence seemed brittle.

"And that's what this place is called, too," Tom said as he pointed a thumb back over his shoulder, seeming to feel the need to say something into the quiet, "the Pillars of Creation." He looked at the faces surrounding the weak light coming from the sputtering lantern. "Seems a strange coincidence that both those like Je

Richard stared off into the darkness toward that terrible place where Kahlan would have died had he made a mistake with the magic involved. "I don't think it's a coincidence. They are co

The book-The Pillars of Creation-describing those born like Je

That war, extinguished three thousand years before, had somehow ignited once again, and was burning uncontrolled through the world. Kahlan feared to think of the central-if inadvertent-part she and Richard had played in making it possible.

Je

Richard let out a tired sigh. "I don't know, yet."

With a finger, Je

"Dirty?" Tom asked, looking hurt to hear her even suggest such a thing.

"Je

"Those like me are also called 'holes in the world. I guess I can see why, now."

Richard leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "I know what it's like to feel regret for how you were born, for what you have, or don't have. I hated being born the way I was-with the gift. But I came to realize how senseless such feelings are, how completely wrong it was to think that way."

"But it's different with me," she said as she pushed at the sand with a finger, erasing the little ruts she'd made with the pebble. "There are others like you-wizards or sorceresses with the gift. Everyone else can at least see colors, as you put it. I'm the only one like this."

Richard gazed at his half sister, a beautiful, bright, ungifted half sister that any previous Lord Rahl would have murdered on the spot, and was overcome with a radiant smile. "Je

Looking up at him, Je

"You would be creating, not destroying," Richard said. "Magic exists.

It ca

Je

"So," Je

"If the thing Cara touched has been altered by someone with the gift, then since you can't see the magic, you might see something we can't see:

what lies beneath that magic."

Je

"I don't know. It may be useful, or it may not, but I want to know what you see-with your special vision-without any suggestion from us."

"If you're so worried about it, why did you leave it? Aren't you afraid someone might come across it and take it?"

"I worry about a lot of things," Richard said.

"Even if it really is something altered by magic and she sees it for what it truly is," Cara said, "that doesn't mean that it still isn't what it seems to us, or that it isn't just as dangerous."

Richard nodded. "At least we'll know that much more about it. Anything we learn might help us in some way."

Cara scowled. "I just want her to turn it back over."

Richard gave her a look designed to keep her from saying anything else about it. Cara huffed, leaned in, and took one of Richard's dried apricots.

She scowled at him as she popped the apricot into her mouth.

As soon as supper was finished, Je

Kahlan thought that Friedrich should be given consideration, because of his age, so she asked him if he'd like to take first watch. First watch was easier than being awakened in the middle of the night to stand watch between stretches of sleep. He smiled his appreciation as he nodded his agreement.

After opening his and Kahlan's bedroll, Richard doused the lantern. The night was sweltering but crystal clear so that, after Kahlan's eyes adjusted, the sweep of stars was enough to see by, if not very well. One of the white twins thought the newly unfurled bedrolls would be a perfect place to romp. Kahlan scooped up the leggy bundle and returned it to its tail-wagging mother.

As she lay down beside Richard, Kahlan saw the dark shape of Je

Richard leaned over and gently kissed Kahlan's lips. "I love you, you know."

"If we're ever alone, Lord Rahl," Kahlan whispered back, "I'd like to have more than a quick kiss."

He laughed softly and kissed her forehead before lying on his side, away from her. She had been expecting an intimate promise, or at least a lighthearted remark.

Kahlan curled up behind him and rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Richard," she whispered, "are you all right?"

It took him longer to answer than she would have liked. "I have a splitting headache."

She wanted to ask what kind of headache, but she didn't want the tiny spark of fear she harbored to gain the glow of credence by voicing it aloud.