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Richard tried not to believe him, let his face show nothing. “A brave boast. But a lie, nonetheless. In one week, you are going to die.”
Rahl raised his eyebrows. “I speak the truth. You have been betrayed. The same one who has betrayed you to me has also betrayed the box to me. It will be here in a few days.”
“I don’t believe you,” Richard said flatly.
Darken Rahl licked his fingertips and turned, walking around the circle of white sand. “No? Let me show you something.”
Richard followed him to a wedge of white stone upon which sat a flat slab of granite held up by two short fluted pedestals. In the center of the slab sat two of the boxes of Orden. One was ornately jeweled like the one Richard
had seen before. The other was as black as the night stone, its surface a void in the light of the room: the box itself, its protective covering removed.
“Two of the boxes of Orden,” Rahl announced, holding his hand out to them. “Why would I want the book? The book would be useless to me without the third box. You had the third box. The one who betrayed you told me so. If the box were not on its way, why would I need the book? I would instead cut you open to get the location of the box.”
Richard shook with anger. “Who betrayed me and the box? Tell me the name.”
“Or what? Or you will cut me open and read the name on my guts? I will not betray the name of one who has helped me. You are not the only one with honor.”
Richard didn’t know what to believe. Rahl was right about one thing. He wouldn’t need the book if he didn’t have all three boxes. Someone really had betrayed him. It was impossible, but it must be true.
“Just kill me,” Richard said in a weak voice, turning away. “I’m not going to tell you. You might as well cut me open.”
“First you must convince me you are telling the truth. You could be deceiving me that you really know the whole book. You may have read just the first page, and burned the rest, or simply be inventing what you have told me of it.”
Richard folded his arms and looked back over his shoulder. “And what possible reason could I have for wanting you to believe me?”
Rahl shrugged. “I thought you cared about this Confessor. Kahlan. I had thought you cared what happened to her. You see, if you can’t convince me that you are telling the truth, then I will have to cut her open, and have a look at her entrails, see if they have anything to say about this.”
Richard glared. “That would be the biggest mistake you could make. You need her to confirm the truth of the book. If you harm her, you destroy your chance.”
Rahl shrugged. “So you say. How would I know you really do know what the book says? It could even be that this is the manner in which she will confirm the truth.”
Richard said nothing, his mind racing in a thousand directions at once. Think of the solution, he told himself, not the problem.
“How did you get the covering off that box, without the book?”
“The Book of Counted Shadows is not the only source of information about the boxes. There are other places that are of aid to me.” He looked down at the dark box. “It took a full day, and every talent I have, to get the covering off.” He looked back up, lifting an eyebrow. “It’s held on with magic, you know. But I did it, and I will be able to do it to the other two.”
It was discouraging that Rahl had managed to get the covering off. To open a box, the covering had to be removed. Richard had hoped that without the book, Rahl wouldn’t be able to figure out how to remove the covers, and not be able to open a box. That hope was now lost.
Richard stared blankly at the jeweled box. “Page twelve of the Book of Counted Shadows. Under the heading Shedding the Covers, it says: The covering on the boxes may be removed by anyone with the knowledge, not only the one who has put them in play.” Richard reached out and lifted the jeweled box off the granite. “Page seventeen, third paragraph down on the page. If not, however, in the hours of darkness, but in the hours of the sun, the covering may be removed from the second box in the following manner. Hold the box where the sun may touch it, and face north. If there be clouds, hold the box where the sun would touch it if they were not present, but face the west.” Richard held the box up in the late-day sunlight. “Turn the box that the small end with the blue stone may face the quadrant with the sun. The yellow stone is to face up.” Richard turned the box. “With the second finger of the right hand on the yellow stone in the center of the top, place the thumb of the right hand on the clear stone in the corner of the bottom.” Richard grasped the box as directed. “Place the first finger of the left hand on the blue stone on the side facing away, the thumb of the left hand on the ruby stone of the side closest.” Richard placed his fingers so. “Clear your mind of all thought, and in its place, put nothing but the image of white with a square of black in its center. Pull the two hands apart, taking the covering away with them.”
As Rahl watched, Richard cleared his mind, pictured white with black in the center, and pulled. The cover made a clicking sound, and came apart. He held the box just over the granite and pulled the cover away as if he were putting an egg in a frying pan. Two equally black boxes sat side by side, seeming as if they would suck the light from the room.
“Remarkable,” Rahl breathed. “And you know every part of the book this well?”
“Every word.” Richard glared. “What I have told you will be of no aid in removing the third cover, however. They each come off differently.”
Rahl gave a little wave of his hand. “No matter. I will get it off.” He held an elbow in one hand and touched a finger of the other to his chin, absorbed in thought. “You are free to go.”
Richard frowned. “What do you mean, I am free to go? Aren’t you going to try to get the book out of me? Kill me?”
Rahl shrugged. “It would do me no good. The ways I have of getting information from you would damage your brain. The information would be disjointed. If it were anything else, I would be able to put the pieces together, and figure it out, but I can see the book is too specific for that. The information would only end up being spoiled, and of no use to me. You, therefore, are of no use to me right now, so you may go.”
Richard was worried. There was something more to this. “Just like that? I may go? You must know I will try to stop you.”
Rahl licked his fingers. His eyes came up. “I’m not worried about anything you could do. But you must be back here in one week, when I open the boxes, if you care at all what happens to everyone.”
Richard narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean, if I care what happens to everyone?”
“In one week, on the first day of winter, I’m going to open one of the boxes. I have been able to learn, from sources other than the Book of Counted Shadows, the same sources that told me how I might remove the cover, how to tell which box it is that would kill me. Beyond that, I will have to guess. If I open the right one, I will rule unchallenged. If I open the other, the world will be destroyed.”
“You would let that happen?”
Darken Rahl’s eyebrows lifted as he leaned toward Richard. “One world, or no world. That is the way it shall be.”
“I don’t believe you. You don’t know which box will destroy you.”
“Even if I were lying, I would still have two chances in three of having my way. You would have only one in three of it working out in your favor. Not good odds, for you. But, I’m not lying. Either the world is destroyed, or I rule it. You must decide which you would rather have happen. If you don’t help me, and I open the wrong box, I will be destroyed, along with everyone else, including those you care for. If you don’t help me, and I open the one I want, then I will turn Kahlan over to Constance, for training. A good long training. You will watch the whole thing before I kill you. Then Kahlan will bear me a son, an heir. A son who will be a Confessor.”
Richard went cold with pain worse than any Denna had given him. “You are trying to make me an offer of some sort?”
Rahl nodded. “If you come back in time, and help me, you will be permitted to go about your life. I will let you be.”
“What about Kahlan?”
“She will live here, in the People’s Palace, and be treated like a queen. She will have every comfort any woman could have; the kind of life a Confessor is used to. Something you could never provide her. She will live a life of peace and safety, and she will bear me the Confessor son I wish. Either way, she will bear me a son. That is my choice. Your choice is how: as Constance’s pet, or as a queen. So you see? I think you will be back. And if I am wrong…” He shrugged. “One world, or no world.”
Richard could hardly breathe. “I don’t think you know which box will destroy you.”
“You will
have to decide what you will believe. I feel no need to convince you.” His expression darkened. “Choose wisely, my young friend. You may not like the choices I have given you, but you will like the results of not helping me even less. Not all choices in life are ones you would like, but those are all that are presented to you. Sometimes you must choose what is better for the ones you love than yourself.”
“I still don’t think you know which box will kill you,” Richard whispered.
“Think what you will, but ask yourself if you are willing to bet Kahlan’s future with Constance on what you think. Even if you were right, it still gives you only one chance in three.”
Richard felt empty, devastated. “Am I free to go now?”
“Well, there are a few other matters you may want to know about.”
Richard felt himself abruptly paralyzed, as if invisible hands were gripping him. He couldn’t move a muscle. Darken Rahl reached into Richard’s pocket and took out the leather pouch with the night stone. Richard fought against the force that held him, but could not move. Rahl dumped the night stone in his hand. He held it up in his palm, smiling.
Shadow things began to materialize. They gathered around Rahl, their numbers growing. Richard wished he could back away, but he couldn’t move.
“Time to go home, my friends.”
The shadows began swirling around Rahl, faster and faster, until they were a blur of gray. A howl rose as they were sucked into the night stone in a whirl of shadows and shapes. Silence. They were gone. The night stone turned to ash in Rahl’s palm. He blew on it and the ash puffed into the air.
“The Old One has been checking on you, using the night stone to find where you are. The next time he searches, he is going to have a very unpleasant experience. He is going to find himself in the underworld.”
