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CHAPTER 1

There is darkness,” the boy said

Richard frowned, not sure that he had understood the whispered words He glanced back over his shoulder at the concern on Kahlan’s face She didn’t look to have understood theany more than he had

The boy lay on a tattered carpet placed on the bare ground just outside a tent covered with strings of colorful beads The tightly packed market outside the palace had becoons, and stands Throngs of people who had co the day before flocked to thefrom souvenirs and jewelry to fresh bread and cooked meats, to exotic drinks and potions, to colorful beads

The boy’s chest rose a little with each shallow breath, but his eyes remained closed Richard leaned down closer to the frail child “Darkness?”

The boy nodded weakly “There is darkness all around”

There was, of course, no darkness Streaht played over the crowds of people coursing by the thousands through the haphazard streets between the tents and wagons Richard didn’t think that the boy saw anything of the festive atmosphere all around

The child’s words, on the surface so soft, carried sorim, about another place entirely

From the corner of his eye, Richard saw people slow as they passed, watching the Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor stopped to see an ill boy and hisForthe Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor was a once-in-a-lifetime event, one of many over the last few days, that would be recounted back in their homelands for years to come

Guards of the First File stood not far away, also watching attentively, but they h the market The soldiers wanted to htly, even though there was no real reason to expect any sort of trouble

Everyone was, after all, in a goodprosperity The wedding the day before see, a celebration of a world of possibilities never before iined

Set amid that sunlit exuberance, the boy’s words felt to Richard like a shadow that didn’t belong

Kahlan squatted down beside hi as the Mother Confessor, seeood spirit co them Richard slipped his hand under the boy’s bony shoulders and sat him up a little as Kahlan lifted a waterskin up to the boy’s lips

“Can you take just a sip?”

The boy didn’t seenored her offer and the waterskin “I’m alone,” he said in a frail voice “So alone”

The words sounded so forlorn that they moved Kahlan to reach out in silent compassion and touch the boy’s knobby shoulder

“You’re not alone,” Richard assured the boy in a voice loom of such words “There are people here with you Your mother is here”

Behind closed eyelids, the boy’s eyes rolled and darted, as if looking for so in the darkness

“Why have they all left me?”

Kahlan laid a hand gently on the boy’s heaving chest “Left you?”

The boy, lost in some inner vision, moaned and whined His head tossed from side to side “Why have they left me alone in the cold and dark?”

“Who left you?” Richard asked, concentrating in an effort to be sure he could hear the boy’s soft words “Where did they leave you?”

“I have had dreahter

Richard frowned at the odd change of subject “What kind of dreams?”

Disoriented confusion returned to haunt the boy’s words “Why have I had dreams?”

The question sounded to Richard like it was directed inward and didn’t call for an answer Kahlan tried anyway

“We don’t—”