"My Lord." "My Lord, we've done it." "We've located the Third Box of Orden." "Where?" "The tracer cloud has come to rest over the Plains of Morrow." "So close to the People's Palace." "The Wizard is being brazen." "Perhaps it's some kind of ploy." "No doubt Zeddicus is using magic to protect the box somehow." "Send a battalion to the Plains of Morrow." "Tell them to find the box at any cost." "Yes, My Lord." "At once." "Egremont, do you remember your D'Haran history?" "My Lord?" "The Battle of the Plains of Morrow, turning point in the Great Wizard War, 3,000 years ago." "I studied it in my youth, My Lord." "But do you know why, to this day, the grass on the Plains of Morrow is always green, in all seasons, through blizzard and drought?" "Because it grows in the bones and blood of the Wizards massacred in the battle." "Zeddicus must be using their magic to shield the box somehow." "Whoever finds the Box of Orden will be honored and rewarded by Lord Rahl himself." "Would anyone else like to walk away from their duty?" "Find the Box of Orden." "For Darken Rahl, and for D'Hara!" "What are you doing?" "Oh, I thought you wanted me to keep you sharp." "I didn't say kill me." "If I got that close to killing you, apparently you need the practice." "I leave for a fortnight, and you two are at each other's throats." "Zedd." "One more day, and we were gonna come looking for you." " Where have you been?" " Disposing of the box." " Which is, at long last, safely hidden." " Where?" "Under Rahl's nose, surrounded by seven concentric walls of lethal magic." "Eventually his lordship will run out of men to fling against my fortifications, and go after the box himself." " And when he does..." " He'll wish he hadn't." "Denna." "My Lord." "Why do you make me hurt you like this?" "I'm sorry I failed you, My Lord." "So you have claimed many times." "The fact remains, you let the Seeker slip from your grasp." "I deserve my punishment." "And more." "Release me, and I'll show you such pleasure that all will be forgiven." "Pleasure, alas, must wait." "I have learned the exact location of the Third Box of Orden, but my men have failed to retrieve it." "Send me." "I will succeed." "I should never have sent men to do a Mord-Sith's job." "But you would not want to disappoint me again, Denna." "I will return with the box." "Yes." "But you won't be able to do it alone." "First you need to capture the one person that I fear most in all the world." "The Seeker will not escape me again." "No, no, no." "Someone far more fearsome than he." "Mother." "Hello, Jennsen." "I'm sorry I had to hurt your mother, but I'm here on extremely important business." "Important to the peace and the happiness of the whole world, and I need to be sure that I can count on your help." "Let her go." "Please." "First, I need you to do something for me." " And for Lord Rahl." " Jennsen, no." "Whatever she asks, don't..." "I really hope you won't make me kill your mother, Jennsen." "Somewhere in this field is a jeweled box." "Find it." "Why do I need a shovel?" "You can see it?" "The Wizard made it invisible." "It's been right here all along." "Bring it to me." "These men, what happened to them?" "Killed by the Wizard's magic when they tried to retrieve the box." "Well, then how am I supposed to get it?" "You never told her." "Told me what?" "Forgive me, Jennsen." "I was hoping you would never have to know." "Allow me, Jennsen, to be the one to show you how very far from ordinary you really are." "Once every generation or so, a child is born upon whom magic has no effect whatsoever." "You're a very special girl, Jennsen." "Now get me the box." "Let my mother go." "When she has a head start, I'll give you the box." "Do you think you're in a position to negotiate with me?" "No!" "Take it." "Please." "I'm sorry." "What is that?" "A magical alarm, in case someone, somehow, managed to get the box." "How could anyone have broken through your magic?" "Brilliant." "The Wizard put a signal spell on it." "No doubt he's already racing this way with the Seeker and the Confessor." "I did what you wanted." "Please, let us go." "Oh, no, I can't let you go, Jennsen." "No, I need you to carry that box to the People's Palace yourself." "I can't get it there safely without you." "Jennsen, no." "Don't help her." "Let her kill me." "No!" "Look at them, Jennsen." "Look." "Did the Wizard give a thought to the innocent men he would brutally slaughter?" "To their fatherless children?" "No." "No." "He thought only of protecting the treasure which he stole from Darken Rahl, who seeks only to spread peace throughout the Midlands..." "She's lying to you." "Ask yourself, Jennsen:" "Which of us is really the liar here?" "Why has your mother hidden your powers from you all these years?" "Why has she hidden you like some dirty, shameful secret?" "Darken Rahl has dreamt of universal peace ever since he was a little boy." "But now the Seeker has returned to the Midlands, and is relentlessly trying to destroy that dream." "You never told me any of this." "But Lord Rahl knows that the Seeker is only a puppet dancing on strings jerked this way and that by a Wizard." "In his wisdom and his mercy," "Lord Rahl sent me to offer the Seeker a chance to stand at his side and declare peace throughout the territories." "And do you know how the Seeker greeted this offer?" "He ran me through with the Sword of Lies, and left me for dead." " You told me the Seeker was a hero." " He is a hero." "Why did you lie to me about who I am?" "You've seen what a monster this woman is." "How can you believe one word she says?" "I don't know who the monster is." "I don't know anything anymore." "No." "Jennsen?" "Get it back!" "There." "No!" "I underestimated you, Jennsen." "But not as tragically as you have underestimated me." "Please stop!" "I'm the one who threw the box." "Punish me!" "No!" "Denna." "She's alive." "She's holding the Agiel, and it's not hurting her." " How can she do that?" " Because she is pristinely ungifted." "Stay back." "That's the other side of your gift." "Not only can't you be harmed by magic, but you can't use it, either." "You have a lot to learn about yourself, Jennsen." "The pristinely ungifted are entirely immune to magic, but they rarely survive past childhood." "Why not?" " For generations, the House of Rahl has found them and murdered them at birth." "Why?" "Because Rahl's magic can't hurt them or enslave them." "What would be more dangerous to him?" "Mistress!" "I have the box." "Now bind her hands to it and bind them both to the horse." "And hurry." "If the Wizard and his friends haven't already found us, they soon will." "Defend the box." "You look like you've seen a ghost." "Run." "Taralyn?" "Mother!" "Oh, no." "No, no, no." "Let me go." " I have to help my mother." "We will." "We will." "As soon as we get the box as far away from Denna as we can." "If it will save my mother I'll give it to her." "If Darken Rahl gets this box, we'd all be his slaves, everybody in the world." "And your mother would be as good as dead anyway." "I don't even know you." "Why should I listen to you?" "Because he's the Seeker." "If you're the Seeker, then that woman Denna is torturing is your mother too." "I was born three years after the massacre at Brennidon." "My mother, our mother, held me in her arms for eight days after I was born, because she was afraid I would be taken away from her like you were." "She's still afraid to let me out of her sight." "Every year, she lights candles for your birthday, imagines what you look like, how tall you are, if you have freckles." "Zedd, you knew my mother." "Could it really be her?" "Yes." "Then..." "Then what?" "I'm not here to fight." "I'm here to deliver a message from Mistress Denna." "She holds the girl's mother at the Cave of Sorrows." "You bring the box or she dies." "You have until nightfall." "We have to go." "Now." "I'm sorry, child, but we cannot forfeit the final Box of Orden for one person's life." "That's easy for you to say." "She's not your mother." "No." "She's my daughter." "Yes." "I am your grandfather." "And apparently yours as well, child." "All this time, and you never told me?" "I was afraid that someday you might have to choose between the mission and family." "I never wanted to put you in that position." "Did you know?" " I wanted to tell you." " I asked her not to." "What am I to you two?" "Just a pair of hands to hold the Sword of Truth, and fulfill your precious Prophecy?" "Who's our father?" "I don't know." "I don't even know if we have the same one." "Every time I tried to talk about it, Mother got so angry or sad, so I finally stopped asking." " I'm going after her." " Richard, wait." "For what?" "There's no time." "I'll give Denna the box," "I'll get Taralyn safe, and then I'll follow Denna, get the box back before she delivers it to Rahl." "And if you don't catch her in time?" "How can you just stand there, and let your own daughter be tortured by a Mord-Sith?" "Your mother gave up her first-born child for a reason." "She knew that you were born to stop Rahl from enslaving the world." "She knew that you had to survive, no matter what." "If you let Rahl get the box, then your mother's sacrifice will have been for nothing." "That's not gonna happen." "I can't let you leave with the box." "What are you gonna do?" "Cook me with Wizard's Fire?" "I would never hurt you." "I'm just going to stop you." "Come on." "You can't stop Richard if I'm with him, can you?" "You can come with us or you can stay." "Either way, we're going to save our mother." " Are you all right?" "Here." " Yeah." "Yeah." "It's sprained." "You're not going anywhere until I bind it." "Let me help." "Your magic can't heal her." "She must think her grandfather a cold-hearted bastard." "Someday she'll understand." "What if there is no someday, Kahlan?" "You have to convince Richard to stop this madness." "You're the one who's always saying we have to trust the Seeker's instincts." "This is different." "This is his mother." "When he sees her being tortured," "I fear he's going to throw the box to Denna just to make her stop." "Are you worried that Richard's going to do that, or that you are?" "Richard, Denna's going to be ready for us." "She's going to have more soldiers." "How can we fight her?" "Over the past few months I've been attacked by flying monsters, tracked by bounty hunters, tortured by Denna, and beaten bloody by Darken Rahl himself, and I'm still here, all in one piece." "I think." "I see it now." " What?" " When you smile, right around the eyes you look just like our mother." "Try that." "If the box can do what you say, give Darken Rahl power over the whole world, then I don't think our mother would want us to trade it for her life." "Can you think of another way?" "If this cave has some kind of magic around it," "I can get through that." "She'd be ready for that." "There might be a way." "But it would all depend on you." "Anything." "Where is the box?" "I don't have it with me." "Do you think I'm playing games?" "Bring it to me or I kill her." "Go ahead." "Then go back to Rahl and explain to him how you failed him." "I'm guessing that whatever punishment you endured for letting me escape is going to seem like a pinprick compared to what he'll do to you this time." "You won't let an innocent person die." "I'm not as soft-hearted as I used to be, Denna." "Not since I met you." "So I will let this woman die in a heartbeat if it keeps Rahl from getting all three boxes." "But there's a way we can both get what we want." "I'm listening." "First, we put down our weapons." "The only bargain I'll consider is one that ends with me handing the Third Box of Orden to Darken Rahl." "I'll give you the third box." "After you help us steal the other two." "Impossible." "You know your way in and out of the People's Palace, don't you?" "I know the place better than he does, but I am not foolish enough to try stealing the boxes." "I'm not asking you to." "But if you know the palace as well as you say, then you know about all the magical barriers Rahl uses to protect it." "You believe the pristinely ungifted one can get past Rahl's magical barriers." "No!" "Well, it's suicide, but if you hand me the box, I'll draw a treasure map for Jennsen." "No." "You draw the map, Jennsen brings back the first two boxes, then we give you the third." "And what if Rahl suspects that I helped you?" "If you don't return with the third box, he's going to kill you anyway." "So I'd say it's a risk worth taking." "Once you have all the boxes, how do I know you'll give me the third?" "Because you have Jennsen's mother." "This woman is very important to you, isn't she, Richard?" "Like you said, I'd rather not let an innocent person die." "Do we have a deal?" "Shall we seal it with a kiss?" "Kill me, and I can never revive her." "I'll give her the Breath of Life if you bring me the Third Box of Orden by the time the rising sun is full in the sky." "You two stay here and protect the box." "Jennsen and I go to the palace." "Nothing has changed." "Everything has changed." "Denna has proven, as if proof were needed, that she cannot be trusted." "You said if Darken Rahl got all three boxes, he'd have power over everyone." "Could anyone who had the boxes use that magic?" "Yes." "Whoever puts all three boxes together has instant and absolute control over everybody." "What he commands is done." "If I got the other two boxes out of the palace," "Richard could put them together and command Denna to give our mother this Breath of Life." "The magic of Orden is too dangerous." "It would intoxicate whoever wielded it, corrupt him." "Then we go ahead with the deal." "No." "We grieve for Taralyn and get Jennsen and the box as far away from here as possible." "Denna still needs us as much as we need her." "She knows she won't get the box if we don't get Taralyn alive." "You would send your sister into the belly of the beast?" "You would leave your daughter to die?" "Yes." "Yes, I would." "Jennsen, dear one." "For 23 years I built walls against the pain of losing your mother." "And now, with you before me, all those walls are crumbling." "I've only just found out I have a granddaughter." "I can't bear the thought of losing her too." "You won't lose me, Grandfather." "The People's Palace is surrounded by a tree line that acts as a magical barrier." "Only those who have been spelled by Rahl's sorcerers can pass in and out of the barrier without being instantly killed by it." "Richard will have to wait for you on the other side." "There will be alarms, but you won't set them off." "Just make sure the archers patrolling the battlements don't see you." "They shoot on sight." "There's a secret entrance on the south end of the palace that leads to an escape tunnel." "As Lord Rahl's personal bodyguards, only the Mord-Sith know of its existence." "You'll see the opening, but make sure no one is watching you, because what they will see is someone walking through a solid wall." "Follow the tunnel to the staircase." "At the top is an archway guarded by a lone sentry." "He passes every 90 seconds." "Wait until he goes by, and then run straight ahead, to the entrance to Rahl's Ceremonial Chamber." "Rahl trusts no one, so there are no living guards watching over the chamber itself." "It's protected only by magic." "The final magical shield, the one closest to the boxes, allows only Rahl himself to get through." "Of course, you're the exception." "But be careful." "Even if you make it past all the shields and guards," "Darken Rahl has an uncanny ability to sense when things are awry." "Lord Rahl, Mistress Denna has sent word by Journey Book." "She'll arrive by nightfall tomorrow with the Third Box of Orden." "Tell her she'll be greeted with the strumming of harps and the blast of trumpets." "You doubt her, My Lord?" "I doubt the very sun at noon, Egremont." "Zedd, Kahlan, we have the boxes!" "Thank the Spirits." "I was caught in the room with Rahl." "I was this close to him." "He picked up the boxes." "He held them, he caressed them." "Imagine his surprise the next time he drops in to play with his toys." "Look." "We have to get the third box to Denna." "It's right here." "Welcome back, Seeker." "You've succeeded, of course?" "I thought we had a deal." "I've changed my mind." "I've decided I want all three boxes." "Now." "We don't have all three." "Only two." "We've hidden the third." "Tell me where it is, or I'll kill your loved ones one by one." "And then it'll just be you and me." "Do you think I would ever let you have the power of Orden?" " At any price?" " Yes." "Because you'd rather I had the power than Rahl." "I'd treat you kindly." "I'd give you whatever you wanted." "Or I can take away what you care about most." " Take the Confessor first." "Wait!" "At least grant me the governorship of the lands west of the River Drun, where I can live with my friends in peace." "What better governor could I ask for than the Seeker?" "Then I'll show you where the third box is." "No!" "Kill them all!" "Stop!" "Drop your weapons." "All of you." "Take us to our mother." "Yes, My Lord." "The sun isn't up yet." "You said you could revive her." "That was before I was under your command, My Lord." "I lied to you." "I knew she'd never last until sunrise." "I'm sorry, My Lord." "I failed you." "Mother." "Mother." "No." "Richard, I am so sorry." "What are we going to do with her?" "Kill her." "Slowly." "If that is your wish, My Lord." "Richard, no." "Harder." "The way of the Seeker is not vengeance." "Not vengeance." "Justice." "Are you sure you can tell one from the other?" "You gave me the third box." "To stop Denna from killing us all." "Why should it stop there?" "Don't you see what happens now?" "I go to the People's Palace." "I order Rahl to fall on my Sword." "I punish the guilty, liberate the Midlands." "The war is over." "I've won." "Not this way." "You'd only become the very tyrant you would have killed..." "Silence, old man!" "You've all killed innocent people." "And now you will kill each other." "Pick up your weapons and fight to the death." "Zedd." "Anyone left standing, burn them to ash." "Yes, My Lord." "Jennsen, no." "I may have only just met you, brother, but I know this isn't you." "Don't touch the boxes." "Magic doesn't work on me." "Not even the magic of Orden." "No!" "What did I do?" " What did I do?" "It wasn't you." "It was the power of Orden." "Richard." "Finish me off before Darken Rahl finds me." "No." "Enough killing." "Please." "Leaving me to Darken Rahl is worse than killing me." "Then I suggest you run." "You can't come with us, Jennsen." "It's too dangerous." "Now that I've found you, I wanna stay with you, help you." "And so you shall, child." "In your possession, the Boxes of Orden can never be found by magical means." "But since they should always remain separated, you'll take two and we'll protect the third." "Where will I keep them?" "We have friends in the resistance who will take you in." "Friends we would trust with our own lives." "And when all this is over, we'll come see you again." "And be together." "As a family." "I'll escort you to our friends, while Richard and Kahlan try to find out where Rahl is going next." "Because rest assured, he won't be staying in the palace." "May the Spirits light your way through the land of shadow to the halls of eternal peace." "She brought us all together in the end." "Come closer." "Closer." "Tell me, what do you see?" "The pristinely ungifted one is on their side now." "Issue a proclamation." "Let it be known throughout the Three Territories that until the Wizard, the Seeker, the Mother Confessor, and all three Boxes of Orden are brought to me, the people will feel my wrath one village at a time." " Zedd." " Yes?" " What I did..." " That wasn't you." "Man doesn't possess the power of Orden, so much as the power of Orden possesses the man." "No." "It was me." "I felt that anger." "That hatred." "I still do." "If you didn't, you'd be a statue, not a man." "We all have dark desires, yearnings for vengeance." "And you must remember how those feelings stirred your blood, because what marks the line between good and evil is the choice not to act on them." "A choice you've always made since I've known you." "And I've known you since the day you were born." " Can I call you Gramps?" " Not if you value your life." "Do you remember once when I little," "I climbed the wall of your garden and stole some apples from the big tree?" "And you came outside, and I thought for sure the crazy chicken man of Blackthorn Hill would eat me for lunch." "You just stood there, staring." "I was drinking in the sight of my beautiful grandson." "You ran off so quickly, over the wall and down the hill." "So much time lost, Richard." "So much left unsaid." "Never even got to talk to my mother." "Then let me tell you about her."