The Omen Machine Read online

  Terry Goodkind

  The Omen Machine

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  There is darkness,” the boy said.

  Chapter 2

  A penny for your future, sir?”

  Chapter 3

  Following Rikka deep into the private, warmly paneled corridors of…

  Chapter 4

  Kharga Trace?” Benjamin asked.

  Chapter 5

  Kahlan watched Zedd pace across the gold and blue carpet…

  Chapter 6

  Well,” Zedd finally said into the hush, “at least you…

  Chapter 7

  As he made his way into the grand hall, Richard…

  Chapter 8

  Not long after Richard had sent the captain to collect…

  Chapter 9

  Richard stepped back to the waiting group of officials, mayors,…

  Chapter 10

  Time itself seemed to stop.

  Chapter 11

  How is she?” Zedd asked when Richard closed the door…

  Chapter 12

  Richard and Zedd followed Nathan into a narrow hallway lit…

  Chapter 13

  Kahlan sat up with a start.

  Chapter 14

  Richard stood when the door opened. Out of the corner…

  Chapter 15

  Out in the corridor, as Ludwig was leaving, Richard spotted…

  Chapter 16

  How’s your hand?” Richard asked.

  Chapter 17

  Kahlan woke to the distinctive sound of Richard’s sword coming…

  Chapter 18

  It was a long journey down to the dungeons, but…

  Chapter 19

  Richard held his tongue. He wasn’t in the mood to…

  Chapter 20

  Kahlan ingratiated herself with the representatives by first laying out…

  Chapter 21

  Everyone inched forward, eager to finally hear what none of…

  Chapter 22

  The room had fallen dead silent. No one dared blink.

  Chapter 23

  Richard closed the double doors behind him as he stepped…

  Chapter 24

  Richard was lost in kissing the soft, sensual curve of…

  Chapter 25

  Out of the corner of her eye Kahlan saw the…

  Chapter 26

  High up in the People’s Palace, Richard and Kahlan, with…

  Chapter 27

  As they ducked, trying to avoid being hit by the…

  Chapter 28

  Richard held the glowing sphere out ahead of him as…

  Chapter 29

  Kahlan looked from Richard’s troubled face to the glowing symbol…

  Chapter 30

  Outside of the Garden of Life hundreds of heavily armed…

  Chapter 31

  Kahlan’s throbbing hand lay in her lap as she sat…

  Chapter 32

  Zedd peered again at the metal strip when Nathan handed…

  Chapter 33

  Looking more concerned than either Zedd or Nathan, Nicci didn’t…

  Chapter 34

  Zedd waved a hand, insisting on being the first one…

  Chapter 35

  Richard turned his attention to Benjamin, standing back out of…

  Chapter 36

  Hannis Arc, working on the tapestry of lines linking constellations…

  Chapter 37

  Mohler did not look up to meet the steady gaze…

  Chapter 38

  Richard yawned. He looked up from the complexities of translating…

  Chapter 39

  As he ran down the service hallway, Richard could smell…

  Chapter 40

  As Richard passed between phalanxes of guards and through the…

  Chapter 41

  Richard couldn’t begin to imagine what it could all mean—…

  Chapter 42

  The door carefully opened a crack in response to his…

  Chapter 43

  Orneta straightened a little, pushing back with a hand braced…

  Chapter 44

  Kahlan woke with a start when she heard the howls.

  Chapter 45

  Kahlan followed close on Richard’s heels as they ran past…

  Chapter 46

  Kahlan tried to follow Richard into the room, but Cara,…

  Chapter 47

  His sword still gripped tightly in his hand, Richard circled…

  Chapter 48

  Richard stood alone, hands clasped behind his back, staring at…

  Chapter 49

  Henrik lifted his head from gulping water out of the…

  Chapter 50

  After a frightening race along the trail as it tunneled…

  Chapter 51

  As Henrik made his way along the causeway made of…

  Chapter 52

  Jit sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, nested…

  Chapter 53

  The man glanced down at the warm, wet place growing…

  Chapter 54

  Henrik feared to take a step toward the Hedge Maid.

  Chapter 55

  As the Hedge Maid started out toward a shadowy opening…

  Chapter 56

  Henrik thought that the winds must have stilled to make…

  Chapter 57

  Kahlan woke with a start, panting in terror. A blur…

  Chapter 58

  Still drifting back from that distant place that felt completely…

  Chapter 59

  What’s this about me and my gift?” Nathan asked as…

  Chapter 60

  With his foot, Richard flipped over the carpet. He didn’t…

  Chapter 61

  The situation calls for a choice, and I’ve made it,”…

  Chapter 62

  The group with Queen Orneta fell silent as the Mord-Sith…

  Chapter 63

  Before the woman could prod her with the weapon, Orneta…

  Chapter 64

  Ludwig was pouring himself a last glass of wine when…

  Chapter 65

  Richard was shocked and angry.

  Chapter 66

  Kahlan woke to the feel of warm breath on her…

  Chapter 67

  Kahlan slowly pulled in a deep breath, preparing herself.

  Chapter 68

  It was deep in the middle of the night by…

  Chapter 69

  When the violence of the wizard’s fire at last subsided,…

  Chapter 70

  Well isn’t that something,” Zedd said as he stepped out…

  Chapter 71

  Nicci stepped up beside Richard. “Darkness has found it?”

  Chapter 72

  When Richard had finished filling the bin with metal strips,…

  Chapter 73

  Kahlan woke, confused at feeling herself rocking. She winced as…

  Chapter 74

  Anything at all?” Richard asked Berdine in a quiet voice.

  Chapter 75

  In the distance, paths meandered through elaborate gardens, but the…

  Chapter 76

  Patrols that had spotted Richard ran up to see what…

  Chapter 77

  Kahlan woke with a start. She squinted out at the…

  Chapter 78

  As Kahlan guided her horse among immense pines, she frequently…

  Chapter 79

  Kahlan was confounded at the construction of the enclosed, candlelit…

  Chapter 80

  Kahlan ran the words through her mind again, not sure…

  Chapter 81

  Richard stood staring
through the soft haze of drizzle at…

  Chapter 82

  Crouched low, Richard made his way along the top of…

  Chapter 83

  Richard dropped into a crouch as he landed. Glowing, hooded…

  Chapter 84

  It came to him.

  Chapter 85

  In a blink, before the Hedge Maid could have second…

  Chapter 86

  If he lives,” Cara said, “I’m going to kill him.”

  Other Books by Terry Goodkind

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  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 the meaning any 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 become a small city made up of thousands of tents, wagons, and stands. Throngs of people who had come from near and far for the grand wedding the day before flocked to the marketplace, buying everything from 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. Streamers of morning sunlight 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 some other meaning, something more, something grim, 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 his mother. The market out beyond was filled with lilting music, conversation, laughter, and animated bargaining. For most of the people passing nearby, seeing the 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 mostly watched the nearby crowds shuffling through the market. The soldiers wanted to make sure that those crowds didn’t close in too tightly, even though there was no real reason to expect any sort of trouble.

  Everyone was, after all, in a good mood. The years of war had ended. There was peace and growing prosperity. The wedding the day before seemed to mark a new beginning, a celebration of a world of possibilities never before imagined.

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

  Kahlan squatted down beside him. Her satiny white dress, the iconic symbol of her standing as the Mother Confessor, seemed to glow under the early-spring sky, as if she were a good spirit come among 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 seem to hear her. He ignored 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 meant to dispel the gloom 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 something 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 dreams,” the boy said, his voice a little brighter.

  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—”

  “Is the sky still blue?”

  Kahlan shared a look with Richard. “Quite blue,” she assured the boy. He didn’t appear to hear that answer, either.

  Richard didn’t think that there was any point in continuing to pester the boy for answers. He was obviously sick and didn’t know what he was saying. It was pointless to try to question the product of delirium.

  The boy’s small hand suddenly grabbed Richard’s forearm.

  Richard heard the sound of steel being drawn from scabbards. Without turning, he lifted his other hand in a silent command to the soldiers behind him to stand down.

  “Why have they all left me?” the boy asked again.

  Richard leaned in a little closer, hoping to calm him at least. “Where did they leave you?”

  The boy’s eyes opened so abruptly that it startled both Richard and Kahlan. His gaze was fixed on Richard, as if trying to see into his soul. The grip of the thin fingers on Richard’s forearm was powerful beyond what Richard would have believed the boy capable of.

  “There is darkness in the palace.”

  A chill, fed by a cold breath of breeze, shivered across Richard’s flesh.

  The boy’s eyelids slid closed as he sagged back.

  Despite his intent to be gentle with the boy, Richard’s voice took on an edge.

  “What are you talking about? What darkness in the palace?”

  “Darkness … is seeking darkness,” he whispered as he drifted down into incoherent mumbling.

  Richard’s brow drew tight as he tried to make some kind of sense of it. “What do you mean, darkness is seeking darkness?”

  “He will find me, I know he will.”

  The boy’s hand, as if too heavy to hold up, slipped off Richard’s arm. It was replaced by Kahlan’s as the two of them waited a moment to see if the boy would say any more. He seemed to finally have fallen silent for good.

  They needed to get back to the palace. People would be waiting for them.

  Besides, Richard didn’t think, even if the boy did say more, that it would be any more meaningful. He looked up at the boy’s mother, standing above him, dry-washing her hands.

  The woman swallowed. “He scares me, he does, when he gets like this. I’m sorry, Lord Rahl, I didn’t mean to distract you from your business.” She looked to be a woman aged prematurely by worries.

  “This is my business,” Richard said. “I came down here today to be among people who couldn’t make it up to the palace yesterday for the ceremony. Many of you have traveled a great distance. The Mother Confessor and I wanted to have a chance to show our appreciation to everyone who came for our friends’ wedding.

  “I don’t like to see anyone in such obvious distress as you and your boy. We’ll see if we can get a healer to find out what’s wrong. Maybe they can give him something to help him.”

  The woman was shaking her head. “I’ve tried healers. Healers can’t help him.”

  “Are you sure?” Kahlan asked. “There are very talented people here who might be able to help.”

  “I already took him to a woman of great powers, a Hedge Maid, all the way to Kharga Trace.”

  Kahlan’s brow creased. “A Hedge Maid? What kind of healer is that?”

 
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