Free Soul of the Fire by Terry Goodkind Page B

to her magic and the reason he had been rendered safe from its deadly nature. It was the reason they were able to share the physical essence of their love without her magic destroying him.
    Zedd’s brow bunched up. “Bags, Richard, aren’t you listening? Of course she would lose her power. It’s magic. All magic would end. Hers, mine, yours. But while you and Kahlan would simply lose your magic, the world might die around you.”
    Richard dragged a finger through the dirt. “I don’t know how to use my gift, so it wouldn’t mean so much to me. But it matters a great deal for others. We can’t let it happen.”
    “ Fortunately, it can’t happen.” Zedd tugged his sleeves straight in an emphatic gesture. “This is just a rainy-day game of ‘what if.’”
    Richard drew up his knees and clasped his arms around them as he seemed to sank back into his distant silent world.
    “ Zedd is right,” Ann said. “This is all just speculation. The chimes are not loose. What is important, now, is Jagang.”
    “ If magic ended,” Kahlan asked, “wouldn’t Jagang lose his ability as a dream walker?”
    “ Of course,” Ann said. “But there is no reason to believe—”
    “ If the chimes were loosed on this world,” Richard interrupted, “how would you stop them? It’s supposed to be simple. How would you do it?”
    Ann and Zedd shared a look.
    Before either could answer, Richard’s head turned toward the window. He rose up and in three strides had crossed the room. He pulled aside the curtain to peer out. Gusts blew the pelting rain in against his face as he leaned out to look both ways. Lightning crackled through the murky afternoon air, and thunder stuttered after it.
    Zedd leaned close to Kahlan. “Do you have any idea what’s going on in that boy’s head?”
    Kahlan wet her lips. “I think I have an inkling, but you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
    Richard cocked his head, listening. Kahlan, in the silence, strained to hear anything out of the ordinary.
    In the distance, she heard the terrified wail of a child.
    Richard bolted for the door. “Everyone wait here.”
    As one, they all rushed after him.

CHAPTER 7

    Splashing through the mud, Zedd, Ann, Cara, and Kahlan chased after Richard as he raced out into the passageways between the stuccoed walls of buildings. Kahlan had to squint to see through the downpour. The deluge was so cold it made her gasp.
    Hunters, their ever-present protectors, appeared from the sweeping sheets of rain to run along beside them. The buildings flashing by were mostly single-room homes sharing at least one common wall, but sometimes as many as three. Together, they clustered into a complex maze seemingly without design.
    Following right behind Richard, Ann surprised Kahlan with her swift gait. Ann didn’t look a woman designed to run, but she kept up with ease. Zedd’s bony arms pumped a swift and steady cadence. Cara, with her long legs, loped along beside Kahlan. The sprinting hunters ran with effortless grace. At the lead, Richard, his golden cape billowing out behind, was an intimidating sight; compared with the wiry hunters, he was a mountain of a man avalanching through the narrow streets.
    Richard followed the meandering passageway a short distance before darting to the right at the first corner. A black and two brown goats thought the rushing procession a curiosity, as did several children in tiny courtyards planted with rape seed for the chickens. Women gaped from doorways flanked by pots of herbs.
    Richard rounded the next corner to the left. At the sight of the charging troop of people, a young woman beneath a small roof swept a crying child into her arms. Holding the little boy’s head to her shoulder, she pressed her back against the door, to be out of the way of the trouble racing her way. The boy wailed as she tried to hush him.
    Richard slid to a fluid but abrupt stop, with everyone behind doing their best not to crash into him. The woman’s