Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth, #1)

by Terry Goodkind

He knew immediately: this was the third child of trouble.

Intelligence. He saw it flaring there, burning in her, and through it all he felt an overriding sense of her integrity. Richard felt safe.

No one could go into or come out of the Midlands. The boundary had sealed it away since before he was born. The Midlands was a land of magic.

“there is the suffering among us. We need look no further than this room.”

Fire had not killed their mother; anger had.

“And what did you mean about the boundaries?” “Things are changing, Richard. I have to stay ahead of them.” The smile was gone. “That’s all I meant.

He’s First Councilor; he has all anyone could want.

“They hunt me because they fear truth. One reason I trust you is because you do not.”

“But someday you will tell me all of it?” She nodded. “If I can, I promise I will.” “Good,” he said cheerfully. “After all, I am a ‘seeker of truth.’”

He gave himself a mental shake. He was letting his imagination have too free a rein. Of course something inside had warned him of danger, warned him to get away. He had already gotten away with his life when he shouldn’t have once this day. It was foolish to trust in luck once; twice was arrogance of the worst kind. It was best to walk away. Still,

It was my backpack. I had to get my backpack.”

He wished his father had never made him the keeper of the secret book.

“Do exactly as I say.” The expression on her face made him afraid to blink. “Do not move. No matter what happens do not move. Or we are dead.”

“This is a wayward pine,” he announced. “Friend to any traveler.” It was dark inside. Kahlan held the boughs aside so he could see by the moonlight to strike steel to flint and start a fire. Clouds scudded across the moon, and they could see their breath in the cold air.

back before the boundaries was a terrible time, and that there was a lot of fighting.

There is magic in D’Hara, too, not just in the Midlands. Back then there was magic everywhere. There were no separate lands, no boundaries. Anyway,

Panis Rahl was ruthless in his use of magic against the free people. He was terribly brutal.” “What kind of magic? What did he do?” “Some was trickery, sickness, fevers, but the worst of it was the shadow people.”

They killed the wizard’s wife, and his daughter.”

the council had reneged on agreements about how the power of magic was to be controlled.

wizard’s web?” “It is a spell a wizard casts. As he left, he cast a wizard’s web over everyone, making them forget his name, even what he looked like. So that is why no one knows what his name is or who he is.”

Darken Rahl movement. It seemed to spring up out of nowhere. All of a sudden crowds of people in the bigger cities were chanting his name, calling him ‘Father Rahl,’ calling him the greatest man of peace that ever lived. The strange thing is, he is the son of Panis Rahl,

“Richard, are you afraid of magic?”

“The creature is a night wisp. Her name is Shar. A night wisp cannot be seen in the day, only at night. Shar is part of the magic that helped me cross the boundary; she was my guide. Without her, I would have been lost.”

cool, dim air of the wayward pine, giving everything a silvery cast. The light softened as the wisp came to a stop in the air between them, hovering. Richard was astonished.

Trees grown large and close held back the breeze and its chill, making the trail a quiet sanctuary filled with the aromatic fragrance of balsam fir: a refuge from winter’s breath above.

“Well, the good part is now I know the root to use to cure the fever. The bad part is I have to find it.”

“Darken Rahl, son of Panis Rahl, has put the three boxes of Orden in play,” Kahlan said simply. “I have come in search of the great wizard.” Richard was thunderstruck. From the secret book, the Book of Counted Shadows, the book his father had had him commit to memory before they destroyed it, the line jumped into his mind: And when the three boxes of Orden are put into play, the snake vine shall grow.

the night wisp telling him to seek the answer or die; what Kahlan said, that the three boxes of Orden were in play; and his secret, the Book of Counted Shadows….

He remembered how his father had taken him to the secret place in the woods, and had told him how he had saved the Book of Counted Shadows from the peril

Richard never resented having to learn the book; he considered it an honor to be entrusted by his father. He wrote the book from beginning to end a hundred times without error before he satisfied himself that he could never forget a single word.

any word left out would spell disaster.

“The wizards were under constant threat, and forbidden by edict from using magic. They knew that sooner or later they would be used against the people. They may have made mistakes in the past, and disappointed their teacher, but the most important thing they were taught was to be protectors of the people and in no way to bring them harm.

true Seeker, one who can make a difference, must show himself to be a Seeker. The wizard doesn’t point to someone and say, ‘Here is the Sword of Truth, you will be the Seeker.’ He doesn’t really have a choice in the matter. It isn’t something you can train someone for. One should simply be a Seeker and show himself to be so by his actions.

A wizard must watch a person for years to be sure. A Seeker doesn’t have to be the smartest person, but he has to be the right person; he has to have the right qualities within himself. A true Seeker is a rare person. “The Seeker is a balance point of power.

When a real Seeker draws the Sword of Truth…” He held his hands up and rolled his eyes in delight. “Righteous anger can be an extraordinary thing to behold.” Kahlan smiled at his excitement. “It can make the good tremble with joy, and the wicked shiver in fear.” The smile left his face. “But people rarely believe the truth when they see it and less so when they don’t want to,

Confessor is trained from birth in languages. She has to be, because she never knows where she will be called. I speak every major language, and most of the minor ones. And

“Darken Rahl hunts Richard. The cloud that shadows him was sent by Rahl to track him. The snake vine was put in the jar by Darken Rahl, in the expectation that Richard would search for it, and it would bite him.

Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander, the great and honorable wizard, stood alone on the wizard’s rock his father had given him, and stared out into the night, thinking wizard’s thoughts. “Nothing is ever easy,” he whispered.

“Bags, Richard! You’re not supposed to see it! It’s a wizard’s cabinet; it’s invisible!”

The sword belongs to the Seeker as long as he is alive, or as long as he chooses to be Seeker. In between, while a new Seeker is sought, the Sword of Truth belongs to the wizards. Or more precisely, it belongs to me, as naming Seekers is my responsibility.

“There is a magic,” he began, “an ancient and dangerous magic of immense power. It’s a magic spawned from the earth, from life itself. It is held in three vessels called the three boxes of Orden. The magic is dormant until the boxes are put into play, as it is called.

They work together; you can’t simply have one and open it. If the person who puts them in play fails to acquire all three, and to open one within the allotted time, he forfeits his life to the magic. There is no going back. Darken Rahl must open one of the boxes, or die. On the first day of winter, his year is up.”

“Open the wrong box, and the magic claims him. He’s dead.” Zedd snapped his fingers. “Just like that. We are all safe; the threat is removed.”

“Open the other wrong box, and every bug, every blade of grass, every tree, every man, woman, and child, every living thing, is incinerated into nothingness. It would be the end of all life. The magic of Orden is twin to the magic of life itself, and death is part of everything that lives, so the magic of Orden is tied to death, as well as life.”

wanted the boxes kept far apart from each other, and with magic, hidden and locked away so as to never be found again. The council, instead, wanted them given to important people, like trophies to be shown off.

“A Seeker is a person who answers to no one but himself; he is a law unto himself. The Sword of Truth is his to wield as he wishes, and within the limits of his own strength, he can hold anyone to answer for anything.”

it’s how the person uses power that makes it what it is.

“But I don’t pick a Seeker, Richard. A true Seeker picks himself. I only name them. You have been a Seeker for years without knowing it. I have watched you, and that is what you do. You are always seeking the truth. What do you think you were doing in the high Ven?

“Darken Rahl is a practitioner of an ancient form of magic called anthropomancy. He divines the answers to questions by the inspection of living human entrails.”

Richard, you have kept part of it locked away. Your anger. I had to know you could release it, call upon it. I’ve seen you angry, but you were unable to admit your anger to yourself. A Seeker who couldn’t allow himself to use his anger would be hopelessly weak. It is the strength of rage that gives the heedless drive to prevail.