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

by Terry Goodkind

You must be wise enough to know which path to choose. Sometimes letting out the anger is an even more grievous mistake than holding it in.”

“The sword has magic,” he said guardedly. “I felt it.” “It does. But Richard, magic is only a tool, like any other.

Reality isn’t relevant. Perception is everything. If you think it is the enemy, you can destroy it, whether true or not.

magic interprets only your perception.

Rage is the only armor you have against the pain; it gives a measure of protection. The stronger the enemy, the stronger the pain. But the stronger the rage, the stronger the shield.

You see why I wouldn’t have allowed you to take the sword, if you weren’t able to use your anger? You would be naked before the magic; it would tear you apart.”

He let his horse pick its own way in the gathering darkness, wondering how much longer this dead world went on, or if the road would ever take them away from it. The night was bringing life to the place, strange calls and scraping noises. His horse whinnied at things unseen.

Some say they can find a man by hearing the beating of his heart.” Richard’s eyes widened.

Not even the wolves sang tonight. Loneliness threatened to crush him.

“Because, Richard, many people must be ruled to thrive. In their selfishness and greed, they see free people as their oppressors. They wish to have a leader who will cut the taller plants so the sun will reach them. They think no plant should be allowed to grow taller than the shortest, and in that way give light to all. They would rather be provided a guiding light, regardless of the fuel, than light a candle themselves.

Zedd smoothed his sleeves down his arms as he sighed. “There have always been wars, Richard. Every war is a murderous struggle between foes. And yet, no army has ever marched into battle thinking that the Creator had sided with their enemy.”

make Darken Rahl afraid too.” Zedd smiled and nodded. “You are going to make a good Seeker, my boy. Have faith.”

It felt wondrous, like floating in water, only he was floating in light. Exhilaration soaked through him. His mind felt a buoyant, timeless connection to everything around him. He was one with the trees, the grass, the bugs, the birds, the animals all around, the water, the very air itself; not a separate being, but part of a whole.

The heart hounds were coming.

He couldn’t imagine a world without Zedd. A world without his tricks and help and comfort would be a dead world. He realized that he was getting a lump in his

So deep was he in thought, he hadn’t realized they had been on the trail for over four hours. The forest was drinking in the rain. Trees loomed dark and huddled in the mist; the moss on their trunks was vibrant and lush. It stood out on the bark of trees, and in round humps on the ground, green and spongy. The lichen on the rocks shone bright yellow and rust in the damp. In some places water ran down the trail, turning it into a temporary creek.

red and yellow symbols and decorations at the neck. Her hair was fine and straight, a mix of black and gray, parted in the middle, chopped square with her strong jaw. Age had not stolen the handsome features of her weathered face. She leaned on a crutch. She had but one foot. Richard brought the horses to a slow halt in front of

“The righteous rage of a true Seeker. Good.” She looked over to Kahlan. “You have nothing to fear from him, child. It be the anger of truth. It be the anger of the teeth. The good need not fear it.”

“She has the fire. The anger burns in her too.

But it be the anger of the tongue. You have to fear it. All have to fear it. It be dangerous if she ever lets it out.” Richard gave Adie a leery look. “I dislike riddles; they leave too much room for misinterpretation. If you want to tell me something, then tell me.”

“There be many kinds of magic, teeth and tongue be only two. Wizards know them all, save those of the underworld. Wizards use most of what they know.”

“Everyone has secrets, my friend, and has a right to keep them when there is need.”

The woods nearby were dark and dense, but they didn’t feel threatening.

Beneath that was a void of blackness. “This be a night stone,” she said in a measured rasp. “And what do I do with it?”

“Everything is valuable under the right conditions. To a man dying of thirst, water be more precious than gold.

don’t know exactly what a sorceress is.” “Well, she is more than us, but less than a wizard.”

Verification of the truth of the words of the Book of Counted Shadows, if spoken by another, rather than read by the one who commands the boxes, can only be insured by the use of a Confessor….

Demmin Nass, the right hand of Rahl, the lightning of the Master’s dark thoughts, was a man as big as those he commanded. As he strode in, ignoring the guards, his sharply chiseled muscles stood out in stark relief in the torchlight.

Hatred, flaming into white-hot need, took him ahead through the forms, swinging the sword faster than they could come forward to meet it. So he went to them. Howls of their end joined in a mass cry of anguish. Richard’s wrath at what they had done

not shadow people, but the things from the other side of the boundary wall, the things that had been escaping and taking people, just as they had tried to take him.

he no longer had the book,

“Yes, Richard Cypher has the Book of Counted Shadows. And he also wears the tooth.

The cloud is of little importance. I can find him by the tooth.”

For the first time, Richard truly understood the meaning of being Seeker, in a way no one else but a Seeker could. Bringer of death. He understood it now. Understood the magic, how he used it, how it used him, how they were now joined.

For better or worse, he would never be the same again. He had tasted fulfillment of his darkest desire. It was done. There was no going back to being as he was before.

“Remember the snakelike cloud that followed me, the one sent by Rahl to track me?”

“Not easy, being Seeker,” she said softly. He smiled back at her. “Not easy,” he agreed. “The Mud People,” she said at last.

Zedd shrugged. “As wizards go, I’m pretty harmless.”

“Who is this man with the temper?” “His name is Richard. He is the Seeker of Truth.”