Wizards First Rule   ::   Goodkind Terry

Zedd saw Chase standing next to him, watching, his aims stilltied behind his back. Boundary wardens, Zedd thought, were tougher than they had a right to be.

Pale blue light coalesced into a jagged egg shape around her, gathered in intensity, purpose, and somehow, violence. Kahlan turned. One arm, the broken one, came down to her side. The other arm stopped halfway down, her fist reaching toward the wizard. The blue light bled from the ring that surrounded her into one spot, where her fist was. It seemed to fuse and in a sudden release, blasted in a line of light through the space between them.

With a solid strike, it hit him, lighting him at contact, as if he were connected to Kahlan by a thread of living light. It bathed him in the pale blue.glow. The wizard felt the familiar touch of additive magic and the unfamiliar tingle of the subtractive, underworld magic. He was thrown back a step; the web that held him shattered. He was free. The line of light extinguished itself

Zedd turned to Chase and parted the ropes with a quick spell. Chase gave a grunt of pain at having his arms free.

"Zedd," he whispered, "what in the name of the prophets is going on? What has she done?"

Kahlan ran her fingers through the pale blue light that vibrated around her, stroking it, caressing it, bathing in it. Demmin Nass and one of his men watched her, but held their ground, waiting. Her eyes gazed at things they couldn't see. Her eyes were in another world. Her eyes, Zedd knew, were seeing the memory of Richard.

"It's called the Con Dar. The Blood Rage." Zedd looked slowly from Kahlan to the boundary warden. "It's something only a few of the strongest Confessors can do. And she should not be able to do it at all."

Chase frowned. "Why not?".

"Because it must be taught by her real mother; only the mother can teach how to bring it on, if there be call enough. It's an ancient magic, ancient as the Confessor's magic, part of it, but rarely used. It can only be taught after the daughter reaches a certain age. 'Kahlan's mother died before she could teach her. Adie told me. Kahlan should not be able to do this. Yet she has. That she could do it without having been taught, by instinct and desire alone, speaks to very dangerous things in the prophecies."

"Well, why didn't she do it before? Why didn't she put a stop to what was happening before now?"

"A Confessor can't invoke it for herself, only on behalf of another. She has invoked it on behalf of Richard. On the rage at his murder. We are in a great deal of trouble."

"Why?„

"The Con Dar is invoked for vengeance.