"Terry Goodkind. Faith of the Fallen (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

before her, were incapable of even whispering through trembling lips the
two words of her title. Others, when alone, whispered them with lethal
intent.

Kahlan had been named Mother Confessor while still in her early
twenties-the youngest Confessor ever named to that powerful position. But
that was several years past. Now, she was the only living Confessor left.

Kahlan had always endured the title, the bowing and kneeling, the
reverence, the awe, the fear, and the murderous intentions, because she
had no choice. But more than that, she was the Mother Confessor-by
succession and selection, by right, by oath, and by duty.

Cara always addressed Kahlan as "Mother Confessor." But from
Cara's lips the words were subtly different than from any others. It was
almost a challenge, a defiance by scrupulous compliance, but with a hint
of an affectionate smirk. Coming from Cara, Kahlan didn't hear "Mother
Confessor" so much as she heard "Sister." Cara was from the distant land
of D'Hara. No one, anywhere, outranked Cara, as far as Cara was concerned,
except the Lord Rahl. The most she would allow was that Kahlan could be
her equal in duty to Richard. Being considered an equal by Cara, though,
was high praise indeed.

When Cara addressed Richard as Lord Rahl, however, she was not
saying "Brother." She was saying precisely what she meant: Lord Rahl.

To the men with the angry voices, the Lord Rahl was as foreign a
concept as was the distant land of D'Hara. Kahlan was from the Midlands
that separated D'Hara from Westland. The people here in Westland knew
nothing of the Midlands or the Mother Confessor. For decades, the three
parts of the New World had been separated by impassable boundaries,
leaving what was beyond those boundaries shrouded in mystery. The autumn
before, those boundaries had fallen.

And then, in the winter, the common barrier to the south of the
three lands that had for three thousand years sealed away the menace of
the Old World had been breached, loosing the Imperial Order on them all.
In the last year, the world had been thrown into turmoil; everything
everyone had grown up knowing had changed.

"I'm not going to allow you to hurt people just because they
refuse to help us," Richard said to Cara. "It would solve nothing and only
end up causing us more trouble. What we started here only took a short
time to build. I thought this place would be safe, but it's not. We'll
simply move on."

He turned back to Kahlan. His voice lost its fire.

"I was hoping to bring you home, to some peace and quiet, but it
looks like home doesn't want me, either. I'm sorry."