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

Richard hated anything to do with prophecy. It had caused him no
end of trouble.

Prophecy was always ambiguous and usually cryptic, no matter how
clear it seemed on the surface. The untrained were easily misled by its
superficially simplistic construction. Unthinking adherence to a literal
interpretation of prophecy had in the past caused great turmoil,
everything from murder to war. As a result, those involved with prophecy
went to great lengths to keep it secret.

Prophecy, at least on the face of it, was predestination; Richard
believed that man created his own destiny. He had once told her, "Prophecy
can only say that tomorrow the sun will come up. It can't say what you are
going to do with your day. The act of going about your day is not the
fulfillment of prophecy, but the fulfillment of your own purpose."

Shota, the witch woman, had prophesied that Richard and Kahlan
would conceive an infamous son. Richard had more than once proven Shota's
view of the future to be, if not fatally flawed, at least vastly more
complex than Shota would have it seem. Like Richard, Kahlan didn't accept
Shota's prediction.

On any number of occasions, Richard's view of prophecy had been
shown to be correct. Richard simply ignored what prophecy said and did as
he believed he must. By his doing so, prophecy was in the end often
fulfilled, but in ways that could not have been foretold. In this way,
prophecy was at once proven and disproved, resolving nothing and only
demonstrating what an eternal enigma it truly was.

Richard's grandfather, Zedd, who had helped raise him not far from
where they were, had not only kept his own identity as a wizard secret. In
order to protect Richard, he also hid the fact that Richard had been
fathered by Darken Rahl and not George Cypher, the man who had loved and
raised him. Darken Rahl, a wizard of great power, had been the dangerous,
violent ruler of far-off D'Hara. Richard had inherited the gift of magic
from two different bloodlines. After killing Darken Rahl, he had also
inherited the rule of D'Hara, a land that was in many ways as much a
mystery to him as was his power.

Kahlan, being from the Midlands, had grown up around wizards;
Richard's ability was unlike that of any wizard she had ever known. He
possessed not one aspect of the gift, but many, and not one side, but
both: he was a war wizard. Some of his outfit came from the Wizard's Keep,
and had not been worn in three thousand years-since the last war wizard
lived.

With the gift dying out in mankind, wizards were uncommon; Kahlan
had known fewer than a dozen. Among wizards, prophets were the most rare;
she knew of the existence of only two. One of those was Richard's