A deep underground machine awakens after thousands of years and foretells ominous events including a catastrophic prediction involving Richard Cypher and Kahlan Amnell.

Richard Rahl has traveled far from his roots as a simple woods guide. Emperor of the D'Haran Empire, war wizard, the Seeker of Truth, none of these roles mean as much to him as his newest: husband to his beloved Kahlan Amnell, Mother Confessor of the Midlands. But their wedding is the key that unlocks a spell sealed away long ago in a faraway country. Now a deadly power pours forth that threatens to turn the world into a lifeless waste. Separated...

"The one overarching constant in this epic series has been the long shadow cast by the Sword of Truth. That weapon, created in the time of Magda Searus during the darkest hours of the great war, was forged for a purpose now long forgotten and yet unfulfilled. When Richard first met Kahlan in the Hartland Woods, the Sword of Truth was finally ready to come into the hands of the one man who had been born to wield it. That weapon is now in Kahlan's care...

Soul mates, pawns of prophecy, and inheritors of an ancient conflict, Richard and Kahlan's destinies have been bound together since their first encounter in Wizard's First Rule. But now Richard lies on a funeral bier, suspended between the worlds of life and death, and Kahlan faces her greatest challenge. She must fight for Richard's very existence, and Richard, trapped in the underworld, must fight to keep the world of life from ending. Desperate...