Chainfire pg 1-60

Richard appears in the beginning of this book critically injured. He is being rushed to Nicci to be healed, but the whole time he is trying to indicate something to the men carrying him. At the end before he passes out he tells them one word "Kahlen". When he wakes up he is healed, but no one know who Kahlen is. Richard believes that she is in some kind of danger and immediately without concern for his current weakened state starts searching for her. Nicci and Cara worried about the injuries effecting Richard's mind follow him to look out for him, and in hope to talk some senses into him. When he arrives at the battle site where he was injured, he looks and finds all of Kahlen's footprints are erased. He continues and finds that one area seems perfectly untouched by even nature except for what looks like a slightly disturbed rock. Richard believes that all of Kahlen's footprints have been erased in a similar method to the one used by Zed in the first book, and that magic must have also been used to erase the memory of Kahlen through something similiar to a death spell. At the end of the chapter Richard notices something is wrong, and ravens immediately start flying away due to a disturbance.

I believe, of course, that Kahlen is real because I can not even begin to conceive how all of the events in the previous eight books would have occurred without her. Magic is definitely the cause and the Imperial order is related, but the question is how did Jagang accomplish such a feat. Due to the little information it is difficult to predict what is happening next. Without tracks to follow Kahlen could be anywhere. It is an interesting start to one of this author's books because of how quickly problems and events happened.