Sword of Truth: Book 8Richard Rahl has been poisoned, and saving an empire from annihilation is the price of the antidote. With the shadow of death looming near, and the empire crumbling before the invading hordes, time begins to run out. As the poison seeps through his blood, and as people are getting slaughtered by the thousands, Nicholas the Slide, the man behind everything, asks for only one think to stop the destruction. Kahlan.