Blood of the Fold

Terry Goodkind published Blood of the Fold in 1996, and it is the third volume of The Sword of Truth. It continues directly from the previous book, Stone of Tears.

Richard Rahl has just been reunited with Kahlan Amnell, the Mother Confessor, in a place between worlds. When he comes back to Aydindril in the world they actually live in, he comes to believe that the only way to halt the Imperial Order's long advance through the Midlands is to seize authority for himself.

Accordingly he brings the Midlands alliance and the rule of the Confessors to an end, takes control of Aydindril for the D'haran empire, and sends out a demand that the nations of the Midlands surrender to D'haran rule without conditions. In the Old World at the same time there is trouble in the Palace of the Prophets, where the sorceress Verna has been newly raised to the position of Prelate and has her own difficulties with the people around her, and the book keeps both halves of the story moving forward at once.