“We can all only be who we are,” Richard told Nadine, “no more, and no less. A very wise woman told me that, one time.”
Nadine whispered her incredulity, but Kahlan couldn’t hear the words.
Richard put his arm around Kahlan’s waist. In that gentle touch, she read the message of comfort and love, and suddenly felt profound sorrow for this woman standing before strangers, exposing such personal matters of the heart.
“Nadine,” Richard said in a quiet tone, “this is Kahlan, the wise woman I spoke of. The woman I love. Kahlan, not Nadine. Kahlan and I are soon to be married. We’re shortly going to leave to be wedded by the Mud People. Nothing in this world is going to change that.”
Nadine seemed afraid to take her eyes from Richard, as if she feared that if she did, it would become true.
“Mud People? What in the name of the spirits are Mud People? Sounds dreadful. Richard, you . . .” She seemed to gather her resolve. She pressed her lips together and suddenly scowled. She shook her finger at him.
“Richard Cypher, I don’t know what kind of foolish game you’re playing, but I’ll not have it! You listen to me, you big oaf, you go get your things packed! We’re going home!”
“I am home, Nadine.”
Nadine, at last, could think of no counter.
“Nadine, who told you all this . . . this marriage business?”
The fire had gone out of her. “A mystic named Shota.”
Kahlan tensed at the sound of that name. Shota was the true threat. No matter what Nadine said, or wanted, it was Shota who had the power to cause trouble.
“Shota!” Richard wiped a hand across his face. “Shota. I might have known.”
And then Richard did the last thing Kahlan would have expected: he chuckled. He stood there, with everyone watching him, threw his head back, and laughed aloud.
Somehow, it magically melted Kahlan’s fears. That Richard would simply laugh off what Shota might do somehow trivialized the threat. Suddenly, her heart felt buoyant. Richard said that the Mud People were going to marry them, as they both wanted, and the fact that Shota wished otherwise was worth no more than a chuckle. Richard’s arm around her waist tightened with a loving squeeze. She felt her cheeks tighten with a grin of her own.
Richard waved an apology. “Nadine, I’m sorry. I’m not laughing at you. It’s just that Shota has been playing her little tricks on us for a long time. It’s unfortunate that she’s used you in her scheme, but it’s just one of her wretched games. She’s a witch woman.”
“Witch woman?” Nadine whispered.
Richard nodded. “She’s taken us in with her little dramas in the past, but not this time. I no longer care what Shota says. I’m not playing her games anymore.”
Nadine looked perplexed. “A witch woman? Magic? I’ve been plied with magic? But she said that the sky had spoken to her.”
“Is that so. Well, I don’t care if the Creator Himself has spoken to her.”
“She said that the wind hunts you. I was worried. I wanted to help.”
“The wind hunts me? Well, it’s always something with her.”
Nadine’s gaze drifted from his. “But what about us . . . ?”
“Nadine, there is no ‘us.’ ” The edge returned to his voice. “You, of all people, know the truth of that.”
Her chin lifted with indignation. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He watched her for a long moment, as if considering saying more than he finally did. “Have it your way, Nadine.”
For the first time, Kahlan felt embarrassed. Whatever the exchange had meant, she felt like an intruder hearing it. Richard seemed uncomfortable, too. “I’m sorry, Nadine, but I have things I have to take care of. If you need help getting home, I’ll see what I can do. Whatever you need—a horse, supplies, whatever. Tell everyone back in Hartland that I’m fine, and I send my best wishes.”
He turned to the waiting Ulic. “Is General Kerson here?”
“Yes, Lord Rahl.”
Richard took a step toward the door. “I’d best go see what his problem is.”
General Kerson instead entered from right around the doorway when he heard his name. Graying, but muscular and fit, and a head shorter than Richard, he cut an imposing figure in his burnished leather uniform. His upper arms bore scars of rank, their shiny white furrows showing through the short chain-mail sleeves.
He clapped a fist to his heart in salute “Lord Rahl, I need to speak with you.”
“Fine. Speak.”
The general hesitated. “I meant alone, Lord Rahl.”
Richard looked in no mood to dally with the man. “There are no spies here. Speak.”
“It’s about the men, Lord Rahl. A great many of them are sick.”
“Sick? What’s wrong with them?”
“Well, Lord Rahl, they . . . that is . . .”
Richard’s brow tightened. “Out with it.”
“Lord Rahl”—General Kerson glanced among the women before clearing his throat—“I’ve got over half my army, well, out of commission, squatting and groaning with debilitating bouts of diarrhea.”
Richard’s brow relaxed. “Oh. Well, I’m sorry. I hope they’re better soon. It’s a miserable state to be in.”
“It’s not an uncommon condition among an army, but to be this widespread it is, and because it is so widespread, something has to be done.”
“Well, be sure they get plenty to drink. Keep me informed. Let me know how they’re doing.”
“Lord Rahl, something has to be done. Now. We can’t have this.”
“It’s not like they’re stricken with spotted fever, general.”
General Kerson clasped his hands behind his back and took a patient breath. “Lord Rahl, General Reibisch, before he went south, told us that you wanted your officers to voice their opinions to you when we thought it important. He said that you told him that you may get angry if you didn’t like what we had to say, but you wouldn’t punish us for voicing our views. He said you wanted to know our opinions because we’ve had more experience at dealing with troops and with command of an army than you.”
Richard wiped a hand back and forth across his mouth. “You’re right, general. So what is it that’s so vital?”
“Well, Lord Rahl, I’m one of the heroes of the Shinavont province revolt. That’s in D’Hara. I was a lieutenant at the time. There were five hundred of us, and we came upon the rebel force, seven thousand strong, encamped in a scrag wood. We attacked at first light, and ended the revolt before the day was out. There were no Shinavont rebels left by sunset.”
“Very impressive, general.”
General Kerson shrugged. “Not really. Nearly all their men had their pants down around their ankles. You ever try to fight when the grips had your guts?” Richard admitted that he hadn’t. “Everyone called us heroes, but it doesn’t take a hero to split a man’s skull when he’s so dizzy with diarrhea that he can hardly lift his head. I wasn’t proud of what we did, but it was our duty, and we ended the revolt, and undoubtedly prevented the greater bloodshed that would have occurred if their force had gotten well and escaped us. No telling what they would have done, how many more would have died.
“But they didn’t. We took them down because they were sick with dysentery and couldn’t keep their feet.” He swept his arm around, indicating the surrounding countryside. “I’ve got over half my men down. We’ve not a full force because General Reibisch went off to the south. What’s left isn’t in fighting condition. Something has to be done. A sizable enough foe attacks now, and we’re in trouble. We’re vulnerable. We could lose Aydindril.
“I’d be grateful if you knew something we could do to reverse the situation.”
“Why are you bringing this to me? Don’t you have healers?”
“The healers we have are for those kinds of problems caused by steel. We tried going to some of the herb sellers and healers here in Aydindril, but they couldn’t begin to handle the numbers.” He
shrugged. “You’re the Lord Rahl. I thought you would know what to do.”
“You’re right, the herb dealers wouldn’t have anything in that kind of quantity.” Richard pinched his lower lip as he thought. “Garlic will take care of it, if they eat enough. Blueberries will help, too. Get plenty of garlic into the men, and supplement it with blueberries. There would be enough of those around.”
The general leaned in with a dubious frown. “Garlic and blueberries? Are you serious?”
“My grandfather taught me about herbs and remedies and such things. Trust me, general, it will work. They’ve got to drink plenty of tannin tea from quench oak bark, too. Garlic, blueberries, and the quench oak tea should take care of it.” Richard looked over his shoulder. “Right, Nadine?”
She nodded. “That would do it, but it would be easier yet if you gave them powdered bistort.”
“I thought of that, but we’ll never find any bistort this time of year, and the herb sellers wouldn’t begin to have enough.”
“It doesn’t take that much in powered form, and it would work best,” Nadine said. “How many men, sir?”
“Last report was in the neighborhood of fifty thousand,” the general said. “By now? Who knows.”
Nadine’s eyebrows lifted in surprise at the number. “I’ve never seen that much bistort in my life. They’d be old men before that much could be gathered. Richard’s right, then: garlic, blueberries, and quench oak tea. Comfrey tea would work, too, but no one will carry that kind of quantity. Quench oak is your best bet, but it’s hard to find. If there aren’t quench oaks to be had, arrowwood would at least be better than nothing.”
“No,” Richard said. “I’ve seen quench oak up in the high ridges, to the northeast.”
General Kerson scratched his stubble. “What’s a quench oak?”
“An oak tree. The kind of oak tree that will be what your men need. It has a yellow inner bark that you use to make the tea.”
“A tree. Lord Rahl, I can identify ten different kinds of steel just from the feel of it between my fingers, but I couldn’t tell one tree from another if I had extra eyes.”
“Surely you must have men who know trees.”
“Richard,” Nadine said, “quench oak is what we call it in Hartland. I’ve collected roots and plants on my way here that I know the names of, but are called different by the people I’ve met. If these men drink tea from the wrong tree, the best you can hope for is that it won’t harm them, but it won’t solve the problem. The garlic and blueberries will help their gut, but they need the liquid for what was drained out of the rest of them; the tea helps stop them from losing all that water and builds their health back up.”
“Yes, I know.” He rubbed his eyes. “General, get a detachment together, about five hundred wagons, and extra packhorses in case we can’t get the wagons close. I know where the trees are, I’ll lead you up there.” Richard laughed quietly to himself. “Once a guide, always a guide.”
“The men will appreciate it that Lord Rahl is concerned about their well-being,” the general said. “I, for sure, appreciate it, Lord Rahl.”
“Thanks, general. Get everything needed together, and I’ll meet you out at the stables shortly. I’d like to get up there, at least, before dark. Those passes are no place to be stumbling around in the dark, especially with wagons. The moon is near full, but even that won’t help enough.”
“We’ll be ready before you can walk out there, Lord Rahl.”
After a quick fist to his heart in salute, the general was gone. Richard flashed Nadine another of his empty smiles. “Thanks for the help.”
And then he turned his full attention to the Mord-Sith clad in red leather.
Chapter 6
Richard gripped Cara’s jaw and lifted her face. He turned her head so he could better see the oozing cut on her cheek.
“What’s this?”
She glanced to Kahlan when he released his hold on her. “A man refused my advances.”
“Is that so. Maybe he was put off by your choice of red leather.”
Richard looked to Kahlan. “What’s going on? We’ve got a palace full of guards so jumpy that they even challenged me when I came in. We’ve got squads of archers guarding stairwells, and I’ve not seen so much bared steel since the Blood of the Fold attacked the city.”
His eyes had that raptor gaze again. “Who’s down in the pit?”
“I told you,” Cara whispered to Kahlan. “He always finds out.”
Kahlan had told Cara not to mention Marlin because she feared he might somehow hurt Richard. But once Marlin had revealed that there was a second assassin, everything changed; she had to tell Richard that there was a Sister of the Dark wandering around loose.
“An assassin showed up to kill you.” Kahlan gestured with a tilt of her head toward Cara. “Little Miss Magic, here, goaded him into using his gift on her so that she could capture him. We put him down in the pit for safekeeping.”
Richard glanced at Cara before addressing Kahlan. “Little Miss Magic, eh? Why did you let her do that?”
“He said he wanted to kill you. Cara decided to question him in her own fashion.”
“Do you think that was necessary?” he asked Cara. “We have a whole army. One man couldn’t get to me.”
“He also said he intended to kill the Mother Confessor.”
Richard’s expression darkened. “Then I hope you didn’t show him your gentle side.”
Cara smiled. “No, Lord Rahl.”
“Richard,” Kahlan said, “it’s worse than that. He was a wizard from the Palace of the Prophets. He said that he came with a Sister of the Dark. We haven’t found her yet.”
“A Sister of the Dark. Great. How did you manage to discover that this man was an assassin?”
“He announced himself, believe it or not. He claims that Jagang sent him to kill you, and me, and that his orders were to announce himself once inside the Confessors’ Palace.”
“Then Jagang’s plan wasn’t really for this man to kill us; Jagang isn’t that stupid. What was this Sister of the Dark to do, here in Aydindril? Did he say that she was here to kill us, too, or that she was here for some other purpose?”
“Marlin didn’t seem to know,” Kahlan said. “After what Cara did to him, I believe him.”
“Which Sister is it? What’s her name?”
“Marlin didn’t know her name.”
Richard nodded. “That’s possible. How long was he in the city before he announced himself?”
“I’m not sure, exactly. I assumed a few days.”
“Then why didn’t he come directly to the palace once he arrived?”
“I don’t know,” Kahlan said. “I didn’t . . . ask him that.”
“How long was he with the Sister? What did they do while they were here?”
“I don’t know.” Kahlan hesitated. “I guess I didn’t think to ask him.”
“Well, if he was with her, she must have had something to say to him. She would have been the one in charge. What did she say to him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did this Marlin see anyone else while he was in the city? Did he meet with anyone else? Where did he stay?”
It was the Seeker questioning her, not Richard. Even though he wasn’t raising his voice, or using a threatening tone, Kahlan’s ears burned. “I didn’t . . . think to ask.”
“What did they do while they were together? Did she have anything with her? Did she buy anything, or pick up anything, or talk to anyone else who could end up being another part of a team? Was there anyone else they were ordered to kill?”
“I . . . didn’t . . .”
Richard combed his fingers through his hair. “One obviously doesn’t send an assassin and have him announce himself to the guards at the intended victim’s door. That will only get your assassin killed, instead. Maybe Jagang had this man do something before he came to the palace, and then once the task was done, he wanted Marlin to come here so we would kill him a
nd eliminate any chance we would find out what’s going on before this Sister carried out the true plot. Jagang certainly wouldn’t care if we killed one of his pawns—he has plenty more, and he doesn’t value human life.”
Kahlan twisted her fingers together behind her back. She was feeling decidedly foolish. Richard’s furrowed brow over his piercing, gray eyes wasn’t helping.
“Richard, we knew that there was a woman up here who was asking to see you, just as Marlin did. We didn’t know who Nadine was. Marlin didn’t know the Sister’s name, but he gave us a description: young, pretty, and with long brown hair. We were worried that Nadine might be the Sister, right here among us, and so we left Marlin down there and came up here at once to see about Nadine. That was our priority: stopping a Sister of the Dark if she was in the palace. We’ll ask Marlin all those questions later. He’s not going anywhere.”
Richard’s raptor gaze softened as he took a contemplative breath. He finally nodded. “You did the right thing. You’re right about the questions being less important. I’m sorry; I should have realized you would do what was best.” He lifted a cautionary finger. “Leave this Mariln fellow to me.”
Richard turned the raptor gaze on Cara. “I don’t want you and Kahlan down there with him. Understand? Something could happen.”
Cara would offer her life without question to protect his, but by her glare she was apparently beginning to resent having her ability questioned. “And how dangerous was a big strong man at the end of Denna’s leash as she walked him with impunity among the public at the People’s Palace in D’Hara? Did she have to do more than tuck the end of her pet’s thin chain under her belt to demonstrate her complete control? Did he ever once so much as dare to let tension come to that leash?”
The man at the end of that leash had been Richard.
Cara’s blue eyes flashed with indignation, like sudden lightning from a clear blue sky. Kahlan almost would have expected Richard to draw his sword in rage. Instead, he watched her, as if listening dispassionately to her opinion, and waiting to see if she had anything to add. Kahlan wondered if Mord-Sith feared being struck dead, or welcomed it.
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