Dear spirits, let her hear the words, and not my dread. Let me at least spare her that.
His left hand clutched the hilt of his sword. The raised letters of the word TRUTH bit into his flesh. He blinked his vision clear. Show no fear.
“ ‘To quench the inferno, he must seek the remedy in the wind. Lightning will find him on that path, for the one in white, his true beloved, will betray him in her blood.’ ”
Chapter 16
Kahlan could feel tears falling down her cheeks.
“Richard.” She sucked back a sob. “Richard, you know I would never . . . You don’t believe I could ever . . . I swear on my life. I would never . . . You have to believe me . . .”
He swept her into his arms as she lost control over a wail of anguish. “Richard,” she sobbed against his chest, “I would never betray you. Not for anything in this world. Not to spare myself eternal torment in the underworld at the Keeper’s hands.”
“I know. Of course I know that. You know as well as I that you can’t understand a prophecy by its words. Don’t let it hurt you. That’s what Jagang wants. He doesn’t even know what it means; he just put it down there because the words sounded like what he wanted to hear.”
“But . . . I . . .” She couldn’t halt her weeping.
“Shhhh.” His big hand held her head against him.
The terror of the night before, and the worse terror of the prophecy, came out in uncontrollable tears. She had never cried in the face of battle, but in the safety of his arms she couldn’t control herself. She was swept away by a flood of tears no less powerful than the torrent in the drainage tunnel.
“Kahlan, don’t let yourself believe it. Please don’t.”
“But it says . . . I will . . .”
“Listen to me. Didn’t I tell you not to go down there to question Marlin? Didn’t I tell you that I would do it when I got back, and that it was dangerous and I didn’t want you down there?”
“Yes, but I was afraid for you and I just wanted—”
“You went against my wishes. No matter your reasons, you went against my wishes, didn’t you?” She nodded against him. “That could be the betrayal in the prophecy. You were wounded, you were bleeding. You betrayed me, and you had blood on you. Your blood.”
“I wouldn’t call what I did a betrayal. I was doing it for you, because I love you and I was afraid for you.”
“But don’t you see? The words of prophecy don’t always work the way they sound. At the Palace of the Prophets, in the Old World, both Warren and Nathan warned me that prophecies aren’t meant to be understood by the words. The words are only obliquely connected to the prophecy.”
“But I don’t see how—”
“I’m just saying that it could be something as simple as that. You can’t let a prophecy gain control of your fears. Don’t let it.”
“Zedd told me that, too. He said that there were prophecies about me that he wouldn’t tell me because the words weren’t to be trusted. He said you were right to ignore the words of prophecy. But this is different, Richard. This says I will betray you.”
“I already told you how it could be something simple.”
“Lightning isn’t simple. Being struck by lightning is a symbol for being killed, if not an outright declaration of the manner of your death. The prophecy says I will betray you, and because of that, you will die.”
“I don’t believe it. Kahlan, I love you. I know it isn’t possible. You wouldn’t betray me and bring me harm. You wouldn’t.”
Kahlan clutched his shirt as she gasped a sob. “That’s why Shota sent Nadine. She wants you to marry someone else because she knows I will be the death of you. Shota is trying to save you—from me.”
“She thought that once before, and she turned out to be wrong. Remember? If Shota had had her way, we wouldn’t have been able to stop Darken Rahl. He would rule us all right now, if we had given in to her reading of the future. Prophecy is no different.” Richard gripped her shoulders and held her at arm’s length so that he could look into her eyes. “Do you love me?”
His grip on her wounded shoulder made it sing with pain, but she refused to pull away from his touch. “More than life itself.”
“Then trust in me. I won’t let it destroy us. I promise. It will all fall into place for the best in the end. You’ll see. We can’t think of the solution if we’re focused on the problem.”
She wiped at her eyes. He sounded so sure of himself. His confidence calmed her and bolstered her spirits. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Do you want to marry me?”
“Of course, but I don’t see how we can leave our responsibility for such a long time to travel—”
“The sliph.”
She blinked. “What?”
“The sliph, up in the Wizard’s Keep. I’ve been thinking about it; we traveled all the way to the Old World and back in her, with her magic, and it took less than a day each way. I can wake the sliph, and we can travel in her.”
“But she would take us to the Old World, to the city of Tanimura. Jagang is somewhere near Tanimura.”
“That’s still a lot closer to the Mud People than Aydindril is. Besides, I think the sliph can go other places, too. She asked me where I wished to travel. That means she can go other places. Maybe she can get us a lot closer than Tanimura.”
Kahlan, her tears forgotten at the prospect of their wedding being possible, glanced up at the Keep. “We might be able to go to the Mud People, be married, and be back in a matter of a few days. We could be gone that long, surely.”
Richard smiled as his arms circled her from behind. “Surely.”
Kahlan wiped the last of the tears away as she turned in his arms. “How do you always manage to figure things out?”
He nodded toward her bed. “I had a great deal of motivation.”
Kahlan, a grin spreading on her face, was just about to reward him with something positively indecent, when there was a knock at the door. It immediately opened without benefit of an answer. Nancy stuck her head in.
“Are you all right, Mother Confessor?” She glanced meaningfully to Richard.
“Yes. What is it?”
“Lady Nadine is asking if she could change the poultice.”
“Is she now?” Kahlan said in a dark tone.
“Yes, Mother Confessor. But if you are . . . indisposed, I could ask her to wait until—”
“Send her in, then,” Richard said.
Nancy hesitated. “We will have to take the top of your dress down, Mother Confessor. To get at the bandage.”
“It’s all right,” Richard whispered in Kahlan’s ear. “I have to go talk to Berdine. I have some work for her.”
“I hope it doesn’t involve horse manure.”
Richard smiled. “No. I want her to work on Kolo’s journal.”
“Why?”
He kissed the top of her head. “Knowledge is a weapon. I intend to be formidably armed.” He glanced to Nancy. “Need me to help with her dress?”
Nancy managed to scowl and turn red at the same time.
“I guess that means you will manage.” At the door, he turned back to Kahlan. “I’ll wait until Nadine’s finished with you, and then we better go see this Drefan fellow. I have a task for him. I’d . . . like you to be with me.”
When he had closed the door, Nancy brushed back her short brown hair and moved around behind Kahlan to help with her dress. “Your Mother Confessor’s dress, the one you were wearing yesterday, was ruined beyond repair.”
“I expected as much.” Confessors had a collection of dresses, all the same. Confessors all wore black dresses; only the Mother Confessor wore white. She thought about the blue wedding dress she would wear. “Nancy, do you remember when your husband was courting you?”
Nancy paused. “Yes, Mother Confessor.”
“Then you must know how it would have made you feel if someone were to keep popping in on you when you were alone with him.”
Nancy
eased the dress over Kahlan’s shoulder. “Mother Confessor, I was never allowed to be alone with him until we were married. I was young, and ignorant. My parents were right to watch over me and the impulses of youth.”
“Nancy, I’m a grown woman. I’m the Mother Confessor. I can’t have you and the other women popping your heads into my room whenever Richard is with me. Ow!”
“Sorry. That was my fault. It isn’t proper, Mother Confessor.”
“That’s for me to decide.”
“If you say so, Mother Confessor.”
Kahlan held her arm out as Nancy slipped the sleeve over her hand. “I say so.”
Nancy glanced to the bed. “You were conceived in that bed. Who knows how many Mother Confessors before you conceived their daughters in that bed. It holds a legacy of tradition. Only wedded Mother Confessors took their men to that bed to conceive a child.”
“And not one of them because of love. I was not conceived through love, Nancy. My child, if I have one, will be.”
“All the more reason that it should be by the grace of the good spirits—in the sanctity of marriage.”
Kahlan didn’t say that the good spirits had taken them to a place between worlds to sanctify their union. “The good spirits know what’s in our hearts; there is no one else for either of us, nor will there ever be.”
Nancy busied herself at the bandage. “And you are eager to get to it. Like my daughter and her young man are.”
If Nancy only knew how eager.
“That’s not it. I’m just saying that I don’t want you coming in on me when Richard is here with me. We will be wedded soon. We are irreversibly committed to one another.
“There is more to being in love than just jumping into bed, you know. Like just being close, in one another’s arms. Can you understand? I can’t very well kiss my future husband and have my injuries comforted by him if you keep popping your head in every two minutes, now can I?”
“No, Mother Confessor.”
Nadine knocked at the open door. “May I come in?”
“Yes, of course. Here, set your bag on the bed. I can manage, now, Nancy. Thank you.”
With a deprecating shake of her head, Nancy shut the door behind herself. Nadine sat on the bed next to Kahlan and worked at finishing unwrapping the bandage. Kahlan frowned at Nadine’s dress.
“Nadine, that dress . . . it is the same one yon were wearing yesterday, isn’t it?”
“Sure.”
“It seems—”
Nadine looked down at herself. “The ladies washed it for me but it’s . . . Oh, I know what you’re talking about. It was torn in the tunnels, when we went for a swim. Some of the fabric at the seams was mined, so I had to take it in to save it.
“I haven’t had much of an appetite since I left home, thinking about . . . I mean, what with my travels, I was busy, and I’ve slimmed down a bit, so I was able to take in the seams and save the dress. It’s not too tight. It’s fine.”
“In view of your aid, I will see to it that you get another dress that would be more comfortable.”
“No. This one’s fine.”
“I see.”
“Well, your cut looks no worse this morning. That’s encouraging.” She carefully wiped at the old poultice. “I saw Richard on the way out. He looked upset. You two haven’t had a fight, I hope?”
Kahlan’s forbearance evaporated. “No. He was upset because of something else.”
Nadine paused at her work. She turned to her bag and brought back a horn. The fragrance of pine pitch filled the air when she opened it. Kahlan winced as Nadine dabbed on the poultice. When she was satisfied, she began winding the bandage back around Kahlan’s arm.
“There’s no need to be embarrassed,” Nadine said in a casual tone. “Lovers sometimes have spats. They don’t always end a relationship. I’m sure Richard will come to his senses. Eventually.”
“Actually,” Kahlan said, “I told him that I understood about you and him. About what happened. That was why he was so upset.”
Nadine’s wrapping slowed. “What do you mean?”
“I told him what you said about letting him catch you kissing his brother. The little ‘shove’ you gave him. Remember?”
Nadine brought the tails of the bandage around, her fingers suddenly working swiftly at tying them. “Oh, that.”
“Yes, that.”
Nadine avoided looking up. She slipped the sleeve of the dress over Kahlan’s hand. As soon as she had pulled the dress up over Kahlan’s shoulder, she dropped the horn back in her bag.
“That should do it. I should replace the poultice later today.”
Kahlan watched as Nadine hefted her bag and scurried for the door. Kahlan called her name. Nadine reluctantly paused and turned partway back.
“Seems you lied to me. Richard told me what really happened.”
Nadine’s freckles vanished in a crimson glow. Kahlan stood and gestured toward a tufted velvet chair.
“Care to set things right? To tell me your side of it?”
Nadine stood woodenly for a moment, then sank into the chair. She folded her hands in her lap and stared down at them.
“I told you, I had to give him a shove.”
“You call that a shove?”
Nadine turned even redder. “Well.” She flicked a hand. “I knew how boys lost their heads over . . . over their lust. I figured that was my best chance of getting him to . . . to lay claim to me.”
Kahlan was confused, but she didn’t let it show. “Seems it would have been a little late for that.”
“Well, not necessarily. I was bound to end up with one of them when I let Richard catch me like that, naked, atop Michael, having a good time of it. Michael was game for me, that was for sure.”
Kahlan’s brow rose. “How did you figure that—”
“I had it worked out. Richard would come in behind me. He’d see me on Michael’s lance, crying out with the pleasure of it, and he’d be taken with lust by the sight, and by my willingness. Then he’d lose his head, his inhibition, and at last he’d have to have me, too.”
Kahlan stared dumbly. “How was that going to get you Richard?”
Nadine cleared her throat. “Well, it was like this; I figured that Richard would enjoy having me. I’d make sure of that. Then, I’d tell him no the next time he wanted me, and he’d want me so much, after he’d had a sampling, that he’d claim me. If Michael wanted to claim me, too, then it’s my choice, and I’d choose Richard.
“If Richard didn’t claim me, and I got pregnant, then I’d say it was his and he’d marry me because it could be his. If I didn’t get pregnant, and he wouldn’t claim me, well, then, there was still Michael. I figured second best was better than none.”
Kahlan didn’t know what had happened, Richard hadn’t said. She feared Nadine would stop her story right there. Kahlan couldn’t very well admit she didn’t know what happened next, and worse, she feared to hear just how successful Nadine’s bizarre plan had been. In the first version, the kissing version, Richard had turned away. But Kahlan now knew that version wasn’t true.
She watched the vein in the side of the Nadine’s neck throb. Kahlan folded her arms and waited.
At last, Nadine collected her voice and continued. “Well, that was my plan, anyway. It seemed to make sense. I figured I’d get Richard out of it, at best, and Michael at worst.
“It didn’t work the way I thought. Richard walked in and froze. I smiled over my shoulder. I invited him to come join the fun, or else to come to me later and I’d see to him, too.”
Kahlan held her breath.
“That was the first time I saw that look in Richard’s eyes. He didn’t say a word. He just turned and walked out.”
Nadine stuck a hand in under the hair hanging around her face and wiped it across her nose as she sniffled. “I thought I’d at least have Michael. He laughed at me when I told him he’d claimed me. He just laughed. He never wanted to be with me again after that. He’d gotten what he w
anted. I was no use to him after that. He moved on to other girls.”
“But, if you were willing to . . . Dear spirits, why didn’t you simply seduce Richard?”
“Because I was worried he might expect that and have his resistance built up for it. I wasn’t the only girl he danced with. I was afraid he wouldn’t want to commit, and that if I simply tried to seduce him, he might be ready for that and turn me down. I’d heard a rumor that Bess Pratter tried that. It didn’t seem to have worked for her. I was afraid it wouldn’t be enough of a shove.
“I figured that jealousy would be the thing that pushed him off the fence. I figured my plan would take him by such surprise that he’d just lose his head with jealousy and lust, and then I’d have him. I’ve heard tell there’s nothing more powerful in a man than jealousy and lust.”
With both hands, Nadine pushed her hair back on her head. “I can’t believe Richard told you. I didn’t think he would ever tell anyone.”
“He didn’t,” Kahlan whispered. “Richard only stared at me when I told him that you said he caught you kissing his brother. He didn’t tell me the story. You just did that all by yourself.”
Nadine’s face sank into her hands.
“You may have grown up with Richard, but you didn’t know him. Dear spirits, you didn’t know the first thing about him.”
“It might have worked. You don’t know as much as you think. Richard is just a boy from Hartland who never had anything and has had his head turned by fine things and people doing his bidding. That’s why it might have worked—because he just wants what he sees. I was just trying to make him see what I have to offer.”
Kahlan’s head throbbed. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she shut her eyes. “Nadine, as the good spirits are my witness, you have got to be just about the stupidest woman I have ever met.”
Nadine sprang up from the chair. “You think I’m so stupid? You love him. You want him.” She jabbed her finger at her own chest. “You know how it feels, in here, to want him. I wanted him no less than you. If you had to, you would do the same thing. Right now, as well as you know him, you’d do the same if you thought it was your only chance. Your only chance! Tell me you wouldn’t!”
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