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“Richard, I’m fine, really. I was exhausted before because I used my power, along with all the rest of it. People mistook that for me being hurt worse than I was.”
He appraised her for a long moment, before bending to the kind of kiss he had been longing to give her.
“That’s better,” she breathed on parting. She pushed back. “Richard, did you see Cara? You left so quickly, and you had that look in your eye. I didn’t have time to really talk to you. It wasn’t her fault.”
“I know. You told me.”
“You didn’t yell at her, did you?”
“We had a talk.”
She squinted. “Talk. What did she have to say for herself? She didn’t try to tell you that she was . . ?”
“What’s Nadine still doing here?”
She was looking at him. She snatched his wrist. “Richard, you have blood on you… your arm…”
She looked up in alarm. “What did you do? Richard… you didn’t hurt her, did you?” She lifted his arm higher into the light. “Richard, this looks like… like when you…”
She seized his shirt. “You didn’t hurt her? Tell me that you didn’t hurt her!”
“She wanted to be executed. She gave me the choice of doing it, or she would. So I used the sword, like that time with the Mud People elders.”
“She’s all right? She’s all right, isn’t she?”
“She’s all right.”
Kahlan, concern in her expression, looked into his eyes. “And you? Are you all right?”
“I’ve been better. Kahlan, what is Nadine still doing here?”
“She’s just staying for a visit, that’s all. Have you met Drefan yet?”
Richard held her away when she moved to lay her head to his chest. “What is she doing here? Why did you invite her to stay?”
“Richard, I had to. Trouble from Shota isn’t so easily dismissed. You ought to know that. We have to know what’s going on before we can do something to make sure Shota can’t cause us trouble.”
Richard went to the glassed door and stared out at the mountain towering over the city. The Wizard's Keep stared back.
“I don’t like it. Not one bit.”
“Neither do I,” she said from behind him. “Richard, she helped me. I didn’t think she would have the guts to keep her head, but she did. She’s confused by all this, too. Something more than we’re seeing is going on, and we have to use our heads, not hide under the blankets.”
He heaved a sigh. “I still don’t like it, but you have a point. I only marry smart women.”
He could hear Kahlan absently smooth her dress behind him. The fragrance of her calmed him.
“I can see why you liked her. She’s a lovely woman, besides being a healer. It must have hurt you.”
The Keep seemed to absorb the morning sunlight in its dark stone. He should go up there. “What must have hurt me?”
“When you caught her kissing Michael. She told me how you caught her kissing your brother.”
Richard wheeled around, staring in slack-jawed disbelief. “She told you what?”
Kahlan gestured back toward the door, as if Nadine might appear to speak for herself. “She said that you caught her kissing your brother.”
“Kissing him.”
“That’s what she said.”
Richard turned his glare back to the window. “Did she, now?”
“What was she doing, then? You mean you caught—”
“Kahlan, we have sixteen men who died down by the pit last night, and a dozen more who may not live the day. I’ve got guards I can’t trust to protect the woman I love. We’ve got a witch woman who has made it her life’s mission to cause us trouble. We’ve got Jagang sending us messages in walking dead men. We’ve got a Sister of the Dark loose somewhere. We’ve got half the army in Aydindril sick and unable to fight if they have to. We’ve got representatives waiting to see us. I’ve got a half brother I never knew I had downstairs under guard. I think we have more important things to discuss than Nadine’s… than Nadine’s difficulty with the truth!”
Kahlan’s green eyes watched him tenderly for a moment. “That bad. Now I understand what put that look in your eyes.”
“Remember what you told me one time? ‘Never let a beautiful woman pick your path for you when there’s a man in her line of sight.’”
She put a hand over his shoulder. “Nadine isn’t picking my path. I asked her to stay for my own reasons.”
“Nadine sticks to what she wants like a hound on scent, but I’m not talking about Nadine. I’m talking about Shota. She’s pointing down a path, and you’re walking right down it.”
“We have to find out what’s down that path, and Shota’s reasons for pointing to it.”
Richard turned back to the glassed door. “I want to know what else Marlin—Jagang—had to say. Every word. I want you to try to remember every word.”
“Why don’t you just yell at me and get it over with?”
“I don’t want to yell at you. You scared me to death, going down there. I just want to hold you, to protect you. I want to marry you.” He turned back and looked into her green eyes. “I think I have a way for it to work. With the Mud People, I mean.”
She stepped closer. “Really? How?”
“First, you tell me everything Jagang said.”
Richard idly watched the Keep as she went through the whole story: how Jagang said he watched the Ja’La game and that in his native tongue the name meant the Game of Life; that he wanted to witness the glory of what Marlin had done; how he wanted Sister Amelia to return to him befo
re he revealed himself; that he had found prophecies other than those Richard had destroyed, and that he had invoked one called a bound fork prophecy.
“That’s all I remember,” she said. “Why are you watching the Keep so intently?”
“I’m wondering why Sister Amelia went there. And what Marlin was going to do there. Any ideas?”
“No. Jagang wouldn’t say. Richard, have you seen the prophecy in the pit.”
His stomach roiled. “Yes.”
“And? What does it say?”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to translate it.”
“Richard Rahl, you may be able to tell it’s me who has walked into a room without seeing me, but I can tell when you’re not telling me the truth without even having to look into your eyes.”
Richard couldn’t manage to smile. “Prophecies are more complicated than their words. You know that. Just hearing their words doesn’t mean it’s what it sounds like. Besides, just because Jagang found a prophecy, that doesn’t mean he can invoke it.”
“Well, that’s all true enough. I told him as much myself. He said that proof he had invoked the prophecy would come on a red moon. Not much chance of that—”
Richard spun around. “What did you say? You didn’t tell me that before. What did Jagang say?”
Her face paled. “I forgot… until you said… I told Jagang that I didn’t believe him—about invoking the prophecy. He said that proof would come on the red moon. Richard, do you know what that means?”
Richard’s tongue felt thick. He made himself blink.
“The moon was red last night. I’ve been outdoors my whole life. I’ve never seen anything even remotely like it. It was like looking at the moon through a glass of red wine. It gave me goose bumps. That was why I came back early.”
“Richard, what did the prophecy say? Tell me.”
He stared at her, trying to think of a lie he could make her believe. He couldn’t.
