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Shota’s gaze turned dangerous. “Where?” she repeated.
Shota’s tone was so threatening that Kahlan forgot she needn’t be afraid of the witch woman.
“In a place between worlds,” Kahlan said, suddenly embarrassed to reveal the details. “The good spirits… took us there,” she stammered. “The good spirits… they wanted us to be together.”
“I see.” Shota’s gaze cooled. Her small smile returned. “I’m afraid that doesn’t count.”
“Doesn’t count! What in the name of all that’s good does that mean? I was with him. That’s all that matters. You’re just vexed because it’s true.”
“True? You were not with him in this world, child. This is the world we live in. You were not with him here, where it counts. In this world, you are still a virgin.”
“That’s absurd.”
Shota shrugged. “Think what you will. I am satisfied that you have not been with him.”
Kahlan folded her arms. “This world, or another, it doesn’t matter. I was with him.”
Shota’s smooth brow puckered with mirth restrained. “And, if you have been with him in the place between worlds, where the good spirits took you, then why have you not been with him in this world, since you are no longer a virgin, here, as you say?”
Kahlan blinked. “Well, I… we… thought it best to wait until we were wedded, that’s all.”
Shota’s soft, exultant laugh drifted out through the morning air. “You see? You know the truth of what I say.” She held the teacup between the tips of the fingers of both hands as she sipped, more balmy laughter escaping between each sip.
Kahlan fumed, somehow feeling she had lost the argument. She tried to look confident as she leaned back and took a drink of her own tea.
“If it pleases you to delude yourself with punctilios, then be my guest. I know what we did,” Kahlan said. “I don’t know why it’s any concern of yours, anyway.”
Shota looked up. “You know why it’s my concern, Mother Confessor. Every Confessor bears a Confessor. If you have his child, it will be a boy. I told you both to remember that before you lay together. Lust dims thoughts of the consequences.
“From you, the boy would be a Confessor. From Richard, he would have the gift. Such a dangerous melding has never taken place before.”
With a patient, reasoned tone, meant almost as much for herself as for the witch woman, Kahlan hid her inner terror at Shota’s prediction.
“Shota, you are a witch woman of great talent, and you may know it would be a boy, I grant you that, but you could not know he would be like most of the male Confessors born in the past. Not all were like that. You have as much as admitted that you don’t know if it would be so. You are not the Creator; you can’t know what He will choose to do—if He even chooses to give us a child.”
“I don’t need to see the future in this. Almost every male Confessor was like that. They were beasts without conscience. My mother lived in the dark times caused by a male Confessor. You would visit upon the world not only a male Confessor, but one with the gift. You cannot even envision such a cataclysm.
“It is for this very reason that Confessors are not supposed to love their mates. If she bears a male child, she must ask the husband to kill the baby. You love Richard. You would not ask that of him. I have warned you that I have the strength to do what you will not. I also told you that it will not be personal.”
“You talk about the distant future as if it has come to pass. It has not,” Kahlan said. “Events do not always unfold as you say. Yet, other things have already come to pass. Because of Richard, you still live. You told us that if Richard and I were able to close the veil, saving you and everyone else from the Keeper, you would be forever grateful to us both.”
“And so I am.”
Kahlan leaned forward. “You show your gratitude not only by threatening to murder my child should I have one, but also by trying to kill me when I come to ask your help?”
Shota’s brow twitched. “I have made no attempt on your life.”
“You sent Samuel up there to attack me, and then you have the effrontery to rebuke me for coming prepared to defend myself. The little monster threw me on the ground and attacked me. If I hadn’t had a weapon, who knows what he would have done. This is your gratitude? He said that when you were through with me, you would let him eat me. And then you expect me to believe in your benevolence? You dare to profess gratitude?”
Shota’s gaze shifted toward the trees. “Samuel!” She set down her teacup. “Samuel! Come here at once!”
The squat figure loped out of the trees, using his knuckles to help himself bound across the grass. He ran to Shota and nuzzled against her legs.
“Mistress,” he purred.
“Samuel, what did I tell you about the Mother Confessor?”
“Mistress told Samuel to go get her.”
Shota looked into Kahlan’s eyes. “What else did I tell you?”
“To bring her to you.”
“Samuel,” she said with rising inflection.
“Mistress said not to harm her.”
“You attacked me!” Kahlan put in. “You threw me on the ground and jumped on me! You said you were going to eat me when your mistress was through with me.”
“Is that true, Samuel?”
“Samuel not hurt pretty lady,” Samuel grouched.
“Is what she says true? Did you attack her?”
Samuel hissed at Kahlan. Shota thunked him on the head with a finger. He shrank back against her leg.
“Samuel, what did I tell you? What were my instructions?”
“Samuel must guide Mother Confessor back. Samuel must not touch Mother Confessor. Samuel must not hurt Mother Confessor. Samuel must not threaten Mother Confessor.”
Shota drummed her fingers on the table. “And did you disobey me, Samuel?”
Samuel hid his head under the hem of her dress.
“Samuel, answer my question at once. Is what the Mother Confessor says true?”
“Yes, mistress,” Samuel whined.
“I’m very disappointed in you, Samuel.”
“Samuel sorry.”
“We will discuss this later. Leave us.”
The witch woman’s servant skittered away into the trees. Shota turned back to face Kahlan’s eyes.
“I told him not to harm or threaten you. I can understand why you would be upset and think I meant you harm. Please accept my apology.” She poured Kahlan more tea. “You see? I have no intention of hurting you.”
Kahlan took a sip from her full cup. “Samuel is the least of it. I know you want to hurt me and Richard, but I’m not afraid of you anymore. You can no longer harm me.”
Shota’s smug smile returned. “Really?”
“I’d suggest you not try to use your power against me.”
“My power? All things I do, all things everyone does, is using their power. To breathe is to use my power.”
“I’m talking about hurting me. If you dare try it, you’ll not survive the attempt.”
“Child, I have no wish to harm you, despite what you think.”
“A brave thing to say, now that you know you can’t.”
“Really? Did you ever think that the tea might be poisoned?”
Her smile widened when Kahlan stiffened. “You…?”
“Of course not. I told you, I have no wish to harm you. If I wished to harm you, I could do any number of things. I could have simply put a viper behind your heels. Vipers dislike sudden movement.”
If there was one thing Kahlan hated, it was snakes, and Shota knew it.
“Relax, child. There is no viper under your chair.” Shota took a bite of her toast.
Kahlan eased her breath out. “But you wished to make me think there might be.”
“What I wished is for you to realize that confidence can be overrated. If it will please you, I will tell you that I have always regarded you as singularly dangerous for any number of reasons. That you have found a way
to tap the other side of your magic means little to me.
“It is the other things you do that frighten me. Your womb frightens me. Your arrogant certitude frightens me.”
Kahlan nearly leaped to her feet in anger, but then she suddenly thought of the children dying back in Aydindril. How many of them hung near death, shivering in fear for their lives, while Kahlan stubbornly debated fault and imputation with Shota. Shota knew something about the plague, and about the winds hunting Richard. What significance was Kahlan’s pride in the face of that?
