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  　Kahlan gave his lips a quick lick and a kiss. "I don't think Nancy will be bothering us."

  　"Really?" Richard asked with a sly grin. "Why, Mother Confessor, who will protect your virtue?"

  　Her lips brushed his. "Dear spirits, no one, I pray."

  　He surprised her with an abrupt change of topic. "What do you think of Drefan?" That was a question she was not prepared to answer. "What do you think of him?"

  　"I'd like to have a brother I could trust and believe in. He's a healer. The surgeon was impressed with the way he helped some of those men. He said that at least one of them will live only because of what Drefan did for him. Nadine was more than a little curious about some of the compounds he carries in the leather pouches at his belt. I'd like to think that I have a brother who helps people. Nothing seems so noble as that." "Do you think he has magic?"

  　"I didn't see any trace of it in his eyes. I'm sure I would have been able to tell. I can't explain how I can sense magic, now, how I can see it sometimes sparkle in the air about a person, or show in their eyes, but I didn't see any of that with Drefan. I think that he is simply a talented healer.

  　"I'm grateful that he saved Cara. At least he said he saved her. What if she had recovered on her own after Marlin was dead and her link with him was broken?" Kahlan hadn't thought of that. "So, you don't trust him?" "I don't know. I still don't believe in coincidence." He sighed in frustration. "Kahlan, I need you to be honest, and not let me be blinded because he's my brother and I want to trust him. I haven't proven a very good judge of brothers. If you have any reason to doubt him, I want to hear about it." "All right. That seems fair."

  　He tipped his head toward her. "For example, you can tell me why you lied to him."

  　Kahlan frowned. "What do you mean.'"

  　"About your headache being gone. I could see that he didn't make it any better. Why did you tell him that it was gone?" Kahlan cupped a hand to the side of his face.

  　"I'd like you to have a brother you could be proud of, Richard, but I want it to be real. I guess what you said about coincidence has made me wary, that's all." "Anything other than simply what I said, about coincidence?" "No. I hope he can bring a little brotherly love to your heart. I pray that it is nothing more than simple coincidence." "Me, too." She gave his arm an affectionate squeeze. "I know he has the women on the staff all aflutter. I suspect he will soon be breaking hearts, what with all the swooning looks I've seen.

  　"I promise to let you know if he gives me reason to suspect something amiss." "Thanks."

  　He didn't 【创建和谐家园】ile at what she said about the women all liking Drefan. Richard had never displayed any jealousy, he didn't have reason to, even if she hadn't been a Confessor, but still, there was a painful history with Michael that she realized could make reason less than relevant. She wished she hadn't mentioned it.

  　He ran his fingers back into her hair, holding the sides of her head as he kissed her. She pulled back.

  　"Why did you take Nadine with you this afternoon?" "Who?"

  　He leaned toward her again. She pulled back. "Nadine. Remember her? The woman in the tight dress?" "Oh, that Nadine."

  　She poked his ribs. "So, you noticed her dress."

  　His brow drew together. "Did you think there was something different about it, today?"

  　"Oh yes, there was something different about it. So, why did you take her with you?"

  　"Because she's a healer. She's not an evil person-she has good qualities. I thought that as long as she was going to be here, she might as well make herself useful. I thought that that might make her feel better about herself. I had her check that the men were making the quench Oak tea properly, that it was strong enough. She seemed happy to help."

  　Kahlan remembered Nadine's 【创建和谐家园】ile when Richard had asked her to go with him. She had been happy, all right, but not simply to help. The 【创建和谐家园】ile was for Richard, as was the dress.

  　"So," Richard said, "you think Drefan is handsome, as all the other women do?"

  　She thought his trousers were too tight. She pulled Richard into a kiss, hoping he wouldn't notice her face flushing and misunderstand the reason for it. "Who?" she breathed dreamily.

  　"Drefan. Remember him? The man in the tight pants?"

  　"Sorry, I don't remember him," she said as she kissed his neck, and she nearly didn't. She ached for Richard and nothing else.

  　There was no room in her mind for Drefan. Almost the only thing in her thoughts was the time she had been with Richard in that strange place between worlds where they had been together, truly together, as never before or since. She wanted him that way again. She wanted him that way now.

  　With the way his hands were slipping down her back, and the urgency of his lips on her neck, she knew he wanted her the same way, and just as badly.

  　But she also knew that Richard didn't want to even appear to be like his father. He didn't want anyone to think she was no more than Darken Rahl's women had been: an amusement for the Master of D'Hara. That was why he always let the women on the staff so easily keep him a bay; despite his frustrated objections, he never overruled them when they shooed him away.

  　The three Mord-Sith, too, always seemed to be protecting Kahlan from being seen as less than the true betrothed to the Master of D'Hara. Whenever she and Richard thought to go to his room at night, even just to talk, either Cara, or Berdine, or Raina was always there, asking some pointed question that seemed to keep them apart. When Richard scowled, they reminded him that he had instructed them to protect the Mother Confessor: he never countermanded the orders.

  　Today, the three Mord-Sith were scrupulously following his orders, and when he had told Cara and Raina to guard him from around the corner and down the hall, they had remained there without objection.

  　With their wedding so soon. Kahlan and Richard had decided to wait, even though they had already been together once. That time seemed somehow unreal- in a place between worlds, in a place with no heat, no cold, no source of light, no ground, and yet they could see. and they had lain in dark space firm enough to support them.

  　More than anything, she remembered the feel of him. They had been the source of all heat. all light, all feeling, in that 'strange place between worlds where the good spirits had taken them.

  　She was feeling that heat. now, as she ran her hands over the muscles of his chest and stomach. She could hardly get her breath with the feel of his lips on her. She wanted his mouth everywhere on her. She wanted hers everywhere on him. She wanted him on the other side of her door.

  　"Richard," she whispered in his ear, "please, stay with me tonight." His hands were making her lose all sense of restraint. "Kahlan, I thought . . ."

  　"Please. Richard. I want you in my bed. I want you in me." He moaned helplessly at her words, and at her hands. "I hope I'm not interrupting," came a voice.

  　Richard jerked up straight. Kahlan spun around. With the thick carpets, they hadn't heard Nadine's silent approach. "Nadine," Kahlan said, catching her breath. "What . . . ?" Kahlan self-consciously clasped her hands behind her back, wondering if Nadine had seen where they had just been. She had to have seen where Richard's had been. Kahlan felt her face going red.

  　Nadine's cool gaze moved from Richard to Kahlan. "I didn't mean to interrupt. I just came to change your poultice. And to apologize." "Apologize?" Kahlan asked, still gulping air.

  　"Yes. I said some things to you earlier, and I guess I was a bit . . . out of sorts at the time. I thought I may have said some things I shouldn't have. I thought I should apologize."

  　"That's all right." Kahlan said. "I understand how you felt at the time." Nadine lifted her bag and her eyebrow:;. "The poultice?" "My arm is fine for tonight. You could change the poultice for me tomorrow, though." Kahlan sought to fill the dragging silence. "Drefan did some of his healing on it earlier . . . so it's fine for tonight." "Sure." She lowered her bag. "You two off to bed. then?" "Nadine," Richard said in a restrained tone, "thanks for checking on Kahlan. Good night."

  　Nadine regarded him with a cold glower. "Don't even plan to get married first? Just going to throw her down on the bed and lay claim to her, like some girl you come across in the woods? Seems a bit crude for the high and mighty Lord Rahl. And here you were pretending you were better than us common folk."

  　She glanced down at Richard and then turned her glare on Kahlan. "Like I said before, he wants what he's shown. Shota told me about you. I guess you know about what pushes men off the fence, too. It seems you would do anything to have him, after all. Like I said before, you're no better than me." Bag in hand, she turned and marched off down the hall. Kahlan and Richard stood in the uncomfortable silence, watching the empty hall. "Out of the mouths of whores," Kahlan said.

  　Richard wiped his hands back across his face. "Maybe she has a point." "Maybe she does," Kahlan admitted reluctantly. "Well, good night. Sleep well."

  　"You, too. I'll be thinking about you in that little guest room you use." He bent and kissed her cheek. "Not going to bed right off." "Where are you going?"

  　"Oh, I thought I'd go dunk myself in a horse trough."

  　She caught him by the wide, leather-padded band around his wrist. "Richard, I don't know if I can stand this much longer. Are we ever going to get married before something else happens?"

  　"We'll go wake the sliph just as soon as we make sure everything here is in order. I promise. Dear spirits, I promise." "What things?"

  　"Just as soon as we know that the men are getting better, and I'm satisfied about a few other things. I want to make sure that Jagang can't make good on his threats. A couple of days and the men should be better. A couple days. I promise."

  　She held one of his fingers in each of' her hands as she stared longingly into his gray eyes. "I love you," she whispered. "In a few days, or after an eternity. I'm yours. Words spoken over us or not, I'm forever yours."

  　"We are already one, in our hearts. The good spirits know the truth of that. They want us to be together, they've already proven it, and will watch over us. Don't worry, we'll have the words said over us."

  　He started away, but turned back win a haunted look in his eyes. "I only wish Zedd could be there when we're married. Dear spirits, I wish he could. And that he was here to help me, now."

  　When he looked back from the comer at the end of the hall, Kahlan threw him a kiss. She shuffled into her empty, lonely rooms and threw herself on her big bed. She thought about what Nadine said: "Shota told me about you." Kahlan wept in frustration.

  　"So, you're not going to be sleeping ... up here, tonight," Cara said when he walked past.

  　"And what would make you think I was?" Richard asked. Cara shrugged. "You made us wait around the corner." "Maybe I just wanted to kiss Kahlan good night without you two passing judgment on my skill."

  　Cara and Raina both 【创建和谐家园】iled, the first he had seen from them all day. "I have already seen you kiss the Mother Confessor," Cara said. "You appear quite talented at it. It always leaves her breathless and wanting more." Even though he didn't feel like 【创建和谐家园】iling, he did anyway because he was glad to see them 【创建和谐家园】iling. "That doesn't mean I'm talented, it just means she loves me."

  　"I've been kissed," Cara said, "and I've seen you kiss. I believe I can say with some authority that you are talented at the task. We watched you from around the corner tonight."

  　Richard tried to look indignant as he felt his face going red. "I gave you orders to stay down here."

  　"It is our responsibility to watch over you. To do that, we can't let you out of our sight. We can't follow such orders."

  　Richard shook his head. He couldn't be; angry over the violation of orders. How could he, when they were risking his anger to protect him? They hadn't endangered Kahlan in doing so. "What do you two think of Drefan?"

  　"He is your brother. Lord Rahl," Raina said. "The resemblance is obvious." "I know the resemblance is obvious. I mean, what do you think of him." "We don't know him. Lord Rahl," Raina said.

  　"I don't know him, either. Look, I'm not going to be angry if you tell me you don't like him. In fact. I'd really like to know if you don't. What about you, Cara? What do you think of him?"

  　She shrugged. "I've never kissed either of you, but from what I have seen, I would rather kiss you."

  　Richard put his hands on his hips. "What does that mean?" "I was hurt, yesterday, and he helped me. But I don't like the fact that master Drefan came now, when Marlin and Nadine came."

  　Richard sighed. "My thoughts, too. I ask people not to judge me because of who my father was, and I find myself doing that with him. I'd really like to trust him. Please, both of you, if you have any reason for concern, don't be afraid to come and tell me."

  　"Well," Cara said, "I don't like his hands." "What do you mean?"

  　"He has hands like Darken Rahl. I have already seen them caressing fawning women. Darken Rahl did that, too."

  　Richard threw his hands up. "When did he have time to do that? He was with me most of the day!"

  　"He found the time, when you were talking to soldiers and when you were out checking on the men with Nadine. It didn't take him long. The women found him. I have never seen so many women batting their lashes at a man. You have to admit, he is fine to look upon."

  　Richard didn't see what was so especially fine about his looks. "Have any of these women not been willing?"

  　Her answer was a long moment in coming. "No, Lord Rahl." "Well, I guess I've seen other men who acted like that. Some of them have been my friends. They liked women, and women liked them. As long as the women are willing, I can't see that it's any of my business. I'm more concerned about other things." "Like what?" "I wish I knew."

  　"If you learn that he is here innocently, and only means to help, as he says, then you can be proud of him. Lord Rahl. Your brother is an important man." "He is? How important is he?" "Your brother is the leader of his sect of healers."

  　"He is? He never told me that."

  　''No doubt he did not wish to vaunt himself. Humility before the Lord Rahl is the way of D'Harans, and one of the tenets of that ancient sect of healers." "I suppose. So he leads these healers?" "Yes." Cara said. "He is the High Priest of the Raug'Moss." "The what?" Richard whispered. "What did you call them?" "The Raug'Moss, Lord Rahl." "Do you know the meaning of the words?"

  　Cara shrugged. "Just that it means 'healers,' that's all. Does it have some meaning to you. Lord Rahl?" "Where's Berdine?" "In her bed, I would suppose."

  　Richard started down the hall, calling orders back to them as he went. "Cara, post a guard for the night around Kahlan's room. Raina, go wake Berdine and ask her to meet me in my office." "Now, Lord Rahl?" Raina asked. 'This late?" "Yes, please."

  　Richard took the steps two at a time on the way to his office where waited the journal, Kolo's journal, written in High D'Haran. In High D'Haran, Raug'Moss meant "Divine Wind."

  　Both Shota's warning to Nadine for Richard, "the wind hunts him," and the words from the prophecy down in the pit, "he must seek the remedy in the wind," spun through his mind.

  　CHAPTER 19

  　This time," Ann warned, "you had better let me do the talking. Understand?"

  　Her eyebrows drew so tight together Zedd thought they might touch. She leaned close enough that he could 【创建和谐家园】ell the lingering aroma of sausage on her breath. With a fingernail she tapped his collar-another warning, albeit a wordless one.

  　Zedd blinked innocently. "If it would please you. by all means, but my tales always have your best interest, and our purpose, at heart." "Oh, of course, and your clever wit is always a delight, too." Zedd felt that her affected 【创建和谐家园】ile was overdoing it; the sardonic praise would have been quite enough. There were accepted customs to such things. The woman really did need to learn where the line was.

  　Zedd's gaze again focused beyond her, to the problem at hand. He passed a critical eye over the inn's dimly lit door. It was across the street and at the end of a narrow, board walk. Above the alleyway that ran between two warehouses hung a 【创建和谐家园】all sign: "Jester's Inn."

  　Zedd didn't know the name of the large town they had come to in the dark, but he did know that he would have preferred to pass it by. He had seen several inns in the town; this wasn't the one he would have chosen, had he a choice.

  　Jester's Inn looked as if it had either been an afterthought meant to use available space in the back, or else its proprietors wanted to shelter it from the scrutiny of honest people and the critical eye of authority. From the customers Zedd had already seen, he was leaning in the direction of the second guess. Most of the men looked to be mercenaries or highwaymen. "I don't like it," he muttered to himself.

  　"You don't like anything." Ann snapped. "You're the most disagreeable man I've ever met."

  　Zedd's eyebrows went up in true surprise. "Why would you say that? I've been told that I'm a most pleasant traveling companion. Do we have any of that sausage left?"

  　Ann rolled her eyes. "No. What is it you don't like this time?" Zedd watched a man look both ways before going to the door at the back of the dark alleyway. "Why would Nathan go in there?"

  　Ann looked over her shoulder, across the deserted street of rutted, frozen slush. She fingered a stray wisp of graying hair into the loose knot tied at the back of her head.

  　"To get a hot meal and some sleep." She scowled back at Zedd. "That is, if he's even in there."

  　"I've shown you how to sense the thread of magic I used to hook the tracer cloud to him. You've felt it, felt him."

  　"True enough," Ann admitted. ''Yet now that we finally catch him, and know that he's in there, you suddenly don't like it." 'That's right," he said distantly. ' I don't like it."

  　The scowl on Ann's face lost its heat and turned serious. "What is it that bothers you?"

  　"Look at the sign. After the name.' A pair of woman's legs pointed up in the shape of a V. She turned back and peered at him is if he were daft. "Zedd, the man has been locked up in the Palace of the Prophets for almost a thousand years."

  　"You just said it: he's been locked up." Zedd tapped the collar, called a Rada'Han, around his own neck, the collar she had put on him to capture him and make him do her bidding. "Nathan is not inclined to be locked up in a collar again. It probably took him hundreds of years of planning, and the right turn of events, to get out of his collar and to escape. I dread to consider how that man may have influenced or even directly altered events through prophecy to bring to pass the turn of fate that allowed him the opportunity to get off his collar.

  　"Now you expect me to believe he would go in there just to be with a woman? When he has to know you're chasing after him?"

  　Ann stared in stunned di【创建和谐家园】elief, "Zedd, are you saying that you think Nathan may have influenced events-prophecies-just to get his collar off?"

  　Zedd looked across the road and shook his head. "I'm just saying I don't like it."