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  　"Cara, do you think it necessary that-"

  　"Yes. I know my business. Let me do it. You yourself reminded me what was at stake and how we dared not take any chances."

  　Kahlan relented. "All right."

  　Kahlan took hold of a rung above her head and started up the ladder. On the second rung, she paused and looked back. Frowning, she stepped back off the ladder.

  　"Marlin, did you come to Aydindril alone?"

  　"No, Mother Confessor."

  　Cara snatched the neck of his tunic. "What! You came with others?"

  　"Yes, Mistress Cara."

  　"How many!"

  　"With one other, Mistress Cara. She was a Sister of the Dark."

  　Kahlan's fist joined Cara's on his tunic. "What was her name!"

  　Frightened by both women, he tried to back away a bit, but their grip on his tunic wouldn't allow it. "I don't know her name," he whined. "I swear."

  　"She was a Sister of the Dark, from the palace, where you lived for close to a century, and you don't know her name?" Kahlan asked.

  　Marlin licked his lips, his gaze moving between the two women. "There were hundreds of Sisters at the Palace of the Prophets. There were rules. We had teachers assigned to us. There were places we didn't go, and Sisters we never came in contact with, like those who handled administration. I didn't know them all, I swear. I saw her before, at the palace, but I didn't know her name, and she didn't tell me."

  　"Where is she now!"

  　Marlin shook in terror. "I don't know! I haven't seen her for days, since I came to the city."

  　Kahlan gritted her teeth. "What did she look like, then?"

  　Marlin licked his lips again as his gaze flicked back and forth between the two women. "I don't know. I don't know how to describe her. A young woman. I don't think she was long out of being a novice She was young-looking, like you, Mother Confessor. Pretty. I thought she was pretty. She had long hair. Long brown hair."

  　Kahlan and Cara shared a look. "Nadine," they said as one.

  　CHAPTER 4

  　Mistress Cara?" Marlin called from below.

  　Cara turned, hanging by one hand on the next rung down from Kahlan. She held the torch out in her other hand. "What!"

  　"How will I sleep, Mistress Cara? If you don't come back tonight, and if I have to stand, then how will I sleep?"

  　"Sleep? That's not my concern. I told you-you must remain on your feet, on that spot. Move, sit, or lie down, and you will be very sorry. You will be all alone with the pain. Understand?"

  　"Yes, Mistress Cara," came the weak voice from the darkness below.

  　Once Kahlan was up in the hall, she reached down and took the torch from Cara, freeing the Mord-Sith to use both hands to climb out. Kahlan handed the torch to a relieved-looking Sergeant Collins.

  　"Collins, I'd like all of you to remain here. Keep the door locked and don't go down there-for anything. Don't let anyone else so much as take a peek."

  　"Yes, Mother Confessor." Sergeant Collins hesitated. "Is it dangerous, then?"

  　Kahlan understood his concern. "No. Cara has control of his power. He's incapable of using his magic."

  　She took appraisal of the troops clogging the dingy stone corridor. There had to be close to a hundred.

  　"I don't know if we'll be back tonight," she told the sergeant. "Get the rest of your men down here. Divide them into squads. Take shifts so that there's at least this many down here at all times. Lock all the barricade doors. Post archers at the doors and at each end of this hall."

  　"I thought you said there was no need for concern, that he couldn't use his magic."

  　Kahlan 【创建和谐家园】iled. "Do you want to have to explain it to Cara, here, if someone sneaks in and rescues her charge out from under your nose in her absence?"

  　He scratched his stubble as he glanced at Cara. "I understand, Mother Confessor. No one will be allowed within shouting distance of this door."

  　"Still don't trust me?" Cara asked, when they were out of earshot of the soldiers.

  　Kahlan offered a friendly 【创建和谐家园】ile. "My father was King Wyborn. He was Cyrilla's father, and then mine. He was a great warrior. He taught me that it's impossible to be too cautious with prisoners."

  　Cara shrugged as they passed a sputtering torch. "Fine by me. It doesn't hurt my feelings. But I have his magic. He's helpless."

  　"I still don't understand how you can fear magic, and have such control over it."

  　"I told you. Only if he specifically attacks me with it."

  　"And how do you take control of it? How do you make it yours to command?"

  　Cara spun the Agiel on the end of the chain at her wrist as she walked. "I don't know myself. We just do it. The Master Rahl himself takes part in some of the training of Mord-Sith. It is during that; phase that the ability is instilled in us. It's not magic from within us, but transferred to us, I guess."

  　Kahlan shook her head. "Yet you don't know, really, what you're doing. And still it works."

  　With her fingertips, Cara hooked the iron rail at a corner, swung around it, and followed Kahlan up the stone stairs. "You don't have to know what you are doing in order for magic to work."

  　"What do you mean?"

  　"Well, Lord Rahl told us that a child is magic: the magic of Creation. You don't have to know what you are doing to make a child.

  　"One time, this girl-a very naive girl-of about fourteen summers, a daughter of one of the staff at the People's Palace in D Hara, told me that Darken Rahl- Father Rahl, he liked to be called-had given her a rosebud and it had bloomed in her fingers as he 【创建和谐家园】iled down at her. She said that that was how she had come to be with child-through his magic."

  　Cara laughed without humor. "She really thought that that was how she became pregnant. It never occurred to her that it was because she had spread her legs for him. So you see? She did magic, created a son, and without knowing how she had really done it."

  　Kahlan paused on the landing, in the shadows, and seized the crook of Cara's elbow, halting her.

  　"All Richard's family is dead-Darken Rahl killed his stepfather, his mother died when he was young, and his half brother, Michael, betrayed Richard ... allowing Denna to capture him. After Richard defeated Darken Rahl, Richard forgave Michael for what he had done to him, but ordered him executed because his treachery had knowingly caused the torture and death of countless people at the hands of Darken Rahl.

  　"I know how much family means to Richard. He would be thrilled to come to know a half brother. Could we send word to the palace in D'Hara and have him brought here? Richard would be-"

  　Cara shook her head and glanced away. "Darken Rahl tested the child and discovered that he was born without the gift. Darken Rahl was eager to have a gifted heir. He considered anything less deformed and worthless."

  　"I see." Silence filled the stairwell. "The girl ... the mother ... ?"

  　Cara heaved a sigh, realizing that Kahlan wanted to hear it all. "Darken Rahl had a temper. A sick temper. He crushed the girl's windpipe with his bare hands after he had made her watch him .. . well, watch him kill her son. When ungifted offspring came to his attention it often made him angry, and then he did that."

  　Kahlan let her hand fall away from Cara's arm.

  　Cara's eyes came up; the calm had repossessed them. "A few of the Mord-Sith suffered a similar fate. Fortunately, I never came to be with child when he chose me for his amusement."

  　Kahlan sought to fill the silence. "I'm glad Richard freed you from bondage to that beast. Freed everyone."

  　Cara nodded, her eyes as cold as Kahlan had ever seen them. "He is more than Lord Rahl to us. Anyone who ever hurts him will answer to the Mord-Sith-to me."

  　Kahlan suddenly saw what Cara had said about Richard being allowed to "keep" Kahlan in a new light; it was the kindest thing she could think to do for him: allowing him to have the one he loved, despite her concern for the danger to his heart.

  　"You'll have to wait in line," Kahlan said.

  　Cara at last grinned. "Let us pray to the good spirits that we never have to fight over first rights."

  　"I have a better idea: let's keep harm from reaching him in the first place. But remember, when we get up there, that we don't know for sure who this Nadine is. If she is a Sister of the Dark, she is a very dangerous woman. But we don't know for sure that she is. She might be a dignitary: a woman of rank and importance. It could even be that she's nothing more than a rich nobleman's daughter. Maybe he banished her poor, farmboy lover, and she's simply looking for him. I don't want you harming an innocent person. Let's just keep our heads."

  　"I'm not a monster, Mother Confessor."

  　"I know. I didn't mean to say that you were. I just don't want our desire to protect Richard to make us lose our heads. That includes me. Now, let's get up to Petitioners' Hall."

  　Cara frowned. "Why would we go there? Why not go to Nadine's room?"

  　Kahlan started up the second flight, two steps at a time. "There are two hundred eighty-eight guest rooms in the Confessors' Palace, divided among six separate wings at distant points. I was distracted before, and didn't think to tell the guards where to put her, so we have to go ask.'

  　Cara shouldered open the door at the top of the stairs and, head swiveling, entered the hall ahead of Kahlan, as she liked to do in order to check the way for trouble.

  　"Seems a poor design. Why would guest rooms be separated?"

  　Kahlan gestured to a corridor branching to the left. "This way is shorter." She slowed as two guards stepped aside to make way for them, and then quickened her pace along the deep blue carpet running down the hall. "The guest rooms are separated because many diplomats visited the palace on business with the council, and if the wrong diplomats are placed too close together, they could become very undiplomatic. Keeping peace among allies was sometimes a delicate balancing game. That included accommodations."

  　"But there are all the palaces-for the representatives of the lands-on Kings Row."

  　Kahlan grunted cynically. "Part of the game."

  　When they entered Petitioners' Hall, everyone went to their knees again. Kahlan had to give them the formal acknowledgment before she could speak with the captain. He told her where he had put Nadine, and she was about to leave when a boy, one of the group of Ja'La players waiting patiently in the hall, snatched the floppy wool hat from his head of blond hair and bolted toward them.

  　The captain caught sight of him trotting across the room. "He's waiting to see Lord Rahl. Probably wants him to come watch another game." The captain 【创建和谐家园】iled to himself. "I told him it would be all right if he waited, but that I couldn't promise that Lord Rahl could see him." He shrugged self-consciously. "Least I could do. I was at the game, yesterday, with a crowd of soldiers. The boy and his team won me three silver marks."

  　Hat crushed in both little fists, the boy genuflected on the other side of the marble railing from Kahlan. "Mother Confessor, we'd like to ... well... if it's no trouble ... we ..." His voice trailed off as he gulped air.

  　Kahlan 【创建和谐家园】iled encouragement. "Don't be afraid. What's your name?"

  　"Yonick, Mother Confessor."

  　"I'm sorry, Yonick, but Richard can't come watch another game just now. We're busy at the moment. Perhaps tomorrow. I know we both enjoyed it, and we would very much like to come watch again, but on another day."

  　He shook his head. "It's not about that. It's my brother, Kip." He twisted his hat. "He's sick. I was wondering if ... well, if Lord Rahl could come do some magic and make him better."

  　Kahlan gave the boy's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Well, Richard's not really that kind of wizard. Why don't you go see one of the healers on Stentor Street. Tell them what he's sick with and they'll give him some herbs to help him feel better."

  　Yonick hung his head. "We don't have no money for herbs. That's why I was hoping .. . Kip is real sick."

  　Kahlan straightened and peered at the captain. His gaze went from Kahlan to the boy and back again. He cleared his throat.

  　"Well, Yonick, I saw you play, yesterday," the captain stammered. "Quite good. Your team was quite good." Checking Kahlan's eyes again, he stabbed a hand into a pocket and came out with a coin. He bent over the rail and pushed the coin into Yonick's fist. "I know which one's your brother. He ... that was a great play, that goal he made. Take this and get him some herbs, like the Mother Confessor said he needs."

  　Yonick stared in astonishment at the silver coin in his hand. "Herbs don't cost this much, as I hear told."

  　The captain waved away the notion. "Well, I don't have anything 【创建和谐家园】aller. Buy your team a treat, for their win, with the extra. Now take it and be off. We have palace business we must attend to."

  　Yonick straightened and clapped a fist to his heart in salute. "Yes, sir."

  　"And practice that kick of yours," the captain called after the boy as he ran across the hall to his fellows. "It's a little sloppy."

  　"I will," Yonick shouted over his shoulder. "Thanks."

  　Kahlan watched as he collected his friends and they rushed to the door. "Very kind of you, captain . . . ?"

  　"Harris." He winced. "Thank you, Mother Confessor."

  　"Cara, let's go see this Lady Nadine."

  　Kahlan hoped the captain who came to attention at the end of the hall had had an uneventful watch.

  　"Has Nadine tried to leave, Captain Nance?"

  　"No, Mother Confessor," he said, when he straightened from his bow. "She seemed grateful that someone was taking in interest in her request. When I explained that there could be trouble about and we needed her to stay in her room, she promised to abide by my instructions." He glanced at the door. "She said that she didn't want to get me in 'hot water' and she would do as I asked."

  　"Thank you, captain." She paused before she opened the door. "If she comes out of this room without us, kill her. Don't stop to ask her any questions, and don't give her any warning, just have the archers take her down." When his brow twitched, she added, "If she leaves first, it will be because she has proven she commands magic and has killed us with it."

  　Captain Nance, his face gone as pale as year-old straw, clapped a fist to his heart in salute.

  　The outer sitting room was decorated in red. The walls were a dark crimson, adorned with white crown molding, pink marble baseboard and door casings, and a hardwood floor almost entirely covered with a huge, gold-fringed carpet embellished with an ornate leaf-and-flower motif. The gilded legs of the marble-topped table and of the red velvet, tufted chairs were carved with a matching leaf-and-flower design. Being an interior room, there were no windows. Cut-glass chimneys on the dozen reflector lamps around the room sent sparkles of light dancing across the walls.

  　To Kahlan's mind it was one of the least tasteful color schemes in the palace, but there were diplomats who specified this color room when requesting accommodations at the palace. They felt it put them in the right frame of mind for negotiations. Kahlan was always wary when hearing the arguments of representatives who had requested one of the red rooms.

  　Nadine wasn't in the extravagant outer room. The door to the bedroom was ajar.

  　"Delicious rooms." Cara whispered. ''Can I have them?"

  　Kahlan shushed her. She knew why the Mord-Sith would want a red room. With Cara peering over her shoulder, Kahlan cautiously pushed back the bedroom door. Cara's breath tickled her left ear.

  　If it was possible, the bedroom was more jarring to the senses than the sitting room, with the red theme carried into the carpets, embroidered bedcover, immoderate collection of ornate, gold-fringed crimson pillows, and the swirled, pink marble fireplace surround. Kahlan thought that if Cara was wearing her red leather and ever wanted to hide, she could simply sit in this room and no one would ever find her.