Blood of the Fold

Chapter 8

Gently, the two huge D’Harans set Richard down. As his feet found the ground, his hand found the hilt of his sword. The two men spread their feet in a relaxed manner and clasped their hands behind their backs. From the shadowed end of the passageway the four cloaked figures started toward him.

Deciding escape was preferable to a fight, Richard didn’t draw his sword, but instead dove to the side. He rolled through the snow and sprang to his feet. His back smacked up against the cold brick wall. Panting, he flung his mriswith cape around himself. In a heartbeat the cape changed color to match the wall, and he vanished.

It would be an easy matter to slip away while hidden by the cape. Better to escape than to fight. As soon as he caught his breath.

The four marched forward, their dark capes billowing open as they came into the light. Dark brown leather the same color as the D’Harans’ uniforms covered their shapely forms from ground to neck. A yellow star between the cusps of a crescent emblazoned the leather outfits at each woman’s stomach.

The recognition of that yellow star and crescent was like a flash of lightning in Richard’s mind. Too many times to count, his face, wet with his own blood, had laid against that emblem. Out of reflex he froze, drawing neither sword, nor breath. For a panic filled instant he saw only the symbol he knew all too well.

Mord-Sith.

The woman in the lead pushed back her hood, letting her long blond hair, plaited in a single thick braid, fall free. Her blue eyes searched the wall where he stood.

“Lord Rahl? Lord Rahl, where . . .”

Richard blinked. “Cara?”

Just as he slackened his concentration, allowing his cape to return to black, and her eyes found him, the sky fell in.

With a roar, a flap of wings, and a flash of fangs, Gratch plummeted to the ground. The two men had swords to hand almost instantly, but they were not as fast as the Mord-Sith. Before the men’s blades had cleared their scabbards, the women had their Agiel in their fists. Though an Agiel appeared to be nothing more than a thin, red leather rod, Richard knew them to be weapons of awesome power. Richard had been “trained” with an Agiel.

Richard heaved himself at the gar, knocking him to the far wall before the two men and four women could reach him. Gratch slung him aside in his desire to get at the threat.

“Stop! All of you, stop!” The six people and one gar froze at the sound of his shriek. Richard didn’t know who would win the fight, but he didn’t want to find out. He snatched the instant he had before they might decide to move again and sprang in front of Gratch. With his back to the gar, he held his hands out to each side. “Gratch is my friend. He only wants to protect me. Stay where you are, and he won’t hurt you.”

Gratch’s furry arm circled around Richard’s middle and drew him back against the taut, pink skin of his chest and stomach. The passageway resounded with a growl that, while affectionate, at the same time carried a rumble of threat for the others.

“Lord Rahl,” Cara said in a smooth voice as the two men sheathed their swords, “we are here to protect you, too.”

Richard eased the arm away. “It’s all right, Gratch. I know them. You did good, just like I asked, but it’s all right, now. Just calm down.”

Gratch let out a purling rumble that echoed off the walls rising up like a narrow, dark canyon. Richard knew it as a sound of satisfaction. He had told Gratch to follow him, either high in the air, or flying from rooftop to rooftop, but to stay out of sight unless there was trouble. Gratch had indeed done a good job; Richard hadn’t seen a sign of him until he dropped down on them.

“Cara, what are you doing here?”

Cara reverently touched his arm, seeming surprised at finding it solid. She jabbed a finger at his shoulder, and then broke into a grin.

“Not even Darken Rahl himself could become invisible. He could command beasts, but he could not become invisible.”

“I don’t command Gratch; he’s my friend. And I don’t exactly become . . . Cara, what are you doing here?”

She looked perplexed at the question. “Protecting you.”

Richard pointed at the two men. “And them? They said they were going to kill me.”

The two men stood rooted like twin oaks. “Lord Rahl,” one said, “we would die before we let harm touch you.”

“We had almost caught up with you when you walked into those fancy horsemen,” Cara said. “I told Egan and Ulic to get you out of there without any fighting, or you could be hurt. If those men thought we were trying to rescue you, they might have tried to kill you. We didn’t want to take a chance with your life.”

Richard glanced to the two, great, blond-headed men. The dark leather straps, plates, and belts of their uniforms were molded to fit like a second skin over the prominent contours of their muscles. Incised in the leather at the center of their chests was an ornate letter R, and beneath that, two crossed swords. One of them, Richard wasn’t sure if it was Egan or Ulic, echoed the truth of what Cara had said. Since Cara and the other Mord-Sith had helped him in D’Hara two weeks before, making it possible for him to defeat Darken Rahl, he was inclined to believe her.

Richard hadn’t anticipated their choice when he had declared the Mord-Sith free from the shackles of their discipline; having their freedom, they chose to be his guardians, and were fiercely protective of him. There didn’t seem to be anything he could do to change their minds.

One of the other women spoke Cara’s name in caution and nodded toward the opening into the street. People slowed as they passed, peering in, looking them over. A glare from the two men as they turned put speed into the onlookers’ steps, and turned their eyes away.

Cara grasped Richard’s arm above the elbow. “It isn’t safe here—yet. Come with us, Lord Rahl.”

Not waiting for his answer, or cooperation, she pulled him into the shadows at the back of the passageway. Richard gestured silently to reassure Gratch. Lifting the bottom of a loose shutter, Cara stuffed him ahead of her through the opening. The window they entered was the only one in a room appointed with a dusty table holding three candles, several benches, and one chair. To the side sat a pile of their gear.

Gratch managed to fold his wings and squeeze through, too. He stood close to Richard, quietly watching the others. They, in turn, having been told that he was Richard’s friend, didn’t seem concerned at having a hulking gar eyeing them from a few feet away.

“Cara, what are you doing here?”

She frowned as if he were thick. “I told you, we came to protect you.” A mischievous smile crooked the corners of her mouth. “Seems we arrived just in time. Master Rahl must devote himself to being the magic against magic, a task you are more suited to, and let us be the steel against steel.” She held her hand out to the other three women. “We didn’t have time for introductions at the palace. These are my sisters of the Agiel: Hally, Berdine, and Raina.”

In the flickering candlelight, Richard studied the three faces. He had been in a terrible rush at the time and recalled only Cara; she was the one who had spoken for them, and he had held a knife to her throat until she convinced him she was telling the truth. Like Cara, Hally was blond, blue-eyed, and tall. Berdine and Raina were a bit shorter, blue-eyed Berdine with a loose braid of wavy brown hair, and Raina with dark hair, and eyes that seemed to be examining his soul for every nuance of strength, weakness, and character—an idiosyncratic, piercing scrutiny unique to Mord-Sith. Somehow, Raina’s dark eyes made the penetrating judgment seem more incisive.

Richard didn’t shy from their gazes. “You were among those who saw me safely through the palace?” They nodded. “Then you have my eternal gratitude. What of the others?”

“The others remained at the palace in case you returned before we found you,” Cara said. “Commander General Trimack insisted Ulic and Egan would come, too, since they are among the personal bodyguards to the Master Rahl. We left within an hour after you did, trying to catch you.” She shook her head in wonder. “We wasted no time, and you gained almost a day on us.”

Richard tugged straight the baldric holding his sword. “I was in a hurry.”

Cara shrugged. “You are the Master Rahl. Nothing you do could surprise us.”

Richard thought she had looked very surprised indeed when she saw him become invisible, but he didn’t say it, in view of his newfound restraint on his flip tongue.

He glanced around at the dimly lit, dusty room. “What are you doing in this place?”

Cara pulled off her gloves and tossed them on the table. “We intended to use it as a base while we looked for you. We’ve only been here a short time. We chose this spot because it’s close to the D’Haran headquarters.”

“I was told they’re in a large building beyond the market.”

“They are,” Hally said. “We checked.”

Richard searched her piercing blue eyes. “I was on my way there when you found me. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have you along.” He loosened the mriswith cape at his throat and scratched the back of his neck. “How did you manage to find me in a city of this size?”

The two men stood without showing emotion, but eyebrows went up on the women.

“You are the Master Rahl,” Cara said, seeming to think that would be explanation enough.

Richard planted his fists on his hips. “So?”

“The bond,” Berdine said. She looked perplexed at the blank expression on his face. “We are bonded to the Master Rahl.”

“I don’t understand what that means. What does it have to do with finding me?”

Looks passed among the women. Cara cocked her head to the side. “You are Lord Rahl, the Master of D’Hara. We are D’Harans. How can you not understand?”

Richard wiped his hair back off his forehead as he let out an exasperated breath. “I was raised in Westland, two boundaries away from D’Hara. I never knew anything about D’Hara, much less Darken Rahl, until the boundaries came down. I didn’t even know Darken Rahl was my father until just a few months ago.” He glanced away from their bewildered expressions. “He raped my mother, and she fled to Westland before I was born, before the boundaries went up. Darken Rahl never knew I existed, or that I was his son, until he died. I don’t know anything about being Master Rahl.”

The two men stood as they had, showing no emotion. The four Mord-Sith stared at him a long moment, the candle flame adding a point of light to the corner of their eyes as they seemed to study his soul again. He wondered if they were regretting their oath of loyalty to him.

Richard felt awkward laying out his ancestry to the scrutiny of people he didn’t really know. “You still haven’t explained how you managed to find me.”

As Berdine took off her cape and tossed it atop their gear, Cara laid a hand on his shoulder, urging him to sit in the chair. By the way its loose joints swayed under his weight, he wasn’t sure it would hold him, but it did. She glanced up at the two men. “Maybe you could better explain the bond to him, since you feel it most strongly, Ulic?”

Ulic shifted his weight. “Where should I begin?”

Cara started to say something, but Richard cut her off. “I have important things to do, and I don’t have a great deal of time. Just tell me the important parts. Tell me about this bond.”

Ulic nodded. “I will tell you as we are taught.”

Richard gestured toward a bench, indicating he wanted Ulic to sit. It made him uncomfortable having the man tower over him like some mountain with arms. Checking over his shoulder, Richard saw that Gratch was contentedly licking his fur, but keeping his glowing green eyes on the people. Richard smiled reassuringly. Gratch hadn’t been around that many people, and Richard wanted him to be comfortable, in view of what he planned. The gar’s face wrinkled into a smile, but his ears were perked as he listened. Richard wished he knew for sure how much Gratch could understand.

Ulic pulled up a bench and sat. “Long ago—”

“How long,” Richard interrupted.

Ulic rubbed a thumb along the bone handle of the knife at his belt as he contemplated the question. His deep voice seemed as if it might smother the candle flames. “Long ago . . . in the beginning times of D’Hara. I believe several thousand years ago.”

“So what took place in these beginning times?”

“Well, that was where the bond originated. In the beginning times, the first Master Rahl cast his power, his magic, over the D’Haran people, in order to protect us.”

Richard lifted an eyebrow. “You mean in order to rule you.”

Ulic shook his head. “It was a covenant. The House of Rahl”—he tapped the ornate letter R incised in the leather over his chest—“would be the magic, and the D’Haran people would be the steel. We protect him and he, in turn, protects us. We were bonded.”

“Why would a wizard need the protection of steel? Wizards have magic.”

Ulic’s leather uniform creaked as he put an elbow to his knee and leaned in with a sobering expression. “You have magic. Has it always protected you? You cannot always remain awake, or always see who is behind you, or conjure magic fast enough if the numbers are great. Even those with magic will die if someone slits their throat. You need us.”

Richard conceded the point. “So, what does this bond have to do with me?”

“Well, the covenant, the magic, links the people of D’Hara to the Master Rahl. When the Master Rahl dies, the bond can be passed on to his gifted heir,” Ulic shrugged. “The bond is the magic of that link. All D’Harans feel it. We understand it from birth. We recognize the Master Rahl by the bond. When the Master Rahl is near we can feel his presence. That’s how we found you. When we’re close enough we can sense you.”

Richard gripped the arms of the chair as he leaned forward. “You mean to tell me that all D’Harans can sense me, and know where I am?”

“No. There’s more to it.” Ulic stuffed a finger under a leather plate to scratch his shoulder while he tried to think of how to explain.

Berdine put a foot on the bench beside Ulic and leaned forward on an elbow, coming to his rescue. Her thick, brown braid fell forward over her shoulder. “You see, first of all, we must recognize the new Master Rahl. By that I mean we must recognize and accept his rule in a formal manner. This acquiescence in not formal in the sense of ceremony, but more in the sense of an understanding and acceptance within our hearts. It does not have to be an acceptance we desire, and in the past, with us, anyway, it was not, but acceptance is implicit, nonetheless.”

“You mean you must believe.”

All the faces staring at him brightened.

“Yes. That’s a good way to express it,” Egan put in. “Once we acquiesce to his dominion, and as long as the Master Rahl lives, we are bonded to him. When he dies, the new Lord Rahl takes his place, and we are then bonded to him. At least that’s the way it’s supposed to work. This time, something went wrong, and Darken Rahl, or his spirit, somehow maintained a part of himself in this world.”

Richard straightened in his chair. “The gateway. The boxes in the Garden of Life are a gateway to the underworld, and one was left opened. When I came back, two weeks ago, I closed it, sending Darken Rahl back to the underworld for good.”

Ulic’s muscles bulked as he rubbed his palms together. “When Darken Rahl died at the beginning of winter, and you spoke outside the palace, many of the D’Harans there believed you were the new Lord Rahl. Some did not. Some still held on to their loyalty, their bond, to Darken Rahl. It must have been because of this gateway you said was opened. It’s never happened that way before, that I heard of, anyway.

“When you returned to the palace, and defeated Darken Rahl’s spirit with the use of your gift, you also defeated the rebel officers who denounced you. In banishing Darken Rahl’s spirit, you broke the bond he still held over some of them, and convinced the rest at the palace of your authority as Master Rahl. They are loyal, now. The whole palace is. They are all bonded to you.”

“As it should be,” Raina said with finality. “You have the gift; you are a wizard. You are the magic against magic, and the D’Harans, your people, are the steel against steel.”

Richard looked up into her dark eyes. “I know less about this bond, this steel against steel and magic against magic business, than I know about being a wizard, and I know next to nothing about being a wizard. I don’t know how to use magic.”

The women stared for a moment, and then laughed as if he had made a joke and they wanted him to think they were amused.

“I’m not joking, I don’t know how to use my gift.”

Hally clapped him on the back of his shoulder and pointed at Gratch. “You command the beasts, just as Darken Rahl did. We cannot command beasts. You even talk to him. A gar!”

“You don’t understand. I saved him when he was a pup. I raised him, that’s all. We became friends. It’s not magic.”

Hally clapped his shoulder again. “It may not seem magic to you, Lord Rahl, but none of us could do it.”

“But—”

“We saw you become invisible today.” Cara said. She wasn’t laughing anymore. “Are you going to tell us that was not magic?”

“Well yes, I guess it was magic, but not in the way you think. You just don’t understand—”

Cara’s eyebrow lifted. “Lord Rahl, to you it is understandable, because you have the gift. To us, it is magic. Surely, you would not suggest that any of us could do it?”

Richard wiped a hand across his face. “No, you couldn’t do it. But still, it’s not what you think.”

Raina’s dark eyes fixed on his with that look that Mord-Sith flashed when they expected compliance, and no argument; a steely gaze that seemed to paralyze his tongue. Though he was no longer the captive of a Mord-Sith, and these women were trying to help him, the look still gave him pause.

“Lord Rahl,” she said in a soft voice that rilled the quiet room, “at the People’s Palace, you sought the spirit of Darken Rahl. You, a mere man, fought the spirit of a powerful wizard come back from the underworld, from the world of the dead, to destroy us all. He had no corporeal existence; he was a spirit, animate only through magic. You could only battle such a demon with magic of your own.

“During the battle, you sent lightning, driven by magic, racing through the palace to destroy the rebel leaders who opposed you and wished Darken Rahl to triumph. Everyone at the palace not bonded to you already became so that day. None of us, in our whole lives, has ever seen the like of the magic crackling through the palace that day.”

She leaned toward him, still gripping him in her dark gaze, the passion in her voice cutting through the stillness. “That was magic, Lord Rahl. We were all about to be destroyed, to be swallowed into the world of the dead. You saved us. You kept your part of the covenant; you were the magic against magic. You are the Master Rahl. We would lay down our lives for you.”

Richard realized that his left hand was tightly gripping the hilt of his sword. He could feel the raised gold letters of the word TRUTH biting into his flesh.

He managed to disengage himself from Raina’s gaze to take in the rest of them. “All you say is true, but it’s not so simple as you believe. There’s more to it. I don’t want you to think I was able to do the things I did because I knew how. It just happened. Darken Rahl studied his whole life to be a wizard, to use magic. I know almost nothing about it. You place too much faith in me.”

Cara shrugged. “We understand; you have more, to learn about magic. This is good. It is always good to learn more. You will serve us better as you learn more.”

“No, you don’t understand . . .”

She placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “No matter how much you know, there will always be more; no one knows everything. This does not change anything. You are the Master Rahl. We are bonded lo you.” She squeezed his shoulder. “Even if any of us wanted to change it, we could not.”

Suddenly, Richard felt calm. He didn’t really want to talk them out of this; he could use their help, their loyalty. “You’ve helped me before, maybe even saved my neck out there in the street, but I just don’t want you to have more faith in me than is justified. I don’t want to deceive you. I want you to follow me because what we do is right, not because of a bond forged with magic. That’s slavery.”

“Lord Rahl,” Raina said, her voice unsteady for the first time, “we were bonded to Darken Rahl. We had no more choice in that than we do now. He took us from our homes when we were young, trained us, and used us to—”

Richard stood, putting his fingertips to her lips. “I know. It’s all right. You’re free now.”

Cara gripped his shirt and drew his face close to hers. “Don’t you see? Even though many of us hated Darken Rahl, we were compelled to serve; we were bonded. That was slavery.

“If you don’t know everything, that’s not important to us. We are bonded to you as the Master Rahl, regardless. For the first time in any of our lives, it is not a burden. If the bond were not there, we would chose to do the same; that is not slavery.”

“We don’t know anything about your magic,” Hally said, “but we can help you learn what it means to be Lord Rahl.” The irony of her spreading smile softened her blue eyes, letting the women behind the appellation of Mord-Sith show through. “It is, after all, the purpose of Mord-Sith to train, to teach.” The smile faded as her expression turned serious. “It doesn’t matter to us if you have more steps in the journey; we won’t abandon you for it.”

Richard raked his fingers though his hair. He was touched by the things they said, but their blind devotion somehow troubled him. “As long as you understand that I’m not the wizard you thought. I know a little about some magic, like my sword, but I don’t know much about using my gift. I used what came forth from within me without understanding it or being able to control it, and the good spirits helped me.” He paused a moment as he looked into the depths of their waiting eyes, “Denna is with them.”

The four women smiled, each in her own private way. They had known Denna, known that she had trained him, and that he had killed her in order to escape. In so doing, he freed her of her bond to Darken Rahl, and what she had become, but at a cost that would always haunt him, even if her spirit was now at peace; he had had to turn the Sword of Truth white, and end her life with that side of the magic—through its love and forgiveness.

“What could be better than having the good spirits on our side,” Cara said in a quiet tone that seemed to speak for them all. “It’s good to know that Denna is with them.”

Richard turned away from their eyes in an effort to also turn away from his haunting memories. He brushed the dust off his pants and changed the subject.

“Well, as the Seeker of Truth, I was on my way to see whoever is in charge of the D’Harans here in Aydindril. I have something important to do, and I need to hurry. I didn’t know anything about this bond, but I do know about being Seeker. I guess it can’t hurt to have all of you along.”

Berdine shook her head of wavy brown hair. “It’s fortunate we found him in time.” The other three muttered their agreement.

Richard looked from one face to another. “Why is it fortunate?”

“Because,” Cara said, “they don’t yet know you as the Master Rahl.”

“I told you, I’m the Seeker. That’s more important than being the Master Rahl. Don’t forget, as the Seeker, I killed the last Master Rahl. But now that you’ve told me about this bond, I intend to tell the D’Haran command that I’m also the new Lord Rahl, and demand their allegiance. It will certainly make what I have planned easier.”

Berdine barked a laugh. “We had no idea how lucky we were to catch you in time.”

Raina brushed her dark bangs back as she glanced to her sister of the Agiel. “I shudder to think how close we came to losing him.”

“What are you talking about? They’re D’Harans. I thought they would be able to sense me, with this bond thing.”

“We told you,” Ulic said, “first we must recognize and accept the Master Rahl’s rule in a formal manner. You have not done that with these men. Also, the bond isn’t the same in all of us.”

Richard threw his hands up. “First you tell me that they will follow me, and now you tell me they won’t?”

“You have to bond them to you, Lord Rahl,” Cara said. She sighed. “If you can. General Reibisch’s blood isn’t pure.”

Richard frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Lord Rahl,” Egan said as he came forward, “in the beginning times, when the first Master Rahl cast the web, bonding us, D’Hara was not as it is today. D’Hara was a land, within a larger land, much the same as the Midlands are made up of different lands.”

Richard suddenly remembered the story Kahlan told him the night he met her. As they had sat shivering by a fire in the shelter of a wayward pine, after they had had the wits frightened out of them by an encounter with a gar, she had told him some of the history of the world beyond his home of Westland.

Richard stared off into a dark corner as he recalled the story. “Darken Rahl’s grandfather, Panis, the Master of D’Hara, set about joining all the lands together under his rule. He swallowed up all the lands, all the kingdoms, making it one, making it all D’Hara.”

“That’s right,” Egan said. “Not all the people who now call themselves D’Haran are descendants of the first D’Harans—those who were bonded. Some have a bit of true D’Haran blood, some have more, and in some, like Ulic and I, it is pure. Some have no true D’Haran blood; they do not feel the bond.

“Darken Rahl and his father before him gathered those to them who were of like mind—those who lusted for power. Many of those D’Harans were not pure of blood, but pure of ambition.”

“Commander General Trimack, at the palace, and the men of the First File—” Richard gestured to Ulic and Egan. “—and Master Rahl’s personal bodyguards, must be pure D’Haran?”

Ulic nodded. “Darken Rahl, like his father before him, would trust none but those of pure blood to guard him. He used those of mixed blood, or those without the bond at all, to fight the wars away from the heart of D’Hara, and to conquer other lands.”

Richard stroked his lower lip with a finger as he thought. “What of the man in charge of the D’Haran troops, here, in Aydindril. What’s his name?”

“General Reibisch,” Berdine said. “He is of mixed blood, and so it will not be as easy, but if you can make him recognize you as the Master Rahl, he has enough D’Haran blood to be bonded. When a commander is bonded, many of his men become so at the same time, because they trust in their commanders; they will believe as he. If you can bond General Reibisch, then you will have control of the forces in Aydindril. Even though some of the men have no true D’Haran blood, they are loyal to their leaders, and will still be bonded, in a manner of speaking.”

“Then I’ve got to do something to convince this General Reibisch that I’m the new Master Rahl.”

Cara grinned wickedly. “That’s why you need us. We’ve brought you something, from Commander General Trimack.” She gestured to Hally. “Show him.”

Hally unfastened the top buttons of her leather outfit and pulled a long pouch from between her breasts. With a proud smile, she handed it to Richard. He extracted the scroll inside, inspecting the symbol of a skull with crossed swords under it impressed into the gold-colored wax.

“What’s this?”

“Commander General Trimack wanted to help you,” Hally said. With the gleam of a smile still in her eyes she put a finger to the wax. “This is the personal seal of the commander general of the First File. The document is in his own hand. He wrote it while I stood waiting, and then told me to give it to you. It declares you to be the new Master Rahl, and says that the First File and all the troops and field generals in D’Hara recognize you as such, are bonded, and stand ready to defend your ascension to power with their lives. It threatens undying vengeance against any who stand against you.”

Richard’s gaze rose to her blue eyes. “Hally, I could kiss you.”

Her smile vanished in an instant. “Lord Rahl, you have declared us free. We no longer have to submit . . .” She snapped her mouth closed as her face went scarlet, as did the other women’s. Hally bowed her head and fixed her sight on the floor. Her voice came in a submissive whisper. “Forgive me, Lord Rahl. If you wish that of us, we of course offer ourselves willingly.”

With his fingertips, Richard lifted her chin. “Hally, it was just a figure of speech. As you told me, though you are bonded, this time you are not slaves. I am not just the Master Rahl, I am also the Seeker of Truth. I hope to have you come to follow me because the cause is just. That is what I wish you to be bound to, not me. You need never fear I will revoke your freedom.”

Hally swallowed. “Thank you, Lord Rahl.”

Richard waved the scroll. “Now, let’s go let this General Reibisch meet the new Master Rahl, so I can get on with what I need to do.”

Berdine laid a restraining hand to his arm. “Lord Rahl, the words of the commander general are meant to be an aid. They, in themselves, will not bond these troops to you.”

Richard put his fists on his hips. “You four have a bad habit of dangling something in front of my face. And then snatching it away. What else do I need to do? Some fancy magic?”

The four nodded as if he had finally guessed their plan.

“What!” Richard leaned toward them. “You mean this general will want me to perform some magic trick to prove myself?”

Ill at ease, Cara shrugged. “Lord Rahl, these are just words on paper. They are meant to back you, to be of help, not to perform the task for you. At the palace in D’Hara the word of the commander general is law, only you outrank him, but in the field it is not so. Here, General Reibisch is the law. You must convince him that you outrank him.

“These men will not be easily won over. The Master Rahl must be seen as a figure of awesome power and strength. They must be overwhelmed in order to invoke the bond, just as the troops at the palace were when you. Set the walls alive with lightning. As you said, they must believe. To believe, it will take more than words on paper. General Trimack’s letter is meant to be part of it, but it can’t be all.”

“Magic,” Richard muttered as he slumped down in the rickety chair. He scrubbed his face, trying to think through the haze of fatigue. He was the Seeker, appointed by a wizard, a position of power and responsibility; the Seeker was a law unto himself. He had planned to do this as the Seeker. He could still do it as Seeker. He knew about being the Seeker.

Still, if the D’Harans in Aydindril were loyal to him . . .

Through the weariness, one thought was clear: he had to make sure Kahlan was safe. He had to use his head, not just his heart. He couldn’t just run off after her, ignoring what was happening, not if he wanted to truly make sure she was safe. He needed to do this. He needed to win over the D’Harans.

Richard shot to his feet. “Did you bring your red leather outfits?” A Mord-Sith’s bloodred leather clothes were worn when they were of a mind to dispense discipline; red didn’t show blood. When a Mord-Sith wore her red leather, it was a statement that she expected there to be a lot of blood, and everyone knew it wasn’t going to be hers.

Hally smiled a sly smile as she folded her arms over her breasts. “A Mord-Sith goes nowhere without her red outfit.”

Cara batted her eyes expectantly. “You have thought of something, Lord Rahl?

“Yes.” Richard gave her a smooth smile. “They need to see power and strength? They want a show of awesome magic? We’ll give them magic. We’ll overwhelm them.” He held up a cautious finger. “But you must do as I say. I don’t want anyone hurt. I didn’t free you just to have you get killed.”

Hally fixed him with an iron gaze. “Mord-Sith do not die in bed, old and toothless.”

In those blue eyes, Richard saw a shadow of the madness that had twisted these women into remorseless weapons. He had endured some of what had been done to them; he knew what it was to live with that madness. He held her gaze and, with a soft voice, sought to soften the iron he saw. “If you get yourselves killed, Hally, then who will protect me?”

“If we must lay down our lives, then we do; otherwise there will be no Lord Rahl to protect.” An unexpected smile softened Hally’s eyes, bringing a little light to the shadows. “We want Lord Rahl to die in bed, old and toothless. What are we to do?”

A shadow of doubt passed across his thoughts. Was his ambition twisted by that same madness? No. He had no choice. This would save lives, not cost them.

“You four put on your red leather. We’ll wait outside while you change. When you’re done, I’ll explain.”

Hally snatched his shirt as he turned to leave, “Now that we have found you, we’re not letting you out of our sight. You will remain here while we change. You may turn your back, if you wish.”

With a sigh, Richard turned his back and folded his arms. The two men stood watching. Richard frowned and motioned for them to turn around, too. Gratch tilted his head with a puzzled look. Shrugging, he turned his back, mimicking Richard.

“We’re glad you have decided to bond these men to you, Lord Rahl,” Cara said. He could hear them pulling things out of their packs. “You will be much safer with a whole army protecting you. After you have bonded them, we will all leave at once for D’Hara, where you will be safe.”

“We’re not going to D’Hara,” Richard said over his shoulder. “I have important matters that must be attended to. I have plans.”

“Plans, Lord Rahl?” He could almost feel Raina’s breath on the back of his neck as she peeled off her brown leather. “What plans?”

“What kind of plans would the Master Rahl have? I plan to conquer the world.”