Kahlan let him guide her back to a bench and help her to sit.
“Your wife will be fine,” the legate said. He looked up at the boiling sky. “Richard Rahl, Drefan Rahl, come with me.”
“Where are we going?” Richard wanted to know.
“We are to prepare you to consummate the marriage.”
Kahlan’s head came up. Even in the darkness, she could see that Richard was near to exploding in rage. His hand was on his sword.
Drefan rubbed Kahlan’s back in sympathy. “You will be all right. Everything will be all right. Don’t worry, I will take care of you, as I promised.”
“Thank you, Drefan,” she managed through the anguish.
Drefan left her and strode to Richard. Drefan gripped Richard’s arm and bent close, speaking to him in a whisper. Kahlan could see Richard rake his hands back through his hair and nod occasionally. Whatever Drefan was saying was cooling Richard.
After Drefan and Richard parted, the legate and Cara looked back to Nadine and Kahlan. “You two will wait here.”
Kahlan huddled on the stone bench as Richard and Drefan were led off in the darkness toward the cliff, toward the two buildings, one to either side of the road that ended abruptly at the edge. It was becoming so dark that Kahlan could hardly make out Nadine’s face as she sat down beside her on the stone bench. The six sisters had gone back to the horses, sucking their fingers as they watched the sky.
“I’m sorry. About your magic, I mean. I didn’t know they would do that to you. I guess you’ll be like any other woman, now.”
“I guess.”
“Kahlan,” Nadine said, “I won’t lie to you and tell you that I’m sorry that I’m the one who married Richard, but I will tell you that I’ll do my best to make him happy.”
“Nadine, you just don’t understand, do you? You can be as kind as pudding to him, or you can be as mean as nettles, and it won’t make any difference. With the pain he’s in, if you do your worst, it would be a bee sting after a beheading.”
Nadine giggled uncomfortably. “Well, I know a poultice for a bee sting. Richard will see. I will—”
“You have already promised me that you would be kind to him, Nadine. I appreciate that you will be kind to him, but at the moment, I’m not in the mood to hear the details of just how kind you are going to be.”
“Sure. I understand.” Nadine picked at the stone on the bench. “Not the way I had my wedding pictured in my head.”
“Me neither.”
“Maybe I can make the rest of it the way I pictured.” Her tone had turned cold and vindictive. “You’ve made me to feel a fool for wanting Richard, for thinking I might have him. You’ve taken the pleasure out of my wedding day, but you won’t take the pleasure out of the rest of it.”
“I’m sorry, Nadine, if you think that I have—”
“Now that I have him, I intend to show him how a woman can really please a man. He’ll see. He’ll see that I can be just as good a woman for him as you. You think I can’t, but I can.”
Nadine leaned close. “I’ll have Richard’s eyes spinning in his head before this night is out. Then we’ll see who the better woman is, and how much he misses you. When you’re lying there with Richard’s brother, listen close, and you’ll hear my screams of pleasure. The screams of pleasure Richard gives me. Not you—me!”
Nadine stormed away, to stand with her arms folded in a huff. Kahlan put her face in her hands. The spirits weren’t content to destroy her, they had to twist the knife.
Cara and the legate returned. “It is time,” they said as one.
Kahlan rose woodenly, to stand, waiting to be told what to do next. The legate turned to Cara.
“This storm is going to break soon.” The legate turned to peer up at the blackness. “My wives and I must be off this mountain.” He gripped Cara’s arm. “The winds speak to you the same as they speak to me. Can you take them?”
“Yes. It is nearly done. I can finish it,” Cara said. “The winds will pass the message through me as well as through you.”
Without further word, he scurried off into the darkness.
Cara’s strong fingers gripped under Kahlan’s arm. “Come with me,” she said in that icy voice of the winds.
Kahlan dug in her heels. “Cara, please. I can’t.”
“You can, and you will, or the chance will pass and the plague will rage on.”
Kahlan pulled back. “No, you don’t understand. I can’t. I’m having my moon flow. It isn’t finished yet. I can’t… do this. Not now.”
Cara’s sinister glare drew close. “It will not prevent you from consummating your marriage. You will do this, or all hope of stopping the plague is lost. It is not finished, yet. You must do your part in this—indulge in this. It must be now. Tonight. Or would you rather the dying continue unabated?”
With Nadine on one side of her, and Kahlan on the other, Cara led them down the road, through the darkness, toward the edge of the cliff.
Standing in the black night at the edge of the cliff, Kahlan felt numb and lost. She didn’t know how long Cara was gone with Nadine, taking her to Richard in the crumbling building to the right. She felt Cara’s hand under her arm again.
“This way,” came the icy voice.
Kahlan let the woman lead her to the ruins on the left. Kahlan could hardly see a thing. Cara, led by the winds, had no trouble negotiating the halls and rooms in the wreck of a building.
They came to a doorway. Kahlan could just make out Drefan’s sword standing up against the wall outside. Her fingers rested on its leatherbound hilt. Inside, she could just discern the rectangles where windows once stood. Beyond was the edge of the cliff, and the emptiness where the Temple of the Winds had once been.
“This is your wife,” Cara said with that icy, horrid voice as she spoke into the room. “Here is your husband,” she said to Kahlan.
“This marriage must be consummated. It is now your duty to do so. The winds have requirements. You may ask no more questions. Do not speak. The winds have reasons, and it is not for you to know them, only to obey, if you wish to end the death.
“As the test narrows, it becomes more intense.
“You must now lie as husband and wife. If either of you utters so much as one word, the test will end, and entry into the Temple of the Winds will be denied. There can be no appeal. The stolen magic will rage on, as will the death caused by it.
“Only after you have fulfilled the requirements of the consummation will the winds come. After the winds come—and you will have no doubt that it has happened—you may then speak to one another. Not before.”
Cara turned Kahlan around and helped her out of her dress and the rest of her things. It wasn’t hard for Kahlan not
to speak; she had nothing to say.
Kahlan felt the black night air on her naked flesh. She glanced down at Drefan’s sword, thinking briefly that when it was over, she could always use it on herself. If not, if he denied her access to it, there was always the cliff.
Cara gripped Kahlan by the wrist and led her forward. Forcefully, Cara made her kneel down, and then lean forward until Kahlan felt the edge of the pallet.
“Your husband awaits you here. Go to him.”
Kahlan heard Cara’s footsteps fade into the distance.
And then she was alone with Drefan.
58
As Kahlan felt her way, her hand brushed Drefan’s hairy leg. She moved off to the side, to lie down beside him. There was a blanket over straw, or something softer than bare wood, anyway. At least it didn’t hurt her back as would have the hard ground.
She lay on the pallet, staring up into the blackness with wide eyes. She couldn’t see anything, other than the vague indication of the windows before them. She made an effort to slow her breathing, although she could do nothing to slow her panicked pulse.
This wasn’t the worst thing, she told herself. Not the worst thing in the world. Not at all. This wasn’t rape. Exactly.
After a time, she felt Drefan’s hand settle on her belly. Kahlan shoved it away as she stifled a cry.
She shouldn’t have done that, she told herself. What was a hand, compared to the plague? How many people in agony with the plague would gladly have traded places with her? Not the worst thing at all, a gentle hand.
Drefan’s hand found hers, trying to give it a squeeze of reassurance. She yanked her hand away as if a snake had touched her. She didn’t want his reassurance. She had not vowed to hold his hand. She had not vowed to accept his reassurance. She had committed to being his wife, not to holding his hand. She would let him do to her what she must let him do to her, but she didn’t have to hold his hand.
Kahlan frantically tried to reason with herself. Richard had to get into the Temple of the Winds. The Temple of the Winds demanded this as the price of the path. The spirit of Chandalen’s grandfather had warned her that she must not shirk her duty. She remembered his words all too well: