Blood of the Fold (30 page)

Brogan thanked his colonel. He could always count on Galtero’s thoroughness. The woman’s eyes moved back and forth between the three of them, but she said nothing.

“
Would you like me to compel her to cooperate?”

A gruesome grin spread on Galtero’s usually stony face. “And what would be the purpose of that, Lord General? Better if she learned another lesson this night.”

Brogan nodded. “As you wish, then.” He looked to the duchess. “My dear, I do not bid this of you. You are free to express your own true feelings about it to Galtero here.”

She cried out when Galtero swept an arm around her waist. “Why don’t we go over there, in the darkness. I would not want to offend your delicate sensibilities, Duchess, by allowing you to see what be happening to your husband.”

“
You can’t!” she cried out. “I’ll freeze in the snow! I must do my lord general’s bidding. I’ll freeze!”

Galtero patted her bottom. “Oh, you won’t freeze. The midden will be warm under you.”

She shrieked and tried to pull away, but Galtero already had a good grip on her. He tightened his other fist in her hair.

“
She be a lovely creature, Galtero; see that that beauty isn’t marred. And don’t be long; she yet has bidding to do for me. She will have to wear less paint,” he said with a smirk, “but since she has such talent with it, at least she can paint herself a nipple where her real one be missing.

“
When I be finished with the duke here, and you be finished with her, then Lunetta has another spell to cast over her. A very special spell. A very rare and powerful spell.”

Lunetta stroked her pretties as she watched his eyes. She knew what he wanted. “Then I will need something of his, something he has touched.”

Brogan patted his pocket. “He accommodated us with a coin.”

Lunetta nodded. “That will do.”

The duchess shrieked and flailed her arms as Galtero began dragging her off into the darkness.

Brogan turned and waggled the knife in front of the tall Keltan’s wild eyes. “And now, Duke Lumholtz, on to your part in the Creator’s plan.”

With Gratch looming over his shoulder, watching, Richard dribbled the red wax in a long puddle across the folded letter. He hastily set the candle and wax aside and picked up his sword, rolling the handle into the wax, making an impression of the hilt with its braided gold wire that spelled out the word
TRUTH
. He was satisfied with the results; Kahlan and Zedd would know the letter really was his.

Egan and Ulic were sitting at the ends of the long, curved desk, watching the empty room as if an army were about to storm the dais. His two, huge guards preferred to stand. He was sure they must be tired and had insisted they sit. They said standing left them more prepared to react in the event of trouble. Richard had told them that he thought the thousand men outside, guarding, would probably raise a sufficient racket if there were an attack that the two would notice, even from a seated position, and still have time to get up out of their chairs and draw their swords. It was then that they had reluctantly sat down.

Cara and Raina stood beside the doors. When he had told them that they were welcome to sit, too, they had dismissed the suggestion with haughty sniffs, and had said that they were stronger than Egan and Ulic, and would stand. Richard had been in the middle of writing his letter and hadn’t wanted to argue with them, so he had said that since they looked tired and slow, he was ordering them to stand so they would have sufficient time to come to his defense in case there was an attack. They were standing now, scowling at him, but he had caught glimpses of them smiling to each other, apparently pleased with the way they had been able to draw him into their game.

Darken Rahl had given the Mord-Sith clearly delineated bounds: master and slave. Richard wondered if they were testing their limits with him, trying to find where the slack ended. Maybe they were simply gleeful to be able, for the first time, to act as they wished, on whim if they wanted.

Richard also considered the possibility that their game was a test to try to ascertain if he was mad. Mord-Sith were nothing if not accomplished at testing. It troubled him that they might think him mad. This was the only way; they had to see that.

Richard hoped Gratch wasn’t as tired as the rest of them. The gar had only just joined him that morning, so Richard didn’t know how much sleep he had gotten, but his glowing green eyes looked bright and alert. Gars hunted mostly at night, so perhaps that explained his wakefulness. Whatever it was, Richard hoped it was true that Gratch wasn’t tired, and not simply his hope.

Richard patted the furry arm. “Gratch, come with me.”

The gar came to his feet, stretched his wings along with one leg, and followed Richard across the expanse of floor to one of the covered stairways up to the balcony. His four guards instantly came alert when Richard started off. He gestured for them to stay where they were. Egan and Ulic did; the two women did not, but instead followed him at a distance.

Only the two lamps at the bottom of the covered stairway were lit, leaving the rest a gloomy tunnel. At the top, it opened onto a broad balcony, one side edged with a sinuous mahogany railing overlooking the main floor, and the other bordered by the bottom rim of the dome. Above a low, white marble ledger, round windows half again as tall as he were spaced evenly around the enormous room. Richard looked out one of the windows to a snowy night. Snow. That could be trouble.

At the bottom the window was latched with a brass lever, and to the center of each side it was hinged on massive pins. He tested the lever and found it pivoted smoothly.

Richard turned back to his friend. “Gratch, I want you to listen to me very carefully. This is important.”

Gratch nodded in earnest concentration. The two Mord-Sith watched from the shadows near the top of the stairway.

Richard reached out and stroked the long lock of hair hanging on a leather thong around Gratch’s neck along with the dragon’s tooth. “This is a lock of Kahlan’s hair.” Gratch nodded that he understood. “Gratch, she’s in danger.” Gratch frowned. “You and I are the only ones who can see the mriswith coming.” Gratch growled and covered his eyes with his claws, peeking out between—his sign for the mriswith.

Richard nodded. “That’s right. Gratch, she has no way to see them coming, like you and I do. If they go after her, she won’t see them coming. They’ll kill her.”

An uneasy, purling whine rose from Gratch’s throat. His face brightened. He held out the lock of Kahlan’s hair, and then thumped his massive chest.

Richard couldn’t help laughing in wonder at the gar’s ability to grasp what he wanted. “You guessed what I was thinking, Gratch. I would go to her myself, to protect her, but that would take too much time, and she might be in danger right now. You’re big, but you’re not big enough to carry me. The only thing we can do is to have you go to her, and protect her.”

Gratch nodded his willingness with a grin that bared his fangs. He seemed to suddenly realize what that meant, and threw his arms around Richard.

“
Grrratch luuug Raaaach aaarg.”

Richard patted the gar’s back. “I love you too, Gratch.” He had sent Gratch away once before in order to save the gar’s life, but Gratch hadn’t understood. He had told Gratch he would never do that again.

He hugged the gar tight before pushing back. “Gratch, listen to me.” The glowing green eyes were watering up. “Gratch, Kahlan loves you as I do. She wants you to be with us the same as I do, the same way you want me to be with you. I want all of us to be together. I’m going to wait here and I want you to go protect her and bring her back.” He smiled and stroked Gratch’s shoulder. “Then we’ll all be together.”

Gratch’s prominent eyebrows drew into a dubious frown.

“
Then when we’re all together, you won’t have just one friend, but you’ll have both of us. And my grandfather, Zedd, too. He’ll love having you around. You’ll like him, too.” Gratch was looking a bit more enthusiastic. “You’ll have lots of friends to wrestle with you.”

Before the gar could pounce on him, Richard held him at arm’s length. There was little in life that Gratch loved as much as wrestling. “Gratch, I can’t have fun wrestling with you, now, when I’m worried about the people I love. You understand, don’t you? Would you want to have fun wrestling with someone else if I were in danger and needed you?”

Gratch considered it a moment, and then shook his head. Richard hugged him again. When they parted, Gratch spread his wings with a spirited flap.

“
Gratch, can you fly in the snow?” Gratch nodded. “At night?” The gar nodded again, showing fangs behind his smile.

“
All right, now, you listen to me, so you’ll be able to find her. I taught you directions: north and south and like that. You know directions. Good. Kahlan is to the southwest.” Richard pointed southwest, but Gratch beat him to it. Richard laughed. “Good. She’s to the southwest. She’s going away from us, on her way to a city. She thought I was going to catch up with her and go to the city with her, but I can’t. I must wait here. She has to come back here.

“
She’s with other people. There’s an old man with white hair with her; he’s my friend, my grandfather, Zedd. There are other people with her, too, many of them soldiers. A lot of people. Do you understand?”

Gratch gave a sad frown.

Richard rubbed his forehead, trying to think through his weariness for a way to explain it.

“
Like tonight,” Cara said from across the balcony. “Like when you were talking to all the people tonight.”

“
Yes! Like that, Gratch.” He pointed at the main floor, circling his finger around. “All the people in here tonight, when I was talking to them? About that many people will be with her.”

Gratch at last grunted that he understood. Richard patted his friend’s chest in relief. He held out the letter.

“
You have to take her this letter so that she’ll understand why she has to come back here. It explains everything to her. It’s very important that she gets this letter. Do you understand?” Gratch snatched up the letter in a claw.

Richard raked back his hair. “No, that won’t do. You can’t carry it like that. You may need your claws, or you may drop it and lose it. Besides, it’ll get all wet in the snow and she won’t be able to read it.” His voice trailed off as he tried to think of a way for Gratch to carry the letter.

“
Lord Rahl.”

He turned and Raina tossed him something through the dim light. When he caught it, he realized it was the leather pouch that had carried General Trimack’s letter all the way from the People’s Palace in D’Hara.

Richard grinned. “Thanks, Raina.”

Smirking, she shook her head. Richard put his letter, his hopes, everyone’s hopes, in the leather pouch and hung its thong around Gratch’s neck. Gratch gurgled with pleasure at the new addition to his collection before again studying the lock of Kahlan’s hair.

“
Gratch, it’s possible that for some reason she may not be with all those people. I have no way of telling what may happen between now and when you reach her. It may be hard to find her.”

He watched Gratch stroking the lock of hair. Richard had seen Gratch catch a flutter mouse in midair on a moonless night. He would be able to find people on the ground, but he still had to have a way to know which people were the right ones.

“
Gratch, you haven’t ever seen her before, but she has long hair like this, not many women do, and I told her all about you. She won’t be afraid when she sees you, and she’ll call you by name. That’s how you can know it’s really her: she’ll know your name.”

Satisfied at last with all his instructions, Gratch flapped his wings and bounced on the balls of his feet, eager to be off so he could bring Kahlan back to Richard. Richard swung the window open. The snow howled in. One last time, the two friends hugged.

“
She’s been running away from here for two weeks, and will continue on until you reach her. It may take you a while to catch her, many days, so don’t get discouraged. And be careful, Gratch; I don’t want you to get hurt. I want you back here with me so I can wrestle with you, you big furry beast.”

Gratch giggled, a fearsome yet happy noise, then climbed up on the ledge. “Grrratch luuug Raaaach aaarg.”

Richard waved. “I love you, Gratch. Be careful. Safe journey.”

Gratch waved back, and then bounded out into the night. Richard stood watching the cold blackness, even though the gar had disappeared almost instantly. Richard felt a sudden, hollow emptiness. Though he was surrounded by people, it wasn’t the same. They were there only because they were bonded to him, and not because they really believed in him or in what he was doing.