"That should throw them off," one of the men said.

Richard knew that she had more planned than to simply "throw them off." He was concerned about what she intended to do.

He watched briefly as some of the men dragged away the dead spy. At Ishaq's direction, others began quickly cleaning up the gore. The smell of blood made horses nervous and the sooner they were rid of it the better.

The rest of the people bid Richard a safe journey and then departed for their homes. It wasn't long before they had all gone. The men cleaning up the remains finished and left. Only Nicci, Cara, Ishaq, and Victor remained behind. The stables became a quiet and empty place.

Richard carefully surveyed the shadows before going to see to the horses that Ishaq had collected for him. The stables felt too quiet. He remembered the hush in the room in the inn before the thing came crashing through the wall. It was hard not to find the sudden quiet menacing. He wished he had a way to know if the beast was near, or if it was about to pounce. He wished he knew how to fight such a thing. His fingers touched the pommel of his sword. If nothing else, at least he had his sword and its attendant power.

He remembered all too well the inhuman promises of suffering and torment left lurking within Cara for him to find. It made him nauseated and light-headed just recalling the wordless whisper of those covenants. He had to pause and put a hand on the rail to steady himself for a moment.

As he glanced over to see Cara, he still felt the wordless joy of her being alive and well. It lifted his heart just to see her looking back at him. He felt a profound connection to her as a result of the experience of healing her. He felt as if he knew the woman beneath the armor of Mord-Sith a little better.

Now he needed to help Kahlan, to see her alive and well.

Two of the horses were already saddled and waiting, with the supplies loaded on the others. Ishaq had always been as good as his word. Richard ran his hand along the flanks of the bigger bay mare as he entered her stall, feeling her muscles and letting her know he was behind her so she wouldn't be spooked. One ear swiveled toward him.

With all that had happened, to say nothing of the scent of blood in the air, the horses were all jumpy. The mare tossed her head and stomped nervously at having a stranger near. Before he went about hooking his bow to the saddle, he first stroked the mare's neck and spoke softly to her. He reached up and gently caressed her ear. He was pleased that she settled down after a little assurance.

When he stepped back out from the stall, Nicci was watching him, waiting for him. She looked lost and lonely.

"You will be careful?" she asked.

"Don't worry," Cara said as she walked past carrying some of her things. On her way into the stall holding the smaller of the two saddled mares she said, "I will be giving him a very long lecture on the foolishness of his unthinking actions tonight."

"What unthinking actions?" Victor asked.

Cara laid an arm over the shoulder of her horse, idly running her fingers through its mane as she turned back to the blacksmith.

"We have a saying in D'Hara. We are the steel against steel so that the Lord Rahl can be the magic against magic. What it means is that it's foolish for the Lord Rahl to needlessly risk his life in things like battles with blades. We can do that. But we cannot battle the magic. He alone is the one who must do that. To do so, he must be alive. Our job is keeping the Lord Rahl safe from weapons of steel so that he can protect us against magic. That is the Lord Rahl's duty. That is his part of the bond."

Victor gestured toward Richard's sword. "I'd say he seems to do all right with a blade."

Cara arched an eyebrow. "Sometimes he is lucky. Need I remind you that he almost died from getting himself shot with a simple arrow? Without a Mord-Sith, he would be helpless," she added for good measure.

Richard silently rolled his eyes when Victor cast a worried look his way. Ishaq, too, seemed concerned as he peered at Richard as if he were a stranger he was seeing for the first time. Both men had known him for nearly a year as simply Richard, a man who loaded wagons for Ishaq's transport company and hauling iron to Victor's blacksmith shop. They had thought that he was married to Nicci. They didn't know that he had really been Nicci's captive at the time.

Discovering that he was in fact the Lord Rahl, the nearly mythical freedom fighter from far to the north, was still somewhat disorienting for both men. They tended to view him as one of their own who had risen up to fight tyranny with them. That was how they knew him. Whenever the Lord Rahl issue came up, they got nervous, as if they suddenly didn't know how they should behave around him.

As Cara went about loading the rest of her things into saddlebags, Nicci laid a hand on Ishaq's shoulder.

"If you don't mind, I need to see Richard alone for a moment before he leaves."

Ishaq nodded. "Victor and I will be outside. We have matters to discuss."

As the two men made for the door, Nicci cast Cara a brief glance. Cara gave her horse a quick pat on the side and then followed the two men out of the stable, pulling the big door closed behind herself. Richard was amazed, and just a little concerned, to see Cara leave without an argument.

Nicci stood before him in the soft lamplight twining her fingers together and looking rather uneasy, he thought.

"Richard, I'm worried about you. I should be with you."

"You've started something tonight that I think you will have to be the one to finish."

She sighed. "You're right about that."

Richard wondered just what it was she had started, what it was she had in mind, but he was in a hurry to leave. While he was concerned for Nicci's safety, he was vastly more worried about Kahlan. He wanted to get going.

"But I still.»

"When you're done helping these people end the immediate threat from the soldiers who are on their way here, you can catch up with me," Richard told her. "With this wizard, Kronos, leading them, the people here are certainly going to need your help."

"I know." She was nodding, having already been over all of this ground already. "Believe me, I intend to eliminate the threat descending upon Altur'Rang. I don't intend to allow it to waste a lot of my time and then I can leave to catch up with you."

A wave of cold dread washed through him as he suddenly grasped the core of her plan. He wanted to tell her to forget what she was thinking, but he made himself keep silent. He had important and perilous work of his own that he needed to get to. He wouldn't want her telling him that he couldn't do what he had planned.

Besides, she was a sorceress who knew very well what she was doing. She had been a Sister of the Dark-one of six such women who had managed to become his teachers at the Palace of the Prophets. When one of them had tried to kill him to steal his gift, Richard had killed her instead. That had been the beginning of the battle that had brought down the palace. Jagang eventually captured the rest, including Sister Ulicia, their leader. In order to save Kahlan's life, Richard had once allowed five of them to swear a bond to him so that they could escape the dream walker's hold on them. Nicci hadn't been with them at the time. Another later died in the sliph, leaving only those four Sisters of the Dark, besides Nicci, not in Jagang's clutches.

Nicci was certainly a formidable threat to any who opposed her. He just hoped she wasn't taking a foolish chance just to be able to more quickly get back to protect him.

Richard hooked his thumbs behind his belt, not quite knowing what it was she wanted. "You will be welcomed to join me whenever you can manage it. I told you that."