"Of course. If you love someone, you want them to be happy. You want what's best for them."

"I make Richard happy. He wants me. I'm best for him." "Yes, well, we can't always have what we want, now can we?" Kahlan sucked honeyed butter from her finger. "Just tell me why you wish to hurt us."

Shota looked genuinely surprised. "Hurt you? Is that what you think? You think I am being spiteful?"

"Why else would you always try to keep us apart, to hurt us?" Shota took a dainty bite of toast. She chewed for a moment. "Has the plague come, yet?" The cup paused partway to Kahlan's lips. "How do you know about that?"

"I'm a witch woman. I see the current of events. Let me ask you a question. If you visited a young child sick with the plague, and the child's mother asked you if her child was going to recover, and you told her the truth, would you be guilty of causing the child's death because you foretold it?" "Of course not."

"Ah. It is only I, then, who am to be judged by different standards." "I'm not judging you. I simply want you to stop interfering with Richard's and my life together."

"A messenger is often blamed for the message."

"Shota, the last time we saw you, you said that if we stopped the Keeper, you would owe us a debt. You asked me to help Richard. We stopped the Keeper. It cost us dearly, but we did it. You owe us." "Yes, I know," Shota whispered. "That is why I sent Nadine." Kahlan could feel the rage of power surge within her. "Seems a strange way to show your appreciation-sending someone to try to ruin our lives." "No, child," Shota said gently. "You see things through blind eyes." Kahlan had to help Richard by finding out all she could, but she would defend herself and Richard if she had to. Until that became necessary, she could endure this wandering conversation, if it would help get the answers they needed. And they did need answers. "What do you mean?"

Shota sipped her tea. "Have you lain with Richard?"

Kahlan was taken off guard by the question, but she recovered quickly. She shrugged one shoulder in an offhanded manner. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I have." Shota's gaze rose from her tea. "You're lying."

Pleased by the smoldering tone in Shota's voice, Kahlan lifted an eyebrow. "It's the truth. You don't like the message, and so now you hold malice toward the messenger?"

Shota's eyes narrowed. Her gaze locked on Kahlan as if drawing a bow and aiming an arrow.

"Where, Mother Confessor? Where did you lie with him?" Kahlan felt triumphant at Shota's obvious displeasure.

"Where? What difference does that make? Have you turned from witch woman to gossip, now? I was with him. . in that way, and that's the truth, whether you like it or not. I'm no longer a virgin. I was with Richard; that's all that matters." Shota's gaze turned dangerous. "Where?" she repeated. Shota's tone was so threatening that Kahlan forgot she needn't be afraid of the witch woman.

"In a place between worlds," Kahlan said, suddenly embarrassed to reveal the details. "The good spirits. . took us there," she stammered. "The good spirits. . they wanted us to be together."

"I see." Shota's gaze cooled. Her small smile returned. "I'm afraid that doesn't count."

"Doesn't count! What in the name of all that's good does that mean? I was with him. That's all that matters. You're just vexed because it's true."

"True? You were not with him in this world, child. This is the world we live in. You were not with him here, where it counts. In this world, you are still a virgin." "That's absurd."

Shota shrugged. "Think what you will. I am satisfied that you have not been with him."

Kahlan folded her arms. "This world, or another, it doesn't matter. I was with him."

Shota's smooth brow puckered with mirth restrained. "And if you have been with him in the place between worlds, where the good spirits took you, then why have you not been with him in this world, since you are no longer a virgin, here, as you say?"

Kahlan blinked. "Well, I. . we. . thought it best to wait until we were wedded, that's all."

Shota's soft, exultant laugh drifted out through the morning air. "You see? You know the truth of what I say." She held the teacup between the tips of the fingers of both hands as she sipped, more balmy laughter escaping between each sip.

Kahlan fumed, somehow feeling she had lost the argument. She tried to look confident as she leaned back and took a drink of her own tea.

"If it pleases you to delude yourself with punctilios, then be my guest. I know what we did," Kahlan said. "I don't know why it's any concern of yours, anyway."

Shota looked up. "You know why it's my concern. Mother Confessor. Every Confessor bears a Confessor. If you have his child, it will be a boy. I told you both to remember that before you lay together. Lust dims thoughts of the consequences.

"From you, the boy would be a Confessor. From Richard, he would have the gift. Such a dangerous melding has never taken place before."

With a patient, reasoned tone, meant almost as much for herself as for the witch woman, Kahlan hid her inner terror at Shota's prediction.

"Shota, you are a witch woman of great talent, and you may know it would be a boy, I grant you that, but you could not know he would be like most of the male Confessors born in the past. Not all were like that. You have as much as admitted that you don't know if it would be so. You are not the Creator; you can't know what He will choose to do-if He even chooses to give us a child."

"I don't need to see the future in this. Almost every male Confessor was like that. They were beasts without conscience. My mother lived in the dark times caused by a male Confessor. You would visit upon the world not only a male Confessor, but one with the gift. You cannot even envision such a cataclysm.

"It is for this very reason that Confessors are not supposed to love their mates. If she bears a male child, she must ask the husband to kill the baby. You love Richard. You would not ask that of him. I have warned you that I have the strength to do what you will not. I also told you that it will not be personal."

"You talk about the distant future as if it has come to pass. It has not," Kahlan said. "Events do not always unfold as you say. Yet, other things have already come to pass. Because of Richard, you still live. You told us that if Richard and I were able to close the veil, saving you and everyone else from the Keeper, you would be forever grateful to us both." "And so I am."

Kahlan leaned forward. "You show your gratitude not only by threatening to murder my child should I have one, but also by trying to kill me when I come to ask your help?"

Shota's brow twitched. "I have made no attempt on your life." "You sent Samuel up there to attack me, and then you have the effrontery to rebuke me for coming prepared to defend myself. The little monster threw me on the ground and attacked me. If I hadn't had a weapon, who knows what he would have done. This is your gratitude? He said that when you were through with me, you would let him eat me. And then you expect me to believe in your benevolence? You dare to profess gratitude?"

Shota's gaze shifted toward the trees. "Samuel!" She set down her teacup. "Samuel! Come here at once!"

The squat figure loped out of the trees, using his knuckles to help himself bound across the grass. He ran to Shota and nuzzled against her legs. "Mistress," he purred.

"Samuel, what did I tell you about the Mother Confessor?" "Mistress told Samuel to go get her." Shota looked into Kahlan's eyes. "What else did I tell you?" "To bring her to you." "Samuel," she said with rising inflection. "Mistress said not to harm her."

"You attacked me!" Kahlan put in. "You threw me on the ground and jumped on me! You said you were going to eat me when your mistress was through with me." "Is that true, Samuel?"