"Samuel not hurt pretty lady," Samuel grumbled. "Is what she says true? Did you attack her?"

Samuel hissed at Kahlan. Shota thunked him on the head with a finger. He shrank back against her leg.

"Samuel, what did I tell you? What were my instructions?" "Samuel must guide Mother Confessor back. Samuel must not touch Mother Confessor. Samuel must not hurt Mother Confessor. Samuel must not threaten Mother Confessor."

Shota drummed her fingers on the table. "And did you disobey me, Samuel?" Samuel hid his head under the hem of her dress. 'Samuel, answer my question at once. Is what the Mother Confessor says true?" "Yes, mistress," Samuel whined. "I'm very disappointed in you, Samuel." "Samuel sorry."

"We will discuss this later. Leave us."

The witch woman's servant skittered away into the trees. Shota turned back to face Kahlan's eyes.

"I told him not to harm or threaten you. I can understand why you would be upset and think I meant you harm. Please accept my apology." She poured Kahlan more tea. "You see? I have no intention of hurting you."

Kahlan took a sip from her full cup. "Samuel is the least of it. I know you want to hurt me and Richard, but I'm not afraid of you anymore. You can no longer harm me."

Shota's smug smile returned. "Really?" "I'd suggest you not try to use your power against me." "My power? All things I do, all things everyone does, is using their power. To breathe is to use my power."

"I'm talking about hurting me. If you dare try it, you'll not survive the attempt." "Child, I have no wish to harm you, despite what you think." "A brave thing to say, now that you know you can't."

"Really? Did you ever think that the tea might be poisoned?" Her smile widened when Kahlan stiffened. "You. .?" "Of course not. I told you. I have no wish to harm you. If I wished to harm you, I could do any number of things. I could have simply put a viper behind your heels. Vipers dislike sudden movement."

If there was one thing Kahlan hated, it was snakes, and Shota knew it. "Relax, child. There is no viper under your chair." Shota took a bite of her toast.

Kahlan eased her breath out. "But you wished to make me think there might be."

"What I wished is for you to realize that confidence can be overrated. If it will please you, I will tell you that I have always regarded you as singularly dangerous for any number of reasons. That you have found a way to tap the other side of your magic means little to me.

"It is the other things you do that frighten me. Your womb frightens me. Your arrogant certitude frightens me."

Kahlan nearly leaped to her feet in anger, but then she suddenly thought of the children dying back in Aydindril. How many of them hung near death, shivering in fear for their lives, while Kahlan stubbornly debated fault and imputation with Shota. Shota knew something about the plague, and about the winds hunting Richard. What significance was Kahlan's pride in the face of that?

She remembered, too, part of the prophecy:. . no blade, forged of steel or conjured of sorcery', can touch this foe.

In much the same way, crossing swords with Shota wasn't going to work. This was serving no purpose, and worse, solving nothing.

Kahlan admitted to herself that she had come for vengeance. Her true duty should be to help people who were suffering and dying. How would anything but pride be satisfied by striking out at Shota? She was stubbornly putting herself and her insecurity above innocent lives. She was being selfish.

"Shota, I came with hurt in my heart because of Nadine. I wanted you to leave Richard and me be. You say you have no wish to harm us, and that your intent is to help. I also wish to help people who are desperate and dying. Why don't we, for the moment at least, agree to take each other's word as true?" Shota watched over her teacup. "What an outrageous concept." Kahlan reasoned with her inner fear, her inner rage. Her anguish at the things Nadine did made Kahlan want to strike out at Shota. What if it wasn't Shota's fault? What if Nadine was acting on her own, much the same way as Samuel had? What if Shota was telling the truth, if she had not meant to cause harm?

If that were true, then Kahlan was guilty of a grievous wrong in wanting to strike out at Shota.

Kahlan admitted to herself that Shota had been right, that she had been justifying vengeance simply to be able to tap her deadly power. She hadn't been willing to listen.

Kahlan placed her hands on the table. Shota sipped her tea as she watched the blue glow around Kahlan's hands fade and finally extinguish. Kahlan didn't know if she would be able to call it forth should Shota strike, but she realized it didn't matter.

Failure in her true task was too great a price to pay for pride. Kahlan felt that this was the only thing that could truly have a chance of saving her future, of saving Richard, and of saving those innocent people back in Aydindril. Richard always said to think of the solution, not the problem. She would trust in Shota's word.

"Shota," Kahlan whispered, "I always thought the worst of you. Fear has been only part of it. As you warned, jealousy has been my taskmaster. I beg you forgive my obstinacy and insolence.

' I know that you have tried to help people before. Please, help me, now. I need answers. Lives depend on this. Please, talk with me. I'll try to hear with an open mind the things you say, knowing that you are the messenger, and not the cause."

Shota set down her teacup. "Congratulations, Mother Confessor. You have earned the right to ask me questions. Have the courage to hear the answers, and they will be of aid to you." "I swear to do my best," Kahlan said.

Shota poured them more tea. "What do you wish to know?"

Kahlan reached for her cup. "Do you know anything about the Temple of the Winds?" "No."

Kahlan paused, cup in hand. 'Well, you told Nadine that the winds hunt Richard." "I did."

"Could you explain that? What you meant?"

Shota lifted a hand in a vague gesture. "I don't know how to explain to a woman who is not a witch how I see the flow of time, the passing of future events. I guess you could say that it's something like memories. When you think about a past event, or a person, say, the memory comes to you. Sometimes you more vividly remember past events. Some things you can't recall.

"My talent is like that, except I am also able to do the same with the future. To me, there is little difference between past, present, and future. I ride a current of time, seeing both upstream and down. To me, seeing the future is as simple as it is for you to remember the flow of past events." "But sometimes I can't remember things." Kahlan said. "It is the same with me. I can't recall whatever happened to a bird my mother would call when I was very young. I remember it sitting on her finger as she spoke soft, tender words to it. I don't remember if it died, or if it flew away.

"Other events, such as the death of a loved one, I remember vividly. I remember the texture of the dress my mother wore on the day she died. Even today, I could measure out for you the length of the loose thread on the sleeve."

"I understand." Kahlan stared down into her tea. "I, too, remember well the day my mother died. I remember every horrid detail, even though I wish I could forget."

Shota placed her elbows on the table and twined her fingers together. "The future is that way with me. I can't always see pleasant future events that I wish to see, and I sometimes can't avoid seeing those things I abhor. Some events I can see with clarity, and others, despite how much I wish to see them, are only shadows in the fog."

"What about the winds hunting Richard?"