"I guess my letter was a little strong," Kahlan said as she glanced down at the floor.

"Lord Rahl showed it to me." Cara's face was unreadable. "Sometimes it is necessary to threaten men, or they get to thinking that they are the ones who say what will be. You dissuaded him of that idea with your threats."

"I didn't threaten him." Kahlan thought that her tone sounded too much like a plea.

Cara watched Kahlan's eyes for a moment. "You are probably right. The chair must have given Lord Rahl cause, as he said."

"I did what I had to do. Richard would understand that. I guess I'd better go explain it to him."

Cara gestured behind, to the door. "You just missed him. He was here not long ago."

"He came to see if I was back? He must be worried sick." "Berdine told him about the book you were searching for. He came here and found it."

Kahlan blinked in astonishment. "He found it? But we looked. It wasn't there. How did he find it?"

"He went to a place he called the First Wizard's enclave, and found it there." Kahlan's jaw dropped. "He went in there? He went into the First Wizard's enclave? Alone, without me? He shouldn't have gone there! That's a dangerous place!"

"Really." Cara folded her arms. "And of course you would never do anything so foolish as to get it in your head to go run off alone to a dangerous place. Maybe you should reprimand Lord Rahl for his impulsive behavior, since you are so prudent and above such reckless conduct yourself."

The echo of Cara's voice lingered uncomfortably before it died out. Kahlan understood. Even though Richard did as she had asked by not coming after her, Cara had tried. Even though she didn't like magic. Cara had tried to go to protect Kahlan.

"Cara." she said in a meek voice. "I'm sorry I tricked you. too." Cara shrugged, but still showed no emotion. "I am just a guard. You have no obligation to me."

"Yes. I do. You are not 'just a guard. You may be our protector, but you are more. I consider you my friend. You are a sister of the Agiel. I should have told you what I was doing, but I feared that if I did. Richard would be angry with you for not stopping me. I didn't want that."

Cara said nothing. Still, she showed no emotion. Kahlan breached the uncomfortable silence. "Cara, I'm sorry. I guess I was afraid you would try to stop me. I tricked you. You're a sister of the Agiel: I should have trusted you and taken you into my confidence. Please, Cara. I was wrong. I beg you forgive me."

A smile finally spread on Cara's face. "We are sisters of the Agiel. I forgive you."

Kahlan managed a small smile. "Do you think Richard will be as understanding as you?"

Cara let out an amused grunt. "Well. you have better ways to persuade him to forgive you. It is not so difficult to melt a man's frown."

"I only wish I had good news, so I could bring a smile to his face. but I don't." She paused at the doorway. "What has Nadine been up to while I've been gone?"

"Well, I've been down here guarding the sliph much of the time, but from what I've seen, she has been giving the staff herbs to try to protect them. and to use in smoking the palace. It's a good thing the place is made mostly of stone or it would have been burned down by now. She has been conferring with Drefan and helping him in talking to the staff and others who come for advice.

"Lord Rahl asked her to go out to visit herb sellers and such. to make sure they are not hucksters out to swindle people who are in fear for their lives. The city seems to be sprouting shameless mountebanks the way the sudden warmth seems to be bringing green grass. Nadine also gives reports to Lord Rahl. but he has been gone much of the time. and as busy as she seems to be trying to help people, the visits since he returned are short." Kahlan tapped the side of her fist against the doorway.

"Thanks, Cara." She looked into the other's blue eyes. "There are rats down here. Are you all right?" "There are worse things than rats." "Indeed there are," Kahlan whispered.

It was late, and with the dark, people on the streets didn't recognize her. Without her usual escort of guards, they had no reason to give her a second look, no reason to suspect she was the Mother Confessor out among them. Just as well; there were some people who wished the Mother Confessor harm. Mostly, people kept their distance from her, as they did with everyone else, hoping to keep the plague from themselves.

As Cara had said, there were hucksters everywhere, hawking potions to ward off the plague, or to cure your loved ones already stricken. Others strolled the streets with trays, held up on straps over their shoulders, neatly laid out with amulets possessing magic to protect against the plague. Kahlan remembered seeing some of these same people not long ago selling the same amulets as magic to find a husband or wife, or to enthrall an unfaithful spouse. Old women with small carts or simple wooden stands sold carved spell-invested plaques made to hang over the door to a home as a sure way to keep the plague from entering the house. As late as it was, business seemed brisk. Even the vendors selling meats and produce extolled the healthful virtues of their goods and their value in promoting continued health, if eaten regularly, of course.

Kahlan would send the soldiers out to put a stop to some of these swindlers, but she knew that such intervention would likely be viewed with hostility on the part of the buyers. If she tried to use the army to stop such foolish practices, desperate people would concoct theories about those in power wanting to stop the cures so that the decent, working folk would get the plague. Despite common sense, or evidence to the contrary, many people believed that those in power were always scheming to harm them; if they only knew the truth.

If Kahlan were to order the sale of these items stopped, the «cures» would be sold in secret, and for a higher price. No matter how insupportable the claims of these cures, their benefits would be vehemently supported as self-evident truth.

Wizard's First Rule: people would believe any lie, either because they wanted to believe it was true. or because they feared it was. These people were desperate, and would become more so, yet. Many wanted to believe.

Kahlan tried to imagine what she would do if Richard had the plague. Would she be despairing enough to put her faith in such trickery, hoping against hope that it would save him? Sometimes hope was all people had. Groundless as it was, she couldn't take that hope away from them: it was all they had, and all they could do. It was up to Kahlan and Richard to do that which would help these people. As she made her way through the familiar splendor of the Confessors' Palace, on her way to find Richard, Kahlan paused at the open double doors to a large room used for formal receptions. The room was a calming blue color, with dark blue drapes over the tall, narrow windows. The granite floor had a starburst pattern of darker and lighter stone radiating out from the center. Lamps on cherrywood stands around the edge of the room lent a mellow light to the gathering hall. The table where small foods were sometimes set out for guests now held only an array of candles.

Kahlan's attention had been drawn by the sound of Drefan's voice. He stood to the right, before the table with the candles, speaking to perhaps fifty or sixty people. They sat cross-legged on the floor before him, listening with rapt attention as he spoke of the way of health, of keeping the body sound by being in touch with the inner self.

Most of the people nodded absently as they listened to Drefan explaining how, by defiling their bodies with unhealthy thoughts and actions, people opened the pathway for sickness to enter. He told them that the Creator had endowed them with the ability to fight off things such as the plague, if only they would do as nature provided, by eating the right foods that would strengthen the auras that defended the body, and by using inner reflection to direct the vigor of various energy fields to their proper function in harmony with the whole.