The man kept glancing at Nicci, seeming to suspect that this transaction was beyond Richard's ability to control. Her steady blue eyes could make any man fidget.

"We accept your offer," Nicci said without any hesitation or uncertainty. "I'm sure it's quite fair."

The man sighed unhappily at his windfall. "I don't have that much money on me. I'll go in the house"-he lifted a thumb over his shoulder-"out back of the barn and get it, if you'd be so good as to wait a minute."

Nicci nodded and he hurried on his way, not so much eager to consummate the deal, Richard thought, as he was eager to be out from under Nicci's gaze.

Richard turned to her, feeling his face heating. "What's this all about?" He saw through the partly open stable doors that the crowd of people who had followed them were still out there.

She ignored his question. "Get your things-whatever you can carry. As soon as he comes back, it's time we were on our way."

Richard pulled his glare from her. He stalked over to his gear, sitting outside Boy's stall, and began stuffing everything he could into his pack.

He strapped the waterskins around his waist and flipped the saddlebags over his shoulders. He was sure the stable owner wouldn't complain about not having the saddlebags with the rest of the tack. Richard thought that when they reached a more prosperous town, he could at least sell the saddlebags.

While he worked, Nicci put her belongings into a pack she could carry.

When the man came back with the money, he offered it to Richard. Nicci held out her hand.

"I'll take it," she said.

He glanced to Richard's eyes once and then handed Nicci the money. "I threw in the silver pennies you paid me last night. That's all l have, I swear."

"Thank you," Nicci said. "That was very generous of you to share what you have. That is the Creator's way."

Without another word, Nicci turned and strode through the dimly lit stable and out the door.

"It's my way," the man muttered under his breath to her back. "Creator had no say in it."

Outside in the sunlight, Nicci began doling out the money she had just gotten for the horses. The people vied for her favor as she walked among them, speaking to them, asking questions, until she was out of sight, past the edge of the barn door.

Richard gave Boy a quick rub on the blaze of his forehead, hoisted his saddlebags onto his shoulder, and turned to the dumbfounded expression on the stable owner's face. He and Richard shared a helpless look.

"I hope she's a good wife to you," the man finally said.

Richard wanted to say that Nicci was a Sister of the Dark, and that he was her prisoner, but in the end he decided that it could serve no purpose.

Nicci had made it clear to him that he was Richard Cypher, her husband, and she was Nicci Cypher, his wife. She had told him to stick to that story-for Kahlan's sake.

"She's just generous," Richard said. "That's why I married her. She's good to people."

Richard heard a woman's cry, and shouting. He bolted for the partly open door and ran out into the bright morning sunlight. He didn't see anyone. He raced around to the side of the barn, to where he heard scuffling.

A half dozen men had Nicci down on the ground, some swinging at her with their fists as she tried to fend them off with her bare hands. Others pawed at her, searching for a money pouch. They were fighting over the unearned before it was even out of her hands. A crowd of women, children, and other men stood around the scene in a circle, vultures waiting to pick the bones.

Richard crashed through the ring of people, seized the closest man by the back of his collar, and heaved him back. He was skinny, and flew through the air, crashing into the wall of the barn. The whole building shook.

Richard kicked another in the ribs, tumbling him off Nicci and through the dirt. A third man spun and took a mighty swing at Richard. Richard caught the fist and bent it down until he felt a snap as the man cried out. At that, the men all scattered in every direction.

Richard started after one of them, but Nicci suddenly flew at him, restraining him.

"Richard! No!"

In his rage to get at the men, Richard nearly smashed her face, but, when he realized it was her, lowered his fists to his sides as he glared at the crowd.

"Please, my lord, please, my lady;" one of the women wailed, "have mercy on us woeful folk. We's just the Creator's miserable wretches. Have mercy on us."

"You're a bunch of thieves!" Richard yelled. "Thieving from someone who was trying to help you!"

He made an effort to go after the lot of them, but Nicci held his wrists down. "Richard, no!"

The people vanished like mice before a hissing cat.

Nicci let Richard's fists drop. He saw then that she had blood on her mouth.

"What's the matter with you? Giving money to people who would rather rob you than wait for you to hand it to them willingly? Why would you give money to such vermin?"

"That's enough. I'll not stand here and listen to you insult the Creator's children. Who are you to judge? Who are you, with a full belly, to say what's right? You have no idea what those poor people have been through, and yet you are quick to judge."

Richard took a purging breath. He reminded himself yet again of what he had to keep uppermost in his mind. It was not really Nicci he had been protecting.

He pulled a shirtsleeve from the corner of his pack, wet it with water from a waterskin hanging around his waist, and carefully wiped her bloody mouth and chin. She winced as he worked but without protest let him inspect her injury.

"It's not bad," he told her. "Just a cut in the corner of your mouth.

Hold still, now."

She stood quietly as he held her head in one hand while he cleaned the blood off the rest of her face with the other.

"Thank you, Richard." She hesitated. "I was sure one of them was going to cut my throat."

"Why didn't you use your Han to protect yourself?"

"Have you forgotten? To do that, I would have to take power from the link keeping Kahlan alive."

He looked into her blue eyes. "I guess I forgot. In that case, thank you for restraining yourself."

Nicci said nothing as they walked out of the town of Ripply, carrying everything they owned on their backs. As cold as the day was, it wasn't long before his brow was dotted with sweat.

Finally he could stand it no longer. "Do you mind telling me what that was all about?"

Her brow twitched. "Those people were needy."

Richard pinched the bridge of his nose, pausing in an effort to remain civil to her. "And so you gave them all our money?"

"Are you so selfish that you would not share what you have? Are you so selfish that you would ask the hungry to starve, the unclothed to freeze, the sick to die? Does money mean more to you than people's lives?"

Richard bit the inside of his cheek to check his temper. "And the horses? You virtually gave them away."

"It was all we could get. Those people were in need. Under the circumstances, it was the best we could do. We acted with the most noble of intentions. It was our duty to not be selfish and to joyfully give these people what they needed."

There was no road going their way as they walked on into what had not long ago been the wasteland from which no one returned. - "We needed what we had," he said.

Nicci glanced up into his eyes. "There are things you need to learn, Richard."

"Is that right."

"You have been lucky in life. You have had opportunities ordinary people never have. I want you to see how ordinary people must live, how they must struggle just to survive. When you live like them, you will understand why the Order is so necessary, why the Order is the only hope for mankind.

"When we get to where we're going, we will have nothing. We will be just like all the other miserable people of this wretched world-with little chance to make it on our own. You don't have any idea what that's like. I want you to learn how the compassion of the Order helps ordinary people live with the dignity they are entitled to."