Blood of the Fold

Richard raked his fingers though his hair. He was touched by the things they said, but their blind devotion somehow troubled him. "As long as you understand that I'm not the wizard you thought. I know a little about some magic, like my sword, but I don't know much about using my gift. I used what came forth from within me without understanding it or being able to control it, and the good spirits helped me." He paused a moment as he looked into the depths of their waiting eyes, "Denna is with them."

The four women smiled, each in her own private way. They had known Denna, known that she had trained him, and that he had killed her in order to escape. In so doing, he freed her of her bond to Darken Rahl, and what she had become, but at a cost that would always haunt him, even if her spirit was now at peace; he had had to turn the Sword of Truth white, and end her life with that side of the magic — through its love and forgiveness.

"What could be better than having the good spirits on our side," Cara said in a quiet tone that seemed to speak for them all. "It's good to know that Denna is with them."

Richard turned away from their eyes in an effort to also turn away from his haunting memories. He brushed the dust off his pants and changed the subject.

"Well, as the Seeker of Truth, I was on my way to see whoever is in charge of the D'Harans here in Aydindril. I have something important to do, and I need to hurry. I didn't know anything about this bond, but I do know about being Seeker. I guess it can't hurt to have all of you along."

Berdine shook her head of wavy brown hair. "It's fortunate we found him in time." The other three muttered their agreement.

Richard looked from one face to another. "Why is it fortunate?"

"Because," Cara said, "they don't yet know you as the Master Rahl."

"I told you, I'm the Seeker. That's more important than being the Master Rahl. Don't forget, as the Seeker, I killed the last Master Rahl. But now that you've told me about this bond, I intend to tell the D'Haran command that I'm also the new Lord Rahl, and demand their allegiance. It will certainly make what I have planned easier."

Berdine barked a laugh. "We had no idea how lucky we were to catch you in time."

Raina brushed her dark bangs back as she glanced to her sister of the Agiel. "I shudder to think how close we came to losing him."

"What are you talking about? They're D'Harans. I thought they would be able to sense me, with this bond thing."

"We told you," Ulic said, "first we must recognize and accept the Master Rahl's rule in a formal manner. You have not done that with these men. Also, the bond isn't the same in all of us."

Richard threw his hands up. "First you tell me that they will follow me, and now you tell me they won't?"

"You have to bond them to you, Lord Rahl," Cara said. She sighed. "If you can. General Reibisch's blood isn't pure."

Richard frowned. "What does that mean?"

"Lord Rahl," Egan said as he came forward, "in the beginning times, when the first Master Rahl cast the web, bonding us, D'Hara was not as it is today. D'Hara was a land, within a larger land, much the same as the Midlands are made up of different lands."

Richard suddenly remembered the story Kahlan told him the night he met her. As they had sat shivering by a fire in the shelter of a wayward pine, after they had had the wils frightened out of them by an encounter with a gar, she had told him some of the history of the world beyond his home of Westland.

Richard stared off into a dark corner as he recalled the story. "Darken Rahl's grandfather, Panis, the Master of D'Hara, set about joining all the lands together under his rule. He swallowed up all the lands, all the kingdoms, making it one, making it all D'Hara."

"That's right," Egan said. "Not all the people who now call themselves D'Haran are descendants of the first D'Harans — those who were bonded. Some have a bit of true D'Haran blood, some have more, and in some, like Ulic and I, it is pure. Some have no true D'Haran blood; they do not feel the bond.

"Darken Rahl and his father before him gathered those to them who were of like mind — those who lusted for power. Many of those D'Harans were not pure of blood, but pure of ambition."

"Commander General Trimack, at the palace, and the men of the First File — " Richard gestured to Ulic and Egan. "—and Master Rahl's personal bodyguards, must be pure D'Haran?"

Ulic nodded. "Darken Rahl, like his father before him, would trust none but those of pure blood to guard him. He used those of mixed blood, or those without the bond at all, to fight the wars away from the heart of D'Hara, and to conquer other lands."

Richard stroked his lower lip with a finger as he thought. "What of the man in charge of the D'Haran troops, here, in Aydindril. What's his name?"