Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

The smile widened. She returned her wrists to his shoulders. "Now, Richard, that's awfully harsh, don't you think?"

Richard grasped her by the waist and gently moved her back. He knew that if he didn't stop her she would soon hamper his ability to think.

"I certainly thought so," he said. "Among other things, you didn't want us to wed."

Shota ran a red lacquered nail down his chest. She looked up at him from under her brow.

"Well, maybe I had my reasons."

"Yes-you didn't want us to bring a child into the world. You said we would be creating a monster because from me it would have the gift and from Kahlan it would be a Confessor."

"Confessor!" Shota took a step back as if he had turned poisonous. "A Confessor? Are you out of your mind?"

"Shota.»

"There aren't any more Confessors. They're all dead."

"That's not quite accurate. All of them are dead except Kahlan."

She turned to Cara. "Has he had a fever or something?"

"Well — he was shot with an arrow. He nearly died. Nicci healed him but he was still unconscious for days."

Shota suspiciously held up a finger as if she had uncovered a devious plot. "Don't tell me-she used Subtractive Magic."

"Yes, she did," Richard answered in Cara's place. "And because she did she was able to save my life."

Shota took back the step she had put between them when she had retreated. "Used Subtractive Magic.» Shota muttered to herself. She looked up at him again. "How did she use it-for what purpose?"

"She used it to eliminate the barbed arrow embedded in me."

Shota rolled a hand, wanting him to continue. "She must have done something more."

"She used Subtractive Magic to purge all the blood pooling in my chest. She said that there was no other way to get either the arrow or the blood out of me and either would kill me if left in."

Shota turned her back to them and, one hand on a hip, walked off a few paces as she considered the brief account.

"That explains a great many things," she said unhappily under her breath.

"You gave Kahlan a necklace," Richard said.

Shota frowned back over her shoulder. "A necklace? What sort of necklace would I give her? And why, my dear boy, do you imagine I would ever do such a thing for your — lover?"

"Wife," Richard corrected. "You and Kahlan had spent time together —by yourselves-and had come to an understanding of sorts. You gave the necklace to Kahlan as a gift so that she and I could — well, be together. It had some kind of power so that we wouldn't conceive children. While I don't agree with your view of future events, right now, what with the war and all, we decided to accept your gift and the truce that went with it."

"I can't imagine how you could possibly imagine that I would do any of those things." Shota looked to Cara again. "Did he have a bad fever on top of the injury?"

Richard might have thought that Shota was being sarcastic, but he could see by the look on her face that she was asking a serious question.

"Not exactly a bad fever," Cara said, hesitantly. "It was a slight fever. Nicci said, though, that his problem was partly with how close he came to death but mostly had to do with the extended time that he was unconscious." Cara sounded rather reluctant to speak about it to a person she considered a potential threat, but she at last finished her answer. "She said that he was suffering from delirium."

Shota folded her arms as she heaved a sigh while taking him in with her almond eyes. "What am I to do with you," she murmured half to herself.

"The last time I was here," Richard said, "you told me that if I ever came back into Agaden Reach you would kill me."

She showed no reaction. "Did I, now. And why would I say such a thing?"

"I guess you were rather angry with me for refusing to kill Kahlan and for refusing to allow you to do it." He pointed with his chin back up toward the mountain pass. "I thought you might have meant to keep your word and so you sent Samuel to fulfill your threat."

Shota glanced to her companion off through the trees. He looked suddenly alarmed.

"What are you talking about?" She asked with a frown as she looked back at Richard.

"Are you now claiming you didn't know?"

"Know what?"

Richard briefly considered the angry yellow eyes glaring at him.

"Samuel hid up in the pass and jumped me from out of the storm. He snatched my sword and kicked me over a cliff. I just managed to catch the edge. If Cara wouldn't have been there, Samuel would have used the sword to see to it that I fell from the cliff. He very nearly killed me. That he didn't wasn't because he didn't intend to or try his best."

Shota's glare glided to the dark figure crouched off in the trees. "Is that true?"

Samuel could not bear her scrutiny. Puling with self-pity, his gaze sank to the ground. That was answer enough.

"We will discuss this later," she told him in a low voice that carried unequivocally through the trees and gave Richard goose bumps.

"That was not my intention, Richard, nor my orders, I can assure you. I told Samuel only to invite your devious little guardian to come along."