Soul of the Fire

Kahlan turned to Du Chaillu. "You gave your word you will keep this secret."

Du Chaillu smiled and touched Kahlan's cheek the way a grandmother might compassionately touch a-grandchild. Kahlan knew she had just been touched not by Du Chaillu, Richard's first wife, but by Du Chaillu, spirit woman to the Baka Tau Mana.

Kahlan rose, at the same time putting on her Confessor's face. Richard spotted her and hurried over.

He looked back and forth between her and Du Chaillu. Finally, he disregarded his puzzlement and showed her the scroll.

"I knew it had something to do with the word 'school. »

"What?" Kahlan asked.

"The Dominie Dirtch. Look here." He tapped the scroll. "It says he didn't fear intervention from jealous colleagues since he was"-Richard ran a finger under the words as he read aloud-" 'protected by the demons. »

Kahlan didn't have the slightest idea what he was talking about. "And this is important, because…?"

Richard was reading the scroll again. "What? Oh, yes. Well, when you first told me the name, Dominie Dirtch, I thought it was High D'Haran, but I couldn't figure out its meaning. It's one of those tricky multidimensional phrases I've told you about.

"Anyway, 'Dominie' is a word having to do with schooling, as in teaching, or training, or, more Important, controlling. Now that I've seen this other part, it's jogged my mind to the translation of the thing.

" 'Dominie Dirtch' means 'Schooling the Demons. »

Kahlan could only stare for a moment. "But… what does that mean?"

Richard threw up his arms. "I don't know, but it's all coming together, I'm sure."

"Well, all right," Kahlan said.

He frowned at her. "What's wrong? Your face is, I don't know… funny-looking."

"Well, thank you."

He turned red. "I didn't mean it looks bad."

Kahlan waved a hand before herself. "No, it's nothing. I'm just tired. We've been doing so much hard traveling and endless talking to people."

"Do you know a place called the Ovens?"

"Ovens." Kahlan frowned in thought. "Yes, I remember the place. It's not far from here, in fact. Up a little higher above the Nareef Valley."

"How far?"

Kahlan shrugged one shoulder. "We could be there in a couple of hours, by midafternoon, if it's important for some reason."

"Ander talks about it in these scrolls. He obliquely mentions it in conjunction with the demons-the Dominie Dirtch. That was the passage where I put the two together."

Richard looked down the path to the group of people gathered, waiting patiently. "After we talk to these people, I would like to go up there and have a look around."

Kahlan took his arm. "It's a pretty place. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. Now, let's go tell these people why we need them to mark their circle to join us."

The expectant faces were mostly Haken. Most worked on farms around the small town of Westbrook. Like all the people come to see them as they had traveled around Anderith, these people were concerned and worried. They knew change was in the wind. To most people, change was dangerous.

Rather than addressing them coldly, Richard walked among them, asking their names, smiling at their children, trailing a hand or a thumb along the cheek of the young ones. Because this was really the way Richard was, because it was sincere and not an act, within a matter of minutes he had a gaggle of children around him. Mothers smiled as he touched young heads, dark-haired and redheaded alike. The worried creases in the foreheads of fathers, too, loosened.

"Good people of Anderith," Richard began as he stood among them, "the Mother Confessor and I have come to talk with you, not as rulers, but as your humble champions. We do not come to dictate, but to help you understand the choices ahead of us all, and the chance you have to decide for yourselves what your future will be."

He beckoned with an arm, and Kahlan gently worked her way through the throng of smiling children to join him at his side. She had thought they might fear a big man like Richard, dressed as he was in a black and gold outfit that made him look all the more imposing, but many pressed up against him as if he was a favorite uncle.

It was the white dress of the Mother Confessor they feared, warned as most in the Midlands were from birth of the Mother Confessor and her power. They made way for her, doing their best not to come in contact with her white dress as they tried to remain close to Richard. Kahlan ached to have them crowd around her the way they crowded around Richard, but she understood. She had a lifetime of understanding.

"The Mother Confessor and I were married because we love each other. We also love the people of the Midlands and D'Hara. Just as we wanted to be joined in marriage so that we could look forward to life together, we want the people of Anderith to be joined with us and the other people of the Midlands, to go with us into a strong and secure future, one which provides you and your children hope for a better life.