Stone of Tears

She slipped away from him, and looked at him sternly. “Well, I have instructions for you, and you are going to do as you are told. You are going to wait here until Nissel says you can get up. She said that when you wake, she has to change the poultice and bandage and give you medicine. You are going to stay here until she is finished. Understand? I don’t want you getting sick and dying on me now, not after I have gone to all the trouble of saving you; and a great deal of trouble it was.

“I’ll go to Weselan so she can finish fitting my dress. When Nissel is finished with you, then”—she shook a finger at him—“and only then, may you leave to go call Scarlet. When you are finished here with Nissel, and when you have called Scarlet and gotten our things together, come get me, and I will marry you.” She kissed the end of his nose. “If you also promise to love me always.”

“Always,” he said with a grin.

She rested her wrists on his shoulders, to each side of his strong neck, and clasped her fingers together behind his head. “I’ll wake Nissel, and ask her to hurry with you. But please, Richard, don’t waste any time after that. Call Scarlet quickly, quick as you can. I want to get away from here. I want to get away before Sister Verna even comes close. I don’t want to take any chances, even if she isn’t supposed to be back for a few days. I want us away from here. Away from the Sisters of the Light. I want to get you to Zedd so he can help you with the headaches before they can get any worse.”

He gave her a boyish, lopsided smile. “What about your big bed in Aydindril? Don’t you want to get to that in a hurry, too?”

With a finger, she gently squashed his nose flat. “I’ve never had anyone else in my big bed before. I hope I don’t disappoint you.”

He gripped her waist in his strong hands and pulled her to him hard enough to make her grunt. He pushed her hair back off her neck and gave it a tender kiss—right where Darken Rahl’s lips had been. “disappoint me? That, my love, is the only thing in the world it would be impossible for you to do.” He gave her neck one more tickling kiss. “Now, go get Nissel. We are wasting time.”

Kahlan pulled on the fabric, trying to bring it up as much as she could. “I’ve never worn anything cut this low. You don’t think it… shows too much?”

Weselan looked up from the floor where she was fussing with the hem of the blue dress. She look the fine bone needle from her mouth as she rose to appraise her client’s fit. She studied the expanse of flesh a moment.

“You don’t think he will like it?”

Kahlan felt her face flush. “Well, I think he will. I hope so, but…”

Weselan leaned a little closer. “If you are worried about him seeing that much, maybe you had better reconsider this.”

Kahlan lifted an eyebrow. “He is not the only one who will be looking. I’ve never worn anything like this before. I’m… worried that I don’t do it justice.”

Weselan smiled and patted Kahlan’s arm. “You wear the dress well. It looks beautiful on you. It’s perfect.”

Kahlan still fretted as she glanced down at herself. “really? Are you sure? I fill it out properly?”

Weselan’s smile widened. “really. You have fine breasts. Everyone says so.”

Kahlan felt her face redden. She was sure of the truth of the casual statement. Among the Mud People, commenting favorably on a woman’s breasts, in public, was no more odd than a man elsewhere telling a woman she had a pleasant smile. It was an uninhibited attitude that more than once had caught her off-guard.

Kahlan held the skirt out to the sides. “It’s the most beautiful dress I’ve ever worn, Weselan. Thank you for all your hard work. I will treasure it always.”

“Maybe someday, if you have a daughter, she will wear it when she weds.”

Kahlan smiled and nodded. Please, dear spirits, she was thinking, if a child comes, let it be a daughter and not a son. She reached up and touched the delicate necklace she wore, her fingers turning the small, round bone strung among a few red and yellow beads.

Adie, the bone woman, had given her the necklace to protect her from the beasts that dwelt in the pass through the boundary that at the time had separated Westland from the Midlands. The old woman had told her it would help protect her child one day.

Kahlan dearly loved the necklace. It was just like the one her mother had received from Adie, and had, in turn, given to Kahlan. Kahlan had buried it with her closest childhood friend, Dennee. Since Dennee’s death she had missed her mother’s necklace.

This one was all the more special because the night before they had gone through the pass, Richard had added his oath to the necklace, to protect any future child she might have. Neither she nor Richard had suspected at the time that there was any way that child might possibly be his.

“I hope so. Weselan, will you stand with me?”

“Stand with you?”