Temple of the Winds

Kahlan frowned, not knowing what she meant. Cara rolled her head back, looking up at Drefan as he hunched over her. "How do you feel?" he asked. "Is everything feeling normal now?"

Her brow drew together with a look of foggy confusion bordering on alarm. "Lord Rahl?" she asked incredulously. "No, I'm Drefan."

With both hands, he laid back his cowl. Kahlan's eyes went wide, along with Nadine's.

"But my father, too, was Darken Rahl. I am Lord Rahl's half brother." Kahlan stared in wonder. Same size, same muscular build as Richard. Blond hair, like Darken Rahl's, although shorter and not so straight. Richard's hair was darker, and coarser. Drefan's eyes, piercing blue like Darken Rahl's, rather than gray like Richard's, nonetheless bore the same cutting, raptor rake. His features possessed that impossibly handsome perfection of a statue that Darken Rahl's had; Richard hadn't inherited that cruel perfection. Drefan's looks, somewhere in the middle, leaned more toward Darken Rahl than Richard.

But while no one would mistake Drefan for Richard, they would have no trouble telling that they were brothers.

She wondered why Cara had made that mistake. Then she saw the Agiel in Cara's fist. That wasn't what Cara had meant by "Lord Rahl." In a confused state, looking at him upside down as she regained consciousness, she hadn't thought he was Richard. She had thought he was Darken Rail.

CHAPTER 14

The only sound in the otherwise dead silence was the click, click, click of Richard's thumbnail on one of the points of the recurved cross guard on his sword The elbow of his other arm rested on the polished tabletop while he cradled his head between a thumb under his chin and his first finger along his temple With a calm face, he did his best to control his anger He was furious This time, they had crossed the line, and they knew it In his mind he had gone over a whole list of possible punishments, but had rejected them all, not because they were too harsh, but because he knew they wouldn't work In the end, he settled on the truth. There was nothing harsher than the truth, and nothing else as likely to get through to them Before him, in a row, stood Berdine, Raina, Ulic, and Egan They stood stiffly, their eyes focused at some point over his head and behind him as he sat at the table in the small room he used for meeting with people, reading, and various other work.

To the side of the table hung small landscape paintings of idyllic country scenes, but from the window behind, from which streamed the low angled rays of morning sunlight, the massive, baleful stone face of the Wizard's Keep glared down on him He had been back in Aydindril for only an hour-long enough to discover what had happened after he had left the evening before All four of his guards had been back since before dawn, he had ordered them to return to Aydindril after Raina and Egan had sauntered into camp the night before They had thought he wouldn't make them return in the dead of night They had been wrong. As brazen as they ordinarily were, the look in his eyes had insured that none of the four dared disobey that order Richard had also returned much earlier than he had planned He had pointed out the quench oak to the soldiers, told them what to collect, and then, instead of overseeing the task, had started back alone for Aydindril before the sun was up After what he had seen in the night, he'd been too troubled to get any sleep, and had wanted to be back in Aydindril as soon as possible Drumming his finger on the tabletop, Richard watched his guards sweating Berdine and Raina wore their brown leather outfits, their long, braided hair disheveled from their hard ride The two great, blond-headed men, Ulic and Egan, wore uniforms of dark leather straps, plates, and belts The thick leather plates were molded to fit like a second skin over the conspicuous contours of their muscles Incised in the leather at the center of their chests was an ornate letter "R," for the House of Rahl, and beneath that, two crossed swords Around their arms, just above their elbows, they wore golden bands brandishing razor-sharp projections-weapons for close combat No D'Haran but the Lord Rahl's persona bodyguards wore such weapons They were more than simply weapons, they were the rarest, the highest badges of honor, earned he knew not how.

Richard had inherited the rule of a people he didn't know, with customs that were mostly a mystery to him, and expectations he only partly fathomed.

Since they had returned, these four, too, had discovered what had happened with Marlin the night before. They knew why they had been summoned, but he hadn't said anything to them, yet. He was trying to get a grip on his rage, first. "Lord Rahl?" "Yes, Raina?"

"Are you angry with us? For disobeying your orders and coming out to you with the Mother Confessor's message?"