Temple of the Winds

Drefan nodded deferentially. "As you would have it, Lord Rahl. But Darken Rahl didn't view offspring the way you seem to. To him, there was his heir, and there were weeds. You are his heir; I am but one of his weeds.

"Formalities associated with conception were irrelevant to the Master of D'Hara. Women were. . simply there to bring, him pleasure and to grow his seed. Ones who conceived inferior fruit-those without the gift-were barren soil, in his eyes. Even your mother, having produced his prized fruit, would have been no more important to him than the dirt in his most coveted orchard."

Kahlan squeezed Richard's hand. "Cara told me much the same. She said that Darken Rahl. . that he eliminated those he found without the gift." Richard stiffened. "He killed my siblings?"

"Yes, Lord Rahl," Cara said. "Not in a methodical fashion, but rather on whim, or ill mood."

"I don't know anything about his other children. I didn't even know he was my father until last autumn. How is it that you're alive?" he asked Drefan.

"My mother wasn't. ." Drefan paused, searching for an inoffensive way to put it. "She wasn't treated as unfortunately as your cherished mother, Lord Rahl.

"My mother was a woman of ambition and cupidity. She saw our father as a means to gain status. As I have heard it told, she was fair of face and figure, and was one of a few who was called to his bed repeatedly. Most were not. Apparently, she succeeded in cultivating his. . appetite for her charms. To put it bluntly, she was a talented whore.

"She hoped to be the one who bore him a gifted heir, so as to raise her status in his eyes to something more.

"She failed." Drefan's cheeks mantled. "She had me."

"That may be a failure in her eyes," Richard said in a quiet tone, "but not in the eyes of the good spirits. You are no less than I, in their eyes." The corners of Drefan's mouth curled in a small smile. "Thank you. Lord Rahl.

Very magnanimous of you to cede to the good spirits that which was always theirs. Not all men do. 'In your wisdom we are humbled, " he quoted from the devotion.

Drefan was managing to be courteously respectful without being servile. He seemed honestly deferential, but without losing his air of nobility. Unlike the way he had been in the pit, he was scrupulously polite, but he nonetheless exuded the bearing of a Rahl: no amount of bowing could alter his aplomb. Like Richard, he carried himself with inherent authority. "So, what happened then?"

Drefan took a deep breath. "She took me, as an infant, to a wizard to have me tested for the gift, hoping to present Darken Rahl with the gifted heir that would bring her riches, station, and the fawning adoration of Darken Rahl. Did I also mention that she was a fool?" Richard didn't answer, and Drefan went on.

"The wizard broke the bad news to her: I was born without the gift. Instead of bearing a pass to a life of ease, she had given birth to a liability. Darken Rahl was known to pull the intestines out of such women-an inch at a time." "Obviously," Richard said, "you managed not to draw his attention. Why not?" "My dear mother was responsible for that. She knew that she might be able to raise me, and never be noticed by him, never be killed, but she also knew it would be a hard life of hiding and worry over every knock at the door.

"Instead, she took me, when I was but an infant, to a remote community of healers, hoping that they would raise me in anonymity so that my father would have no reason to come to know of me, and kill me." "That must have been hard for her to do," Kahlan said. His piercing blue eyes turned on her "For her grief, she prescribed herself a potent cure, which was in turn provided by the healers: henbane." "Henbane," Richard said in a flat tone. "Henbane is poison." "Yes. It acts quickly, but has the unfortunate quality of being exquisitely painful at its task."

"These healers provided her with poison?" Richard asked incredulously. Drefan's raptor gaze, shadowed with admonition, returned to Richard. "The calling of a healer is to provide the remedy that is warranted. Sometimes, the remedy is death."

"That doesn't fit my definition of healer," Richard said. returning the raptor gaze in kind.

"A person who is dying, with no hope of recovery, and in great suffering, can be no better served than by the benevolent act of assisting them in ending their suffering."

"Your mother wasn't dying with no hope of recovery."