Temple of the Winds (24 page)

A motionless, silhouetted figure filled the doorway, seeming to consider them at length. With nary a flutter of his long cloak, he wheeled and started down the ladder.

In the silence, but for the hissing torch, Kahlan absently stroked a protective hand over Cara’s brow as she watched the man in a hooded cloak descend the ladder.

Nadine paused at her work on the wax seal.

“
Who …?”

“
He’s some kind of healer,” Kahlan whispered as she watched the man’s methodical descent. “From D’Hara. I was told he came to offer his services to Richard. I think he’s an important person.”

Nadine grunted dismissively. “What’s he going to do without any herbs or things?” She leaned closer while watching him. “He doesn’t seem have anything with him.”

Kahlan shushed her. Stone dust crunched under his boots as he turned, the sound echoing in the hush of the pit. He approached in measured strides. The torch was on the wall behind him, so Kahlan couldn’t see his features in the deeply cowled hood of the voluminous, coarse flaxen cloak that hung to the floor.

He was as tall as Richard, with shoulders just as wide.

“
Mord-Sith,” he observed in a voice that was smooth and authoritative, something like Richard’s, too.

He brought a hand out of his cloak and gestured. Kahlan complied, laying Cara on her back on the stone floor. With the way he seemed to study Cara’s shivering, Kahlan didn’t want to interrupt for introductions. She just wanted someone to help Cara.

“
What happened to her?” he asked from the shadow of the cowl, in a voice just as deep and dark.

“
She had control of a man who—”

“
He had the gift? She was linked with him?”

“
Yes,” Kahlan said. “That’s what she called it.” He made a sound in his throat, as if mentally assimilating the information. “It turned out that the man was possessed by a dream walker and—”

“
What’s a dream walker?”

“
A person, as I understand it, who can invade another person’s mind by slipping into the spaces between their thoughts. He gains control of them in this way. He was covertly possessing this man that she linked with.”

He considered a moment. “I see. Go on.”

“
We came down here to question the man—”

“
To torture him.”

Kahlan pulled an irritated breath. “No. I told Cara that we were simply going to question him to get answers, if we could. The man was an assassin sent to kill Lord Rahl, and if he didn’t answer the questions, then Cara was prepared to do what she must to get those answers—to protect Lord Rahl.

“
But it never got that far. We discovered that this dream walker had control of him, control of his gift. The dream walker used the man’s gift to write a prophecy in the stone behind you.”

The healer didn’t turn to look. “Then what?”

“
Then he was going to escape and start killing people. Cara tried to stop him—”

“
With her link?”

“
Yes. She let out a scream like I’ve never heard before and fell to the ground holding her ears.” Kahlan inclined her head. “Nadine here, and I, went after the man when he tried to escape. Fortunately, he was killed. When we got back, we found Cara on the floor, in convulsions.”

“
You shouldn’t have left her alone. She could have choked to death on her own vomit.”

Kahlan pressed her lips together and remained silent. The man just stood there, watching Cara shudder.

Finally, Kahlan could bear it no longer. “This is one of Lord Rahl’s personal guards. She’s important. Do you intend to help her, or you just going to stand there?”

“
Quiet,” he commanded in a distracted tone. “One must observe before one acts, or more harm than help can be the result.”

Kahlan glowered at the shadowed form. At last he sank to his knees and sat back on his heels. He lifted Cara’s wrist in one of his big hands, working a finger between her glove and sleeve. He flicked his other hand out over the items on the floor.

“
What’s all this?”

“
They’re my things,” Nadine said. Her chin rose. “I’m a healer.”

Still holding Cara’s wrist, the man picked up a leather pouch with his other hand, looking at its markings. He set it down and then scooped the two horns from Nadine’s lap.

“
Feverfew,” he said as he tossed it back in Nadine’s lap. He looked at the symbols on the other. “Betony.” He tossed it back in her lap with the first.

“
You’re not a healer,” he said. “You’re an herb woman.”

“
How dare you—”

“
Did you give her any of your medicines, besides the oil of lavender?”

“
How did … I’ve not had time to give her anything else.”

“
Good,” he proclaimed. “The oil of lavender won’t help her, but at least it won’t harm her.”

“
Well, of course I know it’s not going to stop the convulsions. It was just to help ease some of her pain. I was going to give her tincture of maypop for that.”

“
Were you now? Fortunate that I arrived in time, then.”

Nadine folded her arms across her breasts. “Why’s that?”

“
Because tincture of maypop would likely have killed her.”

Nadine scowled as she unfolded her arms and planted fists on her hips. “Maypop is a powerful sedative. It would likely have halted her convulsions. If you hadn’t interfered, I’d have her recovered by now.”

“
Is that so? Did you feel her pulse?”

“
No.” Nadine paused warily. “Why? What difference could that possibly make?”

“
Her pulse is weak, staggering, and labored. This woman is struggling with all her strength to keep her heart beating. Had you given her your maypop, it would have done as you said: sedated her. Her heart would have stopped.”

“
I … I can’t see how …”

“
Even a simple herb woman should know to use more caution when dealing with magic.”

“
Magic.” Nadine wilted. “I’m from Westland. I’ve never seen magic before. I didn’t know magic had any effect on healing herbs. I’m sorry.”

He ignored the apology and pointed. “Undo the buttons and open the top of her outfit.”

“
Why?” Nadine asked.

“
Do it! Or do you favor watching her die? She can’t hold on much longer.”

Nadine leaned forward and began undoing the row of little red leather buttons along the side of Cara’s ribs. When she finished, he gestured for her to open it. Nadine glanced up at Kahlan. Kahlan gave her a nod, and she pulled back the supple leather, exposing Cara’s chest.

“
May I ask your name?” Kahlan asked him.

“
Drefan.” Instead of asking hers, he put an ear to the center of Cara’s chest, listening.

He shifted around, forcing Kahlan to scoot out of the way, until he was at Cara’s head. He briefly inspected the bloody wound above her left ear, and then, seeming to dismiss it as unimportant, went on to systematically probe the base of her neck.

Kahlan could only see the side of his deep cowl, and nothing of his face. The single torch didn’t provide much light, anyway.

Drefan leaned forward and gripped Cara’s breasts in his big hands.

Kahlan sat up straighter. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“
Examining her.”

“
Is that what you call it.”

He sat back on his heels. “Feel her breasts.”

“
Why?”

“
To see what I discovered.”

Kahlan finally turned from the shadow of his cowl and, rather than grabbing her as he had, put the back of her fingers against the side of Cara’s left breast. It was hot—burning with a fever. She felt the other. It was ice cold.

When Drefan gestured, Nadine followed suit. “What does it mean?” she asked.

“
I’d like to reserve judgment until I’ve finished examining her, but it’s not good.”

He put his fingers to the side of her neck, feeling her pulse again. He ran his thumbs outward along her forehead. He bent and put his ear to each of hers. He smelled her breath. He carefully lifted her head and rotated it. He spread her arms out to the sides, pulled the red leather outfit open further so that Cara’s torso was naked to her waist, and then bent over her and palpated her abdomen and up under her ribs.

With his head bent as if in concentration, he touched his fingers to the front of her shoulders for a moment, the sides of her neck, the base of her skull, her temples, several places on her ribs, and lastly to the palms of her hands.

Kahlan was getting impatient. She was seeing a lot of probing and prodding, but very little healing. “Well?”

“
Her aura is seriously snarled,” he said, as he brazenly thrust a big hand under the red leather at Cara’s waist.

Kahlan watched in stunned disbelief as his hand slid down to her crotch. She could see his fingers under the tight leather as he worked them into her sex.

Hard as she could, Kahlan fisted him on the nerve at the side of his upper arm.

He recoiled in pain. He fell to the side of his hip with a groan, covering his arm where she had clouted him.

“
I told you, this is an important woman! How dare you grope her like that! I won’t have it, do you understand?”

“
I wasn’t groping her,” he growled.

The heat was still in Kahlan’s voice. “Then what do you call it?”

“
I was trying to determine what this dream walker has done to her. He’s greatly disturbed her auras, her energy flows, confusing her mind’s control of her body.

“
She’s not in convulsions, precisely. She’s having uncontrolled muscular contractions. I was checking to make sure that he hadn’t triggered the part of her brain that controls excitement. I was making sure that he hadn’t put her in a state of continual orgasm. I have to know the extent of the blocks and triggers he’s disturbed so that I know how to reverse it.”

Nadine, eyes widening, leaned forward. “Magic can do such a thing? Make a person have … continual …”

He nodded as he flexed his sore arm. “If the practitioner knows what he’s doing.”

“
Can you do such a thing?” she breathed.

“
No. I don’t have the gift, or any other form of magic, but I know how to heal—if the damage isn’t too great.” The cowl turned toward Kahlan. “Now, do you wish me to continue, or do you want to watch her die?”

“
Continue. But if you put your hand down there again, you are going to be a one-handed healer.”

“
I’ve already learned what I needed to know.”

Nadine leaned in again. “Is she …?”

“
No.” He flicked his hand irritably. “Pull off her boots.”

Nadine shuffled around and did as he had ordered. He turned a bit toward Kahlan, as if peering at her from the depths of his cowl. “Did you know to hit that particular nerve in my arm with deliberate knowledge, or did you simply get lucky?”

Kahlan studied the shadow, trying to see his eyes. She couldn’t. “I was trained to do such things: to defend myself, and others.”

“
I’m impressed. With such understanding of nerves, you could learn to heal instead of hurt.” He turned his attention to Nadine. “Depress the third anterior axis of the dorsin meridian.”

Nadine made a face. “What?”

He waggled his hand, pointing. “Between the tendon at the back of her ankles and the prominent bone sticking out to the sides. Squeeze there with a thumb and one finger. Both ankles.”

Nadine did as she was told while Drefan pressed behind Cara’s ears with his little fingers and at the same time on the tops of her shoulders with his thumbs. “Harder, woman.” He put both palms, one hand atop the other, on Cara’s sternum.

“
Second meridian,” he murmured.

“
What?”

“
Move down half an inch and do it again. Both ankles.” He moved his fingers on Cara’s skull, concentrating on what he was doing. “All right. First meridian.”

“
Another half inch down?” Nadine asked.

“
Yes, yes, hurry.”

He held Cara’s elbows between a thumb and finger as he lifted them a few inches.

Finally, he sat back on his heels with a sigh. “This is astounding,” he muttered to himself. “This is not good.”