Chapter Four

Kahlan was sitting in her 'office.' It was a small room in the People's Palace, probably the smallest in the huge expanse of the palace. Currently she had a desk in the room, and two chairs. She sat in the one behind the desk. She had tried to make the room as colorful as possible. It had become a silent retaliation against Lord Rahl, who, from the look of his bedroom, seemed to despise color. Kahlan had seen that bedroom too many times.

She looked down at the small stack of papers on her desk. Rahl had put her in charge of devotion square maintenance. It was a demeaning job, considering she used to run the Midlands.

She fingered the Rada – Han around her neck, wishing that she could take it off and confess Richard Rahl. If she did anything before she died, she would confess that monster. He would suffer before he died. Then she would most likely die as well, however, it would be worth it.

She heard the knock on the door. "Come in."

Cara entered. She was wearing her brown leather and looked unusually tired. Kahlan hoped she hadn't been with Rahl. He had been acting very strange yesterday. Telling her to call him 'Richard.' She remembered the one time she had called him Richard before yesterday. It had been an unpleasant experience.

"Mother Confessor, I believe something is . . . different about Lord Rahl. I . . . don't think that it is Lord Rahl." Cara sounded hesitant, like she expected him to walk through the door and punish her. Rahl didn't visit Kahlan though. He summoned her.

"What do you mean, Cara? He seemed like Rahl to me." Kahlan thought something was strange, but he had looked exactly the same.

"Well, . . ." She paused, "He refused my offer to bed him. He has never done that before. He broke down on my bed. He looked like he might cry. I've never seen Lord Rahl act like that." Cara looked very shaken up. The more Kahlan thought about it, the more Rahl had seemed like a different person yesterday.

"Hum, I see what you mean. He seemed different yesterday, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he is a different person." Kahlan thought he might have been having a good day.

"Maybe, Mother Confessor, but I don't think so. I've known Lord Rahl for a long time." Longer than she wished Kahlan thought, "I've never seen him look like he was going to cry. Not when his father died, or his mother. I didn't know he could cry. He seemed remorseful, sad, and depressed. I don't – " She was cut off by another Mord – Sith bursting in the room. Kahlan tried not to think or say her name, and avoid her most of the time.

"Something is wrong with Lord Rahl!" the other woman roared at Kahlan. "I haven't seen him since the Agiel malfunction. I always see him. He hasn't been following the same patterns tha – " Kahlan cut her off.

"There was an Agiel malfunction?" She looked to Cara. Trying to ignore the glare of the woman.

"Yes, Mother Confessor. Two days ago, I don't know how long it lasted, but I remember picking up my Agiel, but there was no pain. It was a strange feeling. I found a few others, and we began looking for Lord Rahl. We couldn't find him anywhere.

We even missed devotion. About four hours later, I still had my Agiel in my hand. And the magic suddenly was there again. We still don't know what happened."

"You didn't think I should know about this?" Kahlan asked in disbelief.

The other woman jumped back into the conversation. "If we had told you, you would have tried to do something stupid, and we had a problem to deal with at that moment." She sounded venomous.

Cara mouthed 'sorry' at Kahlan. She gave her a slight nod in return.

"So you haven't seen Lord Rahl in two days, and you think something is wrong? Just because he's been avoiding you." She hated calling him 'Lord Rahl,' but around her it was necessary.

"Yes. He likes to come and . . . see me." She answered evasively. "It's not like him."

"What do you think now, Mother Confessor?" Cara said pointedly.

"I don't know. What do you think we should do?" Kahlan was trying to exclude the woman from their conversation. The room was so tiny though, that it was hard for all three of them to stand in it with the door closed.

Cara looked discretely over to the woman and rubbed her ear. She had a plan to escape, but didn't want the woman to hear it. It was a good precaution; she reported everything she heard between Kahlan and Cara to Rahl.

"I think we need to talk to Lord Rahl, and figure out what is going on." The woman said.

"What happens if it's a man impersonating him?" Cara asked softly.

The woman gave her a cruel smile, "Then we get to – "

The door opened slowly, but it seemed like a sudden interruption to their serious conversation. She didn't want to look at the man standing in the doorway; fearing she knew whom it was. Then she heard his voice, submissive and quiet. That couldn't be him; she looked up.

"Denna?" Richard Rahl whispered.