As the man thanked Richard and dipped a bow, Shale came up behind Richard to speak in a confidential tone.
“Lord Rahl, I think I can be of assistance.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can very easily test each of these people for the scope of their ability and the specific talents of each. I believe it would make things go much faster, but more importantly we would get a true accounting of their actual ability, untainted by exaggerated boasting or imagined abilities.”
“That makes sense. I’ve seen people before who thought they were gifted when they really weren’t.” He turned back to the waiting group. “Shale, here, is a talented sorceress. She is going to assist me by testing each of you to see if you have a specific ability I’m looking for.”
Richard didn’t really have a specific ability he was looking for, as he had already found exactly what he sought.
But he was interested in knowing if anyone gifted with considerable power was among the group. That kind of person would worry the Golden Goddess and might possibly be useful.
Shale started in the back and worked her way among the group. As she approached each person, she smiled and told them to simply relax. She then placed a hand to each side of their head, in much the same way a mother might hold the face of a beloved child. She tested Dori’s mother, the woman who was visiting, last. Dori looked down and away, as if too shy to watch a sorceress at her craft.
Shale finally returned, taking Richard’s arm on the way past and leading him back a number of paces, out of earshot of the group. Kahlan went with them, wanting to know what Shale had discovered.
“Well?” Richard finally asked when they came to a stop. “What did you learn?”
Shale looked disappointed. “There are a variety of talents among these people. One man started training in the craft of wizardry. His gift is weak and not adequate enough that it could be developed into much of anything. A few of the women have a talent for sorcery, but it is a bit hard to call it a ‘talent.’ It’s more like a shallow hint. A number of them have minor healing ability. Some have a variety of other talents, but those talents are only latent, at best, and profoundly weak.”
“Who is the strongest among them?” Kahlan asked. “Who has the most power?”
Shale briefly cast a glance back over her shoulder before turning a frown on her and Richard.
“In all honesty, I don’t think that the whole lot of them have enough combined power to be able to light a candle.”
“Really?” Richard was mildly disappointed, because he had been hoping, along with his true interest for calling them all together, to maybe find among them some who were gifted enough to possibly help defend them. “None of them have even a modest amount of gift?”
Shale shook her head regretfully. “I’m afraid not, Lord Rahl. I think the strongest healer among them might have the power to pull out a splinter, but that’s about it. Many of them are quite proud of their gift, but not for sound reason.”
Kahlan’s attention was focused on Richard. “You don’t look very discouraged.”
Richard showed her a brief smile. “I’m not. I found what I was looking for.”
Before she could ask what he had been looking for, he returned to the group. Shale and Kahlan followed, Shale looking puzzled, Kahlan with a look of growing concern.
Kahlan leaned in close from behind. “Richard, are you having one of your crazy ideas?”
“He gets crazy ideas?” Shale asked in a whisper.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Kahlan whispered back. “Trust me on this one.”
Richard ignored them both and instead paused to take hold of Vika’s arm and pull her close. He tipped his head down toward her and spoke with quiet meaning. “I want you to look after Dori’s mother for me.”
Vika understood the look and so didn’t question the order. Her expression hardened. “Not a problem, Lord Rahl. I will take care of it.”
Richard returned to stand before the group, hands again casually clasped behind his back. “I would like to thank you all for coming. We have everything we needed to know. We have learned that your abilities are all quite special. For now, you may go back to what you were doing. If we discover that we have need of your unique talents, we will contact you.”
He held an arm out, indicating the stairway not far down the corridor, which was guarded by four soldiers with pikes.
Before the mother and daughter could leave with the rest of the group, Richard held a hand up to signal the woman to remain behind.
She frowned. “Yes, Lord Rahl?”
“Actually,” Richard said, “I would like to speak to your daughter, Dori.”
Dori’s head was bowed, her gaze cast down at the floor; she was too afraid to look up at the big, scary Lord Rahl.
Richard went to one knee and leaned close. He put a finger under her chin to lift her face up toward him. She turned her eyes away, still afraid to meet his gaze.
“What is it you want?” she asked in a small voice.
“I would like to surrender,” Richard said in a quiet, confidential tone that only she could hear.
The girl’s eyes suddenly looked up at him from under her brow, and then she slowly smiled in a way that no innocent little girl ever could.
15
Vika stepped in front of the little girl’s mother as she started to reach for her daughter. Vika lifted her Agiel and, with the weapon pointed toward the mother, began backing her away.
“What a very, very wise decision,” the girl said in a low, husky voice. It was a voice that sounded as if it could crush bone.
Without looking back, Richard lifted a finger behind himself when he sensed Kahlan starting to come forward. At his warning, she stopped in her tracks.
“Please”—Richard rose and held out his hand in invitation—“let’s go in here where we can talk in private.”
Richard didn’t wait for an answer or explain to the others. He strode to the room and opened the double glass doors without slowing, one hand on each handle as he swept into the room, his cape billowing out behind him. The girl glided in after him, glancing over to give Kahlan a murderous look on her way past. Once she was in the room, Richard turned and closed the doors. He twisted the lock so that no one else could enter. With the doors secure, he pulled the thick drapes over them. They had squares of special glass that people couldn’t actually see through, but light could still come in. The drapes prevented that.
Dori, her back straight, slowly strolled around the center of the room, gazing at the walls of books, looking up and around, taking in everything as if viewing it from an alien world.
As large as the room was, it was actually one of the smaller libraries in the palace. All the walls except the one at the end with the glass were lined with shelves reaching up to a high, beamed ceiling. A brass rail with a ladder hooked to it ran past shelf after shelf packed tight with books of every size.
The tooled leather covers on some of the books looked timeworn. Even with their great age, it was easy to see the care with which they had been made to denote their importance. Richard knew, though, that the most dangerous volumes in the library looked simple and not at all important, and that the most important-looking books, crafted with great care and skill, were not actually all that special. It was a simple method the wizards of old used to throw off would-be thieves and those who had no business looking for dangerous spells. It was something, among a great many other things, that Zedd, his grandfather, had taught him.