Richard thought about all of Chase's children and knew he didn't want to endanger them, but he didn't want to argue the point either, so he just nodded.
"We better get in there. Michael is sure to be missing me."
"One more thing," Chase said. "Zedd wants to see you. He's in a big fret about something. Says it's real important."
Richard looked up over his shoulder and saw the same strange snakelike cloud. "I think I need to see him, too." He turned and started to leave.
"Richard," Chase said with a look that would have withered anyone else, "tell me what were you doing in the high Ven."
Richard didn't shy away. "Same as you. Trying to get a whiff."
Chase's hard face softened, and a hint of his smile came back. "Get one?"
Richard nodded as he held up his red, sore left hand. "And it bites.".
The two turned and melted into the crowd entering the house, moving through the entry, across white marble floors, to the elegant central meeting hall. Marble walls and columns glowed with a cold eerie cast where the sunlight streaming in from above touched them. Richard had always preferred the warmth of wood, but Michael had maintained that anyone could go out and make what they wanted from wood, but if you wanted marble, you had to hire a lot of people who lived in wood houses to do the work for you. Richard remembered a time before their mother died, when he and. Michael played in the dirt, building houses and forts with sticks. Michael had helped him then. He wanted so much for Michael to help him now.
People Richard recognized greeted him, getting only a wooden smile or quick handshake. Since Kahlan was from a strange land, Richard was a little surprised to see how comfortable she was around all the important people. It had already occurred to him that she, too, must be someone important. Gangs of assassins didn't hunt down unimportant people.
Richard found it difficult to smile at everyone. If the rumors about things coming out of the boundary were true, then all of Westland was in danger. Country people in the outlying areas of the Hartland were already terrified to go out at night and had recounted stories to him of people being found partly eaten. He had told them it was just that they had died of some natural cause, and wild animals had found the bodies. Happened all the time. They said it was beasts from the sky. He had passed it off as superstitious nonsense.
Until now.
Even with all the people around, Richard felt overwhelmingly lonely. He was confused and didn't know what to do about it. He didn't know who to turn to. Kahlan was the only one who made him feel better, but at the same time she frightened him. The encounter on the cliff frightened him. He wanted to take her and leave.
Zedd might know what to do. He used to live in the Midlands before the boundary, though he would never talk about it. And then there was the unsettling feeling he had that all of this had something to do with his father's death, and his father's death had something to do with his own secrets, the secrets his father had placed upon him and him alone.
Kahlan laid a hand on his arm. "Richard, I'm sorry. I didn't know… about your father. I'm sorry."
With the frightening events of the day he had almost forgotten about it until Chase had brought it up… Almost. He gave a little shrug. "Thanks." He waited a moment as a woman in a blue silk dress with ruffles of white lace at the neck, cuffs, and down the front walked past. He looked down at the floor as she moved by so he wouldn't have to return her smile if she gave him one. "It was three weeks ago." He told Kahlan a little of what had happened. She listened sympathetically.
"I'm sorry, Richard. Perhaps you would rather be alone."
He forced himself to smile. "No, it's all right. I've been alone enough. It helps to have a friend to talk to."
She gave him a small smile and a nod, and they moved on through the crowd. Richard wondered where Michael was. It seemed odd that he wasn't out yet.
Even though he had lost his appetite, he knew Kahlan hadn't eaten in two days. With all the tempting food around, he decided she must have remarkable self-control. The delicious smells were starting to change his mind about his appetite.
He leaned closer to her. "Hungry?"
"Very."
He guided her over to a long table with food piled in tiers. There were large steaming platters of sausages and meats, boiled potatoes, dried fish of several kinds, grilled fish, chicken, turkey, mounds of raw vegetables sliced into strips, big tureens of cabbage and sausage soup, onion soup, and spice soup, platters of breads, cheeses, fruits, pies, and cakes, and casks of wine and ale. Servants were constantly coming and going to keep the platters full.
Kahlan scrutinized them. "Some of the serving girls have long hair. That is allowed?"
Richard looked around, a little bewildered. "Yes. Anyone can have any 'kind of hair they want. Look." He held his arm close to his chest and pointed as he leaned toward her. "Those women over there are councilors, some have short hair, some have long. Whatever they want." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Do people tell you to cut your hair?"
She lifted an eyebrow to him. "No. No one has ever asked me to cut my hair. It is simply that where I come from, the length of a woman's hair has a certain social significance."
"Does that mean that you are someone of considerable standing?" He took the edge off the question with a playful smile. "Seeing as how you have such long, beautiful hair, I mean."
She gave him back a small smile, devoid of joy. "Some think so. I could only expect that after this morning, the thought had entered your mind. We all can be only what we are, nothing more, or less."
"Well, if I ask anything a friend shouldn't, just kick me."
Her smile brightened into the same tight-lipped one she had given him before. The smile of sharing. It made him grin.
He turned to the food and found one of his favorites, small ribs with a spice sauce, put a few on a small white plate, and handed it to her.
"Try these first. They're my most treasured."
Kahlan held the dish at arm's length, eyeing it suspiciously. "What creature's meat is this?" "It's pork," he said, a little surprised. "You know, from a pig. Try it, it's the best thing here, I promise."
She relaxed, brought the plate close, and ate the meat. He ate a half dozen himself, savoring every bite.
He put some sausages on their plates. "Here, have some. of these, too."
Her suspicion flared anew. "What are they made of?"
"Pork and beef, some spices, I don't know what kinds. Why? There some kinds of things you don't eat?"
"Some kinds," she said noncommittally before eating a sausage. "May I have some spice soup, please?"
He ladled the soup into a fine white bowl with a gold rim and traded it for her plate. She took the bowl in both hands and tried it.
A smile came to her face. "It's good, just like I make. I don't think our two homelands are as different as you fear."
As she drank the remainder of the soup, Richard, feeling better about what she said, picked up a thick slice of bread, put strips of chicken meat on it, and, when she finished the soup, exchanged the bread for her bowl. She took the bread with chicken and started moving to the side of the room while she ate. He set the soup bowl down and followed behind, shaking an occasional hand. Their owners cast a critical eye at the way he was dressed. When she reached a deserted spot near a column, she turned to face him.
"Please get me a piece of cheese?"
"Sure. What kind?"
She scanned the throng. "Any kind."
Richard worked his way back through the crowd to the food table and picked up two pieces of cheese, eating one along his way back to Kahlan. She took the cheese when he handed it to her, but instead of eating it, she let her arm slip to her side, and let the cheese fall to the floor, as if she had forgotten she was holding it.