"Well, Lord Rahl, I'm one of the heroes of the Shinavont province revolt. That's in D'Hara. I was a lieutenant at the time. There were five hundred of us, and we came upon the rebel force, seven thousand strong, encamped in a scrag wood. We attacked at first light, and ended the revolt before the day was out. There were no Shinavont rebels left by sunset."

"Very impressive, general."

General Kerson shrugged. "Not really. Nearly all their men had their pants down around their ankles. You ever try to fight when the grips had your guts?" Richard admitted that he hadn't. "Everyone called us heroes, but it doesn't take a hero to split a man's skull when he's so dizzy with diarrhea that he can hardly lift his head. I wasn't proud of what we did, but it was our duty, and we ended the revolt, and undoubtedly prevented the greater bloodshed that would have occurred if their force had gotten well and escaped us. No telling what they would have done, how many more would have died.

"But they didn't. We took them down because they were sick with dysentery and couldn't keep their feet." He swept his arm around, indicating the surrounding countryside. "I've got over half my men down. We've not a full force because General Reibisch went off to the south. What's left isn't in fighting condition. Something has to be done. A sizable enough foe attacks now, and we're in trouble. We're vulnerable. We could lose Aydindril.

"I'd be grateful if you knew something we could do to reverse the situation."

"Why are you bringing this to me? Don't you have healers?"

"The healers we have are for those kinds of problems caused by steel. We tried going to some of the herb sellers and healers here in Aydindril, but they couldn't begin to handle the numbers." He shrugged. "You're the Lord Rahl. I thought you would know what to do."

"You're right, the herb dealers wouldn't have anything in that kind of quantity." Richard pinched his lower lip as he thought. "Garlic will take care of it, if they eat enough. Blueberries will help, too. Get plenty of garlic into the men, and supplement it with blueberries. There would be enough of those around."

The general leaned in with a dubious frown. "Garlic and blueberries? Are you serious?"

"My grandfather taught me about herbs and remedies and such things. Trust me, general, it will work. They've got to drink plenty of tannin tea from quench oak bark, too. Garlic, blueberries, and the quench oak tea should take care of it." Richard looked over his shoulder. "Right, Nadine?"

She nodded. "That would do it, but it would be easier yet if you gave them powdered bistort."

"I thought of that, but we'll never find any bistort this time of year, and the herb sellers wouldn't begin to have enough."

"It doesn't take that much in powered form, and it would work best," Nadine said. "How many men, sir?"

"Last report was in the neighborhood of fifty thousand," the general said. "By now? Who knows."

Nadine's eyebrows lifted in surprise at the number. "I've never seen that much bistort in my life. They'd be old men before that much could be gathered. Richard's right, then: garlic, blueberries, and quench oak tea. Comfrey tea would work, too, but no one will carry that kind of quantity. Quench oak is your best bet, but it's hard to find. If there aren't quench oaks to be had, arrowwood would at least be better than nothing."

"No," Richard said. "I've seen quench oak up in the high ridges, to the northeast."

General Kerson scratched his stubble. "What's a quench oak?"

"An oak tree. The kind of oak tree that will be what your men need. It has a yellow inner bark that you use to make the tea."

''A tree. Lord Rahl, I can identify ten different kinds of steel just from the feel of it between my fingers, but I couldn't tell one tree from another if I had extra eyes."

"Surely you must have men who know trees."

''Richard, ' Nadine said, "quench oak is what we call it in Hartland. I've collected roots and plants on my way here that I know the names of, but are called different by the people I've met. If these men drink tea from the wrong tree, the best you can hope for is that it won't harm them, but it won't solve the problem. The garlic and blueberries will help their gut, but they need the liquid for what was drained out of the rest of them; the tea helps stop them from losing all that water and builds their health back up."

"Yes, I know." He rubbed his eyes. "General, get a detachment together, about five hundred wagons, and extra packhorses in case we can't get the wagons close. I know where the trees are, I'll lead you up there." Richard laughed quietly to himself. "Once a guide, always a guide."

"The men will appreciate it that Lord Rahl is concerned about their well-being," the general said. "I, for sure, appreciate it, Lord Rahl."

"Thanks, general. Get everything needed together, and I'll meet you out at the stables shortly. I'd like to get up there, at least, before dark. Those passes are no place to be stumbling around in the dark, especially with wagons. The moon is near full, but even that won't help enough."

"We'll be ready before you can walk out there. Lord Rahl."

After a quick fist to his heart in salute, the general was gone. Richard flashed Nadine another of his empty smiles. "Thanks for the help."

And then he turned his full attention to the Mord-Sith clad in red leather.

CHAPTER 6

Richard gripped Cara's jaw and lifted her face. He turned her head so he could better see the oozing cut on her cheek.

"What's this?"

She glanced to Kahlan when he released his hold on her. "A man refused my advances."

"Is that so. Maybe he was put off by your choice of red leather."

Richard looked to Kahlan. "What's going on? We've got a palace full of guards so jumpy that they even challenged me when I came in. We've got squads of archers guarding stairwells, and I've not seen so much bared steel since the Blood of the Fold attacked the city."

His eyes had that raptor gaze again. "Who's down in the pit?"

"I told you," Cara whispered to Kahlan. "He always finds out."

Kahlan had told Cara not to mention Marlin because she feared he might somehow hurt Richard. But once Marlin had revealed that there was a second assassin, everything changed; she had to tell Richard that there was a Sister of the Dark wandering around loose.

"An assassin showed up to kill you." Kahlan gestured with a tilt of her head toward Cara. "Little Miss Magic, here, goaded him into using his gift on her so that she could capture him. We put him down in the pit for safekeeping."

Richard glanced at Cara before addressing Kahlan. 'Little Miss Magic, eh? Why did you let her do that?"

''He said he wanted to kill you. Cara decided to question him in her own fashion."

''Do you think that was necessary? ' he asked Cara. 'We have a whole army. One man couldn't get to me."

"He also said he intended to kill the Mother Confessor."

Richard's expression darkened. "Then I hope you didn't show him your gentle side."

Cara smiled. "No, Lord Rahl."

"Richard," Kahlan said, "it's worse than that. He was a wizard from the Palace of the Prophets. He said that he came with a Sister of the Dark. We haven't found her yet."

"A Sister of the Dark. Great. How did you manage to discover that this man was an assassin?"

"He announced himself, believe it or not. He claims that Jagang sent him to kill you, and me, and that his orders were to announce himself once inside the Confessors' Palace."

"Then Jagang's plan wasn't really for this man to kill us; Jagang isn't that stupid. What was this Sister of the Dark to do, here in Aydindril? Did he say that she was here to kill us, too, or that she was here for some other purpose?"