"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 tent 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."

"What is it?" Kahlan asked "Are you saying that you can't help her?" He waved dismissively, as if too distracted to answer. "Answer me," Kahlan insisted. "If I wish you to bother me, woman, I will ask." Nadine leaned forward, cocking her head. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" She pointed with her chin, indicating Kahlan.

He was feeling Cara's earlobes. "By the looks of her. I'd say some mucker on the cleaning staff. One in need of a bath," "I've just had a bath," Kahlan said under her breath.

Nadine's voice lowered with import. 'You'd better show some respect. Mister Healer. She's the one who owns this palace. The whole thing. She's the Mother Confessor herself."

He ran a finger down the inside of Cara's upper arms. "Is that so? Well, good for her. Now, be quiet, the both of you. "She's also the betrothed of Lord Richard Rahl himself." Drefan's hands froze. His whole body stiffened.

''And since Lord Richard Rahl is the Master of D'Hara, and you're from D'Hara," Nadine went on, "I reckon that makes him the boss of you. If I were you, I'd be showing a lot more respect for Lord Richard Rahl's future wife. He doesn't like it when people don't show respect for women. I've seen him knock out people's teeth for being disrespectful." Drefan hadn't moved a muscle.

Kahlan thought Nadine had put it very crudely, but she doubted it could have been any more effective.

"Not only that," Nadine added, "but she's the one who killed the assassin. With magic."

Drefan finally cleared his throat. "Forgive me, mistress-" "Mother Confessor," Kahlan corrected.

"I most humbly beg your forgiveness. . Mother Confessor. I had no idea. I had no intention to cause-"

Kahlan cut him off. "I understand. You were more concerned with healing Cara, here, than with formalities. So am I. Can you help her?" "I can." "Please, get on with it then."