the arrows aimed at the prisoner, it was obvious to Kahlan by the way Jake was holding the knife to the man’s throat that at the first twitch of aggression, it was Commander Fister who would be the one to end it before an arrow cleared a bow.
The Shun-tuk prisoner wore only a coarse, bleached cloth wrapped around his waist and between his legs, as did many of his kind, including the women who fought with the Shun-tuk men. His legs, arms, and chest were bare. His mostly shaved head had a dense crop of long hair at the top, standing up like a sheaf of wheat at harvest. Strings of human teeth wound tightly around the bundle of hair kept it standing up straight.
Once she got closer, Kahlan could see in the firelight that his skin looked like it had been rubbed with a paste of ash, possibly mixed with something to make it stick better so that it wouldn’t rub off easily when they moved through heavy brush, or wash off in the frequent rains. It looked like the man habitually rubbed the ghostly ash paste over himself, so that in places it was thick, crusty, and cracked.
Like all of the Shun-tuk she had seen, black grease smeared around his eyes mimicked the eye sockets of a skull. He glared out from that darkness. As was the practice of some of the Shun-tuk, the same black grease had been used to paint a skeletal grin full of teeth on this man’s lips and cheeks to go with the skeletal eye sockets. Even held as securely as he was, because of the ghostly whitewash over his body and the skeletal face of a skull, the man presented a frightening, intimidating presence.
As Richard approached, the man’s glare seemed to grow more menacing. Despite how helpless he was, his eyes were filled with hate and defiance, like those of a wolf caught in a trap. He did not look the least bit frightened by his helpless situation or all the big men towering around him. He wanted to fight. Kahlan thought that if nothing else, he would be wise to be more than a little respectful of Commander Fister’s knife at his throat.
Kahlan waited a few steps behind Richard along with Nicci and Zedd. Irena put out a hand to the side, stopping Samantha farther back. She leaned close to her daughter and whispered instructions for her to stay where she was, safely behind the rest of them. Samantha’s mouth twisted in disappointment as she folded her arms, but she accepted the order without a complaint.
She obviously wanted to go up closer to Richard and get a better look at the prisoner. She had fought these half people and she wanted to see what Richard might ask, but she always appeared respectful and deferential to her mother. Until Richard had shown up in Samantha’s village of Stroyza, life had probably always been a constant, with clear-cut lines of respect, with Irena their sorceress and authority figure.
When the barrier holding back the third kingdom and the half people was suddenly breached, Samantha’s mother had been captured by the Shun-tuk. Everything in young Samantha’s predictable, stable life suddenly changed. Her whole world had been turned upside down, and she found herself, young as she was, the only sorceress left in Stroyza. Richard had shown up in the middle of that crisis.
In their time spent together, Richard and Samantha had depended on each other for their survival as they went to the dangerous land beyond the barrier to rescue Irena, Zedd, Nicci, Cara, and the soldiers who had been captured.
Richard said that she was smart, and that she seemed to have a great deal of ability with her gift, although he wasn’t sure of all that she was capable of doing with her power. Samantha didn’t really know, either. Together, the two of them had succeeded in rescuing all those that the Shun-tuk had captured. At least, the ones still alive.
Kahlan could not help but notice that the young woman seemed to be infatuated with Richard. It was just a stage of youth, of growing up and discovering the wider world and the mysteries of the opposite sex. It didn’t help that the object of her affection was Richard. He was an easy man to like, handsome and commanding, yet kind and considerate. Kahlan could certainly understand what Samantha saw in him, even if she wasn’t particularly thrilled about it.
But Samantha respected Kahlan and did her best to hide her feelings, thinking that she did a good enough job of it that no one knew. Samantha undoubtedly realized that it was inappropriate and that nothing could come of it. Still, the heart wants what the heart wants and such feelings aren’t so easy to turn aside.
Kahlan believed that the young woman was smart enough not to let herself get carried away and hurt, even if at times, when she didn’t think anyone was looking, she did stare at Richard with unmistakable longing. Kahlan knew that it was best to let it die out on its own rather than say something and embarrass Samantha. Young women were easily humiliated in such matters, and Kahlan didn’t want to hurt her. She liked Samantha. She just wished that Richard weren’t the object of her desire.
Richard, of course, was oblivious of it. With so many more things to worry about, his mind was focused elsewhere and Kahlan was not about to bring it up. She, too, had enough things that were a great deal more serious to worry about.
Kahlan was taken by surprise when Irena abruptly left her daughter and rushed past the rest of them to grab Richard’s arm.
“Richard, you must come away from this man.” Irena tugged on his arm. “Leave these men to tend to it and come back with me. Come away right now.”
Richard stood his ground and frowned down at the woman. “What?”
She leaned in close and turned her face away from the prisoner so he couldn’t hear as she whispered, “He has occult powers. I must get you back away from him. Come with me.”
Nicci immediately forced her way between them, breaking Irena’s grip on Richard’s arm. With a look from Richard, Nicci understood the instruction and towed Irena by her wrist back out of the way.
“Can you sense if the half person has occult powers?” Kahlan whispered to Nicci as she fell in beside her to escort Irena back away from Richard.
Nicci looked over out of the corner of her eye. “No. I could sense the gift in him if he had it, but he doesn’t. I can’t sense any other type of power in a person, occult or otherwise. Occult magic is an entirely different form of power. I suspect that you can only sense it if you possess it yourself, and while I may know a little about it, I don’t have any occult abilities so I can’t sense them.”
“He has occult powers,” Irena insisted. It was all too clear that she resented having been dragged away from what she had been doing. She was the authority figure in her village and was apparently used to people deferring to her. She obviously didn’t appreciate having her word questioned or challenged.
“What are you talking about, he has occult powers?” Nicci growled through gritted teeth. “I am a sorceress with a great deal of experience.” She seized Irena’s arm and hauled her close. “If I can’t sense any occult powers in the man, then how can you?”
Fuming, Irena yanked her arm away from Nicci’s grip. Her expression had grown as dark as her mass of black hair.
“You don’t need to be a sorceress or have occult powers to know that the man has such ability and that he is dangerous.” She thrust out an arm, pointing back the way they had come. “Didn’t you see some of those unholy demons during the battle when they brought the dead back to life?”
“What of it?” Nicci asked.
Irena leaned in closer. “The Shun-tuk didn’t do such things by wishing the dead back to life, now did they?
