Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind [83]
He knew she had meant much more than she said, just as he had. He looked into her eyes, felt her breath on his face.
“Kahlan, do you have someone?” He feared the arrow to his heart, but had to ask. “Someone at home who waits for you, I mean? A love?”
He held the gaze of her green eyes for a long time. She didn’t look away, but her eyes filled with tears. More than anything he wanted to put his arms around her and kiss her.
She reached up, letting the backs of her fingers brush his face gently. She cleared her throat. “It is not that simple, Richard.”
“Yes it is. Either you do or you don’t.”
“I have obligations.”
For a time it seemed she was going to tell him something, tell him her secret.
She looked so beautiful in the moonlight, but it wasn’t only the way she looked, it was what was inside her, everything from her intelligence and courage to her wit, and the special smile she gave only to him. He would slay a dragon, if there were such a thing, just to see that smile. He knew he would never want anyone else for as long as he lived. He would rather spend the rest of his life alone than with someone else. There could be no one else.
He desperately wanted to hug her close. He ached to taste her soft lips. But he was inexplicably getting the same feeling he had had before he crossed the bridge. It was a strong feeling of warning, stronger than his desire to kiss her. Something told him that if he did, it would be crossing one bridge too many. He remembered how the magic flared when she had touched his hand as he held the sword. He had been right about the bridge, so he didn’t put his arms around her.
She broke the gaze with a glance to the ground. “Chase said the next two days are going to be rough. I guess I had better get some sleep.”
He knew that whatever was going on in her head, he had no say in it. He couldn’t force her. It was something she had to handle herself.
“You have an obligation to me too,” he said. She looked back to him with a questioning frown, and he smiled. “You have promised to be my guide. I intend to hold you to that promise.”
She smiled and could only nod, too close to tears to speak. She kissed the end of her finger and pressed it against his cheek, then slipped back into the night.
Richard sat in the dark, trying to swallow past the lump in his throat. Long after she was gone he could still feel the place on his cheek where she had put her finger, her kiss.
The night was so still that Richard felt as if he were the only one awake in the whole world. Stars flickered, looking like Zedd’s magic dust frozen in place as the moon stared silently down at him. Not even the wolves sang tonight. Loneliness threatened to crush him.
He found himself wishing something would attack just so he would have something else to think about. He pulled out his sword, and for something to do, polished its already gleaming blade with the corner of his cloak. It was his sword to use as he saw fit; that’s what Zedd had told him. Whether Kahlan liked it or not, he was going to use it to protect her. She was hunted. Anything that tried to touch her was going to have to come through his sword first.
The thought of her hunters, the quads, and Darken Rahl made his anger heat. He wanted them to come now so he could put an end to the threat. He hungered for them. His heart pounded. His jaws clenched.
He realized suddenly that it was the sword’s anger awakening his. The sword was free from its scabbard and the mere thought of something threatening Kahlan was making its anger, and his anger, come forth. He was startled at how it had seeped into him, so quiet, so unseen, so seductive. Simply perception, the wizard had said. What was the sword’s magic perceiving in him?
Richard slid the sword back into its scabbard, put back the anger, feeling the gloom seep through him once again as he resumed his scan of the countryside and sky. He stood and walked around to relieve the cramps in his legs, then sat once more against the rock, inconsolable.
An hour before his watch was due to end, he