The Third Kingdom Read Free Page A

worries at the moment.
    With an angry gesture, the woman with the knife hushed the men before turning her attention back to Richard.
    He saw in the weak light of the full moon that illuminated the cloud cover that she was middle-aged. Fine lines creased her face in an agreeable way. It was too dark to tell the color of her eyes, but not the determination in them. Her expression, too, was one of grim resolve.
    The woman leaned closer to press a hand to the bite wound on the side of his upper arm to try to stop the bleeding. Her gaze turned up to his as she held pressure in the wound.
    “Are you the one who killed Jit, the Hedge Maid?” she asked.
    Surprised by the question, Richard nodded as he looked around at all the stony faces watching him. “How do you know that?”
    With her free hand, the woman pulled stray strands of her straight, shoulder-length hair back from her face. “A boy, Henrik, came to us a little while ago. He told us that he had been her captive, and that she intended to kill him like all the others she had killed. He said that two people rescued him and killed the Hedge Maid, but now they were in trouble and needed help.”
    Richard leaned forward. “Was there anyone else with him?”
    “I’m afraid not. Just the boy.”
    Even though Richard had killed the Hedge Maid, he and Kahlan had both been grievously hurt. Their friends had brought a small army to get the two of them out of the Hedge Maid’s lair and take them home. Now, those friends were allmissing. He knew that none of them would have willingly left Kahlan and him alone like this.
    “Henrik was the one who told my friends what had happened and where they could find us,” Richard said. “They should have been with him.”
    The woman shook her head. “I’m sorry, but he was alone. Terrified, and alone.”
    “Did he tell you what happened, here?” Richard asked. “Did he tell you where those who were with us are now?”
    “He was winded and in a panic to find help. He said there was no time to explain. He said we had to hurry and help you. We came right away.”
    Now that Richard was free and the rush of the fight was over, the shock of pain had begun to bear down on him in earnest. He touched his forehead with trembling fingers.
    “But did he say anything else at all?” Richard asked. “It’s important.”
    The woman glanced around in the darkness as she shook her head. “He said that you had been attacked and needed help. We knew that we had to hurry. Henrik is back at our village. When we get back you can question him yourself. For now, we must get in out of the night.” She gestured urgently to the woman behind her. “Give me your scarf.”
    The woman immediately pulled it off her head and handed it over. The woman kneeling beside Richard used the scarf as a bandage, wrapping it high around his upper arm several times. She swiftly knotted it, then stuck the knife handle under the knot and twisted it around to tighten the tourniquet. Richard gritted his teeth against the pain.
    He couldn’t seem to slow his racing heart. He was worried about all those who had been with him, worried as to what could have happened to them. He needed to get to Henrik and find out what was going on. More than that, though, he was worried about getting help for Kahlan.
    “We shouldn’t be out here any longer,” one of the men in back quietly cautioned, trying to hurry the woman.
    “Almost done,” she said as she quickly appraised some of his more obvious injuries. “You need these wounds sewn closed and treated with poultice or they will be infected by morning,” she told Richard. “Bites like this are not to be ignored.”
    “Please,” Richard said as he gestured with his other arm toward the wagon. “Help my wife? I fear that she is hurt worse.”
    With a quick gesture from the woman, two of the men hurried to the wagon.
    “Is she the Mother Confessor?” one of the men called back as he checked on her.
    Richard’s sense of