The Third Kingdom Read Online Free PDF Page B

her condition. I need to know that she will be all right.”
    Ester studied his eyes briefly and then smiled a bit. “I understand.” She turned and flicked a hand. “Peter, please go make sure that Sammie is on her way.”

CHAPTER
6
    Richard turned from Kahlan when he heard people approaching out in the corridors. The first woman who ducked in under the sheepskin covering the doorway was carrying a bucket of water. A few of the other women brought in another bucket of water along with bandages and other supplies.
    He was surprised to see some older women enter next, ushering in a wisp of a girl only beginning to blossom into womanhood. A long mass of black hair framed her small face. Her dark eyes were wide with wonder as she stood stiffly among the sheltering cluster of women. The smooth skin of her narrow face set back in among the dark mass of curly locks looked pale in the candlelight.
    Ester rose up and held a hand back down toward Richard. “Sammie, this is Lord Rahl. The woman lying there is his wife, the Mother Confessor. They’ve both been badly hurt and need your help.”
    The girl’s dark eyes briefly turned down to take a look at Kahlan before they turned back up at Ester. At Ester’s urging, the girl hesitantly stepped forward. She lifted out the sides of her long skirt and performed an awkward curtsy before Richard.
    Richard could easily see that she was not simply shy; she was terrified of him. Being from such a small, isolated place, she probably rarely saw strangers, much less strangers such as this. Despite the pain he was in and his worry for Kahlan, he made himself smile warmly to reassure her.
    “Thank you for coming, Sammie.”
    She nodded as she hugged her slender arms to herself. Without answering, she moved back against the shelter of the older women.
    “Sammie, would you excuse us for just a moment, please?” He looked up at Ester. “May I speak with you privately?”
    Ester apparently knew why he wanted to talk to her alone. She forced a quick smile in answer before shepherding the small group to the doorway. They paused, looking confused, but finally obliged as Ester gently shooed them out. Once they were gone, Ester pulled the sheepskin down across the doorway.
    “Lord Rahl, I know that—”
    “She’s a child.”
    The woman straightened her back and clasped her hands as she took a deep breath. She stepped closer and chose her words carefully.
    “Yes, Lord Rahl, and though she is only just fifteen years, she’s a gifted child. Right now that’s what you both need. I can tend to cuts and scrapes, treat fevers with herbs, sometimes I can even set a broken bone”—she gestured to Kahlan—“but I don’t know how to help her. I don’t even have any idea what’s wrong with her. Yes, Sammie is young, but she is not without knowledge and abilities.”
    Richard remembered when he had been as young as Sammie. He had thought that he was all grown up and had the world mostly figured out. While he had known more than most adults gave him credit for, as he had grown older he had come to realize that despite how much he did know, he knewless than he thought he did, mostly because he never appreciated how much more there was to learn. Now, as an adult looking back on someone that age, despite how much they might know, he understood how limited a young person’s scope of the world really was.
    That age of early confidence was something like a false dawn. The real thing was coming, yet despite being close at hand it was still not quite there. And even when it did begin to arrive, there was always more to learn. He remembered Zedd telling him that old age meant that the only thing he really knew was that he would never know it all, much less know enough.
    Putting Kahlan’s life into the hands of someone with such limited experience was more than a little disconcerting to him.
    “But she’s a child,” Richard said softly so that those outside wouldn’t hear. “This is a difficult and