Princess Rahl: Chapter 6 of The Heir to the Throne

[hrhrionastar]

Title: First Words (Ch. 6 of The Heir to the Throne)
Pairing: Darken/Kahlan, background Darken/Cara, Richard/Kahlan
Length: 880
Rating: T
Spoilers: Reckoning, mostly, but eventually there'll be a few references to things we learn later.
Summary: Reckoning AU: what if Darken and Kahlan's baby was a girl?

 

First Words

Darken watched as Nila, humming softly to herself, swooped her toy dragon around the nursery. Beside her, Nicholas kept reaching for the toy, angry when Nila swung it out of his reach. Kahlan sat embroidering not far away, her eyes on Nicholas.

The whole scene was pleasingly domestic, and Darken was happy he had dismissed Alina, so that he could have a quiet moment alone with his family. His family—it still seemed incredible that he had one. He never would have dreamed it was possible to be this content.

Without the Seeker hanging like a doom over his head, Darken had time to spend on being a father—a better one than his own, not that that was particularly difficult—and a husband.

Speaking of which…Darken leaned closer to Kahlan. “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” he asked softly.

Kahlan nodded. “They’re opposite,” she whispered, almost more to herself than to him. Darken looked down at the children and thought he saw what she meant. Where Nila was dark, and skinny to the point of awkward boniness (a worrying sign in a three-year-old), Nicholas was a fair-haired angel, plump and graceful as only a toddler could be. Nila hadn’t stopped talking since she had learned to speak, whereas Nicholas had yet to say any recognizable word, and the sounds he made were few and far between. Nila had been a restless baby; Nicholas was calm and easy to care for. They were as different as night and day.

“Well,” Darken said slyly, “Maybe it’s time we thought about giving Nila and Nicholas a baby brother or sister…” and he trailed his fingers along Kahlan’s neck. She didn’t move, neither accepting nor rejecting the touch.

“You have your heir,” she protested, but her voice was breathy, and Darken felt triumph at this small victory warm his blood.

Before they could continue the intriguing line of discussion, however, the children caused a small distraction. Nicholas had at last managed to grasp Nila’s toy dragon, and was hugging it to his chest.

“Give it back!” Nila shrieked, tackling her younger brother to the floor and trying to wrest the dragon from his clutching fingers. “Now, Nicholas!”

“Mine!” Nicholas said firmly. Then, apparently liking the sound of his own voice, he repeated it, louder. “Mine! Mine, mine, mine!”

“Is not!” Nila yelled back, bending Nicholas’s fingers.

“Children!” Kahlan said, getting to her feet, discarding her embroidery, and moving to separate them. Darken followed suit, reluctantly. He wanted to see who would be the victor.

Darken was just picking up Nila, who immediately turned to him and said imperiously, “Daddy, make him give it back!” when there was a knock on the door and Alina and Cindi entered.

“My Lord, there is a woman here who says she is looking for the Seeker,” Cindi said, and Alina held out her arms for Nila.

 

 

Kahlan’s heart rate must have doubled when the dark-haired Mord’Sith made her announcement. She set Nicholas down in his crib, only stopping to confiscate the toy dragon he still held, before striding to the door. She was right behind Darken as he and the dark Mord’Sith, whose name began with ‘C,’ strode down the hall toward the throne room.

At the corner, Darken saw her, made an exasperated noise, and linked her arm through his, sweeping her along faster than she could have walked on her own. Behind them the Mord’Sith hurried to catch up.

Kahlan didn’t even mind Darken’s proprietary touch, as long as he was taking her to—possibly—news of Richard.

At last, they arrived in the throne room. Darken deposited Kahlan, with a rustle of the skirts she hated so much (they got in the way far more than her Confessor dress ever had), in the slightly smaller throne beside his. She sat and folded her hands in her lap, with what appearance of calm she could muster.

And only then did she see the woman standing before them, flanked by two guards. She wore the pink and green dress and veil typical of a Sister of the Light outside of the Palace of the Prophets. Kahlan gasped. She hadn’t seen a Sister of the Light since she and Richard had taken Renn to them. And this Sister was one she had never met.

“Who are you?” Darken asked.

“Sister Verna of the Palace of the Prophets,” the woman said.

“I am informed that you search for the Seeker,” Darken said. “Why?”

“I was sent many years ago to find Richard Rahl—“ Sister Verna started to say, but Kahlan gasped.

“Richard Rahl?” Kahlan protested. “The Seeker’s name is—was—Richard Cypher!”

“The Seeker—Richard Cypher or Richard Rahl—is dead,” Darken interrupted harshly. “Why did you search for him?”

“Dead?” Sister Verna gasped. “The first War Wizard in three thousand years?”

“War Wizard?” Darken and Kahlan asked together.

“Of course,” Sister Verna said, looking confused. “Didn’t you know?”

“He wasn’t a War Wizard,” Darken said skeptically. “If he were that powerful—“ he stopped talking abruptly, looking vexed.

“What’s a War Wizard?” Kahlan asked desperately.

Both Sister Verna and Darken turned to stare disbelievingly at her. For the first time since her childhood, tied to a chair with her sister Dennee, Kahlan felt like a fool.

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