Wizard's First Rule

With a howl, it sprang. Richard jumped to his feet, his hand going for the sword. When it bounded into the air, Richard saw that it was a wolf. The biggest wolf he had ever seen. It was to him before his hand even reached the hilt. The wolf's front paws hit his chest square. The powerful impact drove him backward over the log he had been sitting on.

As he fell backward, his breath knocked from him, he saw behind him something more frightening than the wolf.

A heart hound.

The huge jaws snapped at his chest just as the wolf reached the heart hound and went for its throat.

Richard's head hit something hard. He heard a yelp and the sound of teeth ripping tendon. Everything went black.

His eyes opened. Zedd was looking down at him, and had a middle finger to each side of Richard's forehead. Kahlan was holding a torch. He felt dizzy, but stood anyway on wobbly legs, until Kahlan made him sit on the log.

With a frown of concern, she stroked her fingers on his face. "Are you all right?"

"I think so," he managed. "My head… it hurts." He thought he might throw up.

Zedd took the torch from Kahlan and held it behind the log, casting light on the body of a heart hound, its throat ripped out. Zedd looked down at Richard's sword, still in its sheath.

"How is it the hound didn't have you?"

Richard felt the back of his head; it hurt like daggers twisting

"I… don't know. It all happened so fast." Then he remembered, like a dream when waking. He stood up again. "A wolf! It was a wolf that has been following us."

Kahlan stepped closer and put an arm around his waist to steady him. "A wolf?" The odd tone of suspicion in her voice made him look to her narrowed eyes. "Are you sure?"

Richard nodded. "I was sitting here, and then all of a sudden I knew it was watching me. It came closer, and I saw its yellow eyes. Then it leapt at me. I thought it was attacking. It knocked me flat, right over the log. I never even had time to draw the sword, it was so fast. But it wasn't attacking me. It was going for the heart hound behind me, protecting me. I never even saw the heart hound until I was falling backward. It must have killed the hound. That wolf saved my life."

Kahlan straightened herself and put her fists on her hips. "Brophy!" she called into the darkness. "Brophy! I know you're out there. Come here this instant!"

The wolf trotted into the torchlight with its head down and its tail between its legs. Its thick fur was a charcoal color from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail. Fierce yellow eyes glowed from its dark head. The wolf dropped to its belly and crawled to Kahlan's feet. Once there, it rolled onto its back with paws in the air, and whined.

"Brophy!" she admonished. "Have you been following us?"

"Only to protect you, Mistress."

Richard's jaw dropped. He wondered how hard he had been hit on the head. "He can talk! I heard him! That wolf can talk!"

Zedd and Kahlan both looked up at his wide eyes. Zedd glanced at her. "I thought you said you told him."

Kahlan winced a little. "Well, I guess I didn't remember to tell him everything." She frowned at Zedd. "It's hard to remember everything he doesn't know. We have lived it our whole lives. You just forget he hasn't.",

"Come on," Zedd grumbled. "Let's go back to the camp. All of us."

The wizard led them with the torch, Kahlan following, the wolf slinking along at her side, ears lowered, tail dragging the ground

When they sat around the fire, Richard addressed the wolf as it sat on its haunches next to Kahlan. "Wolf, I guess…"

"Brophy. The name's Brophy."

Richard sat back a little. "Brophy. Sorry. My name is Richard, and this is Zedd. Brophy, I would like to thank you for saving my life."

"Don't mention it," he growled.

"Brophy," Kahlan said in a disapproving voice, "what are you doing here?"

The wolf's ears flattened. "There is danger for you. I have been protecting you."

"You have been released," she scolded.

"Was that you, last night?" Richard asked.

Brophy regarded him with yellow eyes. "Yes. Whenever you camped, I cleared the area of heart hounds. And a few other nasty things. Last night, close to morning, one came near to your camp. I took care of it. This hound tonight was hunting you. He could hear your heart beating. I knew Mistress Kahlan would be unhappy if he ate you, so I kept him from doing it."

Richard swallowed hard. "Thank you," he said in a weak voice.

"Richard," Zedd asked, rubbing his chin, "the hounds are underworld beasts. They haven't bothered you up until now. What's changed?"

Richard almost choked. "Well, Adie gave Kahlan a bone to carry, to get us through the boundary, and to protect us from underworld beasts. I had an old bone, that my father gave me, and Adie said it would do the same thing. But I lost it a day or two ago."

Zedd's face was wrinkled up in thought. Richard looked to the wolf, hoping to change the subject. "How come you can talk?"

Brophy drew his long tongue around his lips. "Same reason you can talk. I can talk because…" He looked up at Kahlan. "You mean he doesn't know what I am?"

She gave him a look, and he sank to the ground, resting his head on his paws.

Kahlan locked her fingers around a knee, clicking her thumbnails together. "Richard, do you remember when I told you that sometimes, when we took a confession, the person turned out to be i

"I don't kill children," the wolf growled, coming to his feet.

"Do you wish to tell the story?"

The wolf sank back down. "No, Mistress."

"Brophy would have rather been touched by a Confessor's power than be thought a child killer. Not to mention what else was done to that little boy. He requested a Confessor. It's something done only rarely-most men choose the executioner-but it meant that much to him. I told you we have a wizard with us, when we take confessions. One reason is for protection, but there is another reason. In a case like this, where the person is unjustly accused, and found to be i

Richard was incredulous. "You were i

"Completely i

"Brophy." Kahlan spoke his name in a rising tone Richard was familiar with.

The wolf sank back down. "Of killing that boy." His cowering eyes looked up at Kahlan as she watched him. "That's all I meant. I

Richard frowned. "What does that mean?"

Kahlan looked over to him. "It — means that when he gave his confession, he confessed to other things he was not accused of. You see, Brophy had been engaged in occupations of a dubious nature." She glanced down at the wolf. "At the gray edges of law."

"I was an honest businessman," the wolf protested.

Kahlan cast an eye toward Brophy while she spoke to Richard. "Brophy was a trader."

"My father was a trader," Richard said, his anger rising.

"I don't know what traders in Westland trade, but in the Midlands, some traders deal in things of magic." Richard thought about the Book of Counted Shadows. "So what?"

Kahlan lifted an eyebrow to him. "Some of them happen to be alive at the time."

Brophy rose up on his front paws. "How am I to tell? You can't always tell. Sometimes, you think something is just an artifact, like a book, that a collector will pay handsomely for. Sometimes it's something more, a stone, a statue, or a staff, or perhaps a… Well, how am I to know if they are alive?".

Kahlan still had her eye on the wolf. "You traded things of magic other than books and statues," she scolded. "In this i

The wolf's ears wilted. "It's true, Mistress. I have a temper. A temper as big as my, muscles. But it only came out when I was wronged. A lot of people think they can cheat traders; they think we are little more than thieves and will not stand up for ourselves. When I settled disagreements with my temper, they tended to. stay settled."

Kahlan gave the wolf a little smile. "Brophy had a reputation that, although not unearned, was larger than the truth." She looked up at Richard. "The business he was in was dangerous, and therefore very profitable. Brophy made enough money at it to support his `hobby. Almost no one knew about it until after I touched him, and he made his confession."

The wolf put his paws over his head. "Oh, Mistress, please! Must we?"

Richard frowned. "What was this `hobby'?"

Kahlan's smile widened. "Brophy had a weakness. Children. As he traveled around in search of things to trade, he would stop at orphanages and see to it they had what they needed to take care of the children. All the gold he made ended up in different orphanages, so the children could be cared for, and not go hungry. He twisted the arms of the people ru

Kahlan lifted an eyebrow to him. "Yes, you have. Some were reason enough to get you thrown in prison for a time. But none were reason enough to chop off your head." She looked back up at Richard. "You see, since Brophy had been seen around orphanages, and because of his reputation, no one was too surprised when he was accused of the murder of a little boy."