Severed Souls

CHAPTER 23

From time to time Kahlan glanced back over her shoulder at her unconscious husband draped over the back of the horse. He was helpless and depending on her. She intended not to let him down. She was determined to get them through the danger, get them to relative safety, and especially get them back to the People’s Palace so that Zedd and Nicci could remove the poison that was slowly killing them both.

She was sick and tired of not being able to live her life with him, of not being able to be alone with him, of not being able to have a normal conversation with him, of not being able to make love to him, of not being able to love him in the most simple and joyful of ways because they were always desperately fighting not only for their lives, but so that everyone else could have those things.

The peace that had begun to settle in after the war had been a wonderful taste of all those things. Cara’s marriage celebration at the People’s Palace had been a brief sample of life the way it should be. But all too soon that joy had turned to ashes for Cara and Ben, and for everyone else.

Having the Sword of Truth in her hand inflamed those feelings and brought them boiling to the surface.

Now they were once again in a fight for their lives. If they were to survive this time, if they were to live, they not only needed to escape the Shun-tuk chasing them, they also needed to get home.

But home back in the heart of D’Hara was a long way off.

Without horses, it was going to be a long and difficult journey, especially with her and Richard so weakened. There was no choice, of course. Her thought was to try to find some towns or cities along the way where they could get some horses.

Off in the distance behind them, Kahlan could hear the thunderous explosions from Zedd’s wizard’s fire rolling up the gorge, punctuated by the sharp thunder of Nicci’s dark lightning. Sometimes, she could hear the screams of the dying. The sounds reverberated off the walls of the gorge, like a war emanating from the spirit world, as if it were an otherworldly battle between good and evil.

The gorge narrowed as they climbed higher, with rock walls soaring up in the darkness to either side. It felt like they were climbing up through a deep split in the mountains—a crack in the world itself. Intermittently the walls to each side, normally hidden in the darkness, were suddenly revealed in the flashes of light from the explosions in the distance behind.

Irena remained close to the horse as gifted help to defend Richard if need be. She watched all around, looking for any sign of trouble. Kahlan didn’t know what Irena’s capabilities were, or if she could be of any help to Zedd and Nicci in reviving Richard.

Kahlan wanted to get to safety so that they could work on bringing him back to consciousness. She knew what a terrifyingly forsaken experience Richard was enduring. The longer the blackness lasted, the worse it became, and the more dangerous. She was eager for Zedd and Nicci to help him, but at the moment the Shun-tuk were a more urgent threat.

With Nicci using her abilities against the enemy, Irena and Samantha had taken over the duty of casting small flames out ahead to light their way up the ravine. As trickles of water ran down from above, they gathered to cascade over rocks in a number of places, splashing and getting them wet, making traveling with the terror of being chased even more miserable.

Kahlan realized, then, that except for the small lights floating out ahead, the darkness hadn’t been interrupted for quite a while by the reflections of wizard’s fire off the towering rock walls. Nor had she heard the thumping explosions of Nicci’s power. After climbing in the quiet for a time, Samantha dropped back beside Kahlan.

“How is Lord Rahl doing?” the young sorceress asked.

Kahlan laid a hand over Richard’s back. “He’s still breathing, but other than that I have no way of telling.”

“I do,” Samantha said as she placed her small hand against the side of his face. “I’m familiar with the feel of the poison in both of you. I should be able to judge any change in it.”

It wasn’t long before she reluctantly withdrew the hand.

“Well?” Kahlan asked when Samantha didn’t say anything.

The young woman’s dark eyes looked up. “I’m sorry, Mother Confessor, but it’s worse than I’ve ever felt before.”

For the first time, Kahlan had the feeling, the real, fully realized feeling, that Richard was dying. He was slipping away from her and there was nothing she could do about it. Against her best efforts, she imagined Richard dying, and what a dead world it would be without him.

She swallowed and gripped the sword tighter.

When she heard the distant call of a mockingbird, she recognized it as a signal from men of the First File. The wizard’s fire had killed all that it was going to kill. That meant that the rest of the Shun-tuk they would face would be the ones with some degree of occult powers—powers that Kahlan and the rest of those with her knew nothing about. There was no telling what they were capable of, except she knew they could raise the dead, and that was certainly trouble enough.

Powers or no powers, though, they would bleed. It was up to the soldiers, now, to be the steel to protect them, to protect their Lord Rahl. Now was the time the threat had to be ended.

Kahlan looked down at Samantha. “Take the reins.”

“What?”

“Take the reins. We don’t have a lot of men. Every sword counts.” She lifted the point of the Sword of Truth, its power thundering through her. “I have to help the men. You need to lead the horse, now.”

Despite the fear in her eyes, Samantha nodded. “I understand.”

Kahlan spotted Nicci weaving her way up through the soldiers to get Kahlan. The sorceress’s beautiful features were set with grim determination.

“Let’s go,” she said. “It’s time to end this.”

This time, it was Kahlan who pushed out in front of Nicci, taking the lead.

The time had come at last for her sword to taste all the Shun-tuk blood it could ever want.

Both Kahlan and the sword were eager for the fight.