Severed Souls

CHAPTER 82

The book was filled with messages. She hadn’t erased any of them. All the messages back and forth for more than a year were still there.

There were messages from Ludwig Dreier telling Irena the specifics of what he wanted her to do for him, along with promises of rewards for her loyalty and service to him. There was even a message Dreier had written from the People’s Palace, telling her about the wedding of a Mord-Sith that he was attending. By the conversational tone of the messages and comments going back and forth, it was easy to see that the two were like-minded and quite at ease with each other.

Richard quickly came to see that Irena’s handwriting was neater and more legible than Dreier’s. He spotted an account where she told Dreier that she had let herself be captured by Hannis Arc so that she would be closer to him in order to report on what he was doing to raise the spirit king from the dead.

She recounted to Dreier how Richard had “rescued” her and the things he had done to escape with them from the caves and how he had been able to defeat the half people holding his friends prisoner. She had subsequently used the opportunity to join and travel with Richard and Kahlan’s group.

Ludwig Dreier in turn advised her on how she should react and behave, and the things he wanted her to find out. He told her to be especially careful not to let anyone know of her occult abilities.

Irena had been right under their noses the whole time, watching and reporting everything they were doing to fight and escape the half people coming after them.

Irena had been a traitor the entire time.

There was far too much in the journey book to read it all right then. With the way his heart pounded at the betrayal and his mind raced trying to piece together all that had been compromised, Richard was having trouble focusing enough to read. He flipped over a few more pages, skipping ahead, and spotted the passage where she told Dreier that Richard and Kahlan needed a containment field in order to be healed.

She told him that she recognized it as an opportunity to finally offer an excuse to get them to the citadel, where Dreier would be able to capture them.

Richard trembled in shock as he read Dreier’s message back, telling Irena how pleased he was that she had found a way to convince them to come to the citadel. He described where he wanted her to say the containment field was located within the citadel, and how to get down there, in order to get them to a place where he could take them by surprise.

She reported to him their progress along the way, keeping him abreast of when they thought they would arrive at the citadel.

Richard felt shame and rage that he had been so completely fooled by her story.

When he quickly flipped back to the beginning, as he suspected, he spotted Irena’s report to Dreier that she had killed her sister Martha and Martha’s husband when they had gone to see if the reports about Jit were true. She had then dumped their bodies in the swamp. She and Dreier discussed how they couldn’t risk any of the gifted in Stroyza learning that the barrier was failing. Dreier said he would send soldiers to collect her other sister, Millicent, and her husband, Gyles, and take them to the abbey to make sure they couldn’t interfere, either.

Richard could hardly believe she had killed her own sisters and their husbands, and was shocked to see Irena’s report that her husband had started asking too many questions, so when an opportunity presented itself, she had killed him. The casual manner in which she reported killing her husband was shocking.

Dreier told her that if her daughter ever became suspicious, Irena would need to eliminate her as well. Richard was horrified to see Irena’s reply that once Richard and the others were taken prisoner at the citadel, he was welcome to take care of Samantha if he wished so that she would cease to be a potential problem.

And then he saw it.

The passage read, “The old wizard was getting suspicious. Tonight I cast a concealing spell to make it appear I was in my bedroll so that I could go off to report to you. He somehow followed me and caught me writing in my journey book. Fortunately, he thought me merely a sorceress and was unaware of the occult side of my abilities. When he used his gift to try to restrain me and take my journey book, I was happy to finally have the opportunity and I beheaded the troublesome old man. He will no longer be a problem.”

Richard’s vision went red.

He turned and with a scream of rage rammed into the woman, catching her completely by surprise. Richard had both hands around her throat before she knew what hit her.

He slammed her up against the wall hard enough for her head and shoulders to break the plaster. Her hands snatched desperately at his wrists. He smashed her head into the wall again before she had a chance to summon her occult abilities. The sound of the powerful blow echoed through the hall. Blood splattered across the whitewashed plaster wall. Stunned, her eyes rolling, she fought to remain conscious. Her face glowed beet-red as she struggled in vain to get air.

Irena’s feet kicked above the floor as Richard pinned her up against the wall, crushing her windpipe.

He was in a blind rage, screaming the whole time. Nothing else mattered to him but choking to death this traitorous woman who had killed Zedd.

As he strangled her, her face went from red to dark red to blue. Her wide eyes bulged. Her limbs hung lifeless, swinging from side to side as he repeatedly bashed her head against the wall.

“Richard, what is it?” Kahlan cried out. “What’s going on?”

He realized that Kahlan had been asking the question over and over. She had been screaming it at him.

He was panting so rapidly he could hardly speak. “She killed Zedd!”

Kahlan’s eyes widened. “What?”

Richard’s lethal focus remained riveted on the woman he was strangling, on her blue skin, her dead eyes staring at him as his big hands shook with the effort of crushing her throat.

“She’s been a traitor among us the whole time—working to sabotage us—to make sure we were captured—to see us all murdered by Dreier.” Richard gritted his teeth in rage. Tears ran down his face. “She killed Zedd!”

With a growl of fury, he slammed her lifeless body up against the wall yet again. He kept choking her, even though he knew she was dead. He wanted to kill her a thousand times over.

His grandfather, the man who had raised him, the best, the smartest, the kindest, the wisest man Richard had ever known, had been murdered in cold blood by this evil, conniving traitor.

Kahlan gently pulled on his arm. “Richard … it’s over.”

He finally dropped her in a lifeless heap, her limbs flopping out to the sides as he stood over her panting.

It was then that he realized Samantha had just come around the corner.

She stood frozen in shock. Her dark eyes were as wide as they would go. Her face stood out white against her black hair.