Severed Souls

CHAPTER 83

Frozen in horror, Samantha stared down at her dead mother for a moment. And then she ran toward Richard, screaming, her fists flying.

“What have you done! You monster! What have you done!”

“Samantha,” Kahlan said, trying to pull the young woman back away from Richard, or at least to catch her furiously flying fists, “you don’t understand.”

“I understand perfectly well!” she screamed. “He killed my mother! He killed her! I saw it!”

“Samantha!” Richard yelled back. “You don’t understand—”

“I do too understand! I understand that you’ve taken everything from me! I hate you! You killed her! She was all I had left in the world and you killed her! You took her from me! You took everything from me!”

Down the hall, Richard could hear the sound of boots as men raced at a dead run toward the shrill screams.

Nicci ran in around the corner. “What’s going on?”

“Samantha!” Kahlan yelled as she again tried to pull the young woman away. “Listen to us!”

Nicci skidded to a stop when she saw the crumpled body of Irena on the floor. “What happened?”

“Richard killed her!” Samantha screamed.

Cassia reached for the young woman to help Kahlan try to contain her. Samantha jerked away from them, moving back out of reach, her hands fisted at her sides, her teeth clenched, tears streaming down her face.

“Samantha,” Richard said, “you don’t understand. You need to listen to me. I’m so sorry, but your mother was working with Dreier against us the whole time. She murdered Zedd. She helped Dreier capture us so the two of them could—”

“Liar! You’re a liar! You didn’t like her so you killed her! Now you’re just making excuses! She loved us all! You’re a liar!”

“Samantha,” Richard said, trying to find a way to get the young woman to calm down and listen, “your mother killed your aunts to help Dreier—”

“That’s a lie! That’s not true! You’re lying! You’re lying!”

“Samantha, listen to us,” Kahlan put in. “She murdered your father as well. We can show you—”

“Liars! You all only pretended to like us! You’re liars! I hate you all!”

Kahlan took a step toward her. “Samantha, please, you have to listen to us.”

“You took what I loved most. I hate you!” she screamed at Richard. “You took what I loved most in life!”

Men running up the halls from every direction raced toward the sounds of trouble.

Samantha thrust her arms to either side, driving them back with powerful fists of air that tumbled the men back.

“You took what I loved most,” she said with venom to Richard. “Now I’m taking what you love most!”

She reached out and snatched the knife from Kahlan’s belt.

Richard shot toward the girl.

Before he could reach her, Samantha spun, whipping around in an arc, and slammed the knife in her fist hilt-deep into the center of Kahlan’s chest.

The impact made a sickening sound.

In shock, Richard saw Kahlan’s eyes go wide as she tried to pull a breath. Her eyes rolled up in her head as she collapsed.

Richard was too late to try to stop what had already happened. Samantha had already dodged back out of reach.

Kahlan was dead when she hit the floor.

Samantha darted to an intersection in the hall and turned back, fists at her side, glaring at Richard. “I hate you! We are enemies from now on!”

As men reached to grab her, she swept an arm out. The power she released sent the men flying, slamming into walls, smashing tables as they tumbled back down the corridor.

Samantha gave Richard a last glare and then took off running.

Richard didn’t give any thought to going after her. He was instead already on his knees and bent over Kahlan’s lifeless form.

Her dead eyes stared at nothing.

“No!” he screamed. “No!”

Nicci pushed at him, but couldn’t budge him. He didn’t even feel her trying to shove him aside. He was lost in numb panic.

“Get him back,” Nicci said to Cassia.

She tugged at his arm as Laurin and Vale came racing into the hall, leaping over men still down on the floor and groaning in pain.

Both Mord-Sith came to a dead stop when they saw Irena’s lifeless body in a heap, and then Kahlan, dead on the floor, the knife buried in the center of her chest.

Richard needed to do something. He needed to stop what was happening. He needed to make it all right. He tried to think of how to undo what had already happened, but he couldn’t seem to form thoughts.

“Get him back,” Nicci growled, tears running down her face, as she urgently tried to get Richard back away from Kahlan, tried to get his hands off her shoulders so she could see if there was anything she could do.

Richard didn’t want to let go of Kahlan. He couldn’t let go. He was in a dreamworld where everything was happening so slow he couldn’t make sense of the echoing voices. He didn’t even know what they were saying. None of it seemed real.

He couldn’t allow this to happen. He had to stop it.

He couldn’t comprehend the sight of only the handle of Kahlan’s long knife jutting up from the center of her chest.

She wasn’t breathing. Her eyes stared at nothing.

“No!” he cried out again as the three Mord-Sith pulled at him, trying to get him back.

Richard had seen more than enough dead people to know that Kahlan was dead, and yet he couldn’t seem to make sense of it. It couldn’t be real. He knew it couldn’t be real. Not Kahlan.

“Richard!” Nicci screamed at him as tears streamed down her face. “Please, let me see what I can do! Please, Richard, get back!”

The three Mord-Sith trying to pull him back were no match for his muscle.

“Lord Rahl,” Cassia said, putting her face right in front of his, blocking his view of Kahlan. “Lord Rahl, her only chance is Nicci. You have to let Nicci help the Mother Confessor.”

Richard blinked. That made sense. Nicci could help her. Shaking uncontrollably, he finally moved back with the help of the three Mord-Sith pulling urgently at him.

He reached a hand out toward Nicci. “Do something!”

She ignored him as she bent over Kahlan and worked swiftly to try to fix the unfixable.

The men had recovered and collected a ways back down the halls, standing in silent shock, watching.

“You have to heal her,” Richard said. “Nicci, you have to. Don’t let her die. Please, Nicci, don’t let her die.”

Nicci stared up at him briefly, then swallowed back her emotion as she turned to the Mord-Sith. “Get her into the bedroom. Put her on the bed. Don’t touch the knife.”

Richard wrenched himself away from the three trying to restrain him and rushed back in to scoop Kahlan’s limp form up in his arms.

“I’ll do it.”