Severed Souls

CHAPTER 84

The walls of the room Cassia had found for them were creamy stone. One of the walls displayed a large, thick tapestry depicting a dark forest scene. It reminded Richard of the place in Hartland where he had first met Kahlan.

The room’s one window let in the darkness from out in the Dark Lands. Raindrops pattered softly against the diamond-shaped pieces of leaded glass. Dark, rust-colored carpet muted the sound of the rain and low rumble of thunder.

The canopy bed was covered with dark blue-green fabric embroidered with gold edging. Heavy draping of the same blue-green fabric was gathered with ties around the posts at each corner, making the bed look like a holy shrine.

Now, Kahlan lay dead on that bed as if she were lying in state.

Richard stood numb and silent as he watched Nicci frantically trying everything she could do. Even as he watched, even as he hoped, even as he tried to tell himself that Nicci would be able to save Kahlan, he knew better.

The sorceress had slowly withdrawn the knife, sensing the nature of the damage every inch of the way as she had drawn it out. Richard couldn’t believe how long the blade was. He couldn’t believe how much steel had been plunged through her heart.

Richard had sharpened Kahlan’s knife for her, so he knew that it was razor sharp. It was sharp enough for even that skinny girl to drive it right through Kahlan’s breastbone.

When Nicci had finally withdrawn the entire length of the bloody blade, she had looked at it a moment, not knowing what to do with it. She had finally returned it to its sheath, where it belonged, probably so that no one would accidentally get cut on it.

The three Mord-Sith quietly guarded the door, making sure that no one could come in. They hadn’t known Kahlan very long at all, yet they had known her long enough that tears ran down the faces of all three as they stood silent watch.

Richard had given Commander Fister orders to have the men kill Samantha on sight if she came at them, but otherwise not to go after her. She had abilities they had no defense against.

He would have gone after Samantha himself, except he didn’t want to leave Kahlan. But Samantha didn’t really matter, now. No matter what he did to Samantha, it couldn’t undo what she had done.

Kahlan’s body heaved several times with a sudden jolt from Nicci’s power. It was a desperate attempt to bring life back to Kahlan’s lifeless form. It didn’t do any good. There was no movement, no life in her.

Richard stared at the terrifying stillness of the woman he loved more than life itself. Nicci had closed Kahlan’s eyelids so her beautiful green eyes wouldn’t be staring up at nothing.

Richard had never imagined how terrifying those eyes would look without a soul behind them, without her life in them, without Kahlan in them.

He would do anything if he could trade places with her, if she would just draw breath again, look at him again. Smile with her special smile for him again.

After a time, Nicci pushed herself up and slowly, reluctantly turned.

“Richard, we need to talk.”

“So talk.”

Nicci rose and stepped closer to lightly grasp his arm. “Richard, she’s gone.”

“No, she’s not. She can’t be gone. You need to heal her.”

Nicci looked away from his eyes as she pressed her fingers to her brow. “Richard, the knife went right through her heart. Her chest is full of blood—”

“My chest was full of blood, one time, and you healed me, remember?”

Nicci nodded. “I remember.”

“You used Subtractive Magic to take the blood out and Additive to repair the damage. Do that now for her.”

“Richard,” she said as patiently as possible, “you were alive when I did that, and that arrow had gone through your lung, not your heart.”

“Do it,” he repeated.

Nicci stared at him.

Richard gritted his teeth. “Do it, Nicci. Repair all the damage. Use your gift to put her back the way she was.”

Nicci licked her lips. “Richard, her soul is gone. That knife did more than pierce her heart. It severed her soul from her worldly form. She’s gone. The same as Zedd is gone. I can’t heal death.”

Richard was losing his patience. “Nicci, I know some things about the world of life and the world of death. I have both in me. So does she. My soul, her soul, carry both.”

“And what good is that going to do? What can you hope to accomplish by having her dead body put back the way it was when she was alive?”

“Do it. Do it now and be quick about it. We don’t have much time.”

Nicci stared at him.

“Do it!”

Nicci flinched. Finally, she nodded with a look of sympathetic understanding. She sat on the edge of the bed beside Kahlan and immediately went back to work, placing both hands around the bloody wound as she closed her eyes. Richard watched as Kahlan’s chest compressed with the pressure of Nicci’s hands.

The sorceress gritted her teeth.

Outside, lightning flickered and thunder rumbled through the mountains.

Inside, the room crackled with threads of lightning that lit the stony faces of the Mord-Sith. The lamps dimmed, not because their flames went down, but because the air itself grew thick with what Richard recognized as Subtractive Magic, the magic of the underworld itself.

The realm where Kahlan had gone.

Ropes of black lightning arced and crackled around the bed. Blinding threads of lightning threaded themselves around it, spiraling and twisting, jumping from one place to another. The sound it all made—especially when the white and black lightning touched—was at times deafening.

Several times Richard saw Kahlan draw a breath under Nicci’s hands, but he knew that it wasn’t Kahlan breathing, it was Nicci trying to pull life back into her. She was doing everything she knew to try to bring Kahlan back.

Finally the sound and fury died away.

Nicci stood and stared down at Kahlan for a time. The blood was gone, wiped out of existence by the Subtractive Magic while the Additive had knitted tissues back together and made her still heart whole again.

Nicci took a deep breath. She looked exhausted. She looked defeated.

“I’m sorry, Richard,” she whispered, unable to look up at him. “I repaired everything that was damaged. She is again as she was before. It is not enough.”

Richard stared at Kahlan’s still, lifeless body. “Thank you, Nicci. You cannot imagine how much I appreciate what you’ve done for us.”

“Richard, I’ve done nothing of any real use. Her life is gone. Her spirit has already crossed over through the veil. Her soul is already on that journey along the lines of the Grace. She is gone beyond, now.”

“I know that, Nicci,” Richard said, holding himself together for what was to come.

“Now, I need you to do one more thing for me.”