The Scribbly Man

14

Angry that Kahlan had been harmed by such a monster, Richard turned to Nolo.

“What was that thing that attacked her?”

Nolo stared blankly, his eyes unblinking, as if he had not heard Richard’s question, or wasn’t even aware there was anyone in the room with him.

“I’ve touched him with my power,” Kahlan reminded him. “Whatever else happened as I did, I still unleashed my power into him. He won’t answer anyone but me.”

“… Or maybe the goddess,” Shale suggested.

Kahlan’s only answer was a worried look.

Richard gestured angrily at the portly man pinned to the wall. “We need answers. Ask him what it was.”

Kahlan moved closer to stand in front of the prisoner.

“Nolo. Look at me.”

He looked up at her as if just coming awake from a deep sleep. Long strands of gray hair meant to cover his large bald spot instead hung down in front of his face. As he saw her, his expression turned to utter devotion to the Confessor who had taken his mind.

Then, a cunning smile thinned his puffy lips.

Richard had seen plenty of people touched by Kahlan’s power.

None of them had ever smiled.

“She sees you,” Nolo said in a raspy whisper.

“She?” Kahlan asked.

“The Golden Goddess. She sees you standing there. She sees into your world.” His voice was slow and sounded different than it had when he was in the great hall. If it even was his voice. “Your world will be hers. You should give it up now, and save yourself witnessing what is to come.”

“Who is the Golden Goddess?” Kahlan asked in a calm voice.

“She is the collector of worlds.”

Richard didn’t like the sound of that.

“What does she want with our world?” Kahlan asked. “Why does she want it?”

“You can’t win in the end,” he said in that slow, raspy whisper, which ran a shiver up Richard’s spine. “He is the last of the Rahl line. You are the last of the Confessors. Once you are both dead she will have your world.”

“Can you get him to be more specific?” Richard asked. “These are just threats. We need something that will help us.”

Kahlan nodded. “How will the Golden Goddess collect our world?”

“She will have your world. You can’t win. In the end, no matter what you do, she will have your world. Running will do you no good. Surrender now and she will kill you first. She will pick your bones clean and then you will not have to see the horror that will come for your people.”

Kahlan shook her head to herself.

It was obvious to Richard that this wasn’t working. “He is not behaving as he should after he has been touched by a Confessor,” he whispered to Shale, standing just to his right.

Without a word, Shale walked briskly up to the man and held his sweaty head tightly between her hands. Fingers spread, she pressed her thumbs against his temples. She lowered her head as she closed her eyes. Nolo’s entire body began to shake, his chins rolled like waves in a storm, his fat belly jiggled, his teeth chattered.

After a few minutes, still holding the man’s quivering head, Shale looked over at Richard. “She is using his vision. She is using him to look out through his eyes into our world.”

“Well… what do we do about it?”

“This,” Shale said.

Without any hesitation she dug her thumbs into the inside corners of his eyes. She gritted her teeth with the effort of scooping out his eyeballs with her thumbs. It was shocking to see such a gorgeous woman engaged in such a brutal act.

Nolo screamed his lungs out as she dug deep with her hooked thumbs. Shale at last ripped the eyeballs out. She pulled them away from the connecting tissues and then held one up in each bloody hand to show them. Nolo shrieked the whole time.

“There. That should fix the problem,” the sorceress announced. She tossed his eyeballs off into a corner and then turned to a surprised Kahlan. “I’ve cut off her link. You will be able to talk to him now. The Golden Goddess is gone. Nolo’s core is yours now to do with as you will.”

Vika, next to Richard’s left shoulder, leaned toward him. “I’m beginning to like her a lot more.”

The other Mord-Sith nodded their eager agreement.