Witch's Oath

12

Kahlan pressed her fingertips to her forehead as she frantically ran through memories and what she knew of the underworld, trying to come up with a way to get Richard back from that dark place. She stubbornly refused to believe the finality of it. She couldn’t let herself believe the finality of it. But while she believed it might be possible to get him back, she also knew that the window to do so—even if it still existed—was rapidly closing.

At last, her head came up. She looked to all the faces watching her.

“The Law of Nines. Richard said that the Law of Nines is a trigger for magic.”

Shale threw her hands up. “How is that supposed to help us? He is with the good spirits, now. He is beyond what we can do with magic.”

“But for a precious bit of time, he still has a link here, in this world.” Kahlan gestured. “Everyone gather around. Shale, you go on the other side of him and take his hand. I’ll take this one.” She urgently motioned the Mord-Sith to all come in closer. “The rest of you, kneel down around him and hold hands between Shale and me. We need to link us all together with Richard between me and Shale.”

While they clearly didn’t understand what it was that Kahlan thought they could do, they all gathered around Richard anyway, taking up each other’s hands even though they all looked confused as to why they were doing it, hoping that somehow she knew some secret solution and could do what none of them could imagine.

“We all need to bow our heads and close our eyes,” Kahlan told them.

Vale leaned in expectantly. “And then what?”

“And then … think about Richard. Think about how much we all want him back. How much we all need him back.”

The Mord-Sith shared skeptical looks.

Kahlan thought of something else. She released his hand and picked up the Sword of Truth. She placed the hilt in his hand, then put her hand over the other side and intertwined her fingers with Richard’s, locking their hands together around the hilt of the sword. The word “TRUTH” on her side pressed into her palm. She knew that the same word on the other side was pressing into Richard’s palm. That physical sensation was intimately familiar to both of them. More than that, the Sword of Truth was an ancient weapon with unfathomable magic. She hoped that magic would also help guide Richard back to them.

Tears ran down Vika’s cheeks as she watched Kahlan position the sword. “If we don’t get him back, I will never forgive myself. He did this for me. He came after me. I told him not to, but he did it anyway. He shouldn’t have. I wish Michec had killed me, then Lord Rahl would not have done what he did and he would be here, alive, and with you all. He would be where he belongs.”

“No, he wouldn’t,” Kahlan said, knowing how distraught the Mord-Sith would have to be to show such emotion. “None of us would be here. We would all be dead.”

Vika wiped a tear back from her cheek. “What are you talking about?”

“When Richard found out that Michec had taken you and that he was here at the People’s Palace, he wanted to get you back, but more than that, he knew as the Lord Rahl that we couldn’t leave the witch man here when we leave for the Keep. You, of all people, know what Michec is capable of. He was devoted to Darken Rahl and hated that Richard was now the Lord Rahl. His ambition has no bounds. There is no telling what he might have done, but we do know that he would have worked to defeat all we have fought for. He has the power to undo all the good we have worked to bring about.

“We had to go after that monster. Yes, Richard wanted to rescue you, but he would have gone after Michec even if you were already dead. He had to. We came down here, into Michec’s lair, and he was somehow able to capture us. That’s not your fault. Richard was going after Michec one way or another, with you or without you.”

“Yes but if I had already been dead—”

“Then you couldn’t have saved us.” Kahlan was shaking her head. “Don’t you see? All the rest of us would have been captured whether or not you were alive. But since you were still alive, you were able to interrupt Michec when he was about to start skinning me alive. That gave Richard time to stop him. You saved our lives, Vika.”

“Kahlan’s right,” Shale said. “I think it was that Law of Nines thing he told us about. It caused a change in the outcome. The nine of us together had an effect on what would otherwise have happened.”

Kahlan leaned in a little toward the distraught Mord-Sith. “That’s why Richard came after you: because we need you. Your life is important to all of us. We all need each other. There is power in the nine of us together. I thought he was only going to the cusp of the underworld to help you somehow, but for whatever reason, he crossed over.”

“He came after me,” Vika said, fighting to hold back her tears. “That’s why he crossed over. He did it to heal me.”

Kahlan gave her a hurried nod. “He saved you for a reason. Now, we need to save him.”

“How?” Shale pressed, frantic for some kind of reason to believe it could really work. “He crossed over through the veil. We all know what that means. Dead is dead. How in the world do you propose to bring him back from the dead?”

“Dead is not always as dead as you might think.” Kahlan gritted her teeth against the fear of giving in to the finality of such thinking. “Richard is not dead. Not yet. Not with finality. He has done this before. He’s just lost. There is no sense of direction or scale in the underworld. It’s eternal in every direction. He will be trying to come back to us now that he is finished with what he needed to do there, but he needs the light of our souls to find his way back.”

“But how can we reveal our souls to him when he’s on the other side of the veil?” Shale asked.

“Like I said before, Richard told us that the Law of Nines is a trigger for magic of great power.”

Shale looked far from satisfied. “But how—”

“Enough! We’re wasting what precious little time we have! Bow your heads,” Kahlan ordered, her patience at an end, “and give him a way back before he is gone too long and can’t ever return.”

A worried Berdine glanced over at Richard. “Are you sure he hasn’t already been gone too long?”

“Do it!” Kahlan yelled, her frantic fear powering her voice. “Do it now. Think of Richard and how much he means to each one of you and how much we all need him back. We need to show him the light of our lives on this side to guide him back through the veil. He is the completing link for the Law of Nines, the last one that makes nine of us. He is the Lord Rahl. Our bond to him as the Lord Rahl is our connection to him. Now use it.

“Rikka, Nyda, Cassia, Vale, Berdine, Vika, you have all been to the cusp before. Do that now if you can so that you can bring us all closer to that world.”

When Kahlan was sure that all of the rest of them were following her orders, she finally bowed her own head.

She refused to allow herself to fear it wouldn’t work. Richard would see the light of their souls on their side of the veil and it would help guide him back. She knew it would.

Just before she let herself slip into the memory of what it was like in that other place, she had a last twinge of fear that Michec might show up and, seeing them all vulnerable, slaughter every last one of them right then and there where they were kneeling.

Among the corpses, the room was dead quiet as she brought up a memory of the world of the dead, and her love for Richard, the father of her two children. Three, she corrected herself. One was gone now, but the twins were still growing in her.

She remembered, then, the first time she knelt before him and swore on her life to protect him. She had been the first ever to swear loyalty to him.

Her breathing along with everyone else’s slowed almost to a stop.