Chapter 34 – Dead
Horror gripped her as all the candles in the room immediately burst to life as the life in Richard's eyes seemed to die. He clenched his jaw and his shoulders slumped. He looked up on her with sad and angry eyes as he stood.
"Oh, Richard…," Kahlan reached out for him, but he shoved her hand away and spat on the ground. He looked at her repulsed, as if he'd just seen a vile thing. "Please, Richard," she wept. "Listen to me. Talk to me."
He would not. His eyes, normally warm and loving, were cold and hateful. Richard glared at her with such a look that made Kahlan feel all the worse. It was almost as if he had plunged his hand into her chest and had ripped out her heart, squeezing it in his hand until it burst and she was dead.
"Please, Richard," she pleaded, falling to her knees before him, prostrating herself.
The Seeker looked down on the Confessor, yet said and did nothing. He closed his eyes and tears manifested dripping down his face. Kahlan climbed up him, gripping his body for support as she cupped her hands in his face, wiping his tears away with her fingers. He flinched and closed his eyes against her touch. Kahlan grabbed a hold of him and tried to keep him from turning, but she was weak from the release of her powers and she could not resist when he pushed her from him.
"Richard, please, listen," she said, her mind reeling as she tried to come up with something to say, anything that might call back the love in his eyes. Finding purchase, she latched onto the idea and sought him out. "Richard… oh Richard, don't you see, it was you… Richard… it was you! The spirits know the difference between act and thought. They know it was you that was with me in both mind and body. How can I betray you when I thought of us when I released?" And then she added, hoping it would lend weight to her assertion, "Especially when you were the one who brought me to release?"
The storm outside grew more intense and the lightning continued. Her heart hammered in her chest as she saw the flashes of light from outside the window turn from the normal white color to a sickening green. A fire in the hearth burst forth on its own accord and green flames roared into being.
Richard moved to turn from her, but Kahlan would not have it. She grabbed his hand and pulled it to her breast, stretching his fingers over her soft flesh. "It was you who touched me, my Richard," she said through sobs. "It was you who entered me and released you seed. It is you I thought of, imagined in my mind. I never once thought of Rahl in that way, as I think of you. Never." She moved his fingers on her, trying to get a response from him.
His lips curved down into a scowl and he pulled his hand away from her, backhanding her across the face. "Don't touch me!" he snarled, losing his temper, the fury of the Sword of Truth in his eyes even though the lethal weapon of the Seeker was not on his person. Kahlan had heard from Zedd that he believed his grandson could channel the righteous rage without even touching the magic weapon. She knew now that the First Wizard was correct.
Richard heaved and sobbed. "You may have imagined it was me, but in the end you thought I was Rahl, and you thought it was him that gave you pleasure… not me!" he spat out, the fury lacing his voice with heated words. "No matter how much you try and cover it up with sweet words, in the end you thought Rahl was the one who had been with you. The truth came out of your own lips, betrayed by your own voice, when you demanded of me not to tell Richard… well guess what? I am Richard! You thought it was Rahl, and spirits, you enjoyed it! You might have cried and sobbed, but I know you enjoyed it!" Then, much to her horror and grief, Richard cursed her with such words she had never heard uttered with his once gentle and kind voice.
Richard stepped away from her and stood before the growing green flames of the fire. Kahlan collapsed onto the floorboards clutching at his leg, crying and sobbing, begging for him to look at her.
"You said you'd love me to matter what!" she wailed. "Please, Richard… I love you… tell me you love me! Richard, you promised. You promised me… RICHARD!"
He kicked his leg around until Kahlan was force to let go. "I thought you knew it was me!" he shouted, pounding his chest with a fist, glaring down at her. "I knew you thought I was Rahl when I first tried to kiss you… but then, when you grabbed my face and we kissed, as I made love to you, I thought you knew it was me! Why else would you have kissed me? Why else would you respond to my motions? Why?"
Richard's chest heaved with rage and grief and tears freely flowed from his eyes. Kahlan cried in torment when she had no answer for him. She had just been caught up in the moment of the unfathomable pleasure she had found herself in. Unwanted as it was, but it had still been there.
"Shota was right about you!" he sneered, pushing her away from him with his hand as she tried to grab for him. "You were destined to betray me." His eyes narrowed as he fought back his own grief. "I… I should have listened to Zedd. He told me it could never be… not with you. And he was right! No man can ever love a confessor. Never."
Kahlan held her arms in her hands as she doubled over on the floor in agony, knowing she was losing the man she loved. The one thing she had feared above all else was coming to pass. Richard turned from her as the green flames opened up to him, creating a tear in the wall, a passageway to the Underworld and the Temple of the Winds.
Richard stepped towards the rift, naked, in all his glory and paused. He looked over his shoulder at her with anger and contempt in his eyes. "Have a good life with your husband, Kahlan Amnell, I know you'll find enjoyment in it," he choked. "You've shown me that much."
He turned from her and walked into the rift. Kahlan dove for him and screamed his name. "RICHARD!" But it was too late. He vanished into the green flames and the crack sealed itself, all the lights in the room immediately went out, leaving her alone in the darkness.
"RICHARD! RICHARD!" she could not help but cry his name, the pain and hurt in her heart was so great that she could do nothing more than moan with anguish and suffering on what had been wrought. With him gone, a small part of her felt dead inside.
The door banged open and Cara came rushing in with her agiel in her hand. Her eyes were moist, small bits of tears leaking out from the corners. "What happened? I… I can't feel the bond?" The Mord'Sith looked down at the retched state of Kahlan's grief and visibly shook in horror. "What have you done? Kahlan, what have you done?"
"Cara… oh, Cara," Kahlan sobbed, her chest heaving and her breath short. "I… I… oh… Richard… he…!" She had no words for what had just happened, burying her face in her hands as she wept for the man she loved and had betrayed with her blood. She had seen her blood from her maidenhood on the bed. It was not as much as she had thought it would be, but it was there, proof of what had been taken.
Kahlan closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself as she sat on the floor weeping. Her whole body shook with the shame and guilt and terror of what had happened. Despite everything, she was at least glad that it had been Richard would had taken what she had always wanted given to him. And at least it was Richard who had released his seed into her. With that knowledge, a very small smile tried to work its way through her grief.
Instinctively, Kahlan tightened her legs, trying to keep his essence from seeping out. If she was to loss him now and forever, she would at least keep the seed he had planted in her for as long as possible, hope that it would quicken within and give her a child. His child. Confessors were fertile by nature and she knew that it did not take long for them to become with child. So Kahlan prayed to the vile good spirits who had punished her for reasons she thought childish and wished that, even if she could no longer have the man, she could at least have his child.
XXX
Nicci had arranged things with Cara so that Richard would be sent to Kahlan instead of her. It was the least she could do. And she had Cara tell Richard that it was Kahlan he was being taken to. It had been the Mord'Sith's idea that Richard not talk, believing that the spirits would want the confessor to believe she was submitting to the man they had picked for her. They hoped that this would be enough to appease them and give Richard access to the Temple of the Winds.
While Cara took Richard to Kahlan, Darken Rahl was brought to her. They had darkened the room and had told Rahl that he could not speak with Kahlan until after he released. Nicci laid in the bed, in the dark, and spread her legs for Rahl and took him in. Nicci felt pride that she had saved Kahlan from this man's touch. The sorceress had felt it before, so she knew what to except. She bit her lower lip, feeling the pain he inflicted on her as he took her, accepting it.
As it became apparent that Rahl was approaching release, Nicci sensed something dark within him. She recognized the handy work of a certain Sister of the Dark that had once been her disciple. She smirked, knowing that Bree had done something to Rahl that would kill him upon the release of his seed. No doubt, the Keeper's favorite daughter had lied to Rahl and told him it would only kill the Mother Confessor. But Nicci also knew that the spell would only work towards destroying Rahl if he was with the Mother Confessor. Any other woman who laid with him would be the only one to die. It only worked at killing him with Kahlan.
So, while Rahl lost himself in his hedonistic pleasure, Nicci used her Han to reach out and tweak the spell Bree had cast to react as it would if she, Nicci, was the Mother Confessor. Furthermore, she strengthened her own powers to protect herself from the lethal results of the spell. With a final thrust and a sickening groan, Rahl released his seed and pulled her to him, gripping her breasts hard.
"Now, how was that, Mother Confessor?" he murmured cruelly.
"About the same as all the other times," Nicci replied in a flat voice.
Rahl froze and Nicci used her Han to ignite the candles. Warm candlelight engulfed the room. Darken Rahl howled and his hands went for her throat. "You've deceived me for the last time, Sister Nicci," he growled, tightening his fingers around her windpipe. Then he blinked and back away, a look of terror on his face as he started to feel the stirrings of the spell at work.
He looked up at her with shock as he slid out of her and collapsed on the floor, clutching at his throat as he struggled to breath.
"What… what have you done?" he stammered out through ragged gasps for air.
Nicci stood over him as she pulled on a robe. "Only what the Keeper intended from the very beginning," she said. "He wanted you dead as well, Darken Rahl." The sorceress laughed down at him. "Did you really believe that the Keeper would not hold a grudge against you? Bree's spell killed only the woman when it was not the Mother Confessor."
"Then how come your…?"
"Not dying?" she laughed. "Come now, Darken Rahl, surely you know I am no ordinary sorceress. I fooled the spell into believing I was the Mother Confessor and then my Han protected me from it. Bree may be the Keeper's favorite daughter, but I was his most powerful."
She knelt down to him and stared into his dark eyes as he began to fade away. "Give my regards to the Keeper when you meet his cold embrace."
XXX
Zedd rushed through the Confessor's Palace with his guard Tom and the Mord'Sith Berdine. The other two had felt the loss of the bond with Richard, and the old wizard feared the worse, as his Han had sense something similar to the tear in the veil. Nathan joined them, looking distressed, but there was also a spark in his azure Rahl eyes that made Zedd believe the prophet knew something like this was going to happen.
As the continued down the halls, the sounds of Kahlan's weeping seemed to resound around them. He turned the corner to find Cara standing with slump shoulders in the threshold of the door. Cara stopped them from going in, and Zedd caught a glimpse of Kahlan slumped on the floor, naked, and crying, her head buried in her hands. He turned away as Cara closed the door.
"The Lord Rahl is gone," Cara announced. "From what I managed to get out of the Mother Confessor… he's… Zedd," tears freely came from the Mord'Sith's eyes and Zedd immediately pulled her into a fierce hug. They would never had admitted it out loud, but their time together during the quest to find the Stone of Tears had united them in a bond stronger than blood. Cara was almost like a daughter to him, and it pained him to see her cry just as much as it pained him to see Kahlan in such grief.
"What has happened, Cara?" Zedd asked.
"Richard's dead!" Cara cried. "He went into the Underworld to go to the Temple of the Winds… the opening sealed itself after he went through. He's not coming back."
Nathan stepped forward, and looked apologetic. "Mord'Sith," he said turning to Cara and Berdine. "Quickly now, you must swear the devotion to me. Now."
"What?" Berdine looked at the prophet as if he had gone mad.
"You must," insisted Nathan. "If you do not, the dreamwalker will seek out your minds and everything that Richard has sacrificed would be for nothing."
Zedd took a deep breath and nodded, knowing the prophet was right. "You must," he said to them. "We all must."
Cara narrowed her eyes. "All right," she said, then added. "But only until Richard comes back!"
Together, Wizard, Mord'Sith, and D'Haran soldier alike, knelt before the prophet Nathan Rahl and swore the oath.
"Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours."