Chapter 35 – Winds
"Are you sure?" the Emperor asked after Bree informed him of the vision she had just received from her eternal father the Keeper. She had learned that the dreamwalker had become aware of her protection through Neville's mind. She chided herself, knowing it was bound to happen. The wizard was weak when it came to the powers of the Emperor. Everyone was.
"Positive," Bree announced. "The Lord Rahl passed through the veil and is on his way to the forbidden place."
"If he is now in the Underworld, why can I not feel the minds of the D'Harans?" the Emperor snarled, almost reaching out to grab her neck.
Bree took a deep breath and prepared for the lashing she would take for this news. "There was another Rahl to take his place," she said.
"It cannot be Darken Rahl… he is dead," the Emperor said. "He died in his cell months ago."
She found it amusing that the Emperor still believed this lie, yet still she did not betray herself. "The Prelate held a Rahl at the Palace of the Prophets," Bree informed the Emperor.
The bull of a man stepped closer to her and his big hand latched around her throat. "When were you going to tell me this, Sister Bree?" he sneered. "Such information would have been quite valuable to me before I had you go to the forbidden place."
"Such circumstances could not have been foreseen, my lord," Bree gasped out as the Emperor tightened his grip. He lifted her into the air and then flung her onto the bed, ramming her hard against the mattress. He pounced on her and spun her around, shoving her head into the pillow. He gripped her hips and spread her legs wide, pushing his fingers into her.
"That explains why the D'Harans are closed to me," he snarled, anger brewing in his storm-like eyes. "But you have yet to explain why I cannot sense the Mother Confessor's mind?"
Bree grimaced as he withdrew his finger and then plunged in with three more, spreading her wide with his fingers. "Her bond with the Lord Rahl is stronger than any magical bond," she grunted through the pain. "It is so strong that it pierces the veil and stays, even in death."
The Emperor growled in anger and withdrew his hands, grabbed her bottom and spreading her cheeks. Bree clenched her jaw, knowing what was coming. He usual did not do this, preferring the wetness between her legs, but when he was truly angry, he would take her this way and make her bleed for weeks.
Bree cried out as he pushed himself in, and in the distance, hidden in the shadows, she heard the sobs of Cynthia, as the poor girl was forced to watch the horror inflicted on Bree by the Emperor.
He leaned over her as she cried, thrusting himself back and forth. "I take no pleasure in hurting you, Sister Bree," he purred in a sickening voice. "You are, after all, my favorite." He then leaned closer and she felt his breath on her ear. "Next time you spread your legs for Neville, I'll make sure you cannot sit, stand, or walk for a month." He thrust himself deeper and Bree cried in pain. "Do I make myself clear, Sister Bree?"
She bit her lower lip and sobbed past the pain, managing to give him a nod of affirmation. Bree had been foolish to believe she could trust Neville. No matter how loyal a person was to the Emperor, the dreamwalker would always enter their mind. He had done that with Neville and that was how he knew that he did.
The Emperor finished quickly, pulling himself out and spilling his seed on the flesh of her bottom. He stood from the bed and barked orders for food and wine to be prepared for him. He turned back to her and caressed her cheek in what he thought was a loving manner.
"Rest now, Sister Bree," he cooed. "I have state business to attend to. Now that the Lord Rahl is out of the picture, and I do not have access to the minds of his followers, I must use other means to subjugate the New World." He leaned down and kissed her lips. He did so in such a tender way that it belied the brute he was. "Do not fear, my love, I shall return soon, and make love to you in a more proper way."
The Emperor stepped towards the door then stopped and his storm-like eyes gazed across the room at Cynthia. "Now that the Lord Rahl is no longer alive, perhaps I will sample that which my wizard seems to believe is so much like her that the Lord Rahl loves."
Bree noticed Cynthia shudder and collapse in dread. The Emperor boomed a terrible cruel laughter, then left them. As soon as he was gone, Cynthia rushed to the bed to comfort her. Sister Bree found it odd that she actually relished the comfort the woman gave her. What was becoming of her, when she could allow a tool of her master to become something akin to a friend? She shoved the thought aside, and released her pain with a cry, accepting the comfort.
XXX
He closed his eyes and allowed the grief to fill him to his very core. It seeped up from his hollow heart to pump through his veins and throughout his entire body. His shoulders slumped and his breath was labored, as he fought back tears. It took all his strength to simply walk through the path that had been laid out for him by the good spirits.
Surrounding him, on all sides, was the Underworld, bleak and terrible in sickening pale green shades. He could tell that things had changed since his last visit. There was no longer a sea of wailing souls. The balance of power had been restored and the Keeper could no longer harm those who were good in the world of the living.
Richard walked, jaw clenched and heart empty, as the souls of the dead guided him to the forbidden place. It was odd, seeing the Underworld as it was meant to be. The many layers that existed down here were apparent to him now and he understood that this was how it was supposed to be. No wails of torment or pain, just a blissful oblivion. Darkness seemed to be around him, but a glow of green light seemed to illuminate from figures huddled together in loving embraces.
He recognized the nature of those embraces. They were the lovers who reunited in the Underworld. Perhaps, someday, he would have his once former lover reunited with him. He would not be going back. His journey to the Temple of the Winds was a one-way trip. That was what prophecy had meant when it had said that pain would find him on the path. The pain it spoke of was the pain of death and separation. And the pain of betrayal.
Richard had suspected it from the moment they learned where the Temple of the Winds was, but he had kept it a secret from her, afraid of the hurt and pain it might cause her. Now he thought such thinking foolish and naïve. She had never truly loved him. It had been a fantasy, a fairy tale for her. Something she dreamed of, yet never believed could ever be real.
Kahlan Amnell had grown up believing that she could never have love. And she was right. For she betrayed that love when she found pleasure in what she believed was another's touch. Richard's whole body ached with the agony of it. He had thought that she would have known it was him, especially with how he touched her. And he had been sure she had known the truth when she had grabbed his head and pulled him into a deep kiss. But he was wrong. His touch was not enough to remind her of him.
He had touched in the same way he had when he had pleased her that one night without taking her maidenhood and had simply used his mouth to give her pleasure. But apparently her love for him was not that strong. She did not recognize his touch and had found pleasure in what she believed was Darken Rahl inside of her.
Richard shook his head of his brooding, and concentrated on the take before him. Ahead of him were two great doors of black stone flanked by statues of beasts that looked to be a cross between animals: The body of a feline and the head of a dragon, with two horns curving out on either end from the temples.
As he approached the doors the stone beasts shook and began to move. They hopped off their plinths of gold and moved like living beasts. They bared their sharp stone teeth at him, their eyes glowing red. As he advanced towards them, bare with nothing to defend himself, Richard knew what he must do. He did not know how he knew, but he did.
Richard knelt before the beasts, who prowled around him, snarling. Their stone paws shaking the ground before the black doors. "I have been betrayed," he spoke in an unemotional voice. "I ask for admittance into the forbidden place."
The beasts stared at him for a moment, their glowing red eyes scrutinizing and judging him and his nakedness. Then one slowly approached, its stone nostrils sniffing. Richard bowed his head before the beast as it neared him. It was huge, twice the size of a horse, and if it wished, it could kill him in one swipe of its stone paw.
Richard raised his head to the beast, prepared for whatever judgment it gave him. It opened its jaw, lined with razor sharp teeth, and it unfurled its tongue. The beast then licked him. The stone tongue feeling wet and rough as a real tongue would. The other one growled, but backed away and bounded back up on its plinth, crouching into position, then freezing, becoming a statue again.
The one that had licked him looked over him for a moment, and then turned, gesturing with its head for him to follow. Slowly, Richard stood and stepped into line alongside the beast as the monster led the way. The great black doors groaned and yawned open, giving him entrance to the Temple of the Winds.
The beast stood beside the opening and looked back, making a mournful howl, as if it could feel his pain. When he passed the beast, he reached out and rubbed its forehead as he would a pet dog, and thanked it for its understanding and assistance. It purred at his touch like a pet cat and slinked back to its golden plinth, pouncing up and taking position, freezing back into a statue, just like its counterpart.
Richard paused before the opening to the Temple of the Winds and took one last look back at the path he had taken. The good spirits had closed the gateway to the world of the living, the last thing he saw as the one he thought loved him doubled over on the floor crying. He took a deep breath. There was no going back now, even if he wanted to. It did not matter; he was as dead in spirit as he was dead in body. Kahlan's love had been false and it had been that love which was the driving force in his life. Now knowing the hollowness of that love she claimed to have for him, Richard no longer cared about the world of the living. He could spend all eternity here, in the Winds.
Taking one last breath, feeling his whole body shake with the anguish and suffering he felt at her betrayal, Richard stepped past the threshold and into the Temple. The big black stone doors creaked and groaned as they closed behind him, sealing him within.
The interior was as massive as the exterior. It was adorn in opulence, with statuary and tapestries. Richard slowly strolled down the great hall, his feet echoing off the marble floor. Tall pillars and columns lined the pathway, and within each niche was a marble bust of a wizard from three thousand years ago. He stopped at one and furrowed his brow in wonder and confusion.
It looked exactly like him, though the eyes were more Rahl then his. And the hair was much longer, parted down the middle like Nathan's but with the same silky smooth look of Darken Rahl. He squinted at the pedestal holding up the bust and examined the name: Alric Rahl.
So, this was his ancestor, the first Lord Rahl of D'Hara and the last since him to be a war wizard. He examined the man's face and wondered if he had suspected that his descendent would have ever stepped foot in the place so feared that people had begun to call it the forbidden place.
Strange sounds called his attention away from the bust of his ancestor and Richard looked up to see spirits gliding throughout the great hall. Several congregated near a platform. Richard stepped away from the niche and continued down the hall until he arrived at this destination. The spirits looked up at him and some smiled weakly. Most, though, looked sad, as if they sensed the betrayal that had been done to him. They parted, revealing a golden throne.
Richard eyed it for a moment, then stepped over to it and ran his fingers along the edges of the arms, feeling the cold metal of the gold. Then, tentatively, Richard sat down in the chair and rested his back against the tall support. The spirits faded and a bright light engulfed him.
He panicked at first, but then slowly understanding seeped into him. And for the first time in his life, Richard understood everything in the world. All the knowledge and wisdom of the ages came to him in that moment, and he knew what must be done to end the plague. It seemed so simple know that he openly laughed. He stood up, knowing how to use his powers and raised his hands into the air.
Steadily a blue light began to manifest around his outstretched arms as he stared off into nothing, concentrating on the new knowledge he had just acquired. He said the words and made the motions, and the light intensified, then shot from his hands, piercing through the high ceiling rafters and was gone.
There. He had done it. The plague had been cured. All those who had been suffering from it would wake up on the morrow to find the infestation gone, their bodies restored to perfect health. People would no longer get infected and die of the terrible disease. Kahlan would live and love her husband as she would never love him. Though he felt betrayed and hurt by her, he still did love her and he regretted not telling her that. And since he would never see her again until she joined him here in the Underworld, he wished her a long and happy life with many children.
Richard sighed from the train of his thoughts and turned back to the golden throne, slumping down in its seat and closed his eyes, listening as the Temple spoke to him, telling him all that was knowable, all that was learnable.