At Last (Chp 14)

Richard stood in stunned silence, his chest heaving with dread, beads of sweat trickling down his back. The room seemed to suddenly close in around him from all sides as he waited fearfully for Kahlan and Brey's reappearance. Terror filled and consumed him, causing his throat to constrict, making it difficult to draw his next breath.

"No, no, no, no…" he began to softly chant as tears filled his eyes, blurring his vision. "NOOO!" he suddenly screamed, his voice so full of rage and anguish that it sent prickles down Zedd's spine as he helplessly watched his grandson.

"Brey, you bastard…bring her back!" Richard's voice rumbled forcefully throughout the crypt, reverberating back to him with a cold empty achiness that caused gooseflesh to appear.

Richard spun around in tight circles, searching desperately for his love amongst the mysterious objects that surrounded him. Tears streamed freely down his cheeks, his body shaking with the weight of his escalating grief.

The bone chillingly silence was like a knife to his already breaking heart. His body felt numb, his mind racing as it tried to process what had just taken place before his very eyes. Kahlan had been there with him just moments ago…and now…and now she was gone.

In a burst of magical light, in less than a heartbeat, Richard had just lost the only woman he had ever loved.

Overwhelmed with grief and rage, Richard suddenly began tearing through the crypt like a wild animal, knocking over everything in his path in a desperate attempt to find Kahlan. Glass cases were suddenly overturned, crashing loudly onto the stone floor. The sound of the shattering glass was deafening as Richard stormed through the crypt, his emotions swarming in an uncontainable tempest.

Bookshelves grumbled loudly in protest with the sudden force that had been thrust upon them, the wood cracking and splintering as they collapsed. Books fell into dusty heaps as the Seeker stamped his way through the chaos he'd just created.

"KAHLAN!" he repeatedly screamed with no response, his voice growing hoarse.

"Richard!" Zedd shouted at him as he scanned the room for where the Seeker had disappeared through the maze of weaving rows that intersected and crisscrossed throughout the great Crypt of Secrets. "Richard, you have to stop!"

Zedd knew his grandson was in turmoil, but destroying the crypt wasn't going to make Brey reappear or bring Kahlan back. Unfortunately, Zedd's pleas were drowned out by the breaking glass and Richard's grief-stricken cries for his beloved.

Fear filled the old Wizard as Richard finally reappeared around a large ornate coffin that stood proudly at the end of a row. The look in Richard's eyes, the anguish in his face made Zedd's blood run cold. He had never seen the Seeker so devastated before.

"Kahlan, come back!" Richard hoarsely cried out to the one who held his heart, but could not hear his pleas.

Glass crunched under the weight of his boots as he finally made his way back to where he had last seen Kahlan. Tears fell from his eyes, wetting the dirt covered floor as he bent over and ran a trembling hand over the place his Confessor had just been. It couldn't be real, this couldn't be happening. It all felt like a terrifying nightmare…except he wasn't sleeping and Kahlan was still missing.

Fearing the worst, Zedd made his way to the kneeling Seeker. Placing a gentle hand on his shoulder, Richard cringed, pulling back from his grandfather's calming touch, not wanting to be comforted.

"Don't, Zedd…she's not dead…"

"Richard, I think we need to accept that it could be a…"

"She is not dead!" Richard hissed with a bitterness that burned like acid. "Where could Brey have taken her?"

"There's no way of predicting how far he could have gone with Kahlan. The Ta'all Ruk'tan magnified Brey's power exponentially. He could be in D'Hara or Westland right now for all we know," Zedd grimly informed him, tears blurring his own vision now. With the way the staff had shattered into pieces, Zedd feared deep down that the magnitude of the magical blast had killed them both instantly.

"I have to find her, Zedd. I don't care if she's in the Old World; I will not stop until I have found Kahlan," he stated resolutely with a deadly calm, his dark brown eyes hardening with a sense of resolve.

"Richard, it's more likely that the blast that caused the staff to shatter killed Kahlan and Brey instantly." It was the hardest thing Zedd had ever had to tell Richard, but he knew that his grandson needed to know the reality of the situation even if he would not accept it right now.

"I know that, Zedd…" he replied, his voice so soft the Wizard had barely heard him. Richard rose to his feet. Turning to face him, his face hard and set like stone, Richard continued. "…but I will neither rest nor accept that Kahlan is gone forever until I have searched every inch of the three territories as well as the Old World for her…"

XXX

Bright light had swallowed her, drawing her deep into its depths. It enveloped her, blanketing her and warming her. It was everywhere and nowhere. It was under her and over her. It surrounded her and permeated her very being.

Her eyes suddenly flew open as she drew a sharp intake of breath to replenish her burning lungs. She sat bolt upright, her chest heaving with the weight of panic that tightly gripped her. Her eyes were wide with terror as her gaze darted frantically about her, desperate to grasp what had happened to her.

She became acutely aware that she was here but not here, alive but not living, she was dead and yet she was breathing. She just…was. It was difficult to comprehend, difficult to grasp. Everything seemed so familiar and yet it was all so foreign and strange, like looking through a lightly frosted window pane. Everything was so… confusing.

Her head was swimming, her body ached. She was so very cold and yet she felt so warm. Exhaustion enveloped her, making it difficult to keep her eyes open. Where was she? What had happened to her?

Wherever she was, she found herself very much alone…

TO BE CONTINUED…

*Don't kill me just yet for this! I'm already several chapters into the sequel and hope to start posting it soon! Hang in there! :)