Warheart: Sword of Truth: The Conclusion (Sword of Truth 15)

“It’s one of the dark ones,” Richard said.

“The dark ones?” Cassia asked, her voice filled with rage and urgency to eliminate the threat. “What are you talking about?”

“From the underworld,” Nicci said as she stared at the otherworldly sight. “I recognize it now, too. It’s one of the demons that had Richard in the underworld, one of Sulachan’s dark ones taking him down into oblivion.”

“Then what’s it doing here, in this world?” Laurin asked in an equally heated voice.

“The veil is failing,” Richard said as he used his free arm to push them back farther while keeping his sword out and an eye toward Samantha. She kept coming, matching their pace, shadowing them. “Sulachan is tearing the veil more all the time. He apparently was able to bring some of his minions through.”

“Give yourself over to us,” Samantha called out to him, “and we will let the others go.”

None of them believed a word of it. Sulachan and the dark ones from the underworld wanted to eliminate Richard because he was the only possible threat to them.

“You give up and give yourself over to us,” Richard said.

Samantha answered by abruptly throwing another bolt of otherworldly power, sending it flying back through the cave. It hit the walls, skipping off one side and then the other, sending showers of rock flying as it raced back toward Richard and the others.

This time, there was no cover close enough. Knowing they wouldn’t be able to evade it, Richard made a split-second decision and stepped out, holding the sword by the hilt in one hand and the point in the other as a shield. The tumbling fireball split when it hit the sword, sending streamers of lightning and fire crashing into the walls at each side.

Richard’s fears were confirmed when he saw that there was not even one soldier behind Samantha. She had killed Commander Fister and the entire detachment of men with them. Richard, Kahlan, Nicci, and the three Mord-Sith were the only ones left.

They had no choice but to withdraw deeper into the caves to try to stay away from the young sorceress.

“Samantha!” Richard yelled out as he backed deeper into the caverns. “You have to stop! Your hatred of me is inviting evil into yourself! Stop! Think about what you’re doing!”

Her hands fisted at her sides. “I know exactly what I’m doing!” she screamed. “I’m killing the murderer of my mother!”

“You have to listen to me,” Richard called out to her as he took several steps back. “I tried to explain it to you before. You need to stop and talk to me about it. You need to let me tell you what was happening with your mother. Let me help you to reason it out so you can see the truth for yourself. You have to listen to the truth!”

She lowered her head, arms stiff at her sides.

Kahlan grabbed a fistful of Richard’s sleeve. “We’re in trouble. That’s what she did when she blew apart the rock cliffs in the gorge.”

“Kahlan’s right,” Nicci said. “Samantha buried an entire army of the half people when she did that.”

“That’s why I said we are in trouble,” Kahlan said.

Cassia started for the young sorceress, but Richard snatched her arm just in time to yank her back, nearly pulling her off her feet in the process.

“No you don’t,” he told her in a heated voice. “She will kill you in a heartbeat.”

“I can stop her, Lord Rahl. That’s what Mord-Sith do. We absorb the magic of anyone who tries to use it against us. We can capture their magic. Let me–”

“No,” he said as he moved with them back toward a corner. “My gift doesn’t work, so the bond doesn’t work, so your Agiel doesn’t work, and that means your ability to absorb magic won’t work either.”

As he looked over his shoulder to make sure they were all moving behind cover, holding a tight grip on the leather at Cassia’s shoulder, pulling her with him, Laurin ducked around the other side of him. She darted away before Richard was able to grab her.

The blond Mord-Sith, Agiel in her fist, charged right for Samantha, daring her to try to use magic against her. Richard was able to catch Vale and prevent her from joining Laurin.

Samantha never moved. Her head was bowed, her eyes closed. The shadowy spirit of the demon seemed to writhe with gleeful menace.

Before Richard could do anything to go after Laurin, the air of the cave jolted with a hard impact, as if the entire mountain had been struck with a giant hammer. At the same time, Laurin’s form exploded in a shower of black bits, like crystals of a night stone. Her red leather collapsed to the floor, the black crystals that had been Laurin spilling out of the openings at the wrists and ankles. There was nothing left of the Mord-Sith but charred black bits scattered across the floor.

Cassia and Vale both screamed in rage as they charged for Samantha. Richard snatched each one in an arm just in time and yanked them back behind the corner of the intersection.

As he tumbled back with the two Mord-Sith, falling at Nicci and Kahlan’s feet, the walls began to shudder as if in a violent earthquake. Thunderous explosions hammered through the cavern, ringing in his ears.

“She’s doing it,” Nicci said through gritted teeth. “She’s bringing the rock down on us.”

“We need to get out of here,” Kahlan said.

But there really wasn’t anywhere to run. All they could do was try to stay out of Samantha’s direct line of fire.

To the left, a slab of rock exploded, sending fragments ricocheting and bouncing up and down the passageway as the main section dropped heavily to the floor. One side of another small slab of the granite ceiling let go and fell, coming to rest on the floor while the other half remained lodged up in the softer rock of the ceiling.

Richard pushed the two Mord-Sith back, giving them an unmistakable warning look. Kahlan and Nicci grabbed them and held them back so he could take a quick look around the corner.

When the explosion paused briefly, he was able to peek aroun

d the corner to get a good look. He saw Samantha, with that grim black shadow of the demon twisting with rage in the same place as the girl as she marched toward them. Her arms were still stiff, her hands in fists, her head lowered.

When she spotted him she glared with unrestrained rage and hate and kept coming. She was coming for him.

CHAPTER

37

Richard wondered if he could get close enough to her to use the sword. That ruled out using the sword as a shield, first, because it gave her too much time with him in the open. In his mind he planned what he would need to do. He decided that he would race out from cover to draw her attention. She would change the focus of an attack toward him. That shift of her attention would take a fraction of a second, making her redirected attack less accurate. As she rushed to cast out another lightning bolt of power, he could throw himself to the ground, roll under it, and then spring up in front of her. If he could get in that close, he was pretty sure he would be able to take her down with the sword before she could react.

If she didn’t miss, though, it would all be over. He would be dead. Sulachan and Hannis Arc would win. Prophecy would live–at least until the world of life died out.

He gripped the sword tighter in both hands and gritted his teeth, readying himself to charge at the young sorceress.

Samantha stopped. She growled in rage, her whole body trembling with fury. When he snuck a quick glance, Richard could see the shape of the demon in the same place as her, in much the way that Sulachan’s spirit occupied his desiccated corpse in the same place at the same time.

But Samantha was not an innocent victim who was possessed by an evil spirit. She had invited that hateful spirit into her with her irrational, out-of-control anger and hate. Now they were one in purpose. Now they both were determined to kill.