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

“Chase?”

The big man sheathed his sword and rushed forward to grasp Richard by his shoulders and give him a shake. “Richard! Praise be to the good spirits! Where have you come from?”

A woman in a simple blue dress pushed through the small crowd of people, including some Sisters he recognized. “Richard! It is you! And Kahlan!” She grinned with unexpected joy. “And Sister Nicci! You’re here as well!”

Nicci bowed her head, ignoring the slight of the title she no longer used. “Sister Verna, or should I say Prelate, I must admit I’m very happy to see your beautiful, smiling face.”

Verna laughed as she rushed forward, her wavy brown hair bouncing, to hug Kahlan as if she were a long-lost sister.

Chase’s daughter, Rachel, leaned out from behind him. “Richard!” She ran up and threw her arms around his waist.

She seemed to have nearly grown into a woman since the last time he had seen her. Her arms and legs were considerably longer. Her beautiful, blond hair had also grown and was now almost as long as Nicci’s.

Verna separated from Kahlan, holding her at arm’s length as if not willing to let her go for fear she wouldn’t be real. “How in the world did you all come to be in there?”

As happy as he was to see these people he knew, Richard had bigger problems on his mind. He knew that time was dangerously short, and they were far from finished with their journey. He could feel how much stronger the poison inside him had grown. Death was trying to pull him back to that dark world before he could do anything about it.

“It’s a long story,” he said, hoping to avoid being drawn into a lengthy explanation.

“A story we really don’t have time for, I’m afraid,” Kahlan added as she glanced at Richard when she recognized his reserved tone.

Verna peered suspiciously at him for a moment and then stepped close to press her fingers to the sides of his temples. She jerked her hands back as she let out a little cry of dismay, as if the touch had burned her fingers.

“Dear spirits,” she whispered, her eyes widening. “You, you–”

“We know,” Kahlan said. “Like I mentioned before, it’s a long story and as you can tell, Richard is in trouble.”

Chase made a face as he hooked his thumb on his belt. “When is Richard not in trouble?”

Nicci’s face contorted in agreement. “Isn’t that the truth.”

Richard waved a hand for patience and turned to two small metal statues of shepherds that he had spotted set back in a recess of the alcove. When he grasped them he immediately felt them grow warm under his touch. As he held the statues, the enormous capstone slowly swung closed. Once it had again sealed the catacombs, the alarm bells throughout the surrounding corridors finally went silent.

Chase scratched his head as he peered about. “Well that would explain the alarms, if not what you were doing in there.”

Richard ignored the implied question as he cast a stern look at both Chase and Verna. “Don’t let anyone go in there. Don’t even let anyone try to get in there.”

“How would they get in?” Verna asked. “As far as I knew, that wasn’t even a cavern. We always thought it was simply a small place to sit on a bench and have a rest.”

“It’s a little more than that,” he said. “Keep people away from it.”

A scowl settled comfortably on her face. “How long has that passageway been sealed off?”

Richard glanced back at the stone briefly. “Since the great war, near to three thousand years ago.”

Her scowl hardened. “What’s in there?”

“The dead,” Nicci told her.

Verna straightened a little.

“And the spirits of the dead, I believe,” Richard added.

Verna’s jaw dropped. “Then what were all of you doing in there?”

“Traveling,” Richard said without explaining.

“Do you have anything to eat?” Cassia asked into the empty silence. “We’re all pretty hungry. I couldn’t find a rat down there to save my life.”

Verna stared for a moment at the impassive Mord-Sith, then half turned, holding out a hand. “Well, yes, of course. We will prepare a meal to celebrate–”

“We don’t have time for that sort of thing,” Kahlan said. “If we could get a quick bite to eat, maybe something we could take with us, that would be best. We need to get to the sliph.”

Richard recognized that she was focused on getting him back to the People’s Palace and the containment field so that Nicci could remove the poison of death from him. He had to get to the palace, but for other reasons.

Verna shared a worried look with Chase. “The sliph?” She leaned to the side, peering suspiciously behind Vale. “Is Zedd with you?” She caught the look on Richard’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“Verna, I don’t have the slightest idea where I could even begin to tell you everything that has happened and all that is wrong, but one thing you do need to know is that Zedd…”

Her eyes widened. “He’s dead?”

Richard pressed his lips tight and nodded.

“And everyone else is going to die if we don’t get to the People’s Palace,” Kahlan interrupted. “Richard will be the first to die, but he will soon be followed by the rest of us. You felt the poison in him. You know how serious it is. For now, you need to trust us. We will have to fill you in later.”

“Of course. But I thought you brought peace to the world. The war was ended. What could have happened?” Verna frowned with concern as she looked from Kahlan to Richard. “Can you at least tell me what this is all about? We might know something that would help.”

Richard started moving down the enormous, dimly lit chamber. “Do you know who Emperor Sulachan is?”

Verna hurried to keep up with them. She touched her fingertips to her forehead, looking down as she tried to think. “Sulachan, Sulachan.” Her scowl returned as her head came up. “If I’m not mistaken, wasn’t he the emperor back during the great war? He’s been dead for … what, nearly three thousand years or so?”

“Richard brought him back to life,” Nicci said.

Verna was struck speechless.

“Like I told you,” Richard said, “it’s a very long story, and right now there are more important things we need to worry about.”

“Like what?” Verna asked, not willing to let it go.

“Well, the important thing you need to know is that I have to stop Sulachan or he is going to destroy the veil and with it the world of life.”

Verna huffed in disapproval. “Richard, ever since I first met you, you have somehow been tied up in trouble with the veil. You have also been tangled in prophecy from the very first. Prophecy told us of your birth long before you were even conceived. Because of prophecy Prelate Ann was there when you were first born, helping to protect you. You were a child of prophecy.”

“Now I know why,” he said without explaining as he marched along at the head of the small crowd of people.

CHAPTER

48

Richard saw Sisters he knew among the small crowd accompanying them, along with a number of people he didn’t know. They were probably people from down in the city of Aydindril brought up to the Keep to help with bringing the place back to life. There used to be a lot of people from down in Aydindril working at the Keep.

Richard wasn’t keen on the idea of people he didn’t know hearing anything about what was going on. They might be trustworthy, but he didn’t know them. Even if they were, they could overhear something and start rumors or even a panic down in the city. Verna and Chase had no idea of the trouble they were all in, so they would have no reason to be careful of who was around. For all they knew, the world was at peace.

In the distance yet more people made their way through the room as they went about their errands and work. The enormous room was so long and poorly lit that he couldn’t make out the faces of those people at the far end.

Richard cast a sidelong glance at Chase, then deliberately l

ooked at the people following along. Chase got the message.

He turned back to everyone. “Why don’t you all let everyone know that there is no problem and then check that all the alarms are reset. Verna and I can see to this.”