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

“If you know what’s good for you,” she growled intimately through gritted teeth, “you will stay down. Do–you–understand?”

She slammed her Agiel into his middle again and twisted it just to make her point, her teeth on edge the whole time. “I asked you a question. Do you understand?”

He nodded as best he could, unable to look at her.

Richard felt like his bulging eyes might burst out of his head. He struggled to draw a breath as she rose up and towered over him. All he could see were her boots right in front of him. He held his arms crossed over his middle.

“Leave him alone!” Kahlan screamed.

Hannis Arc twisted his hand, bending her head back, making her cry out in pain. Richard could see how much it was hurting her, but he was in no condition to do anything about it.

Hannis Arc finally tossed Kahlan to the ground, where she tumbled and rolled to a stop not far to the side of Richard.

Hannis Arc, glaring with his red eyes, lifted an arm toward Kahlan, his palm held up. Kahlan put her hands to her throat, gasping in agony at whatever kind of occult power he was using to hurt her. Her face went red, then started going blue.

Richard was beyond fury, but the pain from Vika’s Agiel still kept him from being able to use his muscles, much less draw a breath. He couldn’t properly focus his vision.

Hannis Arc gestured angrily at Vika for her to get out of his way. She bowed her head and withdrew to stand behind him.

He took several steps closer, glaring down at Richard the way one would inspect an animal in an iron trap. “You think you have won? You think you have spoiled my plans? Quite the contrary. You have unwittingly helped me by eliminating a very, very dangerous associate who had outlived his usefulness. The fool wanted to destroy the world of life. The world of life will find much more favor with me. I only want to rule it.

“Now that you have sent that lunatic spirit back to the world of the dead, the Shun-tuk will soon have subdued the palace, and I will finally–finally–be able to kill the Lord Rahl, and in his own fallen palace, no less.”

Hannis Arc took a step forward as he lifted his hands out to Kahlan and Richard, one to each of them.

Vika walked up behind the man, and without a word pressed her Agiel to the base of his skull.

Hannis Arc’s arms lifted, shaking and trembling with the agony of what Vika was doing to him. She showed no expression or mercy as she held her Agiel against him. Spittle flew from his mouth as he shook violently.

And then, all the tattoos on him began to smoke. The lines of each tattoo covering his head turned red-hot, like coals in a fire. The flesh bubbled and sizzled, smoke rising from his skin, as the symbols all over him continued to burn down into his flesh. The skin on his cheekbones detached along the lines of one of the symbols and flopped down, exposing burned and bloody bone.

Still, Vika stood emotionless behind him, holding her Agiel to the base of his skull.

As the lines of the tattoos all over his skin burned, the smell of it was gagging. Blood frothed at Hannis Arc’s mouth. His eyes bled. Blood ran out of his ears.

The man’s legs suddenly twisted unnaturally and he went down in a heap. Smoke rolled up from his burning flesh. There was no need to check that he was dead. The man was dead and his spirit probably already in the underworld, being swarmed by Sulachan’s dark demons, taking his soul down into the darkness of eternity.

Vika ran forward and crouched down, helping Richard get back up onto his knees. His hands trembled as he tried to get control of his movements. Before he could even get to his feet, Kahlan flung her arms around his neck, crying with joy to see him alive, holding his head to her. His arms finally able to move as he wanted, he hugged her for what seemed ages, but not long enough.

Finally, as she separated and wiped the tears from her face, Richard stood.

Vika stepped closer to him. “I made my choice, Lord Rahl. I chose you.”

“Then why use your Agiel on me?”

“Because I knew that you wouldn’t have stood a chance against his occult powers if you tried to fight him like that. I knew he would kill you if I didn’t find a way to make sure he was distracted enough so that I could take him out. So I needed to put you down and to have you stay down.

“He never let me come up behind him like that. He knew what a Mord-Sith was capable of. He was a very careful man about potential threats like that.”

“So, you used your Agiel on me to throw some raw meat in front of him and distract him.”

Looking solemn, she nodded once and kept her head bowed. “Yes, Lord Rahl.”

Vika went to her knees before him and held out her Agiel in upturned palms. “We all learn during our training that should we ever use our power on the Lord Rahl like that, it is automatically punishable by death. I chose to do it anyway to save your life and the life of the Mother Confessor. That was my choice, for my life.”

She swallowed without looking up at him. “I ask only that you make it quick, so that I do not suffer. I don’t wish to suffer. I have suffered enough.”

Richard knelt down in front of her. Her head was bowed and she wouldn’t look up at him, fearing the worst.

Richard put his hand over both of hers holding out the Agiel, and lowered them. Then, with a finger, he lifted her chin. Looking into her wet blue eyes, he kissed a finger, and then pressed that finger on her forehead.

“That is your punishment.”

Vika frowned, tears starting to run down her cheeks. “Lord Rahl, I don’t understand. I used my Agiel on you. That is a mandatory death sentence.”

“I just did something to you worse than death.”

Her brow twitched. “What have you done?”

“If you don’t behave, I will tell all the other Mord-Sith that I kissed you. You will never hear the end of it as long as you live.”

He showed her a smile, then, a smile that showed her how proud he was of her for making a choice for herself, a choice for life.

Kahlan put an arm around Vika’s shoulders and helped her up. “I have to tell you, I’m proud of you too, but you certainly had me fooled there for a while. I thought we were going to die right then and there.”

Vika nodded with a genuine smile. “I decided long ago, after Lord Rahl talked to me in the cave prison. I knew, though, that I needed to do more than simply run away. No one runs away from Hannis Arc. He will find you and then take out his revenge for your betrayal. I knew that the only way to save myself, and the only way to save others, would be to kill him. I had to wait for my chance. He was a pig, but I had to wait for the right time. Today was that time.”

Kahlan gave the woman’s arm a squeeze of empathy. Then she looked back in the direction of the screaming in the distance. “Richard, the half people–”

“I know,” he said as he took her hand. “Come on.”

CHAPTER

58

“What are we going to do?” Kahlan asked as she ran beside him.

Vika raced along close behind.

As they burst through the gold-sheathed double doors, Richard immediately took the hallway to the left. It was the shortest route to where he needed to go. After racing down one short flight of stairs, they took a long corridor lined with white marble. The floor was a complex wave pattern of a variety of stones, and quite slippery, so they had to slow a bit.

At the end, Richard burst out of the double doors onto a balcony above the central hallway. He immediately raced to an arched bridge high over the walkway below. He skidded to a stop near the center. Since it was the middle of the night, the skylights were dark. That meant that the hallway, lit by scores of reflector lamps, was dimly lit.