Severed Souls (Sword of Truth 14)

Finally the sound and fury died away.

Nicci stood and stared down at Kahlan for a time. The blood was gone, wiped out of existence by the Subtractive Magic while the Additive had knitted tissues back together and made her still heart whole again.

Nicci took a deep breath. She looked exhausted. She looked defeated.

“I’m sorry, Richard,” she whispered, unable to look up at him. “I repaired everything that was damaged. She is again as she was before. It is not enough.”

Richard stared at Kahlan’s still, lifeless body. “Thank you, Nicci. You cannot imagine how much I appreciate what you’ve done for us.”

“Richard, I’ve done nothing of any real use. Her life is gone. Her spirit has already crossed over through the veil. Her soul is already on that journey along the lines of the Grace. She is gone beyond, now.”

“I know that, Nicci,” Richard said, holding himself together for what was to come.

“Now, I need you to do one more thing for me.”

CHAPTER

85

Nicci frowned suspiciously. “What one other thing do you need me to do?”

Without answering, Richard walked to the door, to the Mord-Sith standing silent guard. He touched the cheek of each one of them in turn.

“Thank you for reminding me why I fight for life.”

A little puzzled, they nodded.

“Thank you for giving us ours back, Lord Rahl,” Cassia said.

He smiled, as best he could. It was forced. “Now, I need you all to wait outside, please.”

The three shared looks with one another, uncertain what he had in mind.

“Lord Rahl,” Cassia said, “we…”

“I know,” he said. “Now, please wait outside.”

They nodded tearfully and then, reluctantly, quietly left, closing the door behind themselves.

Richard went back to the side of the bed. His heart pounded so hard that he rocked slightly with each beat as he stared down at Kahlan.

“We have to hurry.”

Nicci’s head came up. “What?”

“Every moment counts. I need you to do one last thing for me. We have to hurry.”

Nicci stared suspiciously up into his eyes. “What do you want me to do, Richard?”

He swallowed. “I need you to stop my heart.”

She did not look surprised. “I can’t do that, Richard.”

“You can, and you must. You healed her body. Now, I have to go beyond the veil and retrieve her spirit before it travels too far along the lines of the Grace and she is lost forever to the underworld.”

“Richard, that’s … Richard I understand how you feel, I swear I do, but that’s just not—”

“I have the touch of death inside me.”

“And so you want to hurry it along?”

Richard’s gaze turned from Kahlan back to Nicci’s haunted blue eyes. “When Hannis Arc captured all of you, he kept you trapped in chambers behind a veil to the underworld. I stepped through that veil and into the underworld to come and get you out. Remember?”

“We weren’t dead, Richard.”

“In the third kingdom, both worlds existed together at the same time in the same place. Because I have death inside me, I am part of that third kingdom. I’m not only alive, I also carry death inside.

“I passed through the world of the dead to get you out of that prison. I was there briefly, in the underworld, and I made it through. I know a great deal about the underworld.”

“Richard, this is different. You can’t go to the world of the dead and retrieve a soul that has crossed over. You can’t do such a thing.”

“Ordinarily, no, but Kahlan has that same touch of death in her that I do. That means that in this world, the call of death we have in us has been slowly stealing life away from us. But Kahlan and I are of that third kingdom, with both death and life in us, together, at the same time.

“That means that right now, in that place, Kahlan has the call of life still in her. She carries both worlds until the spark of life still attached to her soul extinguishes in that dark place.

“I have to go get her before that happens. I’m dead anyway. This poison is killing me.”

“But we may be able to get Ludwig Dreier to show us how to heal you.”

“Only after I bring Kahlan back. Then you can heal us. But before we try to heal that touch of death, I need to use it.”

“Richard, it isn’t so simple as you—”

“Nicci, you were a Sister of the Dark. You know that there is more to it all than most people can begin to understand. You must stop my heart and send me beyond the veil. You must.”

Nicci shook her head. “No. Richard, I can’t do that.” Tears started coursing down her face. “I can’t do that to you. I can’t. Please, don’t ask such a thing of me.”

Richard gripped her shoulders and made her look back at him. “I am asking it.”

She started sobbing in earnest. “I can’t, Richard.”

“Would you die for me?” he asked.

Surprised by the question, she looked up into his eyes. “Yes.”

“Then you understand that sometimes those we love are worth dying for. If you care about me, if you love me, you will grant me this.”

“Richard, it just won’t work,” Nicci sobbed. “She’s gone. You can’t change that. It would be for nothing.”

“Don’t you see? If I can’t bring her spirit back, then I want to be with her. Please, Nicci, don’t deny me this. Kahlan needs me right now. She needs what only I can do. There is no one else with the kind of chance I have. I have to do it now, before it’s too late. Let me go. Let me be with her.

“Don’t hold me a captive in the world of life when you have the power to send me beyond the veil. Don’t make me do it myself and damage my body so that I don’t have a chance to return. You have to do it now, while the spark of life is still in her soul and before her spirit travels too far into that darkness for me to find her. Every second counts. Every second allows Kahlan’s soul to slip farther and farther away into the depths of the underworld where the winged demons wait for her.”

Nicci shook as she sobbed, hardly able to look at him through the tears. “They are waiting for you, too.”

Richard drew his sword. If he had to, he could do it himself with the sword. If he had to, he would.

“I have my sword.”

“Are you crazy?” she asked in fury through her tears. “The sword is of this world. It can’t cross over with you.”

With the hilt in his hand, his anger had been ignited. It powered him, gave him strength to do what he needed to do.

“Its anger will. The blade is bonded to me. That bond will cross over with me, even if the blade itself won’t.”

Richard lay down on the bed beside Kahlan’s still, lifeless form. He had never imagined that he would lie next to her when she was dead. He had to partition his mind to be able to function, to be able to think at all, or the grief would claim him and then he had no chance.

He laid the blade of the sword down the length of his body, holding the hilt over his heart, feeling the word “TRUTH” pressing into his palm as Nicci stood beside the bed crying.

Only the rage of the sword kept him from losing control and screaming in agonizing grief.

“Hurry, Nicci. It must be now.”

Her teeth gritted, her hands fisted, she leaned closer. “Richard, I don’t want to lose you. We can’t lose you. We all need you.”

“Why do you need me?” he asked, looking up into her wet, blue eyes.

“Because you are the one. You always have been. You always know what to do to save us. You always do the right thing.”

“That’s what I’m doing, now.” He smiled. “You know that you are far more than special to me. You have saved my life more times and in more ways than I can count.

“Now, you must take it.”

“How can I?” she asked.

“It’s all right, Nicci. This is what I want.”

As he stared into her eyes, as she wept nearly uncontrollably, she leaned over, her long blond hair falling forward over her shoulders as she placed her hands to either side of the hilt of the sword over his heart.

Richard didn’t tell Nicci that while he thought he had a chance to return Kahlan’s spirit to her body in the world of life, he knew that he had no chance to return.

There could be no one with both life and death in them, no one with the knowledge and experience of having been to the underworld, who could come after him.

He believed that he had a chance—a slim chance, but a chance—to capture Kahlan’s spirit in time and let it return to the world of life, to her healed body.