Severed Souls (Sword of Truth 14)

“So, in the fall, when the water level was at its lowest, Martha and her gifted husband went into Kharga Trace to look into the rumors about the Hedge Maid. Martha was experienced and powerfully gifted, so she thought it best if she were the one to go investigate.

“We never heard from them again. Half the village searched for them for weeks. We didn’t know where in Kharga Trace to look for this Hedge Maid, and besides how vast it is, that foul swamp is dangerous. We feared more of our people might be hurt or killed, so we had to give up the search.

“Eventually, the spring rains came and the swamp overflowed, washing out remains in the overflow. The remains belonged to my sister and her husband.”

Nicci looked up from her bowl of stew. “What kind of remains?” she asked, obviously incredulous that much of anything could be left after all that time in a swamp.

“Bones.” Irena tapped her thigh with her spoon. “Just some of the larger, heavier bones, like these.”

Nicci frowned. “If Kharga Trace is so dangerous, and people went into the place to see the Hedge Maid for her healing powers, then a lot of people may have died in that swamp. The bones could have belonged to anyone. How did the people in your village know that they were your sister’s bones?”

Irena rested her hand with the spoon on her knee, looking off into the distant memories for a moment.

“I’m the one who identified my sister’s bones. They carried the telltale trace of the gift. I recognized those traces of the gift as belonging to my sister Martha.”

“I see,” Nicci said as she put her head down over her bowl and went back to eating her stew.

“Then, not long after that, soldiers came and took my other sister, Millicent, and her husband, Gyles, away to the abbey. I suspect that it was probably because Gyles was always boasting to people that he had the gift for prophecy. The abbey was where Abbot Dreier collected prophecy for Hannis Arc. The soldiers said that prophecy belonged to all the people.”

Irena stirred her stew as she stared down into it. “They never returned.”

“I know all about Ludwig Dreier,” Kahlan said, her expression darkening. “I have sworn that I will kill him.”

By the condition Kahlan had been in when Richard had shown up, just before Dreier and his Mord-Sith, Erika, had started torturing her in earnest, he knew that Kahlan was bound and determined to keep that vow. If Richard didn’t get to Dreier first.

“Anyway,” Irena said, “when I saw that the gates in the north wall were open, that the barrier had been breached, my husband and I left at once to inform the wizards’ council at the Keep.”

Zedd looked up from his bowl to share a look with Richard.

“There is no longer a wizards’ council at the Keep,” Zedd told Irena.

Her expression had turned grim. “I know that now. But at the time I didn’t. We didn’t make it far before the half people captured us.” She swallowed back the anguish. “Well, they captured me. They…”

“I’m terribly sorry about your husband,” Richard said. “And your father, Samantha.”

Samantha, looking dispirited, nodded her thanks.

“Lord Rahl says that in High D’Haran, ‘stroyza’ means ‘sentinel,’” Samantha told her mother.

“I guess that makes perfect sense. We were there to warn people if the north wall was ever breached.”

“And you never knew the meaning of all that writing in the passageway?” Richard asked. “That writing was left there to tell your people the whole story, to explain everything.”

Irena looked up into his eyes. “Richard, what difference does it make, now? All of that past history? The barrier is breached. We can’t afford to bother with history, supposition, and speculation right now.

“What matters now is healing you. We have to get that taint of death out of you or you will die.”

“And Kahlan,” Richard said.

Irena glanced over at Kahlan. “Yes, of course, and Kahlan.”

CHAPTER

44

“Believe me,” Richard said, “I know how badly we need to be rid of this deadly poison, but in the meantime there are still—”

“I don’t think you do.” Irena was finished with being patient. Her expression turned serious in the way sorceresses had of turning serious. “That poison is deadly. We need to get it out of you. That is what matters above all else. Everything else can wait.”

“We know that,” Richard said, “and we will be able to take care of it just as soon as we get back to the People’s Palace. I assure you, I want this out of us more than you do, and I’m going to push to get us back to the People’s Palace as fast as we can. Besides needing to get there simply to heal us, we need to get there ahead of Hannis Arc.

“I’m pretty sure that’s where he’s headed. We have to push hard and get there first. I need to help them prepare for what is coming and set up defenses. The army needs to protect cities in the way of Hannis Arc and his half people.”

Irena seemed confused as she looked from one face to another. Her frown turned back to him. “Richard, it can’t wait until then. It needs to be done now. Right now.”

Zedd paused from scraping the rest of his stew over to the edge of his tin bowl where he could scoop it all up. “We are all concerned about healing them. Although you may not believe it, as his grandfather, I am even more concerned than you, Irena. That is above all else in all our minds at all times.”

“Good. So then we should—” she began again.

“But we have to get to the palace in order to do that healing,” Zedd continued with the solemn weight of authority as First Wizard.

Irena threw her arms up. “Dear Creator! Aren’t any of you people listening? It can’t wait that long!”

“It has to,” Zedd told her. “We need a containment field in order to do it.”

“A containment field? Why?” She gestured toward Zedd, then at Nicci. “We have a wizard and—well three—sorceresses, actually, right here, right now. We can all link our gift to multiply our power. Our linked ability will be strong enough to draw that deadly poison out of them.

“We need to get it out, now. That’s all there is to it. We need to get it done at once!”

“We agree with you that it needs to be removed and believe me, we share that urgency.” Zedd set down his bowl without taking the last bite. “But I’m telling you, it must be done in a containment field.”

As well as Richard knew his grandfather, he knew that something was wrong, and Zedd was trying to avoid saying that something aloud.

“Are you crazy, old man?” Irena said as she scowled at Zedd. “It can’t wait for the luxury of being at a palace to take care of it.”

“It will have to,” Zedd told her with a kind of quiet insistence that covered some deeper worry. “It’s not a matter of the luxury of being at a palace, but of having the proper tools to do the job. The taint they have in them is the call of death itself. If we try to extract it outside of a containment field, it would do the same thing to them as it did to Jit—it would call death to them. The only way to get it out without killing them and us along with them is to do it in a containment field. If we were to try to do it now, here, even if we link our gift, it won’t matter. The attempt would kill them.”

Everyone fell silent. When he listened carefully enough, Richard was able to hear the faint sound of screams deep inside his mind. It was the open void within him between the world of life and the world of the dead. That gateway to the world of the dead was always there inside him—and inside Kahlan—waiting to pull them through.

Right then, he and Kahlan existed in both worlds.

“But with all the gifted talent we have here, we must try to do it now,” Irena insisted.

“I’m telling you this for the last time, Irena, and you need to listen to me. It can only be removed in a containment field in order to safely trap and drain that poison,” Zedd said with quiet authority that was on the verge of outright anger, “otherwise, that

poison will not only kill them, it will also kill any of us trying to draw it out of them.”

Richard and Kahlan shared a look. They both knew that it was getting worse. They could both feel that darkness trying to pull them in. They both knew that Zedd was right.

“But, but,” Irena stammered, “they won’t live that long.”

The surprise of her words sent an icy chill through Richard. “What?”

“I admit,” she said, “I am not as experienced at healing as a wizard, but even I can tell from sensing with my gift what was in you that you don’t have that long to live. Richard, you will never make it that far. You won’t live long enough to make it even halfway back to the People’s Palace. You have no chance of making it the whole way. None.”

Richard and Kahlan both looked at Zedd. He didn’t look back at them.

Richard turned to Nicci, expecting an answer. Nicci stared back into his eyes for a long time before she finally gave him that answer.

“I’m afraid she’s right, Richard. We intend to try, of course, to use our ability to give you both strength for as long as we can, but we know that the reality is you won’t live long enough to make it to the People’s Palace.”

“But…” Richard searched for words. “There must be something…”