Severed Souls (Sword of Truth 14)

Kahlan gestured across the encampment. “He said that he wasn’t tired after being unconscious for so long so he wanted to go check on the sentries. He told me to get some rest and he would be back soon. Why, what is it? Is something wrong?”

Nicci drew her lower lip between her teeth as she briefly glanced to each side. “Can I talk to you? Privately?”

Kahlan was exhausted and in no mood to talk, but she knew that Nicci had to be just as tired. She also knew that the woman never engaged in idle chitchat. If she wanted to talk, it was because it was important or there was something wrong.

Kahlan looked around. There were other people not too far away. They had wanted to keep the encampment tight in case there was an attack. Now that everyone was bedded down and quiet they could easily be within earshot. Nicci had said “privately.” Kahlan pointed off to the side of camp.

“Sure. Let’s go over there. We can sit on that low boulder under the ash trees.”

Nicci glanced back at the place Kahlan had pointed to. “That works.”

As it turned out, Kahlan was the one who sat on the rock and covered her yawn with a hand as Nicci paced before her. Kahlan waited, watching Nicci walk back and forth for a while, before she finally decided that the sorceress wasn’t going to talk unless encouraged.

“Nicci, what is it? What’s wrong?”

It occurred to Kahlan that it was a pretty open-ended question. There were whole constellations of things that were wrong.

“I don’t trust Irena.”

That was not one of the stars that had been twinkling for attention among the constellations of problems in Kahlan’s mind. She would have picked something like her and Richard being on death’s doorway.

“All right,” Kahlan said in an even tone.

Nicci stopped pacing and faced her. “Didn’t you hear me? I’m telling you, I don’t trust the woman.”

Kahlan shrugged. “All right. Why not?”

Nicci scowled. “Do I need to have a reason?”

Kahlan thought about it a moment as Nicci stared at her. People usually found such a glare from the bewitching sorceress uncomfortable in the extreme, but Kahlan was not one of those people. She was in no mood for cryptic personal reports in the dead of night. If there was a point, she wanted to hear it.

“Well, if you’re asking me to cross her off the guest list for the next palace ball, I suppose I don’t need to have your reasons. You’ve got it. Consider it done.

“But on the other hand, if you are asking me for permission to kill the woman, then I guess I ought to hear your reasons.”

Nicci folded her arms as she went back to pacing. She huffed a sigh. “Irena said that when the bones washed out of the swamp, she identified them as the remains of her sister.”

“That’s right. She said that she detected the residue of the gift in them and she recognized it as her sister’s gift.”

Nicci came to a halt and leaned toward Kahlan, arms still folded. “Kahlan, I’m pretty experienced—I’ve been a Sister of the Light, a Sister of the Dark, and Death’s Mistress—and I’ve never heard of the gift being detectable in bones.”

That gave Kahlan pause. “You can’t recognize traces of the gift in the bones of a person?”

“No.”

Kahlan was surprised, but she was tired and didn’t feel like working out what seemed like a trivial puzzle.

“Well, just because you never heard of it and you can’t do it, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”

“In this case I’m pretty sure it does.” By her tone of voice, Nicci was in no mood for games, either. She expected her word in this to be taken seriously. “I know a lot about the gift. I used to teach its use. I’ve worked and studied at the Palace of the Prophets for more than four of your lifetimes, plus the lifetimes of Irena and her daughter added in.

“I’m telling you, I know about these things and you can’t detect the gift in human remains, much less identify the person they came from. Maybe occult conjuring can do such things, but the gift cannot. She also said that she knew the captive had occult powers. Zedd and I couldn’t detect anything.”

“Well, I admit that is kind of odd, but maybe, as she explained, living this close to the barrier some people may have begun to accumulate some of those occult abilities.”

“Maybe,” Nicci admitted under her breath.

“Is that it? That’s the reason you don’t trust her?”

Nicci started pacing again. “How did you get to Jit’s lair in Kharga Trace?”

Realizing that this was far from over, Kahlan pushed some of her hair back away from her face and turned more serious. “I followed the road toward Kharga Trace until it eventually diminished down into a small trail that led out across the swamp. The trail was hard to miss. It was built out of branches and saplings and such to keep you up out of the water. In some places it was like a bridge, spanning long stretches of open water on its way to Jit’s place.”

“So it was all up above water, where you could see it.”

“Of course. You must know that, though. You would have had to come in the same way to get Richard and me out.”

Nicci confirmed with a nod that she did indeed know it.

“Irena said that none of her people knew where the Hedge Maid’s lair was located in the swamp, so she didn’t know where to look for her sister.”

Kahlan scratched an eyebrow. “What of it?”

“You found the way into Jit’s. That boy, Henrik, found his way in. People hoping to be healed found their way in. We found the trail made of branches and vines. It’s the only way into the Hedge Maid’s lair. None of us has ever been in the Dark Lands before and we found it. Stroyza is the nearest village to Kharga Trace. How could Irena not know where Jit’s lair was, or about the trail across the swamp?”

Kahlan frowned. “I don’t know, Nicci. That does seem a bit strange, but then her people very well might stay close to their cave. The Dark Lands are dangerous. Samantha said that she had never really been anywhere until she we

nt with Richard.

“Do you really think it’s all that important? Is that reason enough not to trust her?”

Nicci stopped and gave Kahlan a cold glare. “The woman is in love with Richard.”

“So are you.”

Had it been any more light than just the moon through the cloud cover and the distant campfire, Kahlan was sure that she would have seen Nicci’s face go scarlet.

She went back to pacing for a bit before she spoke again.

“I don’t know how to answer to that, Kahlan. You know the entire situation better than anyone, except, I guess, for Richard. A lot of people love Richard, and in a lot of different ways. No one loves him the way you do. Richard loves no woman but you—in that way. You know what I mean.”

Kahlan didn’t answer.

Nicci flicked her hand in annoyance. “Samantha is in love with Richard as well.”

“I know that,” Kahlan said.

Nicci stopped her pacing again and faced Kahlan. “But Samantha is an innocent young woman, and she is merely infatuated with a handsome, strong, wise, older man. It’s innocent enough. Still, I don’t trust her temper.”

“It may be much the same with Irena, then,” Kahlan offered. “Just an innocent infatuation.”

“Really?” Nicci paused in her pacing to give Kahlan a look. “The woman’s husband was murdered not that long ago—eaten alive before her eyes. She seems to have gotten over it pretty quickly.”

“We can’t know that, Nicci. We don’t know if she cries herself to sleep.”

“I suppose,” Nicci grumbled. She shook her head. “But there is something about Irena that seems off. She tries to get close to Richard in a way I don’t like. She is always putting her hands on him, touching him, fawning over him, keeping herself in his focus, trying to monopolize his attention.” She growled in frustration. “I don’t know how to explain it.”

“It gives you a knot in your stomach when you see her touching Richard,” Kahlan said.

Nicci stopped and pointed a finger at Kahlan. “Yes! That’s it.”