Reading Online Novel

Severed Souls(106)



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 went 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.”

“Me too,” Kahlan said.





CHAPTER

50

Nicci was caught off guard. “You don’t trust Irena, either?”

Kahlan showed the woman a small smile. “Nicci, I don’t trust most people where Richard is concerned. I want him all to myself. But I know that he belongs to everyone, in a way, and I have to tolerate certain things.”

“Like me?”

Kahlan was a long time answering. “Nicci, at one time I wanted nothing more desperately than to kill you—over and over in every imaginable horrible manner. I wanted to scream at you as I killed you a hundred times over.

“After all, you had been a Sister of the Dark. You were also a devoted, dedicated believer in the ways of the Imperial Order and Emperor Jagang, whose forces were slaughtering my people and trying to destroy our way of life.

“But worse, you took Richard captive and took him away from me, away from everyone who needed him … for a very long time.

“I hated you.

“But Richard understood how the Imperial Order had controlled and conditioned you from a very young age. Despite that indoctrination, Richard saw something worthwhile deep down inside you. He saw that you were different, and that while you were disciplined in their ways, you were not blind. He only needed a way to encourage you to see again.

“Richard believed in you, believed in your intellect, believed that you had the spark of spirit that could see things for yourself, that you had the capacity to see the truth. Over time, as you came to know him and understand him, you finally began to think through the reasons behind your loyalties. You used your head to try to reason out the why of things and in so doing you discovered the truth for yourself.

“In that instant, when reason won out over the blind faith you had been taught, you changed. You came to embrace life instead of death. You had the courage to see your own failings. You had the courage to see the harm you had done and the inner character to want to set it right.

“You have fought on our side since then and you’ve proven yourself to me a thousand times over. You have saved both our lives on any number of occasions. You have helped bring truth to others.

“I came to understand how you were in fact also a victim of the same depraved ideology we were fighting. In a way, the Imperial Order had crushed you the same way it wanted to crush us. Because of what you did to lift yourself out of the darkness you were in, I was able to come to appreciate you for the woman you really were, underneath the things you did because of the corrupt doctrine you had been taught. I came to see your inner strength and the courage it took to face reality and step out of your darkness and into the light.