Severed Souls(138)

“It is a tradition of my kind to paint our lips black in mourning when we see the death of someone we care about. My lips are painted black today for you, Mother Confessor.

“I understand what this means for you, but you need to put your precious life into the context of what is going to happen to everyone else. This is bigger than you alone. You will never have another life, but neither will any of the other innocent people everywhere whose lives will be snuffed out. You need to put all that into perspective.

“Without Richard, they all die. Without you saving his life by killing Nicci, they all die. You have killed before to save the lives of those you care about. This is one of those times. The fate of everyone is in your hands, Mother Confessor.

“There is still a chance for Richard to live, but there is no chance to change what is going to happen to you.

“Only you can save the life of the man you love. If you care about him, about how precious his life is to you, if you care about the lives of everyone else, then you must kill Nicci.”

Kahlan felt as if the world was collapsing in on her. All her hopes and dreams were ashes.

All she had wanted was to ask if they could go on through the mountain pass.

She remembered what Zedd had told her once, that a witch woman never told you what you wanted to know without also telling you something that you did not want to know.





CHAPTER

69

Richard was at a loss. He had been following a good dozen paces behind Kahlan for over an hour after they had cleared the pass, and there was no improvement in her mood.

After they had been summoned by the blindfolded woman who said that the oracle had granted them safe passage, she led them through the pass without ever seeing the oracle. Richard had stopped the blindfolded woman back in the pass and asked to see the oracle. The oracle, the blindfolded woman had told them, had seen one of their party and she would see no more. She also said that the oracle had warned that if they wished to pass, they had to go right then or not at all.

Kahlan had not said a word the entire time about her meeting with the oracle. In fact, she hadn’t spoken to Richard about anything, not one word, since meeting up with them as they came through the pass. She had, however, taken up a lead position ahead of Richard, Nicci, Irena, and Samantha in their march and it was clear that she wished to be alone. Richard wasn’t used to that attitude from her, and it alarmed him in the extreme, but it seemed clear enough, so he hadn’t violated that wish.

What made it worse, though, was that she wouldn’t even look at him.

The entire time tears had slowly run down her face, despite how deeply her brow furrowed as she tried not to let them escape.

Richard didn’t know if he had done something wrong, although he couldn’t imagine what, but even if he had, he would never have thought that Kahlan would not want to speak to him. Even on those occasions when he had done something to upset her, she had at least been willing to talk to him about it, to tell him what was upsetting her. Whatever was troubling her this time, he would have thought that she would want to talk to him about it.

He was beside himself with worry for her. Although he couldn’t entirely shake the worry that he had done something wrong, he assumed that it had to be that the oracle had given Kahlan a prophecy that upset her. For some reason, that prophecy had gotten to her.

Kahlan knew better than to believe prophecy.

But that didn’t mean that this oracle couldn’t have said something that had been a dagger through her heart, and for some reason Kahlan was taking it seriously.

“What do you think?” he whispered to Nicci. “Should we try to talk to her?”

Nicci glanced over at him. “I think I know enough not to poke a hornet’s nest. My advice is to leave her be for now. Whatever it is, she will get over it or tell you when she is good and ready to tell you. Until then, leave her be.”

Samantha stuck her head between Richard and Nicci. “What do you think could be wrong?” she whispered.

“We don’t know,” Nicci told the young woman. “But a wise sorceress, or wizard, knows when to stay away from a person who wants room to think things through.” Nicci glanced down at Samantha. “It’s a lesson you need to learn.”

“Sorry,” Samantha whispered as she pulled her head back.

“She probably just doesn’t feel well,” Richard told Samantha, wanting to soften the sting of Nicci’s words. “The poison we both carry in us is as exhausting as it is frightening. It gets me down at times, too.”

Samantha nodded. “I know, Lord Rahl. I’ve felt it in you both. I know how frightening it is.”

He remembered how terrified Samantha had been when she had first encountered that touch of death in them. “I guess you do.”