“Maybe your disagreeable attitude will improve, then, when only I can help you. Maybe then, when only I can offer you your final release, you will be more respectful of those who are smarter and better than you.”
Kahlan glared openly. “You are a pathetic freak of nature.”
Richard knew by the look in her eyes that if she had suffered a moment of weakness, and wanted to leave the world to fend for itself, that moment was past. In that moment, he saw that there was no way she was going to quit. She wanted nothing more than to fight.
Richard saw a look of raw hatred in Dreier’s eyes, a hatred fueled by rage at anything good and wholesome, a hatred that wanted only to destroy for the sake of destroying.
“If you only knew what I have in store for you.…”
“Enjoy the deluded dream,” Kahlan said with calm authority only the Mother Confessor could invoke, “because I am going to kill you.”
Ludwig Dreier straightened with an angry glare.
“Would you like me to begin on her now?” Erika asked.
He considered but finally waved a hand. “No, it’s been a long day, making plans, and standing behind that sheet while we waited for them to arrive.”
He turned a smile on Richard. “You see, Lord Rahl, the value of prophecy? I value and respect prophecy. Knowing prophecy, understanding it, knowing how to use it put you there, in chains, and me about to retire to a nice, comfortable bed with agreeable company to bring me pleasures and delights.”
He turned back from the doorway. “Enjoy your night, all. Tomorrow we begin. Come along Erika. Oh, and take the torches. They have no need of light. Let them be in the dark. After all, they have been the whole time up until now.”
The Mord-Sith pulled both torches out of the brackets and took them, giving Richard and Kahlan one last, icy look. The door slammed shut, leaving the four of them suddenly alone in the pitch-black cell. He heard the key turn in the rusty lock. The bolt finally clanged into place.
“Kahlan,” he whispered, “no matter what is to come, just remember that I love you. He can’t ever take that away.”
That, Richard thought, was why the man hated them so passionately. People like him hated that others could value such simple happiness in life. That was what they wanted most to destroy.
“I know, Richard. I love you, too.”
“Don’t worry,” Nicci said. “We’re going to get out of here.”
“What makes you think so?” Richard asked.
“We have to,” she said with simple conviction. “The Mother Confessor has vowed to kill him, and I believe her.”
“That’s the toasted toad’s truth,” Kahlan said in the darkness.
Despite everything, Richard smiled.
CHAPTER
77
Several hours after Ludwig Dreier and Erika had left, Richard heard people out in the hall talking in low, muffled voices. He lifted his head and looked off across the room, even though in the pitch black he couldn’t see anything at all. The blackness was oppressive, making him feel blind, making him feel that he was sinking into the darkness within him.
“Do you hear that?” Kahlan whispered.
“I hear it,” Samantha whispered back. “It’s someone talking.”
“It sounds like a woman’s voice,” Richard said as he tried to make out the words, but couldn’t.
“Probably that Mord-Sith, Erika,” Nicci said, “come to give us a good-night kiss with her Agiel.”
Richard didn’t know how long they had been unconscious while being hung up in the chains pinned to the stone wall, but he was pretty sure it was still a long way from morning, so he didn’t think that it was Ludwig Dreier returning this soon.
But knowing Mord-Sith the way he did, it wouldn’t surprise Richard one bit if Nicci was right.
He heard a key turning the rusty lock until the bolt clanged back. The sound echoed around in the darkness, dying out after a long moment. The iron door squealed in protest as it was finally pulled open, the sound echoing in the stone dungeon.
Richard squinted in the bright shafts of flickering torchlight suddenly thrown into the room through the open door. After being in total darkness for so long, the light seemed impossibly bright. After a moment, his eyes began to adjust.
Still squinting, he saw three figures enter. They brought two torches. He was surprised to see that it was three Mord-Sith, all in black leather. A fourth person remained back in the darkness of the stone corridor just outside the doorway.
The Mord-Sith placed the pair of torches in the iron wall brackets. Three Mord-Sith were more than enough to handle four helpless prisoners. Richard couldn’t stand the thought of Samantha or Nicci being hurt by those women, but the thought of Kahlan being hurt by them caused his anger to ignite yet again.