Severed Souls(164)

Dreier was now their only remaining hope.

As he and Kahlan followed Cassia through the complex of halls on the way to the bedroom, Richard tried to think of some other solution, some other chance, some other way for them to escape the grip of the poison, but he could think of nothing.

Irena, rushing up one of the side hallways, spotted them out ahead and called out Richard’s name. When Richard turned and saw her back down the hall, she hurried all the more to rush around the corner and catch up with them.

Richard knew that the woman was always trying to find a way to place herself close to him. He saw the looks Kahlan gave the woman when she giggled and fawned over him. Richard disliked it even more than Kahlan, but he wasn’t exactly sure what to do about it. He didn’t want to be rude, but more than that, she was Samantha’s mother, after all. He figured that the least he could do was to be polite.

“Richard! There you are,” Irena called out, lifting a hand to keep his attention. “I’ve finally been freed from that terrible place down below. It was awful! I thought I would never get out of there. I was so relieved to hear that you escaped as well. Are you all right? Were you hurt? Is there anything I can do to help?”

Richard and Kahlan shared a look of silent resignation. Cassia stopped between two reflector lamps a short distance farther up the corridor, waiting for them to speak to Irena.

“We’re fine,” Richard said without elaborating.

As Irena cut around the intersection, rushing toward them, her hip bumped the edge of a table she hadn’t seen against the wall just around the corner. When her hip hit the table, something dark fell out of her dress and dropped onto the gold and blue carpet. She cursed the table under her breath for being in her way as she snatched up the skirts of her dress in order to hurry to catch up with them.

She didn’t notice that something had fallen out of her dress.

“Nicci told me that she told you to get some rest for now,” Irena said. “You need to rest, Richard.”

“That’s where we’re headed right now,” Kahlan said, hoping to get the woman to go away.

Instead of getting the hint, Irena gestured with a flick of her hand. “I told the soldiers to take up their posts back there, and that I would watch over you and Kahlan to make sure that you rested in peace. I told them to set up stations a good distance back up the halls to keep anyone from bothering you. It’s important that you not be disturbed for now, and you know how noisy they can be.”

Richard was about to tell her that he, and not she, would be the one to give orders to the men and that she had no business making such presumptions, when he was stopped in his tracks by what he saw lying on the gold and blue carpet.

The small dark thing that had fallen out of her dress was a journey book.

He froze for an instant, his gaze locked on it.

Before she could notice him looking at the journey book lying on the floor behind her, Richard put a hand on Irena’s back and guided her forward toward Kahlan. “Good, Irena, we would be thankful for your help. In fact, Kahlan was just saying that she wanted to ask you about something you could do for me, and, well, here you are.”

He shot Kahlan a look over the top of Irena’s head. Kahlan, knowing him as well as she did, got the message and said, “Yes, I was wondering … if you could help us.”

Irena twined her fingers together as she gazed expectantly at Kahlan. “With what? What kind of help do you need?”

While she was focused on Kahlan, Richard slipped unnoticed behind her and snatched the journey book off the carpet. He held it up high behind Irena’s back to show Kahlan what it was, then rolled his hand, letting her know that he needed her to keep Irena’s attention. Kahlan understood.

He turned his back in case Irena should happen to look around behind her. The journey book was filled with page after page of writing. He was sure that this was the twin to the one they had taken out of Dreier’s robes, but that didn’t make a lot of sense. Why would Irena have the twin to his?

He had to find confirmation, one way or another. It was possible that this one had an entirely different twin. There could be a perfectly logical explanation as to what she was doing with a journey book and why she had kept it a secret from them.

“Well,” Kahlan said in a drawl to drag it out longer, “we were hoping you could help with Richard’s headaches. Nicci is busy at the moment and I was hoping you could come to our room with us and see if you might be able to do something for him—you know, with your gift. Put your hands on him and do some small healing to ease his pain and help him sleep, something like that. You are so talented that I thought if anyone could do it, it would be you.”