Irena touched her fingers to her neck, cooing with satisfaction at the flattery. “I would love to.”
Irena droned on, asking Kahlan specific questions about the nature of his pain. Richard didn’t even hear what Kahlan was saying to the woman as he focused on reading the messages back and forth between the journey book Irena had and its twin.
A sudden, icy sensation flashed through him when he saw what he had been looking for.
His heart hammered over what he was seeing in the journey book.
Irena had been communicating with Ludwig Dreier all along.
CHAPTER
82
The book was filled with messages. She hadn’t erased any of them. All the messages back and forth for more than a year were still there.
There were messages from Ludwig Dreier telling Irena the specifics of what he wanted her to do for him, along with promises of rewards for her loyalty and service to him. There was even a message Dreier had written from the People’s Palace, telling her about the wedding of a Mord-Sith that he was attending. By the conversational tone of the messages and comments going back and forth, it was easy to see that the two were like-minded and quite at ease with each other.
Richard quickly came to see that Irena’s handwriting was neater and more legible than Dreier’s. He spotted an account where she told Dreier that she had let herself be captured by Hannis Arc so that she would be closer to him in order to report on what he was doing to raise the spirit king from the dead.
She recounted to Dreier how Richard had “rescued” her and the things he had done to escape with them from the caves and how he had been able to defeat the half people holding his friends prisoner. She had subsequently used the opportunity to join and travel with Richard and Kahlan’s group.
Ludwig Dreier in turn advised her on how she should react and behave, and the things he wanted her to find out. He told her to be especially careful not to let anyone know of her occult abilities.
Irena had been right under their noses the whole time, watching and reporting everything they were doing to fight and escape the half people coming after them.
Irena had been a traitor the entire time.
There was far too much in the journey book to read it all right then. With the way his heart pounded at the betrayal and his mind raced trying to piece together all that had been compromised, Richard was having trouble focusing enough to read. He flipped over a few more pages, skipping ahead, and spotted the passage where she told Dreier that Richard and Kahlan needed a containment field in order to be healed.
She told him that she recognized it as an opportunity to finally offer an excuse to get them to the citadel, where Dreier would be able to capture them.
Richard trembled in shock as he read Dreier’s message back, telling Irena how pleased he was that she had found a way to convince them to come to the citadel. He described where he wanted her to say the containment field was located within the citadel, and how to get down there, in order to get them to a place where he could take them by surprise.
She reported to him their progress along the way, keeping him abreast of when they thought they would arrive at the citadel.
Richard felt shame and rage that he had been so completely fooled by her story.
When he quickly flipped back to the beginning, as he suspected, he spotted Irena’s report to Dreier that she had killed her sister Martha and Martha’s husband when they had gone to see if the reports about Jit were true. She had then dumped their bodies in the swamp. She and Dreier discussed how they couldn’t risk any of the gifted in Stroyza learning that the barrier was failing. Dreier said he would send soldiers to collect her other sister, Millicent, and her husband, Gyles, and take them to the abbey to make sure they couldn’t interfere, either.
Richard could hardly believe she had killed her own sisters and their husbands, and was shocked to see Irena’s report that her husband had started asking too many questions, so when an opportunity presented itself, she had killed him. The casual manner in which she reported killing her husband was shocking.
Dreier told her that if her daughter ever became suspicious, Irena would need to eliminate her as well. Richard was horrified to see Irena’s reply that once Richard and the others were taken prisoner at the citadel, he was welcome to take care of Samantha if he wished so that she would cease to be a potential problem.
And then he saw it.
The passage read, “The old wizard was getting suspicious. Tonight I cast a concealing spell to make it appear I was in my bedroll so that I could go off to report to you. He somehow followed me and caught me writing in my journey book. Fortunately, he thought me merely a sorceress and was unaware of the occult side of my abilities. When he used his gift to try to restrain me and take my journey book, I was happy to finally have the opportunity and I beheaded the troublesome old man. He will no longer be a problem.”