Severed Souls(170)

“That means that right now, in that place, Kahlan has the call of life still in her. She carries both worlds until the spark of life still attached to her soul extinguishes in that dark place.

“I have to go get her before that happens. I’m dead anyway. This poison is killing me.”

“But we may be able to get Ludwig Dreier to show us how to heal you.”

“Only after I bring Kahlan back. Then you can heal us. But before we try to heal that touch of death, I need to use it.”

“Richard, it isn’t so simple as you—”

“Nicci, you were a Sister of the Dark. You know that there is more to it all than most people can begin to understand. You must stop my heart and send me beyond the veil. You must.”

Nicci shook her head. “No. Richard, I can’t do that.” Tears started coursing down her face. “I can’t do that to you. I can’t. Please, don’t ask such a thing of me.”

Richard gripped her shoulders and made her look back at him. “I am asking it.”

She started sobbing in earnest. “I can’t, Richard.”

“Would you die for me?” he asked.

Surprised by the question, she looked up into his eyes. “Yes.”

“Then you understand that sometimes those we love are worth dying for. If you care about me, if you love me, you will grant me this.”

“Richard, it just won’t work,” Nicci sobbed. “She’s gone. You can’t change that. It would be for nothing.”

“Don’t you see? If I can’t bring her spirit back, then I want to be with her. Please, Nicci, don’t deny me this. Kahlan needs me right now. She needs what only I can do. There is no one else with the kind of chance I have. I have to do it now, before it’s too late. Let me go. Let me be with her.

“Don’t hold me a captive in the world of life when you have the power to send me beyond the veil. Don’t make me do it myself and damage my body so that I don’t have a chance to return. You have to do it now, while the spark of life is still in her soul and before her spirit travels too far into that darkness for me to find her. Every second counts. Every second allows Kahlan’s soul to slip farther and farther away into the depths of the underworld where the winged demons wait for her.”

Nicci shook as she sobbed, hardly able to look at him through the tears. “They are waiting for you, too.”

Richard drew his sword. If he had to, he could do it himself with the sword. If he had to, he would.

“I have my sword.”

“Are you crazy?” she asked in fury through her tears. “The sword is of this world. It can’t cross over with you.”

With the hilt in his hand, his anger had been ignited. It powered him, gave him strength to do what he needed to do.

“Its anger will. The blade is bonded to me. That bond will cross over with me, even if the blade itself won’t.”

Richard lay down on the bed beside Kahlan’s still, lifeless form. He had never imagined that he would lie next to her when she was dead. He had to partition his mind to be able to function, to be able to think at all, or the grief would claim him and then he had no chance.

He laid the blade of the sword down the length of his body, holding the hilt over his heart, feeling the word “TRUTH” pressing into his palm as Nicci stood beside the bed crying.

Only the rage of the sword kept him from losing control and screaming in agonizing grief.

“Hurry, Nicci. It must be now.”

Her teeth gritted, her hands fisted, she leaned closer. “Richard, I don’t want to lose you. We can’t lose you. We all need you.”

“Why do you need me?” he asked, looking up into her wet, blue eyes.

“Because you are the one. You always have been. You always know what to do to save us. You always do the right thing.”

“That’s what I’m doing, now.” He smiled. “You know that you are far more than special to me. You have saved my life more times and in more ways than I can count.

“Now, you must take it.”

“How can I?” she asked.

“It’s all right, Nicci. This is what I want.”

As he stared into her eyes, as she wept nearly uncontrollably, she leaned over, her long blond hair falling forward over her shoulders as she placed her hands to either side of the hilt of the sword over his heart.

Richard didn’t tell Nicci that while he thought he had a chance to return Kahlan’s spirit to her body in the world of life, he knew that he had no chance to return.

There could be no one with both life and death in them, no one with the knowledge and experience of having been to the underworld, who could come after him.