Severed Souls(176)

Nicci took a deep breath, then. “Yes, of course we can. You’re right. We have to try.”





CHAPTER

89

Kahlan and Nicci were standing beside the bed, waiting, when there was at last a knock on the door. Without waiting for an answer, Cassia opened the door and stuck her head in.

“Mother Confessor, we have him.”

Kahlan gestured impatiently. “Bring him in.”

She put on her Confessor face, the expression her mother had taught her, the countenance that showed nothing of what she felt. She was dying inside, terrified and in agony inside, but none of it showed on her face.

She was again the Mother Confessor.

The doors opened and the three Mord-Sith led Ludwig Dreier in. They gave him a last, rough shove so that he stumbled into the room. He wore filthy, old groundskeeper clothes they had found for him. He missed a step, balking when he saw what was waiting for him in the room.

Commander Fister stood near the foot of the bed, behind Kahlan and Nicci. The room was ringed with over a dozen archers, all with arrows nocked, holding them in place, the strings with tension on them but not yet drawn fully tight. There were also men with swords out, as well as men with axes in hand, and others with pikes. It was the archers, though, that Kahlan could tell worried Dreier the most.

When he had rendered them all unconscious with his occult ability, they had not had time to do much about it. A man with a sword, no matter how swift, still took a brief bit of time to reach his target.

But an arrow could be released in an instant.

“Well, well, Mother Confessor,” Dreier said as he straightened, “it seems you have me at a disadvantage.”

“I’m glad that you recognize the reality of the situation.”

He looked around at the room. “I know you said you intended to kill me, but this seems an odd place for an execution.”

Kahlan stepped aside so he could see Richard’s body on the bed. He frowned when he realized who it was.

“Is he actually dead?” he asked, his astonishment overcoming his fear.

“I stopped his heart,” Nicci said.

His frown deepened. “Not that I object, but why would you do that?”

“Here’s the thing,” Kahlan said. “We want you to do something to keep him alive for now.”

He scratched an eyebrow. “What?”

“Use your occult abilities to keep him alive,” she said.

He stared at her a long moment, looked over at Richard, and then back at Kahlan. “He’s dead. You must realize that. I can see from here that he’s dead.”

“We know his condition,” Nicci said. “It was necessary to stop his heart, but I don’t have the ability to restart it. We need you to do that.”

His frown grew even more incredulous. “He is dead.”

“We didn’t bring you up here to tell us what we already know,” Nicci said, heat increasingly coming into her tone. “If you want, we can take you back down to your cell, chain you back up, lock the door, and throw away the key. Or, maybe we can have these three fine young ladies convince you of the benefits of not being tortured by a Mord-Sith.”

Cassia briefly jammed her Agiel into the small of his back. He grunted with a cry of pain as he dropped to one knee. She motioned with her Agiel in front of his face for him to get up.

He stared at the weapon with open fear as he rose. “What is it, exactly, that you want me to do for the corpse of Richard Rahl?”

Kahlan hated the way he was referring to Richard, but she maintained the Confessor face. She had more important matters on her mind. She needed to stay focused, despite her inner anguish.

“We know that occult powers can do some remarkable things with creating the likes of half people and reanimating the dead, but beyond that, we don’t know if you can do anything that would convince us not to have you tortured to death. So, you tell us. What can you do to keep him alive.”

He tilted his head to look past them. “May I get a closer look?”

Kahlan nodded and the Mord-Sith walked him closer to the bed. He reached out and touched Richard’s face, then his neck.

“What’s in it for me?” he asked as he looked back.

“Depends on what service you can provide,” Kahlan said.

“Well, I can’t really be of any use to you at all with this collar around my neck. It prevents my ability from functioning.”

“If we take the collar off, what can you do? You don’t need it off to tell us.”

He checked the resolve in her eyes before again studying Richard more closely from the side of the bed.

“Well, not a lot. I may be talented, and may have a great many skills, but I can’t revive the dead.”