In that brief instant, she weighed his words, the risks, and made her decision.
Kahlan gave him a single nod. “Done. You do what you said to keep Richard’s body viable, and we will let you go.”
Nicci took hold of Kahlan’s arm. “Mother Confessor, I don’t think that’s such a good idea. What he is proposing to do, when it comes right down to it, is of virtually no value. And for that we would be giving him his freedom? So that he could plot his revenge? So that he could use those occult powers against us on another day? If he could start Richard’s heart, maybe, but just to keep him the way he is…?”
Kahlan stared at Dreier for a long time. It was his occult powers she was considering. Finally, she turned and paced to the bed. The big men all around the room looked grim and despondent. They had lost their Lord Rahl. It was unthinkable. What was to become of them all without Richard?
“When I was young,” Kahlan said, “there was a boy I knew of who lived there in Aydindril. One day, in late winter, he fell through the ice on a lake. He was under the ice for hours before they were able to get his body out. He was dead, of course—drowned under the ice. They wrapped him up, preparing to bury him, when he revived.
“I don’t know much about such things, but I saw it with my own eyes. Who are we to say when the soul has actually crossed over for good, when that veil has closed? If there is a way to keep Richard on ice, so to speak, to give him a chance to return back through that veil, then I want to take it.”
Nicci regarded her with an understanding look. “If you say so, then I agree.”
Kahlan gave the signal. All around the room, the archers drew back their bowstrings.
“Take off his collar,” she said to the scribe standing quietly back against the wall.
Mohler shuffled forward with his keys.
“You make one wrong twitch,” Kahlan told Dreier as Mohler unlocked the collar, “and you will have a dozen arrows through you from every which way.”
He nodded. “And do I have your word as the Mother Confessor that if I do this, you will let me go?”
Kahlan glanced at the sorceress a moment, then to Dreier.
“You have my word as the Mother Confessor. If you keep your end, we will let you go.”
In unison, the archers tracked Dreier’s every step. He kept a wary eye on them as he went to the bed where Richard lay.
He gestured over the body. “Can you remove that sword, please? It interferes with what I have to do.”
Kahlan lifted the weapon and slid it back into the scabbard at Richard’s hip. Being that close again, touching his cold flesh, seeing him that still, almost made her panic, almost made her lose control of her Confessor’s face.
Kahlan finally stepped back. “All right, go ahead.”
They all watched as Dreier wasted no time in laying his hands on Richard’s chest. He closed his eyes a moment, then placed one hand on Richard’s forehead. The air in the room began to hum. The sound built until the glass in the window rattled. A momentary glow came to Richard’s body as the room darkened.
Dreier lifted his hands back.
“It is done.”
Kahlan stood by the bed and stared at Richard for a moment. “I don’t see anything different.”
“I told you, the man is dead. Nothing is going to change that.” He gestured in frustration at Richard. “I did what I told you I would do. He will be preserved for now. He will not go stiff in death and decompose. He will stay as he was when alive. You will be able to tell for yourself when in a short time he does not get stiff as the dead always do.”
Kahlan went to the window set back in the thick stone wall, looking out at the dawn of the gray day. She put a hand over her stomach. She felt like she might be sick. She leaned under the arch and opened the window to get some fresh air on her face.
She had never thought she would see another day. Now, she didn’t care if she did.
“You may go,” she said without looking back over her shoulder to Dreier. “Commander, see that he has safe passage out of the citadel. I want him out of here, and I want him out now.”
As they all watched and waited on her, Kahlan took a breath to steady her voice.
“But I gave my word as the Mother Confessor. Don’t you or any of your men do anything to break my word. Get him out of the citadel and let him go. Do it at once.”
CHAPTER
90
Commander Fister reluctantly clapped a fist to his heart. “Of course, Mother Confessor.”
He gestured to his sergeant. “Take some of the archers and see to getting him out.”
Kahlan didn’t look back. “Laurin, Vale, please go with them to make sure the abbot is promptly sent out and on his way.”