Severed Souls(32)

Zedd’s bushy brows drew tight as he, too, stole a quick glance around at the frantic activity of men preparing to do battle. He looked back down at Richard.

“Samantha? Richard, this is too serious. She is little more than a child. Without the right help—”

The breathless young woman rushed in, then, sliding to a halt on her knees. “I’m here, Lord Rahl.” She gulped air as she gathered up one of his hands in both of hers and held it tightly to her. “I’m here.”

“Listen, Samantha,” Richard said, “you helped give me strength to hold it off before—fight off the sickness. Remember?”

In the firelight Kahlan could see the tears welling up in the young sorceress’s eyes. She was on the verge of panic.

“What? You want me to do this? Lord Rahl, there are people here much better able to help you than me.”

“After we came across that man in the woods, before we made it to the north wall. I grew weak and you helped me. You gave me strength. Remember?”

Samantha nodded as if her life depended on it. “Sure, I remember.”

“I need you to do that again,” he told her. He opened his eyes to look up at the others. “While she helps me, the rest of you need to keep the Shun-tuk from overrunning the camp and killing us all. You need to buy us a little time.”

“It’s that unholy half person who did this,” Irena said. “I told you that he had occult powers and Richard should not go near him, but you wouldn’t listen. Now look what has happened!

“I know a lot more about healing than Samantha. I should be able to do something to help. Get back and let me see if I can do something to help.”

She immediately pushed in beside Zedd and pressed the palm of her hand over Richard’s forehead.

Before Kahlan could say anything, or Nicci had a chance to remove the woman’s hand from Richard, Irena yelped and jerked her hand back on her own.

“Dear spirits. Richard, I had no idea … We can’t heal such a thing.”

Concerned more with Richard and the erupting battle than wasting time lecturing the woman, Nicci didn’t say anything, but she did give Kahlan a look that betrayed her smoldering anger. The look in those blue eyes said it all to Kahlan.

Kahlan thought that Irena would be wise to be more respectful of Nicci. The seductively beautiful sorceress might have looked young and less experienced than Irena, but she was a former Sister of the Dark and as such possessed not only a wizard’s power, but the accumulated power of the gift from others she had killed.

Irena had no conception of where life had taken Nicci, or what she was capable of. Considering how far she had been to the dark side of life, and the journey back, to say nothing of all she had done for them, including all the times she had saved Richard when no other living person had the ability or knowledge to succeed at it, they could have no better friend and ally.

“That’s not what I need,” Richard insisted. His impatience with them was evident. Kahlan was beginning to suspect that he had something in mind, something bigger than the rest of them realized.

She could clearly see that the sickness was keeping him from explaining himself the way he would have liked and that was adding to his frustration. It was taking most of his effort simply to remain conscious, and more yet to speak even the small amount he had spoken. He wanted them to follow orders without having to explain it to them.

Off behind her, Kahlan could hear the sounds of the first of the Shun-tuk slamming into the defensive line. Men of the First File bellowing in rage as they slaughtered the first of the enemy and drove others back. Some of the half people screamed as they fell. Off in the darkness, Kahlan could hear the sounds of swords and axes slashing into people and the cries of pain as maces broke bones.

“Do as he says,” Nicci growled as she seized a fistful of Irena’s dress at the shoulder and hauled the woman up and out of the way. “Let Samantha deal with it.”

Nicci apparently realized that there was some purpose in Richard’s insistence. Nicci knew enough not to question Richard when there was no time for it.

“But, but, I know nothing about fighting,” Irena said. She looked on the verge of lapsing into a daze at what was happening.

Kahlan felt a pang of sorrow for the woman. She had, after all, seen the Shun-tuk eat her husband alive before she had been taken away to captivity herself to await the same fate. The idea of being overrun by the same bloodthirsty half people had her nearly paralyzed with fright.

“I understand,” Nicci said with surprising compassion to the hesitating Irena. “But we have to help keep the half people back. We need everyone helping, including you. Your daughter’s life depends on all of us helping in this.”