“Breathe!” he yelled in her ear.
He knew from experience that the sliph would be telling her the same thing, but in her mind, much the same way the Glee had talked to them. She didn’t respond.
He put his mouth closer to her ear. “Vika! Breathe! I need you! Do it for me!”
She abruptly opened her eyes wide and exhaled the silver fluid as if she had just been surprised awake. She gasped a deep lungful of air and immediately winced in pain. The first few breaths after breathing the sliph were painful, not just physically but also mentally, because all your mind wanted was to stay in the velvety silver dreamworld.
She coughed, spitting up a little blood. In her mind, he knew, she didn’t want to breathe air again and at first had to force herself to do it. The quicksilver-like fluid of the sliph was an otherworldly, spectacular experience unlike any other. It was a release from the bounds of the world of life, a sensation of free-floating, flying, and drifting all at once. It was in a way like being with a good spirit in a different kind of existence, where the concerns of the world no longer mattered. Once in the sliph, breathing her silver fluid, you never wanted it to end.
Except this time Richard had been eager for it to end.
Richard threw a leg up and over the side of the stone well. He pulled Vika up, helping her to get her arms up and over the wall. She was still limp.
“Breathe, Vika.”
“I’m breathing,” she complained.
The silver fluid in the well swelled up in the center, pulling upward until it formed into a beautiful, shiny, reflective face.
“Were you pleased, Master?”
“Yes,” Richard said. “Very pleased.”
“I know how painful death was for you, but I am glad that your sword now knows death as well so you can take it with you when we travel again.”
“It is always a pleasure to be with you.”
“Then come. I can take you many places. Where would you like to go? You will be pleased.”
“I would like that very much. But I have some business right now. Maybe later.”
“When?”
“I’m not sure yet. But really, it was wonderful. I was pleased.”
The silver face smiled. “I am glad, Master.” A bit of a silver frown formed. “You are sure you were pleased?”
“Yes,” Richard said, nodding, as he hauled Vika’s upper body over the edge. As she finally got a leg over, he helped her down to the ground. “Very pleased. You may go back now and be with your soul. I will call on you again just as soon as I wish to travel.”
“Thank you, Master, for traveling with me. I enjoyed it. When you wish to travel again, I will be waiting for your call.”
With that, the silver face melted down into her churning silver waters. The reflective fluid began sinking down inside the well. Richard looked over the edge to see the choppy surface receding at an ever-increasing speed until in a blink it was gone down into the darkness.
When he looked back, Vika had her fists on her hips. “That was just plain weird.”
“I know, traveling in the sliph is a strange experience.”
“No, I mean that conversation was weird. Why were you talking to that thing like that?”
Richard waved off the question. “It’s a long story. Come on. Let’s go.”
They raced out of the sliph’s room and along the railing around the pit with the dark rock sitting in the center of dark water. Their sudden appearance caused small creatures on the rock to leap into the surrounding water.
The lower reaches of the Keep were dark and gloomy. Occasionally there was a long shaft that reached to the outside to let in light and fresh air.
Richard took them the shortest way he knew to get to the massive lower chamber that was kind of like a central hub. From there, one could go to any number of different places and levels in the Keep. The chamber was so long that he couldn’t recognize a person’s face from one end to the other. It wasn’t nearly so wide, but it was immensely tall. Up near the top there were long openings that let the Keep breathe, changing the air down deep in the place and letting it flow through the halls. It also let birds and bats come and go. Both came for the bugs.
It was a long climb from the lower Keep. They went up both narrow, dark stone stairs and more elaborate staircases. Together they raced down passageways and through elaborately decorated rooms.
Higher up in the Keep, when they finally rushed around a corner, Richard heard voices. He looked down a broad hall to see two women standing at a window, looking out and talking.
Richard trotted down the hall with Vika at his side. He slowed to a breathless stop near the women. Both stared with wide eyes as he and Vika caught their breath.
“Sister Phaedra, right?” he finally asked.
She curtsied. “Lord Rahl, it has been a very long time. I am surprised you remember me.”
Both women stared at the red leather. “This is Vika,” he told them as he held a hand toward her in introduction.
The Sister likewise lifted a hand out to the side. “This is Jana, one of the women from down in the city who come up here to help out at the Keep.”
Richard offered her a quick tip of his head in greeting.
She blushed, and then performed a shaky curtsy, too intimidated by the Lord Rahl to speak. It was something that he’d gotten somewhat used to. He didn’t have the time to talk her out of her mute fright.
“Where’s Kahlan?” he asked the Sister. “She is—was—pregnant. Did she have the babies yet? Is she all right? Where is she?”
The woman blinked at the burst of questions. She turned to the window and pointed out.
“She went down there. She said she wanted to have her children where she was born.”
“She went down to the Confessors’ Palace?”
Richard was astonished that she would take that risk before knowing that she would be safe from the Glee.
“That’s right,” Sister Phaedra said. “She has been down there for quite some time now.”
80
As he and Vika raced into the majesty of the Confessors’ Palace, two of the women who lived and worked there were already rushing toward them, skirts held in a hand as they ran.
“Lord Rahl! Lord Rahl!” one of them called out, waving an arm overhead to make sure they saw her.
They both ran up to meet Richard and Vika as they came into the bright, airy, grand central entryway. “Lord Rahl—”
“Yes?”
“I’m Ginny. This is Nina.”
“A runner just arrived to tell us that you were on your way,” Nina put in as if it were exciting gossip, or maybe she was just excited to see him.
Richard had been in a hurry to get there, so he was surprised to hear it. “A runner? A runner beat us here?”
“Rachel,” Ginny said with a grin. “She knows the shortcuts.”
Richard frowned. “Rachel? You mean Chase’s daughter? That Rachel?”
Ginny nodded. “Yes, she is such a big help to everyone. She has long legs, that girl. She was so excited to tell us that she had spotted you and a Mord-Sith that she had to race all the way down here as fast as she could to tell the Mother Confessor.” She pointed toward the ceiling. “She is up there with her now.”
“Where is Kahlan? Has she had the babies yet? Has—”
Ginny held her arm out, directing him. “Come. Everyone will be so excited that you have returned. To be honest, we all, well, we all thought you were dead. Everyone except the Mother Confessor. She said …”
Richard wanted to strangle the words out of her. “She said what?” He looked over at the other woman instead. “What did she say?”
“Well,” Nina stammered, “she said that you weren’t dead, that you would …”
“Would what?”
Nina blushed furiously. “She said that you would get some crazy idea and be able to come back to us. I guess she was right. Oh! I don’t mean she was right that you would have a crazy idea—I’m sure yo
ur ideas aren’t crazy—but that you would return.”
When Richard swished his hand to urge them to get them moving and show the way, Ginny immediately turned and led him and Vika up a grand stairway of white marble to a spacious balcony that ran most of the way around three sides of the palatial entryway. Around one side of that balcony they went up a second stairway to the third floor, and then turned down the central hall.
As they hurried down a wide, elaborate hallway with comfortable-looking chairs in groupings, Shale came racing around a corner out ahead. “Lord Rahl!” She rushed up and seized him by his shoulders. “Dear spirits! We thought for sure that you were lost to us!”
Vika cocked an eyebrow. “He got a crazy idea how to come back.”
Shale stared at her a moment, but had no answer. She turned back to Richard. He was surprised to see her in such a fine dress.
“The Mother Confessor will be relieved to see you. She was so worried, but she would never admit it. Whenever one of us would look at her, concerned for her and what she must be fearing, she would just smile and tell us not to worry. That you would be back.”
Richard threw up his arms. “Where is she! Bags, would one of you take me to her?”
Ginny and Nina blushed at the language.
“Come on,” Shale said, rolling a hand to urge him to follow. She started him down the hallway toward another grand stairway.
Richard was beside himself. “Has she had the babies yet? Are they all right? Is Kahlan all right?”
“Just come on and you can see for yourself.”
Shale led Richard and Vika up the stairs two at a time. Ginny and Nina hastened along behind. The palace was white and quiet and beautiful, but it was all a blur to Richard. He hardly saw any of it. He just wanted to get to Kahlan.
And then as they came to another hallway, he saw a group of people all milling around down the hall. He recognized the Mord-Sith, but they were all in white leather, which was a shock after having seen them in their red leather for so long.
Berdine spotted him coming and broke into a dead run. When she got to him, she leaped up into his arms, nearly knocking him down. She threw her legs around his waist.
“Lord Rahl! Lord Rahl! You’re back!”
Richard grabbed her by the waist and set her down. He flashed a quick smile as he turned her around and pushed her ahead as he rushed onward to the group outside a doorway.
He saw Chase there, with his wife Emma. He paused long enough to squeeze the big man’s arm in a silent greeting.
“Richard!” Rachel cried out as she suddenly hugged him. He ran a hand down the back of her head of long hair. He was surprised to see that she was now nearly as tall as him.
Richard looked around at the small group. “I need to see Kahlan.”
Shale smiled as she opened a white door with ornate carving on it. She held the door open for him and motioned him in.
Richard stared at her.
Shale grinned. “Go on, then.”
81
Richard walked into a beautiful room decorated with cream-colored curtains with a textured pattern and white frame and panel walls. The reflector lamps mounted on the walls were all silver, but none were lit. The carpets were leaf patterns in various shades of off-white. It wasn’t a large room, considering the size of the palace, but it looked special. The bed had four posts draped over the top with a white, filmy material that hung down on each side near the headboard. Through the open window Richard could hear birds chirping outside. In the distance the looming Keep looked down over them, a dark protector of the Confessors.
From that bed, Kahlan’s green eyes were locked on him from the moment he walked through the doorway.
His heart hammered as he stared at her.
She was so beautiful he felt tears well up in his eyes.
In each arm, she held a bundle. He could just see the tops of the babies’ heads.
“Are you all right?” he asked in a hushed tone, feeling stupid because he couldn’t think of anything better to say.
“Now that I see you, everything is good,” she said in a soft voice. “Everyone was so worried. But I knew that you would find a way to come back to me.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long. I wanted to be here when the babies came. But I—”
She was still smiling. “You are back with me now. That’s all that matters to me.”
“You don’t have to worry about the Glee coming after us ever again. No one in our world ever has to fear them again.”
“The Golden Goddess is not the new golden age, then?” she asked.
Richard shook his head. “No. A golden ring helped me get back to you and make our children safe. That golden ring is with us, now, here in our world. I think that is what it really meant when I promised you the beginning of a new golden age. That’s where that promise really comes from. I wanted you to know. It’s nothing else, nothing bad.”
She nodded against the pillow she was propped up on. “One day you can tell me about your crazy adventure, but right now, come and meet our children.”
At long last, Richard carefully stepped to the edge of the bed, close to her. He didn’t think he had ever felt more nervous and expectant all at once.
Kahlan smiled with bliss, with tranquility, and in weariness. It somehow calmed him. Her green eyes calmed him.
“Lord Rahl, I would like you to meet your children.” She lifted the one in her left arm, on the other side of her from Richard, out a little. “This is your daughter, Cara Amnell.”
He stared in wonder a moment at his sleeping daughter.
Kahlan looked down as she lifted the other one, asleep in the crook of her right arm, out a little. “And this is your son, Zeddicus Rahl.”
Richard stared at his son a moment, then bent and gently kissed the top of his head, then leaned farther and kissed the forehead of his daughter.
At last, he finally kissed Kahlan, making everything he had been through melt into nothing.
He straightened as he smiled down at her. “Their names are perfect. They are perfect. You are perfect.”
Both babies reached a tiny hand out, then. They looked almost like they were searching for each other’s hands. Using her fingers on the bundles she held, Kahlan gently smoothed their hands back inside the blankets.
She smiled her special smile at Richard as her eyes closed.
Shale came up behind him and took his arm to urge him back.
“She needs to rest, now,” the sorceress whispered. “You can talk to her again after she gets some much-needed sleep.”
Richard didn’t want to leave, but he wanted all three to rest.
82
Once they were outside the room, Shale gently closed the door. “She wanted so much for you to see the babies that she has been trying to stay awake until you came back to her. She knew you would be back. And she wanted to see that you were safe. She can rest easy, now.”
The Mord-Sith were all beaming at him. Vika put a hand on his back for a moment, a touch of congratulations that meant more than words. In that simple human act, Richard saw far more. He saw a journey back from madness.
“She looked so tired,” he said. He gave Shale a meaningful look. “Is everything all right? Did it go well? The birth, I mean.”
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Mord-Sith all share a look. Shale glanced over at Rachel as an excuse to divert her gaze for a moment. She finally looked back up at Richard.
“Yes. The babies finally arrived. They are all well.”
“Why is she here, at the Confessors’ Palace?” Richard asked suspiciously. “We went through a lot of trouble to get to the Keep so she could give birth where she would be safe. What is she doing here?”
Rachel touched his arm to answer. “She said that she was born here, and she wanted her children to be born in the Confessors’ Palace as well.”
“But the danger of the Glee—why would you all let her come down here to give birth?”
“Have you
ever tried to tell the Mother Confessor no?” Shale asked. “It is not so easy, let me tell you.”
Richard realized that he knew the truth of that.
“We tried to tell her to stay in the Keep where she would be safe,” Berdine said, “but she said it wasn’t a problem because you would see to it that she and your children would be safe.”
“But—”
“He did,” Vika said. “He saw to it that they were safe. He didn’t let her down. He didn’t let any of us down.”
Richard looked back at the sorceress. “You helped her, then, when the babies came?”
“I did,” she said as she was overcome with a peaceful smile. “As I promised you. I wouldn’t let you, or her, down.”
Richard could sense an odd tension in the mood of all those in the hallway.
“Was the birth difficult?”
Cassia, standing next to Shale, turned her back on Richard and whispered to Shale. Richard could just barely hear her say, “Tell him.”
Richard looked back at Shale. Her smile faltered.
“What is it? Was there a problem with the birth? I should have been here. I’m sorry. I came as fast as I could. What is it? What happened?”
Shale folded her fingers together, holding her hands together in front. “Well, to be honest, it was a difficult birth. Partly because of all the mother’s breath we gave her. But there was … more to it. Kahlan was in labor for days. She finally gave birth not long ago.”
“But … she looks all right. She looks just fine. The twins look beautiful and are sleeping peacefully.”
“No, no, she is fine. That’s not it. The babies are fine as well.”
Richard gestured as he grew impatient. “Well then, what is it that all of you know about and none of you are saying?”
Shale cleared her throat. “The thing is, Lord Rahl, she had a very difficult birth. The babies …”
“You already said that. The babies what?”
Shale glanced away from the intensity in his eyes. “The babies had a difficult time being born.”
Into Darkness Page 37
