“I can help you, Richard. At least until we get back to the sliph. I can’t travel, but I can get you there. I wish I could travel so I could help you, but I can’t.”
“I know,” Richard said as they made their way through the immense chamber. “Cassia will help me from there.”
Richard tried to let Chase take as much of his weight as possible, let his big friend carry the load. Richard’s head hung as he gave himself the chance to gather his strength and recover somewhat while Chase helped him. Much of the journey through the Keep to the tower room was a blur. Richard faded out of consciousness for a time, allowing himself to turn the task over to Chase.
By the time they made it down into the round tower, and then the room with the well, Richard had recovered enough to stand on his own.
The sliph was waiting. “You wish to travel, Master? I waited, as you asked. We can travel right away.”
Richard nodded as he climbed up onto the wall, starting to feel better. “Yes, we need to travel. We must hurry.”
Cassia reached up so he could help pull her up onto the wall.
“Master, you cannot take that object of magic. I told you before, you must not take it.”
Richard hoisted Cassia up as he addressed the sliph.
“The last time, you told me that because I have death in me, it wouldn’t kill me to travel with it. You said it would drain some of my life force, letting the sickness of death grow stronger. You didn’t say I couldn’t take it.”
The silver face took on a look of concern. “That is true, but you have little life left to give over this time while traveling.”
“Do I have enough to make it back alive?”
A reluctant silver hand extended up out of the pool to caress his face and test that inner poison.
“You have enough life left to make it back to the palace, but you will be nearly dead. Death will have grown strong in you. You will have hardly any time before you die.”
“Perfect. Let’s go.” He slipped an arm around Cassia’s waist. “Ready? We need to get back. I’m going to need you to help me once we get there.”
“Of course, Lord Rahl.”
Richard reached out and brushed a tear from her cheek. “Don’t cry for me while I’m still alive. Wait until I’m dead, will you, please?”
That made her laugh just a little.
“Chase, thank you.”
Chase nodded as Richard, with his arm around Cassia’s waist, stepped off the wall into the quicksilver waters of the sliph and inhaled her into his lungs.
CHAPTER
56
Breathe.
Richard expelled the silver fluid and gasped a breath of cold air. It stung deep down inside like a thousand needles. With a great effort, he threw his arms over the stone wall of the well. He hung on to the edge, resting, trying to recover. He ached everywhere.
He knew that the sliph had been right. What he had done had drained away much of his remaining life force. Death was spreading through him, rotting him from inside.
Cassia was already out. She grunted with the effort of helping to pull his dead weight up and over the wall. Richard helped as much as he could. Once out, he collapsed to the floor, panting, recovering his strength, hoping he still had enough to stand. Cassia sat beside him on the floor, panting, recovering her own breath and strength. After a few moments, he was finally able to stand.
“Do you wish me to wait for you, Master?”
Richard looked back at the sliph. “Until this is over, one way or another, I would appreciate it. I may need to at least get Kahlan out of the palace.”
He didn’t know what good that would really do. It wasn’t only the palace that was in danger. It was the entire world of life. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Hannis Arc and Emperor Sulachan would see to that.
Once up on wobbly legs, Richard put his hand over the hilt of his sword, making sure that it was still there with him.
“We need to get to the Garden of Life.”
“I’ll help you, Lord Rahl. Let’s go.”
Richard shook his head. “I’m all right for the moment. I can walk.”
He wasn’t, of course, but he thought he had enough strength for a little while longer. It would be considerably faster if he could make it on his own two feet.
As soon as they went out into the hallway, Richard knew that something was wrong. For one thing, the hallway was empty. For another, he smelled smoke.
“Check all the halls before we go down any of them to make sure they’re clear,” he told Cassia. “We don’t want to have to worry about being chased.”
Together they moved quickly but quietly through the deserted service halls. At each intersection, Cassia peeked around to check that it was clear. When they reached a set of double doors with a simple geometric design carved into them, Cassia put an ear to the door, listening.
She straightened in a rush. “I hear screaming.”
Richard gritted his teeth. “That’s what I was afraid of.” He pointed to a plastered hallway that led away from the public area. “That way, there. Let’s go.”
They continued working their way up back servants’ stairs and seldom-used corridors, in places backtracking because they heard the sounds of battle. Richard ached to join that battle and drive the enemy back, but he knew that this time, that was not the way, and that this time, while he still had a breath of life in him, he had a more important job to do.
It took a lot longer than he thought it would to find a way to make it up to the Garden of Life. When he finally reached the top of the stairs to the passageway that encircled the outside of the garden, the guards were shocked to see him.
Richard grabbed the nearest man. “What’s going on? Give me a report.”
Other soldiers rushed in, gathering around.
“General Zimmer told us to guard the Garden of Life at all costs, to the last man if need be. So far the enemy hasn’t made it up this far. We think they got in through the catacombs under the plains outside the plateau. I’ve heard talk of them getting in through the crypts down in the lower levels, melting their way right through solid stone.
“Since they breached the perimeter, they have been flooding in the ways I mentioned, and we’ve heard through a couple of other spots. At least I think so. The reports we get are confused and sketchy. We’ve been told that the enemy has those dead with them, the ones you told us about. Nathan and Nicci have been doing their best to help us try to hold them off.”
“How long?” Richard asked. “How long have they been in the palace?”
“Since you disappeared, Lord Rahl.”
“And how long has that been?”
The soldier pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to think. Richard saw that, like those of the rest of the men, his eyes were bloodshot and red.
“I can’t recall for sure, Lord Rahl. We’ve been fighting nonstop, day and night. A lot of people have been killed. We push them back, they break through a different way, then we get them contained again. We’ve had to fight our way in a number of times to rescue trapped men, or trapped people. It’s been so long since we’ve had any sleep, I honestly can’t think straight.”
“Several days, then?” Richard asked.
“Oh at least. It’s been days since we’ve been trying to hold them back out of certain areas of the palace, trying to control where they are.”
“Have Sulachan or Hannis Arc been seen?”
The man nodded. “Oh yes. We’ve caught sight of them a few times. They seem to be in no hurry. It’s like a show for them.”
Richard looked around at all the men gathered around him. “I’m going to need all of you to clear out of here. Very soon it’s not going to be safe up here. I need you to get all of our people away from the Garden of Life. Understand?”
“Yes, Lord Rahl. How far away?”
Richard shook his head as he sighed. “I’m not sure. Just get everyone back as far away as possible. Also, we need to clear everyone out o
f the main hallways of the palace.”
“The main halls? You mean the major routes, the halls that are stories high?”
“Yes. We need to clear out of those areas and let the enemy have them. Do it immediately. There’s no time to waste.”
The man clapped a fist to his heart. “Right away, Lord Rahl.”
“I need you to get a message to General Zimmer. When the time is right, I want him to stop holding back the horde of half people. When the time comes, get out of their way, defend yourselves, wall yourselves in rooms and defensive positions, whatever you need to do to try to stay safe, but stop holding them out of the palace. Let them flood through the major public corridors through the palace.
“They’re going to get in anyway. When the time comes, stop fighting a losing battle and wasting lives. Let them have the main halls, do you hear me?”
The man looked confused. “When the time is right? How are we to know the time is right?”
Richard wiped a hand back across his face. “I can’t say for sure, but you will know.”
The man clapped his fist to his heart. Richard could tell that the man didn’t understand, but there was no way for Richard to be any more clear. He didn’t even know if he would still be alive when that time came. He could feel what little life he had left slipping away.
“Do you know where the Mother Confessor is?”
The soldier nodded. “They have a heavily defended section of the palace that has limited access and they set it up as a safe zone, of sorts. Not that any place is really safe. But for now the men are able to hold the enemy off from that area.”
“I need you to get a message to her from me.”
“Yes, Lord Rahl?”
“Tell her I love her.”
The man nodded his solemn oath. “It will be done.”
Richard pulled the Grace ring off his finger and put it in the man’s palm. He closed the soldier’s fingers around it.
“Tell her this is the reason.”
“The reason, Lord Rahl?”
Richard nodded. “She will understand.”
“I will personally see to it, Lord Rahl.”
“By the way, do you know if it is day or night?”
The soldier pointed with a thumb back toward the Garden of Life. “I was just in there to check the place. It’s the middle of the night.”
Richard nodded. “Thanks. Now, I need all of you to clear out of here. Get everyone away from the Garden of Life. Sulachan and Hannis Arc will come to claim it at any moment. There is nothing up here to defend that is worth your lives.”
Richard watched for a moment as the soldiers raced away. He turned back to Cassia.
“You’re also going to need to get as far away from here as you can, but first I need you to help me.”
CHAPTER
57
In the light of a few fat candles, Richard leaned against the omen machine. He could hardly stand, but he knew that he had to. At least for a little longer. It would be over soon and then, one way or another, he would not have to stand.
Regula was silent. The machine knew that now was not the time for prophecy.
Now was the time when free will would hold sway.
As he waited in the silence, in the dark hole where so very long ago Regula, a power that belonged in the world of the dead, had been buried, Richard thought instead about Kahlan. He made a conscious decision to use his time, if this was to be his last night of life, to think about what had been the best part of his life: Kahlan. He missed her so much it hurt almost as much as the poison of death gripping him.
He pushed his awareness of the pain of the poison away and instead did his best to picture in his mind the first time he had looked into Kahlan’s green eyes that day in the Hartland woods and the instant connection he had felt.
That seemed like a lifetime ago.
He had known the moment he saw her that his life would never be the same again. Thinking back on that first moment when he had looked into the eyes of his soul mate, it made him smile with the sheer vastness of it. She had been more than he could have ever dreamt his life would be.
She had been seeking help to find the wizard who could name the Seeker so that he could find the last box of Orden. Now, all three of those boxes sat on the cold metal top of Regula not far from his right elbow. The power of Orden and the power of Regula, together, in the world of life. Regula had been sent to the world of life for protection, to keep it away from Sulachan, and now here it was in the very heart of danger.
Richard put it from his mind. If these were to be his last moments of life, he wanted them to be worthwhile. He wanted every possible second of them to be spent in happy memories of Kahlan. He didn’t want his last moments to be filled with bitterness and regrets. He wanted his last thoughts to be of love, not hate.
He smiled as he thought about some of the funny faces she sometimes made at him, the way she sometimes teased him, the way she always made him live up to the best he could be. He thought about the way she believed in him when no one else did. He thought about the way he could be weak with her, and she would give him her strength.
He thought about all that he wanted to do for her, to be for her. The way he felt when he kissed her, when he made love to her.
Many people lived their entire lives together without being together, without actually sharing their lives the way he and Kahlan had. He smiled in the dark as he thought about it.
It was while immersed in those thoughts that he heard a sound from above. Instantly, he switched to listening in the silence until he heard steady, measured footsteps. The ladder creaked when weight was put to it. It could only be Sulachan. Sulachan would recognize the death Richard carried. He would be focused on it the way a mountain lion would be focused on a fawn. The time had come for the spirit king to collect what he claimed as his.
Sulachan would be coming for Richard, there was no doubt of that.
Richard waited in silence for the inevitable.
He saw the shadow flow down and over the stone wedges of the circular stairs as the spirit king descended into Regula’s room. He would at last have what he wanted–Richard and Regula.
When he reached the small alcove at the bottom, Sulachan stopped, smiling with menace, as he looked in at Richard trapped in the small room with no other way out. In the semidarkness, the spirit was a glowing, bluish, otherworldly shell over the desiccated corpse that was the long-dead emperor. Having returned from the world of the dead, the spirit, brought back to life by the blood of fuer grissa ost drauka, seemed to be content with the form it had taken. Life really was precious, even for a dead emperor.
The glowing eyes were focused intently on Richard. “How thoughtful of you to be here, waiting for me, rather than me having to chase you down and pull you out of some dark little hidey-hole.”
“I’m not the kind to run,” Richard said.
“That is why I knew you would be here,” the spirit king said. “I’ve known about you for a very long time, Warheart.”
“What is it you want with me?”
The emperor stepped out of the alcove and into the room toward Richard. “Why, to kill you, of course, so that there will no longer be any chance of you interfering as only you could. You see, unlike my friend”–he gestured back up the stairwell–“Hannis Arc, I don’t make the grave mistake of underestimating you. He plots revenge for years. He seeks to make you suffer. I simply eliminate threats.”
“So you, a man who has returned from the dead, are worried about me?”
Sulachan smiled as he glared with hatred. “You are a man who has also returned from the dead, are you not?”
“Well,” Richard said with a shrug, “it was not nearly the magnitude of the accomplishment you managed.”
“You think not? My dark ones were there, waiting for you. They had you. And yet you escaped their talons and managed to get back to the world of life.” The emperor waved a bony finger. “No, I do not underestimate you, Richard Rahl. Hannis
Arc hates you, but I have great respect for you, much the way one respects a poisonous snake. Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to remind you of the poison that is eating away at you and has almost sucked all the remaining juices of life from you.”
“If you know the poison is going to take me soon, then why bother with me? Seems like a lot of unnecessary effort.”
The sinister smile returned. “Because, like I said, I don’t underestimate you. You are dangerous, and the time has come to put you down so the Twilight Count can finish and everything that has been set into motion can finally reach its inevitable conclusion. I have worked far too long to leave anything to chance by letting you live a single extra moment. I don’t need you to witness the fruition of my plans, as Hannis Arc would want. I simply need to eliminate you.”
As Sulachan made his way toward Regula, Richard casually moved away, staying out of his reach. On his way by the candles, he pulled off a small blob of soft, warm candle wax, playing with it in his fingers as he kept an eye on the spirit king.
As Sulachan went to the omen machine, Richard casually circled around toward the opening at the alcove to the stairwell.
“Thinking of running away after all?” Sulachan asked, his back to Richard as he gazed at the boxes of Orden.
Richard reached up and gave a tug on the small string dangling down. As he pulled it taut, untying the knot, the cloth with the wards on it was released, unfurling to drop down and cover the doorway.
“No, I’m not going anywhere,” Richard said. “And neither are you.”
Intrigued by Richard’s casual tone of voice, Sulachan turned with a frown. But when he saw the cloth behind Richard, his expression turned from startled to venomous.
“What do you think you are doing?”
As he played with the soft wax between his finger and thumb, rolling it back and forth, Richard used the same hand to gesture at the cloth panel. “I’m sure you recognize the wards. Wards left by those people you were trying to defeat so long ago. Wards specifically created to keep spirits from crossing.”
Sulachan swept an arm out, at the same time letting out a chuckle. “Why would I need to worry about such things?”
Warheart Page 37
