Severed Souls (47 page)

“But they are like two vipers, each with the tail of the other in his mouth. Unfortunately, we will all be long dead and in the merciless hands of the Keeper before that alliance ever comes to be inconvenient for either.

“By then, if they are not stopped first, it will be too late for this world because Sulachan ultimately wishes to destroy the boundary between the world of life and the world of the dead. The balance of Creation itself would be broken.

“That would be a bad thing. A very bad thing.

“Thus, we must act or we all die.”

 

CHAPTER

67

“Look, Red,” Kahlan said, “you don't need to explain the consequences to me. I am quite aware of what it would mean.”

“Are you, really?” Red asked. “It would mean not only the end of the natural order of life as we know it, but the Keeper would have me. Do you have any idea of how much the Keeper of the underworld lusts to get witch women into his clutches—outside the natural order of the Grace?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Shota told me all about it. But you are hardly the only one. All of us would be in an eternity of agony should Sulachan and Hannis Arc succeed. It's not only about you, Red, it's about everyone.” Kahlan leaned closer. “Everyone.”

Red showed a cunning smile, as if that had been her point all along. “And don't you ever forget it, Mother Confessor. I may have my own self-interest, but that self-interest just happens to be the same as everyone else's. My fate would be everyone's fate. The Keeper would be loosed on the world, on all of us. The dead would feed on the living.”

Red straightened a bit and smoothed her gray dress at her hips. “I'm not sure that you truly comprehend the horror of what that would mean, or that you actually grasp the true enormity of it. Once Sulachan and Hannis Arc destroy the boundary between life and death, there is no putting it back together. All of Creation would be forever out of balance. In such a chaotic, unbalanced state, it would mean the end of all of existence. Creation itself would eventually wink out of existence, like an ember dying.

“But in the grand scale of time, that could still mean a thousand years, or ten thousand years, of ceaseless agony for all of us on the wrong side of that doomed struggle.

“Sulachan, in his arrogant delusions, believes he can control such forces and bend them to his will. Hannis Arc, in his lust for power, sees a thousand years of reign as an eternity. They make the perfect lethal pair: delusion and lust, both possessing great power individually, multiplied by their alliance and driven by their objectives, both cheered on by those who hate, gleeful at the obscenity of lost hope.

“Once such forces of chaos are loosed, there would be no one capable of putting them back. Once everything has spun out of control, it is only a matter of time before it is all over. Life—existence—would be extinguished.

“Therefore, Sulachan and Hannis Arc must be stopped before they can ever bring such insanity to pass.”

Kahlan let out an impatient sigh. “Red, I know all of this. You aren't really telling me anything new. I already know how vital it is that they are stopped.

“That is precisely what we are trying to do, and you are wasting my time in that effort. We need to get through the pass and, after we are healed, we are going to try to stop the threat. Get to the point or send us on our way.”

Red folded her arms and leaned one shoulder in toward Kahlan. “I am trying to put the nature of what you must do into context so that you will understand how vital it is.”

Kahlan pressed a hand to her forehead. She could feel the evil inside her clawing to be freed. It was going to be that way for everyone. She took a breath, trying to be patient.

“Red, I'm dying. Believe me, I get the context. I don't have a lot of time left to do anything to help you. We need to be on our way. I get it that they must be stopped or they will do something irreversible. Would you please just tell me what it is that you think you need me to do?”

Red leveled a sharp look at her. “It is not what I think, it is what I know. I see events in the flow of time. And what I see is that there is only one person who has the potential to stop all of these horrors I have described from coming to pass.”

“And who would that be?” Kahlan asked as patiently as possible.

“You know very well, Mother Confessor, who that would be,” Red said with a scowl. “It is the pebble in the pond, the bringer of death, the Lord Rahl, the one, your husband.”

Kahlan let out a deep sigh. “Again, we know that. Does the flow of time you witch women like to swim around in tell you if he will succeed?”

“It doesn't work that way. I do not choose what I wish to see in the flow of time.”

“Great, so all you can do is tell me what I already know, and that you don't know if we will succeed. That's great. Thank you. Now may we pass?”

Red's scowl was back. “I don't get to pick out the answers I need or would like. I don't get to ask questions and have them answered. The flow of time reveals to me what it will reveal. Nothing more, nothing less. I have no say in it. I am but a messenger.”

“That's because it's prophecy,” Kahlan said.

“In a way. In this case, it reveals to me only that your husband has the potential to succeed. It does not reveal if he will.”

Kahlan threw her arms up. “What good, then, is all this flow-of-time prophecy business if it only tells you potential? I could easily have told you that Richard has the potential to stop all this from happening without you needing to bother to peer into the flow of time!”

Rather than getting angry at Kahlan's tone, Red became more calm, even sorrowful. “That much of it is muddy, but many other events in the flow of time are crystal clear. I can see those things with absolute certainty.”

“But not in this case,” Kahlan said, contemplating leaving the witch woman and going back to get Richard and the rest of them. Since Red knew that Richard was important, Kahlan figured that she wasn't likely to put up a fight if they simply barged right through the middle of her little lair.

“No, not in this case.” It was Red, this time, who let out a patient sigh. “You see, Mother Confessor, in the unique case of that husband of yours, his free will mucks up events in the flow of time.”

Kahlan frowned. “Why is that?”

“Because he is a pebble in the pond. He causes ripples in events. Because he acts on free will, and he is gifted, it can't be foreseen how those ripples will interact with other people and other events. Prophecy does not work so well with that man of yours.”

“If it's any consolation, we've always had that problem with prophecy,” Kahlan said. “That's why we don't pay it much heed.”

Red leaned closer. “Well, in this case, you had better.”

“Why?”

“Because while I may not know if he will succeed, I know that if he is dead he will not have a chance to try. If he dies, our fate is sealed and we all die.

“I'm trying to help you keep him alive so that he can do what he needs to do in order to give us a chance. If you don't listen to me, he is going to die. That is not a potential, but a hard, cold certainty.

“I know how to read events in the flow of time. I know those things that are only a potential, and I know those that will happen with an absolute certainty. In this particular case, it is not a maybe, or a potential. It is a dead certain event.…

“He is going to die before he has a chance to fulfill his potential unless you do what you need to do to prevent it. Only you can prevent his death. Only you can stop it.

“Now, do you want him to live or not?

“It's all up to you, Mother Confessor.”

 

CHAPTER

68

Kahlan stared back into Red's fierce blue eyes. “All right, I'm listening. What is it you see in the flow of time that is so certain?”

“Nicci is going to kill Richard.”

“Kill him?” Kahlan blinked in disbelief. “Why would she kill Richard? Dear spirits, the woman loves him!”

“That is why she will kill him … because she loves him.”

Kahlan shook her head, as if trying to shake it clear of lunacy.

“You really ought to meet Shota,” Kahlan said. “You'd like her. You both see events in the flow of time and think you understand their true meaning when you don't. You're both crazy.”

“I'm not crazy. I would wager that this Shota has given you information that has been vital, as this is. I'm telling you what will happen in the flow of time if that flow is allowed to run its course. I'm trying to make you see what is at stake.”

“I haven't got time for this nonsense.”

As Kahlan started to leave, Red grabbed her arm and turned her back. “Nicci knows that Richard's heart belongs to you. She loves him, but she cannot have him. The flow of time says that because of that, she will kill him.”

Kahlan pressed her hands to the sides of her head, exasperated with the pointless, circular conversation, wishing she could shut it out. “You said yourself that this flow of time you look into only holds potential, not certainty.”

Red shook her head emphatically. “No, that is not what I said. I said that because he is the pebble in the pond, Richard's free will muddies my ability to see how the events he is central to will unfold. It is only undefined potential in his case. But I see other things with absolute clarity.”

Kahlan glared, no longer even able to remain polite.

“So you say.”

Red gestured angrily toward Hunter. “I sent him because I saw that you would all come this way and would have been killed back there in the chasms had I not acted. It was important that none of you die back there. I could see in that same flow that you would befriend Hunter, as you call him, and follow him when you most needed his help—but only if I sent him to save you.

“It wasn't potential; it was a certainty. I saw the different tributaries, branches, and backwaters in the flow of time and I worked to keep you on the course that would save your lives. Here you stand as a result. I would say that shows I understand the meaning of what I see in the flow of time quite well, wouldn't you?

“While it doesn't work that way with Richard, it does with the people around him. It worked that way with you. It wasn't chance or potential, it was only the deliberate choices I made to effect the outcome that kept you all alive.

“Perhaps, as you say, this witch woman, Shota, only thinks she understands the true meaning of the things she sees in the flow of time, but don't judge me by her inadequacies. I know what I'm talking about, and I know what I'm doing.”

Red leaned closer and pointed a finger at Kahlan's face. “I'm telling you, Mother Confessor, and you had better listen to me—Nicci is going to kill Richard unless you kill her first.

“Richard is the only chance we all have. He is the only one with the potential to save the world of life. Even the first Confessor, Magda Searus, saw that three thousand years ago and did what she could to help him. Now, you are the last Confessor. It has come full circle. It is up to you to make sure he has that chance to fulfill his potential.

“You must kill Nicci before she can kill Richard.”

Kahlan folded her arms and stared back at the witch woman's piercing blue eyes with a look of her own. “If you think she needs killing, then why don't you just kill her yourself?”

Red straightened. “Wise is the witch woman who knows when not to interfere with events in the flow of time.”

“That's an easy excuse. You are already interfering with events in the flow of time. You brought me here and now you are asking me to do your killing for you. It's the same thing.”

“No, it's not. This is different. This is a matter between you and Richard and Nicci, between the three of you and fate. You three are caught up in that tangled flow of time. I can't interfere. That fate is yours and in your hands alone.

“The hard reality is that I know for certain that if she is still alive when the time comes, Nicci is going to kill Richard Rahl. I also know for certain that she will do so because she loves him.

“That is why you must kill her first.”

In frustration, Kahlan ran her fingers back through her hair, gripping it in her fists. “Red, I'm telling you, I know the woman. I know that she is in love with Richard. But I also know that Nicci wouldn't do that to him. She wouldn't do that to me.”

“To you?” The witch woman gave Kahlan a somber look as she slowly shook her head. “I am sorry, Mother Confessor, but I can see in the flow of time that she will. If she is not killed first, she will kill him.”

Kahlan couldn't make any sense of it. She could tell that Red was absolutely convinced of it, but Kahlan couldn't make it make any sense in her own mind. She got the feeling that there was something the witch woman was holding back.

“When?” she finally asked. “When do you see Nicci doing such a thing?”

For a long moment the woman regarded Kahlan with the kind of chilling look that could only be summoned by a witch woman.

“That is a question you really should not ask, Mother Confessor. Please take my word for it, and do not ask that question. You will not like the answer.”

Kahlan's blood ran cold at the look in Red's eyes. “I'm in the middle of this. I don't like any of this, but you told me that the context is vital. I need the complete context.

“So I'm asking. When will Nicci kill Richard?”

Red was silent for a long time as she stared into Kahlan's eyes. She finally spoke in a soft, but unwavering voice.

“I can't say when, for certain. I can only tell you that it will be after you have already been murdered.”

Kahlan blinked, then frowned, not certain that she had heard correctly. “What?”

“When Nicci kills Richard, it will be sometime after you have been murdered.”