The Third Kingdom

by Terry Goodkind

  The oddest look came over his face. His eyes abruptly turned up to meet her gaze.

  And then the slightest hint of a smile turned up the corners of his mouth as he leaned back.

  “Well,” he said, “it seems that you have had a healing recently. A fine one at that. I can feel it. I can sense the residual effects of the gift used to heal you.”

  Ester stole a quick glance at Kahlan. “As I said, Sammie worked some healing on her. She said that the Mother Confessor now only needs to rest.”

  The abbot stood, giving the Mord-Sith a meaningful look.

  “I think she is well enough to travel. I can be of invaluable assistance with her recovery once we get her back to the abbey.”

  “No,” Ester said, more firmly in spite of her fear of the man. “No, she needs to rest right now, right here. Lord Rahl will want her to rest. He won’t want her moved.”

  The abbot casually lifted a finger toward Ester. The woman shuddered. Her fingers trembled as she blinked in confusion. Panting as if in pain, she backed away a few steps. Kahlan wasn’t sure exactly what the man had done, but it was now clear that he was powerfully gifted and that he was hurting Ester.

  In all his time at the palace, Abbot Dreier had keep that relevant fact hidden, never revealing that he was gifted.

  “Now,” he said down to Kahlan, “I think you should come along with us. We will be better able to see to your needs at the abbey.”

  “I’m afraid that I must decline your kind offer,” Kahlan said in a chilling tone.

  Abbot Dreier stared for a moment without showing any emotion and then turned to the Mord-Sith. “Please bring the Mother Confessor along. I will wait out front.”

  He seized Ester’s arm and pushed her out of the room ahead of him. He paused and from the doorway looked back at Kahlan.

  “Mord-Sith can be quite persuasive. I advise you to cooperate as she helps escort you out to our waiting coach.”

  With that he left, pulling the door closed behind himself.

  CHAPTER

  56

  After Dreier closed the door, the Mord-Sith smiled that way Mord-Sith smiled that could make you forget to breathe.

  “We weren’t introduced. I am Erika. Mistress Erika to you.”

  Kahlan glared.

  Erika heaved an impatient sigh. “So, it’s going to be like that, is it?”

  “Get out,” Kahlan said.

  Erika spread her hands with mock decorum. “I’m afraid that the abbot has invited you to come along. He asked me to assist you. He would be very disappointed in me if I didn’t do as he asked. Believe me, I have no wish to disappoint the abbot.”

  “We all are bound to disappoint someone now and again,” Kahlan said.

  The Mord-Sith dispensed with the smile. She rolled her fingers in a commanding gesture.

  “Get up.”

  “I can’t. I’m rather weak from my recent injuries that have only just been healed.”

  “Perhaps you misunderstood me. You must have thought that I was asking you.” The smile reappeared. “I wasn’t. I was telling you. Now, get up.”

  Kahlan thought the wordplay was childish. She was not about to be intimidated by a Mord-Sith, of all people. This one, by all rights, shouldn’t even exist. If she even was a real Mord-Sith.

  It occurred to Kahlan once again that the woman might simply be window dressing for an arrogant man, a woman who had convinced herself she could play the part of a real Mord-Sith. She appeared to be a woman who enjoyed pretending to be important and powerful so she could intimidate people and watch them cower.

  Kahlan was not about to cower before this woman.

  She rocked forward enough to get her feet under her. After being unconscious for so long, she found that the effort made her heart pound. She hadn’t been on her feet for a quite a while and she felt incredibly weak.

  She crouched a moment, getting her balance, trying to summon enough strength to not show this haughty woman any weakness. Kahlan was, after all, the Mother Confessor.

  With effort, she stood, if not to her full height, then at least most of the way. She couldn’t stretch the last little bit at her waist. It felt like all of her abdominal muscles had shrunk, keeping her from straightening to her full height, which would have probably been an inch or two taller than the Mord-Sith if Kahlan could have stood fully upright.

  “Now,” Kahlan said through gritted teeth as she looked the woman in the eye, “get out. I will not ask you again.”

  An eyebrow lifted over one cold blue eye. “Or what?”

  “I don’t know where you came from, but you appear not to know much about anything.”

  Erika shrugged. “I know that Abbot Dreier asked me to bring you along. That is enough. What else is there to know, Mother Confessor?”

  “‘Confessor’ is the operative word.”

  The Mord-Sith frowned a little. “Really? In what way?”

  “You are apparently unaware of the danger a Confessor poses to a Mord-Sith—or a woman posing as a Mord-Sith.”

  “Danger? From you?” She smiled again, this time with what appeared to be genuine amusement. “I don’t think so.”

  “Do you have any idea what a mistake it is for a Mord-Sith to attempt to use her Agiel on a Confessor? The results are beyond gruesome and all Mord-Sith know it. It is a death they all greatly fear.”

  “Really?” Erika cocked her head with an earnest frown. “How interesting. Well, I don’t have to use an Agiel on you, you know. You look to be pretty weak.” A dangerous look came into the woman’s eyes. “Even if you were in the best of health, I don’t think I would need to use my Agiel to handle you.”

  Kahlan didn’t know what was going on, or how it had come to this, but she knew in that moment that she was going to need to unleash her power on this woman, and it was not going to be pretty.

  “You are about to cross a line from which you will never, ever be able to step back,” Kahlan warned in a deadly tone. “I suggest you call it quits now, Erika, while you have the chance.”

  “I don’t think so, Mother Confessor. Like I said, I can handle you without my Agiel. More importantly, as I told you before, it is Mistress Erika to you.”

  The Mord-Sith spun the Agiel up into her fist.

  It was an open threat, a hostile act that had now gone too far. For whatever crazy reason, this woman was not going to stop until Kahlan stopped her.

  In Kahlan’s mind, the deed was already done. This woman had crossed a line from which there was no walking back. Kahlan was already letting the restraint on her power begin to slip its bounds in preparation for releasing her inherent ability.

  The Mord-Sith gritted her teeth. “But in this case I prefer to use my Agiel.”

  With that, the woman slammed the weapon into Kahlan’s middle.

  Kahlan expected the ignition of power that would bring the attack to a halt before it could ever be completed. She expected to feel the hammering thump of silent thunder that would shake the walls and forever change who this woman was.

  Instead, Kahlan’s mouth opened in a shock of pain the likes of which she had only felt a few times in her life.

  The nerve-shattering shock of it stunned her, took her breath. She doubled over around the Agiel. It felt like a bolt of lightning threatening to rip her in half. Her mind went blank of everything but the complete and total understanding of that terrible, all-consuming agony.

  She heard herself screaming.

  She felt herself hit the floor.

  CHAPTER

  57

  The pain of the Agiel, even though it was no longer touching her, had been so overwhelming that waves of jolting shocks still filled her mind, preventing her from forming a thought or even getting her breath.

  Confused, disoriented, trembling from head to foot, Kahlan rolled over onto her back, her knees pulled up, her arms pressed across the pain knifing through her abdomen. Through tears of agony, she looked up at the woman in black leather standing tall and still over
her, watching her.

  An eyebrow lifted. “You were saying?”

  “How…?” was all Kahlan could manage to get out through the still-shuddering pain pulsing through every nerve in her body.

  Erika shrugged a shoulder. “Well, Mother Confessor, as you have probably surmised by now, your power does not work. For you to be a threat to me—as you have so vividly described and as you so wholeheartedly intended—your power has to work.” The cruel smile returned. “Don’t you suppose?”

  Kahlan couldn’t understand what was happening. She was having trouble forming the simplest of thoughts. A cascade of questions and confusion overwhelmed her ability to think clearly.

  “But even if it doesn’t respond for you, that power is still resident within you and you fully intended to use that power on me, now didn’t you? You tried to. You committed to it.” She waggled a finger. “That was enough.”

  Kahlan didn’t understand any of it. At that moment, she could only understand that she was in trouble and there was no one who could help her.

  The Mord-Sith planted a boot in Kahlan’s middle, over the spot where she had used her Agiel, and leaned over enough to rest an elbow on her knee. “And now you are mine.”

  Kahlan still couldn’t talk and with the boot pressing down, couldn’t draw a full breath. The Mord-Sith removed the boot from Kahlan’s middle and straightened, rolling her Agiel in her fingers in a threatening manner.

  “Now, I asked you a question, Mother Confessor. When I ask you a question, I expect an answer.” She leaned down, gritted her teeth, and pointed her Agiel at Kahlan’s face. “Is that clear?”

  Kahlan couldn’t make herself stop trembling from the still-lingering pain. She supposed that if she weren’t in such a weakened condition, she might be able to better tolerate the touch of the Agiel. But, given what an Agiel was capable of, probably not a whole lot better. If a Mord-Sith wished it, the touch of an Agiel could be fatal.

  What Kahlan couldn’t reconcile in her own mind was how this woman could really be Mord-Sith.

  For a moment Erika watched Kahlan’s agony with grim satisfaction. Finally, she reached down, seized Kahlan’s hair in her fist, pulled her to her feet, and shoved Kahlan toward the door.

  Kahlan finally drew a full breath. Her anger flared. She spun to the woman, determined to put a stop to the situation.

  The Agiel again rammed into Kahlan’s middle.

  Kahlan didn’t know how long she lay curled up on the floor the second time. She didn’t think she lost consciousness, but the pain had been so overwhelming, so all-consuming, that it was hard to tell if she had remained fully awake or not. She couldn’t reconcile how long it had been. The concept of time seemed to become meaningless and the world made no sense.

  There was only the pain. She could think of little else but wanting the pain to stop. As angry as she was, as much as she wanted to strangle Erika, she wanted the pain to stop.

  Erika leaned over, snatched Kahlan by the hair again, and yanked her to her feet. “Enough of this. The abbot is waiting.”

  This time, when the Mord-Sith pushed her toward the door, Kahlan didn’t try to fight her.

  “My, my, but you learn quick.”

  Kahlan paused at the door. “How?” That was the only word she could get out.

  “How? How what?”

  “How … You are not loyal to Richard.”

  The woman made a sour face. “Dear Creator no. What would give you such a grotesque idea? No, my dear Mother Confessor, I am not loyal to the Lord Rahl.”

  “But, that loyalty, that bond to the Lord Rahl, is what powers a Mord-Sith’s Agiel.”

  Erica smiled at the chance to reveal the delicious truth. “Lord Arc powers my Agiel.”

  “Lord Arc…?”

  “That’s right. Lord Arc is my master. Lord Arc will be everyone’s master, just as soon as he finishes getting rid of your dear, dear husband.”

  The Mord-Sith opened the door and shoved Kahlan out into a hallway. Kahlan stumbled. She managed to get a hand up against the far wall to catch her balance and keep from smacking her face against the rock. The hall was dimly lit by a few candles and lamps. The hallway, like the room, looked to be carved entirely out of stone, but it was much less refined.

  She walked hunched from the pain, clutching her middle, panting as she waited for the lingering sting of the pain to ease. It was not dying out the way regular pain would.

  But more than the pain of the Agiel, far worse than the pain of the Agiel, was the agony of how much she missed Richard. It seemed like forever since she had seen him. The last time she remembered seeing him was back at the palace, not long after Cara and Ben’s wedding. She wanted nothing more right then than to be in his arms.

  Kahlan thought that she remembered while in the dreams that he had kissed her. She didn’t know if it had been part of one of the dreams or if it had been real. She only knew that she missed him more than anything.

  Erika shoved Kahlan onward through the halls and corridors. Each time they reached an intersection, the Mord-Sith pushed her along, shoving her this way or that. Kahlan didn’t know where she was, or where she was going. She had been unconscious when she had been brought in and it was all a confusing maze to her.

  Kahlan thought she might throw up. She thought she might faint. She did neither. Still in lingering pain, she simply stumbled along ahead of the woman in black leather.

  As she reached lighter areas with lamps hung on the stone walls at regular intervals, areas that widened with some kind of doorways off to either side that looked like a honeycomb of homes back in the rock, people lined the hallway. All of them stood grimly to the side, heads hanging, eyes watching her pass. Kahlan imagined that the Mord-Sith was enjoying the spectacle.

  Around a corner, more people stood silently aside in the wide corridor. As she passed them, their eyes turned up to peek, unable to resist watching the dismal sight of Kahlan stumbling past, groaning in helpless agony from both times the Agiel had been used on her.

  The cave broadened out, becoming bright with daylight streaming in through a wide opening that was the mouth of the cave. Erika snatched Kahlan’s hair and jerked her to a halt. There were people all around the cavern, standing back out of the way to the sides of the cave.

  Not one of them lifted a finger to try to stop the Mord-Sith or dared to voice a protest. Kahlan knew it would have done no good. Worse, it would likely only get them hurt.

  She could see through the cave opening that it was heavily overcast outside. To her surprise, she saw treetops far below and realized that they were some distance up in the side of a mountain, with ground level far below.

  Abbot Dreier stood near the edge of the precipice, watching with obvious satisfaction at the condition Kahlan was in as well as her humiliation.

  Erika dragged Kahlan by her hair near to the edge of the cliff opening, beside the abbot.

  “Well there you are, at last,” he said, sounding in good spirits. “I see that you and Erika are getting along splendidly.”

  Kahlan glanced out the opening, down the side of the mountain. She saw a bit of a trail leading off down the cliff, but she couldn’t imagine using such a narrow pathway down the side of the mountain, especially in the drizzle.

  “Well, we really must be on our way,” Dreier said.

  Kahlan looked over at him. “You do know, of course, that I am going to kill you.”

  His hand instantly came up, halting the Mord-Sith from ramming her Agiel into the small of Kahlan’s back.

  “There will be time enough for that,” he said to the Mord-Sith.

  Erika bowed her head. “As you wish, Abbot.”

  “Now,” he said to Kahlan as he gestured to the edge of the cliff at the mouth of the cave, “we really must be on our way. Get going.” He gestured to the edge of the opening. “Down that way, there.”

  Kahlan took three steps back from the edge. She knew that in her shaky condition she would not be able to climb down such a treache
rous trail without falling. It was all she could do to walk across a flat floor.

  Dreier heaved an impatient sigh.

  “Well, Erika, it seems the Mother Confessor prefers the quick way down.”

  Without question or delay, Erika took two quick, wide steps toward the edge, in the process yanking Kahlan right off her feet by her hair.

  The powerfully strong Mord-Sith stopped abruptly at the edge and with a mighty effort swung herself around at the waist and flung Kahlan out the opening of the cave, out into the cold gray light.

  She released her grip on Kahlan’s hair as she flew out into thin air.

  Kahlan gasped in shock as she sailed out from the cave opening.

  Her fingers grasped, catching only air.

  She saw nothing below but the ground—

  As that ground raced toward her at an alarming rate and the rush of air sucked her breath away, her last thought was how much she loved Richard.

  CHAPTER

  58

  Richard carefully scanned the area ahead as he made his way down through the towering rock formations rising up all around them. Samantha peeked out from behind an irregular column of layered rock and looked both ways before tiptoeing after him, staying close so as not to get separated.

  The spikes of rocks jutting from the rough ground sloped at an angle toward the lower valley floor below. The jumble of jagged, rocky spires above the low ground rose at a slant that made progress too difficult. They needed to get down to lower ground where they could make better time.

  Richard had to always balance staying hidden with being able to make good progress. Both had their dangers. Too slow and they might be too late to save anyone. Trying to go too fast would allow them to be spotted and caught.

  At the far side of the broad expanse of more open ground, dark, mountainous rock formations rose up, and beyond them the ground lifted into ever-higher mountains where tattered gray clouds drifted past imposing cliff faces.

  All around them in every direction he could see the occasional flicker of the greenish veils of light. Some were far away, but others were uncomfortably nearby. Fortunately, in the gloomy daylight the flickering, eerie light stood out all the more and always caught their attention. Richard remained especially wary whenever the ominous curtains of shimmering luminescence came toward them. Whenever that happened, Richard was quick to move out of the area.