Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

Nicci licked her lips as she gave his arm a reassuring squeeze. "Maybe you're right, Richard."

Richard didn't like being humored. He looked from the door back to the sorceress. "Nicci, you can save her. You know how to do such things."

"Look, you had better come see her before.»

"You have to do something. You have to."

Nicci hugged her arms around herself. She looked away, her eyes brimming with tears.

"I swear, Richard, I tried everything I knew or could think of. Nothing was of any help. Death already has her spirit and I can no longer reach that far. She is breathing, but barely. Her heart is weak and nearly gone. Her whole body is shutting down as she slips away. I'm not even sure that she is really even still alive in the sense we think of as a person being alive. She is only here by a thread, and that thread will not hold for long."

"But, can't.» He could think of no words to hold back the weight of grief beginning to slide in on him.

"Please, Richard," Nicci whispered, "come see her before she is gone. Say what you would to her while you have the chance. You will forever hate yourself if you don't."

Richard felt numb as Nicci led him into the room. This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't. This was Cara. Cara was like the sun; she couldn't die. She was — she was his friend. She couldn't die.

CHAPTER 18

The feeble glow of two lanterns failed to do much to brighten the murky room. The smaller one sat on a table in the corner, as if cowering in The presence of death itself. The other stood on a bedside table beside a glass of water and a damp cloth, struggling to hold the gathered shadows ill bay. A brocade bedcover with luxuriant gold fringe was draped over Cara, her arms limp atop it, one of its corners hanging down over the side of the bed to puddle on the floor.

Cara didn't look like Cara. She looked cadaverous. Even in the golden light of the lamp, her face looked ashen. Richard didn't see her breathing.

He could hardly draw a breath himself. He could feel his knees trembling. The lump in his throat seemed as if it might choke him. He wanted to fall on her and beg her to wake.

Nicci leaned close, gently touching Cara's face. Her fingers slid down to the side of her neck. Richard noticed that Cara's terrible shuddering had finally ceased. He didn't think that was the good news it might appear to be.

"Is she — is she.»

Nicci looked back over her shoulder. "She's still breathing, but I'm afraid it's coming slower."

Richard worked his tongue, wetting the roof of his mouth so that he could form words. "You know, Cara has a man she cares about."

"She does? Really?"

Richard nodded. "Most people don't think that Mord-Sith can ever really care about anyone, but they can. Cara cares about a soldier. General Meiffert. Benjamin cares for her, too."

"You know him?"

"Yes. He's a good man." Richard stared at the blond braid lying over Cara's shoulder and out over the brocade bedcover. "I haven't seen him in ages. He's with the D'Haran army."

Nicci looked skeptical. "Ami Cara admitted to you that she cares about this man?"

Richard shook his head as he stared at Cara's familiar face. Her beautiful face was now sunken and pale and only looked like a ghost of her former self.

"No. Kahlan told me. The two of them became pretty close over the course of the year they were with the D'Haran army while you had me down here in Altur'Rang."

Nicci looked away and fussed with the covers over Cara. As Richard stepped closer, Nicci moved over to a chair beside the table to be out of his way. He felt as if he were outside of his own body, watching from somewhere above, watching himself go to one knee, watching himself take up Cara's cold hand, watching himself hold it to his cheek.

"Dear spirits, don't do this to her," he whispered. "Please," he added with a choking sob, "don't take her."

He looked over at Nicci. "She wanted to die as a Mord-Sith, fighting for our cause, not in bed."

Nicci offered the smallest of smiles. "She had her wish."

The words, making it sound as if Cara was already dead, hit him like a blow. He couldn't allow this to happen. He just couldn't. Kahlan was gone, and now this. He just couldn't let it happen.

He cupped a hand to Cara's icy face. It felt like touching the dead. Richard swallowed back the tears.

"Nicci, you're a sorceress. You saved me when I was near death. No one else but you would have ever been able to come up with a solution. No one but you could have saved me. Isn't there anything at all that you can think of to do for Cara?"

Nicci slipped forward off the chair to kneel beside him. She took up his hand and held it to her lips. He felt a tear fall onto the back of the hand she so tenderly held, as if she were a humble subject beseeching her king's forgiveness.

"I'm so sorry, Richard, but there isn't. I hope you know that I would do anything it took if I could save her, but I can't. This is beyond my ability. A time comes when we all have to die. Her time has come and I can't change it."