Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

"Purge the tunnels," Richard said, his own voice sounding hollow to him.

"What?" Nathan asked.

"Clear the corridors first-make sure there are no more Order soldiers up here. Then use wizard's fire. Send it down through the catacombs. The catacombs are places of the dead. Purge them of the living."

Nathan nodded. "I'll see to it at once."

As he stood, Richard, tightly gripping Nicci's hand, looked up at the tall wizard. "Nathan, there has to be something you can do."

"I can keep any more of them from getting through."

"I mean for Nicci. What can we do to help her?"

From the desolate depths of his own inner torment, Nathan gazed down at Richard. "Stay with her, Richard. Be with her until she's gone. Don't let her be alone in the last moments. That's all you can do now."

With a flourish of his cape he turned and rushed after General Meiffert.

CHAPTER 44

Cara, sitting on her heels beside him, laid a hand compassionately on Richard's shoulder as he bent over Nicci.

He felt dead himself.

He wrapped Nicci protectively in his arms, unable to offer her any real protection, any salvation-unable to offer her redemption from Jagang's claim on her life.

The totality of the events that had carried him to that point in his life seemed to overwhelm him. No matter what he did, the believers in the Imperial Order advanced their cause steadily onward. In their fanaticism, they were determined to wipe all joy from life, to squeeze any meaning from it, to curdle existence itself into unbearable misery.

Devoted to their mindless faith in a perfect, eternal afterlife gained through sacrifice of this life, the followers of the Order lusted to see to it that everyone who dared to want to exist for the sake of this life alone was made to suffer immeasurably for that singular, intolerable, sinful desire.

Richard hated them. He hated them passionately for all the harm they inflicted on others.

He wished he could wipe them all from the world of life.

Nicci, despite being largely unresponsive, tightened an arm around his neck as if to comfort him in his grief, as if to tell him that it was all right, that she too, like so many all around who had fought and died to defend their way of life, the right of their loved ones to live safe from violence brought against them for simply desiring to live free, would soon be at eternal peace beyond the reach of pain. Even though he knew that she would at last be free of terrible suffering, and out of Jagang's reach, Richard couldn't bear the thought of her leaving the world of life.

At that moment, everything seemed futile to Richard. Everything good in life was being methodically destroyed by people who fervently believed that their pious purpose in life was to murder those who would not bow down and submit to the Order's beliefs.

The world was in the grip of utter madness.

So many had already died, so many more would die. Richard felt as if he were caught in a whirlpool, forever being sucked down into the depths of despair. There seemed no end to the senseless slaughter, no escape from it but death.

And now Nicci was taking that final journey.

He had just wanted to live his life with the woman he loved, the same as so many others. Instead, Kahlan's mind had been stolen from her, leaving her a tool of those with a burning desire to either impose their beliefs on everyone or to destroy them all. While he might have helped Kahlan get away for the moment, Jagang's minions would be hunting her. None of them would ever give up. Unless they were stopped, the Order would have Kahlan just as it would have everyone.

Now Nicci was being slowly drained of her life as well.

As Richard turned inward, turned away from everyone and everything, he felt a sudden, violent, wrenching jolt within. For a moment it held him gripped in a strange and silent netherworld before tumbling him once again into an inner storm.

He didn't know the source of the inner disorientation, but it suddenly felt as if he had become lost among a million meteors. And then they all exploded outward from somewhere within the unfathomable depths of his being.

Cara grabbed his arm and shook him. "Lord Rahl! What's wrong? Lord Rahl!"

He realized that he was screaming. He couldn't stop himself.

Amid the incandescence, understanding overcame him.

He suddenly knew without a doubt the cause of the sensation.

It was an awakening.

The glorious power of that rebirth was staggering. Every fiber of his being was suddenly on fire with the life of it. At the same time, the marrow of every bone rang out in pain so monumental that it nearly rendered him senseless.

He could feel his birthright burning again within, feel himself whole again for the first time in what seemed forever. It was almost as if he had forgotten who he was, what he was, as if he'd lost his way and it had all suddenly returned in one blinding instant.

His gift had returned. He had no idea why or how, but it had returned.