Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

She felt a tear roll down her cheek. With her fingers she wiped it away, but it was quickly followed by another. She almost let out a jubilant laugh.

"My husband?"

Samuel nodded furiously. "Yes, Mistress. You are the Mother Confessor. He is the Lord Rahl. He is married to you. He is your husband."

Feeling herself trembling, Kahlan tried to think, but her mind just didn't respond, as if it had so many thoughts all at once that they simply jumbled together in a tangled mess.

She suddenly remembered Richard lying on the ground in the Order's camp, crying out for her to get away.

Richard was a captive of the Order at best, but more likely, he was dead.

She had only just learned her connection to him, and now he was lost to her.

She felt a tear roll down her cheek, but this time there was no joy behind it, only horror.

She finally collected herself and focused her attention on the man on his knees before her. "Where were you taking me?"

"To Tamarang. To my .. . my other mistress."

"Other mistress?"

He nodded hurriedly. "Six."

She recalled Jagang talking about her. Kahlan frowned. "The witch woman?"

Samuel looked terrified to answer, but he did. "Yes, Mistress. I was told to bring you and to give you over to her."

She gestured to where she had been sleeping. "Did she tell you to do that?"

Even more reluctantly, Samuel licked his lips. Confessing to murder was one thing, but this was entirely different.

"I asked if I could have you," he whined. "She said that if I wanted to take you I could, as my reward for my service, but that I was to bring you to her alive."

"And what did she want with me?"

"I believe she wanted you as a bargaining tool."

"With who?"

"Emperor Jagang."

"But I was already with Jagang."

"Jagang wants you very badly. She knows how valuable you are to him. She wanted to take possession of you and then trade you back to Jagang in return for favors for herself."

"How far are we from Tamarang, from the witch woman?"

"Not far." Samuel pointed southwest. "If we don't delay, we can get there by the end of tomorrow, Mistress."

Kahlan suddenly felt very vulnerable being this close to a woman as powerful as that. She knew without doubt that she had to get out of the area or she might be located without the benefit of Samuel dragging her right up to Six's feet.

"And since you were to turn me over tomorrow, you knew that your time with me was running out. You were going to rape me."

It wasn't a question, but a statement of fact.

Samuel wrung his hands, tears streaming down his red face. "Yes, Mistress." In the terrible silence he became even more distraught as she stood staring down at him. Kahlan knew that a person touched was no longer who they were, no longer had all the mind they once had. Once taken, they were completely devoted to the Confessor.

It occurred to her that something very much like that had been done to her. She wondered if her memory was as lost to her as Samuel's past was now forever lost to him. It was a terrifying thought.

"Please, Mistress . .. forgive me?"

In the dragging silence he could not endure the guilt of his intent. He began to cry hysterically, unable to endure the condemnation in her eyes.

"Please, Mistress, find mercy for me in your heart."

"Mercy is a contingency plan devised by the guilty in the eventuality that they are caught. Justice is the domain of the just. This is about justice."

"Then please, Mistress, please . . . forgive me?"

Kahlan stared into his eyes to be sure that he would not mistake her words or her intent.

"No. That would be a corruption of the concept of justice. I will not forgive you, not now, not ever-not out of hate but because you are guilty of more crimes than those against me."

"I know, but you could forgive me of my crimes against you. Please, Mistress, just those things. Just forgive me for what I have done to you, and for what I intended to do to you?"

"No."

The reality of the finality of that proclamation settled into his eyes. He gasped in horror at the realization that his actions, the choices he had made, were irredeemable. He felt nothing for his other crimes, but he felt the full weight of responsibility for his crimes against her.

He saw himself, probably for the first time in his life, for what he really was-the way she saw him.

Samuel gasped again as he clutched his chest, and then crumpled onto his side, dead.

Without delay, Kahlan began gathering up her things. With the witch woman this close she had to get away as fast as possible. She didn't know where she would go, but she knew where she couldn't go.

She suddenly realized that she should have thought more about it and asked Samuel a great many more questions. She had let those many answers slip through her fingers.

The news about Richard-about Richard being her husband-had so scrambled her thoughts that she simply hadn't considered asking Samuel anything else. She suddenly felt like a monumental fool for missing such an invaluable opportunity.