Faith of the Fallen

"Please, Richard. Please take it. For me. I couldn't bear the thought of another woman having your child." Or even the thought of the attempt at its creation-but she didn't say that part of it. "Especially not after mine

. .»

He looked away from her eyes. "Kahlan. ." Words failed him.

"Just do it for me. Take it. Please, Richard. I'm doing as you ask and will endure your captivity; please honor my request in return. I couldn't stand the thought of that bewitching blond beast having your child-the child that should be mine. Don" you see? How could I ever love something I hated?

And how could I ever hate something that was part of you? Please, Richard, don't let it come to that."

The cold wind lifted and twisted her hair. Her whole life, it seemed, was twisting out of her control. She could hardly believe that this place of such joy, peace, and redemption, a place where she had come to live again, could be a place where it would all be taken away.

Richard held the necklace out to her, as if it were a thing that might bite him. The dark stone swung under his fingers, gleaming in the gloom.

"Kahlan, I don't think that's what this is about. I really don't. But anyway, she could simply refuse to wear it and threaten your life if I didn't. ."

Kahlan pulled the gold chain from his fingers and laid it all in a small neat mound in his palm. The dark stone glimmered from its imprisonment behind the veil of tiny gold links. She closed his fingers around the necklace and held his fist shut with both of her hands.

"You're the one who demands we not ignore those things that are painful to contemplate."

"But if she refuses. ."

Kahlan gripped his fist tighter in her trembling fingers. "If it comes to a time when she makes that demand of you, you must convince her to wear the necklace. You must. For me. It's bad enough for me to think she might take my love, my husband, from me like that, but to also fear. ."

His big hand felt so warm and familiar and comforting to her. Her words came choked with desperate tears. She could do no more than beg. "Please.

Richard."

He pressed his lips tight, then nodded and stuffed the necklace in a pocket. "I don't believe those are her intentions, but if it should turn out to be so, you have my word: she will wear the necklace."

Kahlan sagged against him with a sob.

He took her by the arm. "Come on. Hurry. I have to get whatever I need to take. I've only got a few minutes, or all this will be for nothing. I can take the shorter trail and still catch up with her at the top of the pass, but I don't have much time."

CHAPTER 23

Kahlan was aware of Cara, wearing her bloodred leather, standing in the doorway to their bedroom watching Richard cram his things into his pack.

Kahlan nodded as she and Richard exchanged brief, stilted instructions. They had already come to terms with the life-and-death issues. It seemed they both feared to say anything of consequence for fear of disturbing the delicate, desperate, difficult agreements they had reached.

The meager light coming in the small window did little to brighten the gloom. Cara, over in the doorway, blocked some of the light. The room had the feel of a dungeon. Richard, dressed in dark clothes, looked like a shadow. So many times, as she lay in bed recovering, Kahlan had thought of it that way-as her dungeon. Now it had the palpable sense of a dungeon, but with the clean aroma of pine walls instead of the stench of a stone cell from where trembling, sweating prisoners were taken to their death.

Cara looked forlorn one moment and the next like lightning seeking ground. Kahlan knew that the Mord-Sith's emotions had to be as torn as her own, balancing on a knife's edge with despair and grief on one side and rage on the other. MordSith were not used to being in such a position, but then, Cara was now more than simply Mord-Sith.

Kahlan watched Richard pack the black trousers, black undershirt, black and gold tunic, silver wristbands, over-belt with its pouches, and golden cloak into his pack, where they took up a good portion of the available space. He was wearing his dark forest garb; he didn't have time to change.

Kahlan hoped a time would soon come when he would escape and again wear the clothes of a war wizard to toad them against the Order. They all needed him to lead the D'Haran Empire against the invading horde from the Old World.

For reasons that weren't always entirely clear, Richard had become the linchpin of their struggle. Kahlan knew his feelings about that-that people must be willing to fight for themselves and not only for him-were valid. If an idea was sound, it had to have a life beyond a leader, or the leader had failed.

As he threw other clothes and small items into his pack, Richard told Kahlan that maybe she could find Zedd, that he might have some ideas. She nodded and said she would, knowing Zedd wouldn't be able to do anything.