Stone of Tears

As she held him by his hair, she drew her other hand back to slap him. His eyes winced shut. She couldn’t make herself do it; she couldn’t hit him. It was all she could do just to stay on her feet, not to fall to her knees and throw her arms around him and tell him how much she loved him, that everything was all right.

But it wasn’t all right. If he didn’t do this, he would die.

She was the only one who could save him. Even if it killed her.

“Don’t hit me anymore,” he whispered. “Please, Denna… Don’t.”

Kahlan swallowed back the wail that tried to escape her throat and made herself speak. “Look at me.” He did as she ordered. “I’m not going to tell you again, Richard. If you love me, you will accept the offer and put on the collar. If you don’t, I will make you regret disobeying me more than anything you have ever regretted in your life. Do it now, or it’s over. Everything is over.” His eyes faltered. She gritted her teeth. “I’m not going to tell you again, my pet. Put on the collar. Now!”

Kahlan knew, knew that “my pet” was what Denna had called him. Denna had told her with the rest of it. She knew what those two words meant to him. She had hoped she wouldn’t have to use them. Whatever link he had to sanity dissolved in that instant. She saw it in his eyes: the thing she feared more than death.

Betrayal.

She released her grip on his hair as, on his knees, he turned to Sister Verna. She lifted the collar a little, holding it out to him. It looked dull, gray, dead in the cold light. Richard stared at it. Snowflakes drifted down in the still, quiet light. Expressionless, Sister Verna watched him.

All right,” he whispered. His shaking hand reached for the collar. His fingers touched it, curled around it. “I accept the offer. I accept the collar.”

“Then put it around your neck,” Sister Verna said in a soft voice, “and close it.”

He turned to Kahlan. “I would do anything for you,” he whispered.

Kahlan wanted to die.

His hands shook so much she thought he might drop the collar as he took it from Sister Verna. He held it, staring at it.

But then his hands stopped shaking. He took a deep breath and put the collar around his neck. It closed with a snap, and the seam disappeared, leaving a smooth ring of metal.

The shaft of light dimmed as if to twilight even though it was still day. Deep, ominous thunder rumbled in every direction out across the grasslands. It didn’t sound like any thunder Kahlan had ever heard before. She could feel it in the ground beneath her feet. She thought that maybe it had something to do with the magic of the collar, something to do with the Sisters.

She knew, when she glanced at Sister Verna and saw her eyes glide around, that it wasn’t.

Richard smoothly rose to his feet before the Sister. “You may find, Sister Verna, that holding the leash to this collar is worse than wearing it.” He gritted his teeth. “Much worse.”

Sister Verna’s voice remained calm. “We only want to help you, Richard.”

He nodded slightly. “I take nothing on faith. You will have to prove it.”

In a panic, a sudden thought came to Kahlan. “What is the third reason? What is the third reason for the collar?”

Richard turned to her with a glare that even his father could not have matched. For a moment, she forgot how to breathe.

“The first reason is to control the headaches and open my mind so that I may be taught to use the gift. The second reason is to control me.” His hand came up and grabbed her by the throat. His eyes sliced through her. “The third reason is to give me pain.”

She closed her eyes with a wail. “No! Dear spirits, no!”

He released her throat. His expression went slack, lost. “I hope I have proven my love for you, Kahlan. I hope you believe me now. I have given you everything. I hope it is enough; I have nothing else to offer. Nothing.”

“You have. More than you could ever realize. I love you more than anything in the world, Richard.”

She reached out to touch his cheek. He pushed her hand away. His eyes said it all; she had betrayed him.

“Do you?” He looked away. “I would like to believe you.”

She tried to swallow the painful, burning lump in her throat. “You promised me you would never doubt my love.”

He nodded slightly. “so I did.”

If she could have called lightning down on herself, she would have done it. “Richard… I know you don’t understand right now, but I only did what I had to—to help you live. To keep you from being killed by the headaches, the gift. I hope that someday you will understand. I will always wait for you; I love you with all my heart.”

He nodded tearfully. “If that’s true, then find Zedd. Tell him what you have done. Tell him.”

Sister Verna’s voice broke in. “Richard, take your things and go wait with the horses.”