Temple of the Winds

She scooted up toward Cara's hands. With frenzied effort, Kahlan dug at the knot of rope, but the knots were pulled impossibly tight from Cara's thrashing. Kahlan couldn't budge them. She wasn't going to be able to untie them. She would have to cut them.

Drefan's knife lay on the floor, near him. He was lying there, perfectly still. She had to hurry. She had to get the knife and cut Cara's ropes. She had to cut her own. Before he recovered.

Kahlan dug in her heels and scooted toward the knife. She turned around, feeling for it with her fingers.

Drefan rose up and seized her. Holding her around the middle, he lifted her as if she weighed nothing. He brought the knife around in front of her face.

"Nasty stuff, powdered canin pepper. Lucky for me I know how to use my auras to overcome it. Now, my whore of a wife, it's time you paid the price for your perversion."

CHAPTER 67

Richard staggered toward the sliph's room. From a room not far away, where Cara and Berdine had put him, he had heard the screams. He had no idea how long he had been insensate, no idea how long it had been since they had taken him there, but the screams had brought him awake. Someone needed help. And the last scream, he knew-Kahlan. His head pounded in violent pain. He hurt everywhere. He hadn't thought he would be able to stand, but he did. He hadn't thought he would be able walk, but he did. He had to.

He was barefooted, and without a shirt. He had on only his pants. He knew that the lower Keep was cool, but he was covered in a sheen of sweat, hardly able to breathe through the heat he felt. He used all his willpower to force himself to move.

He straightened, put a hand to the side of the door into the sliph's room, and walked in.

Drefan looked up. He had his arm around Kahlan's middle. He had a knife in his other hand. To the side, Cara was lying on the floor, tied in ropes. Her middle was ripped open. She was still alive, but shivering in agony. Richard couldn't make sense of it.

"What in the name of all that's good is going on, Drefan?" "Richard," he sneered. "Just the man I'm looking for." "Well, now I'm here. Let Kahlan go." "Oh, I will, dear brother. Soon. It is you I need." "Why?"

Drefan's eyebrows lifted. "So that I can be reinstated as Lord Rahl. It's my rightful place. The voices told me. My father told me. I am to be Lord Rahl. I was born to it."

The plague was a far distant drone in Richard's mind and body, yet this all seemed a dream, too. "Drop the knife, Drefan, and give up. It's over. Let Kahlan go"

Drefan laughed. He threw his head back and roared with laughter. When it died out, Drefan's eyes narrowed with frightening resolve.

"She wants me. She begs for it. You know the truth of that, my dear brother. You saw what she is. She is a whore. She is just like all the others. Just like Nadine. Just like my mother. She must die, like all the rest."

Richard looked into Kahlan's eyes. What was going on? Dear spirits, how was he going to get her away from Drefan?

"You're wrong, Drefan. Your mother loved you: she took you to a place where you would be safe from Darken Rahl. She loved you. Please, let Kahlan go. I'm begging you."

"She is mine! My wife! I will do with her what I will!" Drefan slammed the knife into Kahlan's lower back. Richard flinched at hearing it hit bone. Kahlan grunted with the impact, her eyes going wide in shock. Drefan released her. She dropped to her knees and crumpled to her side.

Richard tried with all his might to make sense of this. He couldn't decide if this was real, or a dream. He had been having so many dreams, so many nightmares. This seemed like all the rest, but different. He didn't even know if he was alive anymore. The whole room swam before him.

Drefan drew the Sword of Truth. The ring of steel that Richard knew so well echoed around the stone room, a chime that seemed to awaken him into a nightmare. Richard could see the rage from the sword, the magic, take Drefan's eyes.

"I'm all right, Richard," Kahlan panted as she stared up at him. "You don't have a weapon. Get out of here. Get away. I love you. Please, for me. Run."

The rage in Drefan's eyes was nothing to match the rage thundering into Richard's heart.

"Drop the sword, Drefan, now. Or I will kill you." Drefan swept the sword around. "How? With your bare hands?" Richard vividly remembered what Zedd had told him when first giving him the Sword of Truth: the sword was only a tool; the Seeker was the weapon. A true Seeker didn't need the sword.

Richard started forward. "And with hate in my heart."

"I will enjoy killing you, at last, Richard. Even if you don't have a weapon." "I am the weapon."