The First Confessor (9 page)

Those gifted down in the lower reaches of the Keep worked day and night, many in secret, on things that Baraccus rarely talked about. Magda remembered Tilly’s chilling gossip about some of the projects. While Magda didn’t necessarily believe everything Tilly said, she knew that it likely wasn’t far off the mark.

If the council didn’t go along with Alric Rahl’s plan, and the gifted didn’t come up with a counter of their own, the New World would be lost.

But on the other hand, it meant making Alric Rahl more than a mere king. It meant making him the ruler of the entire New World. It meant allowing him to create an empire and make himself its ruler.

Even if Magda could influence the council, would she want to be a part of such a thing? Would Baraccus have wanted her to?

She remembered, then, being up on the wall earlier that same day, seemingly in a fog, preparing to throw herself to her death. Even though it had only been hours ago, it was beginning to feel more like a dream in the dim past.

Had she really been serious? Had she really, in her heart, wanted to die? To kill herself? Of course she was still heartbroken and the future still seemed bleak, but not in quite the same way.

She remembered the whispers urging her to jump.

Was it possible?

If it was true . . .

Her mouth felt as dry as dust.

“I see what you mean, Lord Rahl.” Magda laced her fingers together as she paced off a few steps, trying to come to grips with the enormity of everything that had happened. In the last few days her life had been turned upside down. Everything had changed. Despite the uncertainty of the war, her husband had been her security. Now, there was no more security. Now, she had only herself to rely on.

“Then you must act,” Alric Rahl said. “You must do your best to convince the council to help me protect the Midlands from the dream walkers.”

Magda, staring off into the dark end of the room where the glow of the candlelight hardly penetrated, finally turned back. She looked up at his grim concern.

“You’re right. I don’t know if I can convince them to listen to me, but I have to try. I must find a way to get the council to go along. We have truth on our side. Maybe I can make them see that and make them see that they must act for the good of us all.”

He let out a deep sigh as he nodded. “Thank you, Magda. Let us hope that you can convince the council. It may be our only chance.”

But then pain slammed into her so abruptly, so unexpectedly, so violently that it took her breath.

Magda’s muscles locked stiff as the searing pain ignited in her head. It felt as if half a dozen hot needles were all at the same time being thrust into her ears, through her temples, and up into the base of her skull.

A razor-sharp spike of pain lanced into the nerves just below her ears as if yet more of the searing-hot needles were being thrust in right behind her jaw on either side. Her eyes watered and her mouth opened wide, but she couldn’t make a scream. She couldn’t draw a breath. The weight of the terrible agony locked her muscles rigid.

Lord Rahl frowned. “Magda?”

She could see the puzzled concern on his face, but she couldn’t speak to tell him what was happening. She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t do that, either. Mostly, she wanted to somehow make the unexpected, savage pain stop.

She couldn’t endure it for another moment. As much as she wanted to live, she welcomed death if only it would bring her release.

In that helpless, desolate instant, she knew.

The initial violence of the pain unexpectedly eased up just a bit. She didn’t know if it was a depraved game, or if the crushing hurt was going to ram back in at her again with even more force. In that brief break, Magda gasped a breath.

Before she could cry out, the pain slammed into her again, but with immensely more force than the first time. She hadn’t thought it possible for it to hurt more, but it did. The startling power of it left her senseless.

Staggered, she began to lose her awareness of where she was. Her skull felt as if it were being slowly crushed.

A powerful blow came out of nowhere like a bolt of lightning, striking her in the middle, doubling her over. Her muscles strained against a force squeezing her chest. She heard snapping and felt her ribs break, sending yet another kind of pain ripping through her.

In insufferable torment, her eyes wide, she saw Lord Rahl rushing toward her, yet his movements seemed impossibly slow. He almost looked to be a statue, unable to make any headway. At the slow, dreamlike rate at which he appeared to be moving, she didn’t think he would reach her before she was dead.

She felt something warm and wet running from her ears and down along her jaw. She saw bright blood splattering on the stone floor under her.

Magda dropped heavily to her knees.

Her vision narrowed to a dark tunnel. Everything seemed far away. She thought she heard voices but she couldn’t make them out over the piercing, painful, high-pitched noise she was hearing.

Just at the dark edge of her restricted vision, she saw Lord Rahl’s two big guards draw their swords as they, too, started toward her. She knew that they now saw her as a threat.

The blood running from her ears and dripping from her chin merged into a wet, red pool on the floor beneath her. She could feel the wet warmth soaking her knees and dress.

Through the stunning torment, through the paralyzing pain spiking down through her head and ripping up through her abdomen, Magda, like the guards, realized what was happening. As disoriented as she was, she was all too aware of the alien presence roaring out from the dark corners of her mind.

If the thing within didn’t kill her, the guards surely would. Magda recognized that she had only precious moments to live.

With that awareness, she realized how desperately she didn’t want to die. Despite how much she wanted the pain to stop, she didn’t want to die. She had never felt so strongly about wanting to live. But she could feel herself slipping ever closer to the dark rim of the underworld.

Magda remembered then her husband’s last words on the note in her pocket.

Be strong now, guard your mind, and live the life that only you can live.

Lord Rahl was right there, right before her, his boots in her blood. He was leaning down, his hands on her shoulders as he yelled something.

She couldn’t hear him. She could hear only the ripping howl of pain in her ears.

Magda clutched Lord Rahl’s pant legs in her fists as the pain darkened her vision, threatening to blind her. She knew that in brief moments she would not only lose her vision, she would lose consciousness. She knew that she had only those brief seconds before everything was lost to her.

She could hear Alric Rahl above her yelling urgently, but she couldn’t make out the distant words. She could feel his powerful fingers grasping her shoulders as he leaned over her.

She knew that this was her only chance.

But she didn’t know if she could summon the strength.

“Master Rahl . . .” she managed in a hoarse voice. Blood dripped from her lips. She could taste it in her mouth.

Terror tightened her throat. Her heartbeats came weaker and weaker. She knew that she was about to die. She could feel the glimmer of life itself slipping away. It seemed too much effort to hold on to it.

It was even too much effort to draw another breath.

Some part of her, though, desperately didn’t want to surrender to the lure of release.

Magda summoned all her remaining strength and gasped in a last breath.

With her lungs filled by that last gasp at life, she forced herself on in a desperate rush, giving herself over to the words, giving herself over to their meaning.

“Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled.” She put her heart and soul into the words. “We live only to serve. Our lives are yours.”

Darkness passed through her, shadowing her soul. She thought that it must be too late.

But then the pain abruptly lost its hold on her.

Magda, panting in relief as the full force of crushing torment released her, crumpled to the ground, weeping in lingering agony and sweet gratitude for Baraccus’s words of
guard your mind
.

They had just saved her life.

Baraccus had just saved her life.

Lord Rahl had just saved her life.

Free of the alien presence, but still in agony, Magda lay in a warm, velvety pool of her own blood. The pain in her head, still radiating into her ears and down through her jaw, was horrific. As much as she hurt, though, she was profoundly thankful that it was at least not the same kind of agony as the crushing pain the dream walker had been inflicting from within.

As much as she didn’t want to suffer the pain of being touched, she didn’t have the power to offer much resistance as Lord Rahl and his two bodyguards gently rolled her over. She cried out at the torture of being moved. She could feel broken ribs grate together with each shallow breath.

“Easy, now,” Lord Rahl said in a surprisingly gentle voice as big hands caught her weakly flailing arms. “It’s going to be all right. You have to be still, though. Don’t try to get up.”

In a daze, Magda was only dimly aware of where she was and what was happening. It seemed like it all was happening to someone else and she was only watching it. Her whole body throbbed in terrible pain. But even that, too, in an odd way seemed strangely distant.

“At least that bastard is gone from her now,” one of the big guards said.

Lord Rahl grunted his agreement before looking down at her. “It’s going to be all right, Magda. I’m going to help you.”

Magda nodded. She didn’t really know why. She had to swallow back the blood in her mouth.

Lord Rahl leaned in closer over her. He had the strangest look in his eyes. Magda realized, then, that it was fear.

At seeing that look, at comprehending that it was fear for her, she started to panic. With a firm grip on her shoulders, he forced her back down.

“Listen to me, Magda. You need to be still. Don’t fight it. Let me do that.”

She tried to ask what he meant, but the words came out in a jumble that even she couldn’t understand.

He smiled just a bit. “No need to talk anymore. You got the right words out when you needed them.” He patted her shoulder. “You’re safe from the dream walker, now.”

Magda sagged in relief. At least that monster was gone from her mind. She had felt that evil presence for only a brief time, but it was something she knew she would never be able to forget. Tears of gratitude at being free of the dream walker ran across her cheeks. Even if she had to endure the lingering effects of his attack, even if she was to die, she was at least free of his vile presence.

“I need to get into your mind, Magda—”

She had just escaped that very thing. She didn’t want anyone in her mind ever again. She didn’t want to have anyone controlling her in that way. In a panic at the thought of it, she thrashed, trying to escape his grip.

“Listen to me,” he said as he held both of her wrists firmly in one of his big hands. “It will only be to heal the damage. You’re still losing a lot of blood. I have to hurry. You have to let me help you. Just lie still and don’t fight me, all right? Can you do that? Can you trust me? It will be easier if you do.”

This was a chance at life. This was a chance to be pulled back from that terrifying dark void. She had fought for her life. She couldn’t let herself slip beyond the veil. At last, she let the tension go from her muscles and nodded.

“Thank you, Master Rahl,” she managed with the greatest of effort.

He offered a brief smile before putting his hands to either side of her head. His hands muffled the distant sounds of the world, muffled what she only then realized was the sounds of her own sobs.

She looked up at him, and his blue eyes reminded her of looking up into a blue sky. As she stared, unable to blink, she was drawn into that calming color. His eyes became the sky. She felt herself falling into that azure forever that became sapphire that became cobalt that became midnight blue that became simply midnight.

She felt the weight of his power press in on her mind as the cold flood of his magic cascaded down through her whole being.

She had been healed by Baraccus before, but that had been for relatively minor things—a deep cut, a twisted ankle, a crippling headache—so she recognized the unique feel of Additive Magic. What in those instances had been a trickle was now a massive icy torrent overwhelming her with its power.

Even more, though, she felt the red-hot touch of what she knew had to be Subtractive Magic. She imagined that he was removing residual traces of the damage done by the dream walker’s presence.

She gasped at the sudden, sharp, searing heat deep inside her ears. She recoiled at the smell of burning flesh, realizing that he must be cauterizing the wounds to stop the bleeding.

Even though she felt lost in a strange, empty place, she knew that she was not alone. He was there with her, working, trying to help her. It was something like when the dream walker had made himself known in her mind, but at the same time it was the opposite side of that alien presence. The dream walker, she knew, she could feel, had been malicious and had fully intended harm.

This, by contrast, was a benevolent presence. Despite the pain pulling her ever downward inside herself, she could feel that his purpose was only to help her, only to eventually be able to lift her pain away.

She could feel every thread of Additive Magic stitching through her torn muscles and broken ribs. It didn’t exactly hurt, but the odd sensation made her queasy. She wanted to squirm away, yet she knew that this was her only chance and so she surrendered to it. The warm power seeping deep into her ears was equally uncomfortable.

At the same time, she was aware of him trying to force her to let him lift the agony away. Magda resisted, holding on tight. She didn’t want anyone else, especially Master Rahl, to have to feel the agony she felt. She clutched it tight, trying to shield him from the full force of the suffering.