Terry Goodkind - Stone of Tears

“The Keeper was repulsed by what I had done. He rejected me. I went instead to be with what you think of as the good spirits.

“In much the same way that what I did earned me peace I never expected, the sacrifices you and Richard have selflessly made for others, and each other, have merited the granting of this peace to the two of you. Because you each possess both sides of the magic, and are linked to me by deeds, before I pass beyond the veil I am empowered to bring you together, for a brief time, in a place between the worlds.”

Denna, draped in long, flowing robes, spread her arms wide. The luminous folds hung from her arms all the way to the ground.

“Come, child. Come into my arms, and I will take you to Richard.”

Trembling, Kahlan stepped under Denna’s outstretched arm.

Richard stood under the illumination of Denna’s arm as it came tenderly around him. The world vanished into the radiance. He didn’t know what to expect, only that he wanted to see Kahlan more than life itself.

The overpowering, white blaze dimmed to a mellow glow.

Kahlan appeared before him. She gasped, and then threw herself into his arms. She wailed his name as she clutched him.

They embraced, without words, just feeling the presence of each other. He felt her warmth, her breathing, her quaking. He didn’t want to ever let her go.

They sank to the soft support under them. He didn’t know what it was, and he didn’t care; it was solid enough to hold them. He wanted her arms around him forever. She finally stopped weeping, and put her head against his shoulder as he held her tight.

At last, she looked up to his face, her beautiful green eyes gazing deeply into his. “Richard, I’m so sorry I made you put that collar around your . . .”

Richard put his ringer to her lips. “It was all for a reason. It took me time to understand how foolish I was being, and how brave you are. That is all that matters. It makes me love you all the more, because you sacrificed your own needs to save me.”

She shook her head. “My Richard. How did you get here?”

“I prayed to the good spirits. Denna came.”

“Me too. Denna made a sacrifice for you, too. She took the power of the mark, so you would live. Denna gave your life back to me. She is at peace now.”

“I know.” He ran his hand down her head, down her short hair. “What happened to your hair?”

“A wizard cut it off.”

“A wizard. Well then, I guess a wizard will have to restore it to you.”

Richard ran his hand lovingly down her hair. He remembered the way Zedd had stroked his hand down his own jaw to make his beard grow. It seemed as if from having seen Zedd do it, he knew how to do it, too. With each stroke of his hand, her hair lengthened. Richard continued to pull from the calm center within him, and her hair continued to lengthen. When it was the same as before, he stopped.

Kahlan lifted a long lock of her hair, looking at it in wonder. “Richard, how did you do that?”

“I have the gift, remember?”

She beamed with her special smile, the smile of sharing she gave no other. Kahlan ran her hand down his cheek.

“I’m sorry, Richard, but I don’t like your beard. I like you the way you were before.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Really? Well then, since we set you back to right, we will just have to do the same for me, too.”

Richard drew his hand down his jaw, again pulling the power from the calm center.

Kahlan gasped in astonishment. “Richard! It’s gone! Your beard is gone! You made it vanish! How did you do that!”

“I have the gift for both sides of the magic.”

She blinked in surprise. “Subtractive Magic? Richard, is any of this real, or am I just dreaming it?”

And then he kissed her, long and deep.

“Feels real to me,” he said breathlessly.

“Richard, I’m afraid. You’re with the Sisters. I will never again be able to be with you. I can’t go on if you are going to be taken from . . .”

“I’m not with the Sisters. I’m in Aydindril.”

“Aydindril!”

He nodded. “I left the Palace of the Prophets. Sister Verna helped me. Then I had to go to D’Hara.”

Richard told her everything that had happened since he had left her, and she told him all she had been through. Richard could hardly believe the things she had done.

“I’m so proud of you,” he said. “You truly are the Mother Confessor. You are the greatest Mother Confessor that ever lived.”

“Go back to the hall before the council chambers, and you will see big paintings of Confessors who were greater than I will ever be.”

“That, my love, I doubt.”

He kissed her again. A hot, passionate kiss. She kissed him back, desperately, as if she needed nothing so much from life as to be in his arms kissing him. He kissed her cheek, her ears and her neck. She moaned against him.

“Richard, is the scar, Darken Rahl’s mark, really gone?”

He pulled his shirt open to show her.

Her hand stroked his chest. “It’s really true,” she whispered.

Tenderly, she kissed his chest. She ran her hand over him, kissing where it had been. She gave a sucking kiss to his nipple.

“Not fair,” he said breathlessly. “I get to kiss anything on you that you kiss on me.”

Kahlan looked him in the eye as she unbuttoned her shirt. “Bargain struck.”

She started pulling at his clothes as he trailed wet kisses down her soft flesh. Her breathing quickened with each.

“Kahlan,” he managed to say as he pulled away, “the good spirits may be watching us.”

She pushed him onto his back and kissed him. “If they truly are good spirits, they will turn their backs.”

The feel of her warm flesh made his head spin. The feel of the shape of her made him moan with need. Around them, the mellow glow pulsed with their breathing. It seemed to be an extension of their heat.

Richard rolled over on top of her. He gazed down into her green eyes. “I love you, Kahlan Amnell. Now, and always.”

“And I you, my Richard.”

As they pressed their lips together, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and her soft legs around his.

In the void between worlds, in the soft glow of a timeless place, they were one.

Kahlan strolled back into the inn. She stood in the shadows at the end of the hall leading into the dining room. She still felt the glow, the warmth, the mind-numbing joy and fulfillment. Everyone looked up when they heard her footsteps.

Zedd shot to his feet. “Kahlan! Bags, girl, where have you been all night! It’s just turning to dawn! You’ve been missing since dusk! We’ve been searching the town all night for you! Where did you go?”

She turned and held her hand out. “To the little garden, out back.”

Zedd stormed across the room. “You were not in the garden!”

She smiled dreamily. “Well, that was where I went, but I left that place. I went to be with Richard. Zedd, he escaped from the Sisters. He is in Aydindril.”

Zedd slowed to a stop. “Kahlan, I know you have had a hard time of it, but you have simply had a vision of something you wished.”

“No, Zedd. I prayed to the good spirits. She came and took me to Richard. To be with him in a place between the worlds.”

“Kahlan, that is simply not . . .”

Kahlan stepped out of the shadows, into the firelight. Zedd’s eyes went wide.

“What . . . what happened to your hair?” the wizard whispered. “It’s long again.”

Kahlan grinned. “Richard made it right. He has the gift, you know.” She held out the Agiel hanging from her neck. “He gave me this. He said he doesn’t need it anymore.”

“But . . . there has to be some other explanation . . .”