Warheart Read Free

the distant mountains that looked like gray phantoms floating in the hazy light. Somewhere back there in those mountains was a pass where the witch woman lived.
    â€œI have to go find Red, the witch woman,” Kahlan told her again.
    Nicci glanced toward the mountains. “Why would you want to find a witch woman? Why now, of all times?”
    Kahlan’s gaze met Nicci’s blue eyes. “Witch women can see things in the flow of time. They can see events.”
    â€œThey can certainly make it seem that way at times,” Nicci agreed, “but so can a fortune-teller. They will tell you most anything you want to hear for a silver coin. Exactly what you want to hear and make it sound convincing if the coin is gold.”
    â€œWitch women don’t ask for silver or gold.”
    Nicci looked sympathetic. “That doesn’t mean the things they see really turn out to be true.”
    â€œRed told me that I would be murdered.”
    Nicci paused momentarily at such news. “And did she tell you that Richard would give his life to go to the underworld to come after you?”
    â€œNo. That’s the point. That’s why I have to go see her.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, that’s the point?”
    â€œShe told me that Richard is the pebble in the pond, and because he acts of free will, the ripples of those things he does touch everything, so it disrupts what she can see.” Kahlan gestured toward the puddles. “The same way ripples from the raindrops disturb the reflection.”
    â€œMeaning?” Cassia asked, her wet, red leather creaking.
    Kahlan looked to the hope in the eyes of the three Mord-Sith. “Meaning, there may be a way for us to bring Richard’s soul back to his body in this world.”
    â€œBring him back to life?” Vale asked in a tone of astonished hope.
    Kahlan gave her a quick nod. “Yes.”
    â€œBut you just said that she can’t see what Richard will do,” Cassia said.
    â€œThat’s right–that’s my point. She can’t see what he will do, but she may be able to see what others will do, what others might be able to do, or have the potential to do. Don’t you see?” Kahlan turned back to Nicci. “Red told me to kill you.”
    Nicci’s mouth fell open. “What?”
    Kahlan grasped Nicci’s arm and pulled her a little farther away from the soldiers. The three Mord-Sith followed, forming a shield from the others.
    â€œRed saw that if you weren’t stopped, you would kill Richard,” Kahlan said in a lower voice. “She didn’t know what Richard would do because she can’t predict his actions, but she knew what would happen to others and what you would do. She knew that you would kill him.
    â€œShe said that the future–all of our lives–depends on Richard. Without him, we were all lost. That includes her. Do you see? She has a vested interest in Richard surviving because she would not want the Keeper of the underworld to be able to get hold of her outside the natural order of the Grace.
    â€œSulachan and Hannis Arc want to do exactly that. They intend to break the Grace, break the division between the world of the living and the world of the dead. See what I mean? As a witch woman, she would be doomed to an eternity of torture.
    â€œShe says that Richard is the only one who can stop them. You probably know better than I do all the prophecy that names Richard, and all the different ways he is named and the way he always seems to be at the center of everything.”
    Nicci sighed. “Indeed I do.”
    â€œSo, Red told me that I had to kill you so that you in turn couldn’t end Richard’s life. She said he must live in order for everyone else to have a chance at life. She told me that I would be murdered before you killed him, so I had to kill you first.
    â€œShe was right about it all. But at the time I told her I didn’t believe you would