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Her whole life she had sacrificed everything, as had the other Confessors, to protect these people, and the whole time they believed these monstrosities instead. Kahlan thought, when she heard a witness testify that in order to retain their magical power, Confessors had to dine regularly on human flesh, that there would be laughter at the charge. Instead, wide-eyed people leaned forward and gasped. She had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from bursting into tears, not because she was being charged with such things, but because people truly believed them of her.
Kahlan finally stopped listening. As Ranson listed charges, brough forth witnesses, and the Council found her guilty of charge after charge, she thought about Richard. She tried to remember all the moments she had spent with him, all the times he had smiled, all the times he had touched her. She tried to remember every kiss.
"You think it amusing!" Ranson railed.
Kahlan looked up. She realized she was smiling. "What?"
A woman was standing to the side, weeping into a kerchief. Kahlan blinked at her, and then looked up to Ranson.
"I'm sorry, I guess I missed her performance."
The crowd grumbled in anger. Ranson leaned back in his chair with a disgusted shake of his head.
"Guilty, of practicing your Confessor's magic on children."
"What? Are you insane? Children?"
Ranson held a hand out toward the woman, who broke into wild wailing. "She has just testified that her child is missing, and has told how other women have had their children disappear, too, and how it is common knowledge that the children are taken so that Confessors may practice their magic on them. As a wizard, I can verify the truth of this." The crowd howled with rage.
Kahlan blinked up at him. "I have a headache. Why don't you just chop it off for me."
"Uncomfortable, Mother Confessor? Uncomfortable that the people would be given the chance to face their oppressor, and hear the extent of her heinous crimes?"
Kahlan held her Confessor's face to keep from tears. "I am sorry, only that I have given my whole life to the people of the Midlands. Had I known they would be so ungrateful, and believe instead such filth after what I have sacrificed for them, I would have been more selfish and left them to true tyranny."
Ranson scowled down at her. "You have worked your whole life for the Keeper." The crowd gasped again. "That is who you serve. That is what you work for. You offer the souls of your people to your Master, the Keeper, in the underworld."
People in the balconies wailed with terror. Cries of anger and calls for vengeance echoed in the dome. Shaking their fists, the crowd on the main floor tried to push forward, but the guards spread their arms and held them back. Ranson lifted his hands, calling for calm and quiet.
Kahlan moved her gaze over the people to each side.
"I give you to the Imperial Order," she called out in a loud voice. "I work no longer to save you. You will be punished for your unthinking willingness to believe these lies. Punished by what your own selfish desires will bring upon you. You will come to regret the torment your have willingly cast yourselves into. I am joyful that I will be dead, so I will not be tempted to help you. I regret only that I have ever shed a tear for your suffering. To the Keeper with all of you!
Kahlan glared up at a smirking wizard Ranson. "Get on with it! Chop off my head! I'm sickened with this travesty of truth! You and your Imperial Order win. Kill me, so I may be rid of this life, and go to the spirit world, where I will not have to suffer to help anyone. I confess to everything. Execute me. I am guilty of it all." She looked down at the body at her feet. "Except killing this Keltish pig. I wish, now, that I would have killed him, but unfortunately, I can't claim credit."
Ranson lifted an eyebrow. "A liar to the end, Mother Confessor; you cannot even admit the truth of this murder."
Lady Ordith came in, her nose in the air, and testified that she had heard Kahlan threaten Prince Fyren only the night before. The Council all spoke up, that they, too, had heard her threaten to cut his throat.
"This is your proof?" Kahlan asked.
Ranson gestured to the side. "Bring in the witness. You see, Mother Confessor, we know the truth. One of your former friends wanted to help hide the truth of your ways, and we had to use extreme measures to make her cooperate, but in the end, she did."
A shaking Mistress Sanderholt was led into the chamber. Guards stood to each side of her stooped, thin frame. Her face was drawn, her red eyes heavy with dark bags underneath. Her familiar vitality was gone. Swaying slightly, she looked as if she could hardly stand without aid.
Mistress Sanderholt held her mangled hands out, in fear they would touch anything. All her fingernails had been pulled off with tongs. Bile rose in Kahlan's throat.
A stern faced Neville Ranson looked down at the woman. "Tell us what you know of this murder."
Mistress Sanderholt gazed unblinking up at him. She bit her lower lip. Her eyes filled with tears. It was obvious she didn't want to speak.
Ranson slammed his fist on the desk. "Speak! Or we will find you guilty of aiding the murderer!"
"Mistress Sanderholt," Kahlan said softly. The woman's eyes came to her. "Mistress Sanderholt, I know the truth, and you know the truth; that is all that matters. These people are going to do as they plan, with or without your help. I do not want you to suffer on my account. Please tell them what they wish to hear."
Tears rolled down her face. "But..."
Kahlan straightened her back. "Mistress Sanderholt, as Mother Confessor, I command you to testify against me."
Mistress Sanderholt gave her a twitch of a smile. She turned her face up to the Council. "I saw the Mother Confessor sneak up behind Prince Fyren. She cut his throat before he knew she was there. She gave him no chance to defend himself."
Ranson smiled down and gave her a nod. "Thank you, Mistress Sanderholt. And you were her friend, but you came forward and agreed to testify, because you wanted the Council, and the people, to know the truth?"
More tears streamed down. "Yes. Though I loved her, I had to tell the people the truth of her murderous ways."
After she was escorted out, and the Council had unanimously found her culpable, Ranson stood, lifting his hand for silence before addressing the people.
"The Mother Confesso
r has been found guilty of all charges!" Everyone hooted and hollered their satisfaction. They shouted for an immediate execution. "The Mother Confessor will be executed, but not this day." He held his hand up angrily against the protests. They quieted. "She has committed crimes against all the people. They must be given a chance to hear of justice being done. They must be given a chance to come to the beheading. It will be held in a few days, when everyone harmed by this criminal has had a chance to come to see her executed."
Neville Ranson stepped down and came around the dais. He stood in front of her, looking into her eyes. He spoke quietly, to her, and not to the crowd.
"You would think to use your power on me, Mother Confessor?"
That had been exactly what she had been thinking, to use her power knowing she would die in the process. But she said nothing.
Ranson's smile was cold and cruel. "You shall not have the chance. I am going to strip you of three things. First, your power and its symbol. Second, your dignity. Third, your life."
Kahlan threw herself at him. He stood, his hands clasped, and watched as she was able to move only inches before she was mired in a thickness of air that held her tight. She fought unsuccessfully against the staggering power that held her.
The wizard lifted his hands. Kahlan saw a flash. She cried out as she felt a cold shock flood through her body. It felt as if she had plunged naked into an icy river. She shivered violently. The sting of cold brought tears to her eyes. The cold pain felt as if could grow no worse, could hurt no more, but then it did.
It felt as if her insides ripped, as if her heart were being torn from her chest. She screamed in pain. Stunned by the shock of it, she realized she was on her knees. Ranson was holding his hands out, over her head.
When the pain lifted, she felt tingling panic.
Her power was gone.
Where she had always felt it before, without even being aware of it most of the time, she now felt a forlorn emptiness.
