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As Liliana had warned him, it seemed as if his very life was being pulled from him. He felt a wash of panic that this was killing him. He felt dark death soaking into the void left by what was being ripped from him. He dimly worried that this wasn't right. Terror burgeoned deep within him, and then that too was pulled into the swirling torrent erupting outward.
He wanted nothing more than to scream, as if it would somehow ameliorate the agony. But he could not. His muscles seemed to be losing their life along with the rest of him. He could not breath, or even hold his head up.
Please Liliana, please hurry. Please.
He struggled not to resist what she was doing. He prayed that he would not fight her. He had to get to Kahlan. She needed him.
His eyes were open, he realized, when he recognized the statue in his lap. His head was hanging. The crystal was beginning to glow a dull orange. A dim part of him thought that that must mean it was working, doing its job. His head felt as if it were coming apart. He expected to see blood dripping down, but he saw only the orange glow increasing.
Please Liliana, hurry.
Blackness was enveloping him. Even the insufferable pain was beginning to seem distant. He felt life slipping from his grasp. He felt an emptiness coming upon him that was more ghastly that anything he thought possible.
In the fading recesses of his mind, he felt a presence.
Mriswith.
He felt them near. His level of alarm rose. They were around him, closing in.
And then he heard, as if from a great distance, Liliana's voice. "Wait, my pets. You may have what is left, when I am finished with him. Wait."
He could dimly see the mriswith in his mind, as he always had when they came to him. When Liliana spoke, they moved back.
Why would she say that? Why would the mriswith move back at her command. What did she mean? Maybe the pain had driven him insane, and it was only a mad illusion.
He felt a presence at his back. Not a mriswith. Worse. More gruesome by ten. He felt its fetid breath on his neck.
Liliana's voice came in a dangerous hiss. "I said wait." The presence receded a bit, but not as far as the mriswith.
What did she mean, they could have what was left? He was dying, that was what she meant. He could feel it. He was dying.
No. Liliana said he would think that. It was simply happening like she said, that was all. He had to be strong for Kahlan. But he had so little left to give. He was dying. He knew he was. The statue in his lap was glowing brighter.
The hot breath returned to his neck. He heard a low growl from the loathsome thing. He vehemently wanted it away from him.
Liliana's menacing voice came again. "Wait. I will be finished in a moment, and then you may have his body. Wait."
In that instant, something deep within him told him that if he was ever going to save himself, this was the last chance. It had to be now. The decision to act was sudden desperation.
From deep within, from the core of his mind, from the core of his being, from the core of his soul, he wrenched his will to action, and by force of will, with frantic, colossal effort, he yanked his power, his life—himself—back.
A thundering boom sounded, and an impact sundered the air, throwing the two of them apart. Richard landed on his back at one edge of the clearing, Liliana at the other. The Sword of truth was in the center. The mriswith and the other creature melted back into the darkness among the trees.
Richard gasped for air. He sat up and shook his head. The statue lay on the ground in the center, near his sword. The orange glow was gone.
Liliana floated upward without effort. It looked as if an invisible hand had lifted her gently to her feet. The sight raised hackles on the back of his neck.
She gave him a wicked smile. Richard hadn't thought Liliana to be capable of such a vile grin. It made his toes curl in his boots.
"Oh, Richard, I was so close. I've never experienced anything like it. You have no idea of the glory of what you have. But I will have it yet."
Richard glanced to the sides, trying to decide which way to run. He felt like a fool, and at the same time was overcome by a sense of profound loss. "Liliana, I trusted you. I thought you cared for me."
She lifted an eyebrow. "Did you?" The slow smile came back. "Maybe I did. Maybe that is why I was doing it the easy way. Now we do it the hard way."
Richard blinked. "What do you mean, the hard way?"
"The quillion would have been the easy way. I have taken on the gift from many a male. But you resisted where they could not. Now I must skin you alive to have your gift. First, I will have to disable you. You will lie helpless, as I do it."
She held out a hand. A sword floated out from behind the big oak, out of the darkness, and into her hand.
With a shriek, she swept across the clearing toward him. Her sword flashed in the moonlight.
Without thinking, Richard lifted his hand, calling his sword and its magic. The response was instant. The anger inundated him. He felt the hilt slam into his palm as Liliana swung her sword. The sword, the magic, the spirits, were with him. He brought the blade up, blocking her strike.
Dimly, Richard wondered why his sword didn't shatter hers. But then he was moving. The dance with death had begun.
He countered her strikes, and she his. He evaded attacks that should have had him, and she thwarted attacks that should have had her. She spun like the wind, slipping away at the last instant. He felt as if he were fighting a shadow. No human could move the way she did. He could not move the way she did.
Behind, he felt the sudden, loathsome presence. He checked the thrust of her blade, and spun, bringing the sword around with lightning speed. For an instant, he saw a snarl of fangs, and a malicious glare, and then the sword made solid contact, and what was there was rendered unrecognizable as it disintegrated.
He felt her blade coming, and dove over the falling hulk. Rolling to his feet, he returning the attack. The night air rang over and over with the sound of steel on steel.
Richard realized that her blade must somehow be like his. She had a weapon the match of the Sword of Truth. Besides that, she had command of magic he could only imagine. He didn't have to imagine long.
As the battle wound its way across the clearing, both straining with all the fury they could bring forth, she leapt back, and sent a bolt of fire racing toward him. He dodged at the last instant, and it flew past, hitting a tree. The trunk exploded in a shower of splinters. The top of the tree crashed down around him, some of the branches knocking him from his feet.
Liliana slashed through branches as thick as his arms to get at him. They splintered like the trunk had. Richard scrambled out from under and fought her back into the thick woods.
As they clashed over and over again while descending a steep hill, he began to analyze her tactics. She fought ferociously, but without grace—like a soldier in combat among the lines. He didn't know how he knew that, except it had to come from the spirits of his sword's magic.
The way she attacked, slashing and swinging, left her open for a thrusting counterattack. Richard pressed that attack at her, but when he finally managed to thrust at her middle, the strike that should have found its mark slid to the side. She was protecte
d, somehow. She had the use of magic he didn't understand.
Richard was exhausted, and was fighting on the pure rage and fury of the magic. She didn't even seem winded. "You can't win, Richard. I will have you."
"Why! You can't win in the end!"
"I will have my reward."
He ducked behind a tree, just missing a swing that sent wood chips flying. "If you help the Keeper escape, he will swallow all life!"
"You think so? You think wrong. He will reward those who serve him. He will grant me things the Creator never could."
He stabbed at her, but the sword slid to the side. "He's lying to you!"
Her blade whistled past his face. Her calm, deliberate attacks were relentless. "We have a bargain. My oath seals it."
"And you believe he will keep his end!"
"Join with us, Richard, and I will show you the glory that awaits those who serve him. You can live forever."
Richard leapt to the top of a rock. "Never!"
She looked up with a cold detachment. "I thought this would be pleasurable, but I find I am growing bored."
Liliana swept a hand out. Twisting, snaking lightning came from the hand, but it was not like any lightning he had ever seen before.
It was black lightning.
Instead of a bolt of light and heat, it was an undulating void, as dark as the night stone, as dark as the boxes of Orden, as dark as eternal death. The dim, moonlit scene seemed a sunny day in comparison.
Richard knew: he was seeing Subtractive Magic.
Liliana swept the black lightning across the rock beneath his feet. It effortlessly sliced a smooth-edged void through the rock. The remaining part he stood atop collapsed onto the half below. Trees behind for a good distance, severed in the same way, by the same black bolt, crashed to the ground in a roar of noise.
Richard lost his footing and toppled backwards onto the steep slope, tumbling down the hill. He threw his arms out to stop himself when he hit the flat at the bottom, and immediately rolled over onto his back. He looked up and gasped.
Liliana was standing right over him, her sword held high in both hands. By where she was looking, he knew she intended to cut off his legs. He froze at seeing her sword commence its descent.
