Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind [245]
Richard couldn’t believe it was over. He had never been this happy, this relieved, in his life. Instead of answering, he reached out and pulled her into his arms, hugged her tight to him. Her arms slipped around him as she laid her head against his chest for a moment. Then she pushed away.
“Richard, there is one other matter. Before you can say you will take me back, you must hear the rest of it. I can’t go on anymore without telling you about me.
About what I am. It’s cleaving my heart, because I’m supposed to be your friend.
I should have told you from the beginning. I have never had a friend like you before.
I didn’t want it to end.” Her gaze left his. “But now it must,” she added faintly.
“Kahlan, I’ve told you before; you’re my friend, and nothing can change that.”
“This secret can.” Her shoulders were slumped. “This is about magic.”
Richard wasn’t sure anymore that he wanted to hear her secret. He had just gotten her back; he didn’t want to lose her again. He squatted down in front of the fire, picking up the roasting stick with the rabbit. Sparks swirled up into the waning darkness. He felt proud of her, for catching the rabbit on her own, the way he had taught her.
“Kahlan, I don’t care what your secret is. I care about you, that’s all that matters. You don’t have to tell me. Come on, the rabbit is done, come and have some.”
Cutting off a piece with his knife, he handed it to her as she sat on the ground next to him, pulling her hair back off her face. The meat was hot, so she held it lightly with her fingertips, and blew to cool it. Richard cut a piece for himself and sat back.
“Richard, when you first saw Shota, did she really look like your mother?” He looked over to Kahlan’s face, lit by the fire, and nodded before he took a bite.
“Your mother was very pretty. You have her eyes, and her mouth.” Richard smiled a little at the memory. “But it wasn’t really her.”
“So you felt angry that Shota was pretending to be someone she could not be? That she was deceiving you?” She took a bite of the rabbit, breathing in through her mouth because the meat was still hot. She watched him carefully.
Richard shrugged, feeling the sting of sorrow. “I guess. It wasn’t fair.” Kahlan chewed a minute, and then swallowed. “That is why I must tell you who I am, even if you hate me for it, because you have been my friend. Although I have not been the kind of friend you deserve. That is the other reason I came back, because I didn’t want someone else to tell you. I wanted you to hear it from me. After I tell you, if you want me to I will leave.”
Richard looked up at the sky, at the color coming slowly to it. He suddenly wished Kahlan weren’t telling him what she was; he wished things could stay the way they were. “Don’t worry, I’m not sending you away. We have a job to do. Remember what Shota said? The Queen won’t have the box long; that can only mean someone will take it from her. Better us than Darken Rahl.”
Kahlan put her hand on his arm. “I don’t want you to decide until you hear what I have to say, until you hear what I am. Then, if you want me to leave I will understand.” She looked intently into his eyes. “Richard, I just want you to know that I have never cared for anyone the way I care for you, nor will I ever again.
But it is not possible for it to go beyond that. Nothing can ever come of it. Nothing good anyway.”
He refused to believe that. There was a way, there had to be. Richard took a heavy breath, letting it out slowly. “All right then, out with it.”
She nodded. “Remember when I told you that some who lived in the Midlands were creatures of magic? And that they couldn’t give up that magic, because it was part of them?” He nodded to her. “Well, I am one of those creatures. I am more than a woman.”
“So, what are you?”
“I am a Confessor.”
Confessor.
Richard knew that word.
Every muscle in his