Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind [393]
“No.”
Her eyes snapped up to his. “What did you say?” she whispered.
Richard put his fists on his hips. “I said ‘no.’ I’m not going to kiss you with those silly things painted on your face. They nearly scared the life out of me.”
Her green eyes stared in disbelief. “You can deny me nothing, once I have touched you with my power.”
Richard squatted down close to her. He untied the gag from her neck. “Well, then, you have ordered me to kiss you”—he dunked the cloth in the water—”and I told you I won’t do it with this thing painted on your face.” He began wiping the lightning bolts from her skin. “So, I guess the only solution is to get rid of it.”
She knelt, frozen, while he cleaned the red off her face. Richard looked into her wide eyes when he finished. He tossed the rag aside, and knelt in front of her, slipping his arms around her waist.
“Richard, I touched you with the magic. I felt it. I heard it. I saw it. How could the power not have taken you?”
“Because I was protected.”
“Protected? How?”
“By my love for you. I realized I love you more than life itself, and I would rather give myself into your power than live without you. Nothing the magic could do to me could be worse than living without you. I was willing to give it all over to you. I offered the power everything I have. All of my love for you. Once I realized how much I loved you, was willing to be yours on any terms, I understood that there could be nothing for the magic to harm. I’m already devoted to you; it didn’t need to change me. I was protected, because I have already been touched, by your love. I had utter faith that you felt the same, and had no fear of what would happen. Had I had any doubt, the magic would have latched on to that crack and taken me, but I had no doubt. My love for you is smooth and seamless. My love for you protected me from the magic.”
She gave him her special smile. “You felt that way? You had no doubt?”
Richard smiled back. “Well, for a moment, when I saw those lightning bolts on your face, I have to admit, I was worried. I didn’t know what they were, what they meant. I pulled the sword, trying to gain time to think. But then I realized it didn’t matter; you were still Kahlan, and I still loved you, no matter what. I wanted you to touch me more than anything, to prove my love and devotion for you, but I had to put on an act for Darken Rahl’s benefit.”
“These symbols mean that I, too, gave everything over to you,” she whispered.
Kahlan circled her arms around his neck, kissing him. They knelt on the tiles in front of the devotion pool, pressed against one another. Richard kissed her soft lips the way he had dreamed a thousand times of kissing her. He kissed her until he was dizzy, and then kissed her some more, not caring that bewildered people who passed watched them.
Richard had no idea how long they knelt there embracing, but decided at last that they had better go find Zedd. With her arm around his waist, her head leaning against him, they walked back to the Garden of Life, kissing once more before they went through the doors.
Zedd stood with one hand on a bony hip, the other stroking his chin, as he inspected the altar and other things behind it. Kahlan fell to her knees before him, taking his hands in hers, kissing them.
“Zedd, he loves me! He figured out how to make it work, with the magic. There was a way, and he found it.”
Zedd frowned down at her. “Well, it took him long enough.”
Kahlan came to her feet. “You knew how to do it?”
Zedd looked indignant at the question. “I’m a wizard of the First Order. Of course I knew.”
“And you never told us?”
Zedd smiled. “Had I told you, dear one, it wouldn’t have worked. The foreknowledge would have interjected a grain of doubt. That single grain would have caused failure. To be the true love of a Confessor, there must be total commitment, to get past the magic. Without the willingness to give himself over to you, selflessly, despite the knowledge of the consequence, it wouldn’t work.”
“You seem to know a lot about it.” Kahlan frowned.