"I'll miss you until you catch up with us," Holly said, her voice choked with tears.

Ann hugged the little girl. "Oh, chiid, I'll miss you so much, too. I wish I could take you with us, you've been such a help, but we must hurry if we're to catch Nathan. The Sisters, especially Prelate Verna, need to know what's happened. It's important; that's why I must send you."

Holly bravely snuffled back the tears. "I understand. You can count on me, Prelate."

Ann helped the girl up into the saddle and kissed her hand as she put the reins in them. Ann watched and waved farewell as Holly trotted off toward the Sisters of the Light.

She turned to the fuming wizard. "We'd best be going if we're to catch Nathan. ' She patted his bony shoulder. "It won't be long. Just as soon as we catch him, I'll have that collar off your neck, I promise."

CHAPTER 52

The Hagen Woods were as dark and uninviting as ever, but Richard was sure that the mriswith were gone. In their journey through the gloomy wood he hadn't sensed even one of them. The place, though forbidding, was deserted; the mriswith had all left for Aydindril. He shuddered to think what that meant.

Kahlan sighed nervously, twining her fingers together, as she stared at the sliph's pleasant, smiling, quicksilver face. "Richard, before we do this, just in case something goes wrong, I want to tell you that I know about what happened when you were a captive here, and I don't hold it against you. You thought I didn't love you, and you were alone. I understand."

Richard leaned closer as he frowned. "What are you talking about? What things I did?"

She cleared her throat. "Merissa. She told me all about it."

"Merissa!"

"Yes. I understand, and I don't blame you. You thought you would never see me again."

Richard blinked in astonishment. “Merissa is a Sister of the Dark. She wants to kill me."

"But she told me how when you were here before, she was your teacher. She said that… Well, I met her, and she's beautiful. You were lonely, and I don't blame you."

Richard took her by the shoulders and forced her to turn away from staring at the sliph. "Kahlan, I don't know what Merissa told you, but I'm telling you the truth: since the day I met you, I've loved no one but you. No one. Yes, when you made me put on the collar and I thought I would never see you again, I was lonely, but I never betrayed your love, even when I thought I had lost it. Even though I thought you didn't want me, I never… with Merissa, or anyone else."

"Really?"

"Really."

She smiled her special smile, the one she gave no one but him. "Adie tried to tell me the same thing. I was afraid I would die before I could see you again, and wanted you to know that I love you, no matter what. Part of me is afraid of doing this. I'm afraid I'll drown in there."

"The sliph felt you, and she says you can travel. You have an element of Subtractive Magic, too. Only those with both magics can travel. It'll work. You'll see." He smiled encouragement. "It's nothing to be afraid of, I promise. It's unlike anything you've ever felt before. It's wondrous. All right, now?"

She nodded. "All right." She threw her arms around him and hugged him so hard she pressed the wind out of him. "But if I drown, I just want you to know how much I love you."

Richard helped her up onto the stone wall around the sliph and then glanced around at the dark woods beyond the ruins. He didn't know if there really were eyes watching or it was simply his apprehension. He didn't sense a mriswith, though, and if one were watching him, he would. He decided that it must just be his past experiences in Hagen Woods that made him apprehensive.

"We're ready, sliph. Do you know how long it will take?"

"I am long enough," came the echoing reply.

Richard sighed and tightened his grip on Kahlan's hand. "Do as we've told you." She nodded, gasping her last breaths. "I'll be with you. Don't be afraid."

The liquid silver arm lifted them, and the night went truly black. Richard gripped Kahlan's hand tightly as they plunged downward, knowing how hard it had been for him to breathe in the sliph the first time. When she returned the squeeze, they were already in the weightless void.

The familiar sensation of rushing and drifting at the same time returned, and Richard knew they were on their way to Aydindril. As before, there was no heat, no cold, no sense of being soaked in the quicksilver wet of the sliph. His eyes beheld light and dark together in a single, spectral vision, while his lungs swelled with the sweet presence of the sliph as he inhaled her silken essence.

Richard was joyous, knowing that Kahlan could feel the same rapture he felt; he could sense it through the slow pressure on his hand. They let go, to take strokes through the still rush.

Richard swam on through the darkness and light. He felt Kahlan grip his ankle to be towed along after him.

Time meant nothing. It could have been a glimmer of a moment or the slow passing of a year as he soared ahead with Kahlan holding on to his ankle. As before, abruptly, it ended.

Sights of the room in the Keep exploded about him, but he knew what to expect, and this time there was no terror.

Breathe, the sliph said.

He let out the sweet breath, emptying his lungs of the rapture, and pulled in a breath of the alien air.

He felt Kahlan come up behind him, and in the silence of Kolo's room, he heard her expel the sliph and inhale the air. Richard bobbed up, the sliph sloughing off him as he boosted himself up onto the wall and over. Once his feet hit the floor, he turned and bent to help Kahlan out.

Merissa smiled at him.

Richard went rigid. At last his mind worked. "Where's Kahlan! You're bonded to me! You gave an oath!"

"Kahlan?" came the melodious voice. "She's right here." Merissa reached down into the quicksilver. "But you won't be needing her anymore. And I'm keeping my oath — an oath to myself."

She lifted Kahlan's limp form by the back of her collar. With the aid of her power, Merissa heaved Kahlan out of the sliph's well. Kahlan hit the wall and slumped, unbreathing, to the floor.

Before Richard could rush to her, Merissa rapped the blades of a yabree against the stone. The sweet song gripped him, making his legs go weak and impotent as he stared, spellbound, at Merissa's smiling face.

"The yabree sings for you, Richard. Its song calls you."

She drifted closer, bringing the humming yabree closer, She held it up, turning the resplendent object of his hunger, displaying it, tantalizing him with it. Richard wet his lips as his bones resonated with the purring hum of the yabree. The vibrant sound transfixed him.

She floated closer, finally offering it to him. His fingers at last touched it, and the song coursed through every fiber of his body, charmed every corner of his soul. Merissa smiled as his fingers curled around the crossbar. He shuddered with the enchantment of having it in his grasp. His fingers tightened in painful pleasure.

She brought another yabree out from under the silvery pool. "That's only the half of it, Richard. You need both,"

She laughed, a pleasant, lilting sound, as she tapped the second yabree against the stone. The song nearly blinded him with its longing for his touch. He struggled to keep his knees from buckling. He had to get to the second yabree. He leaned over the wall, stretching for it.

Merissa's grin mocked him, but he didn't care, he only wanted, needed, to have the twin to his yabree in his other hand.

"Breathe," the sliph said.

Distracted, Richard glanced over. The sliph was looking at the woman slumped on the floor against the wall. He was about to speak, when Merissa tapped the second yabree against the stone again.