Read Online Warheart by Terry Goodkind - Free Book Online Page B

time from working on their living body the way it ordinarily would.”
    â€œIt was the same with those of us who lived at the Palace of the Prophets,” Nicci said as she came to a halt beside Kahlan. “Nathan Rahl lived there for nearly a thousand years. The prelate was nearly as old. I lived there for several lifetimes of those outside the spell of power around the place. The link to the timeless element of the underworld works. I’m living proof of it. So is Nathan Rahl. So are the half people.”
    â€œBy using his occult powers in the same way,” Kahlan explained, “Abbot Dreier was able to link that timeless element of the underworld to Richard’s body to keep it the same as it was the moment he died. He isn’t living, but time isn’t ravaging his body, either, as it ordinarily would. Dreier said Richard will remain in that state for quite a long time. He isn’t alive, but his body is not exactly dead, either.
    â€œYou might say that his life is suspended.”
    â€œI don’t know.…” Red was still skeptical, but she was frowning in thought.
    â€œI do,” Kahlan said. “You have only to touch Richard’s flesh as I have done to know it’s true. He seems so alive, like he is only asleep, except he takes no breath and his heart is still. Yet he never went stiff the way the dead do in short order, nor did his blood pool on the underside of his body. His tongue isn’t swelling the way it does in the dead.
    â€œHe remains the same now as he was in life, the same as the moment he died, except that his life force, his soul, his connection to the Grace, is beyond the veil.”
    Red gave Kahlan a disparaging look. “That’s a pretty vital element. It is an essential element.”
    â€œI know, but he is preserved for now until we can figure out how to bring his life force, his spirit, back into his body. Until then, his body waits, ready to receive his spirit.”
    â€œDo you grasp the full meaning of what the Mother Confessor is saying?” Nicci asked Red. “There is a link from this world–from Richard’s body–to the underworld where his spark of life is. The Grace still exists. The lines within the Grace are still intact through the boundary of the veil–at least until Sulachan destroys what the Grace represents.
    â€œUntil then, death is here, in this world, while life is there, in that one. It’s in balance for the moment.”
    â€œBut that balance can’t last–it won’t last,” Red told her.
    â€œOf course not,” Nicci agreed. “That is why we must act, and act quickly, while we still can.”
    â€œIf it is actually possible. Understanding such complicated connections and balanced elements is one thing. Altering them is an altogether different matter. Hope will not accomplish such things.”
    â€œIt’s hope based in precedent.” Nicci gestured off to the southwest. “Sulachan came back from the world of the dead. His demon spirit did, anyway, but his body had not been preserved the way Richard’s is so he can never really join fully with it. His spirit returned to a desiccated corpse.”
    â€œThat’s true,” Red whispered as she brooded in thought.
    Nicci leaned closer to the woman. “And how did Sulachan accomplish such a thing? How did he bring his spirit back? He used Richard’s lifeblood. Prophecy names Richard as the bringer of death. In this case, Sulachan used that to bring him, in death, back to the world of life. Richard’s body still contains that blood of the bringer of death.”
    Red arched an eyebrow at the sorceress and then began to pace, hands clasped behind her back. Gravel crunched under her boots as she slowly walked to the stream and back.
    â€œThe pebble in the pond, the bringer of death, the Lord Rahl, Kahlan’s husband … the one named in prophecy so many times and in so many