The Third Kingdom

Richard’s brow drew tight with concern. “Those were your people, Sammie. Why would you abandon them to heal us? To heal strangers?”

Sammie sat on the chair close beside him. She put some of her weight on her hands beside her small hips and rocked a little at the thought of how to answer his question.

“I’m only one person,” she said in a quiet tone. “I worked on those I could save, worked as fast as I could, did what I could. Some people were going to die no matter what. I knew that if I spent the night trying to save some of those, they would still die in the end and then others that I might have saved would also die.

“There were many people needing healing. There wasn’t enough time to heal all of them, even if I would not have healed you. I was never going to be able to save them all.

“This is the second night since the attack. You slept that night of the attack, all day yesterday, and most of last night. It will be dawn soon. That first night, after you had ended the threat and the battle was over, you passed out.

“I had you brought here while I stayed out there and healed a number of people. More needed healing. Some people died as they waited, died while I healed others that I thought had a better chance. Some had wounds that are beyond my skill. I knew I had to leave them. Ester and others comforted them as best they could.

“Throughout the night, between healing people, I checked on you and the Mother Confessor to make sure that you both hadn’t gotten any worse and that you could wait a little longer for me. There were so many who were hurt. Some not badly, so I left them to people like Ester to help with what they could do. I worked on those in more need for as long as I could. But then it could wait no longer.

“I had to choose who I was going to help, you and the Mother Confessor, or some of the others still waiting. I knew that if I helped you, then some of those I couldn’t get to would die. But I also knew that if I didn’t do what I could for you and the Mother Confessor, you both would die that night.

“I had to decide. I decided to heal you while I still could.”

Richard ran a hand back over his face, distressed to hear that she had been faced with such a choice, that saving his and Kahlan’s life had cost others theirs.

“I never had to make a decision like that before,” she said. “My mother never talked to me about how to make such a choice. Such a thing never came up. I don’t know—maybe she wouldn’t have known what to do, either. There was no one else who could tell me what to do. All I knew was that I had to figure it out on my own.”

Richard had made such gut-wrenching decisions before. They left scars that never entirely healed.

“I decided that I had to heal you while I still could,” she finally said. “You saved a lot of people that night. I know that, in reality, you saved us all. Most of the people here would have been killed that night—we all could have been killed—if not for you being here. You are the one. You need to live. By helping you, I am helping many more people here to live than just those I could have healed.”

She had said that about him when she had first met him. Richard frowned. “What do you mean, I’m the one?”

Sammie shrugged uncomfortably as her gaze drifted away. “You are the one I chose.”

He knew that wasn’t what she had meant. She was evading the answer, but he didn’t press her on it. She would tell him when she was ready.

“I understand, Samantha.”

She frowned as her eyes turned up to him. “Why did you call me that?”

“Because,” he said, “Sammie is what you were called when you were a child. You made a very difficult, adult choice. You are becoming a woman, now. You used your head and made choices like a woman, not like a girl. I think Samantha is a more fitting name for you, if you don’t mind me being so forward.”

Samantha began to beam with pride at the unexpected acknowledgment. “Thank you, Lord Rahl. I’ve always wanted to be called Samantha—it sounds so much more grown-up—but to everyone else I have always been seen as Sammie. It’s hard when you’re still a girl trying to find out how to be a woman. You’re the first one to see me as Samantha. Thank you.”

Richard bowed his head in a single nod.

“Now, Samantha, please tell me the real reason you let others die and chose instead to heal Kahlan and me.”

She looked very much the woman she was growing into as she gazed into his eyes. “Because you are the only one who can save us all.”

“I think you had better explain what that means.”

Samantha nodded. “I think I had better. We are running out of time. We are all running out of time.”

CHAPTER

19

“What do you mean, we’re all running out of time?” Richard asked.

She took a deep breath as she gathered her thoughts. “Well, there were other gifted people here, but they’re all gone, now, so I guess that no matter how ill prepared I am for the task, it’s up to me to explain it all to you.”

“There were other gifted here? You mean besides your mother?” When she nodded, he asked, “So what happened to them?”