Free The Sword of the Truth, Book 12 - The Omen Machine by Terry Goodkind Page B

a little farther away, staggered back, catching Cara’s arm to steady her.
    When pieces of shattered glass finally stopped skipping across the floor, the tablecloths and curtains finally settled and stilled, and people sat up in stunned silence, the woman in bloody blue robes was kneeling at the Mother Confessor’s feet.
    Kahlan stood tall at the center of the settling chaos.
    People stared in shock. None of them had ever seen a Confessor unleash her power before. It was not something done before spectators. Richard doubted that any of them would ever forget it as long as they lived.
    “Bags, that hurts,” Zedd muttered as he sat up rubbing his elbows and rolling his shoulders.
    As Richard’s vision and mind cleared from the needle-sharp stab of pain that had instantly stitched its way through every joint in his body, he saw that the woman had left a bloody handprint on the sleeve of Kahlan’s white dress.
    Kneeling there before the Mother Confessor, the woman didn’t look at all like an assassin. She was of average build with small features. Limp ringlets of dark hair just touched her shoulders. Richard knew that a person touched by a Confessor’s power didn’t feel the same pain as those nearby, but, more than that, things such as pain would be merely distant considerations to her. Once touched by a Confessor, the Confessor was all.
    Whoever the woman had been, she was no more.
    “Mistress,” the woman whispered, “command me.”
    Kahlan’s voice came as cold as ice. “Tell me again what you have done, what you said to me before.”
    “I’ve killed my children,” the woman said in a dispassionate voice. “I thought you should know.”
    The words cut through the somber silence, running a shiver up many a spine, Richard was sure. Some people gasped.
    “That’s why you came to me?”
    The woman nodded. “Partly. I had to tell you what I had done.” A tear ran down her cheek. “And what I had to do.”
    With her mind and who she had been now gone, Richard knew that her tears were not for killing her children, but for having intended to kill Kahlan. The Confessor who had touched her was now the only thing that mattered to her. The guilt of her intent now crushed her soul.
    Richard bent and carefully took hold of the woman’s right wrist as he pulled the bloody knife from her grip. Disarming her was no longer necessary, but it still made him feel better. She didn’t seem to notice.
    “Why would you do such a thing?” Kahlan asked in a commanding tone that stilled everyone’s breath for a moment.
    The woman’s face turned up to Kahlan. “I had to. I didn’t want them to face the terror of it.”
    “The terror of what?”
    “Of being eaten alive, Mistress,” the woman said, as if it was obvious.
    All around guards eased in closer. Several Mord-Sith who had tried to stop the woman, but hadn’t been able to make it in time, now slipped up behind the woman. Each of them had her Agiel in her fist.
    Kahlan had no need of guards or Mord-Sith and had no fear of a mere knife from a single attacker. Once touched by her power, a person was helplessly devoted to the Confessor and incapable of disobeying her, much less harming her. Their only concern was to please her. That included confessing any crime they were guilty of if Kahlan asked.
    “What are you talking about?”
    The woman blinked. “I couldn’t let them suffer what’s to come. I did them a mercy, Mistress, and killed them swiftly.”
    Nathan leaned close to Richard and whispered, “This is the woman I told you about, the one who works in the kitchens. She has a small amount of talent to see the future.”
    Kahlan leaned down toward the woman, causing her to shrink back. “How could you know what they would suffer?”
    “I had a vision, Mistress. I have visions sometimes. I had a vision and I saw what was going to happen if they lived. Don’t you see? I couldn’t let such a gruesome thing happen to my babies.”
    “Are you telling me that