She couldn’t endure it for another moment. As much as she wanted to live, she welcomed death if only it would bring her release.
In that helpless, desolate instant, she knew.
The initial violence of the pain unexpectedly eased up just a bit. She didn’t know if it was a depraved game, or if the crushing hurt was going to ram back in at her again with even more force. In that brief break, Magda gasped a breath.
Before she could cry out, the pain slammed into her again, but with immensely more force than the first time. She hadn’t thought it possible for it to hurt more, but it did. The startling power of it left her senseless.
Staggered, she began to lose her awareness of where she was. Her skull felt as if it were being slowly crushed.
A powerful blow came out of nowhere like a bolt of lightning, striking her in the middle, doubling her over. Her muscles strained against a force squeezing her chest. She heard snapping and felt her ribs break, sending yet another kind of pain ripping through her.
In insufferable torment, her eyes wide, she saw Lord Rahl rushing toward her, yet his movements seemed impossibly slow. He almost looked to be a statue, unable to make any headway. At the slow, dreamlike rate at which he appeared to be moving, she didn’t think he would reach her before she was dead.
She felt something warm and wet running from her ears and down along her jaw. She saw bright blood splattering on the stone floor under her.
Magda dropped heavily to her knees.
Her vision narrowed to a dark tunnel. Everything seemed far away. She thought she heard voices but she couldn’t make them out over the piercing, painful, high-pitched noise she was hearing.
Just at the dark edge of her restricted vision, she saw Lord Rahl’s two big guards draw their swords as they, too, started toward her. She knew that they now saw her as a threat.
The blood running from her ears and dripping from her chin merged into a wet, red pool on the floor beneath her. She could feel the wet warmth soaking her knees and dress.
Through the stunning torment, through the paralyzing pain spiking down through her head and ripping up through her abdomen, Magda, like the guards, realized what was happening. As disoriented as she was, she was all too aware of the alien presence roaring out from the dark corners of her mind.
If the thing within didn’t kill her, the guards surely would. Magda recognized that she had only precious moments to live.
With that awareness, she realized how desperately she didn’t want to die. Despite how much she wanted the pain to stop, she didn’t want to die. She had never felt so strongly about wanting to live. But she could feel herself slipping ever closer to the dark rim of the underworld.
Magda remembered then her husband’s last words on the note in her pocket.
Be strong now, guard your mind, and live the life that only you can live.
Lord Rahl was right there, right before her, his boots in her blood. He was leaning down, his hands on her shoulders as he yelled something.
She couldn’t hear him. She could hear only the ripping howl of pain in her ears.
Magda clutched Lord Rahl’s pant legs in her fists as the pain darkened her vision, threatening to blind her. She knew that in brief moments she would not only lose her vision, she would lose consciousness. She knew that she had only those brief seconds before everything was lost to her.
She could hear Alric Rahl above her yelling urgently, but she couldn’t make out the distant words. She could feel his powerful fingers grasping her shoulders as he leaned over her.
She knew that this was her only chance.
But she didn’t know if she could summon the strength.
“Master Rahl . . .” she managed in a hoarse voice. Blood dripped from her lips. She could taste it in her mouth.
Terror tightened her throat. Her heartbeats came weaker and weaker. She knew that she was about to die. She could feel the glimmer of life itself slipping away. It seemed too much effort to hold on to it.
It was even too much effort to draw another breath.
Some part of her, though, desperately didn’t want to surrender to the lure of release.
Magda summoned all her remaining strength and gasped in a last breath.
With her lungs filled by that last gasp at life, she forced herself on in a desperate rush, giving herself over to the words, giving herself over to their meaning.
“Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled.” She put her heart and soul into the words. “We live only to serve. Our lives are yours.”
Darkness passed through her, shadowing her soul. She thought that it must be too late.
But then the pain abruptly lost its hold on her.
Magda, panting in relief as the full force of crushing torment released her, crumpled to the ground, weeping in lingering agony and sweet gratitude for Baraccus’s words of guard your mind.
They had just saved her life.
Baraccus had just saved her life.
Lord Rahl had just saved her life.
Chapter 13
Free of the alien presence, but still in agony, Magda lay in a warm, velvety pool of her own blood. The pain in her head, still radiating into her ears and down through her jaw, was horrific. As much as she hurt, though, she was profoundly thankful that it was at least not the same kind of agony as the crushing pain the dream walker had been inflicting from within.
As much as she didn’t want to suffer the pain of being touched, she didn’t have the power to offer much resistance as Lord Rahl and his two bodyguards gently rolled her over. She cried out at the torture of being moved. She could feel broken ribs grate together with each shallow breath.
“Easy, now,” Lord Rahl said in a surprisingly gentle voice as big hands caught her weakly flailing arms. “It’s going to be all right. You have to be still, though. Don’t try to get up.”
In a daze, Magda was only dimly aware of where she was and what was happening. It seemed like it all was happening to someone else and she was only watching it. Her whole body throbbed in terrible pain. But even that, too, in an odd way seemed strangely distant.
“At least that bastard is gone from her now,” one of the big guards said.
Lord Rahl grunted his agreement before looking down at her. “It’s going to be all right, Magda. I’m going to help you.”
Magda nodded. She didn’t really know why. She had to swallow back the blood in her mouth.
Lord Rahl leaned in closer over her. He had the strangest look in his eyes. Magda realized, then, that it was fear.
At seeing that look, at comprehending that it was fear for her, she started to panic. With a firm grip on her shoulders, he forced her back down.
“Listen to me, Magda. You need to be still. Don’t fight it. Let me do that.”
She tried to ask what he meant, but the words came out in a jumble that even she couldn’t understand.
He smiled just a bit. “No need to talk anymore. You got the right words out when you needed them.” He patted her shoulder. “You’re safe from the dream walker, now.”
Magda sagged in relief. At least that monster was gone from her mind. She had felt that evil presence for only a brief time, but it was something she knew she would never be able to forget. Tears of gratitude at being free of the dream walker ran across her cheeks. Even if she had to endure the lingering effects of his attack, even if she was to die, she was at least free of his vile presence.
“I need to get into your mind, Magda—”
She had just escaped that very thing. She didn’t want anyone in her mind ever again. She didn’t want to have anyone controlling her in that way. In a panic at the thought of it, she thrashed, trying to escape his grip.