"I'm going to die. You can't save me now. Please, Richard, save yourself. Please. Run. Run while you still have a chance."

Richard was afraid she would move deliberately, to be bitten, to try to save him, thinking he then would have no reason to stay. He had to convince her that that would do no good. He gave her a sober look.

"No. I came here to find out where the box is. I'm not leaving until I know. Now be still."

She opened her eyes wide at what the snake was doing in her shirt. She bit her bottom lip; her eyebrows wrinkled together. Richard swallowed back dryness in his mouth.

"Kahlan, just hold on. Try to think of something else."

In a rage, he strode over to the woman sitting on the rock with her back still to him. Something inside warned him not to pull the sword, but he could not, would not, hold back his anger at what she was doing to Kahlan. He breathed through gritted teeth.

When he reached her, she stood and gently turned to him, speaking his name in a voice he recognized.

His heart leapt into his throat when he saw the 'face that matched the voice