"When I saw the dust rising from the wagon, and I knew that I was near, I dumped out what water I had left, so it would appear I had none. Then, when Lord Rahl found me, I asked for a drink. When he gave me his waterskin so I could have a drink, I put poison in it, just before I handed it back. I was relieved that you had showed up, too. It was my intention that I poison both Lord Rahl and you, Mother Confessor, but you had your own water and didn't take a drink when he offered it to you. But I guess it doesn't matter. This will work just as well."
Kahlan couldn't make sense of such a confession. "So you intended to kill us both, but you were only able to poison Richard."
"Kill…?" Owen looked up in shock at the very idea. He shook his head emphatically. "No, no, nothing like that. Mother Confessor, I tried to get to you earlier, but those men went to your camp before I got there. I needed to get the antidote to Lord Rahl."
"I see. You wanted to save him-after you'd poisoned him-but when you got to our camp, we'd gone."
His eyes filled with tears again. "It was so awful. All the bodies- the blood. I've never seen such brutal murder." He covered his mouth.
"It would have been murder-our murder," Kahlan said, "had we not defended ourselves."
Owen seemed not to hear her. "And you were gone-you'd left. I didn't know where you'd gone. It was hard to follow your wagon's trail in the dark, but I had to. I had to run, to catch up with you. I was afraid the races would get me, but I knew I had to reach you tonight. I couldn't wait. I was afraid, but I had to come."
The whole story was nonsense to Kahlan.
"So you're like one of those people who starts a fire, calls out an alarm, and then helps put it out-all so you can be a hero."
Startled, Owen shook his head. "No, no, nothing like that. Nothing like that at all-I swear. I hated doing it. I did. I hated it."
"Then why did you poison him!"
Owen twisted his light coat in his fists as tears trickled down his cheeks. "Mother Confessor, we have to give him the antidote, now, or he will die. It's already so very late." He clasped his hands prayerfully and gazed skyward. "Dear Creator, let it not be too late, please." He reached out for Kahlan, as if to urgently beg her as well, to assure her of his sincerity, but at the look on her face, drew back. "There's no more time, Mother Confessor. I tried to get to you earlier-I swear. If you don't let him have the remedy now, it will be the end of him. It will all be for naught-everything, all if it, all for nothing!"
Kahlan didn't know if she dared trust in such an offer. It made no sense to poison a man and then save him.
"What's the antidote?" she asked.
"Here." Owen hurriedly pulled a small vial from a pocket inside his coat. "Here it is. Please, Mother Confessor." He held the square-sided vial out toward her. "He must have this now. Please, hurry, or he will die."
"Or this will finish him," Kahlan said.
"If I wanted to finish him, I could have done so when I slipped the poison into his waterskin. I could have used more of it, or I could simply not have come with the antidote. I'm not a killer, I swear- that's why I had to come in the first place."
Owen wasn't making a whole lot of sense. Kahlan wasn't confident in such an offer. It was Richard's life that would be forfeit if she chose wrong.
"I say we give Richard Owen's antidote," Jennsen whispered.
"A stab in the dark?" Kahlan asked.
"You said that there were times when there is no choice but to act immediately, but even then it must be with your best judgment, using all your experience and everything you do know. Earlier, in the wagon, I heard Cara tell you that she didn't know if Richard would live the night. Owen says he has an antidote. I think this is one of those times we must act."
"If it means anything," Tom offered in a confidential tone, "I'd have to agree. I don't see as there really is any choice. But if you have an alternative that might save Lord Rahl, I think now would be the time to add it to the stew."
Kahlan didn't have any alternative, except getting to Nicci, and that was looking more and more like no more than empty hope.
"Mother Confessor," Friedrich offered in a hushed tone, "I agree as well. I think you should know that if you let him have the remedy, we all were in agreement that it was the best choice to be made."
If the antidote killed Richard, they wouldn't blame her. That was what he was saying.
Jennsen stepped toward Owen, pulling Betty along with her. "If you're lying about this being an antidote, you will have to answer to me, and to Cara, and then to the Mother Confessor-if there's even anything left of you by then. You do understand that, don't you?"
Owen shrank from her, his head turned away, as he nodded vigorously, apparently fearing to look up at her, or at Betty. Kahlan thought that he looked more afraid of Jennsen than of any of the rest of them.
Cara leaned toward Kahlan and whispered. "He has to have an antidote.
