PROLOGUE
"Unforgiven"
The Confessor's fists rained down on Denna's face, and with each blow her head snapped back and forth. She desperately wanted to fight back, to push her away. She had fought this Confessor before, and knew she was at least an even match. Yet her arms would not raise, not even to ward off the fists hammering down on her.
Richard had used the Box of Orden, and with its power sentenced her to death. She was as powerless as the Confessor, each of them trapped in their role by Richard's now inescapable will, executioner and executed. Denna lost all sense of where she was, what was happening around her. Tears and blood filled her eyes, and her ears rang, and still the Confessor hit her, again and again.
Then it stopped. She could feel the weight of the Confessor, sitting on her, pinning her to the ground. Her attention was elsewhere, and Denna blinked, trying to clear her eyes. The Confessor was rising now, running off. Denna realized that the power of Orden no longer compelled her limbs, no longer prevented her from considering her own survival.
"What have I done?" screamed Richard, off in the distance. His voice sounded as if it were miles away. Denna rolled on to her belly, and flopped her arms out, struggling to rise to her hands and knees. She would crawl back to Darken Rahl if she must.
Then what, she thought angrily, then he'll flay you alive, and use his sorcery to ensure your death lasts for years. As she crawled towards the sound of Richard's voice, she found herself cursing the Confessor for not being just a bit stronger, for not using her daggers. There was nothing for Denna now but death, death at the hands of the Seeker, or death at the hands of Rahl. At least the Seeker would be merciful and quick.
"Richard! Finish me off," she called weakly as she crawled forward. "Before Darken Rahl finds me."
Denna struggled to her feet as the Seeker approached her. He looked at her with pity and compassion, and Denna remembered her experiences with the Seeker, when he had touched her heart in a way she thought was no longer possible. Her eyes filled with tears, and she prayed that he would strike her down quickly.
"No," he said sadly. "No more killing."
"Please," she begged. There was nothing else for her now. "Leaving me to Darken Rahl is worse than killing me."
Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of the woman she'd killed, Jensen's mother. She looked at the woman's still body, and realized the futility of asking the Seeker to show her mercy. The torture Rahl would inflict on her would be justice, and the Seeker would leave her to it. She sank to her knees, a wild surge of painful and confused emotions overwhelming her.
Her eyes turned back to the Seeker, and he was staring directly into her eyes. Every time she looked into those eyes, she felt her world shattering. The carefully constructed lies and self-deceptions that allowed her to push aside all the guilt, the shame, and the incredible self-hatred that her life as Mord'Sith had left her with, all were reduced to ash by the fire in his eyes.
For a brief dizzying moment, Denna thought that he might forgive her, might absolve her of all the horrible things she had done in her relatively short life, and that he would take her along with her.
"Then I suggest you run," he said coldly. There was no compassion in his eyes now, just cold anger. Denna's heart broke, and she collapsed sobbing. The Seeker and his companions left her there at the entrance to the Cave of Sorrows.
She sat and cried in the clearing for some time. The sun rose and minutes stretched into hours before she finally rose. She was facing north, so she began to walk north. She had no idea where she was going, nor did she care.