Richard broke through Cara's guard, knocking her to her knees before him. She did not give up, Mord'Sith will fight to the end for their master; she thrust her agiel up into the compass that hung from Richard's waist, shattering it. Richard brought up his sword, intent on finishing her off; killing the woman he had not long ago considered a friend. He couldn't do it. No matter what she was doing now; who she was fighting for, he knew this wasn't her wasn't the woman he had been travelling with for so many months. She had been broken, changed again and he couldn't kill her.
It was at this moment that Cara, thinking she had won, turned her attention back to the rest of the battle. Her companions, her fellow Mord'Sith were all dead except one, Dahlia, clasped in the grip of the Mother Confessor. Cara screamed out, launching herself the few feet across the ground, pushing Dahlia from Kahlan's grasp. She looked down to her friend, her lover, hoping against hope that she had pushed her away in time. She saw the black retreat from Dahlia's eyes; she hadn't made it, Dahlia had been confessed.
Trying to school her emotions as she had always been trained to do, she was unable to stop the tears in the corners of her eyes as she stabbed her agiel into Kahlan's heart. "I'm sorry, I'll bring you back," she said, her voice more full of emotion than it had been since she was a nine-year-old girl.
As Kahlan took her last breath, behind her Dahlia's breathing became even once more. It was then that Richard returned to the fight, dropping his sword and pulling both of Cara's arms behind her back as she struggled to get free.
"Dahlia, stop!" Cara ordered as she saw the other Mord'Sith begin to pick herself off the floor, agiel in hand. Both Richard and Dahlia stopped dead, surprised by the order. Cara managing to calm herself slightly, turned as well as she could to the man behind her; her lord, her friend. "Richard, please. Take my agiel, bind my hands, anything, but let me use the breath of life, let me bring her back."
Richard slowly began to let go, the words from Cara's mouth had surprised him, but not as much as the pleading begging tone of her voice 'Mord'Sith don't beg' he could hear it as plain as day, see the words coming from Cara's mouth; yet here she was, begging him to allow her to bring back the woman she had just killed. By the time he had once again become aware of his surroundings Cara was already leaning over the Confessor, breathing life back into her.
It was Dahlia who moved first; tackling Cara to the ground, straddling her hips and pinning her arms down beside her. Cara's head bounced off the floor and her breath left her lungs in a rush, but Cara refused to struggle. And when she heard Kahlan take a breath and saw her sitting up in Richard's arms, out of the corner of her eye. She couldn't help the rarely seen smile from gracing her lips.
"What are you doing?" screamed Dahlia as she pushed Cara further into the ground, bringing the Mord'Sith back to the present moment.
"Saving the love of the true Lord Rahl," said Cara flipping the two women over in one smooth motion, "and saving you." She brought her lips down gently, allowing her lover a quick kiss before sitting back, still straddling her waist. "I'm sorry Kahlan," she said to the angry Confessor, who now had the strength to make it back to her feet, "but I couldn't let her die."
"And why should we let her live?" Kahlan roared back, anger tainting ever word, "She tried to kill Richard, she tried to kill me, she dragged you back to Darken Rahl get beaten and broken."
Cara froze, it was difficult enough to admit it to herself yet alone the Mother Confessor. She didn't like the feeling of being weak, it had been drilled out of the Mord'Sith for as long as she could remember, yet when she was facing her own emotions she still felt like that scared nine-year-old girl she had left behind so long ago. She reached out to Dahlia, cupping her face, she wouldn't allow herself to be afraid of her own feelings any more, "Because I love her."
Kahlan's anger quickly subsided from the shock, this was all she had ever hoped of the woman since she had found out the emotions where still possible for Cara and forgiven her for causing her sister's death. But for her to find it in another woman, this woman who had taken her away from them, was entirely unexpected. A shocked look covered her face as she took a step back, towards Richard, never taking her eye's away from the two Mord'Sith in front of her.
"You, Cara are still yet to lose your ability to surprise me," said the gruff voice of the wizard as he returned to the clearing.
"Where would be the fun in you knowing my every move," Cara replied, her usual smirk back on her face. She stood up, helping the other Mord'Sith to her feet as she did so. "If you try to hurt anyone of these people I will kill you. Understand?" she said, turning to Dahlia.
Dahlia nodded, placing her hands on the small of Cara's back, "If you're not going to return to your old family, I'm just going to have to make sure that I'm a part if this one."
"Good," Cara pulled the other woman in kissing her properly, "because I wasn't intending to go anywhere without you again and I would prefer not to have to kill you."
"I hate to break up this, this, whatever it is but Darken Rahl still has the stone of tears," Richard intruded on their tender moment.
"Now you know what I've had to deal with for months," Cara said, slowly slipping away from Dahlia's grip. "He was heading East, he believes that with the stone he has a way to free himself from the keeper."
Kahlan grabbed hold of Richard's elbow, pulling him off to the side. "Can we really trust them?"
"It's Cara, you've trusted her with your life before."
"Yes, and she when back to Rahl, she was just trying to kill you Richard. And you don't even know everything about her new friend."
"I know that Cara loves her and since I trust Cara that's enough, and it should be enough for you, you know how powerful love is Kahlan."
"I do. But I don't know how to trust Cara any more, she went back to what she was before. That wasn't our Cara, that was the woman who killed my sister. And I can't trust that Cara won't turn back into her again."
"Do you know how much pain it takes in order to break someone?" said Dahlia as she moved smoothly behind the arguing couple.
Richard nodded remembering his time being trained by Denna, how close it came to breaking him.
"A Mord'Sith is trained in it. And yet everything they can do was not enough to break Cara, the only thing that even got her to make a sound was her conscience, the pain that she's put others through and she managed to break out of it. That's how loyal this woman is to you Lord Rahl; there is no force that will be able to make her turn away from you, or your quest." Dahlia almost glided away from Richard and Kahlan, back into Cara's arms.
"So now that you've finished deciding my fate, again, can we go and get the stone," said Cara, checking the last of her and Dahlia's equipment. "We can take you to the last place we saw Rahl. We should be able to track him from there."
"Wait there may be an easier way. Zedd, you used the spell of taking, to get the stone out of the valley, could you use it again?"
"I may not succeed, now that the stone is in the possession of Darken Rahl, but I will try." A look of intense concentration crossed Zedd's face as he began to work the spell. The last time he worked it he could see the stone in front of his face and he was taking it from a man who wanted him to do so. Now he was trying to snatch it from the grip of Darken Rahl. The two Mord'Sith took a step back, even when not try to stop the wizards magic they were aware of the effect their own magic could be having on the spell. It was just as Zedd was about to give up, that the smooth blue stone rolled into the palm of his hand. He held out the stone to Richard, allowing his grandson to take it.
"Now onto the Pillars of Creation." Richard said to the world at large, holding the stone up triumphantly.