Wow!! This is the fastest I've ever updated, and one of my longest chapters. Yay for me!! I want to thank all my lovely reviewers. It was so great to open my inbow and see all those emails from , it really brightened my day. So, anyways, on with the story!
Disclaimer: By the way, I'd never own something as cool as this.
The first thing Kahlan noticed when she woke up was the fact that she couldn't move. The second thing she noticed was that she was on a horse, and it was moving fast. The third thing Kahlan Amnell noticed when she opened her eyes was that her hands and wrists were covered in so much rope she could barely see her own skin. Her hands were forcibly wrapped around the other side of the horses' neck. Two of the ropes tied to her wrists led out to the front and the sides, and were tied to two other horses ridden by D'harans. There was a rope around her neck, tying it down to the horse she was on as well as one around her midriff, and several around her legs. Kahlan lifted her head as far as she could- about an inch –and looked around. The horse she was on was surrounded by several other horses. Seven of them ridden by D'harans and all going fast. The horse directly in front stopped, and all the others, including hers, followed suit.
The D'haran who was on the front horse, who seemed to be the captain, got off of his horse. Kahlan strained her neck to watch as he turned, and walked toward her. Though she currently had eyes only for the captain, Kahlan sensed the eyes of the six other men all on her.
"Would you look at that," the captain spoke as he reached Kahlan, "the little confessor's awake."
Kahlan growled, "That's Mother Confessor to you, you D'haran pig."
Despite the fact that her face was practically snuggled right up against the horse, the captain still somehow managed to slap her.
"What was that?!" he yelled in her ear.
Even though he couldn't see her eyes, Kahlan glared at him, "I called you a D'haran pig."
The captain slapped her again and spit on her, "You'd better learn your place before you kneel before Lord Rahl."
Kahlan could do nothing but glare as the spit rolled down her cheek, "I doubt Rahl really expects you to tame me. Seeing as he couldn't do it himself. Don't worry though; I won't be tamed anytime soon."
The captain slapped her one more time for good measure before hopping back on his horse and signaling for the horses to ride hard. They did just that, moving fast enough to cause Kahlan's hair to fly around her.
"Come in."
Denna entered the room and stood right behind Rahl, who stood facing the other way.
"My lord," she acknowledged him, "You sent for me."
"Yes," Rahl turned around, "Someone special is coming very soon. I want you to train her extra hard for me, Denna."
Denna nodded as a smile began to form on her face, "The confessor," she spat.
Rahl nodded, "I'm having a special room prepared just for her. I'll have someone take you there to get a good feel for it in a moment."
Denna smiled, "Good. This should be fun."
"Train her hard, Denna," Rahl spoke again, "I want her kneeling at my feet when you're done with her. We'll see how powerful she is then. We shall draw the Seeker to us and kill him, and then the confessor will be my personal slave."
Denna nodded, "Yes, my lord."
It was getting dark now, and Kahlan had been riding with the D'harans for over a day without stopping for food, water, or rest. She'd spent much of the time thinking of a way to get herself out of this mess, so Richard wouldn't put himself in danger to save her. She knew he would, and she also knew she had to get away to protect him. She'd only come up with one idea, and it wasn't a very good one, but she had to try.
"Captain Fletcher," a man behind her called out."
The entire company halted. The captain turned his horse around and rode past Kahlan to the man who'd shouted.
"What is it?"
The man spoke again, "We're starving, and I can't feel my arse. There's no way the Seeker can catch us now. We need a break."
The captain nodded, "Three hour break," he pointed to Kahlan, "tie her to a tree."
Two men came to untie her on either side. They untied her neck first, and she rolled it around to relieve the stiff muscles. Then they untied the rope around her midriff. As soon as all the ropes around her legs were gone, Kahlan kicked both of her legs outward hard, knocking the men down. She then kicked the horse in the side to spur it on. It responded immediately, and began to gallop away from the D'harans. Kahlan brought her still tied wrists up and around the horse's head so they were on the same side of its neck as her. She took the horses reigns and took control of it, riding in and out of trees as fast as she could.
Kahlan chanced a look back, and saw several of the D'harans with loaded bows. They fired, and one arrow went into her calf. Ignoring the pain, Kahlan kept the horse going, urging it faster when it stumbled. Kahlan looked down and seeing an arrow in one of the horse's legs, felt her fears confirmed. Sensing danger, Kahlan jumped off the horse, and continued moving, barely escaping the falling horse. Despite the arrow sticking out of her calf, Kahlan ran as fast as she good.
As she prepared to cut around a tree, Kahlan felt another arrow hit her shoulder. She let out a cry of pain and rolled to the ground. She lay there only for a moment before getting on to her knees and crawling, knowing it was pointless. She was right. It was only moments later when a boot pushed her flat onto her stomach. The boot rolled her over and she came face to face with seven loaded bows pointed at her.
"Stand up, confessor," the captain growled.
Kahlan stood.
One of the men lowered their bow and approached her cautiously. Kahlan prepared to confess him.
"You even move," the captain spoke again, "and there'll be six arrows in your gut."
Kahlan lowered her arm and allowed the man to bind her arms. Kahlan cried out in pain as the man ripped the arrows out of her calf and shoulder. They then all walked back to the clearing in which they had stopped. A couple of the men led her over to a try, and tied her to it, wrapping her arms around the trunk behind her and tying them there.
It wasn't long before the D'harans had gotten a fire going and some stew warmed up. The delicious smell of food wafted over to Kahlan, making her mouth water. She put aside her hunger, knowing she would get none of the stew, and instead thought of Richard.
She was attracted to him; she could no longer deny that. She loved him, in fact. This just made all the more terrible that they had to put aside her feelings. She'd gotten used to be alone all her life, and until she'd met Richard, she'd had no doubts about being along for the remainder of her life. But from the moment he'd touched her after he'd saved her from the Quad, that had all changed. She'd felt the electricity when he'd reached out to help her up, causing her to raise her dagger to his throat in reaction.
Kahlan was pulled out of her thoughts when a very large D'haran stopped to stand right in front of her. She looked up at him, glaring.
"What?" she snapped.
The giant man laughed, "I figure after all the work I've done, I deserve a little fun."
Fear coursed through Kahlan as she immediately realized what he meant.
"Don't touch me," Kahlan tried to scare him off.
The man laughed again as he kneeled down and forced her legs apart, and moved between them. Kahlan struggled as much as she could, but all her force did nothing against the burly man. The D'haran put a hand on her thigh, moving it up her leg and pushing her dress with it.
"Get of me!" she growled loudly.
Kahlan struggled more, but he only worked harder. He was just unbuckling his own pants when a commanding voice rang out.
"That's enough!"
Kahlan turned to look at the captain, relieved.
The big man stood, "What? I deserve my fun. After what she did to the other men yesterday, she deserves it."
"I agree," the captain nodded, "but you obviously don't know the first thing about confessors, so unless you want to be confessed, I'd recommend stopping."
For the first time in her life, Kahlan was glad she was a confessor.
The man looked at Kahlan for a minute before speaking, "You're right. She's not even worth it."
At that moment, Kahlan kicked her leg up hard, into the man's groin.
The man let out a yell of pain and collapsed to the ground. Instead of rolling around on it like any normal man would, he picked himself back up.
"Bitch," he growled as he stepped closer to her and punched her in the face.
Kahlan could do nothing but watch as he punched her again, and again, and again, rotating between her face and her stomach. Kahlan closed her eyes, and after what seemed like forever, the beating stopped. Kahlan cautiously opened her eyes to see one of the D'harans sitting in front of her. She hadn't seen this one yet. He was young, maybe fifteen or sixteen, a boy really. He had a bowl of stew in his hands. He dipped his spoon into the bowl and lifted it up to her. Kahlan moved her head away, uncertain.
"It's alright," the boy insisted, "I know you must be hungry."
Kahlan cautiously opened her mouth and allowed the boy to stick the spoon in it. A split second later, a boot had replaced the spoon in her mouth. The boot was removed and Kahlan looked up at the perpetrator, expecting to see the boy but instead finding to captain.
He looked at her, but his words were directed at the boy, "Why are you feeding this filth. She doesn't deserve any of our food."
The boy spoke nervously, "If she dies of starvation, then Rahl will kill us all."
The captain seemed to contemplate the statement for a moment before nodding, "If you want to feed her from your portion, be my guest."
He then promptly turned around.
The boy dipped the spoon back into his soup.
"Thank you," Kahlan spoke quietly, so only the boy heard.
The boy shrugged, "It's not right how they're treating you."
"Then why are you working for Rahl," Kahlan questioned, confused.
The boy responded nonchalantly, as if he'd given up, "I got drafted. Deserters are killed."
Kahlan nodded, accepting his answer, and resting her back against the tree trunk.
There you go. I'll try to post again soon, but don't expect me to post as fast as I did this time, it was REALLY fast for me. Review encourage fastness!!