In the Dark

Richard paced his cell, growing more worried with every step. When would Nicci return? Other than Zedd, she was his only companion in this place. In this nightmare—Kahlan taken from him. Cara gone too.

Trapped in the best-built dungeons in the Midlands, with no way to fight Rahl, no Sword of Truth, and no food.

Richard ignored his hunger, channeling his feelings into a razor-sharp calm. Sooner or later, Rahl would have to face him.

"Where is she?" he demanded at last, frustrated.

"Kahlan? I wish I knew," sighed Zedd.

"No—I mean, yes—but Nicci," Richard said, not very clearly.

"You aren't seriously considering working with her, my boy?" Zedd protested. "After all she's done to you, and to Kahlan—"

"She can help us escape," Richard said firmly, uncertain why he was so determined to bring Nicci out of this place. He couldn't let Rahl get her Han, of course, but it wasn't that. Or it was—but it was more than that.

"Richard," Zedd said warningly, but Richard didn't want to listen. Zedd always thought he knew best—but they couldn't just leave Nicci here.

It was then that Nicci was marched once more past Richard's cell. When he saw her, he gasped in horror.

Nicci's skin was red and covered with angry marks and bruises. There was a nasty cut across her palm, her hair was damp and clung to her skin, and her eyes looked like twin pits of despair.

Still, she walked as proudly as a queen, as though the Mord'Sith were her attendants, not her jailors. Her calm was like ice, and it reminded Richard of Kahlan's Confessor face.

He was surprised at how relieved he felt that she was alive at all.

They took the Wizard, when they threw Nicci back in her cell. She watched out of hooded eyes, listening to Richard's protesting, "Zedd!" and wishing she cared more.

It was hard to feel sorry for the man who had killed you, Nicci found. She felt a similar lack of interest in the fate of Richard's pet Mord'Sith.

But Richard sounded as though his already broken heart were shattering into yet more pieces.

Nicci shut her eyes and tried not to hear it.

The guards shoved food through the bars, and Nicci ate hers, even though it tasted like cardboard and her lip was so swollen it hurt to chew.

Actually, just moving hurt, pulling at her parboiled skin.

"Nicci?" Richard asked eventually. He sounded unsure, even frightened. "Where do you think they're taking him?"

"To be tortured, what else?" Nicci said callously, before she thought. "Or maybe Rahl is going to steal his Han, too…have you ever heard of another way, besides a dacra? At first I thought he would just kill me, but now I think he wants it to be lingering…"

"Zedd," whispered Richard brokenly. Nicci reached out and touched the wall separating their cells, wishing she could touch Richard. Take away his pain.

Don't be a fool, Nicci. He loves the Mother Confessor. Besides, at this rate you won't even live to see his face again.

More dark hours passed.

Nicci was in too much pain to sleep. "Richard?" she asked. "Do you ever think…that maybe all this is because of you? That you deserve this pain? Bad things don't happen to good people. Right?"

"Do I ever think I deserve to be punished?" said Richard. There was a long pause, and Nicci thought he wasn't going to answer.

She thought about the man who had raped her, how helpless she had felt. How broken. She had never spoken, even obliquely, of her secret fear—that she had deserved it, that the Creator had wanted to punish her.

Funny—she couldn't pretend she didn't deserve to be punished now.

At last, Richard whispered, "Yes."

They didn't speak again that night (or day, or morning—time was meaningless here). But Nicci fell asleep at last, to the sound of Richard's slow breath.