Her formal wear wasn't bad; in fact it was quite nice. She complained because it was what was expected of her. And it amused her, which was always a bonus. The black leather trousers were familiar, even if they were the wrong colour. The tightness was comforting. She wore a long, low cut vest covered by a black jacket. The front finished a few inches below her navel and the back dipped to just below the knee. A golden Celtic design rested over the shoulders and at the bottom of the coat tail. A golden grace sat across Cara's back, level with her shoulder blades. It was well tailored to her, as any clothing the Evil Overlord would be expected to wear. She was able to fight in it, though taking the jacket off would make it easier on her. Not for fighting, but Cara didn't want to listen to Berdine complain about staining or ripping the expensive garment. Armored leather gloves reached almost to Cara's elbows but left her fingers bare. Her ageil was in its holster on her hip, nothing could possibly separate her from it. A gun was kept at her back, hidden by the jacket. It was too useful a weapon not to have on her. Cara had insisted she didn't need any of the multiple knives on her, but Berdine had insisted louder and longer that it was just a precaution and couldn't Cara just humour her. Maybe she'd need to cut some rope of something and where would she be if she had no knife on her. Cara had given in, she knew Berdine had her safety and best interests at hard, and Rahl could Berdine drone on!

Cara was excited as she strolled down the main road of Adindryil towards the market place. She hadn't been able to do something like this since she became the Evil Overlord, and that was far too much time to go without threatening bodily harm to the public. Berdine had walked ahead of the official contingent in her brown leathers (as not to scare people) taking the odd person aside and asking questions of them. Who sold the most expensive foods? How much did they charge for a certain item? Where could they be found? Berdine came back with a few possible leads, and encouraged Cara to choose to 'visit' a man who sold fruits. A large section of his produce seemed to be imported from D'Hara, and was very overpriced. While it was his right to price his goods as he did, if he used import taxes as an excuse for his prices, the man could be fined. Cara thought the Midlands had weird rules. In D'Hara, if the ruler thought someone was overpriced they said so, and the seller would lower their prices. It wasn't personal, and no one was offended. Not that many rulers took the time to investigate the local market, but Cara could always send someone like Berdine to do the job for her. Which she did when Berdine got annoying. Not surprisingly, that could be quite often.

Cara stopped in front of the shop; her eyes quickly took in the exterior and what she could see of the interior through the glass panes. She had someone else to do this now, but Cara wasn't going to leave her safety in someone else's hands when she could do it herself. Satisfied that the shop wasn't hiding anything particularly dangerous, she entered. Cara heard about seven pairs of feet follow her. She stopped in the shop thresh hold and glared at the escort she hadn't wanted to come with her in the first place.

"Berdine, you can come, the rest of you can wait outside. Guard the perimeter if it makes you feel better, but take one step in here and I'll skin you myself. Am I clear?"

The four Mord-Sith nodded and slammed a fist to their chests before moving away. The palace guards nodded and did the same a few seconds later but looked unsure of the situation.

"You could have kept a few of them with you."

Cara smirked. "Not up to the job of protecting your leader Berdine? What a disappointment."

Berdine rolled her eyes and followed Cara deeper into the shop. Cara stopped by a large crate holding red apples. She picked one up and inspected it. Rubbing it against her jacket to make it shine before inspecting it from a different angle. The shop owner saw Cara's inspection and rushed up to her. He probably thought her a rich noble, who was easily convinced out of her coins. A D'Haran quiet obviously (no Midland lady would wear that) wanting a taste of home.

"Can I help you with anything? I see you're eyeing a D'Haran apple. These are the best D'Hara has to offer."

Cara snorted. "You should hope they're not. The best goes to the Overlord. She's partial to apples."

Everyone knew who Cara was, but not many people knew what she looked like, they'd never seen her, or had only seen her from a distance. Cara was fine with that, it meant it would be harder for people to try and kill her.

"Ah, you caught me out, but I've been told they are very close to the quality that the Overlord eats at her palace."

"Really?" Cara tossed the fruit up into the air and caught it. "It is very good quality, I can see that, but it's the wrong colour." She took a bite and almost instantly spit it out into the palm of her hand, her face consorting into disgust. She dropped the bite onto the floor and wiped the juices from her hand on the shop owner's apron. Cara handed the apple to Berdine.

"Take a bite."

"After that display you want me to eat this thing?"

"Berdine." It was a warning.

Berdine sighed and took a small bite, chewing on the apple before swallowing.

"That is revolting. It's not even ripe yet."

Cara turned to the crate of apples and started to dig through them.

"They're all unripe." She turned to the shop owner. "Why do you sell them if they're not ripe?"

"That's the way I'm given them when I buy them."

Berdine rolled her eyes. "Of course they are. D'Haran apples are picked unripe and are left in the crates for a week to ripen. The crate walls are lined to keep them moist. Are you trying to tell me that the people of the Midlands eat all D'Haran apples like this?"

The man shrugged and nodded. "We assumed that leaving the apples in the crates was a D'Haran custom."

Cara placed a hand over her mouth, trying hard not to laugh. Berdine shook her head.

"No, a custom for the D'Hara apples is that the owner of each orchard owner must pick the first apple after ten or more apples have fallen off the trees ripe. Those fallen apples must also be left for the birds and insects to devour."

The man gaped at her.

"But that's a waste of hundreds of apples each year!"

"Closer to a thousand actually." Berdine corrected. "There are two different types of trees. Summer flowering and winter flowering, both have the same tradition.

Cara cut into the conversation, once again in control of her laughter.

"As interesting as this conversation is, I feel I must point out that your apples are four times the price of what I'd find in D'Hara."

"Ah, well." The man started with a mournful voice. "With import taxes I have to charge more."

"Even if that was true, four times more is far too much. As it is, there is no import tax as both nations are ruled by the same person."

"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that."

Cara grabbed the shop owner by the collar. "I'm afraid it does. It was one of the first things I did. Do you know what that means? It means that you can be fined up to three thousand dollars. But I'm going to give you an option. I'm a D'Haran, and in D'Hara if I say that price of something must drop, it drops, no questions asked. We're going to apply that rule here. But you know what else you're going to do for me?"

He shook his head as best he could.

"You're going to make sure everyone else drops their prices too. You have a month, make it happen."

She dropped him and stormed out of the shop, the unripe apple still in one hand.

If the small smirk on Cara's lips was any indication, the Evil Overlord had enjoyed herself. Berdine as had known she would. And now they were headed back to the Confessors Palace, people moving quickly to get out of their way. They may not have known who Cara was, but she had a quad of Mord-Sith, who would even think about getting in the way?

xxxxx

Cara paused outside the palace gates. A group of palace guards were in a semi-circle against the wall. Curses and yells were thrown around from them. They started to move forwards slowly, as if advancing.

"Berdine?" Cara said quietly. Berdine always knew what was going on.

Berdine didn't answer, but rather strode towards the guards with a dark look on her face. Cara heard the faint mutter of 'Idiots' before Berdine started pulling the guards away by the back of their necks. She threw them to the ground behind her, creating a gap in the wall of bodies. A large dark shape flew through the gap and landed in front of Cara. Cara blinked, staring at the shape before glancing up at Berdine's proud smirk.

Before her, sitting patiently was Dog. Cara held her hand out, a signal for Dog to come to her. The large dog trotted towards her and collapsed on the ground, showing his belly. Cara obligingly knelt and rubbed the exposed stomach. Dog was a tiger headed Tibetan mastiff. He stood almost to Cara's waist, with a black body and tan markings along his legs, belly, snout and eyes. His tail curled up and towards his back. Dog's coat had started to puff up in response to the colder climate of Aydindril. It would snow soon and Cara knew that snow was Dog's preferred weather. While in D'Hara, she had taken great pains to cut, trim and brush Dog's fur to make the warmer temperatures bearable him. Years ago, after a raid Cara and her sister preformed on a D'Haran noble's house, Cara had found Dog curled up in his bed. They had been allowed to take anything that took their fancy, and Dog took Cara's. Dog hadn't been well trained, something that Cara had rectified instantly. The Lord Rahl hadn't really liked the idea of such a large animal running freely around the People's Palace, but hadn't objected too loudly. Which was basically permission to Cara. So she had kept him, and trained him to obey her and only her; though he would sometimes listen to Berdine and Raina. Unfortunately, she had been forced to leave Dog at the people's Palace when she came to the Midlands. Cara grinned at Berdine, thanking her with a look. For what was quiet possibly the first time since she became the Evil Overlord of D'Hara and the Midlands, Cara was happy.