Chapter Nine

Kahlan had been sitting in her office when the guards had come. The woman, Denna, had been with them. Kahlan had tried to ask them what they were doing, but a hit from her Agiel had kept Kahlan silent the rest of the way to the prison cells on the lowest level of the People's Palace. Kahlan could still feel the pain of the Agiel where she had been stabbed.

She had been in the cell for about an hour, when they had through a badly beaten Cara into the cell same cell. Kahlan didn't know what was happening, but Cara was unconscious. She was bruised all over, all of them were black, and she had multiple cuts on her face. Her brown leather was half way ripped open.

Kahlan tried to ease the injuries with the slim amount of water that had been given to her a little while before Cara had been dumped into the cell. Kahlan wished that she could do more, but her resources were limited. She had tried to get a guard to help her, but he had smirked at Cara's exposed, beaten body and told Kahlan to be quiet, adding a threat to the command.

Kahlan sat hopelessly and restlessly against the wall after moving Cara to the bed. She hoped that Cara would wake up. She continuously checked her pulse, hoping she wouldn't die.

After a few hours, Cara started to stir, and Kahlan rushed to her side. Kahlan had tried to cover Cara with the blanket. She hadn't been able to replace the leather, because Cara had moaned in pain when the leather had touched her skin.

"Mother Confessor?" Cara said, opening her eyes slightly, but quickly shutting them against the candlelight.

"I'm here Cara. Your okay." Kahlan said quietly.

Cara laughed, but it turned into a cough. "I'm not okay, Mother Confessor."

Kahlan gave her a weak smile. "You will be."

Cara sat up, and took the blanket with her after discovering her nudity. "What happened?" She asked.

"I was hoping you could tell me. Denna came into my office and dragged me down here. The last thing you told me was something about seeing Rahl." Kahlan finished.

"Oh, I remember that conversation a little. I went to see Lord Rahl I guess. I don't remember anything very well after talking to that messenger." Cara said, scrunching her eyebrows together, trying to remember.

"What happened after that?" Kahlan asked wanting to gain more information.

"Well, the first thing I remember after that was . . . looking up into Lord Rahl's eyes. They were dead looking. His irises had turned grey, and his whole body was stiff. It looked like he was . . . hugging me." Kahlan looked at her in disbelief.

"The next thing I knew, Berdine was tackling me. I was on the floor, and Lord Rahl had fallen to the ground. His arms hadn't moved from their position when I was in them. He looked like a statue."

"Berdine tackled you? In defense of Rahl?" Cara nodded. "I don't believe it."

"It's true Mother Confessor."

"Well, what happened after that?" Kahlan asked.

"Denna." Cara stated as if it should explain everything.

"So, she did this to you? Not Rahl." Kahlan asked surprised.

"Yes, the last thing I saw of Lord Rahl was him on the ground of the Garden of Life, looking like a statue, as medical staff rushed around him."

"That would explain why we're in here." Kahlan whispered to herself. "You don't know what happened after you talked to the messenger?" she asked.

"No, but I think I killed some guards. As Denna dragged me out of the Garden of Life, I saw four dead men outside the door. It wasn't pretty." Cara seemed better. Kahlan had thought her behavior had been strange after talking with the messenger, but she had brushed it off as fear of interrupting Rahl when he was . . . being helped.

"Did she say anything?" Kahlan asked.

"Yes," Cara paused thinking; "Denna said something about an assassination attempt, and that she was glad that her Agiel was working. I wasn't paying that much attention."

Kahlan gave her a weak smile, "Sorry, I guess you weren't. So, they think you tried to kill Rahl. I thought you weren't able to do that."

Cara looked at Kahlan for a second before answering. "That's what I told you. I could try to kill him, Mother Confessor, but I would just end up dead." Kahlan was shocked. Cara had told her that the bond prevented her from killing the Lord Rahl, but that wasn't true. Kahlan understood why she had lied though. Cara was right; Rahl would have just killed her after she ultimately failed in her assassination attempt. It would not be a pleasant death.

"Well, I'm glad that she didn't kill you." Kahlan said.

"I'm sure she just wanted to let Lord Rahl do it. She probably thought he would be mad if he didn't get to torture me to death." Cara said this with such a calm manner, that Kahlan was all the more worried for her life.

"You didn't try to kill him, though, did you?" Cara rolled her eyes.

"I'm not stupid, Mother Confessor. Besides, I would have told you if I had a plan to kill him. I'd want you to escape. Not end up in a dungeon cell with me."

"You mean like we are right now?" Kahlan asked, smiling.

Cara rolled her eyes. "Yes, but I didn't try to kill – "

"Dinner." A guard interrupted her while pushing a tray of food through the door.

Kahlan looked over at him, he was big and blonde. He didn't look very interesting, just a regular D'Haran guard, but Cara was staring at him.

"Benjamin." She whispered, and stood up. The blanket fell to the ground, but she didn't seem to care. "What are you doing here?" Kahlan didn't know who he was, but Cara seemed very comfortable around him.

He looked to Cara's ripped open leather. "I can get you some more comfortable clothes if you want." He whispered.

"You didn't answer my question." Cara used her Mord – Sith tone, but it didn't seem to faze the man.

"Cara, I'm going to get you out of here." He said. Kahlan was surprised that he had called her Cara. Most D'Haran's called Mord – Sith 'Mistress.'

"No." The man's face looked pained at Cara's statement. "I don't want anything to happen to you. You will not risk your life for me." She seemed to order him like he was her pet, but he didn't act like a pet.

"Cara, I'm not going to leave you here to get tortured to death."

"I won't die then." Cara said simply. "You need to leave. You're not supposed to be down here."

"Cara, please."

"No." Then she whispered something to him that Kahlan couldn't hear, and he replied in the same low voice and walked away.

Cara looked extremely sad as she came back over to the bed and sat down. Kahlan couldn't help, but ask, "Who was that?"

Cara looked into her eyes for a moment before deciding what to say. Kahlan could tell it was a lie.

"Just a friend."