Chapter 11

Cara paced back and forth, her hands firmly planted on her hips where her agiels used to rest. Her lips were fixed into a furious scowl that would have made the Keeper himself recoil in fear. Her thoughts were caught in the midst of a churning chaos that refused to release its hold on her until she found him.

She had to get to Garren, had to know that he was alright. She couldn't stand going another day without knowing that he was still alive, couldn't survive another moment without feeling the safety of his arms locking her against him.

As a Mord'Sith, she had been trained to never need anyone. Now as Garren's wife, she found she needed him more than anything in this life.

He still didn't know that she was with child. She had allowed him to leave without telling him, fearing that if she did, he would be distracted with thoughts of the baby they were going to have. He needed to keep his mind focused on the dangerous task ahead and not filled with worry over her.

Now he would never know the truth if he was truly gone.

Cara growled under her breath with the intrusive thoughts that tormented her. She dug the heel of her boot into the dirt as she turned sharply, continuing to wear a path in the ground. She tried to force the horrifying thoughts from her mind, to not give up but her hope was quickly dwindling into a faint flicker.

Finding the soldier that she had thought was Garren buried in those rocks had nearly shattered her heart altogether. Staring at what she had discovered, she had felt all of the blood drain from her face.

She shivered now with the memory, the pain that had erupted inside of her at the site still lingering in her core. She was going to find her way through this one way or another. She had to especially now that she was with child.

The knowledge that she was carrying Garren's baby somehow made her heart feel almost light at times. Since being with him, she had wanted nothing more than to have a child with him. It meant so much to her to be able to give him that. He had been such a bright light in her dark world, lighting up her life like no one else ever had, in a way that only he ever could have. She hoped this baby was just the beginning of many more they would have together.

Pausing at the opening of the tent, Cara listened to the distant sounds of chanting. It had been going on all night long, droning on and on for hours without even a pause. It was an unnerving hum that escalated only to dwindle again as it blanketed the entire village.

Cara tilted her head, peering into the early morning fog. A faint pink glow illuminated the dense mist that had settled over the area as dawn tried to burn its way through the thick cover. Guards stood with spears at the entrance to the tent, making sure that their prisoners did not escape.

Cara smirked. She didn't need her agiels or any weapon for that matter to remove these guards. If they only knew she was just as deadly armed as she was unarmed. One of the guards abruptly turned his head to look at her, his golden eyes narrowing with a sneer that curled his lips.

Cara glared back with a sneer of her own, forcing herself to walk away before she removed the native's head from his shoulders. Every fiber in her body ached to act, to do anything that would bring this agonizing wait to an end. They had to know something about Garren, something that they weren't telling them.

They had done nothing but wait in this dreadful tent since being stripped of their weapons and brought to the Enalaroan's village yesterday. Food and water had been brought to them, but nothing else had happened. No sign of Garren and no indication that any of their men were even being held here. Maybe Tamago had been telling the truth when he had told them they had killed all of their soldiers.

Cara gritted her teeth as she grew more restless with every passing hour. She didn't know how much longer she could take this idle waiting. Helplessness oozed from every pore, frustration pervading her every step.

"Cara, you're going to wear yourself out pacing like that."

The Mord'Sith turned at the sound of his voice to find the Lord Rahl was finally awake. "Some of us can't sleep so easily," she huffed before resuming her march.

"And you're going to be completely useless to anyone if you're exhausted," he reminded her as he sat up. "You have the baby to think about now, Cara."

"I haven't forgotten," she snipped at him, her anger at the situation getting the better of her. "I just…I have to do something. We can't waste anymore time just sitting in this loathsome tent."

"Well there's isn't a whole lot more we can do at this point since we're now prisoners of the Enalaroans," the Seeker calmly reminded her.

"We wouldn't be if you would've just allowed me to use my agiels on them," she groused, not pausing in her stride.

"Cara, we have to find out what is going on up here and we can't do that if all we are doing is fighting and taking the lives of the very ones who have the information that we need."

"I don't care what is going on up here. I just want my husband back."

"And I will get him back, but I think he may be caught up somehow in whatever is going on between these two tribes."

Cara paused to look at him, sizing him up before speaking. "What are you thinking?"

"Honestly, I don't know," he frowned. "I've had a bad feeling since waking a few nights ago, one that I can't shake."

"A bad feeling about what? About Garren?"

Richard watched as panic replaced the annoyance that had veiled her face. "No, it's not Garren. It's something else, something bigger than just one person. I can't put my finger on it, but something has changed recently…and not for the good."

"What kind of change?"

"I wish I knew," he sighed in frustration. "It's just a feeling that I've had, that something has changed, something significant is about to happen…or has already happened."

"And you think it's related to these two tribes?"

"Could be, but I'm not sure. I intend to find out, though. I don't want whatever is happening up here to leak into any other regions."

"I still think you should've let me take them out," she scowled, folding her arms across her chest as she came to a stop before him.

Richard shook his head in disagreement. "It's not always about fighting and violence, Cara. Haven't you already seen the futility and senselessness of it all from Darken Rahl? Sometimes the most information can be gained from patience and civility."

"Forgive me if I left my civility back at the Palace," she groused. "I didn't know I would need it in order to find my husband. And as for patience, I have never possessed that particular quality."

"That's true," he agreed with a small smirk. "I know you want to find Garren. I do too, but raining arrows and swords down on these two tribes isn't going to be the answer now. We've already tried intervening twice and it hasn't worked. It's time for a different strategy."

"And what exactly do you have in mind?"

"Life is very different here compared to other places that we know. It's one that is very simple and steeped heavily in superstitions and mystical beliefs. We can't come in here with an iron fist, tearing through their land and expect them not to defend themselves.

"They've already shown that they're willing to go to any length to stop us, going as far to create a dangerous rockslide. They're going to fight to the death if necessary to preserve their way of life. It's all they know. It's time to try a more subtle approach."

Cara studied him for a long moment, her emotions fighting the logic that he was making. "I hope you're right," she muttered, resigning herself to the fact that they weren't going to find Garren any time soon.

"Of course I'm right," he frowned in mock indignation. "I'm the Lord Rahl. Isn't the Lord Rahl always supposed to be right?"

Cara couldn't stop her lips twitching into a fleeting smile. She rolled her eyes at his words, shaking her head. "Just don't let it go to your head."

"Isn't that why I have you around?" he smiled, happy to see a brief glimpse of the old Cara hidden beneath the layers of anguish and pain, the roll of her eyes lifting his spirits.

"Yes, and don't you forget it either," she shot back. "I may not have my agiels to keep you humble, but I am still Mord'Sith. I have other methods."

"I know those other methods all too well," he bitterly replied.

Cara could practically see the memories of being tortured by Denna resurface in his mind. He had suffered greatly at her hands. She wished that she could have prevented him from knowing that pain.

She also felt overwhelming guilt, remembering the horrible things that she had said to him that night in the library. She'd had trouble even bringing herself to look at the man who meant so much to her let alone speak to him since they had left the Palace. She knew that she had hurt him, her words cutting deeply.

Cara wanted more than anything to take it all back, wishing that she could have found a way to stop those words from pouring like acid from her lips. But all she had known at that moment was such a crushing hole in her chest, a rage that had begged for a target to hit.

And Lord Rahl had unfortunately become that target.

"I'm sorry…about the things that I had said to you the night before we left," Cara quietly ventured, hesitation in her voice.

"Cara, you have nothing to apologize for," he gently told her.

"The news about Garren…it was…I just didn't know how to…" she stuttered and paused, stopping to search for the right words and finding none. She huffed under her breath in frustration as she began pacing once more.

Richard watched as she moved back and forth like a caged animal desperate to pounce, her emotions knotted tightly and brewing just below the surface. It was like watching a volcano set to explode.

"I didn't mean the things that I had said. What happened to Garren is not your fault," Cara finally said, folding her arms tightly against her chest. "It was wrong of me to accuse you like that. It's because of you that I'm even alive, that I have this life that you have given me."

"Cara, your life is your own. I didn't give it to you," Richard adamantly replied. "You just chose to take back what was yours and to live it the way that you wanted to."

"You may see it that way, but I don't and neither do the other Mord'Sith," she said, stopping to look at him again. "We live free because of you. That is the greatest gift anyone could give next to love."

"And I intend for you to live that life with Garren," Richard reassured her. "We will find him and bring him back, Cara. I give you my word I will do everything in my power to find him."

Cara nodded slowly in response, her throat suddenly thick with tears that she refused to allow to fall again. "And when I do see him, he's going to wish that he hadn't been found by me."

Richard chuckled softly, more than relieved that things had finally been made right between them. He hated the painful wedge that had divided them. Knowing that she didn't blame him helped some, but his own guilt still lingered, his own anger with himself still simmering inside nearby threatening to steal his confidence.

"Have you ever seen wolves like the ones that almost attacked us?" Richard suddenly asked, changing the subject as his thoughts shifted to yesterday's strange encounter.

"No, never anything like those," Cara replied, her mouth turning into a frown. "They were bigger than anything I've ever seen."

"I agree," Richard said. "There was something strange about them and more than just their enormous size. They almost seemed to be controlled by the Enalaroans."

"I noticed that too. There was something very mysterious about them. Something was definitely not right."

"I wonder if it's tied to whatever is going on," he muttered, talking more to himself than his counterpart.

"I don't know but we had better get some answers soon if we're ever going to find Garren and get out of here," Cara sighed as she resumed her pacing.

She knew that Lord Rahl was truly gifted, he the magic and she the steel. He could sense and understand things that others couldn't. If he felt that this was what they needed to do find Garren, then she would trust him. She trusted him with her last breath.

He had never failed her before. She knew that he wouldn't fail her now when she needed him the most.

XXX

She stood at the edge of the cliff, her arms folded against her chest as her blue-eyed gaze wandered over the distant horizon, the People's Palace just a barely perceptible speck in the distance. Her heart was heavy with the things that she had seen and experienced, the overwhelming fear that had imbedded its claws in her, but she finally felt more like herself with her powerful magic back where it belonged inside of her.

Kahlan closed her eyes against the welling tears, swallowing back the emotions that stormed inside of her. This was unlike anything that she'd ever experienced, paralyzing her with a fear the likes of which she'd never known.

She'd had her share of fears over the years, worries that came with being a Confessor as well as fear that always came with the thought of losing Richard. But this went far beyond any of that. This struck so deep into her core; terrorizing in its unrelenting nature, terrifying in its darkest depths. She felt as if she was being swallowed whole by an evil so profound that it was unimaginable as something that she could not see was sucking her into something she could not begin to escape.

Drawing in a deep breath, she attempted to pull herself together, knowing that she was going to have to get through this if Scai was going to be stopped. She couldn't handle the thought of that monster getting anywhere near Richard or her girls, her friends and loved ones, the very people that trusted her and Richard to lead them.

She had been truthful when she had said that she'd sooner take her own life than to allow Scai to control her, to use her for his own end purpose. She would not be the reason that people died. It was the very thing that went against everything that she and Richard believed in, had fought so hard for.

Thoughts of Richard drifted through her mind, warming her heart and yet pricking her guilt. She knew that he would be more than angry with her for leaving the safety of the People's Palace. She had promised that she wouldn't leave, but it couldn't be helped.

She had to find a way to stop Scai before he gained a greater foothold in this world. For that reason, she would risk Richard's anger with her in order to save his life and the lives of their daughters. She just prayed that he would forgive her, that Zedd would help him understand the necessity of it.

"Kahlan Rahl…"

Kahlan froze at the sound of her name, her entire body tensing with a renewed sense of terror. It was him…it was Scai. He was here, communicating to her. Her heart was suddenly thundering beneath her breast, her lungs seizing with rekindled panic that buckled her knees.

"I am coming for you, Kahlan Rahl…" the voice echoed in her ears, breathy and yet so rough. "You will be my servant and I your master."

"I do not belong to you…I will never belong to you!" Kahlan screamed into the air, clenching her fists at her sides.

Her pulse raced at the icy flush that washed through her body and coalesced in her soul. She trembled despite herself, her anger blazing through her veins with the intrusion, her magic quivering in her core and threatening to erupt.

The only response she received to her defiant outburst was a low rumbling laughter that grew and deepened, reverberating through her mind before suddenly disappearing altogether.

"Lady Rahl!"

As if being released from an unseen enemy, Kahlan gasped for air as she turned to look into the eyes of Mistress Rachel who was suddenly standing there beside her. Rachel placed a reassuring hand on the Mother Confessor's shoulder, trying to draw her out of the panicked state that she now found her in.

"I…I'm alright…" Kahlan murmured, trying to calm her hammering heart.

"What happened?" Mistress Rachel asked, not believing her. She was stunned by the look of sheer terror on the Mother Confessor's face, the horror that filled her blue eyes.

"It was…Scai…"

Mistress Rachel immediately began looking around her, searching for any impending danger. The Wizard had explained what was going on and why they were going to Solairna, but magic remained an elusive mystery to her and her Sisters of the Agiel, one that they were not eager to encounter. That was why they were the steel and against steel and Lord Rahl the magic against magic.

"It's alright, Rachel," Kahlan quickly told her. "He's not here…yet. He's just in my head somehow, tormenting me with what he wants to do."

"You should rest for a little while longer," Mistress Rachel replied, her brow furrowed with concern.

"No, I want to keep moving," Kahlan insisted. "The sooner we get to Solairna and find what we need, the sooner we can return to the Palace and stop him. Tell the others we leave immediately."

"As you wish, Lady Rahl."

Kahlan watched as Mistress Rachel turned and made her way back to their horses. She was beginning to wonder just how much time they truly had before Scai became a reality. Feeling as though he was connected to her somehow was only adding to her fear, making it nearly impossible to function. No enemy before had been able to instill such profound terror inside of her like this, not even the Keeper himself.

At the same time, it hardened her resolve. She would do everything in her power to stop him including taking her own life. She just prayed that Richard would learn to forgive her someday if it truly came to that.