The Bess
Part 25
Cara and Commander were on watch as three other men. They travelled for more than four days and still she didn't have any time to talk to the Commander. But she wanted the things to go straight between them
"Reinold." The Mord'Sith approached the man who stood peering in the darkness of the wood.
"Yes, Cara." He turned to her.
"That what you've said in the general's quarters before the battle…" She didn't know how to continue.
"I meant it. I love you." Commander Styx brushed away some locks from her face and leaned to kiss her but Cara stopped him. She put her finger on his lips.
"I'm sorry. I don't have the same feelings for you. I don't want to hurt. You're a great man but I don't think I can love you." The Mord'Sith told him almost in a whisper and took his hand away from her face.
"Are you in love with someone else?" The man asked disappointed, though he knew that it was stupid to fall in love with a Mord'Sith.
"What?! No,… no…" Cara chuckled looking at his desperate expression. "You know my training doesn't leave any possibility to love somebody. I can't feel anything but pain and I don't want a person beside me feel miserable. It's how I am." She shrugged her shoulders.
"I would love you with all passion and tenderness you've ever thought about. I'll make you feel the same!" He insisted.
But Cara just shook her head: "I'm sorry, you must find a decent woman I'm not your match."
She left him there disillusioned and broken but he was a man he could cope with it. The Mord'Sith was on watch all night staring into the sky light-headed. She has never felt so free before like a heavy sack fell down from her shoulders. Now she had one aim – her child, who supposed to free this world from the evil.
Cave city the end of November:
Aisha's leg was healed. The wound left a prominent scar on her thigh but she was proud of it rather than regretted about it. Now she had a scar and looked just like her mother. The true Mord'Siths should have scars otherwise they were lame. The bad thing was that she had to go to school again and interact with children. She tried to be polite. The girl never responded at any question even if she knew the answer until somebody from her class answered or the teacher named her to respond it. She talked to other kids only if they wanted to copy the homework off or if they asked her the right answers during a test-paper. Many of her classmates played in the yard during a break but she was sitting at her desk with a book not to involve in anything that could lead to getting into trouble. But still some of the children couldn't leave her alone. Three boys have been bulling her since the day she came to school. One of them – Robert or Bob as his gang called him was an 11 year-old boy who threatened all kids in the class and was famed for his stupid tricks and silly nicknames he used to give other children. Aisha ignored him when he called her different offensive words, spilt ink on her works, talked nonsense about her.
She went home after school examining the hard rock under her feet. It was snowing outside but snowflakes went through the crack windows made in the mountain and turned to water, so even if it was snowing outside, here in the city it was always raining. The girl put on her hood to protect her head from drizzling rain and suddenly a little rock hit her back not hard but it made her turn around to look who was the intruder.
"Going home, Bessy! What about playing with us? You against us!" He laughed when another sharp rock thrown from the older boy nearly hit her in the face, but she was quick enough to bow to avoid it.
"That's not my name and I don't like playing." Aisha replied and put her hands in the pockets.
"Why? I think it's a lot of fun." Bob smirked.
"Leave her alone." A teenage voice came from behind.
"Oh! You have an admirer! How sweet! A beastly creature has a looser to help her." The boy continued mocking.
"I told you! Leave her alone." Eric was standing now in front of Aisha trying to hide her from stones.
"Oh, I'm so scared!" Robert's sarcasm started to be annoying. "You're so afraid of who you are that you don't even want to show yourself. Renn told us everything! You're a bess an Underworld beast. Thanks, your mother-whore died giving you birth, you, Keeper's creature!"
Eric made two steps to smack the boy but he was pushed apart by such a force that made him fall to the ground. Two boys-guards were lying in mud wiping blood from their face and weeping like mamma's darlings. Robert lied on his back on the ground and Aisha sat right on him her claws caressing his now naked throat. She leaned her face closer to his to show him the sharpness of her fangs.
"Did you want to see this? Then enjoy it!" She ran a finger down his cheek leaving a line filling quickly with drops of blood.
Suddenly sharp pain got through her body making the girl gasp. At the next moment something strong and nearly furious got her up and put at her feet.
"Why can't I leave you for a month not thinking each passing day about you getting into trouble!"
The bess was really astonished to hear such a familiar voice: "Mistress Cara?!"
Cara's hand held her daughter tight by the scuff of the neck.
"Did she hurt you?" The Mord'Sith asked three boys.
"Yes, this, this… creature wanted to kill us!" Robert complained his eyes too wide with fear.
"He's lying! She didn't want to do them any harm. They made her! They mocked at her!" Eric said. He already got up from the ground and now was staring astonished at Cara and Aisha.
"He's telling the truth." The Mother Confessor approved boy's words.
Three boys tried to move backwards but some citizens stopped them.
"Aisha, take my agiels." Cara ordered.
"What for? I don't want to!" The girl pleaded.
"Take them and punish these boys as you wanted to, just don't kill them." Cara's words sounded cold and sober. Aisha hesitated. The Mord'Sith put one agiel in girl's hand. "You have your right to punish them. Go ahead!"
Aisha's hand trembled a little from the pain agiel caused her. She looked at three boys now standing frightened as puppies in a storm and she put the agiel back in the holster.
"I won't do that." She said firmly.
"Why? They scoffed at you, three against one. You have a right to teach them a good lesson." Cara insisted in her cynical tone.
"No one deserves to be punished by an agiel. Let them go." Aisha replied softly.
"Fine. You three may go. And you, little girl, will have a long talk about this small incident." The Mord'Sith said critically. The girl hung her head and went home silently.
They entered the house and the girl was immediately hugged by Renn.
"Hey! How are you? There are so many things I have to tell you. It was quite an adventure!" he spoke so quickly that Aisha could hardly understand him. She didn't say anything. Then he discovered the saddest look on her face. "What's wrong? Are you alright?"
"I have to change." She replied softly and went to her room followed by Cara.
Aisha noticed that Mother Confessor's things now where replaced by the Mord'Sith's. It meant that her mother would live here in the room and keep an eye on her. She sat in an armchair in the corner of the room and waited for Cara to start the conversation. Silence didn't last long.
"Aisha, what were you thinking about when you attacked those boys? This is how you keep your promise to be good and to obey the Mother Confessor?! Do you know that after this stupid fight rumors will circulate through the whole town and people made us leave!" The Mord'Sith continued to paint the devil blacker than he is when she realized that the poor child wasn't paying attention to what she was speaking about but the girl was crying silently fighting not to burst into crocodile tears. Cara rolled her eyes, approached the girl and sat on the arm of the chair.
"There is no reason to weep like that." Cara reprimanded the child.
"I thought that when you'd come back I would be able to hug you that you'd be proud of my behavior. But I've ruined everything as I always do!" Aisha sobbed.
"You may hug me if you want to." Cara said looking at the girl.
"How can I after that what I've done! I'm nothing but a bess!" She replied wiping tears with her sleeve.
"Fine. If you don't want to hug me then I'll do it." Cara put her hands gently over the child's slim body and pulled her closer. Aisha's head was on Cara's lap and the Mord'Sith played with blonde curls that were now in a pony tail.
"Mom, I missed you so much!" Aisha let out a small sob.
"Me too." Cara replied softly.
"You should punish me for that what I did today."
"You did the right thing. You didn't do anything in revenge. You let them go. It means that they should think first about their behavior. You gave them the opportunity to be forgiven. Now these boys have two ways either they apologize or they recruit some followers to defeat you." The Mord'Sith explained.
Aisha put up her head in surprise: "Would they do it?"
"Why not? Cowards always want revenge." Cara said deathly sure.
"So, if I taught them a lesson with an agiel they would have left me alone?" the child asked.
"Maybe. But you have to be better than them and you showed today that you are. For people it is worth seeing that a half-human has more humanity inside than some of their kind. I'm proud of you." Cara kissed the girl's forehead. Aisha hugged her mother with all her might.
"I love you, mother." She said softly. Cara kept silent just holding the child closer to her heart.
This was the first night when the Mord'Sith slept well without any dreams and the most important without any nightmares about Darken Rahl killing Aisha. Cara opened her eyes to see two blue oceans staring at her.
"Why aren't you sleeping?" She asked tiredly not wanting to leave the warmth of her soft bed.
"The Mother Confessor is sick again but she refuses my help. Can you talk to her, please?" the child looked at her very seriously.
"What's wrong with her? She looked pale yesterday." Cara exclaimed.
"I think it's about a worm growing inside her. I told her that I can get rid of it, because it's eating her and it's growing but she refused my help." The girl explained.
"A worm?!" the woman smirked.
The Mord'Sith grumbled and got up. She was in her short sleeping gown and Aisha gave her a long dressing gown.
"I don't need this." Cara refused to take the gown.
"Zedd is already awake and he's sitting in the living room." Aisha said stretching her hands with the dressing gown.
"So what? I'm not naked and even if I were, who cares!" She put on her slippers and went out. The girl just shook her head.
Cara went across the room almost unnoticed by Zedd who was reading a book with certain enthusiasm. He just responded on her greeting not getting his eyes off the book. She knocked at the Mother Confessor's door and without waiting for an answer entered her room.
Kahlan sat on her bed with a bowl in her hands. She felt dizzy and her face looked pale.
"What's wrong with you?" The blonde woman asked with concern.
"Don't know, maybe I ate something bad." Kahlan answered throwing contents of her stomach into the bowl.
Cara examined Kahlan with interest. She noticed some slight changes in her body which could be seen only by an experienced woman.
"Aisha told me about a worm growing inside you. Do you want to talk about it?" The Mord'Sith asked trying hide her smile.
"Not really." Kahlan said and took a deep breath.
"You're pregnant." Cara exclaimed with a surprise in her voice.
"I'm not sure."
Cara snorted: "It's almost three months since that episode with that strange human fish and you're not sure! How sweet!"
"I had my period after that but now I've missed almost one and a half month." Kahlan explained wiping sweat from her face with a handkerchief.
"Sometimes a woman can have her period during pregnancy. It's not a good sign but it doesn't mean she isn't pregnant." Cara said knowingly.
"How do you know?" Kahlan asked the blonde.
"I'm not the first Mord'Sith to bear children. We have to know such things in order to use our agiel the right time to prevent another bastard to appear in the world especially if we understand that child would be weak." The Mord'Sith said without any emotions in her voice.
"Cara, and you? Did you do it?" Kahlan was horrified with the Mord'Sith's confession.
"No. I didn't have too. I wanted to get rid of Aisha but after my stupid suicide I was watched 24 hours a day. After giving birth to her I didn't get pregnant, though I've been with an amount of men since that time. I think it's good. I can have a lot of pleasure without thinking about aftereffects but I don't think I want to share my body with any man after I've been through." Cara sat on the bed near the Mother Confessor. "You should see a midwife and tell Richard. He would be happy as a king." She smiled reassuringly at Kahlan.
The Mother Confessor just nodded. Cara told Aisha to heal the woman without doing any harm to the worm inside her. The blonde girl did as she was told and Kahlan could sit at the table with others listening to Renn's stories about their trip and to Richard's plans for the future of the Resistance.
To be continued…