Chapter 35 – Angel

(Title from the song "Angel")

Despite the thick darkness, the group walking in the open space in the center of the Concealed Fort was definitely too numerous to go unnoticed: five marching people plus the boy, hidden under Quigley's cloak were an unusual show to be seen in that place. A reduced to obedience General Spancill was leading the small troop toward the gates, driving off the soldiers they met along the way with eloquent glares and mutely reassuring his men that everything was in check.

Hours before Kahlan had ordered Lagan and Clyde - the soldiers she had confessed before entering in the Fort - to shift their turn and watch the gates as sentinels for that night. Indeed the two Confessor's servants were eying the group twenty meters away, eager to reunite with their adored mistress.

Suddenly a clatter echoed from the building where Stefan had his lodge and some soldiers ran out of it, shouting alarmed. Yells echoed throughout the previously quiet night:

"Warning! Warning! Someone took the boy away! Close the gates now!"

All of a sudden the soldiers of the Fort began to wildly run in every direction. Both Confessor and Mord-Sith extracted their weapons simultaneously, preparing for the approaching clash.

"Go on toward the gates, don't stop!" Kahlan hissed to General Spancill. "And if someone attacks whoever of us, protect us at the cost of your life." The man nodded with an idiotic grin plastered on his face.

Between confessed and killed guys, nearly twenty men were already out of play, but forty more remained standing. The whole group hastened the pace to reach the gates before the complete chaos would tumble upon the hidden place. A man rushed toward Spancill and applied to him.

"General the boy has disappeared! What are your orders?"

Cara recognized this man: she had seen him that evening and he was one of the soldiers present in the square open space when the Mord-Sith had killed the nursemaid. The General looked at his subordinate and replied his orders:

"Commander Borden, send all your men to look for the boy in the soldiers quarters. He must be perforce there. There must be a deserter among our ranks."

But the Commander didn't sound very convinced by this instruction and frowned staring at his General. This certainly brave man dared to question his superior's orders.

"Who are those people my General? And where are you leading them?" Borden hadn't taken the time to assess the group, as he was too busy at trying to find a solution to the current thorny problem. But the questionable stance in his General forced him to better consider the oddity of that assembly; they were doubtlessly heading toward the gates and most likely exploiting the darkness to go unnoticed as much as they could. The reason was a mystery to Borden, who turned even more suspicious.

"Don't bother me with your stupid questions Commander! Execute my orders immediately!" Spancill impatiently retorted.

But Border was less and less convinced of his General's reliability; maybe it was just him the deserter among the garrison? The Commander unsheathed his sword pointing it toward Kahlan - who was leaning just behind Spancill – at last recognizing in her the teacher arrived just that day. Spancill extracted the weapon on his own shrieking:

"Don't you dare threaten my Mistress Confessor!"

Borden was damn sharp; he eyed Cara's braid and got the hang of the whole situation. It wasn't accidental that the child had disappeared a fistful of hours after those two women had arrived at the Fort. And that brunette wasn't at all a village teacher, but a treacherous woman responsible for General Spancill being hooked by confession. The Commander screamed his lungs out to draw the attention of his fellows around.

"There's a Confessor here! She's with the Mord-Sith! They are trying to escape with the boy!" Then he nimbly pierced Spancill full in his chest and the General dropped down agonizing. At once many soldiers around were attracted by the bustle and aimed to the uncommon cluster.

Cara didn't waste a second: she profited of the Commander's blade still embedded into the hideous Spancill's chest and jumped ahead, planting her Agiel on Borden's stomach. She snatched the man's sword, extracting it from the dead General's body and tossed it aside to disarm the Commander. Other D'Harans were fast approaching next to them and the Mord-Sith yelled to Kahlan:

"Reach the gates immediately! I'll keep them at the bay!"

Kahlan hesitated: even with all her temerity, the brave blonde couldn't face forty soldiers alone. Cara shouted louder: "Run Kahlan! You must ensure that Stefan gets out of here! I'll get by in here and reach you in a while!"

The Confessor nodded with a sorrowful look in her eyes then ran away with Peggy and Quigley toward the gates. By the wooden walls Lagan and Clyde had already killed the other two sentinels, and waited for their mistress to come and join them. Once there Kahlan ordered them to open the gates and give her a seal, but Lagan's features turned downhearted.

"We haven't it Confessor. Sentinels are not allowed to have seals. You must use the one I gave you this evening." A curse sneaked out of the brunette's mouth: Cara had the seal and the Mord-Sith was now almost surrounded by several enemies.

Commander Borden crumbled on his knees screaming in pain as the whining Agiel kept on sending him waves of shocking sore which would soon kill him if he didn't haste at responding the attack. He somehow found the strength to hold Cara's wrist and remove the weapon from his torso. As he was still firmly holding the Mord-Sith's hand, Borden saw the seal on her middle finger and also eyed the red-clad woman's companions stuck by the open gates under the oak. Borden was damn, damn sharp; again he seized the situation and glimpsed a possibility to win.

He was too weak to beat the Mord-Sith now, but he knew that her priority was getting out of the Fort rather than killing him. Finally he knew that his Master Rahl would skin him alive if he failed the mission, therefore he clenched his teeth and chose the lesser evil.

Commander snatched Cara's Agiel from her hand with brutal force and held the blonde's extremity mustering all of the strength he had and channeling it in the brutal grasp. The astute man pointed the leather stick on the ring wrapped around Cara's finger, hardly withstanding both the rain of blows the Mord-Sith was delivering him with fists and kicks, and the pain from the weapon he was gripping. The seal began to glow white and after some seconds exploded. He loosened his grip exhausted and smiling for his success; after that he was immediately knocked out by a knee to his jaw from a furious Cara.

The Mord-Sith eyed a dozen of soldiers looming over her and recollected her Agiel, getting ready for a new assault. She began a new fight slamming all of her energy and rage against her foes, but as many people she beat just as many more popped up from nowhere. She didn't care if she died: it would have been an honorable death pursuing her duty. But her current priority was to ensure Kahlan and Stefan getting out of there safe and sound. She glimpsed them, lingering and still standing at the feet of the oak. Why the hell were they waiting?

Lagan, Clyde and even Quigley reached Cara's sides blocking with their swords the slashes sent toward the Mord-Sith; Lagan screamed to her within the fray: "Run to my mistress now! She needs you to get out. We will hold the soldiers back!"

Cara smashed the opponent attacking her sending him on the ground and sprinted to the Confessor, whom she reached within few seconds.

"Cara we need the seal to break out of here!" Kahlan called out loud, but Cara gritted her teeth and cursed that damn Commander.

"The seal is gone, Borden destroyed it!" She snarled.

Immediately after the Mord-Sith dashed to the oak and planted her Agiel against the 'S' printed on the truck; the weapon whined its usual chant. Cara held the grip clenching her teeth while heavy drops of sweat were beading her brow. She prayed inwardly that her idea was good, because she really hadn't any other. If the power of her Agiel had destroyed the seal then perhaps it could also… but fuck nothing was happening!

She concentrated more, conveying her powers into the Agiel and increasing the intensity of its released energy. Cara was exhausted and her arm tendons frayed by the relentless shock from the Agiel. She was just on the verge of giving up her attempt and turn around to face a battle she already knew was lost, when the letter faintly glowed light blue. Boosted from this result, the Mord-Sith struggled more forcefully with her weapon and the glowing turned brighter and white. All of a sudden the magic mark exploded just like the ring had done before. A light blue flash coursed throughout the whole area and, in the matter of a moment, the light curtain separating the secluded area from the forest dissolved. The Concealed Fort was revealed to the world and they all found themselves free.

"Run!" Cara yelled to Kahlan and Peggy, snatching Stefan from the old woman's arms and darting into the dark woods. Kahlan turned her head over her shoulders and eyed Lagan, Clyde and the poor brave Quigley falling, mercilessly killed under the slashes of the D'Haran guards.

The three women ran like hell for some interminable minutes, followed by the screams and the clatter of the chasing D'Harans. Peggy moved as fast as her old feet afforded, yanked by the Mother Confessor holding her arm, until they found the horses which the two undercover ladies had left tied some hours before. Kahlan freed the steeds in a trice, slashing the ropes with her daggers then they all pounced upon the beasts; Cara mounting with the boy and Kahlan with Peggy, who was sure that her hammering heart wouldn't ride over the strong emotions of that night. They galloped away as fast as a flash, leaving the on foot soldiers behind and safely escaping from the Concealed Fort.

Wiggling for a hair breadth out of the obscure Darken Rahl's grasp.

The morning sun was seeping from the window and he turned on the other side, wanting to sleep a little longer. He felt like he had slept for a lifetime, but still wanted to linger in slumber. He liked slumber: it was a beautiful warm place where reality and fantasy met and where he could imagine a life made of travels and adventures. He could fantasize of new people to become friend to and never ending things to be experienced and learned. In slumber he could imagine that he had a family; something so common to everyone in the world, but not to him. This was his biggest wish: to know his family, to know where he came from. To have someone he could call mom and dad… But even in the mist of slumber he knew that this was impossible. He was confined in a little ugly place where nobody cared for him. Well, nobody except Peggy.

Peggy…

He started remembering what he saw the day before… He saw her held from a soldier and screaming… He saw that horrible Mord-Sith laying her damn Agiel on her… Peggy was… was… No, no, no!

Stefan pounced abruptly and sat in the bed. He snapped his eyes wide open and gasped at the thought of his dear nanny dead. But he found her sitting just nearby him, on the edge of the bed with a warm smile on her face, lovely watching over him.

"Peggy!" He exclaimed tossing himself into the old woman's arms and squeezing her so tight that she remained breathless.

"Good morning little champion." She murmured sweetly with her eyes already wet.

"You are alive! I saw you… I thought you… I dreamed you were dead." He was crying still hiding his face in Peggy's chest, rambling confused by the incoherence of his memories with the presence of the beloved woman alive in front of him. Maybe his still sleepy mind was tricking him?

"It wasn't a dream Stefan, I was dead. But now I'm alive again and you…" Her voice cracked for a moment. She took his face in her hands and stared at his big blue eyes. "Today is the first day of a new life for you." Tears were spilling over her brown orbs, stemmed by the happiness of the new beginning her little blonde grandson was about to undertake, but also by the sadness. Because that day they would greet their farewell.

The boy remained silent, with his gaze fixed into the old woman's. Then he looked around and noticed that the room they were in wasn't the same in which he had slept in throughout all his life. "Where are we? What happened?"

The old woman patiently and carefully told the boy that someone had come to the Fort to rescue him and took him away from that awful place, where he would never come back. In the process the healer Quigley had bravely sacrificed himself to grant Stefan a chance of escaping. The little child felt deeply moved learning that the gruff but good-hearted man had given his life for him.

The saviors who had arrived at the Fort had managed to bring Stefan and Peggy away and now they were in the nursemaid's village, in her house; the place she was forced to leave years ago. The small boy asked something like a hundred questions and the nanny tried to give him answers, but there were a lot of things the old woman was ignoring as well. Especially about the mysterious saviors.

"I wanna know them Peggy, where are my heroes?" The boy asked in full excitement.

"Your heroines are here outside the door and-"

"LET THEM IN!" He squealed completely enthusiastic. "I wanna see them… You said heroines? Women?" The kid was barely restraining from running to the door and meeting his liberators.

Peggy inhaled deeply and looked straight into the child's eyes. "Promise me you will stay quiet and won't make one of your typical messes."

Stefan looked at her with a puzzled face for some heartbeats, then nodded vigorously. "Sure, sure, I'll be a good boy! Now let them in!"

But the old woman came closer to him and stretched to him her little finger. "Promise me!"

He huffed and linked his little finger with his nanny's, then rolled his eyes in surrender. "Pinkie swear."

Peggy smiled at him and reached the door; she hesitated for a second before opening it. She called the ladies and invited them in; Cara and Kahlan stepped into the room.

Stefan's eyes widened and he sprinted in front of Peggy to protect her from her murderer, shrilling: "You monster! Stay away from her! Don't you dare touch her!"

The nursemaid knelt and held his shoulders firmly, then forced him to look into her brown reassuring eyes. "Stay calm Stefan! You promised."

"But she's here to hurt you! I won't let it happen again!" He hysterically cried fussing in her hands.

"She won't hurt me. She's different from the other Mord-Sith. She saved me and saved you." Peggy talked steady and clear, not letting his confusion to divert her from keeping him calm. But he was more and more stirred, swirling his arms around and trying to wiggle out from the old woman's hold.

"No Peggy you are misled! I saw that monster killing you and I-"

"Don't call her that!" The nursemaid burst, suddenly enraged and Stefan immediately shut up, staring at his nanny with confusion. After a moment Peggy calmed her voice and went on.

"She killed me, it's true. But she did it so that she could revive me at a later moment and take me away from that imprisonment. Now everybody thinks that I'm dead and won't ever come to look for me. She saved me. And she did the same for you. She is your heroine, your guardian angel! She'll protect you. You must never leave her side."

Stefan turned his head to Cara and stared at her with attention for the first time. He couldn't retrain himself from being startled from her appearance, with that despicable red uniform and that hideous tight braid giving her a look of severity - and probably this was the aim of such a hairstyle. But regarding her more deeply he found the woman somewhat interesting. She was tall and looked strong in her tight leathers, like all the other Sisters of the Agiel, but this particular one had a vaguely familiar face… It was actually an angelic face despite her expression which was really unpleasant, he thought. She seemed bothered as if staring at a splattered rat or smelling socks unchanged for a month. Stefan knew very well that Mord-Sith despised children and this one was likely no different from the others. But Peggy said that she saved him… She said that this woman was his angel…

On the other side Cara was regarding her son. She was doing her best to maintain steady her features, but it was fucking hard! She couldn't deny that she was touched by the sight of this boy, so similar to her. So full of life just like she was when she was his age, Cara admitted with bitterness. But she was Mord-Sith, what the heck! A kind of woman trained to put her turmoil aside and set her face cold and unreadable, not certainly easy to be daunted, much less from a midget boy. She kept her stance controlled, even if in the effort an odd frown was pictured on her features. And the curios child's intense look digging into her was making her feel more and more uncomfortable.

Truth must be said, it would have been a bit easier to withstand her son's inquisitive gaze, if the Confessor wouldn't stay so close to her. Kahlan's hand was in touch and slightly squeezing the Mord-Sith's shoulder clearly on purpose. Cara knew which one this purpose was, but it was of no help to her rather it made her feel even more uneasy. Anyway she appreciated the brunette's attempt to comfort her. Just like she had appreciated the enthusiastic tight hug they had shared some hours before - when they had reached the old goat's home. They both surrendered to the spur of the moment, driven by the excitement of having succeeded in their goal against the odds. Obviously an awkward and stiff parting had ensued after that spontaneous display of exhilaration. It had almost seemed to Cara that Kahlan was about to kiss her, with her nudging her nose against Cara's neck then holding her face in her pale hands. With her getting so dangerously close to her lips. The blonde had felt her sight becoming blurred by the emotion at that moment, but had mustered enough cold blood to gently pull that brunette living temptation apart.

Stefan took some wary steps toward the Mord-Sith and shyly stretched his little hand upward toward her. The bigger blonde chewed her cheek to avoid whatever reaction on her face and sent her gloved hand to her son's. The limbs connected for the second time in their life; Cara tightened the grip gently but firmly, feeling something inside her untying.

"Thank you for saving me and Peggy." The little one mumbled with unhidden difficultly. "My name is Stefan."

"You are welcome Stefan. I am Cara Mason." The red-clad woman replied struggling to keep her voice flat. She unconsciously allowed a small smile to bloom on her lips, while still holding her beautiful boy's hand. The little one shyly smiled in return, unlocking a glimmer of possibility in the threshold of his mistrust.

Kahlan, behind the Mord-Sith's shoulder, felt that she wanted to cry by the joy of seeing these two amazing blondes at last reunited. She felt that she wanted to jump on top of Cara and squeeze her tight, enjoying the feeling of being pressed against the other woman like they had been before, in a joyful precious moment of pure elation. And she wanted to take her face in her hands one more time and kiss her and tell her that now that they had found and saved her son everything would be all right… that they'd be at last happy and nothing would be in their way… and kiss her and kiss her again and again and again…

Creator, how much she wanted to kiss her…