Chapter Thirty-Four

Cara had been unconscious and barely breathing for five hours now, and Nikolas was beginning to worry. However, just when he was about to get an actual doctor, she stirred, her face scrunching up into a frown. He saw her eyes open up a fraction of an inch, and she sighed. "Nikolas."

He found himself breathing a sigh of relief, even as the anger at her began to build. He let her rest, covered in blankets, the expression on her face serene, except there seemed to be something painful about it.

He could only let her rest for so long, and soon he found his voice raised in anger asking, "How long have you known about Kahlan and Dahlia?"

Her eyebrows crushed together in what Nikolas hoped was confusion. "How did you find out?"

Nikolas felt his jaw tighten, Cara still had not opened her eyes, and he found that he didn't like her cavalier tone. "How long?" He tried to make his tone sound forceful.

Cara finally opened her eyes and looked at him. She pursed her lips, and then rest her head back down. "Since before your wedding."

"Since before my wedding!" Nikolas was furious. He had Kahlan and Dahlia locked up in Kahlan's room, his mother's lover, Benjamin Meiffert was standing guard. "You didn't think that this was information I should know?"

Cara opened her eyes and lifted her head up. The look on her face told just how annoyed she was by Nikolas at that moment, and Nikolas finally realized how different she was from when she left. "You were not the Lord Rahl at the time, first of all. Secondly, my strongest allegiance is and always will be to the Mother Confessor. And third, why does it matter Nikolas? She married you." She paused a moment as she laid her head back down on her pillow. "Now, either stop yelling at me, or leave and go get Benjamin."

Nikolas stood, dumbstruck for a moment, and realized how it must feel to be scolded by your mother. He had not been prepared.

Nikolas had decided to leave and get Benjamin. He still had to deal with Kahlan and Dahlia, and he found the prospect even less inviting that before. He was unsure why he had reacted the way he did, but for some reason, he felt betrayed by two of the most important women in his life, and Cara's newfound opinion wasn't helping matters.

So he was walking out of the room, when an anguished cry came from his mother. "Nikolas!" She screamed.

"What is it, what's wrong?"

"The world." She whispered, she was panting as if she had seen a ghost. "The world is going to end."

Nikolas was confused. "We were told they were fixing it on the other side."

Cara shook her head. "They can't. They don't have all the necessary parts, but we do. They told me where to find the spell. You have to save the world Niki."

"What are you talking about? Why couldn't they do the spell on that side?" He asked. He didn't like where Cara's plan was heading.

Cara gulped, and Nikolas put a hand to her forehead. He pulled it away quickly; it was as cold as ice. "I need to get a healer, mother. Guard! Guard!"

"No, listen to me." Cara hissed. "They needed the boxes of Orden, but theirs were destroyed. They are a necessary part of the spell. You have to hurry Nikolas, or a lot of people will die, from our world and theirs."

"Cara, I'm not sure what you want me to do. Kahlan would never let me put together the boxes of Orden, even if it was to save the world." Nikolas told her, "Guard!"

Finally a man came, "Yes, Lord Rahl." His fist pounded his heart.

"Go get a healer, quickly!" Nikolas went back to his mother, not bothering to check if the man was gone. "Just hang in their mother, the healer will be here soon."

"Listen to me, Nikolas. In the People's Palace, there is a library called Bibliotheca Mundi et ejus Operationes. Berdine should know where it is, so ask her. When you go in the door go to the second shelf from the left of the door. On the left side, third self from the top, somewhere along there, should be a book that explains the spell, it's called The Sword of Truth: Uses, Harms, and Remedies. The title is in High D'Haran, but Berdine should be able to figure it out."

"All right. We'll all go, when you're better." Nikolas told her.

"No!" She gasped and coughed, but continued. "You must leave as soon as possible, the worlds could end at any minute." She waited for Nikolas to move, but he didn't. "Leave me with Benjamin. Take Kahlan and Dahlia, and go. We don't have time Nikolas, you must perform the spell, or many people will die."

"Cara, there is a problem with this plan." She didn't seem to realize what it was, and Nikolas realized that as the Lord Rahl, this sort of thing was expected to be his burden, but that he should be able to fix it. He was the magic against magic. There was just one problem.

"I can't use magic."