Cara's mind was still blurred and warm with the dreams of the evening before she woke with a start. Her lungs sucked in the crisp morning air. Her well trained ears caught the sounds of sprinting feet, colliding bodies, and drawn daggers.
"Cara! Wake up!" Zedd called in a boisterous tone. Cara immediately jumped to her feet and had her agiels in hand in one, swift movement. That's when she saw them: the swarm of dozens upon dozens of Banelings charging their encampment. Some had already made contact and were attempting to grab at Kahlan, Zedd, and now herself. Cara looked for a way out and saw none. They were at the base of a hill and the Banelings were coming in from all sides.
Fear did not grip her heart, anger did. Cara let her agiels scream in her hands while the cold rage soaked through her. She drove the ends of her agiels into the first Baneling she saw, it shook in pain before dropping. Cara wasted no time spinning around to grab another Baneling behind her, throw it to the ground, and kill that one too.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Zedd blasting Wizard's Fire, a liquid flame that splashed over several Banelings. They fell, but only so more could replace them. Kahlan was fighting off as many as she could, throwing her daggers only to reach forward, grab them again, and drive them into another Baneling. It was as if she was rock climbing over the bodies, finding purchase over and over in order to get to the top.
"There's too many!" Cara called out after what must have been her twentieth Baneling. The onslaught was endless, like they were crawling out from under rocks and falling out of trees. "We have to run!"
Kahlan turned to look at Cara and Zedd as if to make a plan when a Baneling grabbed the compass that hung on her belt. It ripped the compass from her with a sneer before falling back as more Banelings came forward.
"Cara!" Kahlan called, but Cara was already running after the Baneling. She could feel the heat of Wizard's Fire on her back as she ran, barely keeping up with the Baneling at first but covering ground the more they made chase. She could feel her heart pounding away as she ran, and then she found her opening- Cara grabbed a fistful of shirt and yanked towards her with all her might. The Baneling immediately reeled back and fell onto a rock behind them. It's head cracked open like a rotten hard-boiled egg. The black blood seeped out slowly, viscus and vile. If it weren't for Cara's comfort with torture chambers, she would have retched from the sight and smell.
In the Baneling's hand was the compass, which she unceremoniously pried from it. It felt warm in her hand, like something was whirring inside it, even though it only worked in Richard's possession. Cara had never held it before, but she had a strong desire to open it.
Mord-Sith were not designed to be curious, so Cara shooed that thought away and hurried back to Kahlan and Zedd. The two would be perfectly fine on their own in any other situation, but the horde was thick and bulbous. Cara realized that she should have been worried, but it was difficult for her to unlock any emotions that were above her rage, pride, and general apathy.
Kahlan had just driven another dagger into the neck of a Baneling when Cara ran towards them, taking another out with an agiel to the back. She turned to see Zedd being backed into a corner and ran up to kick a Baneling in the back of the knees, driving it down into the ground as she held an agiel to its neck. Black puss foamed from it's blighted mouth as the Baneling shook itself to death.
"Quickly, there's a pass," Kahlan shouted, pointing behind Zedd. There it was, a tumble of rocks cut out into the landscape, climbing up and up into the mouth of a waterfall. It was a small opening at the top, but it was large enough for all three of them to get into. If they took the time to clamber up the rocks, the Banelings would fall into the water. At least they would be safe for a moment. It was worth a shot.
Zedd was first to pull himself up over the rocks. He was at the top of the pass as Cara guarded the bottom of the waterfall. She kicked a Baneling in the head and sent it reeling backward, but more were coming.
"Hurry up!" Cara called out to Kahlan, who was just getting there. She climbed up the rocks quickly, and then it was Cara's turn.
Her hands found purchase easily, but then something yanked at her leg. Cara looked down and her heart dropped into her stomach. A Baneling, with the force of six or ten other Banelings pulling, was forcing her back onto the ground. She would be killed, there was no fighting her way out of it before one of them sank a knife into her jugular.
It was then that she felt Kahlan grab hold of her arm, firm and steady, and pull her up. Kahlan again felt that magnetic barrier between them but didn't have the words to define it. It was unlike any magic or force she had witnessed, but it felt familiar somehow. Like a lost part of her own magic, or perhaps an older part. Cara caught Kahlan staring at her and raised an eyebrow.
"Are you all right? Are you hurt?" she asked each question in quick succession. Cara's eyes flitted up and down Kahlan's face. The Confessor shook her head and exhaled.
"No, no- I'm fine, Cara," she assured. The look on Cara's face was abundantly sincere, so she smiled a bit to steady her case. "Did you get the compass?"
"Of course, I'm not an idiot," Cara scoffed. She opened her hand to reveal the compass. Zedd promptly took it from her hand and observed the closed locket for any dents or other disturbances. He opened it to reveal the darkened orb inside, which would normally whir to life in Richard's hand.
"This is the longest it's been without a true North," Zedd noted. His eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. "Without guidance from the compass, we don't have a clue of where to go next."
"It was doing something before," Cara countered. "When I took it from the Baneling, it was making some kind of noise. Let me see it." Zedd shrugged his shoulders and handed it over to Cara. When she opened it, the compass began to glow and point in a new direction.
"It seems to like you," Kahlan said after a moment of shock. The compass hadn't done anything since they parted ways with Richard weeks ago. The magic of the compass had lain dormant in her hand, but in Cara's it came to life.
"I don't think a compass has the capacity to enjoy someone, but I'm flattered," Cara responded dryly. She wasn't anyone special, not like Richard, or Kahlan, or even Zedd for that matter. She wasn't even a special Mord-Sith- she wasn't Darken Rahl's favorite, nor was she popular among her sisters. Cara was simply Cara. Having a destiny for her did not go farther than being Mord-Sith.
Fate smiled and put down her paintbrush for the time being, letting the lines dry.
"Well, I suppose we should follow Cara then. Let's see where the compass leads us," Kahlan nodded, pointing in the direction of the rotating light within the device. Cara turned around and walked forward in the direction of the thick forest before them.
They had been travelling for 2 weeks without stopping. The days seemed to get shorter and shorter, filled with nothing but idle conversations and blank minds. The compass was taking them through remote areas in the Midlands that they had never seen before, and although beautiful, Kahlan wondered how long they would go on. It would be faster if they could take horses, but they didn't want to risk being taken off course and losing time.
"It's taking us…" Cara broke the silence and didn't finish her thought. She stopped mid step and looked up. There it was- the Boundary.
"Where are we, Cara?" Kahlan asked, stopping right behind her.
"It's taking us into D'Hara," Zedd replied. The three of them watched the light refract through the endless green wall of magic for a long moment.
"The Stone can't be in D'Hara… Darken Rahl would have known about it," Kahlan said, shaking her head. "And we can't go into D'Hara looking like this."
"You're right," Cara told them, shaking her head. "Both of you are too conspicuous looking, and I'm not much better. We're going to need to figure out how to safely cross the boundary."
They found cover in the forest to figure out a plan. Cara reached up to a tree branch and snapped it from the trunk, then began to draw a map in the dirt. Kahlan and Zedd looked on intently.
"There are three entrances into D'Hara from the Boundary, here," she drew one, "here" and another "and here" and the last. "We're about five days from the top entrance, Graten tel J'fen, a few hours from the middle, Graten tel Rahl, and two weeks from the bottom, Graten tel Hesfia. J'fen is where most of the military travel through, it's guarded by a magical gate that assesses your amount of D'Haran blood to allow you in."
"And are the two others like that?" Kahlan asked, which Cara quickly shook her head in response to.
"No. Rahl is the one most people use- merchants, travellers, and Rahl himself. It's heavily guarded. Our only real option is Hefisa. It's not guarded by any people and it's rarely used. Last time I heard, the stone entrance keeping it open was crumbling and shrunken. Who knows what kind of state it will be in once we're there."
"Hefisa will be tricky. He was the ruler of D'Hara over 1,000 years ago, when the last Seeker, Kieren, was named. Back then, D'Hara wasn't the monster it is now, but Hefisa was known for his dealings with dark magic. Rumors have spread as of late that something inhuman is guarding that gate," Zedd said in a serious tone, looking at Kahlan and Cara with concern.
"It's our only option- Cara is the only D'Haran out of us that would make it through J'fen, and we're not going to get through the Rahl gate unless you look less like the Wizard of the First Order, and I stop being the Mother Confessor with the Sword of Truth strapped to her back. We just have to be ready, like always," Kahlan told him with a stern look.
"Kahlan's right. We need to find out what the compass is leading us to over the Boundary. If we're lucky, it's the Stone, and we can seal the rift before the Keeper can find us. With Richard separated from us, this may be the perfect time to find the Stone while being out from under the gaze of the Keeper," Cara agreed with a curt nod. "Let's move, then, we've still got some daylight left."