Sincerely thanks for all the lovely comments and support. This is for all of you :) Apologies for the delay, but I am back in the Kahlan/Cara mood and really want to finish this now :) I will update more frequently, chapter four to come. I can't find a beta reader, as will be obvious. Forgive any errors, and if anyone knows a beta reader or wants to volunteer please let me know :)

Many thanks to you all xxoox , Carly

Chapter 3

Kahlan wont turn her eyes from Richard until he is out of sight and well over the horizon. She doesn't have to turn around to know Cara's eyes are glued to her. The isn't much daylight left. Richard won't get far in one night. She and Cara will probably camp where they are. It was a good spot. Easy visibility in all directions, good shelter from the weather as the dense trees towered over them.

She wonders what Cara makes of her, standing there, long brown hair blowing in the breeze as her eyes are glued to the Seeker. She is the Mother Confessor, the highest moral authority in all The Midlands. Not that a Mord Sith would respect motal authority. Like Cara once told her, There is no one a Mord Sith should hate more than a Confessor.

Yet it isn't hatred Kahlan feels emanating from the woman standing tall and proud behind her. Nothing like hatred. That strikes a fear in Kahlan, fear in the very core of her being. Everything had been turned upside down. The world wasn't as it should be. It should be that Cara has her agiel ready to strike, That Kahlan has her hand ready to steal Cara's life with one touch.

Kahlan closes her eyes, as the seeker disappears over the horizon. A picture comes to her mind. A memory. From the time Richard had been controlled by Denna. Denna trying to command Richard to kill Kahlan. Denna tormenting Kahlan, and imploing Richard "End her pain! Kill her!"

Kahlan thinks about how deeply afraid she had been for the pain to end. The pain must not end. The physical pain from the agiels touch. And the agonising pain of watching Richard, sword in hand, inching towards her with murder in his eyes.

Something deep inside of her took hold, the pain must not end, she decied. This pain must never end. When the pain ends, life ends, hope ends. This must not end. That's what her eyes had said to Richard in that desperate moment. The pain must not end.

Suddenly she is snapped back to reality, and turns to face Cara.

"Do it." Kahlan orders in that quietly authoratitive tone that she would use with someone under her power. She says it calmly, firmly, as if she expects instant obedience.

"Do what?" Cara asks casually.

"One strike from your agiel and you could kill me, like you wanted to from the first day we met. Kill me like you killed my sister and all the other confessors on Valeria. It's what you were trained for, right?"

It isn't a angry taunt, Kahlan doesnt seem upset or angry in the slightest. Her tone is steady and even as if she were discussiong the weather, not the taboo subject of Cara murdering her sister in cold blood.

"No." Cara tells her simply.

"Do it, now." Kahlan orders, losing patience.

"Or what?" Cara scoffs. "Or you're gonna confess me?"

"You think I wont?" Kahlan challenges.

"I know you Kahlan." Cara asserts, "I KNOW you wont." It strikes Cara as a little odd, as flashes from the past come back to her. Kahlan in the con dar, wanting to kill her after she found out about Dennee. Kahlan with her hand so close to Cara's neck, as the angry crowd scream for Kahlan to confess her. One more inch, one more minute, and she would have been dead. But that was before.

"What's to stop me?" Kahlan wants to know. "I could confess you, Order you to drive my own knife straight through my heart. When I die, swiftly, you will be released from confession. No harm done." Kahlan explains her reasoning.

"No harm?!" Cara asks incredulousy. " And how will I explain this to Richard? When he returns and finds you lying dead in a pool of blood and the sword in my hands? Did you think about that, Mother Confessor? Or the fact that I'm a Mord Sith. Your touch would kill me, too."

"Not if you are fast enough with the knife." Kahlan responds.

Quickly Cara reaches forward, knocking the knife from Kahlan's hand. It was too easy. As if Kahlan wanted her to do it. The knife lands on the muddy ground between them.

"Do it." Kahlan repeats in encouragement, as Cara, without realising, has her hand on the agiel.. A battle reflex. Nothing more, Cara tells herself. A reflex. Like any opponent, any argument, it's a reflex, she didn't want to hurt Kahlan. She wouldn't.

Kahlan smiles at her "Do it." She whispers, and it sends shivvers down the Mord Sith's spine.

But Cara moves her hand away from the agiel, trying to hide her frustration. What she does, instead, is reach for the rope. It's not her style, the rope, but it seems like something Richard would do. She will just tie Kahlan up and wait for Richard. How pleased will he be, to see Cara has resisted using her agiel. That she benignly left the dear sweet Mother Confessor unharmed, tied to a tree.

But something shifts in the air as Kahlan spies the rope. She hadn't been expecting that. Kahlan's eyes flicker with intense darkness, and a sudden clap of thunder makes the two women jump in suspense. Cara had seen that flicker in Kahlan's eyes before. The reddish glow of something dark and unstoppable.

Cara sees it in time. She recognises the warning signs. And although she would admit this to no person ever, she is a little bit intimidated. Cara is brave, but she is not foolish. And she drops the rope to the ground just in time. It lands right next to the discarded knife. While Cara is quite confident Kahlan wouldn't hurt her on purpose, she has seen Kahlan in the Con Dar, no one in her path would be safe, not even Richard. That's a fact.

Cara doesn't doubt Kahlan would run if she had the chance. That's how Cara sees it. That Kahlan is afraid of her too, afraid of the agiel, the pain, if not afraid of death. Somehow Cara has little faith in the oath Kahlan swore to The Seeker, that she would remain quietly here with Cara until Zedd or Richard returned. Cara has no desire to fight physically with Kahlan. They had been down that road before, and truth be told Kahlan was a formidable opponent. And, fact or the matter is, Kahlan really could kill her with one touch. Still, she supposes she would battle Kahlan to the death on Richards instruction, if that's what it came down to.

The irony it isn't lost on her, the fact Kahlan wanted to die, Richard ordered Cara to keep her safe and sound, but how could Cara stop her if she wanted to leave? If she just got up and decided to walk away, to live, to die, what could Cara do? Torment her with the Agiel? She has already seen that look in Kahlan's eyes, the rage, preceding the con dar. Cara knows she wouldn't stand a chance against Kahlan in the con dar. So really, what was the point of sitting here, with Kahlan? She couldn't make Kahlan do anything, she couldn't promise Richard that Kahlan would be safe. She wasn't the creator with power over life or death. Killing people, that she can do. Keeping people alive? That's different. Sure, she fought for Darken Rahl, the way she now fights for Richard. She protected them, kept them alive by battling enemies. But in both cases she was fighting for someone who wanted her to fight. Fighting for someone who has already given up, that's just not possible. Fighting an oponent who wanted to die, well there was no purpose in that. Much as she hates to admit it, Kahlan has the upper hand. All she can do is sit. And wait. And hope that Zedd arrives soon.

"Give me your Agiel." Kahlan breaks the awkward silence with a new request. Her tone so confident, as if the agiel was what she wanted all along. As if she were a child negotiationg for some priviledge, asking for the world, and settling for the smaller gift she really wanted.

"The stone Spit it out." Cara repsonds. She is stalling handing over the agiel, and she also wants to make it clear to Kahlan that Kahlan isn't the only one giving orders. That Cara has some sort of power in the situation.

"Why should I?" Kahlan shrugs, involuntarily, though she doesn't refuse.

Cara answers her, because she has nothing else to do. "Number one- you don't need it. It's of no use to you. You bite down on that stone, I give you the breath of life, right back where we started. Number two, that stone is mine. You took it from me." Care explains.

Something shifts in Kahlan's eyes as she takes in a sharp breath. It takes Kahlan by surprise to realise that she was utterly powerless. She couldn't even die. If possible, she felt even more hopeless than when she had been standing on that ledge dangling her foot over with the knife at her throat. There was no escape, not even death.

"Should more careful with your possessions," Kahlan retorts. An acknowledgement she had taken it from Cara, wondering what Cara needed it for in the first place.

Cara has no reply to that. Truth is she had become somewhat lazy. Too trustful of the people she travelled with, Richard, Zedd, Kahlan. It didn't occur to her to suspect one of them would go through her things, much less steal from her. And she shakes her head slightly at the person she has become. Outsmarted by the Mother Confessor.

"Give me the agiel." Kahlan orders.

"Give me the stone." Cara replies in kind.

"Like you said, it's no use to me, so why do you want it?" Kahlan asks.

"Because. Its. MINE." Cara insists coldly.

Something in the harshness of Cara's voice gives Kahlan some sort of peace.

Without a word, Kahlan takes the stone from her mouth and flicks it across the muddy ground to Cara's feet. Cara smashes it to smitherines with the agiel, the ground beneath them shakes a little, as lightening flashes across the sky.

"Very well." Kahlan acknowledges. "Now, the agiel."

"What do you want it for? You can't hurt me with it." Cara asks curiously.

"If I wanted to hurt you I would kill you with my bare hand, I don't need an agiel." Kahlan reminds her.

"So you keep telling me." Cara mutters. "You know the agiel brings pain to the person that holds it."

"I know that Cara." Kahlan says condescendingly." I've been struck with an agiel before, many times." Kahlan isn't used to arguing. She is used to speaking, and her will being done. And she speaks to Cara now, asking for the agiel, and expecting it to be handed to her. She had been struck by an agiel, a couple of times. Not many. She is exaggerating a little, and she doesn't know why.

Cara has little choice. Kahlan completed her part of the deal, she handed over the stone. Kahlan can't really do any harm to Cara or to herself with it. It would be futile if she tried to kill herself with it. Just as with the stone, Cara would revive her. And Cara would still have one agiel, and Kahlan's knife, and like Kahlan kept insisting, if she wanted Cara dead it would just take one touch, or one thing to push her over the edge into the con dar, and it was all over. So, reluctantly, Cara hands it over. She doesn't begin to understand why Kahlan wants it, but she sees little harm. Refusing Kahlan what she asked might just be the thing that pulled her into the blood rage. At the moment, they are talking, connecting, Kahlan is just sitting there, compliant, the way Richard wanted her to be. Kahlan was here with her, where she wanted to be, with who she wanted to be with. She had sent Richard away and asked for Cara. Kahlan was where she wanted to be, for now. Nothing could have stopped her jumping, sliting her own throat, or biting on that stone, not if she really really wanted to.

Richard is acting like Kahlan wasn't Kahlan. Like he was trying to get through to the "real" Kahlan. Just like Kahlan accused him, it was as if he believed she was darkly cursed and Zedd can wave his hands and magically his Kahlan would be back. Just the way he wanted her.

Cara disagrees. Cara looks, and she sees Kahlan. The same Kahlan she has always known. Just broken. Which is something a Mord Sith knows a lot about. That time she had been captive had changed her. There is no doubt something had happened to her. Some things, Cara knows, stay with you, change you, harden you.

Kahlan sits, closes her eyes for a moment, clasping both hands around the agiel.

"What are you doing?" Cara asks, slightly impressed that the Mother Confessor can hold her hand steady clasping the agiel, a cold hard stare on her face.

Kahan only shakes her head, tears forming in her eyes, and slight tremble in her hands, but still, all things considered, she hides it well. Cara wouldn't say it, but she is a little impressed. And something about it makes her shudder.

"Give it back, it's hurting you." Cara insists.

"It hurts you too." Kahlan states.

"I've been trained. I don't even notice anymore."

"I want to be like that." Kahlan tells her. "To not notice anymore." Her voice trails off eerily.

Cara knows, they aren't talking about the agiel anymore.

"We have time to kill, waiting for Zedd, if you want to tell me." Cara prompts.

"Your allegiance is to Richard." Kahlan dismisses her. But she drops the agiel to the ground.

For the moment, Cara leaves it there discarded on the ground with the knife, the rope, and the smashed up pieces of the alkalis stone.

"I thought yours was too?" Cara remarks.

"It was." Kahlan amits. "IS" she corrects. "It is."

The following afternoon.

Richard is breathless by the time he catches up with Zedd. Not that he rushed because he felt it important. He is confident that Cara will take care of Kahlan in his absence. It's just that running stopped him from thinking. Running had a purpose. It was something he could do, something practical. Kahlan had sent him to get Zedd, and get Zedd he would do for her. Because it was all he could do.

He caught Zedd on the path, heading back towards them.

"Slow down, dear boy." Zedd instruct as Richard takes a moment to catch his breath, leaning against a tree. "Start from the beginning."

"Kahlan needs you." Richard manages to say.

"What happened? Is Kahlan injured?"

"No. Not injured. But something has happened to her, she isn't herself, and she sent me to get you." Richard doesn't relay the part about Kahlan on the cliff top, knife at her throat, stone between her teeth. He also omits the part where Kahlan had sent him away. The desperation in her eyes, deaperate for him to leave. The way she took Cara's outstretched hand and let Cara lead her away from the edge, but wouldn't even look at Richard.

"There is no time to explain." Richard insists, pulling Oloron's amulet from his pocket. Cara would explain when Zedd got there. "Do you think the amulet will take me too, since the Mother Confessor isn't here? Maybe there will be enough magic? And if not I will walk back and meet you in a day or so. But you have to go to Kahlan, now."

"I don't know if the amulet will take you as well. We shall see. Give it to me." Zedd instructs.

As Richard hands Oloron's amulet out towards his grandfather, he feels the amulet getting warmer, almost burning into his skin. As it connects with the Wizard's hand, the light all around them starts to fade. It is mid-afternoon, on a bright day. Instinctively both men turn to the sky in wonder. Within seconds the sun is eclipsed, and for the blink of an eye there is total darkness descending upon them. Seconds later the darkness lifts, the sun shines again, as if nothing had happened. Zedd drops the amultet to the ground.

"Merciful creator, what on earth?" Zedd muttered.

"What is is Zedd? Did the amulet do that?"

"No." Zedd answers. "Not the amulet as such."

"Then what?"

"I don't know. But nothing good. We can't use the amulet. Pick it up and put it back in your pocket."

Richard does as his grandfather orders. "But Cara and Kahlan are waiting for us." He protests.

"Then we will walk, it's too dangerous to use the amulet right now."

"Because of the accident, when the amulet was torn?" Richard asks.

"I don't know, Richard!" Zedd snapped back in anger, then quickly apologises.

Richard sees a glimmer of fear in Zedd's eyes. He know better than to ask Zedd about it. Zedd will tell him what he needs to know when he needs to know it, and there isn't time to argue.

"Come on then, let's get going." Richard sighs, knowing that it will take twice as long travelling with the old man. But there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing but keep putting one foot in front of another. It feels good though, that he has found Zedd, that he is on his way back to Kahlan. That's what Kahlan wanted of him. And when Zedd gets there, he will know what to do, what had gotten into Kahlan, and he would set things right.