Chapter 1
'What was that?' Cara had just woken up Kahlan, who would take over the watch, and now the two women were standing together a little away from the fire talking in low voices when they heard the unfriendly voice of a man ahead. Suddenly a scream echoed in the forest and Cara, who had sharp ears, heard an arrow hit its target just a little distance in front of them. The fog however was so dense the women couldn't see what was going on. Suddenly eight men in D'Haran uniforms came running into their sight, swinging their swords. The leader cried: 'Kill the Confessor and the Mord'Sith, but leave the Seeker and the Wizard alive!' However, the three men in the front row fell down only moments after their leader had spoken. Kahlan had thrown one of her daggers at one of them and Zedd had used his Wizard's Fire to burn the other two. Richard, who was now standing at Kahlans side, saw the soldier with his bow was aiming at Kahlan, but the man never got the chance to shoot. Striken by a blast of condensed air the bowman was hurled away and didn't move anymore. After a short fight the group had finished off the other four soldiers as well. As Richard walked over to their dead bodies he found his suspicions confirmed: nearly all of the faces that stared back at him had already begun to rot; they had been banelings. Zedd started burning the corpses to make sure the soldiers would never return to the World of the Living.
Suddenly Richard stopped and stared at a tree a few paces ahead. There was the body of a woman lying lifeless on the ground.
'Come here; quickly!' Kahlan was the first to see what Richard had discovered. She sat beside the woman, trying to find out if she was still alive. An arrow was sticking out of the woman's shoulder. Kahlan examined the skin around the area where the arrow stuck in her shoulder. It was black and the colour had already spread. Kahlans expression darkened: 'The arrow was poisoned, but she may still survive. Zedd, can you do anything for her?' Before Zedd could say anything, the woman moaned and Kahlan could see her eyes moving fast under her closed eyelids.
'I have read about this once. It is some ancient poison which was used not only to kill, but to torture its victims, causing them to experience their worst fears and to live through the most evil moments of their lives. I remember a spell that might cure her, but it will take at least one hour.' The Wizard answered, his face showing signs of tension and also pity.
'Then we'll just have to hope she will survive long enough.' Richard said while taking the woman up and carrying her to the camp fire, 'But we can pull the arrow out, maybe that will slow the spreading of the poison.'
When he had gently placed the woman next to the fire, Kahlan and Cara looked at each other and nodded, each of them putting their hands on one side of the woman's shoulder to hold her down. Richard laid his hand around the arrow and with one effort pulled it out. He threw it into the fire and as he did so an evil smell filled the air.
Zedd had started muttering incantations, while Kahlan turned the women on her back after having bandaged the wound. Richard, looking at her face, now saw that she was about the same age as him. Her long blonde hair was spread on the ground around her head. She would have been beautiful if her face wouldn't have been distorted in pain at the moment. Kahlan stroked her forehead and looked even more troubled: 'Zedd, hurry up. She is feeling hot. Cara, please bring a bucket of cold water. We need to keep her temperature low as long as possible.'
'I wonder who she is, and why she came to us. She doesn't look like an ordinary woman. She must have been trained in fighting; otherwise she wouldn't have had the wits to warn us when she was encircled by Banelings.' Richard spoke aloud what he thought.
'You think she wanted to warn us by screaming? Well, it's possible. I only hope she'll be alright. ' Kahlan answered, now holding the woman's hand.
XXX
Rachel was dreaming: She saw her mother's death over and over again, until she couldn't bear it anymore and tried to run away, screaming. But suddenly she found herself next to the Banelings that had shot her. They were standing in front of her father's farmhouse and were knocking on the door. Rachel knew what would come next. The Banelings would simply destroy the door, run into the small house and then… she saw his face, the face of her father, seconds before he was stabbed. He was sinking on the floor…
Rachel's vision blurred as tears ran down her face… The scene changed again: A young man with dark hair stood in front of her. Rachel looked into his brown eyes, and the moment she did she felt like his eyes could see her, not her appearance but her soul, the person she really was. Her father had told her so often the story of the only man in the world with this kind of eyes… 'The Seeker?!' was all that Rachel could think because in this very moment the man's eyes widened in pain and he fell on the dusty ground. Rachel watched in horror as she saw a silver weapon sticking in his shoulder. She screamed again and tried to turn away from the terrifying sight, but as she did she herself fell to the ground, unable to move, while darkness was coming about her again…
XXX
'Zedd, I think you did it. She became silent, and the fever has gone, too.' Kahlan couldn't help her voice displaying her huge relief. For the past hour she had been sitting next to the woman, holding her hand and hoping she could comfort her in some way. Richard had put his arms around Kahlan and she was thankful for the shelter: Kahlan had often heard dying people screaming, but this had been so different, much more terrible. The woman's screams were filled with so much fear and pain, Kahlan didn't even want to think about what she already had had to live through in her life. More than once, when she felt she couldn't endure it anymore, Kahlan had gripped the woman's hand tighter and buried her face in Richards's chest.
But while her companions wanted to stay at the girl's side, trying to comfort her, Cara had taken every chance and excuse imaginable to get as far away as she could. Richard guessed that she was reminded of the people she had tortured before she had met him.
The Mord'Sith had just returned from getting more water when Zedd had finished the curing spell. Kahlan was stroking the girls head and then turned to the others: 'The poison has exhausted her, so she is going to need some rest. But she will be fine by morning.'
Cara, apparently herself again, said in a cold tone: 'And after that? She'll just slow us down, even if we onlyhave to take her to her hometown. And she can't come with us; obviously she would only be a burden, seeing she couldn't even handle a few Banelings.'
'Cara!' Kahlan suddenly burst out in an angry tone, 'how can you say this? She is just a young woman who was caught unarmed. You don't even know why she was in this forest. Probably the Banelings attacked the villagers in the town we passed yesterday before we went into the forest. What if all of her family are dead? What would you…' Kahlan stopped in the middle of her sentence because she saw the Mord'Sith turn away from her and stalk off into the darkness of the surrounding trees. Kahlan knew immediately what she had said was wrong. Cara knew as well as herself what it was like to loose everything she loved, and everyone.
'Cara, please wait. I'm sorry. I was just so upset…' Kahlan said in a low voice, tears glittering in her blue eyes. She stood up and was about to follow her friend when she felt Richard grab her arm: 'Stay. You know you won't be able to find her when she wants to be alone. I'm sure she will come back.'
Kahlan turned around to look into the eyes of the man she loved more than anything else in the world, and silent tears ran down her face. Richard embraced Kahlan and kissed her on the cheek as she fell into his arms. The screams of the young woman and the fear for her life had tired her as much as they had tired him, but he wanted to comfort Kahlan.
'Here, get some sleep. Zedd and I can watch over her.' Richard said in a soft voice, looking over to the sleeping woman.
'You are right, I do feel very tired… Thank you.' Kahlan whispered after she briefly kissed Richard. She lied down and almost immediately fell into a deep sleep.
When Richard saw she had fallen asleep he turned away from Kahlan and walked over to Zedd, who was sitting on the other side of the fire. 'Do you think she will be alright?' he asked the wizard.
'Well, as I said I've only read about this poison and under the circumstances I did my best. But who knows if it is possible to draw everything of the poison out of her body.' Zedd answered, both of them watching the woman now lying peacefully on the ground, covered in blankets. 'You must be tired, Zedd. I will take over the watch for the rest of the night.' Richard said, as he walked over to the woman to sit next to her. After Zedd's words he thought it would be best if someone kept an eye on her, should any of the poison be still in her body. As he studied her face, he found himself wondering what her name was.
XXX
Only three hours had passed when Richard woke up, realizing he had, for the first time on one of his watches, fallen asleep while sitting next to the young woman. The rising sun had woken him. He glanced over to Kahlan, still fast asleep, wondering if he could give her some more time to recover, when he saw Cara standing a little away from the rest of the group between the trees. Feeling his glance she turned around: 'You're lucky to have me, considering the fact you can't even stay awake on your watches.' 'Thanks for taking my watch, Cara.' Richard responded, not being able to hold back a small grin. He was thankful that Cara apparently wasn't angry at Kahlan for her outburst.
Suddenly the women lying on the ground moved. She was waking up.
'Kahlan, wake up.' Richard ran over to her. Kahlan opened her eyes in an instant, sitting upright and, looking at him, asked: 'What is…' 'I think she's waking up.' Richard answered before Kahlan could finish her sentence. She got up and ran over to the woman's side. The woman moved and then slowly opened her eyes.
A/N:
Hey guys,
I figured it would be better to let you read the first chapters before adding an Author's note :)
I hope you enjoyed it and look forward to hear what you think about the story. I want to improve my writing and am always trying to upload with as few mistakes as possible, but as you all know, mistakes still happen; feel free to point them out to me :) I have to add I am not a native speaker, so please don't be too hard on me if you come across any grammatical mistakes :) Still, corrections are very much appreciated.
As you have probably noticed, this story currently has two titles. I thought I could let you decide which one you like better :) Also, feel free to post any other suggestions you might have concerning the title.
Phew, finished my first Author's Note :) Thanks for reading my story, and for (hopefully) continuing to read and review. I am not quite sure how often I will update, but I will promise you it will be regularly, as I know how unnerving it can be if you start reading a story and it's not being updated for months. (Hopefully I'll be able to update every few days, or at least once a week :))
Anyways, I hope you had a great New Year's Eve and wishing you all the best for 2013
Alex