TITLE: Marked

AUTHOR: LOTSlove®

CHARACTERS: Richard / Kahlan / Cara / Zedd / Original Characters

RATING: PG-16 / R later

WARNINGS: Author Chooses Not to Use Warnings

TIMELINE: Anything up through S2

DISCLAIMER: I'm completely obsessed with the show Legend of the Seeker and all things Richard and Kahlan. I love to write about them even though they cancelled my show and now I'm fighting to get it back!

SUMMARY: Sequel to my fic Revenge, Richard finally has Kahlan safely back with him, but does he really?

Chapter 27

Richard slowed his pace some as he followed Kahlan's tracks through the woods, allowing himself to catch his breath again for a brief moment. He'd pushed himself hard all day in a frantic attempt to catch up to her, hoping against hope that he wasn't too late.

Following her trail, he'd come across a spot where she had knelt in the grass and gotten sick. He had also found some drops of blood that only served to feed the panic that threatened to stop his heart all together. He hadn't found much blood, but it was still enough to scare the wits out of him.

Knowing that the headaches were worsening enough to make her vomit also did nothing to ease his worries. He knew firsthand how debilitating they could become. He just wanted to find her and hold her now.

Had she been wounded somehow? Attacked? Was she already becoming Demos's without him there to help her fight the spell?

He needed to get to her before she reached the People's Palace and he'd lost her forever. He couldn't live with that, knowing what Demos would do to her once he got his filthy hands on her. Richard knew that he would stop at nothing to get to Kahlan, to kill his brother Demos once and for all.

Reaching into his pocket, he came to a stop, pulling out the note that Kahlan had left for him, reading it again for the hundredth time since leaving the Aku this morning. The words it contained had kept him upright, helped him keep going when he wanted to stop and rest.

My dearest Richard,

I'm so sorry but I can't be with you anymore right now. It's too dangerous so I'm going to the People's Palace to end this once and for all. Eliminating Demos will be the only way that I will be free…that either of us will ever be free from him.

Please don't come after me. I cannot live with the things that I saw Demos forcing me to do to you. I'm afraid that you are safer away from your Confessor right now then you are with her.

If I don't succeed, please know that you have given me the greatest gift that a man can ever give a woman like me. You gave me your heart, your love so willingly, so fearlessly and because of that we are at last free to share our love with one another.

You have made me the happiest woman in the world, my love. Being with you, making love with you the last couple of days has been better than anything I have ever dreamed experiencing with you.

You will always and forever have my heart, Richard Cypher. It's been yours since that day in Hartland when you saved my life. I was just too afraid to say it before I knew that you couldn't be touched by my magic, but I'm telling you now.

Love always,

Your Kahlan

The words began to blur together as tears filled his eyes. Folding up the note, he quickly stuffed it back into his vest pocket, his need to find her overwhelming him. He released a ragged breath as he fought to rein in his heart once more. He missed her fiercely, longed to hold her in his arms again and feel her body pressed firmly against his.

He was terrified not knowing what was happening to her at that moment, if she was hurt or if she was even still his Kahlan any longer. As many times as they had made love, she could be carrying their child right now for all they knew. He couldn't bear to lose her.

At the same time, he was so furious with her for leaving him like this. Waking up and finding her gone had been next to unbearable, not knowing what was happening to her driving him insane with worry. He could scarcely believe that she had done this to him. He had given her everything he had and it hadn't been enough. She had left him.

The thought caused him to quicken his pace again as he wiped the perspiration from his brow. He raked his fingers back through his hair, ignoring how empty his stomach was. He had only stopped a couple of times all day, pausing long enough to refill his water skin.

Glancing at the sky, Richard saw the sun beginning to make its descent behind the distant mountains, shadows stretching and darkening. Gray clouds began to gather as well, threatening to obscure the sun from view.

It was going to be night before long, a bad storm going to erupt. He had to find her soon. He didn't want her out here all alone at night. It was too dangerous even for the powerful Mother Confessor.

He could think of little else except for getting to Kahlan, fearful of the state that he would find her in. Would she still be herself? Would she even still know him?

The sudden sound of her piercing scream tore through the air and straight through his heart. He took off in the direction of her shrieks, his hand finding the hilt of his sword as he ran. The familiar echoing ring of the sword's release from its scabbard filled the air as he leapt over fallen tree branches and careened around tree trunks, desperate to get to her.

Breaking through the trees, he found her being attacked by seven Mord'Sith, three already lying dead around her. Kahlan was balled up on the ground, agiels being pressed into her head and neck, her back and her sides. White-hot rage thundered through him at the site of her being attacked so viciously, remembering all too well the feel of an agiel pressed against his body. He had never wanted Kahlan to ever know such excruciating pain as that.

With a guttural scream of fury, Richard raced towards her, his sword raised and ready for battle. The Mord'Sith quickly pulled back from their attack on the Mother Confessor, turning their attention on the Seeker now.

With an enraged thrust of his sword, he took down one Mord'Sith after another, turning into time to see Kahlan somehow manage to stumble to her feet. She slammed her hand against the throat of a Mord'Sith, confessing her in less than a heartbeat. The Mord'Sith quickly sank to her knees, trembling from the agonizing pain that rolled through her as she gasped for her last breath, succumbing to the most brutal of deaths at the hand of a Confessor.

Richard arched his body as an agiel suddenly slammed into his back, nearly taking him to his knees. Forcing himself to block out the pain, he swiftly turned, the hilt of his sword connecting with the Mord'Sith's skull and abruptly ending her attack.

He spun again, ducking and narrowly missing another agiel to the side of his head. Twisting around, he came up with his sword, thrusting deep into his attacker's abdomen before lifting his boot and shoving the body off of his blade. Turning, he panted heavily as he watched Kahlan confess another Mord'Sith, finishing off the last of the Sisters of the Agiel.

Coming to stand next to her, Richard watched as the blond haired Mord'Sith fell to her knees, her body almost convulsing with the pain inflicted on her. "Why did Demos order this attack on the Mother Confessor?" he demanded, chest heaving, sweat trickling down his back.

"He…he didn't…" she gasped and gagged as she clutched at her throat. "It…it wasn't…Lord Rahl…"

"Who then?" Kahlan yelled, grabbing hold of the Mord'Sith's shoulders and hauling her to her feet. "Why did you attack me?"

"We were sent to kill you, Mistress," she cried, her body growing limp in the Mother Confessor's hands. "There are many more of us coming for you."

"Who ordered you to kill me?" Kahlan growled, her rage blazing through her.

"It was…it…was…" the dying Mord'Sith winced and groaned before drawing a final shuddering breath.

Kahlan shook the lifeless body in her hands, enraged. "Who was it?" she screamed. "Who sent you?"

Swiftly sheathing his sword, Richard grabbed hold of Kahlan's arms, forcing her to release the dead Mord'Sith. "Kahlan, it's over," he forcefully said, turning her towards him. "She's dead."

"No!" she angrily cried, her body trembling as she suddenly seized Richard by the throat. "It's not over yet!"

"Kahlan, it's alright," he told her, unafraid of her. "It's me…it's Richard. You're safe now, Kahlan."

"Richard?" she whispered, her brow creasing as she stared into his eyes.

It was as if she knew him and yet she didn't recognize him, not in the grip of the Blood Rage, but something altogether different. Her grip on his throat slowly loosened, her hand flattening out to press gently against his chest instead. Her eyes began to fill with tears, her lower lip trembling as she fought to catch her breath.

Richard gently lowered her to the ground, pulling her into his arms as he held her close. "It's alright, Kahlan," he whispered into her hair.

"You…you shouldn't…have come after me…" she cried in hiccoughing gasps for air, clutching his shirt as if terrified if she left go he'd disappear. "I'm too dangerous…I almost hurt you…"

"Kahlan, you didn't hurt me," he firmly said, pulling back to look into her watery blue eyes. She had a cut on her cheek bone, agiel burns on her neck and side of her head. He shuddered to think how close to death she had just been before he arrived.

"But I wasn't in the ConDar," she murmured. "I…I don't understand it…"

"It must be the spell Demos put on you," he replied. "How were you able to confess two Mord'Sith back to back like that and still be able to stand?"

"I don't know," she shook her head, looking at the bodies lying on the ground around them. "I confessed two others before you even came."

"I need to get you out of here before any more show up," he frowned, helping her to her feet. "We need to find some shelter for the night. There's a bad storm coming."

Kahlan slowly nodded her head, wiping the tears from her cheeks before turning to find her forgotten pack. Bending over to pick it up, she felt her nose begin to drip again. She quickly wiped at it, finding blood staining her fingers once again.

"Kahlan, are you alright?" Richard quickly asked, taking hold of her arms as he came to stand before her. "Your nose is bleeding."

"It's nothing," she murmured as she swiftly turned away from him, wiping her nose.

"It's not nothing, Kahlan," he heatedly replied. "When did it start?"

"Earlier today," she said, averting her eyes as he worriedly studied her face. "Really, it's nothing. It'll stop."

"Kahlan, I've never known you to have nose bleeds before," he shook his head.

"I don't know, Richard!" she suddenly cried, frustrated and angered by it all. "I don't know what's wrong with me, what's happening to me now or what will happen to me next tomorrow."

"It'll be alright, Kahlan," he softly said, sighing heavily as he tried to rein in his worry for her, but it was useless. It was always a part of him, constantly living in his soul, ready to drown him at any moment.

Kahlan slowly turned away from him, hating herself for losing her temper with him when he had just saved her life yet again. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "You shouldn't have come after me, Richard."

"I can't just sit back and let you go through Creator knows what and not do something to save you," he heatedly told her, his frustration consuming him as he turned her around and forced her to look at him.

He had come so close to losing her again, the site of her being attacked by the Mord'Sith like that rattling him to his core. If he hadn't come when he had…

Spirits…he couldn't think about it. Despite his fear, he was still upset with her. The painful sting of it continually lanced through his heart knowing that she had left him, refused to let him help her through this.

Staring into his warm chocolate eyes, Kahlan could see his anger and heartache reflected there again, reminding her once more how she had managed to hurt him. "All I do is hurt you," she whispered, her fingers lightly caressing his cheek.

"Leaving me…not knowing what is happening to you," he began, choking back angry tears that threatened to form. "Spirits, Kahlan! I can't handle that, can't handle being away from you. That hurts me more than anything in this world ever could."

"I'm sorry I hurt you," she softly replied.

He reached down and grabbed her hand, his fury still thrumming through him. "Come, we need to find some shelter before it starts to rain," was his clipped response before leading her from the clearing. "I need to get you out of here before any more Mord'Sith show up."

Kahlan went willing, allowing him to hold her hand and lead her away from the bodies that littered the ground. She couldn't help casting a worried glance back over her shoulder, fearful of why they had come for her and wondering who could have possibly sent them.

XXX

"Bags!" Zedd growled as he paced back and forth, his robes swirling around his feet, his hands clasped tightly behind his back.

"Zedd," Cara hissed his name in admonishment.

"Well, this just isn't good at all…not at all," the Wizard fumed. "A marking spell! Spirits! I should have known he'd try something devious like this."

"Would you please stop pacing and tell me exactly what is going on?" Cara demanded to know, sitting on a bench in the sacred gathering hut of the Aku.

"Demos Rahl cast a marking spell on Kahlan when he brought her back from the dead," Zedd snapped, more than angry with himself. "I should've been paying closer attention, but I was too busy watching for an ambush to listen to what he was actually saying."

"What is a marking spell?" Cara ground out, growing exasperated with the Wizard who was still pacing up a storm.

"It's an abominable spell that should've never been created," Zedd ranted, waving his arms wildly in the air.

Cara cast a glance at Odo, Mitta, and Tolla Nakunam who were sitting there watching the fired-up Wizard with wide-eyed fascination. They had obviously never seen anything quite like Zedd before and she was certain they never would again. Despite the head injury he'd received, he still managed to get his robes into a twisted bunch.

"What does the spell do?" Cara tried again with a huff.

"It brings the person under the control of the one who casts the spell," he explained, pausing to fold his arms against his chest. "It's similar to confession in that the one who is spelled is forever bound and linked to the one who casts the spell. There is no more free will, the person is almost completely drained of emotions.

"The difference is there is no love involved, no utter mindless devotion to their master. It is like a puppet being controlled by the puppeteer who is pulling the strings. Demos's mind will be linked with Kahlan's leaving her completely unable to think for herself or act on her own apart from her master."

"And how do we stop it?"

"We don't!" Zedd groused with a huff, throwing his hands up again as he resumed his pacing. "There is no way to break the spell. The only one who can break it is Demos himself and we all know he'll never do that."

"There has to be a way," Tolla Nakunam suddenly piped up.

"The only way I know of is to kill the one who cast the spell," the Wizard spouted. "It's going to be next to impossible to get near him. He's hold up in the People's Palace behind the D'Haran army and the Mord'Sith. No one is going to be able to touch him."

"Confessor Kahlan is going to try," Odo informed them with a smug grin of proud assurance. "She told me herself that she was going after him."

"And of course Richard will be right behind her," Cara scowled, shaking her head. She knew they should have stayed together.

"Wherever one goes, the other follows," Zedd agreed. "There's no separating those two."

"They are in love," Tolla replied with a knowing smile. "Nothing or no one can ever break that especially with those two. You can see how much they love each other. It's in their eyes."

"And now that they know they can be together, they'll be next to impossible to live with," Cara rolled her eyes. "They won't be able to keep their hands off each other. We'll never be able to keep separate again."

"We had better get this fixed soon," Zedd scowled. "We still have a stone to find and the Keeper to stop. He's not going to wait while we try to save Kahlan."

"We have to save Kahlan or you know that Richard won't survive it," Cara said. "We no one will be able to stop the Keeper then."

"But the prophecy says that as long as the Confessor's pure heart beats, the Keeper cannot win," Zedd reminded her. "At least we know that Demos doesn't want Kahlan dead. He wants her for his own personal use."

"And that's supposed to make us all feel better?" Cara huffed. "We all know what he's going to do to her once he gets his hands on her…and what it'll do to Richard. It'll destroy them both."

"I don't see that there's much that we can do until Seeker Richard brings Confessor Kahlan back here," Mitta suddenly interjected.

"Would holding another gathering of the ancestors' spirits help any?" Tolla Nakunam asked.

"I don't see how," Mitta answered after several long moments. "But we can certainly try it again."

"You said that Darken Rahl appeared to Richard and Kahlan," Zedd replied, tapping his bottom lip with his forefinger. "I wonder if he would make another appearance."

"What would that gain us?" Cara asked.

"I don't know…maybe nothing," Zedd sighed heavily. "I just don't know what else we can do for her. I feel so helpless. I'm afraid that being a Wizard of the First Order means absolutely nothing in a time like this."

"We'll find a way through this, Zedd," Cara softly said. "We always manage to one way or another."

"I hope you're right, my dear," he sadly frowned. "I hope you're right."