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seriousficIt just occurred to me, how much would you guys hate me if Cara ended up with Leo? Heh.
But no, this chapter is all about killing stuff. Mood music?
Title: We're a long way from home and home is a long way from us
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3,258
Characters/Pairings: Cara/Triana, Cara/Dahlia, Richard/Kahlan, Berdine/Raina
Author’s notes: Betaed by the lovely, talented duo of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ivanolix and susurrusnight
Previous: Part 4
Next: Part 6
Summary: Cara's job is to expect anything. It doesn't mean she's ready for it.
"Watch my back," Cara ordered Triana.
The Mord'Sith responded with a growl in her ear, a hand at her backside. "Always a pleasure."
Battle doubling as foreplay. Cara loved the efficiency of it.
Ahead of them, Dahlia pulled two dacras from behind her back. She rotated them, backwards, then forwards, letting the glare wink at Cara. “You remember that doll of yours that got all its stuffing ripped out? That was me."
Cara brought up both hands, knife held horizontally in the classic fighting grip. “Dahlia, I'm going to send you to meet the Keeper. One piece at a time."
Dahlia covered the space between them in a heartbeat. She slashed at Cara, who blocked and counterattacked. No sooner was a blade blocked than it orbited around and returned at another angle. They stood like statues, the only movement the sweat trickling down their faces and the knife-hands blurring between them. Parries came so fast they might’ve been a string of firecrackers going off. Cara smiled at her as sparks flew from every contact. With a sudden roar, Dahlia whipped her other dacra around. Cara threw herself back in a heart-skipped panic. Not quick enough. She landed with a gash straight across her cheek.
Cara darted back, leading Dahlia through a grove of shriveled trees, letting them slow Dahlia as the Sister slashed through them. Cara jabbed at her face, Dahlia blocked with her forearm, and when they kicked at each other, their feet met. They glimpsed each others' faces for a moment before pushing off each other, staggering back to their corners.
Alina was dead. Kahlan was wounded. Darken Rahl was winning and Jagang was still pushing through the Boundary, ripping through it like lightning inside a stormcloud. And Cara's oldest friend was trying to kill her. She focused on the anger, but it wasn't easy to call up through the stinging in her eyes and the sick thought of how Dahlia would scream.
"How's Kahlan doing?" Dahlia asked. "That was my dacra, you know."
Cara lunged, and Dahlia offered no defense. She moved aside at the last moment, letting the longknife plunge into her shoulder as her dacra slipped into Cara's stomach.
"Your magic is mine," Dahlia moaned.
"You can't handle it."
Dahlia stuffed her other dacra in Cara's mouth. The metallic taste covered her tongue, forcing all her attention on Dahlia.
All around them, the battle raged, wizard's fire, swords ringing, Agiels screaming. It was pointless now that Jagang was coming, but no one stopped. Revenge was a strong motivator.
"Beg," Dahlia said. "Beg for your life."
Cara licked the dacra's blade. "If you want me to beg, you'll have to do better than that."
Dahlia smiled. She leaned against Cara, forcing her against an oak. Her forearm rested across Cara's throat as she drew the bloody dacra from between Cara's lips. Then her forehead was against Cara's, almost close enough to taste the blood filling her mouth. Dahlia held the dacra’s tip up to Cara's eye, then traced it down over her cheek and lower. Cara felt a sharp point scrape across her leathers.
"If you can't kill me, Dahlia, just say so. You're boring me."
Cara felt the point dig between her breasts, over her heart, just hard enough to penetrate the leather.
***
A horse trotted out of the Boundary, its eyes still reflecting the green of the Underworld. The fighting stopped. Just like that, all eyes were on the breach. The Boundary had fallen to reveal a world of corpses and bones, blood and fire. And the builders were leaving.
The rider looked into the souls of the men who watched him in stunned silence. “Revenge begins here,” he said in a whisper everyone could hear. His sword came out of his scabbard and sliced through the three nearest D'Harans.
***
Darken Rahl backed through the ranks of his Dragon Corps, letting the war wizards carve through them. There was nothing professional or cold in their bloodspilling. It had all the exuberance of a child stretching his legs after a long ride.
He knelt down and calmly recited the oath of the Imperial Order. By the time he was done, the war wizards were upon him. Their armor had long ago rusted away. They now wore flaps of leathered skin, held together by bones. Rahl could see the occasional face crying out in silent anguish.
"You will serve?" one asked.
Rahl nodded.
***
Dahlia took her attention off Cara as the screaming started. That was her only mistake. It was enough.
Triana stepped in and sank her Agiel into the base of Dahlia's spine. While Dahlia was frozen with pain, Cara took hold of both dacras and yanked them from her body with one grunt. Triana kept the Agiel on Dahlia, making steam rise from her magicked flesh.
"That's enough," Cara said. Her voice was slow in making it out of her chest.
Triana let Dahlia slump to the ground.
"Find the Lord Rahl," Cara ordered.
"Come with me," Triana replied.
Cara held the wound in her midsection. "No… I think I'll wait here a while."
Triana nodded tightly and moved off. Cara watched her go, then tossed the dacras onto Dahlia. "When I kill you, it's going to be in a fair fight."
Dahlia just drooled.
Bracing herself, Cara took an Agiel in both hands and pressed it to her wound.
***
In a heartbeat, the land had gone from battlefield to slaughterhouse. Jagang's war wizards were attacking everyone like rabid dogs loosed on rats. Some fought back. Most ran. The Sisters of the Dark let their Han fly and the war wizards returned fire. It was like watching a child with a slingshot attack a catapult.
Triana ignored the bloodletting to get to the Lord Rahl's side. He was carrying Kahlan.
"I trust we're leaving?"
"Yes," Richard said. "Get Zedd."
Triana ran, scooped him up from under the hooves of a rearing horse. Fortunately, he weighed a great deal less than his eating would indicate. "Sisters, fall back! Cover the Lord Rahl's retreat!"
Then Jagang barked out harsh orders in his thousand-year-old tongue, mirrored by Darken Rahl. Stop fighting. Get the Seeker.
The fighting between Rahl's men and Jagang's died down as they searched the smoking, bleeding battlefield for Richard. The Mord'Sith made a break for it. Behind them, the D'Harans pursued and the Sisters threw a storm of dacras. Jagang's army waited for them to get out of the way before they unleashed wizard's fire.
"Where's Cara?" Kahlan asked, her arms around Richard's neck.
"Cara's dead," Triana answered.
Richard staggered to a stop as if gut-punched. Kahlan shut her eyes for a long, tearful moment and then opened them jet black. "I know how to honor her," she said.
Richard turned them around so they were facing the charge. Kahlan raised one hand and the D'Harans stopped in their tracks; another, and the Sisters of the Dark froze.
"Death to Jagang!" Kahlan ordered. "Death to Darken Rahl!"
A war wizard cursed blackly and raised his hand. Magic lanced out from him, burning straight through the Confessed D'Harans, coming right at Richard as he sheltered Kahlan with his body. No escape. Then Nyda stepped in front of them. When the magic hit her outstretched hand, she caught it. Almost instantly, sweat broke out across her face.
"Kill him and be done with it!" Triana ordered.
"I can't! He's too strong!"
Triana clenched her teeth. It hadn't happened in five hundred years, but they all knew what happened when a Mord'Sith captured more magic than she could control.
"Nyda, you are the first Mord'Sith to die for the new Lord Rahl."
"I accept the honor."
Triana nodded and left. Nyda concentrated on the war wizard's Han as it grew in her outstretched palm, beginning to scorch her skin. It wouldn't be long now.
"Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive…"
***
In the woods, the screaming hadn’t stopped so much as been suborned to a chorus of laughter, singing, and flesh parting. It was getting closer.
The explosion, at least, woke Dahlia up.
"Are you alright?" Cara asked.
Dahlia nodded.
"Good." She kicked Dahlia in the stomach, driving a hard gasp out of her. "Touch Kahlan again and I'll put an Agiel through your eye."
Cara ran as best she could, an awkward hobbling gait, to join the V formation of Mord'Sith protecting the wounded. All around them were disembodied limbs and broken swords flying back as the Confessed were slaughtered. Cara saw a Sister of the Dark skewered to the ground with a halberd; then its magic washed over her, leaving only a skull and spine to be hoisted up, hanging from the halberd's thorn.
A war wizard cut between her and Kahlan. He was thick around as an anvil, his armor intact and rusty red. In his hand was the throat of a slender young Sister of the Dark. She screamed as the suit of armor opened up like an iron maiden and the hand forced her inside. The suit closed on her. Red mist sprayed out of vents in the metal, running down the sides to lather the armor a fresh crimson. Not rust, then.
Its horned helm swiveled around with a rusty creak. The darkness where his eyes should’ve been seemed to stare into Cara.
She ducked behind a tree, hoping she hadn’t been seen. A moment later, she peeked out. The knight was lurching toward her with ominous, jittery relentlessness. Inside, Cara could hear bones rattling around.
She ran, trying to keep Kahlan's long white robes in sight. Then she noticed Dahlia was running next to her. The Sister glanced at Cara briefly, then put on a burst of speed to pass her, pushing a low-hanging branch out of the way as she did. It snapped back, catching Cara in the face. She flipped back and landed on her spine. Upside-down, she saw the knight running her down. Cara leapt to her feet and saw a glimmer in the trees; Dahlia’s dacra, pulled back to be thrown. Feeling the knight bearing down on her, Cara led it toward Dahlia.
"Little help?” Cara deadpanned as she ran past Dahlia.
Dahlia threw. Her dacra hit the knight's kneecaps with enough force to shear through an elm tree, but all it got was trampled underfoot. Dahlia cursed the Creator and ran after Cara. Behind them, the knight shouldered aside tree trunks and snapped through branches like an entire camp of lumberjacks hard at work.
Cara noticed Dahlia was beside her again. She thrust out with her Agiel as Dahlia did the same with her dacra. Their attacks bounced off the tree that suddenly passed between them. A moment later, the knight punched through that the same tree.
Cara holstered her Agiel and ran faster, trees blurring by. Dahlia was still keeping up so well Cara could hear the steady exhales dropped to her chest. She would've made a fine slave.
Dahlia jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "I think we lost him."
Cara looked back, ready for an attack. The knight was shrinking in the distance like an ice cube in the sun. “He’s not chasing us." She halted, grabbing Dahlia’s arm to stop her too. “If he’s not chasing us, what is?”
The knight’s visor opened by small gears at its ears. Underneath was a waxen, vaguely greenish face. It fell off.
Blanket-thin, the face caught the wind and oozed up like a piece of parchment in a windstorm. It fluttered toward them, quick as a bird. Behind it, more faces emerged like pages being torn from a book.
Cara watched. "I don't suppose your friend the Keeper taught you a strategy for this."
Dahlia shrugged. “You distract them, I’ll escape with my life.”
“Why would I ooof!” Cara doubled over from the sucker punch Dahlia had just delivered.
The first face flew in. Cara's Agiel ripped it apart. Another face plastered itself to her. It had the exact texture and smell as butcher’s paper. Cara ripped at it as the face molded itself to her features. Two more faces slapped onto her hands, blunting her fingers. She raked them on a tree trunk, hoping the bark would rip them. The one on her face was trying to force itself down her throat. She opened her mouth, then bit down when it took the bait. It tasted like moldy cheese. Cara spat it out, bit off the faces on her hands, then tugged the rest of the rubbery flesh away. It came away to reveal to her that the knight had caught up.
It butted her into a tree so hard the bark on the other side went flying, then rumbled toward her again. From where she had landed, Cara interrupted it with a boot to the groin. The hit echoed hollowly.
“No wonder you're upset.” She lunged up to grab the knight’s visor and wrenched it to the side, ran some more. Behind her, above her, she heard the sound of air whispering through the faces’ eyeholes and mouths. She jumped roots, ducked under logs, ignored the branches clawing at her face. Saw Dahlia, swinging at a storm of faces with a log.
Cara leapt into the fray, Agiel screaming through the air. The faces crumpled up at the first touch of magic.
“They're not very good at pain management," Cara commented.
“So you’ve demonstrated. And you assisted me because…?”
“I saved you because you have something I want.” Cara drew her Agiels. "I’m tired of running from this thing. You want a piece?”
“No. I want the whole thing.” Dahlia held up her dacra.
The knight charged through the underbrush and without hesitation, they raked their weapons over it. Sparks flew off the knight’s chest. It did nothing. Cara pulled Dahlia away from its swinging gauntlet. The arc ripped through a tree, which fell, branches slapping at Cara and Dahlia.
“Nice plan," Dahlia commented acidly.
"I may have spent too much time with Richard," Cara admitted.
The knight stepped over the fallen tree, the mandibles of its helm opening and closing.
Cara looked around for somewhere else to run. Forest in all directions except one, where she saw sparkling blue water. A lake. “Come on!” She grabbed Dahlia’s hand and pulled her along.
The knight followed.
“Would you let me go? I do understand the fundamental principles of running, you know…”
Cara let go of her hand. They had emerged onto a pier, built of as much dry rot as wood. The knight stalked after them and they backed up.
"What are we waiting for?" Dahlia demanded.
"Shh."
"Cara!"
"Trust me!" Cara whispered harshly. "At least when it comes to killing things."
Dahlia fell silent. They yielded more ground. A few feet away, the pier ended.
The knight took one more step. The plank under it creaked. Immediately, Cara stepped forward, pulling Dahlia along. The knight stopped. Grabbed them both by the neck.
"This was a bad plan!" Dahlia wheezed.
"I thought you Sisters of the Dark were looking forward to death."
"Not with you!"
The armor opened up. The bones of the last Sister of the Dark spilled out. With a creak that sounded horribly like satisfaction, the armor picked them up and brought them toward its opened chest…
And their combined weight drove the armor through the plank it was standing on. The knight caught on its hip, upper body protruding from the dock. Cara kicked her way free and was looking at Dahlia when the knight fell all the way through, dragging the Sister down into the lake with it.
***
The water was startlingly clear in all directions, more like a light casting a strange glow over the land. Dahlia looked down to see the water melting into darkness. The knight held onto her ankle, completely motionless. Flakes of blood were peeling off it like dead leaves. The knight hit the lakebed and sunk in, still holding onto her. A skull was glowing phosphorously inside the helm.
Dahlia jammed her dacra through the visor, the blade chiseling away a chunk of the armor's ridge. The knight’s fingers closed like a vice, sending pangs up her leg. Dahlia stabbed at the gauntlet, trying to find an opening to pry, but the tip just bounced off with a ponderous underwater sound. The skull became a hallucinogenic deathshead grin. Dahlia lifted her legs, kicking at the armor with all her strength, but it only got a hollow echo.
The knight rolled over, pressing Dahlia into the silt, burying her in it. In a last-ditch effort, Dahlia put the dacra to her leg and began to cut.
She felt hair first, brushing against her cheek. Dahlia would’ve thought it was a fish, if it weren’t so soft. Then Cara’s arms shot past her, jabbing an Agiel inside the visor Dahlia had broken. Dahlia could've sworn the skull screamed before imploding into a white cloud. The gauntlet went limp, fingers actually falling off the hand. Dahlia wrenched her arm away. Cara’s hands gripped his flesh, not harshly. Led her up.
The surface was as they'd left it. Pieces of the pier were making a slow pilgrimage to the other side. Fish ghosted around just under the surface, still disturbed. For a moment, they just treaded water, taking deep breaths. Then Dahlia said "What took you so long?"
Cara whirled around to splash her. She was deathly serious, looking offended when Dahlia laughed and splashed her back. She dunked Cara and would’ve kept her under indefinitely if she hadn’t stuck her with an Agiel. Cara surfaced a few feet away, the Agiel between them. They stared at each other, dripping wet, Dahlia's sodden robes outlining her body like a caress.
Bubbles rose to the surface. They were coming from the center of the lake.
“Let’s not do laps,” Dahlia said.
“No.”
They swam ashore. Cara came out staring at her wet leather with an expression that would've made Dahlia laugh if she weren't pretty sure that Cara would kill her if she did. And she couldn't have that fight. Not now that they were in the same boat.
She used her Han to light the pier on fire, glaring at Cara as if daring her to protest. When she didn’t, the Sister sat down by the fire and waited to dry off. Cara sat down beside her, eyes daring her to comment. Dahlia just wrung out her robes.
"Why'd you save me?" she asked when the last drop of water had deserted her clothes.
"Who said I did?"
Dahlia turned in time to see Cara's fist thundering across her face. She hit the ground, dirt plastering to her damp body, and felt Cara's knee stabbing into the small of her back, keeping her down. She automatically called upon her Han, but nothing happened. Too late she realized she had just handed her magic over to Cara.
Dahlia smiled into the earth. "Don't make the same mistake I did, dear. Do it. Send me to the Underworld, where life makes sense."
Cara's voice slipped into her ear like a knife. "Life makes sense there because it doesn't exist, you little moron. I'm a Mord'Sith. I know the best way to torture someone."
Dahlia felt the colder-than-cold magic of a Rada'Han snapped down on her neck. She screamed in realization.
Cara jerked her to her feet. "That's right, Dahlia. You'll live. You might not enjoy it, but you'll live."
But no, this chapter is all about killing stuff. Mood music?
Title: We're a long way from home and home is a long way from us
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3,258
Characters/Pairings: Cara/Triana, Cara/Dahlia, Richard/Kahlan, Berdine/Raina
Author’s notes: Betaed by the lovely, talented duo of
ivanolix and susurrusnight Previous: Part 4
Next: Part 6
Summary: Cara's job is to expect anything. It doesn't mean she's ready for it.
"Watch my back," Cara ordered Triana.
The Mord'Sith responded with a growl in her ear, a hand at her backside. "Always a pleasure."
Battle doubling as foreplay. Cara loved the efficiency of it.
Ahead of them, Dahlia pulled two dacras from behind her back. She rotated them, backwards, then forwards, letting the glare wink at Cara. “You remember that doll of yours that got all its stuffing ripped out? That was me."
Cara brought up both hands, knife held horizontally in the classic fighting grip. “Dahlia, I'm going to send you to meet the Keeper. One piece at a time."
Dahlia covered the space between them in a heartbeat. She slashed at Cara, who blocked and counterattacked. No sooner was a blade blocked than it orbited around and returned at another angle. They stood like statues, the only movement the sweat trickling down their faces and the knife-hands blurring between them. Parries came so fast they might’ve been a string of firecrackers going off. Cara smiled at her as sparks flew from every contact. With a sudden roar, Dahlia whipped her other dacra around. Cara threw herself back in a heart-skipped panic. Not quick enough. She landed with a gash straight across her cheek.
Cara darted back, leading Dahlia through a grove of shriveled trees, letting them slow Dahlia as the Sister slashed through them. Cara jabbed at her face, Dahlia blocked with her forearm, and when they kicked at each other, their feet met. They glimpsed each others' faces for a moment before pushing off each other, staggering back to their corners.
Alina was dead. Kahlan was wounded. Darken Rahl was winning and Jagang was still pushing through the Boundary, ripping through it like lightning inside a stormcloud. And Cara's oldest friend was trying to kill her. She focused on the anger, but it wasn't easy to call up through the stinging in her eyes and the sick thought of how Dahlia would scream.
"How's Kahlan doing?" Dahlia asked. "That was my dacra, you know."
Cara lunged, and Dahlia offered no defense. She moved aside at the last moment, letting the longknife plunge into her shoulder as her dacra slipped into Cara's stomach.
"Your magic is mine," Dahlia moaned.
"You can't handle it."
Dahlia stuffed her other dacra in Cara's mouth. The metallic taste covered her tongue, forcing all her attention on Dahlia.
All around them, the battle raged, wizard's fire, swords ringing, Agiels screaming. It was pointless now that Jagang was coming, but no one stopped. Revenge was a strong motivator.
"Beg," Dahlia said. "Beg for your life."
Cara licked the dacra's blade. "If you want me to beg, you'll have to do better than that."
Dahlia smiled. She leaned against Cara, forcing her against an oak. Her forearm rested across Cara's throat as she drew the bloody dacra from between Cara's lips. Then her forehead was against Cara's, almost close enough to taste the blood filling her mouth. Dahlia held the dacra’s tip up to Cara's eye, then traced it down over her cheek and lower. Cara felt a sharp point scrape across her leathers.
"If you can't kill me, Dahlia, just say so. You're boring me."
Cara felt the point dig between her breasts, over her heart, just hard enough to penetrate the leather.
***
A horse trotted out of the Boundary, its eyes still reflecting the green of the Underworld. The fighting stopped. Just like that, all eyes were on the breach. The Boundary had fallen to reveal a world of corpses and bones, blood and fire. And the builders were leaving.
The rider looked into the souls of the men who watched him in stunned silence. “Revenge begins here,” he said in a whisper everyone could hear. His sword came out of his scabbard and sliced through the three nearest D'Harans.
***
Darken Rahl backed through the ranks of his Dragon Corps, letting the war wizards carve through them. There was nothing professional or cold in their bloodspilling. It had all the exuberance of a child stretching his legs after a long ride.
He knelt down and calmly recited the oath of the Imperial Order. By the time he was done, the war wizards were upon him. Their armor had long ago rusted away. They now wore flaps of leathered skin, held together by bones. Rahl could see the occasional face crying out in silent anguish.
"You will serve?" one asked.
Rahl nodded.
***
Dahlia took her attention off Cara as the screaming started. That was her only mistake. It was enough.
Triana stepped in and sank her Agiel into the base of Dahlia's spine. While Dahlia was frozen with pain, Cara took hold of both dacras and yanked them from her body with one grunt. Triana kept the Agiel on Dahlia, making steam rise from her magicked flesh.
"That's enough," Cara said. Her voice was slow in making it out of her chest.
Triana let Dahlia slump to the ground.
"Find the Lord Rahl," Cara ordered.
"Come with me," Triana replied.
Cara held the wound in her midsection. "No… I think I'll wait here a while."
Triana nodded tightly and moved off. Cara watched her go, then tossed the dacras onto Dahlia. "When I kill you, it's going to be in a fair fight."
Dahlia just drooled.
Bracing herself, Cara took an Agiel in both hands and pressed it to her wound.
***
In a heartbeat, the land had gone from battlefield to slaughterhouse. Jagang's war wizards were attacking everyone like rabid dogs loosed on rats. Some fought back. Most ran. The Sisters of the Dark let their Han fly and the war wizards returned fire. It was like watching a child with a slingshot attack a catapult.
Triana ignored the bloodletting to get to the Lord Rahl's side. He was carrying Kahlan.
"I trust we're leaving?"
"Yes," Richard said. "Get Zedd."
Triana ran, scooped him up from under the hooves of a rearing horse. Fortunately, he weighed a great deal less than his eating would indicate. "Sisters, fall back! Cover the Lord Rahl's retreat!"
Then Jagang barked out harsh orders in his thousand-year-old tongue, mirrored by Darken Rahl. Stop fighting. Get the Seeker.
The fighting between Rahl's men and Jagang's died down as they searched the smoking, bleeding battlefield for Richard. The Mord'Sith made a break for it. Behind them, the D'Harans pursued and the Sisters threw a storm of dacras. Jagang's army waited for them to get out of the way before they unleashed wizard's fire.
"Where's Cara?" Kahlan asked, her arms around Richard's neck.
"Cara's dead," Triana answered.
Richard staggered to a stop as if gut-punched. Kahlan shut her eyes for a long, tearful moment and then opened them jet black. "I know how to honor her," she said.
Richard turned them around so they were facing the charge. Kahlan raised one hand and the D'Harans stopped in their tracks; another, and the Sisters of the Dark froze.
"Death to Jagang!" Kahlan ordered. "Death to Darken Rahl!"
A war wizard cursed blackly and raised his hand. Magic lanced out from him, burning straight through the Confessed D'Harans, coming right at Richard as he sheltered Kahlan with his body. No escape. Then Nyda stepped in front of them. When the magic hit her outstretched hand, she caught it. Almost instantly, sweat broke out across her face.
"Kill him and be done with it!" Triana ordered.
"I can't! He's too strong!"
Triana clenched her teeth. It hadn't happened in five hundred years, but they all knew what happened when a Mord'Sith captured more magic than she could control.
"Nyda, you are the first Mord'Sith to die for the new Lord Rahl."
"I accept the honor."
Triana nodded and left. Nyda concentrated on the war wizard's Han as it grew in her outstretched palm, beginning to scorch her skin. It wouldn't be long now.
"Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive…"
***
In the woods, the screaming hadn’t stopped so much as been suborned to a chorus of laughter, singing, and flesh parting. It was getting closer.
The explosion, at least, woke Dahlia up.
"Are you alright?" Cara asked.
Dahlia nodded.
"Good." She kicked Dahlia in the stomach, driving a hard gasp out of her. "Touch Kahlan again and I'll put an Agiel through your eye."
Cara ran as best she could, an awkward hobbling gait, to join the V formation of Mord'Sith protecting the wounded. All around them were disembodied limbs and broken swords flying back as the Confessed were slaughtered. Cara saw a Sister of the Dark skewered to the ground with a halberd; then its magic washed over her, leaving only a skull and spine to be hoisted up, hanging from the halberd's thorn.
A war wizard cut between her and Kahlan. He was thick around as an anvil, his armor intact and rusty red. In his hand was the throat of a slender young Sister of the Dark. She screamed as the suit of armor opened up like an iron maiden and the hand forced her inside. The suit closed on her. Red mist sprayed out of vents in the metal, running down the sides to lather the armor a fresh crimson. Not rust, then.
Its horned helm swiveled around with a rusty creak. The darkness where his eyes should’ve been seemed to stare into Cara.
She ducked behind a tree, hoping she hadn’t been seen. A moment later, she peeked out. The knight was lurching toward her with ominous, jittery relentlessness. Inside, Cara could hear bones rattling around.
She ran, trying to keep Kahlan's long white robes in sight. Then she noticed Dahlia was running next to her. The Sister glanced at Cara briefly, then put on a burst of speed to pass her, pushing a low-hanging branch out of the way as she did. It snapped back, catching Cara in the face. She flipped back and landed on her spine. Upside-down, she saw the knight running her down. Cara leapt to her feet and saw a glimmer in the trees; Dahlia’s dacra, pulled back to be thrown. Feeling the knight bearing down on her, Cara led it toward Dahlia.
"Little help?” Cara deadpanned as she ran past Dahlia.
Dahlia threw. Her dacra hit the knight's kneecaps with enough force to shear through an elm tree, but all it got was trampled underfoot. Dahlia cursed the Creator and ran after Cara. Behind them, the knight shouldered aside tree trunks and snapped through branches like an entire camp of lumberjacks hard at work.
Cara noticed Dahlia was beside her again. She thrust out with her Agiel as Dahlia did the same with her dacra. Their attacks bounced off the tree that suddenly passed between them. A moment later, the knight punched through that the same tree.
Cara holstered her Agiel and ran faster, trees blurring by. Dahlia was still keeping up so well Cara could hear the steady exhales dropped to her chest. She would've made a fine slave.
Dahlia jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "I think we lost him."
Cara looked back, ready for an attack. The knight was shrinking in the distance like an ice cube in the sun. “He’s not chasing us." She halted, grabbing Dahlia’s arm to stop her too. “If he’s not chasing us, what is?”
The knight’s visor opened by small gears at its ears. Underneath was a waxen, vaguely greenish face. It fell off.
Blanket-thin, the face caught the wind and oozed up like a piece of parchment in a windstorm. It fluttered toward them, quick as a bird. Behind it, more faces emerged like pages being torn from a book.
Cara watched. "I don't suppose your friend the Keeper taught you a strategy for this."
Dahlia shrugged. “You distract them, I’ll escape with my life.”
“Why would I ooof!” Cara doubled over from the sucker punch Dahlia had just delivered.
The first face flew in. Cara's Agiel ripped it apart. Another face plastered itself to her. It had the exact texture and smell as butcher’s paper. Cara ripped at it as the face molded itself to her features. Two more faces slapped onto her hands, blunting her fingers. She raked them on a tree trunk, hoping the bark would rip them. The one on her face was trying to force itself down her throat. She opened her mouth, then bit down when it took the bait. It tasted like moldy cheese. Cara spat it out, bit off the faces on her hands, then tugged the rest of the rubbery flesh away. It came away to reveal to her that the knight had caught up.
It butted her into a tree so hard the bark on the other side went flying, then rumbled toward her again. From where she had landed, Cara interrupted it with a boot to the groin. The hit echoed hollowly.
“No wonder you're upset.” She lunged up to grab the knight’s visor and wrenched it to the side, ran some more. Behind her, above her, she heard the sound of air whispering through the faces’ eyeholes and mouths. She jumped roots, ducked under logs, ignored the branches clawing at her face. Saw Dahlia, swinging at a storm of faces with a log.
Cara leapt into the fray, Agiel screaming through the air. The faces crumpled up at the first touch of magic.
“They're not very good at pain management," Cara commented.
“So you’ve demonstrated. And you assisted me because…?”
“I saved you because you have something I want.” Cara drew her Agiels. "I’m tired of running from this thing. You want a piece?”
“No. I want the whole thing.” Dahlia held up her dacra.
The knight charged through the underbrush and without hesitation, they raked their weapons over it. Sparks flew off the knight’s chest. It did nothing. Cara pulled Dahlia away from its swinging gauntlet. The arc ripped through a tree, which fell, branches slapping at Cara and Dahlia.
“Nice plan," Dahlia commented acidly.
"I may have spent too much time with Richard," Cara admitted.
The knight stepped over the fallen tree, the mandibles of its helm opening and closing.
Cara looked around for somewhere else to run. Forest in all directions except one, where she saw sparkling blue water. A lake. “Come on!” She grabbed Dahlia’s hand and pulled her along.
The knight followed.
“Would you let me go? I do understand the fundamental principles of running, you know…”
Cara let go of her hand. They had emerged onto a pier, built of as much dry rot as wood. The knight stalked after them and they backed up.
"What are we waiting for?" Dahlia demanded.
"Shh."
"Cara!"
"Trust me!" Cara whispered harshly. "At least when it comes to killing things."
Dahlia fell silent. They yielded more ground. A few feet away, the pier ended.
The knight took one more step. The plank under it creaked. Immediately, Cara stepped forward, pulling Dahlia along. The knight stopped. Grabbed them both by the neck.
"This was a bad plan!" Dahlia wheezed.
"I thought you Sisters of the Dark were looking forward to death."
"Not with you!"
The armor opened up. The bones of the last Sister of the Dark spilled out. With a creak that sounded horribly like satisfaction, the armor picked them up and brought them toward its opened chest…
And their combined weight drove the armor through the plank it was standing on. The knight caught on its hip, upper body protruding from the dock. Cara kicked her way free and was looking at Dahlia when the knight fell all the way through, dragging the Sister down into the lake with it.
***
The water was startlingly clear in all directions, more like a light casting a strange glow over the land. Dahlia looked down to see the water melting into darkness. The knight held onto her ankle, completely motionless. Flakes of blood were peeling off it like dead leaves. The knight hit the lakebed and sunk in, still holding onto her. A skull was glowing phosphorously inside the helm.
Dahlia jammed her dacra through the visor, the blade chiseling away a chunk of the armor's ridge. The knight’s fingers closed like a vice, sending pangs up her leg. Dahlia stabbed at the gauntlet, trying to find an opening to pry, but the tip just bounced off with a ponderous underwater sound. The skull became a hallucinogenic deathshead grin. Dahlia lifted her legs, kicking at the armor with all her strength, but it only got a hollow echo.
The knight rolled over, pressing Dahlia into the silt, burying her in it. In a last-ditch effort, Dahlia put the dacra to her leg and began to cut.
She felt hair first, brushing against her cheek. Dahlia would’ve thought it was a fish, if it weren’t so soft. Then Cara’s arms shot past her, jabbing an Agiel inside the visor Dahlia had broken. Dahlia could've sworn the skull screamed before imploding into a white cloud. The gauntlet went limp, fingers actually falling off the hand. Dahlia wrenched her arm away. Cara’s hands gripped his flesh, not harshly. Led her up.
The surface was as they'd left it. Pieces of the pier were making a slow pilgrimage to the other side. Fish ghosted around just under the surface, still disturbed. For a moment, they just treaded water, taking deep breaths. Then Dahlia said "What took you so long?"
Cara whirled around to splash her. She was deathly serious, looking offended when Dahlia laughed and splashed her back. She dunked Cara and would’ve kept her under indefinitely if she hadn’t stuck her with an Agiel. Cara surfaced a few feet away, the Agiel between them. They stared at each other, dripping wet, Dahlia's sodden robes outlining her body like a caress.
Bubbles rose to the surface. They were coming from the center of the lake.
“Let’s not do laps,” Dahlia said.
“No.”
They swam ashore. Cara came out staring at her wet leather with an expression that would've made Dahlia laugh if she weren't pretty sure that Cara would kill her if she did. And she couldn't have that fight. Not now that they were in the same boat.
She used her Han to light the pier on fire, glaring at Cara as if daring her to protest. When she didn’t, the Sister sat down by the fire and waited to dry off. Cara sat down beside her, eyes daring her to comment. Dahlia just wrung out her robes.
"Why'd you save me?" she asked when the last drop of water had deserted her clothes.
"Who said I did?"
Dahlia turned in time to see Cara's fist thundering across her face. She hit the ground, dirt plastering to her damp body, and felt Cara's knee stabbing into the small of her back, keeping her down. She automatically called upon her Han, but nothing happened. Too late she realized she had just handed her magic over to Cara.
Dahlia smiled into the earth. "Don't make the same mistake I did, dear. Do it. Send me to the Underworld, where life makes sense."
Cara's voice slipped into her ear like a knife. "Life makes sense there because it doesn't exist, you little moron. I'm a Mord'Sith. I know the best way to torture someone."
Dahlia felt the colder-than-cold magic of a Rada'Han snapped down on her neck. She screamed in realization.
Cara jerked her to her feet. "That's right, Dahlia. You'll live. You might not enjoy it, but you'll live."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-07-21 03:45 pm (UTC)Thank you Cara for explaining to Dahlia:
"Send me to the Underworld, where life makes sense."
"Life makes sense there because it doesn't exist, you little moron"
Cara put a Rada'Han on Dahlia. I find this sorta hilarious and wonder if they're going to have teh sex.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-21 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-22 04:49 am (UTC)Damn Cara, way to take on a tough mission, Dahlia's a bit single-minded.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 08:53 am (UTC)That's kind of a big deal, no?
I mean, the Con Dar is a state of pure rage that a Confessor only goes into when someone they love DEEPLY is threatened or dead. In the books, Kahlan only ever when into a blood rage when she thought Richard was dead...so...
Then again, she went into the Con Dar in the show to avenge her sister. So what are you trying to tell us here? Is this the sisterly brand of bloody revenge or the lost love variety?
I NEED TO KNOW THESE THINGS!
Okay, I think I'm better now. Sorry about that.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-09 05:32 am (UTC)