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seriousficTitle: 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: 3,227
Characters/Pairings: Cara/Triana, Cara/Dahlia, Richard/Kahlan, Berdine/Raina
Author’s notes: Betaed by the lovely and talented![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
susurrusnight
Previous: Part 8
Next: Part 10
Warnings: This chapter contains scenes of sexual assault.
Summary: Cara would do anything to stop Jagang, as Darken Rahl well knows.
Not quite sure if she was awake or barely asleep, Cara stared at the journey book. Tired of restless slumber, she picked it up and scrawled Kahlan's name inside. It reminded her of an old notebook, Dahlia Mason written inside.
I'm here.
Darken Rahl was digging for something called the Clear Eye's Fire. Find out what it does.
Alright, give me a moment.
A few minutes later, a page of text appeared in Zedd's chickenscratch writing. It was clearly translated from some dry academic text, but Cara got the gist of it. The Fire was the Subtractive Magic equivalent of the Stone of Tears. It could open rifts in the Underworld, while the Stone could close them. Cara wondered if Rahl's plan had been this from the start. Free Jagang, let him lead the way to the Fire, and then… what? Insurance against Jagang? Leverage with the Keeper? None of them boded well.
Are you alright?
Always.
Are you coming back?
Yes.
Good, that's good… with Dahlia?
I don't know yet. If I told you to let her into the castle, would you trust her?
I would trust you.
A long pause.
What are you wearing?
I just laughed out loud!
***
Morning came. Dahlia had prepared a rabbit. Cara winced when she saw how soft its fur was, even separated from the rest. But she took the meat Dahlia gave her.
As she handed it over, Dahlia noticed Cara's haggard appearance. “Bad dreams?”
Cara shook her head mechanically. “Bad memories.” She looked at Dahlia with bloodshot eyes. “You’ve never doubted, have you?”
“No.”
"Lately, it seems that's all I do. Do you know of Castle Invictus?"
"I've heard of it."
***
Dahlia’s eyes were shut, her finger jerking through the air as if consulting an invisible map. Which she was. Cara recognized the old meditation technique. It left you dead to the world. Cara stood in front of her, her chest just inches from a darting finger. It was amazing Dahlia trusted her that much.
She'd become beautiful since their separation, Cara thought, leaning close to her. High cheekbones, soft lips. But the eyes were the really alluring thing to her. That was what had first drawn her to Kahlan.
Dahlia's fingers brushed against the lapel of Cara's leathers and Cara backed off, letting Dahlia's finger finish a surprisingly sensual curl. The Dark Sister's eyes opened. She lowered her hand, using it to pull a compass from her pocket. After consulting it, she turned.
“That way, past the coal mine.” She pointed. “But it’s a long way.”
“If you get tired, I promise I’ll slow down.”
Dahlia snorted, though Cara knew her amusement was more at the thought of being outpaced than the joke. “Shall we?” She crouched down beside Cara and touched the ground, a runner taking her mark. Cara smiled to herself as she did the same.
Finally, someone who could keep up.
***
It was almost dark by the time they reached the edge of the forest, the sky purpling like a bruise. The run had taken up most of the day. When Dahlia glanced at Cara, she saw sweat dripping off her clavicle. When Cara looked at Dahlia, she saw sweat joining her robes to her body.
Cara took a drink from her flask, then held it out automatically to Dahlia. She stared at it, taken aback by the gesture, but took it before her hesitance could seem rude. The water was cool and refreshing, taking away the taste of stale sweat from her lips.
“This way,” Cara said after Dahlia handed it back to her.
The coal mine was easy to find. There was a trail of smoke leading to it, flicking back and forth like a chastising finger. The ground was a no man’s land of gravel and mine-cart tracks, separating the mine from the castle in the distance. Cara could just make out townspeople crowding the windows like specters, the distance rendering them mute. Dahlia was headed toward them.
"Wait," Cara called.
Dahlia stopped. Turned around.
The fire in the mine was casting green light up to the surface.
"I'll be back," Cara said, her footsteps slowly crunching gravel like she was approaching a skittish deer.
"You're leaving me?" Dahlia asked.
Cara glared at her.
Dahlia pulled a rope from her pack. "Here. Take this. Wrap it around your waist. I'll tug on it every five minutes, and if you'll okay, pull on it three times."
When Dahlia threw it to her, Cara let it drop to the ground. "I don't need a babysitter."
"Did you decide?" Dahlia asked.
Cara stared from the rope to her.
"Whether we feel the same?"
Cara picked up the rope.
***
The first thing that struck Cara was the stench. It’d been growing strong since before the mine had come into view, but in the confines of the shaft, it was truly overpowering. Physical, in fact; she could feel the smoke coating her skin, a slimy feeling like the mine was a giant creature and she was in its stomach. The smoke from deep within the mine was pushing past, actually seeming to offer resistance to her progress. It had a distinct tinge of overcooked meat.
She followed the mine-cart tracks, stepping carefully on each wooden tie. The light from the fire was growing, but it only met layer after layer of roiling smoke flowing by her. Suddenly, it seemed as if there was no mine, just an endless wasteland of smoke, like the whole world had been burnt away. For some reason the image resonated with her, starting a fluttering panic in her stomach.
She was shoved off-balance, the mine violently expelling her. After an instant of frantically seeking out a target, Cara realized it was Dahlia tugging on the rope. She gave it three sharp jerks and it resumed its slack.
“You are Mord'Sith,” she chided herself as she moved forward.
The wooden ties groaned under her, snapping sometimes. The smell was forcing itself down her nostrils, filling her lungs, branding her. She had to take her mind off it. Dahlia sprang to mind. She truly could be annoying.
A sound rose over the dull rumble of the flames below. It was a dripping, elongated by echoing. Cara felt Dahlia's pull again and pulled back three times. Then she started down a tunnel toward the source of the noise. The echoes got louder, buffeting her from all sides.
“Cara!” Her name ricocheted down the shaft, becoming a watery reflection of whatever its original meaning had been. She whirled around, only to see a shifting morass of smoke, pulling away from her.
“Dahlia?” she called, her lonely voice echoing out of the mine.
The rope went taut. She pulled three times and it relaxed. She turned back around. The dripping seemed to be getting louder, drops of water falling with bomb blasts. The side-tunnel twisted downward at a steeper angle than she had grown used to. Cara felt her way along the wall with her free hand. The dripping seemed to reverberate through the rock. Her other hand was on her holstered Agiel.
Something burned its way into her shoulder. Cara brandished as she dropped, her Agiel screaming through the air. She was alone except for the smoke that curled around her motion, her, possessively. A drop of burning pitch dropped from the ceiling. It burned green.
Dahlia vigilantly pulled on the rope. She gave it three grateful tugs, then smelled the flame. She recognized the scent. It was that of the incense Darken Rahl had used to light his father's tomb. Dahlia pulled on her again. She returned three distracted pulls, then looked up for the source of the pitch. Dahlia pulled on the line again.
“I’m fine,” she hissed as she gave another three reassuring tugs. After the second one she was yanked off her feet, her head cracking painfully against the rocky floor. Her vision blurred as she was reeled in, leathers tearing as she scraped across the ground. Cara tried to untie the knot, but Dahlia whipped her from side to side with impossible strength. She smashed into a mine cart, knocking it over, dug her hands into the ground but only came up with handfuls of loose gravel. Finally, the line went slack, dumping her within eyeshot of the entrance to the mine. Light poured in, passing a familiar figure.
She made her way to her feet, eyes narrow. “Darken.”
He bowed mockingly.
“Where’s Dahlia?”
“Your childhood sweetheart? Don’t worry about her. She’s given us some privacy for our talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you.” Cara drew her Agiels. “But I do have a lot to do to you.”
“Then you don’t want this?” he asked, holding up something Cara recognized. A diamond cut in the shape of an eye, what looked like a fire frozen inside it, seeming to flicker as the light caught it at different angles. No sooner had she recognized it than the Clear Eye's Flame disappeared in a puff of green smoke.
Cara stopped in her tracks. This close, she could smell Rahl's cologne over the smoke. “Give it to me.”
“What’s it worth to you?”
“Your life, for starters.”
Rahl smiled, charmed. “I'll give it to you. In trade.”
Cara hated the sound of that. “I want to talk to Dahlia.”
“You’re standing in her.”
Not taking her eyes off Rahl, Cara probed the ground with her toe. It squished. She very carefully looked up. Dahlia was lying across the ceiling, her own dacra protruding from her chest, the color gone from her skin. In the space someone else might fill with shock, Cara had grabbed Rahl by the throat and bore him to the ground, Agiel in his heart. “Let her down, now!”
Rahl smiled through the pain, at the pain. “Haven't we been through this already? You can't kill me. You need me.”
Cara moved the Agiel to his crotch. “Not all of you.”
Rahl waved a hand dismissively and Dahlia thudded against the ground, gasping at the impact. Cara backed over to her with her Agiel still pointed at Rahl, then rolled Dahlia against the wall with her foot. “Alright?”
“It only hurts when I laugh. I'm sorry, Cara. He came up behind me, it happened so fast."
“I know.” Cara placed herself between Rahl and Dahlia. “Why would you give me the Flame?"
"Many reasons. For one, I doubt you can even work it. But if you do figure it out, it'd be useful in dealing with Jagang. Plausible deniability, you might call it."
"So give it to me."
"Nothing is free in this life, Cara. I could just as easily give it to Jagang and prove my usefulness that way. I merely thought I'd offer it to you first, since we're such good friends."
"What do you want?”
“Lots of things.” Rahl rose like a vampire from the grave. “My empire back. The heads of your friends on pikes. You, returned to where you belong."
“Be specific.”
Rahl brushed some of the dirt off himself. “Nostalgia, Cara. I merely want to relive old times."
Cara lowered her Agiel. “Which old times?"
"Do you remember motherhood, Cara?"
"What?"
"Life, growing inside you. The pain of birth, the joy of service. The baby may have turned out useless, but making him was quite pleasant."
"I'll take your word for it." Cara's face was as still as Dahlia's was wild, darting from former master to old slave.
"Of course, I had to kill the little snot. I'm afraid you just don't have magic in your blood, Cara. So if you do get pregnant, feel free to… handle it as you see fit."
"Of course," Cara said dully. She slid her Agiel into its sheath
Dahlia grabbed her boot. “You don't have to do this.”
She shook her off. “Trust me. It's nothing I haven't done before.”
No longer willing to meet Dahlia's eyes, she made her way to Rahl. He held out a handkerchief, the whispered force of his “Clean yourself off” clashing with his gentlemanly manner. She took it without feeling and rubbed it across her face, between her fingers, over her hands and arms. It came away from her skin black with soot. She handed it back to Rahl. He took it graciously. "Close your eyes."
She did, her face blank as granite. Rahl was suddenly behind her. His hands settled on her shoulders, moved over her, cupping her throat, squeezing it. He pushed her against the wall, just a little too slow for her to do it on her own, fingers biting into her neck, raising welts.
Then, Cara realized she was two people. Split. On one level, a level that she was allowing to rule her, she felt a fawning admiration for Rahl like a dog would toward its master. Every movement of his royal body brought her the utmost glee and she wanted nothing more than to die for him so he would know she'd given her utmost to him.
On a second level, as someone buried alive inside the first persona, she was able to see and hear her other self from a distance, but unable to tune it out or escape. It was like she was leashed to herself. She wondered if Dahlia could see this 'her'. The Sister was watching her like a man listened to an eulogy, her fingers fisted like they were wrapped around the hilt of a dagger.
Then Rahl began to pet her hair, the same way someone might touch a dead jellyfish. That gave half of Cara some satisfaction, and the rest an impatience for being teased. Then he grew bolder, wrapping a strand of hair around his finger and then pulling it out of her scalp. Dahlia bared her teeth. Rahl glanced at her, enjoying the audience and its affect on Cara. He moved his fingers down her shoulder, pulling her collar open as if displaying her faint tanline to Dahlia.
“Open your eyes,” he hissed, and Cara didn’t even know if closing them had helped. “This is going to happen, right here and right now. All you can determine is how much it’s going to hurt. Do you want it to hurt?”
“I don’t care,” she said.
“Spoken like a true Mord'Sith.” He kissed her cheek, his lips abrading her skin like sandpaper. They moved up her face until he reached her ear, which he seized in his teeth. After a moment of biting, he released it and probed his tongue into her ear. Dahlia watched as Cara gasped in what could’ve been revulsion or pleasure.
The tongue slipped back into Rahl’s mouth, saliva trailing behind it. “Come on now,” he said, taking her wrists in his hands as if for a dance. “Put your back into it. Show me how much this is worth to you.” He lowered her hand to his groin. Cara let it lie there, limp as a doll. Face twisting with hatred, Rahl scratched his nails down the side of her face and into her neck, leaving bleeding scarlet lines behind. Cara didn’t make a sound.
Blood was trickling from Dahlia's fist, where her nails cut into her palm.
“I will not be one of your lovers,” he whispered intimately in Cara’s ear. “You shall remember me more vividly than that. I am to be your rapist.”
“I,” Cara began with great difficulty, “will put you out of my mind as soon as I’ve washed away your stench.”
Rahl slammed Cara against a wall, his nails cutting through her clothes and flesh. “Tell me you love it, little whore. Beg me for more. Tell me to fuck you.”
Cara held her tongue, teeth clenched, eyes squeezed shut. Rahl made a noise of excitement in his throat as he licked his way up her face. With a small whimpering sound, Cara looked at Dahlia. It helped to think of the sound the blood made dripping from her dacra onto the dirt floor.
“You don’t have to watch, Dahlia… don’t watch.”
Rahl forced Cara to her knees, choking the life out of her with both his well-manicured hands. His fingernails pricked at her larynx. “It’s a shame. You two make a cute couple… but she'll never be yours.”
You’d be forgiven for not noticing it had even happened for a few seconds. Rahl’s mouth was still moving, but no sound emerged. Cara still knelt before him, eyes closed, but the only thing on her neck was welts. And if you looked very closely, you could see Dahlia behind Rahl, a dacra in her hand, still warm from her own body. With her other hand on Rahl’s shoulder, she was guiding him away from Cara, as gentle as a dance. Then she twisted savagely and thrust Rahl into a wall. Before he hit, the tyrant had disappeared in a blaze of green flame.
Pursing a hand to the wound she'd opened in herself, Dahlia helped Cara to her feet. “Come on. We’re done here.”
They walked until the light was bright enough to hurt. Outside, Dahlia let go of Cara's hand and immediately started pacing, shoulders bowed, fists constantly flexing like she was looking for a way to curl them tighter.
"Calm down," Cara said softly.
Dahlia waved her off, sagging against the wall. A moment later she kicked it and launched herself across the mine. When she turned around, Cara was there. She grabbed Dahlia's hands. The Sister froze, her angry breath hitting Cara like waves off a storm. She adjusted her grip, her skin sliding over Cara's. They were sweating.
"Calm down," Cara said. And then: "You didn’t have to do that."
Dahlia nodded and turned toward the exit. She was surprised to find Cara hanging onto her hand, holding her in the shadows.
“Thank you,” Cara said, slowly, carefully.
“Anytime,” Dahlia replied with a nod.
Cara let go of her hand. “Next time the mission is on the line, you pick the mission.” She said the words quickly, like she was ripping off a bandage.
Dahlia’s surprise quickly turned into stony-faced silence. "I don't care about the mission."
“It was just sex.”
“He didn’t want to have sex with you, he wanted to break you.”
“He wouldn’t have succeeded.”
“I didn’t want to see him try!”
“You want to control me. Just like him.”
Dahlia gritted her teeth. “Fine! You want to spread your legs for anyone who can prop you up, have fun!”
The punch came so fast even Dahlia didn’t see it coming. She just stumbled back a few steps, lip split, came up just in time to see the Agiel being unholstered. She caught it and Cara's arm flexed, trying to force it deeper into Dahlia's space, but the Sister held it fast, and so it laid between them, screaming its pain into both of them. Dahlia's lip quivered as she took the magic, but she didn't cry out. And she didn't let go.
"Do you have a bed?" Cara asked.
"What?"
Cara jerked the Agiel back, returning it to its holster. "When we get to Invictus, I'll ask Kahlan to find you someplace to sleep. She will."
"Alright," Dahlia said, squeezing her hand into a fist and out again. When she did, she felt the welt the Agiel had left, sore and taut.
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3,227
Characters/Pairings: Cara/Triana, Cara/Dahlia, Richard/Kahlan, Berdine/Raina
Author’s notes: Betaed by the lovely and talented
susurrusnight Previous: Part 8
Next: Part 10
Warnings: This chapter contains scenes of sexual assault.
Summary: Cara would do anything to stop Jagang, as Darken Rahl well knows.
Not quite sure if she was awake or barely asleep, Cara stared at the journey book. Tired of restless slumber, she picked it up and scrawled Kahlan's name inside. It reminded her of an old notebook, Dahlia Mason written inside.
I'm here.
Darken Rahl was digging for something called the Clear Eye's Fire. Find out what it does.
Alright, give me a moment.
A few minutes later, a page of text appeared in Zedd's chickenscratch writing. It was clearly translated from some dry academic text, but Cara got the gist of it. The Fire was the Subtractive Magic equivalent of the Stone of Tears. It could open rifts in the Underworld, while the Stone could close them. Cara wondered if Rahl's plan had been this from the start. Free Jagang, let him lead the way to the Fire, and then… what? Insurance against Jagang? Leverage with the Keeper? None of them boded well.
Are you alright?
Always.
Are you coming back?
Yes.
Good, that's good… with Dahlia?
I don't know yet. If I told you to let her into the castle, would you trust her?
I would trust you.
A long pause.
What are you wearing?
I just laughed out loud!
***
Morning came. Dahlia had prepared a rabbit. Cara winced when she saw how soft its fur was, even separated from the rest. But she took the meat Dahlia gave her.
As she handed it over, Dahlia noticed Cara's haggard appearance. “Bad dreams?”
Cara shook her head mechanically. “Bad memories.” She looked at Dahlia with bloodshot eyes. “You’ve never doubted, have you?”
“No.”
"Lately, it seems that's all I do. Do you know of Castle Invictus?"
"I've heard of it."
***
Dahlia’s eyes were shut, her finger jerking through the air as if consulting an invisible map. Which she was. Cara recognized the old meditation technique. It left you dead to the world. Cara stood in front of her, her chest just inches from a darting finger. It was amazing Dahlia trusted her that much.
She'd become beautiful since their separation, Cara thought, leaning close to her. High cheekbones, soft lips. But the eyes were the really alluring thing to her. That was what had first drawn her to Kahlan.
Dahlia's fingers brushed against the lapel of Cara's leathers and Cara backed off, letting Dahlia's finger finish a surprisingly sensual curl. The Dark Sister's eyes opened. She lowered her hand, using it to pull a compass from her pocket. After consulting it, she turned.
“That way, past the coal mine.” She pointed. “But it’s a long way.”
“If you get tired, I promise I’ll slow down.”
Dahlia snorted, though Cara knew her amusement was more at the thought of being outpaced than the joke. “Shall we?” She crouched down beside Cara and touched the ground, a runner taking her mark. Cara smiled to herself as she did the same.
Finally, someone who could keep up.
***
It was almost dark by the time they reached the edge of the forest, the sky purpling like a bruise. The run had taken up most of the day. When Dahlia glanced at Cara, she saw sweat dripping off her clavicle. When Cara looked at Dahlia, she saw sweat joining her robes to her body.
Cara took a drink from her flask, then held it out automatically to Dahlia. She stared at it, taken aback by the gesture, but took it before her hesitance could seem rude. The water was cool and refreshing, taking away the taste of stale sweat from her lips.
“This way,” Cara said after Dahlia handed it back to her.
The coal mine was easy to find. There was a trail of smoke leading to it, flicking back and forth like a chastising finger. The ground was a no man’s land of gravel and mine-cart tracks, separating the mine from the castle in the distance. Cara could just make out townspeople crowding the windows like specters, the distance rendering them mute. Dahlia was headed toward them.
"Wait," Cara called.
Dahlia stopped. Turned around.
The fire in the mine was casting green light up to the surface.
"I'll be back," Cara said, her footsteps slowly crunching gravel like she was approaching a skittish deer.
"You're leaving me?" Dahlia asked.
Cara glared at her.
Dahlia pulled a rope from her pack. "Here. Take this. Wrap it around your waist. I'll tug on it every five minutes, and if you'll okay, pull on it three times."
When Dahlia threw it to her, Cara let it drop to the ground. "I don't need a babysitter."
"Did you decide?" Dahlia asked.
Cara stared from the rope to her.
"Whether we feel the same?"
Cara picked up the rope.
***
The first thing that struck Cara was the stench. It’d been growing strong since before the mine had come into view, but in the confines of the shaft, it was truly overpowering. Physical, in fact; she could feel the smoke coating her skin, a slimy feeling like the mine was a giant creature and she was in its stomach. The smoke from deep within the mine was pushing past, actually seeming to offer resistance to her progress. It had a distinct tinge of overcooked meat.
She followed the mine-cart tracks, stepping carefully on each wooden tie. The light from the fire was growing, but it only met layer after layer of roiling smoke flowing by her. Suddenly, it seemed as if there was no mine, just an endless wasteland of smoke, like the whole world had been burnt away. For some reason the image resonated with her, starting a fluttering panic in her stomach.
She was shoved off-balance, the mine violently expelling her. After an instant of frantically seeking out a target, Cara realized it was Dahlia tugging on the rope. She gave it three sharp jerks and it resumed its slack.
“You are Mord'Sith,” she chided herself as she moved forward.
The wooden ties groaned under her, snapping sometimes. The smell was forcing itself down her nostrils, filling her lungs, branding her. She had to take her mind off it. Dahlia sprang to mind. She truly could be annoying.
A sound rose over the dull rumble of the flames below. It was a dripping, elongated by echoing. Cara felt Dahlia's pull again and pulled back three times. Then she started down a tunnel toward the source of the noise. The echoes got louder, buffeting her from all sides.
“Cara!” Her name ricocheted down the shaft, becoming a watery reflection of whatever its original meaning had been. She whirled around, only to see a shifting morass of smoke, pulling away from her.
“Dahlia?” she called, her lonely voice echoing out of the mine.
The rope went taut. She pulled three times and it relaxed. She turned back around. The dripping seemed to be getting louder, drops of water falling with bomb blasts. The side-tunnel twisted downward at a steeper angle than she had grown used to. Cara felt her way along the wall with her free hand. The dripping seemed to reverberate through the rock. Her other hand was on her holstered Agiel.
Something burned its way into her shoulder. Cara brandished as she dropped, her Agiel screaming through the air. She was alone except for the smoke that curled around her motion, her, possessively. A drop of burning pitch dropped from the ceiling. It burned green.
Dahlia vigilantly pulled on the rope. She gave it three grateful tugs, then smelled the flame. She recognized the scent. It was that of the incense Darken Rahl had used to light his father's tomb. Dahlia pulled on her again. She returned three distracted pulls, then looked up for the source of the pitch. Dahlia pulled on the line again.
“I’m fine,” she hissed as she gave another three reassuring tugs. After the second one she was yanked off her feet, her head cracking painfully against the rocky floor. Her vision blurred as she was reeled in, leathers tearing as she scraped across the ground. Cara tried to untie the knot, but Dahlia whipped her from side to side with impossible strength. She smashed into a mine cart, knocking it over, dug her hands into the ground but only came up with handfuls of loose gravel. Finally, the line went slack, dumping her within eyeshot of the entrance to the mine. Light poured in, passing a familiar figure.
She made her way to her feet, eyes narrow. “Darken.”
He bowed mockingly.
“Where’s Dahlia?”
“Your childhood sweetheart? Don’t worry about her. She’s given us some privacy for our talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you.” Cara drew her Agiels. “But I do have a lot to do to you.”
“Then you don’t want this?” he asked, holding up something Cara recognized. A diamond cut in the shape of an eye, what looked like a fire frozen inside it, seeming to flicker as the light caught it at different angles. No sooner had she recognized it than the Clear Eye's Flame disappeared in a puff of green smoke.
Cara stopped in her tracks. This close, she could smell Rahl's cologne over the smoke. “Give it to me.”
“What’s it worth to you?”
“Your life, for starters.”
Rahl smiled, charmed. “I'll give it to you. In trade.”
Cara hated the sound of that. “I want to talk to Dahlia.”
“You’re standing in her.”
Not taking her eyes off Rahl, Cara probed the ground with her toe. It squished. She very carefully looked up. Dahlia was lying across the ceiling, her own dacra protruding from her chest, the color gone from her skin. In the space someone else might fill with shock, Cara had grabbed Rahl by the throat and bore him to the ground, Agiel in his heart. “Let her down, now!”
Rahl smiled through the pain, at the pain. “Haven't we been through this already? You can't kill me. You need me.”
Cara moved the Agiel to his crotch. “Not all of you.”
Rahl waved a hand dismissively and Dahlia thudded against the ground, gasping at the impact. Cara backed over to her with her Agiel still pointed at Rahl, then rolled Dahlia against the wall with her foot. “Alright?”
“It only hurts when I laugh. I'm sorry, Cara. He came up behind me, it happened so fast."
“I know.” Cara placed herself between Rahl and Dahlia. “Why would you give me the Flame?"
"Many reasons. For one, I doubt you can even work it. But if you do figure it out, it'd be useful in dealing with Jagang. Plausible deniability, you might call it."
"So give it to me."
"Nothing is free in this life, Cara. I could just as easily give it to Jagang and prove my usefulness that way. I merely thought I'd offer it to you first, since we're such good friends."
"What do you want?”
“Lots of things.” Rahl rose like a vampire from the grave. “My empire back. The heads of your friends on pikes. You, returned to where you belong."
“Be specific.”
Rahl brushed some of the dirt off himself. “Nostalgia, Cara. I merely want to relive old times."
Cara lowered her Agiel. “Which old times?"
"Do you remember motherhood, Cara?"
"What?"
"Life, growing inside you. The pain of birth, the joy of service. The baby may have turned out useless, but making him was quite pleasant."
"I'll take your word for it." Cara's face was as still as Dahlia's was wild, darting from former master to old slave.
"Of course, I had to kill the little snot. I'm afraid you just don't have magic in your blood, Cara. So if you do get pregnant, feel free to… handle it as you see fit."
"Of course," Cara said dully. She slid her Agiel into its sheath
Dahlia grabbed her boot. “You don't have to do this.”
She shook her off. “Trust me. It's nothing I haven't done before.”
No longer willing to meet Dahlia's eyes, she made her way to Rahl. He held out a handkerchief, the whispered force of his “Clean yourself off” clashing with his gentlemanly manner. She took it without feeling and rubbed it across her face, between her fingers, over her hands and arms. It came away from her skin black with soot. She handed it back to Rahl. He took it graciously. "Close your eyes."
She did, her face blank as granite. Rahl was suddenly behind her. His hands settled on her shoulders, moved over her, cupping her throat, squeezing it. He pushed her against the wall, just a little too slow for her to do it on her own, fingers biting into her neck, raising welts.
Then, Cara realized she was two people. Split. On one level, a level that she was allowing to rule her, she felt a fawning admiration for Rahl like a dog would toward its master. Every movement of his royal body brought her the utmost glee and she wanted nothing more than to die for him so he would know she'd given her utmost to him.
On a second level, as someone buried alive inside the first persona, she was able to see and hear her other self from a distance, but unable to tune it out or escape. It was like she was leashed to herself. She wondered if Dahlia could see this 'her'. The Sister was watching her like a man listened to an eulogy, her fingers fisted like they were wrapped around the hilt of a dagger.
Then Rahl began to pet her hair, the same way someone might touch a dead jellyfish. That gave half of Cara some satisfaction, and the rest an impatience for being teased. Then he grew bolder, wrapping a strand of hair around his finger and then pulling it out of her scalp. Dahlia bared her teeth. Rahl glanced at her, enjoying the audience and its affect on Cara. He moved his fingers down her shoulder, pulling her collar open as if displaying her faint tanline to Dahlia.
“Open your eyes,” he hissed, and Cara didn’t even know if closing them had helped. “This is going to happen, right here and right now. All you can determine is how much it’s going to hurt. Do you want it to hurt?”
“I don’t care,” she said.
“Spoken like a true Mord'Sith.” He kissed her cheek, his lips abrading her skin like sandpaper. They moved up her face until he reached her ear, which he seized in his teeth. After a moment of biting, he released it and probed his tongue into her ear. Dahlia watched as Cara gasped in what could’ve been revulsion or pleasure.
The tongue slipped back into Rahl’s mouth, saliva trailing behind it. “Come on now,” he said, taking her wrists in his hands as if for a dance. “Put your back into it. Show me how much this is worth to you.” He lowered her hand to his groin. Cara let it lie there, limp as a doll. Face twisting with hatred, Rahl scratched his nails down the side of her face and into her neck, leaving bleeding scarlet lines behind. Cara didn’t make a sound.
Blood was trickling from Dahlia's fist, where her nails cut into her palm.
“I will not be one of your lovers,” he whispered intimately in Cara’s ear. “You shall remember me more vividly than that. I am to be your rapist.”
“I,” Cara began with great difficulty, “will put you out of my mind as soon as I’ve washed away your stench.”
Rahl slammed Cara against a wall, his nails cutting through her clothes and flesh. “Tell me you love it, little whore. Beg me for more. Tell me to fuck you.”
Cara held her tongue, teeth clenched, eyes squeezed shut. Rahl made a noise of excitement in his throat as he licked his way up her face. With a small whimpering sound, Cara looked at Dahlia. It helped to think of the sound the blood made dripping from her dacra onto the dirt floor.
“You don’t have to watch, Dahlia… don’t watch.”
Rahl forced Cara to her knees, choking the life out of her with both his well-manicured hands. His fingernails pricked at her larynx. “It’s a shame. You two make a cute couple… but she'll never be yours.”
You’d be forgiven for not noticing it had even happened for a few seconds. Rahl’s mouth was still moving, but no sound emerged. Cara still knelt before him, eyes closed, but the only thing on her neck was welts. And if you looked very closely, you could see Dahlia behind Rahl, a dacra in her hand, still warm from her own body. With her other hand on Rahl’s shoulder, she was guiding him away from Cara, as gentle as a dance. Then she twisted savagely and thrust Rahl into a wall. Before he hit, the tyrant had disappeared in a blaze of green flame.
Pursing a hand to the wound she'd opened in herself, Dahlia helped Cara to her feet. “Come on. We’re done here.”
They walked until the light was bright enough to hurt. Outside, Dahlia let go of Cara's hand and immediately started pacing, shoulders bowed, fists constantly flexing like she was looking for a way to curl them tighter.
"Calm down," Cara said softly.
Dahlia waved her off, sagging against the wall. A moment later she kicked it and launched herself across the mine. When she turned around, Cara was there. She grabbed Dahlia's hands. The Sister froze, her angry breath hitting Cara like waves off a storm. She adjusted her grip, her skin sliding over Cara's. They were sweating.
"Calm down," Cara said. And then: "You didn’t have to do that."
Dahlia nodded and turned toward the exit. She was surprised to find Cara hanging onto her hand, holding her in the shadows.
“Thank you,” Cara said, slowly, carefully.
“Anytime,” Dahlia replied with a nod.
Cara let go of her hand. “Next time the mission is on the line, you pick the mission.” She said the words quickly, like she was ripping off a bandage.
Dahlia’s surprise quickly turned into stony-faced silence. "I don't care about the mission."
“It was just sex.”
“He didn’t want to have sex with you, he wanted to break you.”
“He wouldn’t have succeeded.”
“I didn’t want to see him try!”
“You want to control me. Just like him.”
Dahlia gritted her teeth. “Fine! You want to spread your legs for anyone who can prop you up, have fun!”
The punch came so fast even Dahlia didn’t see it coming. She just stumbled back a few steps, lip split, came up just in time to see the Agiel being unholstered. She caught it and Cara's arm flexed, trying to force it deeper into Dahlia's space, but the Sister held it fast, and so it laid between them, screaming its pain into both of them. Dahlia's lip quivered as she took the magic, but she didn't cry out. And she didn't let go.
"Do you have a bed?" Cara asked.
"What?"
Cara jerked the Agiel back, returning it to its holster. "When we get to Invictus, I'll ask Kahlan to find you someplace to sleep. She will."
"Alright," Dahlia said, squeezing her hand into a fist and out again. When she did, she felt the welt the Agiel had left, sore and taut.
