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Her breathing quickened. Sweat rolled down her face. Where were her brave words now? She was silent, now.
''And how do you suppose the rats are going to get out, Cara? Once they start to get hot? Once the iron pot starts burning them? Singeing their tender noses?" "Just cut my throat and kill me, you bastard."
"When the rats get hot enough under there, they'll panic. They'll be frantic to get out. Guess how they'll get out, Cara." She had no haughty answer to fill the silence.
He pulled his knife and with the handle, tapped the iron pot. "How are you doing in there, my little rat friends?"
Cara flinched. He smiled when her eyes turned to him, watching him. He could see fear in those eyes. Real fear. He plunked down a half dozen more glowing coals on the iron pot. "Where is Richard?"
She had nothing to say. He piled on more coals, into a nice, round hump. That was all the pot's bottom would hold.
He bent over and looked into her eyes. Her skin was as white as chalk. Sweat glistened on her face, on her breasts. "Where are you whores hiding Richard?"
"You are crazy, Drefan. I don't like this, but if this is how I am to die, then I will die. But I will never betray Lord Rahl."
"I am Lord Rahl! When I get rid of my brother, there will be no one to challenge my rule! I am the son of Darken Rahl, and the rightful master of D'Hara."
She turned her face away. He saw her swallow. Her feet were trembling. Her smooth breathing was interrupted now and again, caught up short. He chuckled. "I'll ask again, when the rats start gnawing their way through you, to get away from their hot, iron prison. When their sharp little claws start digging into your belly. When the rats start tu
She was trembling all over now. Her whole body stiffed. Every muscle strained. She started to pant. Tears filled the corners of her eyes, to run down the side of her face. She was feeling every little thing the rats did-every frantic bite, every desperate digging, ripping of their claws.
Cara let out a short little cry. Sharp, shrill, clipped. It was rapture. He knew it was only the begi
Because of his singular perception, another detail caught his attention. His vigilance had again rewarded him. Smiling, he turned to the sliph's well. Breathe.
Kahlan expelled the sliph, but she knew something was wrong even before she sucked a breath of air.
A piercing scream echoed around the stone room. Kahlan thought the shriek would make her ears bleed.
As she erupted from the sliph, before she could brace herself to react, big, strong hands reached down and seized her. She struggled to get her bearings, to make sense of what was happening as the sudden light and sound whirled in around her.
The hands tore the book from her grasp. An arm clamped around her neck, its big fist gripping her arm. She felt rope being wound around her wrist.
A nightmare came to life in her vision as she was dragged from the well, kicking and twisting and trying to get away. She went limp when a fist in her gut drove the wind from her lungs. Her knees smacked the stone floor. Her arms felt as if they were being wrenched from her shoulder sockets as they were twisted behind her back.
She fought to reach her Confessor's power-only to remember when she couldn't touch it that the spirits had walled it from her so she could be married to Drefan. She was defenseless. It was Drefan attacking her.
Cara was there, on the floor, her wrists bound above her head, the rope fastened to a pin in the wall. Her ankles, likewise secured with rope. were stretched toward the opposite wall. She had an iron pot chained over her middle. The smell of hot coals and burning flesh assailed Kahlan's nostrils, gagging her.
Drefan pressed his knee to her arm as he knotted rope around her wrists. Kahlan tried to bite his leg. He backhanded her across the face so hard that her vision narrowed to a tiny spot. She fought to keep that vision, to stay conscious. She knew that she was lost if she passed out.
Her arms bound behind her, unable to break her fall, she smacked into the stone floor face-first. Drefan pounced on her back, sitting on her, holding her down, as he bound her legs together. Kahlan struggled to pull a breath against the weight of him. Blood gushed from her nose. The rope around her wrists was so tight that already her fingers were tingling.
Cara screamed. It was the loudest scream Kahlan had ever heard. It sent icy needles stabbing into her head. It made her face hurt.
Blood was ru
Drefan lifted Kahlan's head by her hair. "Where's Richard?" "Richard? Richard is dead."
Kahlan grunted at a punch in her kidney. She couldn't get her breath. Drefan turned his attention to Cara.
"Ready to talk yet? Where did you hide Richard?"
Cara's only answer was another shuddering scream. When it ended, she panted in pain.
"Why did you tell him?" Cara wept. "Why did you tell him about. . the rats? Dear spirits, why did you tell him about the rats?" Terror locked Kahlan's breath in her lungs.
Blood, vivid red against white skin, ran in rivulets from under the pot's rim, and down Cara's side. Smoke curled up from the hot coals atop it. And then Kahlan saw the bloody claw wriggling from under the rim of the pot on Cara's stomach. Kahlan suddenly understood. It took all her force of will to keep from vomiting. Cara cried hysterically, thrashing at the bloody ropes holding her. Kahlan furiously squirmed forward, going for the chain, to try to undo it with her teeth-to try to get the iron pot off Cara. Drefan lifted Kahlan by her hair. "Your turn will come, wife."
He heaved her back. Kahlan smacked into the wall and slid down onto something hard and sharp. The pain brought stinging tears to her eyes. It was Nadine's bag, full of all those horn containers. She lurched and wrenched herself until she was able to slip to the side, off the bag, and get her breath back.
Drefan turned his Darken Rahl eyes on her. "If you tell me where Richard is, I'll let Cara go."
"Don't tell him!" Cara screamed. "Don't tell him!"
"I couldn't if I wanted to," Kahlan called out to Cara. "I don't know where you hid him."
Drefan picked up the book Kahlan had brought. "What's this?" Kahlan's gaze locked on the sinister black book. She had to have that book, or Richard would die.
"Well, no matter, you won't be needing it anymore."
"No!" Kahlan screamed when she saw what Drefan was going to do with the book. "Please!"
He looked back at her as he held the book out over the sliph's well. "Tell me where Richard is." He smiled, lifting an eyebrow. "No?"
He dropped the book down the well. Kahlan's heart sank with the book. The sliph, who liked to watch the people in the room, was nowhere to be seen now. She probably had been frightened away by the screams.
"Drefan, let Cara go. Please. You have me. Do what you want to with me, but please let her go."
Drefan smiled as wicked a smile as Kahlan had ever seen. It was a twin to Darken Rahl's smile. "Oh, don't you worry, I intend to do what I want with you. When it is time."