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"The spirits also mark a distinction between intent and deed. It was my intent to take care of him, in my way. Was it your intent to disobey my direct order?
Cara flicked her blond braid back over her shoulder. "It was my intent to protect you and Lord Rahl. I have succeeded."
"I told you to let me handle it."
"Hesitation can be the end of you… or those you care about." A haunted look passed across Cara's face. Iron quickly repossessed her countenance. "I have learned never to hesitate."
"Is that why you were provoking him? To get him to attack you with his magic?"
With the heel of her hand, Cara wiped the blood from a deep cut on her cheek- a cut Marlin had given her when he had struck her and slammed her into the bookcase. She stepped closer. "Yes." She took a long lick of the blood from her hand while watching Kahlan's eyes. "A Mord-Sith can't take a person's magic unless they attack us with it."
"I thought you feared magic."
Cara tugged the sleeve of her leather, straightening it down her arm. "We do, unless it is specifically used by the one who commands it to attack us. Then it's ours."
"You always claim not to know anything about magic, and yet now you command his? You can use his magic?"
Cara glanced down at the man groaning on the floor. "No. I can't use it, like he uses it, but I can turn it against him-hurt him with his own magic." Her brow twitched. "Sometimes, we feel a bit of it, but we don't understand it the way Lord Rahl understands it, and so we can't use it. Except to give them pain."
Kahlan couldn't reconcile such contradictions. "How?"
She was struck by how much Cara's emotionless expression was like a Confessor's face, the face Kahlan's mother had taught her, showing nothing of the i
"Our minds are linked," Cara explained, "through the magic, so I can see what he's thinking when he is thinking of hurting me. or fighting back, or disobeying my orders, because it contradicts my wishes. Since we are linked to their minds through their magic, our will to hurt them makes it happen." She looked down at Marlin. He suddenly cried out anew in agony. "See?"
"I see. Now stop it. If he refuses to give us answers, then you can… do what it takes, but I won't sanction doing anything that isn't required to protect Richard."
Kahlan looked up from Marlin's torment to Cara's cold blue eyes. She spoke before she thought. "Did you know De
"Everyone knew De
"And was she as good at… at torturing people as you?"
"Me?" Cara said with a laugh. "No one was as good at it as De
With a glance at the Agiel hanging at Kahlan's neck-De
"That was in the past. We were bonded to Darken Rahl. We did as we were commanded. We are bonded to Richard, now. We would never hurt him. We would die to keep anyone from hurting Lord Rahl." Her tone lowered to a whisper. "Lord Rahl not only killed De
Kahlan nodded. "So he did. But I have not. Though I understand how she did as she was trained and commanded, and her spirit has been a comfort and an aid to both of us, and I appreciate the sacrifices she has since made on our behalf, in my heart I can't forgive her for the horrifying things she did to the man I love."
Cara studied Kahlan's eyes a long moment. "I understand. If you ever hurt Lord Rahl, I would never forgive you, either. Nor would I ever grant you mercy."
Kahlan held the woman's gaze. "Likewise. It is said that, for a Mord-Sith, there is no worse death to be had than by the touch of a Confessor."
A slow smile came to Cara's lips. "So I have been told."
"It's fortunate we're on the same side. As I've said, there are things I won't, I can't, forgive. I love Richard more than life itself."
"Every Mord-Sith knows that the worst pain comes from one you love."
"Richard need never fear that pain."
Cara seemed to consider her words carefully. "Darken Rahl never had to fear that kind of pain; he never loved a woman. Lord Rahl does. I have noticed that where love is concerned, things sometimes have a way of changing."
So that was the heart of the matter.
"Cara, I could no more hurt Richard than could you. I would lay down my life first. I love him."
"As do I," Cara said, "if in a different way, but with no less ferocity. Lord Rahl freed us. In his place, anyone else would have had every Mord-Sith put to death. He instead has given us a chance to live up to his expectations."
Cara shifted her weight to her other foot as her eyes withdrew their cold assessment. "Perhaps Richard is the only one of us to understand the good spirits' principles-that we can't truly love until we forgive another their worst crimes against us."
Kahlan felt her face flush at Cara's words. She never thought of a Mord-Sith as having such depth of understanding in matters of compassion. "Was De
"Yes, but that's different," Cara admitted. "I understand the way you feel about De
Kahlan stared off. "When I told De
Kahlan watched her finger as she traced the scoop of a curled leaf carved in the banding of the tabletop. "But I could never forgive anyone who hurt him."
"And have you forgiven me?"
Kahlan looked up. "For what?"
Cara's fist tightened on her Agiel. Kahlan knew that it hurt a Mord-Sith to hold her Agiel in her hand-part of the paradox of being a giver of pain. "For being Mord-Sith."
"Why should I have to forgive you that?"
Cara looked away. "Because if Darken Rahl had commanded me instead of De
"I told you, the spirits mark a distinction between the might have been and the deed. So do I. You ca
Still Cara didn't look up. "But will you ever truly trust us?"
"You have already proven yourselves, in Richard's eyes, and in mine. You are not De
Cara glanced again to De
"Though to you that may sound reprehensible, in my eyes, it is an honor that you wear an Agiel. Its ultimate purpose is to protect our master."
Kahlan offered a sincere smile, understanding Cara just a little bit better than she had before. She wondered what the woman behind the appellation had been like before she was captured and trained to become a Mord-Sith. Richard had told her that it was a horror far beyond anything that had been done to him.