Страница 157 из 184
She rolled onto her side, her eyes opening wide. "The pain is gone! How did you do that? How did you make the pain leave?"
Richard smiled in satisfaction. "I learned it from an old friend named…" He frowned. "I can't remember his name. But he's an old friend, and he taught me. I'm so relieved, Mistress De
She gently touched her fingers to the side of his face. "You are a very rare person, Richard Cypher. I have never had a mate like you before. The spirits take me, I have never even seen a person like you before. I killed the one who did the things to me that I have done to you, and you instead help me."
"We all can be only who we are, no more, and no less, Mistress De
"You, don't understand about the Mord-Sith, my love. We are carefully selected, as young girls. Those chosen to be Mord-Sith are the most gentle, the most kindhearted, that can be found. It is said that the deepest cruelty comes from the deepest caring. All of D'Hara is searched, and each year only about a half dozen are chosen. A Mord-Sith is broken three times."
His eyes were wide. "Three times?" he whispered.
De
Tears trickled down Richard's cheeks. "They did all this to you?"
"What I did to you, to break you, is nothing compared to what must be done to us to break us the second and third time. The more kindhearted a girl is, the better Sikh she makes, but it makes it harder to break her the second and third time. Master Rahl thinks me special because they had a very difficult time with the second breaking of me. My mother lived a long time, to try to keep me from giving up hope, but that only made it harder. On both of us. They failed at the third breaking, had given up, and were going to kill me, but Master Rahl said that if I could be broken, I would be someone special, and so took over my training himself. He is the one who broke me the third time. On the day I killed my father, he took me to his bed, as a reward. His reward left me barren."
Richard could hardly speak past the lump in his throat. With shaking fingers, he brushed some of her hair back off her face. "I don't want anyone hurting you. Not ever again, Mistress De
"It is an honor," De
Richard sat numb. "I hope he kills me tomorrow, so I don't have to learn anything else that gives me this much pain, Mistress De
Her wet eyes shone in the lamplight. "I have done things to hurt you that 1 have done to no other, yet you are the first person since I was chosen who has done anything to stop my pain." She sat up and picked up the tin bowl. "There is some left. Let me put it on you where Constance did what I told her not to."
De
She lay back on the bed, holding his hand against her belly with both of hers. "Come to me, my love. I want you very badly right now."
He nodded and started to reach for the Agiel on the side table. De
"Tonight, I want you without the Agiel. Please? Teach me what it's like without the pain?"
She put a hand behind his neck and gently pulled him on top of her