Severed Souls

CHAPTER 77

Several hours after Ludwig Dreier and Erika had left, Richard heard people out in the hall talking in low, muffled voices. He lifted his head and looked off across the room, even though in the pitch black he couldn’t see anything at all. The blackness was oppressive, making him feel blind, making him feel that he was sinking into the darkness within him.

“Do you hear that?” Kahlan whispered.

“I hear it,” Samantha whispered back. “It’s someone talking.”

“It sounds like a woman’s voice,” Richard said as he tried to make out the words, but couldn’t.

“Probably that Mord-Sith, Erika,” Nicci said, “come to give us a good-night kiss with her Agiel.”

Richard didn’t know how long they had been unconscious while being hung up in the chains pinned to the stone wall, but he was pretty sure it was still a long way from morning, so he didn’t think that it was Ludwig Dreier returning this soon.

But knowing Mord-Sith the way he did, it wouldn’t surprise Richard one bit if Nicci was right.

He heard a key turning the rusty lock until the bolt clanged back. The sound echoed around in the darkness, dying out after a long moment. The iron door squealed in protest as it was finally pulled open, the sound echoing in the stone dungeon.

Richard squinted in the bright shafts of flickering torchlight suddenly thrown into the room through the open door. After being in total darkness for so long, the light seemed impossibly bright. After a moment, his eyes began to adjust.

Still squinting, he saw three figures enter. They brought two torches. He was surprised to see that it was three Mord-Sith, all in black leather. A fourth person remained back in the darkness of the stone corridor just outside the doorway.

The Mord-Sith placed the pair of torches in the iron wall brackets. Three Mord-Sith were more than enough to handle four helpless prisoners. Richard couldn’t stand the thought of Samantha or Nicci being hurt by those women, but the thought of Kahlan being hurt by them caused his anger to ignite yet again.

Being in the shackles, he couldn’t reach his sword, but it was still on his hip. They had probably left it there because it helped remind him of how helpless he was. People like Dreier liked to make people feel helpless.

If ever there was an argument as to why he couldn’t quit the struggle, this was it—innocent people helpless against brutality. The sword was a reminder that while others were often helpless, he had the ability to act on their behalf. Except right at that moment he couldn’t reach his sword to help himself, much less anyone else.

But having the sword on his hip did keep the anger close. Every time his anger flared, the sword’s anger rose expectantly. He could feel it seething to be let loose.

The tallest of the three women stepped confidently to him. Like the others, she was blond, muscular, and wore the traditional long, single braid that all Mord-Sith wore. He found the black leather, though, to be less impressive than the red. The red had a purpose that, because of its practical aspect, actually made Mord-Sith look all the more intimidating. It was meant to mask the presence of large quantities of blood, so the red leather thereby emphasized the unsettling purpose of Mord-Sith. The black was a crude and graceless attempt by the man who made them wear it to create something more menacing. Richard suspected that Ludwig Dreier thought he could make death more frightening than the Keeper himself.

Rather than the other two going to the women chained to the wall, they stayed close behind the one looking into Richard’s eyes.

“I am Cassia,” she finally said. She briefly lifted a hand back to the other two. “This is Laurin and Vale.”

Richard thought that maybe he could focus their cruel attention on him, and make them forget the others.

“Out for an evening stroll, are we?” he asked.

Cassia smiled crookedly with one side of her mouth. “I had heard that you had a sense of humor. Strange quality for a man in your position.”

Richard braced himself for her Agiel, but it didn’t come.

She shook her head, instead. “No. We have come to ask you some questions.”

Although Richard heard no hostility in her voice, he groaned inwardly. He knew all too well what it meant for a Mord-Sith to ask questions. What he found a bit odd was her informal tone. It wasn’t the icy voice Mord-Sith typically used when they meant to torture answers out of a person.

“What is it you want to know?”

“We have heard rumors about you. We want to know if they are true. If you lie to us … well, I think you know what will happen if you lie to us.”

“Yes. Denna taught me.”

That gave all three pause. The two behind Cassia shared a look. Richard wondered how they knew Denna, yet came to be here.

“You knew Denna?” Cassia asked. “Is that the truth?”

“Yes. Darken Rahl had her capture me. She had me for a long time, and in that time she taught me a lot of things.”

Cassia nodded with an intent expression. “I knew Denna. I knew her well at one time.” Her brow twitched with a puzzled look. “If Denna had you, and was training you, then how is it that you got away from her? Darken Rahl would have sent Denna for only one reason. People did not get away from Denna.”

Richard didn’t shy away from Cassia’s steady, blue-eyed gaze. “I did. Now, what is it you want to know?”

“Answer the question I asked, first, and this will be a lot easier—for all of us.”

Richard’s whole body ached from being restrained and unable to sit or lie down. His legs hurt, his back hurt, and his head pounded. He didn’t know what kind of occult powers Ludwig Dreier had used to subdue them, but the aftermath was painful.

“I killed her,” Richard said as he looked Cassia in the eye. “That’s how I got away. I killed her. I don’t wish to talk about it. Despite what she did to me, she was only doing what she did because she had been broken.”

Cassia nodded, seeming to understand. Richard didn’t quite know what to think of that. This woman was not reacting the way a Mord-Sith typically acted when she was intent on getting answers, or when she had been sent to torture a victim.

He decided to be a little less hostile in his answers.

“What is it you came to ask, Cassia?”

He deliberately did not address her as “Mistress.”

Cassia, looking down in thought, finally lifted her head. “I have heard a rumor that you presided over the marriage of a Mord-Sith.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Richard shared a look with Kahlan. The two behind Cassia were intently focused on him.

“Yes, that’s right, Cara.”

“Cara? Cara married?” Cassia looked astonished and incredulous all at once. “Cara is as resolute and formidable as they come.”

“Cara was our protector, but she came to be more than simply a protector to the Lord Rahl. She had become a close friend to the Mother Confessor and me.”

Cassia looked over at Kahlan. “Is that true?”

“Yes,” Kahlan said without hesitation. “Cara was as hard as nails, but she also had a good heart. We loved her.”

The three seemed mystified by that, as if they didn’t know what to think.

“Then where is she now?” the one named Vale asked from behind. “If she is your protector, and your friend, then why isn’t she here protecting you? Did she die in her service to you?”

“No,” Richard said with a deep sigh. “It’s a long story.”

“Make it short,” Cassia said. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

Richard looked at the intent expressions of the two behind before looking back at Cassia. He wondered what she meant about not having a lot of time, but went ahead and answered anyway.

“Kahlan and I were captured by Jit, a Hedge Maid. Jit infected us with a kind of deadly poison. Cara and others came to help us. In the meantime, the barrier to the third kingdom failed. Hannis Arc called the long-dead Emperor Sulachan back from the world of the dead in part by using my blood. The half people—people without souls—captured Cara, her husband, and all of our other friends. Kahlan and I were unconscious, so Cara hid us before the attack. Because of that, the half people didn’t take us with the others. We later went in there and got them out. As we were escaping, Cara’s husband was killed.”

“I see,” Cassia said. “So what happened to Cara? Why isn’t she still with you?”

As the painful memory came flooding back, Richard had to pause. It was a long moment before he answered.

“Cara asked to be released from her service to me.”

The room was silent but for the hissing torches as the Mord-Sith tried to take in an act that he knew must be incomprehensible to them.

“What is it you really want to know?” Richard finally asked.

“You are called Lord Rahl. Darken Rahl was the Lord Rahl. Darken Rahl was our master.” Cassia lifted her chin while looking him in the eye. “Did you kill him?”

That was the question he had been afraid they were going to ask. Nonetheless he answered it with straightforward, plain honesty.

“Yes.”