Temple of the Winds

Chapter 66

He smiled at the way she struggled. He liked the way she had fought him. He enjoyed teaching her how useless it was to fight a person of his superior strength, superior intellect. He watched in fascination as blood ran from her mouth and nose. The gash on her jaw oozed.

“You are only succeeding at making your wrists bleed,” he taunted. “You can’t break the ropes, but keep at it, if you wish.”

She spat at him. He smacked her again. He dug his thumb across the cut on her jaw, spellbound by the pattern of blood flooding down the side of her neck.

He knew her auras. He’d felt them before. He knew just which ones to touch to cripple her. It hadn’t taken long to overpower her. Not long at all.

Her teeth gritted as she growled with effort, straining against the ropes. She was strong, but she was not strong enough. Without her power and her weapon, she was a mere woman. No mere woman was a match for him. Not in any way.

When his fingers began unbuttoning the row of buttons along the side of her ribs, she tugged violently at the ropes holding her wrists and ankles. He liked that. He like to watch her struggle. To watch her bleed. He punched her face again.

He was intrigued that she didn’t cry out, that she didn’t beg for mercy. That she didn’t scream. She would. Oh, how she would scream.

His punch had stunned her for the moment. Her eyes rolled as she fought to remain conscious. He threw back the front of her outfit, exposing her breasts and the upper half of her torso.

He hooked his fingers under the tight waist of her red leather pants and, with a quick pull, yanked them down enough for what he was going to do to her.

Her entire belly was exposed. He felt it. Tight. Hard. There were scars on her. They riveted him. He tried to imagine what had caused such scars. As jagged and white as they were, it would have been bloody.

“I’ve been raped before,” she sneered. “More times than I can remember. I can tell you from experience that you’re not very good at it. You haven’t even gotten my pants down enough, you stupid pig. Get on with it, if you even can. I’m waiting.”

“Oh, Cara, I’m not going to rape you. That would be wrong. I have never raped a woman. I only have women who want it.”

She laughed at him. Laughed. “You are one twisted bastard.”

He resisted his urge to smash her face. He wanted her awake for this. Alive for this. But he shook with rage.

“Bastard?” His fist tightened. “Because of women like you!”

He hammered a fist down on her breast. Her eyes squeezed shut and her teeth clenched as she winced in pain, trying to curl up in a ball, but unable to, stretched out in the ropes as she was.

He took a settling breath, regaining his control. He wouldn’t let her divert him with her filthy mouth, “Now, I’m going to give you one last chance. Where is Richard? The soldiers are going wild with talk of Richard being back, of the bond being back. Where are you whores hiding him?”

The voices from the ether had told him, too, that Richard was back. The voices had told him that if he wished to assume his rightful place, he must eliminate Richard.

“And where is my loving wife? Where has she gone to?”

The voices told him that she was in the sliph, but the sliph wouldn’t tell him where she had gone.

Cara spat at him again. “I am Mord-Sith. You are too stupid to even imagine what has been done to me before. You couldn’t fill the boots of the meekest trainer of Mord-Sith. Your puny torture will pry nothing from me.”

“Oh, Cara, you have never encountered one of my talents.”

“Do what you want with me, Drefan, but Lord Rahl—the real Lord Rahl—is going to cut you up into little pieces.”

“And just how would he be able to do that?” He lifted the hilt of the Sword of Truth clear of its scabbard, so she could see the gold lettering that spelled out the word TRUTH. “I’m the one who is going to be doing the cutting into little pieces. Little tiny Richard pieces. Where is he!”

When she spat at him again, he couldn’t resist fisting her across her cut and swollen lip. The blood gushed anew.

He turned and retrieved one of the items he had brought: an iron pot. He put it on her belly, upside down.

“I’m too big to cook in that pot, you stupid pig. You will have to cut me up. Do I have to explain everything to you?”

He liked the way she tried to antagonize him, to make him lose his temper. She wanted him to kill her. He would, but she would talk, first.

“Cook you? Oh, no, Cara. You have the wrong idea. The wrong idea entirely. You think me some maniacal murderer. No murderer, I. I am the hand of justice. I am the hand of mercy. Come to bring eternal virtue to those who have none.

“This pot isn’t to cook you. “It’s to cook the rats.”

He was watching. He saw the way her blue eyes flicked toward him. He had been waiting for just that reaction.

“Rats. I hope you aren’t stupid enough to think that I am afraid of rats just because I’m a woman. I’m no woman like you have ever seen before. I used to keep rats as pets.”

“Really? You lie so poorly. My dear, loving, passionate wife explained to me how afraid you are of rats.”

She didn’t answer. She was afraid of showing her fear. But he could see it in her eyes.

“I have a sack of rats, here. Nice, fat rats.”

“Just get on with this rape. I’m growing bored.”

“I told you, I don’t rape women. They want it from me. They ask for it. They beg for it.” He tugged down his ruffled cuffs. “No, Cara. I have something else in mind for you. I want you to tell me where I can find my loving brother.”

She turned her face away. “Never. Get on with the torture before I fall asleep and miss it.”

“You see? As I told you, women always ask me for it.” He pressed the iron pot to her belly and wound a chain around her middle, to hold down the pot. He forced a finger under the rim, checking, to make sure that it was tight enough.

He then loosened the rough knot in the chain, so he could get the rats under the pot. Cara showed no reaction when he shoved the first under the pot.

Holding the second by the scruff of its neck, he held it before her face, letting her see it squirm and squeak. “See, Cara? As I promised you. Rats. Big rats.”

Sweat beaded on her forehead. “I kind of like it. It feels fuzzy against my stomach. I may fall asleep.”

He stuffed the second, and then a third under the pot. There was room for no more. He took the slack from the chain, and tightened the knot of links.

“Fuzzy,” he mocked. “I think they will keep you wide awake, Cara. Wide awake, and eager to talk, eager to betray Richard. Whores have no honor. You will betray him.”

“Berdine is going to be here soon. She will skin you alive.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “You relieved Berdine. I saw you. After she left, I took you down. She won’t be back for quite a while, but when she does come back, she will get the same as you.”

With tongs, he retrieved a big, glowing coal from the pan over the mass of candles. He plunked the red-hot coal down inside the rim of the footed bottom of the iron pot.

“You see, Cara, the coals are going to heat this iron pot—get it very hot.” He looked at her eyes. “The rats aren’t going to like that. They are going to want out.”

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 tunneling into your guts, trying to get out.”

Cara’s whole body jerked. It jerked again. Her eyes widened as she stared up at the ceiling, trying to keep the moan from escaping her throat.

He glanced back and saw a drop of blood run from under the rim of the bowl, down her side. “Well, looks like they already want out. Ready to talk, yet?”

She spat at him, and then gasped sharply. Her wide blue eyes fixed on the ceiling.

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 beginning. Even if she talked, he had no intention of stopping this. He longed to hear screams. Real, from the gut screams. Cara obliged him, and let out her first.

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 running from under the rim of the iron pot. Cara shook and thrashed. She stiffened and screamed again.

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.”

He turned back to Cara. “How are the rats doing, Cara? Ready to talk yet?”

Cara cursed him through clenched teeth.

Drefan reached into a sack and brought out a rat, holding it by the scruff of its neck. He shook it in her face as she tried to turn away. He lowered it against her. Squeaking and twisting, its claws scratched and dug as it tried to get away from Drefan’s grip, leaving red streaks along Cara’s cheeks, chin, and lips.

“Please,” Cara wailed. “Please, get them away!”

“Where’s Richard?”

“Dear spirits, help me. Please help me. Please help me,” she mumbled over and over.

“Where’s Richard?”

Cara’s body jerked violently. “Mama!” She shrieked. “Help me! Mama! Get them off! Mamaaaaa! ”

Cara was alone in a cage with rats, in the grip of terror and pain. She was a helpless child again, begging for the comfort and protection of her mother, wailing for her mother.

Kahlan gasped in tears. This was her fault. She had told Drefan that Cara was afraid of rats.

“Cara, forgive me! I didn’t know!”

Cara thrashed at her ropes, a little girl, frantically begging for her mother to get the rats away.

Kahlan strained to pull a hand free. If she could only get a hand free of the ropes. But they were so tight. She tugged and pulled. Her fingers tingled. The coarse rope cut into her wrists.

Kahlan pressed her wrists against Nadine’s bag, searching for something sharp to cut the ropes. The bag was cloth, the handle smooth wood.

The bag. Kahlan bent to the side, her fingers feeling for the button that held the bag closed. She found it. She struggled to undo the button, but her fingers were numb and at the angle that her arms were twisted, she couldn’t make her fingers work properly. She dug at the button with her thumbnail, trying to hook it to the side, trying to rip it off. It was sewn on with heavy thread to stand up to the rigors of use and weight. At last, the button popped through its hole.

Kahlan scooped at the contents in the bag, trying to sling them out where she could see them. Every shrill wail from Cara made Kahlan flinch. Every time Cara cried for her mother to save her from the rats, Kahlan had to hold back a sob of her own.

When she glanced up, she saw Drefan wiping a rat across Cara’s face. He had broken the back of another and draped it across her throat. Kahlan gritted her teeth and fingered the horn containers out of the bag.

Cara was her sister of the Agiel. Kahlan had to do something. Cara’s only hope was Kahlan. She twisted her neck, trying to see the markings on the horns. She couldn’t find the one she wanted.

She used her fingers, groping at the symbols scratched into the horn. She felt one that she thought was the right one, and her hopes soared, only to be dashed when she felt that there were three circles. She flicked each horn out of the way when she determined that it was not the one she needed.

She rooted in the bag and found another. Her fingers blindly felt the scratches. They went in a circle. She slipped her fingers along the horn and found another circle. She felt a heavily scratched straight line between them.

Kahlan held the horn in her fingertips and twisted, trying to see if she was right. Cara screamed and Kahlan dropped the horn. She scooted to the side so she could see it on the floor.

It had two circles scratched into the patina of the horn. A horizontal line ran through both circles. It was the right one: canin pepper.

Nadine had warned her about taking off the wooden stopper, warned her about getting it in your face, your eyes. It would immobilize a person for a time, Nadine had said. Make them helpless, for a time.

Kahlan worked the horn back into her fingers. She wiggled the wooden stopper, trying to loosen it. It was cut to fit tightly, to keep the dangerous substance from leaking out.

Kahlan’s fingers were so numb they had no strength. She gritted her teeth as she tried to work the stopper loose. She didn’t want it off, yet, but she had to know she could get it off.

With her hands behind her back, she couldn’t throw it. She frantically tried to think of what she was going to do. She had to do something. If she didn’t, Cara would soon be dead. And then Drefan would start in on his loving wife. Cara wailed in agony.

“Please, mama, get the rats away from Cari. Please, mama, please. Help me, please help me.”

The pleading cries of hopeless terror ripped at Kahlan’s heart. She could wait no longer. She would just have to figure out what to do when the time came. She had to act.

“Drefan!”

His head twisted around. “Are you ready to tell me where Richard is?”

Kahlan remembered something Nathan had told her. You must offer Richard’s brother what he truly wants, if you are to save Richard. Maybe it would save Cara.

“Richard? What would I want with Richard? You know that it’s you I want.”

He smiled a knowing, satisfied smile. “Soon, my dear. In a little while. You can wait.”

He turned back to Cara.

“No, Drefan! I can’t wait. I need you now. I want you now. I can’t resist any longer. I can’t pretend any longer. I need you.”

“I said—”

“Just like your mother.” He froze at her words. “I need you like your whore of a mother needed your father.”

His expression darkened. Like a provoked bull, he turned toward her, his piercing eyes riveted on her. “What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean. I need to be taken, like your father took your mother. I want you to take me like that. Only you can satisfy me. Do it. Do it now. Please.”

He rose up, huge and imposing. His muscles rippled and knotted. His brow drew down in that grim Rahl glare.

“I knew it,” he breathed. “I knew it. I knew you would finally give in to your filthy perversion.” He hesitated, looking back at Cara.

“Yes. You’re right. You’re always right, Drefan. You’re smarter than me. You were right all along. I can’t fool you any longer. Give me what I want. Give me what I need. Please, Drefan, I’m begging you. I need you.”

The look on his face was frightening. It was madness. If she could have shrunk back into the stone, she would have.

Drefan slipped free the knife at his belt as his tongue wet his lips. He started toward her.

She had had no idea just how effective her words had been. In sudden panic, Kahlan wiggled the wooden stopper. Drefan’s whole face, the whole way he carried his body, changed. He was a seething monster coming at her. His eyes narrowed with bestial loathing, savage hatred. Hatred for her.

Kahlan swallowed back the sudden terror welling up in her throat. Dear spirits, what had she just done? She scuffed her feet against the stone floor, trying to back away. She was already against the wall. How was she going to get the powder in his face? Dear spirits, what do I do?

Kahlan wiggled the stopper with all her might. It popped off. Drefan went to a knee beside her.

“Tell me how much you want me to please you.”

“Yes! I want you. Now. Give me the pleasure only you can give me.”

He brought the knife up as he leaned toward her.

Kahlan heaved herself toward him, twisting, rolling to the side as hard as she could, flinging the horn full of powder at his face as she rolled onto hers.

She couldn’t see, facedown on the stone. She didn’t know if she had missed, if the oily powder had come out, if she had the horn turned the right way, if he was close enough. She held her breath, bracing for the thrust of his knife, imagining it coming, knowing it was coming. She could almost feel the sharp edge slicing her. She struggled against the panic of not knowing just where he was going to cut her.

Drefan staggered back. She turned her face and saw him fall on his back, writhing, gasping for breath.

Kahlan flipped herself over and started scooting toward Cara. She tried to move around Drefan, but she didn’t have much room to maneuver. His groping hand caught her ankles. She kicked, trying to pull away from his grip.

His fingers tightened around her ankles. His powerful arm dragged her toward him. He gasped for air, his other hand flailing about, trying to feel what was around him. He was blind.

Kahlan saw yellow powder on his cheek and neck. She hadn’t gotten it in his eyes as she had hoped. She hadn’t gotten it directly in his mouth, or nose. Just the side of his face. Most had missed. She didn’t know how long that would stop him, but she didn’t think for long. Dear spirits, let it be enough.

The horn was on the other side of him. She couldn’t get to it. With all her strength, when he tugged on her leg, she used his pull to add momentum and kicked as hard as she could at his face. She caught his ear, tearing it partly away from his head. He bellowed and released her ankle.

Desperately, Kahlan pushed with her feet, to get away from his grasping fingers. She made it out of his reach. She bumped into Cara. Kahlan sat up and scooted back toward the woman.

“Hold on, Cara. Please hold on. I’m here. I’m going to get them off you. I swear I’ll get them off you.”

“Please, mama,” Cara wailed, “It hurts so much . . . It hurts. It hurts.”

Kahlan pulled her feet under herself so she could raise up enough. She craned her neck, looking over her shoulder, trying to see what she was doing. She seized the chain. It burned her fingers, making her recoil. She made herself grab the chain again. She tugged on the iron knot, shaking, twisting, pulling.

Through burning fingers, she felt a link slip and the chain loosen. She stole a quick glance. Drefan was still struggling to breathe, but he had straightened his legs. He put his arms at his sides. What was he doing?

Kahlan felt a link pull past resistance. She wiggled the chain to loosen the knot, to give it more room to come undone. Another link slipped free. The chain loosened further. She tugged at it, refusing to let go, even though the hot iron was burning her fingers.

Drefan’s breathing was evening out. He was laying perfectly still. What was he doing?

Kahlan cried out with joy when the chain rattled off the side of the pot. With her back to Cara, Kahlan hooked her fingers under the rim of the scalding pot and heaved it up and back, flipping it off Cara.

Bloody rats tumbled to the floor, squirming and wriggling, trying to get their feet as they scurried away.

Kahlan was near tears with joy. “I got them off, Cara. I got them off you.”

Cara’s head lolled from side to side. Her eyes rolled. She mumbled incoherently. When she looked over her shoulder and saw Cara’s stomach, Kahlan had to look away, or be sick.

She scooted up toward Cara’s hands. With frenzied effort, Kahlan dug at the knot of rope, but the knots were pulled impossibly tight from Cara’s thrashing. Kahlan couldn’t budge them. She wasn’t going to be able to untie them. She would have to cut them.

Drefan’s knife lay on the floor, near him. He was lying there, perfectly still. She had to hurry. She had to get the knife and cut Cara’s ropes. She had to cut her own. Before he recovered.

Kahlan dug in her heels and scooted toward the knife. She turned around, feeling for it with her fingers.

Drefan rose up and seized her. Holding her around the middle, he lifted her as if she weighed nothing. He brought the knife around in front of her face.

“Nasty stuff, powdered canin pepper. Lucky for me I know how to use my auras to overcome it. Now, my whore of a wife, it’s time you paid the price for your perversion.”