Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

Cara watched with a kind of knowing sympathy. "I guess that you had a great deal in common with Mord-Sith under the rule of Darken Rahl. D'Hara was once a place of darkness, as life is now under the Imperial Order. Richard didn't just kill Darken Rahl, he ended that kind of sick doctrine for D'Hara. He gave us the same thing he gave you; he gave us back our lives.

"I guess Lord Rahl could understand us because he was treated much the same."

Nicci wasn't sure what Cara meant. "The same?"

"He was once a captive of a Mord-Sith named Denna. At the time it was our duty to torture Darken Rahl's enemies to death. Denna was the best of the best. Darken Rahl had personally selected her to capture Richard and be in charge of his training. Darken Rahl had been hunting Richard for quite a while because he knew something important about the boxes of Orden. Darken Rahl wanted that information. It was Denna's job to torture Richard into being eager to answer any question Darken Rahl asked."

Nicci glanced over and saw tears glistening in Cara's eyes as she slowed to a halt. She lifted her Agiel, staring at it as she rolled it in her fingers. Nicci knew all about Denna and what she had done to Richard, but she decided that right then it might be best to remain silent and simply listen. Sometimes people needed to say things for themselves more than they needed to say them for others. Nicci thought that perhaps after coming so close to dying, this was one of those times for Cara.

"I was there," Cara said in a near whisper as she stared at her Agiel. "He doesn't remember because Denna had tortured him until he was delirious and only partially conscious, but I saw him there, at the People's Palace, and I saw some of what she did to him — of what we all did."

Nicci's breath paused. She cautiously glanced over at Cara. "Of what you all did? What do you mean?"

"It was standard practice for Mord-Sith to pass their captives around. It made it more difficult for them to learn to endure any particular pattern of torture from one individual. It helped to keep them confused and afraid. Fear is an integral part of torture. That's something a Mord-Sith learns from the first moment she is taken to be trained to become Mord-Sith —that fear and the unknown makes any pain infinitely worse. Most of the time Denna let a Mord-Sith named Constance share in training Richard. But sometimes Denna wanted to use others, besides Constance."

Cara stood stock-still as she stared at her Agiel. "It was not long after he arrived at the People's Palace. Richard doesn't remember-I don't think he even knew his own name at the time because Denna had him in a fog of delirium, in a state of madness from the things she had done to him — but he spent a day with me."

This, Nicci hadn't known. She stood frozen, afraid to say anything. She had no idea what she could say.

"Denna took Richard as her mate," Cara said. "I don't think she understood love any better than Jagang or Darken Rahl. At the end, though, she came to have a deep and genuine love for Richard. I saw the change coming over her. As you described it, she came to value him as an individual. She came to have sincere passion for him. She loved him so much that in the end she let him kill her so that he could escape.

"But before then, when Denna was still torturing him, I saw him there more than once, hanging helpless, covered in blood and begging for the release of death." A tear ran down Cara's cheek. "Dear spirits, I too made him beg for death as I stood over him."

Cara seemed to suddenly realize what she had just said aloud. Panic flooded her eyes. "Please don't say anything to him. It was so long ago-it's over and everything has changed, now. I don't want him to know — about me there with him like that." Tears ran down her face. "Please.»

Nicci took up one of Cara's hands in both of hers. "Of course I wouldn't say anything about it. I, of all people, understand the way you feel; I too, once did terrible things to him, only for a great deal longer than anyone else. As you say, that's over." Nicci let out a deep sigh. "I guess we all three know a little about what love is, and what it isn't."

Cara nodded not just her relief, but her sincere appreciation that Nicci understood. "We'd better catch up with Lord Rahl."

Nicci gestured casually toward the stables. "Richard is talking to the relatives of Victor's men who were killed." She tapped the side of her forehead. "I can just barely hear him with my gift." She reached out and gently wiped a tear from Cara's cheek. "We have the time to gather our senses before we get there."

As they started slowly walking toward the stable, Cara said, "Nicci, could I tell you something, then — something personal?"

On a night of such surprises, this was yet another. "Of course."

"Well.» Cara began as she frowned, trying to find the words, "when Lord Rahl came to me-to heal me-he was close to me."

"What do you mean?"