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  　"Darlin, you're deluding yourself if you think I would reveal anything I don't want you to know." "What did you do to Cara?"

  　He 【创建和谐家园】iled but didn't answer. He lifted Marlin's hand. A blast of air shattered more of the grate to the side.

  　The stone she was holding gave way. Her back scraped over the broken edge. Kahlan snatched for a solid piece and just caught it with her fingers before she was ejected from the drain. When she looked down, she was looking at the rocks below the foundation. Water thundered above her.

  　She worked her fingers over the sharp stone, struggling desperately to pull herself back behind what was left of the grate. Panic powering her effort, she regained the inside of the stone lattice, but she couldn't get away from it. The water kept her pinned. "Problem, darlin?"

  　Kahlan wanted to scream at him, but ;she could only gasp for air as she fought to keep from being swept through the opening. Her arms burned with the effort. She could think of nothing to do to stop him. She thought of Richard.

  　Jagang lifted Marlin's hand again, spreading his fingers.

  　Nadine popped up from the water right behind him. With one hand she held a stone step. In her other, she still gripped the dead torch. Looking as if she was at the ragged edge of madness, she took a mighty swing, clubbing him across the back of his knees.

  　Marlin's legs folded under him and he toppled into the water right in front of Kahlan. He caught himself on the broker grate with his one hand. When he saw what waited outside, he frantically tried to push himself back. Apparently, he hadn't anticipated that there might be no way down from the drain tunnel. Nadine clutched a stepping stone and held on for dear life. Kahlan reached behind with her injured arm, stuffed her left hand through a grate opening under the water, and made a fist to lodge it fast. With her other hand, she seized Marlin by the throat.

  　"Well, well," she said through gritted teeth. "Look what I have here: the great and all-powerful Emperor Jagang."

  　He grinned, showing broken teeth. "Actually, darlin," he said in Jagang's grating, impudent voice, "you have Marlin."

  　She pulled herself close to his face. "Think so? Do you know that a Confessor's magic works faster than thought? That's why once we're touching someone, they have no chance. None. The magic bond of my loyalty to Richard Rahl denies a dream walker access to my mind. Marlin's mind is our field of battle now. Do you suppose that my magic might work faster than yours? What do you think? Do you think I can take you, along with Marlin?"

  　"Two minds at once?" he said with a 【创建和谐家园】irk. "I don't think so, darlin." "We'll see. Maybe I'll get you, too. Maybe we'll end the war, and the Imperial Order, right here and now."

  　"Oh, darlin, you are a fool. Man is destined to free his world from the shackles of magic. Even if you could kill me here and now, which you can't, you will not end the Order. It will survive any one man, even me, because it is the struggle of all mankind to inherit our world."

  　"Do you really expect me to believe that you don't do this for yourself? For naked power?"

  　"Not at all. I relish rule. But I simply ride a horse already in full charge. It will run you down. You are a fool who follows the dying religion of magic."

  　"A fool who has you by the throat-the great Jagang, who professes to want man to triumph over magic, yet uses magic!"

  　"For now. But when magic dies, I will be the one with the daring, and the muscle, to rule-without magic."

  　Fury erupted through Kahlan. This was the man who had ordered the deaths of thousands of innocent people. This was the butcher of Ebinissia. This was the man who would enslave the world. This was the man who wanted to kill Richard.

  　In the silence of her mind, in the core of her power, where there was no cold, no exhaustion, no fear, she had all the time in the world. Though he made no attempt to escape, even if he had, it would have been hopeless. He was hers. Kahlan did as she had done countless times before-she released her restraint. For an imperceptible twitch of time, something was different. There was resistance where there had been none before. A wall. Like hot steel through glass, her power crashed through it. The magic exploded through Marlin's mind. Thunder without sound.

  　Stone chips fell from the ceiling at the concussion. Water droplets danced. Despite the water's rush, a ring of ripples raced outward around the two of them, driving a wall of mist and dust.

  　Nadine, clinging to the stepping stone, cried out in the pain of being so close to a Confessor's power unleashed.

  　Marlin's mouth went slack. Once a person's mind had been destroyed by a Confessor, they became a vessel needing her command. Marlin offered no such abdication.

  　Blood streamed from his ears and nose. His head lolled to the side in the rushing torrent. His dead eyes started.

  　Kahlan released her grip of his throat when his hand went slack on the grate and the water tore him away. Marlin's body tumbled out through the broken stone lattice and plummeted to the rocks below.

  　Kahlan knew: she had almost had Jagang, but she failed. His thoughts, his ability as a dream walker, had been too fast for her Confessor's magic to catch. Nadine was reaching toward her. "Grab my hand! I can't hold on forever!" Kahlan locked wrists with her. Using her power drained a Confessor of strength. After using her magic, it took even Kahlan, the Mother Confessor, and perhaps the strongest Confessor ever born, several hours before she could use her power again, but longer than that to fully recover her strength. She was exhausted, and couldn't fight the torrent any longer. Without Nadine's hold on her, she would have gone over the edge, too.

  　With Nadine's help, Kahlan managed to regain the stepping stones. Shivering with the cold, they both dragged themselves up.

  　Nadine wept at the crest of terror that had passed and had almost taken them. Kahlan was too exhausted to weep, but she knew how Nadine felt. "I wasn't touching him, when you used magic, but I thought every one of my joints had popped apart. It didn't . . . do anything to me, did it? Anything magic? Am I going to die, too?" "No, you're fine," Kahlan assured her. "You simply felt the pain because you were too close, that's all. If you had been touching him, though, it would have been inconceivably worse-you would have been destroyed."

  　Nadine nodded in mute reply. Kahlan put an arm around her and whispered a thank you in her ear. Nadine 【创建和谐家园】iled the tears away. "We have to get back to Cara." Kahlan said. "We have to hurry." "How? The torch is gone. There's no way down the outside, and as soon as we try to go back, it will be pitch black. I don't want to go back there in the dark. It's impossible until the soldiers come with torches to light our way."

  　"Nothing is impossible," Kahlan said wearily. "We took every turn to the right, so we have only to put a hand on the left wall and follow it to find our way back."

  　Nadine threw her hand out, pointing back into the blackness. "That may be all fine and good in the halls, but when we came into this drainage tunnel, we crossed over to the other side. There aren't steps on that side. We'll never find the opening."

  　"The water rushing over the step stone in the center of the tunnel had a different sound. Didn't you notice? I'll remember it." Kahlan took Nadine's hand to give her encouragement. "We have to try. Cara needs help."

  　Nadine stared in wordless worry for a moment, and then said, "All right, but wait a moment."

  　She tore a strip from the shredded hem of Kahlan's dress and wound it around Kahlan's upper arm, closing the wound as best she could. Kahlan winced when Nadine drew the knot tight.

  　"Let's go," Nadine said. "But be careful until I can sew it closed and put a poultice on it."

  　CHAPTER 12

  　They made excruciatingly slow process back up the drainage tunnel. The blind trek, groping along the cold, slimy stone, with the water coursing about their ankles, and the constant fear of falling into the raging water in the darkness, was at least devoid of the terror that Marlin might pop up, grab their legs, and pull them in. When Kahlan heard the sound of the water change, and its echo into the hall, she held Nadine's hand and probed with a foot until she found the step stone across the channel.

  　Partway back through the dark labynnth of tunnels and halls, the soldiers found them and led the way with torches. In a numb haze, Kahlan followed the wavering flames of the torches as they plunged ever onward into the black nothingness. It was an effort to put one foot in front of the other. Kahlan wished for nothing more than to lie down, even if it were on the cold, wet stone.

  　Outside the pit, the halls were crowded with hundreds of grim soldiers. Archers all had arrows nocked. Spears were at the ready, as were swords and axes. Other weapons, from the fight with Marlin, were still embedded in the stone. She doubted that anything short of magic would remove them. The dead and wounded had been cleared away, but blood boasted where they had lain. Screams were no longer coming from the pit.

  　Kahlan recognized Captain Harris, who had been up in Petitioners' Hall earlier in the day. "Has anyone gone down there to help her, captain?" ''No, Mother Confessor. ''

  　He didn't even have the decency to look sheepish about it. D'Harans feared magic, and felt no loss of pride admitting it. Lord Rahl was the magic against magic; they were the steel against steel. It was as simple as that.

  　Kahlan couldn't bring herself to reprimand the men in the hall for leaving Cara alone. They had shown their bravery in the fight with Marlin. Many of them had been killed or seriously injured. Going down into the pit was different from fighting something that came out; defending their selves was different, in their minds, from going out and looking for trouble with magic.

  　For their part of the bargain, the steel against steel, D'Haran soldiers fought to the death. They expected their Lord Rahl to do his part, and his part was dealing with magic.

  　Kahlan read the apprehension in all the waiting eyes. "The assassin, the man who escaped the pit, is dead. It's over."

  　Soft sighs of relief could be heard up and down the hall, but by the anxious expression still on the captain's face, she knew she must look quite a mess. "I think we should get you some help. Mother Confessor." "Later." Kahlan started for the ladder. Nadine followed. "How long has she been silent, captain?"

  　"Maybe an hour."

  　"That was about when Marlin died. Come with us, and bring a couple more men so we can get Cara out of there."

  　Cara was on the far side of the room, near the wall where Kahlan had seen her last. Kahlan knelt on one side, Nadine or the other, as the soldiers held torches so they could see.

  　Cara was in convulsions of some sort. Her eyes were closed, and she was no longer screaming, but she shook violently, her arms and legs thrashing against the stone floor.

  　She was choking on her own vomit.

  　Kahlan gripped the shoulder of Cara's red leather and yanked her onto her side. "Open her mouth!"

  　Nadine leaned over from behind and pushed her thumb against the back of Cara's jaw, forcing it forward. With her other hand, she pressed down on her chin, keeping her mouth open. Kahlan swept two fingers through Cara's mouth several times until she had cleared her airway.

  　"Breathe!" Kahlan yelled. "Breathe, Cara, breathe!"

  　Nadine slapped the prone woman on the back, eliciting gurgling, wet, choking coughs that finally brought a semblance of clear, if gasping. breathing.

  　Although she was able to breathe, it didn't halt the convulsions. Kahlan felt helpless.

  　"I better go get my things," Nadine said. "What's wrong with her?"

  　"I don't really know. A paroxy【创建和谐家园】 of some sort. I'm no expert, but I think we need to stop it. I might be able to help. I might have something in my bag." "You two, go show her the way. Leave a torch."

  　Nadine and the two soldiers raced up the ladder after one of them shoved a torch in a bracket on the wall.

  　"Mother Confessor," Captain Harris said, "just a little while ago a Raug'Moss showed up in Petitioners' Hall." "A what?" "A Raug'Moss. From D'Hara." "I don't know much about D'Hara. Who are they?"

  　"They're a secret sect. I don't know much about them myself. The Raug'Moss keep to themselves, and are rarely seen-" "Get to the point. What's he doing here?"

  　"This one is the Raug'Moss High Priest himself. The Raug'Moss are healers. He says he sensed that a new Lord Rahl had become Master of D'Hara, and he came to offer his services to his new master."

  　"A healer? Well, don't just stand there-go get him. Maybe he can help. Hurry." Captain Harris clapped a fist to his hear) before racing up the ladder. Kahlan pulled Cara's shoulders and head into her lap and held her tight, trying to calm her convulsions. Kahlan didn't know what else to do. She knew a lot about hurting people, but little about healing them. She was so sick of hurting people. She wished she knew more about helping people. Like Nadine.

  　"Hold on, Cara," she whispered as she rocked the shaking woman. "Help is coming. Hold on."

  　Kahlan's eyes were drawn to the top of the opposite wall. The words incised in the stone stared back. She knew nearly every language in the Midlands, all Confessors

  　did, but she knew nothing about High D'Haran. High D'Haran was a dead language; few people knew the ancient tongue.

  　Richard was learning High D'Haran He and Berdine worked together translating the journal they had found in the Keep -Kolo's journal, they called it-which had been written in High D'Haran, in the great war three thousand years before. Richard would be able to translate the prophecy on the wall.

  　She wished he couldn't. She didn't want to know what it said. Prophecy was never anything but trouble.

  　She didn't want to believe that Jagang had unleashed some unknown festering plague of torment on them, but she couldn't find a good reason to doubt his word.

  　She pressed her cheek to the top of Cara's head and closed her eyes. She didn't want to see the prophecy. She wanted it gone.

  　Kahlan felt tears running down her face. She didn't want Cara to die. She didn't know why she should feel so much for his woman, except perhaps because no one else did. The soldiers wouldn't even come down to see why she had stopped screaming. She could have choked to death on her own vomit. Something as simple as that, not magic, could have killed her because they were afraid, or perhaps because no one cared if she died.

  　"Hold on, Cara. I care." She 【创建和谐家园】oothed the Mord-Sith's hair back from her clammy forehead. "I care. We want you to live."

  　Kahlan squeezed the quaking women, as if trying to squeeze her words, her concern, into her. It occurred to her that Cara wasn't so different from herself; Cara was trained to hurt people.

  　When it all came down to it, Kahlan was much the same. She used her power to destroy a person's mind. She knew that she was doing it to save others, but it was still hurting people. Mord-Sith hurt people, but to them, it was to help their master, to preserve his life, and that in turn was to save the lives of the D'Haran people.

  　Dear spirits, was she no more than this Mord-Sith she was trying to bring back from madness?

  　Kahlan could feel the Agiel hanging around her neck pressing against her chest as she held Cara. Was she a sister of the Agiel in more ways than one?

  　If Nadine had been killed in the beginning, would she have cared? Nadine helped people; she didn't make a life of hurting them. No wonder Richard had been attracted to her.

  　She wiped her cheek as the tears ran more freely.

  　Her shoulder throbbed. She hurt all over. She wanted Richard to hold her. She knew he was going to be angry, but she needed him so badly at that moment. It was hurting her shoulder to hold the trembling woman in her lap, but she refused to let go. "Hold on, Cara You're not alone; I'm With you. I won't leave you. I promise."

  　"Is she any better?" Nadine asked, as she scurried down the ladder. "No. She's still unconscious and sharing like before."

  　As she knelt, Nadine let her bag drop to the floor beside Kahlan. Things inside banged together with muffled sounds.

  　"I told those men to wait up there. We don't want to move her until we can bring her out of it, and they'll just be in the way."

  　Nadine started pulling things out of her bag, little folded cloth packages, leather pouches with markings scratched on them, and stoppered horn containers, likewise scratched with symbols. She briefly inspected the markings before setting each item aside.

  　"Blue cohosh," she mumbled to herself as she squinted at the cryptic marks on one of the leather pouches. "No, I don't think it would do, and she'd have to drink cups of it." She took out several more leather pouches, before pausing at another. "Pearly everlasting. Might work, but we'd have to get her to 【创建和谐家园】oke it, somehow." She sighed irritably. "That won't do." She considered a horn. "Mugwort," she muttered as she set it aside. "Feverfew"?" She put that horn in the damp sling of her dress in her lap. "Yes, betony might be of some good, too," she said as she considered another. She added the horn lo her lap.

  　Kahlan picked up one of the horns Nadine had set aside and pulled its cork. The pungent 【创建和谐家园】ell of anise made her pull back. She pushed the cork back in and set it down.

  　She picked up another. Two circles were deeply scratched into the patina of the horn. A horizontal line ran through both circles. Kahlan wiggled the carefully carved wooden stopper, trying to pull it free. Nadine slapped the horn out of Kahlan's hands. "Don't!" Kahlan looked up in surprise. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snoop in your things. I was-"

  　"No, it's not that." She picked up the horn with the two circles struck through with a line and held it up. "This is powdered canin pepper. If you aren't careful when you open it, you could get it on your hands, or worse, in your face. It's a powerful substance that will immobilize a person for a time. If you had opened it carelessly, you would have been on the floor, blind and gasping for air, convinced you were about to die.

  　"I thought about using it on Cara, to stop her shaking by paralyzing her, but I decided it best not to. It immobilizes a person partly by interfering with their breathing. It feels like it's burning your eyes out of your head; it blinds you. Your nose feels on fire, you're sure your heart is going to burst, and you can't get your breath. You're helpless. Trying to wash it off only makes it worse, because the powder is oily and just spreads.

  　"It doesn't cause any real harm, and you'd recover completely in a short time, but until then, you're disabled and totally helpless. I don't think immobilizing Cara in that fashion would be good, since she's already having trouble breathing. In her state, it might make her worse, instead of helping her."

  　"Do you know what to do, to help her? You do know what to do, don't you?" Kahlan asked, trying not to sound critical.

  　Nadine's hand paused on the edge of her bag. "Well, I . . . I think I do. It's not so common a problem that I'm sure, but I've? heard of it. My father has mentioned it in passing."

  　Kahlan wasn't reassured. Nadine found a 【创建和谐家园】all bottle in her bag and held it up in the torchlight. She pulled the cork and turned the bottle upside down on a finger. "Hold her head up."

  　"What is it?" Kahlan asked as she turned Cara over. She watched Nadine rub the substance on Cara's temples. "Oil of lavender. It helps with headaches." "I think she has more than a simple headache."

  　"I know, but until I find something else, it might help ease the pain, and that might help calm her. I don't think I have any one thing that by itself will do it. I'll need to try to add things together.

  　"The problem is that with the convulsions we can't get her to drink decoctions or teas. Motherwort and linden help calm people, but we can't get her to drink a whole cup of it in water. Black horehound would help stop the vomiting, but she'd have to drink five cups a day. I don't see how we can get her to drink the first until we stop the convulsions. Maybe we could get her to swallow some feverfew. But there is one thing I'm hoping ..."

  　Nadine's long, damp hair hung around her face as she pawed through her bag. She came up with another 【创建和谐家园】all, brown bottle. ''Yes! I did bring it." "What is it?"