The Third Kingdom

Kahlan didn’t know how long she lay curled up on the floor the second time. She didn’t think she lost consciousness, but the pain had been so overwhelming, so all-consuming, that it was hard to tell if she had remained fully awake or not. She couldn’t reconcile how long it had been. The concept of time seemed to become meaningless and the world made no sense.

There was only the pain. She could think of little else but wanting the pain to stop. As angry as she was, as much as she wanted to strangle Erika, she wanted the pain to stop.

Erika leaned over, snatched Kahlan by the hair again, and yanked her to her feet. “Enough of this. The abbot is waiting.”

This time, when the Mord-Sith pushed her toward the door, Kahlan didn’t try to fight her.

“My, my, but you learn quick.”

Kahlan paused at the door. “How?” That was the only word she could get out.

“How? How what?”

“How … You are not loyal to Richard.”

The woman made a sour face. “Dear Creator no. What would give you such a grotesque idea? No, my dear Mother Confessor, I am not loyal to the Lord Rahl.”

“But, that loyalty, that bond to the Lord Rahl, is what powers a Mord-Sith’s Agiel.”

Erica smiled at the chance to reveal the delicious truth. “Lord Arc powers my Agiel.”

“Lord Arc…?”

“That’s right. Lord Arc is my master. Lord Arc will be everyone’s master, just as soon as he finishes getting rid of your dear, dear husband.”

The Mord-Sith opened the door and shoved Kahlan out into a hallway. Kahlan stumbled. She managed to get a hand up against the far wall to catch her balance and keep from smacking her face against the rock. The hall was dimly lit by a few candles and lamps. The hallway, like the room, looked to be carved entirely out of stone, but it was much less refined.

She walked hunched from the pain, clutching her middle, panting as she waited for the lingering sting of the pain to ease. It was not dying out the way regular pain would.

But more than the pain of the Agiel, far worse than the pain of the Agiel, was the agony of how much she missed Richard. It seemed like forever since she had seen him. The last time she remembered seeing him was back at the palace, not long after Cara and Ben’s wedding. She wanted nothing more right then than to be in his arms.

Kahlan thought that she remembered while in the dreams that he had kissed her. She didn’t know if it had been part of one of the dreams or if it had been real. She only knew that she missed him more than anything.

Erika shoved Kahlan onward through the halls and corridors. Each time they reached an intersection, the Mord-Sith pushed her along, shoving her this way or that. Kahlan didn’t know where she was, or where she was going. She had been unconscious when she had been brought in and it was all a confusing maze to her.

Kahlan thought she might throw up. She thought she might faint. She did neither. Still in lingering pain, she simply stumbled along ahead of the woman in black leather.

As she reached lighter areas with lamps hung on the stone walls at regular intervals, areas that widened with some kind of doorways off to either side that looked like a honeycomb of homes back in the rock, people lined the hallway. All of them stood grimly to the side, heads hanging, eyes watching her pass. Kahlan imagined that the Mord-Sith was enjoying the spectacle.

Around a corner, more people stood silently aside in the wide corridor. As she passed them, their eyes turned up to peek, unable to resist watching the dismal sight of Kahlan stumbling past, groaning in helpless agony from both times the Agiel had been used on her.

The cave broadened out, becoming bright with daylight streaming in through a wide opening that was the mouth of the cave. Erika snatched Kahlan’s hair and jerked her to a halt. There were people all around the cavern, standing back out of the way to the sides of the cave.

Not one of them lifted a finger to try to stop the Mord-Sith or dared to voice a protest. Kahlan knew it would have done no good. Worse, it would likely only get them hurt.

She could see through the cave opening that it was heavily overcast outside. To her surprise, she saw treetops far below and realized that they were some distance up in the side of a mountain, with ground level far below.

Abbot Dreier stood near the edge of the precipice, watching with obvious satisfaction at the condition Kahlan was in as well as her humiliation.

Erika dragged Kahlan by her hair near to the edge of the cliff opening, beside the abbot.

“Well there you are, at last,” he said, sounding in good spirits. “I see that you and Erika are getting along splendidly.”

Kahlan glanced out the opening, down the side of the mountain. She saw a bit of a trail leading off down the cliff, but she couldn’t imagine using such a narrow pathway down the side of the mountain, especially in the drizzle.

“Well, we really must be on our way,” Dreier said.

Kahlan looked over at him. “You do know, of course, that I am going to kill you.”