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what others have done to you, any more than I can be held answerable because I was born a Confessor, and no more than Richard can be held guilty because that murderous Darken Rahl fathered him.”
    Still Cara didn’t look up. “But will you ever truly trust us?”
    “ You have already proven yourselves, in Richard’s eyes, and in mine. You are not Denna, nor responsible for her choices.” With a thumb, Kahlan wiped oozing blood from Cara’s cheek. “Cara, if I didn’t trust you, all of you, would I allow Berdine and Raina, two of you, to be alone with Richard right now?”
    Cara glanced again to Denna’s Agiel. “In the battle with the Blood of the Fold, I saw the way you fought to protect Lord Rahl, as well as the people of the city. To be Mord-Sith is to understand that you must sometimes be merciless. Though you are not Mord-Sith, I have seen that you understand this. You are a worthy guardian to Lord Rahl. You are the only woman I know worthy of wearing an Agiel.
    “ Though to you that may sound reprehensible, in my eyes, it is an honor that you wear an Agiel. Its ultimate purpose is to protect our master.”
    Kahlan offered a sincere smile, understanding Cara just a little bit better than she had before. She wondered what the woman behind the appellation had been like before she was captured and trained to became a Mord-Sith. Richard had told her that it was a horror far beyond anything that had been done to him.
    “ In my eyes, too, because Richard gave it to me. I am his protector, as are you. In that way, we are sisters of the Agiel.”
    Cara smiled her approval.
    “ Does this mean that you’ll follow our orders for a change?” Kahlan asked.
    “ We always follow your orders.”
    With a wry smile, Kahlan shook her head.
    Cara nodded toward the man on the floor. “He will answer your questions, as I promised you before, Mother Confessor. I won’t practice my skills on him any more than is necessary.”
    Kahlan squeezed Cara’s arm in sorrow and sympathy for the warped role the woman’s life had been twisted into by others. “Thank you, Cara.”
    Kahlan turned her attention to Marlin and the problem at hand. “Let’s try it again. What were your plans?”
    He glared up at her. Cara shoved him with a foot.
    “ You answer truthfully, or I’ll start finding some nice, tender places for my Agiel. Understand?”
    “ Yes.”
    Cara squatted down, fanning her Agiel before his face. “Yes, Mistress Cara.” The sudden threat in her tone seemed to annul everything she had just said. It frightened even Kahlan.
    Wide-eyed, he swallowed. “Yes, Mistress Cara.”
    “ That’s better. Now, answer the Mother Confessor’s question.”
    “ My plans were as I told you: to kill Richard Rahl and you.”
    “ How long ago did Jagang give you these orders?”
    “ Nearly two weeks.”
    Well, there was that. It could be that Jagang had been killed at the Palace of the Prophets when Richard destroyed it. That was what they had been hoping, anyway. Perhaps he had given the orders before he was killed.
    “ What else?” Kahlan asked.
    “ Nothing else. I was to use my talent to get in here and kill the both of you, that’s all.”
    Cara landed a kick on his cracked rib. “Don’t lie to us!”
    Kahlan gently pushed Cara back and knelt beside the choking, gasping young man.
    “ Marlin, don’t mistake my distaste for torture as a lack of resolve. If you don’t start telling me what I want to know,” she whispered, “I’m going to go for a long walk and then to dinner and I’m going to leave you in here all alone with Cara. Crazy as she is, I’ll leave you alone with her. And then, when I come back, if you still think to hold out on me, I’m going to use my power on you, and you can’t even imagine how much worse that will be. Cara can’t even come close to what I can do; she can use your magic and your mind. I can destroy it. Is that what you want?”
    He shook his head as he clutched his ribs.