Love is Cruel, Chapter 8 of 13

[hrhrionastar]

Title: Love is Cruel: Zedd
Pairing: Richard/Nicci (background Richard/Kahlan, Rahl/Kahlan/Cara)
Rating: PG-13
Length: 888
Spoilers: whole series
Summary: Post-Tears, Richard wakes up to find he's not at the Pillars of Creation anymore...and someone very familiar is in the cell next door. Written for madmguillotine, on seekerrarepair.

Zedd

Nicci was in a whirlwind. She let Richard pull her down several deserted corridors before she dug in her heels and said severely, “This is ridiculous. We don’t need to traipse through the entire palace. I can find your friends from here.”

Now why had she said that? What if she were only imagining the look in Richard’s eyes after she tried to Confess him?

Did her failure to do so mean she didn’t still have the Mother Confessor’s power after all? Her fingernails dug into her palms in frustration at the thought. She could have sworn—

Or—but what was the other possibility? Only Darken Rahl’s soul was immune to Confession, and she only knew that because it was a bragging point among D’Harans.

Nicci was hopelessly confused.

At the same time, she’d never felt so secure in her life. She trusted Richard.

She trusted Richard, who was a Hero with a Quest, who was in love with the Mother Confessor, and who ought to hate her.

She truly was a fool.

Richard stopped, looked down at her, and said calmly, “Zedd first.”

Nicci started to nod, calling up an image of the Wizard in her mind—but then she thought, did she really have to do this? Find Richard’s friends? They might both be recaptured—but if she left now, Richard wouldn’t come with her.

She couldn’t bear the thought of harm coming to him, and wished she could’ve Confessed him—he would have been safe if only he did as she told him.

Frustrated, it took her a moment to realize what she was seeing: Richard was leaning against the wall, his hand smeared with blood.

Nicci gasped. “You’re hurt,” she said, and concentrated. Healing light poured from her hands as she gently touched first his hand and then his side, where the skin was tender and bruised.

“Thank you,” Richard said, looking at her gravely.

Nicci read his answering trust in her—no one, knowing her whole past, all her choices, had ever trusted her before—and it shamed her into acting.

This time, she closed her eyes as she thought of the Wizard—that first battle, when he’d killed her, the moment she’d seen him dressed as a grand lady in this very palace, the preoccupied glimpse she’d had of him when she told Richard of the Maternity Spell, the sense of him close at her heels when she had tried to save Richard from the destruction of the world, his sharp comments and reasoned explanations when he’d still been in the cell opposite hers…

When she opened her eyes, she knew.

Nicci led the way down the corridors, letting lightning gather in her palms in case they met anyone, knowing Richard followed.

She didn’t need to look—she could feel him, almost as though he were the one who had Confessed her.

She had a wry smile for that—surely, Richard had stolen her soul.

 

 

Richard followed Nicci, alert, holding his borrowed agiel and wishing for the Sword of Truth. But finding Zedd was more important. For one thing, Zedd might know something about where Kahlan and Cara were and what Rahl had done to them. For another, except for whatever magic made them Rahl’s slaves, Kahlan and Cara had appeared unharmed. Richard couldn’t imagine Rahl would exhibit a similar restraint toward Zedd.

And the Sword—well, it wasn’t a living person. And Richard knew from experience that Zedd (and probably Nicci) could summon it away at will.

Richard kept expecting Rahl to waft out of some side door somewhere, robes furling, but so far, the place seemed strangely deserted.

Or was it strange? Even Rahl would have a hard time finding many Mord’Sith and D’Haran soldiers left to serve him, after the upheaval of the Keeper’s war against the living.

Although that might change if the spell had worked, and Rahl blood once more beat through his veins. Richard scowled, thinking he had never asked to be a Rahl himself, and still more than half convinced there’d been some kind of mistake.

He didn’t belong here.

He certainly didn’t belong in the Margrave of Rothenberg’s palace. He hadn’t liked the man even when he was alive, and why was Richard letting his mind wander like this?

At last, Nicci stopped before an ominously solid-looking door. Richard reflected that she easily could have betrayed him, have made or hoping to make some sort of deal with Rahl in exchange for Richard—that this could be a trap.

But he knew it wasn’t. Nicci wouldn’t betray him—he was certain of it. If any of this was a trap, it was not of her making.

Nicci made a small gesture, and the lock opened with an audible click; Richard pushed the door open, and gasped.

Even in the dim light, Richard could see Zedd was badly injured. He was curled up in a ball in the corner, mumbling to himself. Richard thought he heard the word, ‘Clara.’

“Zedd?” he tried. Zedd took no notice.

Richard felt tears pricking at his eyes. He knew the danger they were in, had known Rahl would torture Zedd—but it was different, somehow, seeing it.

Seeing Zedd, his grandfather and mentor, weak and hurt and possibly delusional…

Richard had never felt so alone in his life.


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