Love is Cruel, Chapter 11 of 13

[hrhrionastar]

Title: Love is Cruel: Escapes
Pairing: Richard/Nicci (background Richard/Kahlan, Rahl/Kahlan/Cara)
Rating: PG-13
Length: 940
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.

 

Escapes

“Get out of here, Richard,” Kahlan said harshly. Richard froze.

Nicci hadn’t found any powerful magic keeping Kahlan Rahl’s slave, so why wasn’t she helping them escape? Richard heard footsteps—

He wasn’t afraid to confront his brother, but had the intuition to know that, in the midst of this personal crisis, on ground not of his own choosing, he would be at a definite disadvantage.

And he had to get out of here and find out what terrible new disaster had occurred while he’d been trapped in Rahl’s dungeon. After killing Rahl the first time had led to a Rift in the Veil to the Underworld, who knew what effect sealing said Rift would have? Supposing the banelings went on hysterical rampages, killing whole villages?

Richard had to get out there.

“Richard, it’s over,” Kahlan said. “We can never be. And not because of my Confessor powers—Darken Rahl has everything you will never have: control. Power. Common sense.”

“Kahlan…” Richard protested, voice almost breaking. How could she say these things?

“He can give me what I need. Did you think I wanted to be a meek little housewife, raising your children while you ran off and saved other people’s kittens from trees?” Kahlan laughed cruelly. “Never. Now get out of my sight.”

“Kahlan…” Richard said again, stepping forward before he remembered he was supporting Zedd, leaning drunkenly against him. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You love me.”

“The Mother Confessor instructed you to leave,” Cara told him, advancing a step. “I suggest you comply with her wishes.”

Richard stared at Cara. Had she forgotten their friendship so quickly?

“And take your sorceress with you,” Cara said, making the word an insult.

Richard breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Nicci, only a step away from him now, watching Kahlan with coiled wariness. Kahlan hadn’t Confessed her.

“You have to protect Kahlan,” Richard told Cara. He wished he could tell Kahlan what he had when she’d killed him—that he knew this wasn’t her.

The truth was, he didn’t.

“Soon, Lord Rahl—the true Lord Rahl—will arrive,” said Kahlan coolly. “And you will serve his purpose.”

Richard was about to shout, “Never!” defiantly, when he felt Nicci’s small, cool fingers slide into his.

“Do you trust me?” she whispered. Her face was white, and Richard knew she’d heard the footsteps.

Never, he thought, looking down into those wide eyes. Always. But he squeezed her fingers, made sure to keep a good grip on Zedd, and closed his eyes.

And he let Nicci take him into the darkness.

 

 

“Oh,” gasped Kahlan, as Richard, Zedd, and Nicci disappeared. Cara was at her side at once, supporting the Mother Confessor under the elbow.

She bit back words of caution, knowing Rahl was steps away.

And indeed, there he was, sweeping in, followed by Mistress Rosamund, who was dragging Shota.

“Where is he?” Rahl growled. “Where is my pestilential brother?”

“Gone, my Lord,” Cara said deferentially. But not too deferentially; then he was sure to suspect.

“He is a fool,” Kahlan asserted, with a valiant effort to make her lip curl in true Rahl fashion.

“I cannot agree more,” sighed Rahl. “But he is a fool who’s made off with my Sword, my all-powerful sorceress, and my legacy.” He turned to Rosamund. “Organize search parties.”

She nodded and left, and Rahl pulled Kahlan to him, kissing her possessively. “So you have seen the error of your love for my little brother?” he asked sharply.

“Love?” Kahlan laughed. “Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds. He never loved me. And I am meant for more than the Seeker’s bride.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Rahl purred. He left then, full of plans that must be moved forward, for his reconquest of D’Hara and the Midlands.

Kahlan collapsed into a chair. “Cara, I did the right thing—didn’t I? The only thing I could have done.”

Cara set herself to massaging Kahlan’s shoulders. She had no answer.

“He’ll understand,” Kahlan insisted. “I had to. I have to protect Richard. Rahl is the biggest threat, but I can control him. He wouldn’t kill Richard, not when he knows it would make me angry. While Richard lives, there’s hope.”

“Mmm,” said Cara. That, at least, she believed.

No matter what she told Rahl, no matter what he’d made her do to prove her supposedly renewed loyalty, Cara had never lost her belief in Richard. Richard was the true Lord Rahl, but more, he was her friend. And he was a good man.

He was too good, too naïve, to understand that sometimes…but Cara wouldn’t think of what Rahl had made her do. It wasn’t important. And the Wizard was out of his power now.

“Someday, Richard and I will be together,” Kahlan was saying drowsily. It had been a wearying day. “And he will know I did it all for him, and he will forgive me. Only for him—only for Richard. Richard. I love you, Richard…you know that, don’t you?”

Cara let her hands drift up and through Kahlan’s beautiful hair. Kahlan would do anything for Richard.

And Cara would always be there, to pick up the pieces—to lace Kahlan back into her corset of lies and schemes, all for Richard’s sake.

But Cara did it for Kahlan. “Always,” Cara whispered.

She looked, and saw that Kahlan was asleep.

“The only thing is…” Cara said softly, “how many times will Richard forgive you? How many times will he come back to you?”

Knowing Richard, a lot. But always?

Never mind. Cara was here for Kahlan. To pick up the pieces.

Previous                                                Next