LoTS || Cara/Kahlan || Destiny Does Not Send Us Heralds: Chapter 3
Title: Destiny Does Not Send Us Heralds: Chapter 3 (Through The Gate)
Author: frogfrizz (AsianScaper)
Pairing: Cara Mason/Kahlan Amnell
Rating: M
Summary: In an adventure gone awry, Cara and Kahlan are forced to examine their live and priorities more closely.
Disclaimer: This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes. Previously unrecognized characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1: A Child
Chapter 2: The Temple of Anneth'lul
From a throng of Mord'Sith who wanted them dead, the scenery shifted and her entire field of vision melted into the expressionistic, elongated blur of what she could only describe as a painting. The stifling air of a Mord'Sith temple dissipated and her sense of smell was jarred by a crisp and sudden breeze. Kahlan blinked in quick succession, keeping her desperate hold on the child as she fought to orient herself.
The scene coalesced soon enough, as though a shattered, mercurial mirror had picked up all its liquid pieces and mended itself. As soon as the landscape solidified, she held the child a few inches from her and said, "Are you all right?"
Her small charge merely nodded.
"What's your name?"
"Amihan."
"You were very brave." Kahlan wiped the haphazard spatter of blood and tears on Amihan's cheeks, residues of her torture at the hand of Mord'Sith Sisters. "Do you know where we are?"
Amihan timidly looked around from under Kahlan's protective shadow. "Inya, I don't remember…"
"It's all right," Kahlan reassured her, putting her gently down.
As Amihan clung to her riding dress, she approached the groaning figure of Cara who had somehow arrived on her knees and was struggling with the effects of the Gate's inimitable magic.
One Agiel had fallen beside her while the other remained firmly in her grasp. At the sight of the child, Cara seemed to regain all her faculties and she sheathed both Agiels immediately, rubbing her temple as she squinted against a bright, yellow sun.
"A short trip into the mind of our most talented artists," Kahlan quipped.
"Now, see, if the Creator was an artist," Cara began, allowing her first words in this foreign place to be tinged with uncharacteristic humour and referring to the overwhelming sense of nausea she had experienced beforehand.
They smiled at each other, Cara's grin judiciously mischievous. After a moment's pause, Cara's gaze fell on Amihan. Her mouth quirked upwards as she asked for the girl's name; it was a rare show of emotion that Kahlan indulged as she stood still and kept quiet. The golden-haired child stated it without fear then held out a hand to touch Cara's face.
Cara stiffened at the contact and her eyes widened slightly as Amihan said, "Inya."
"An ancient word." Cara's throat bobbed, as though trying to swallow massive rocks that threatened her ability to speak. "Where did you learn it?"
At this, Amihan kept quiet and Cara did not ask any further questions. Just as Cara was about to stand from her kneeling position, Amihan pushed away from Kahlan and enfolded Cara in an embrace; they both stared at the girl, speechless. Amihan's hands were vainly gathering Cara's leathers and she buried her head in Cara's front.
"I…" Kahlan cleared her throat. "I told her she was quite brave." With a look, she urged Cara to say something similarly soothing.
When Cara remained quiet and obviously confused on how to proceed, Kahlan threw her a glare. The Mord'Sith spoke with forced gentleness, "I don't suppose you'd know where we can get some horses, Amihan?"
Kahlan hid her face in her hand as she rolled her eyes.
Unfazed, Amihan replied into Cara's leathers, "Inya, you've always told me that when I am lost, I should look for any of the main roads in D'Hara. Anyone would offer you or me a horse."
"Anyone?" Cara raised her brows.
"Anyone." The emphasis told them both that Cara was starting to ask some very ludicrous questions.
Cara opened her mouth to say something before she shut it and gave Kahlan a long-suffering look. Kahlan could not suppress a grin. Still floundering from the unexpected hug she received, Cara stood and took the girl's hand in hers.
They knew that this was not the world as they had left it at the other side of the Gate. It was not obvious yet. The trees and fauna seemed unchanged, the terrain faintly familiar. The only difference was their companion, who had Kahlan's eyes and Cara's hair.
Oddly enough, Cara and she had remained adamantly taciturn about the whole situation.
They had warmed to each other mostly for Richard's sake, Cara more reluctantly than she. Learning more and more from Richard's altruism, Kahlan began to see beyond Cara's history, dark and bloodied as it was. She had difficulty picking at it like sticky tar but she unveiled deep, oddly compassionate foundations beneath. At first, it had been unnerving; this was a Mord'Sith after all and indeed Cara had odd ways of showing her regard. But unflinching loyalty, an inclination to put her life before Richard's or hers, and the occasional, unenthusiastic good deed had opened up the Mord'Sith's repertoire of honour and decency.
Today, it hung around her like a light cloak, her small smile tending towards buoyancy that Kahlan had never expected.
If Richard was here now, Kahlan mused. Well, the meeting would be very awkward. Amihan was obviously related to her and that carefully constructed jaw was a stubborn reiteration of Cara's. Kahlan knew without an inkling of a doubt that the relation was not quite like a sister's or a cousin's or a niece.
Cara had been vigilant about staying quiet about it. Kahlan supposed that the implications were far too frightening. Richard was Cara's Lord and even an insinuation, like that of Amihan's origins, was a threat to her allegiance.
Kahlan watched the child as she wound her way even deeper into Cara's unwilling embrace. No, not a threat, Kahlan thought severely.
Confessor and Mord'Sith were confronted with a stage that neither of them wanted to look at. It blinded with its lights and deafened with its music and Kahlan knew that sometime in the near future they would be forced to watch and acknowledge the play, where the single most worrisome lead was a child with her eyes and Cara's stubborn jaw.
TBC