Chapter Text
Chapter 16
The Last Stand
“It’s got to be somewhere,” Richard reasoned, shaking his head and walking around the half-sunken pillar once again. Kahlan was sitting atop the flat surface of a stone statue, of which only the feet remained, and watched Richard closely. He had been at this for two hours, scouring the Pillars for a place to carefully fit the Stone of Tears into. It was the final step to saving the world from ruin. Without this day, and without the stone, all would be lost.
“Richard, these ruins are thousands of years old. I don’t want to sow seeds of doubt, but did it ever occur to you that—”
“The Stone’s place may be lost to the sand?” Richard finished, turning around to look at Kahlan. “Yes. But what other choice do we have, Kahlan? We cannot be rational when the dead rise among the living. When children are turned into monsters, and when monsters tear into children. When at any moment, the world could die. We don’t have another choice, we have to look.”
Kahlan sighed. It was this unquenchable thirst for the truth that made Richard who he was. Of course he would scour the ruins, for years if he had to. He had to find that ineffable solution to each and every wrong. If he had nothing to work towards, if he had no destiny to live up to, who would Richard be?
“If only Zedd were here… where is Cara?” Richard sighed, taking a moment to kneel in the sand. “Shouldn’t she be back by now?”
“It’s Cara, after all. If she wants to be somewhere, that is where she’ll be. I’m sure she’s taking her time and fooling around with Zedd, now that he can’t snap back.”
^ ^ ^
Cara panted hard as she barreled into yet another Baneling. Her body would not give out for another few hours, but that did not mean she was not already weary. Cara remembered weeks upon weeks of endurance training she endured each winter, standing out in the cold, running for miles until she dropped on the snowy ground. Mord-Sith who dropped too far from their temples would be left in the snow. Thankfully, Cara always had the strength to crawl back. A few did not, she remembered what it was like to watch her sister, Diana, lose her toe to the ferocious D’Haran winter. Some lost much more, but Cara did not recall those memories so easily.
“We can’t hold them off forever!” Shota cried out, another crack of lightning overtaking a horde of hungry bodies. “We have to make a move at some point.”
“Where do you,” Cara began, ducking under a punch and coming out the other side to kick the Baneling from behind, “propose we go, oh all knowing Shota? You’re the one who—” Cara dug her agiels into the Baneling and grunted with the effort, “took the First Wizard out of this fight.”
“I had no choice. But we must go,” Shota called out. The fighting subsided for a moment, long enough for the women to momentarily catch their breath. “I see a cart over there, if we hurry, we can load Zeddicus into it and haul him out of here.”
“Zeddicus?” Cara inquired, raising an eyebrow. Shota rolled her eyes.
“Now is not the time, Mord-Sith. We need to move,” Shota chided. “You go get Zeddicus, I the cart.” Cara nodded, knowing that the timing was crucial. Another swarm of Banelings was coming down the dunes in the East, there was only now to act. Cara sprinted into the house to find a half-paralyzed Zedd.
“Cara, please,” Zedd pleaded. “My hands are almost free, but—”
“Be quiet,” Cara said sharply. “Stay still.” She wasted no time and circled her arms underneath Zedd’s buttocks to hoist him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Zedd grunted in surprise at Cara’s strength.
“Are you sure—”
“You’re bonier than I had imagined. You need more roast duck when the world stops ending,” Cara told him, and Zedd chuckled. Cara did the best she could to move with speed. She looked this way and that, seeing the Banelings moving closer, and seeing Shota not too far off with the cart. Cara ran to her, weighed down to a slower speed by the Wizard on her back.
“Hurry, hurry,” Shota ushered as they came closer. Cara unceremoniously threw Zedd into the cart and ran to take the front handles. “I’ve spelled it to make things a bit easier.” When Cara lifted the cart, it was significantly lighter than she expected.
“You couldn’t make one with wings?” Cara asked, and Shota sighed.
“I would, if I could, but alas that is not how magic moves,” Shota told her, pressing a hand on Cara’s back that said hurry. With all her remaining strength Cara ran as fast as she could, pulling Zedd behind her. The cart jumped over every pothole, curved this way and that, and rocked side to side as Cara doged Banelings. Zedd was pressed from one wall of the cart to the other, and he was sure that he would be picking splinters out of his skin once they had arrived at their destination.
“Hurry, Cara!” Zedd shouted over the din of Banelings chasing after them. “We’re running out of time. I am afraid I left a crucial component out of my instructions for Richard.”
“What do you mean?” Cara spat, running faster as the Banelings began to catch up.
“As I was being webbed, I was going to give Richard the directions for the ritual. I wanted only him to have them,” Zedd said. Cara felt rage rumble in her belly.
“You have been traveling with just Kahlan and I for months. I was the one who got the compass to work. I was the one to protect the Stone of Tears. And Richard just swoops in at the final moment and you only trust him?”
“He is the Seeker of Truth, Cara.”
“He is just a man, nothing more, nothing less. I, however,” Cara said, gritting her teeth. “I am Mord-Sith.”
^ ^ ^
The sun was rising higher in the sky, and tensions were rising. Richard had stopped speaking to Kahlan for the last hour. Both were hot and sweaty, unable to take refuge in the slender shade of the ruins for long enough to feel calmer. The sweat dripped down Richard’s face and now bare torso, leading Kahlan’s mind to wander. She kept imagining Richard as the man on the floor of Cara’s inn room, naked and splayed out. As Richard was ruminating over the toppled ruins, Bron had his grimoire open on the sand. Searching the tome for answers, at times conjuring a small, purple field of energy in the shape of a sphere and closing his eyes, these were rituals even Richard did not understand.
“What are we going to do? It’s almost noon,” Richard sighed, sitting in the sand like a despondent child. “What if we lose, Kahlan? What if we’re not meant to win?”
Kahlan looked over at him with icy blue eyes, Confessor’s mask slid over her face. “We can’t lose, Richard.”
Richard’s brown eyes flitted beyond her and to something in the distance. A stumbling, small figure, with bouncing curls was just barely visible over the dunes. Bron recognized who it was before Richard or Kahlan could, and screamed out a name in their minds.
MERRI
MERRI
MERRI
“Merri!” Richard shouted, waving his arms. He immediately stood up and dropped into a jog, conserving part of his energy for the despair which loomed over their current task. Kahlan felt uneasy, perhaps it was Cara being gone for so long, but something about Merri all alone was unsettling.
“Merri!” Richard cried again, the young girl not moving an inch from where she stood. Bron raced out too, tears in his eyes. Kahlan moved close behind them, keeping her wits about her. Merri held out her hands, and it was then that Kahlan saw Cara running close behind. She was carrying a rather old looking cart behind her, the wheels digging into the sand, but Cara looked straight ahead. Shota, the witch woman of Agaden Reach, was not far behind the Mord-Sith, her black dress looking effortless as she scrambled over the sand.
“Run!” Cara shouted, in a tone that Kahlan had never heard before. It was impatient and curt as usual, but more so it was fearful. Kahlan grabbed Richard by the elbow to stop him.
“Richard, something is—” Kahlan was unable to finish. A horde of Banelings began to crawl over the rise, practically licking at Cara’s heels.
“Run!” Cara screamed again, still holding the cart. Richard saw two feet sticking out of the back and his heart dropped. Zedd. Cara could sense she was coming close to the magical barrier by how her heart began to race and her throat felt tight. She knew she was running out of distance, but she had to get Zedd and his secrets to the Stone of Tears inside the barrier, hopefully out of reach of the Banelings.
Merri lifted her hands to the sky and brought them down with a mighty swing, and immediately green fault lines in the earth revealed themselves. Bron skittered to a stop, being impeded by one which cracked into the ground mere inches from his feet. The sand fell into the hole to the Underworld, and Bron could hear the screams of the dead. If he could scream, he would too.
Merri shot a bolt of lightning at one of the Pillars, her magic pierced the barrier and took it down. Kahlan ran faster and rolled out of the way before it threatened to crush her. The young wizard was formidable in this form. Kahlan caught up with Richard and Bron, the former holding back the latter from running recklessly toward Merri.
“We need to get Cara and Zedd in here,” Kahlan told him, and Richard turned to look at her.
“How? Cara can’t get in.”
“Get ready!” Cara shouted, running faster now with the cart. Her legs and arms were on fire, like those old days when she ran in the snow. All she could think about was running to Kahlan. If she could get to Kahlan, she would be safe. With all her remaining might, Cara spun the cart around and pushed it into Richard. The Seeker caught it, falling over a bit, but Zedd was safely inside the barrier held up by the ruins.
“Zedd!” Richard cried out, laughing from the absurdity of it all. “You’re safe.”
“Yes, but there isn’t much time. Reach into my breast pocket. There I have the key to your puzzle. Hurry, Richard,” Zedd prompted. Richard peeled away the front of Zedd’s robe and dug through the pocket, hitting what he felt like was a dried salamander before reaching a hard, black rock. Zedd nodded, and Richard took it in his hand. It was a curious thing, a black obsidian, angular shape, not like anything Richard had yet encountered. When he held it in his hand, it glowed, projecting shapes onto his shirt.
“It’s supposed to be a map, it will line up perfectly with where you are to place the Stone,” Zedd told him, his fingers barely moving to show him. “Go, now, don’t worry about me.”
Richard nodded and ran towards the Pillars, leaving Bron to push Zedd further in. Kahlan watched on in horror as Cara and Shota began to turn and fight the Banelings. They did not know how exactly the magic protecting the Pillars of Creation worked, and hundreds of Banelings swarming the Seeker as he attempted a thousand year old puzzle to save the world was not a risk Cara was willing to take. Without thinking, Kahlan drew her daggers from her boots and ran towards the Mord-Sith, taking her side like they had for months. Instantly, she felt stronger.
“Took you long enough,” Kahlan shouted, plunging her dagger into the throat of a Baneling.
“I was delayed,” Cara panted, she spun to cover Kahlan. The Confessor could hear the weariness in her voice. “Too busy carrying a fat wizard up the hills.”
Kahlan smiled before slashing the throat of another Baneling. Before she could recover, a Baneling grabbed Kahlan by the throat and pushed her down to the sand. Fear gripped her, and she was unable to find leverage to slice his belly open. A great, blue flame was cast overhead and singed the Baneling’s back, forcing it to scream and roll over. That gave Kahlan the power to cut its throat and leave it to squirm. It had been Shota, the witch woman, who had saved her. Kahlan gave her a slim smile, a nod, and then she was back in the fight.
^ ^ ^
Richard was running out of time. He frantically searched the desert ruins, holding the obelisk in his upturned palm as he walked. The projected image would get fuzzy, then clearer, then fuzzy once more.
“Zedd… your bauble isn’t working!” Richard shouted, casting it into the sand out of frustration. He was exhausted, sunburned, and completely drained of resources. “I was supposed to figure this out. This is our last chance. And I just can’t.”
“Richard, look at me,” Zedd said, propping himself up on his elbows as he magically thawed. “You are the Seeker of Truth, the only real hope I’ve had in my lifetime that perhaps things can be better.”
“I didn’t ask for this,” Richard looked over at him. “I didn’t ask for this sword, I didn’t ask to be taken to this awful place. I used to be a simple woods guide, uncomplicated, free of destiny.”
Zedd smiled sadly. “You were never free of destiny, my boy. You were always the product of two powerful bloodlines. You were always going to be someone.” Richard turned away for a moment, his body rigid against the sun which was at the peak of the sky. The obelisk glittered in the sand and projected a new, crisp image. Richard immediately scooped it up and held it in his palm, letting it guide him to the exact location of where he was meant to put the Stone of Tears.
It was a pillar sunken into the sand.
“We can do it, Richard. You simply have to believe. That's all we’ve got.” Richard nodded and stood next to Zedd, who was well enough now to sit up in the cart. His hands were free of Shota’s web, which was all the First Wizard needed to cast a spell and show his power. Together the two men, both of Zorander blood, threw their hands out and began to slowly shake the long sunken pillar.
The ground began to rumble, more sand pouring into more cracks in the earth. It was then that a dacra flew toward her, and it was Cara’s quick thinking to jump in front of her and repel it that saved her life. Cara spun the dacra right back to the red-robed Sister of the Dark before more came over the rise to aid the Banelings in their fight. The Keeper, it seemed, had sent them; he was bent on victory, and the magical barrier was all that was impeding him from winning. He needed more bodies to throw at it until it broke. Another Sister came running down the hill to knock into Cara, but the Mord-Sith quickly disposed of her, lodging an agiel right at the base of her skull.
Cara kneeled in the sand and when she closed her eyes all she could see was blotches of white and black. Her heart felt like it would explode, and in the distance, as if underwater, she could hear Kahlan shouting. The Confessor’s dagger clinked against another dacra as she wrestled a Sister to the ground and held her down by the neck. Instantly, Kahlan released her power into the Sister, filling her mind with thoughts of servitude. Whomever this woman was no longer mattered, her whole being reduced to eagerly serving her mistress.
“Mistress, how may I serve you?”
“Defend the Pillars of Creation. Capture the young sorceress, stop her,” Kahlan looked up at Cara but saw her merciless glance and turned away. She could not go to the lengths Cara always wished for. “Leave her alive.”
“Yes, Mistress,” the Sister of the Dark repeated. Kahlan watched her for a moment as she jumped over green wounds in the earth to attempt to capture Merri. Kahlan did not have high hopes that she would succeed, but she anticipated it would slow Merri at the very least. Richard simply needed time now, and that is precisely what Kahlan intended to give him.
“We need to stall them,” Cara shouted. “Merri is trying to take the barrier down.”
Farther off, Richard and Zedd had depleted all their energy in rising up the pillar. It had been buried deep underground, but it was a marvel to behold. There was a round hole directly in the center at about eye level for Richard. He fumbled around for his pack and looked through it.
“Didn’t I… no…” Richard said to himself. He had taken the wrong pack.
“Merri has the Stone of Tears. She must have taken it before she left.” A wave of fear rushed over Richard. He had made the worst mistake, and the entire living world would suffer for it.
“Cara and Kahlan are close, but not far away enough from Merri. She may not know she has the stone, and if catches on to the fact that she does, all this is for nothing,” Zedd said. Richard nodded, closing his eyes and trying to think.
I can help , Bron told him, and Richard raised an eyebrow.
“Bron, she’ll be able to hear you too, won’t she?”
The yellow haired woman repels magic, right?
Richard nodded.
If I send it to her, it should go no further.
Richard took a deep breath. “It’s the only thing we’ve got. Do it.”
Bron closed his eyes, he had to be precise or else Merri would get his message. He relaxed his entire body, allowing his Han to flow freely. He had to succeed, for Merri, for the world, and for his friend Richard. Bron imagined a blue tendril which extended out into the desert toward the Mord-Sith. It was difficult to control, it wanted to tilt side to side, approach seemingly anyone but Cara, however, Bron’s will was like steel. He pushed all his force, all his Han, right to Cara, and then…
Merri has the Stone. Retrieve it.
Cara spun around to see who the message was from.
Merri has the Stone. Retrieve it. Now. Hurry.
The Mord-Sith saw Richard, a grain of rice in the distance, waving. She nodded, and grabbed Kahlan’s arm before running.
“You need to go back to the barrier,” Cara told her. “Don’t argue with me. Go.”
“Cara, I can’t leave you here.”
“You can’t leave a capable Mord-Sith to what she enjoys most in this world?”
“Putting herself in the way of danger and killing hundreds of Banelings?”
Cara smiled a sick, knowing smile. “It’s not like I was any good at darts.”
Kahlan felt a jolt of ice run through her veins. It occurred to her that this may be the last time she would ever see Cara. She reached out, squeezed the Mord-Sith’s hand, and ran in the other direction. She would not stop Cara from seizing her moment, and she knew that she would be unable to convince her to do otherwise. Kahlan could not deny the drop her heart made while she ran from, not toward, a woman who she now could not see herself without.
As Kahlan drew closer to the Pillars of Creation, Cara turned to Merri and made a run for her. Her legs ached, her skin felt tight, and she knew at any moment her muscles could lock up and give out on her. This could be it. But Cara knew she would get to Merri. The young wizard hurled a wide cone of Wizard’s Fire in her direction, but Cara held out her arms and jumped through it, slicing the magic onto either side of her.
“Shota! Cover me!” Cara called to the sorceress who was not too far off, keeping a few Sisters of the Dark from killing Cara and Kahlan. Shota looked over and immediately forced a powerful gust of wind in Cara’s direction, blowing her closer to Merri and knocking the young girl off her feet for an instant. This gave Cara enough time to jump over the chasm that separated herself and Merri before she would have to dodge another blast of deadly flame. Cara could repel magic, but it was almost always at will, and there was a small chance that she would miss a beat and suffer the damages. But personal safety was not her primary concern, her only thought was of the Stone of Tears. There was no attempt, there would only be success.
Cara pumped her arms faster, cutting through the sand as if it were air. She could feel the hot breath of time on her neck, and she knew she was running out of it. Richard needed the Stone, and he needed it now. Merri turned and screamed, sending a wave of energy to knock Cara over, but the Mord-Sith tucked one leg under herself and slid beneath the spell, just barely missing its wrath.
Cara sprung up and knocked Merri to the ground, wasting no time in driving one of her agiels into Merri’s neck. It was just painful enough to disable her for a short time, however if done right it would not cause much permanent damage. Cara knew that Merri was important to Richard, and that killing or maiming her would seem like overkill to him.
Merri grunted in agony as Cara unceremoniously ripped the pack open and pawed for the Stone of Tears, which was carefully wrapped in cloth. Finding purchase and closing her hand around it, Cara stood up and kicked Merri to her side. She wanted so badly to kill the girl, to rid them of this problem. She noticed the lesions on Merri’s face and kneeled down beside her.
“You took the deal,” Cara said. “To become a Baneling.”
“I didn’t want to leave Bron,” Merri told her, sniffling with her face obscured by her hands. “I couldn’t leave him. We had just spent all our years in that dark place, and now we’re free.”
“The village, what happened to those people? Where did you go when you left?”
“I killed them, and let other Banelings kill them. It’s what the Keeper wanted. He said if I did it, he would save Bron too.”
Cara sighed. “I can’t let you win. I can’t let the Keeper win.”
“Then you’ll have to kill me, Cara,” Merri said, standing up and beginning to harness her Han once more. Her eyes shone a bright yellow, as if her magic was bubbling out and spilling over. It could not be contained.
Cara pulled her arms up over her head and slammed her agiels down on either side of Merri’s neck. She watched as the girl shook in pain, her eyes dimming, her body going slack. She sank to the ground, her knees absorbed by the sand, before collapsing. Her skin melted away, crisping up into ashes and billowing away like smoke in the breeze.
Cara felt a rumble from below that sounded like a scream, and another gash in the earth opened up. She was running out of time, and as she turned to sprint to Richard she noticed the host of Sisters and Banelings moving in the same direction, straight to the Pillars.
“Richard…” Kahlan said in horror, watching as their enemies descended upon them. Richard was holding Bron back from running to the spot where Merri had died, the boy letting loose big, hot tears into the sand. The tears of a child who had lost something he desperately wanted to keep. Richard drew the Sword of Truth from its scabbard on his hip, and the glyphs of a long-forgotten language on its blade glowed a fiendish red.
“We’ll hold them off as long as we can,” Richard told her. “If we close the rift, maybe they’ll die. We just have to count on Cara.”
Kahlan nodded. She wiped the blood off her daggers with the bottom of her dress, the pure, white fabric now painted red. This was the point of no return. This was the Seeker and Confessor’s last stand. With an unfamiliar rage which bubbled up inside her, Kahlan screamed and ran towards the first Baneling which broke the magical barrier.
Cara saw the host break the barrier. Some Banelings, perhaps those who had already killed for the Keeper, were stopped like Cara had been. A few pushed through and died, but some succeeded and headed straight towards Kahlan. The Mother Confessor and Seeker held their own, but there were simply too many bodies to manage. Richard was barrelled into by a Baneling and collapsed on the ground, Cara ran faster. Her lungs were on fire, she ran faster than she ever had before.
It was then that she hit the barrier, her throat began to close up, and Kahlan did not see her in time to close the distance between them. Cara was unable to call out, but she could still run. Her vision began to wane, but the Mord-Sith was not ready to give up. This would be her final victory, delivering the Stone of Tears to the people that mattered. She would be one of the last of a dying faction, a nameless Mord-Sith, the secret lover of the Mother Confessor. That was quite all right with Cara. After all they had been through, hell and back, Cara was not sure that she would be cut out for this world.
But then her eyes turned to Kahlan. Cara could not go further, her legs stopping as she watched the Confessor fall to the dacra of a Sister of the Dark. It was plunged into her shoulder, so dangerously close to her heart. Kahlan locked eyes with Cara, and the Mord-Sith felt something primal catch fire within her. This would not be her final moment. She could not let Kahlan die. Cara could rest with her own death, but a world without Kahlan would be nothing.
“No!” Cara screamed, stood up, and ran to Kahlan. As she pushed herself forward against the gauntlet, her vision and body failing her, something powerful flooded out, knocking the tightness out of her throat. She could breathe again. She noticed, however, that more Banelings and the Sisters were coming through now. Cara, somehow, had destroyed the ancient barrier.
She sprinted to Kahlan and drove her agiel into the belly of a nearby Sister. Cara yanked on the Sister’s hair and pushed the agiel into her back, forcing her on her knees.
“Confess her, get her to take the dacra out,” Cara instructed, and although Kahlan was losing blood, she nodded and used the remainder of her strength to confess the Sister.
“Richard!” Cara cried, seeing the Seeker overwhelmed by Banelings. She began to cut through the crowd, pushing Banelings while dodging Zedd’s haphazard bursts of Wizard’s Fire. “Richard, I have it!”
“Cara, hurry!” Richard called, scrambling up to his feet and slicing through Banelings to reach the holding place of the Stone of Tears. It was a small circle, about an inch deep, in which the Stone was meant to rest. Thousands upon thousands of years ago, it did. Now, the Stone would finally come home and heal the world it loved so dearly.
“Put it here,” Richard told her, hurriedly undressing the bundle and pressing the Stone into its preordained place with shaky hands. He tried once, but it would not fit. He tried again, still nothing.
“It’s not the right shape,” Cara noted, looking back frantically both for Kahlan and the enemy. “Richard, they’re coming.”
“How the fuck is it not the right shape? This is the Stone of Tears, this is where it’s meant to be. We did everything right!” Richard howled. In a rage, he took the Stone, pressed it to the hole, and used the pommel of his sword like a hammer. With two hits, the Stone pushed in. The pillar lit up with blue glyphs all the way to the top, the blue light creating a dome overtop them. There was a rumble deep in the earth originating from the pillar. The more light came from the pillar, the more the Stone of Tears cracked.
“What is it doing?” Cara shouted, covering her eyes with her arms as the light became too bright to look at. The Stone was shining brighter than the sun. A ringing noise filled their ears, and although Cara could see Richard shouting, and vice versa, neither of them could hear one another. They could hear a voice, pleasant and clear, repeat something over and over that sounded like a prophecy:
The one bonded with the blade shall invoke a decade of disaster. He will unleash a hidden evil to take the place of the other.
The voice began to scream, and it was then that a burst of light filled the sky and sparks cascaded from the tower. Immediately, the Banelings fell, their ashes now just whispers in the wind. All around the world, Banelings and Screelings fell, disappearing into nothing. Cracks in the earth began to fill in, moss and flowers growing in their place. People stopped and stared to see a blue shimmer streak across the sky.
When the voice stopped shouting, Cara and Richard uncovered their eyes. They stared at the burn mark where the Stone of Tears had once been, now gone from the world. Richard sank to his knees and laughed. Cara felt the world spin around her and collapsed.
Kahlan, having forced the Sister of the Dark to pull the dacra safely from her shoulder and heal the wound with her Han, stumbled over to Richard and Cara.
“Cara!” she cried out, seeing the Mord-Sith face down in the sand. Richard barely seemed to understand what was going on, laughing and crying out of exhaustion.
“We did it,” was all Richard said. “We did it.”
“Richard, Cara’s collapsed. She needs water,” Kahlan said, pulling the Mord-Sith’s head into her lap. “Please, wake up. You saved us, you stubborn idiot. You did it.” Kahlan’s tears could not help but fall on Cara’s face. Jolted into action by Kahlan’s words, Richard scrambled up and ran to Zedd’s cart for water. He returned and hastily patted Cara’s face before forcing water past her cracked lips and into her mouth. Cara swallowed and opened her eyes.
“It’s over,” Cara wheezed.
“It’s over,” Kahlan smiled.