Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind [340]
Denna spread the aum cream on the welts on his shoulders, then on his stomach and chest, working up to his neck. Her eyes met his. Her hand stopped. The room was dead quiet. Denna leaned forward and gently kissed him. She put her hand with the cream on the back of his neck and kissed him again.
She lay back on the bed, holding his hand against her belly with both of hers. “Come to me, my love. I want you very badly right now.”
He nodded and started to reach for the Agiel on the side table. Denna touched his wrist.
“Tonight, I want you without the Agiel. Please? Teach me what it’s like without the pain?”
She put a hand behind his neck and gently pulled him on top of her.
CHAPTER 43
Denna didn’t train him the next morning, but instead took him for a walk. Master Rahl had said he wanted to see Richard after the second devotion. After it was over and they were starting to leave, Constance stopped them.
“You look surprisingly well today, Sister Denna.”
Denna looked at her without emotion. Richard was furious at Constance for talking to Master Rahl about Denna, for getting her punished, and had to concentrate on Denna’s braid.
Constance turned to Richard. “Well. I hear you are to be granted an audience with Master Rahl today. If you are still alive afterward, you will be seeing more of me. Alone. I want a piece of you, as it were, when he’s finished with you.”
He spoke before he thought. “The year they chose you, Mistress Constance, must have been a year of desperate need; otherwise, one of such limited intelligence would never have been selected to be Mord-Sith. Only the most ignorant would put their own petty ambitions above the value of a friend. Especially a friend who has sacrificed much for you. You are not worthy to kiss Mistress Denna’s Agiel.” Richard smiled smoothly, confidently, as she stood startled. “You had better hope Master Rahl kills me, Mistress Constance, because if he doesn’t, then the next time I see you, I’m going to kill you for what you’ve done to Mistress Denna.”
Constance stared in shock, then suddenly drove her Agiel toward him. Denna’s longer arm came up. She slammed her own Agiel against Constance’s throat, holding her back. Constance’s eyes bulged in surprise. She coughed blood, and dropped to her knees, clutching her hands to her throat.
Denna stared down at her a moment before starting off without a word. Richard followed, attached by the chain. He sped up to walk beside her.
Denna kept her eyes ahead, showing no emotion. “Just try and guess how many hours that has earned you.”
Richard smiled. “Mistress Denna, if there is a Mord-Sith who could raise a scream from a dead man, it would be you.”
“And if Master Rahl doesn’t kill you, how many hours?”
“Mistress Denna, there are not enough hours in a lifetime to dim my pleasure at what I have done.”
She smiled a little, but didn’t look over. “I’m glad, then, that it was worth it for you.” She gave him a sidelong glance. “I still don’t understand you. As you said, we can be no more, or less, than who we are. I regret I can be no more than I am, and I fear you can be no less. Were we not warriors fighting on opposite sides in this war, I would keep you as a mate for life, and work to see you die of old age.”
Richard was warmed by her gentle tone. “I would try my best to live a long life for you, Mistress Denna.”
They walked on through the halls, past the devotion squares, past the statues, past the people. She took him upstairs, through vast rooms of exquisite decorations. She stopped in front of a pair of doors covered in carvings of rolling hills and forests, all sheathed in gold.
Denna turned to him. “Are you prepared to die this day, my love?”
“The day is not over yet, Mistress Denna.”
She slipped her arms around his neck, kissing him tenderly. She pulled her