Parallel Affinity

Part 21.

Dahlia... Cara's heart skipped a beat. She  could hardly believe her eyes — she had just about given up on the  thought that Dahlia would show her face again.

"Not this bitch again..." Jared muttered under his breath.

He reluctantly lowered his hand, Kahlan's face spared for the time being.

  "The Mother Confessor and Cara Mason are innocent of the crimes you  accuse them of!" Dahlia's voice resounded above the commotion of the  crowd, prompting all eyes to turn to her. "But I have the real person who has committed crimes against our town."

  The crowd fell into silence as she marched over the town square. The  guards and councilmen gawked at her in confusion, unable to make sense  of what this new apparition was all about, while Dahlia walked on before  them, ignoring them all, ignoring even Amaya.

The Mayor  blinked at the unexpected sight of someone so close to her walk by  without a single glance of acknowledgement. Till then Amaya had  desperately tried to shake off the guards that held her in place by the  arms, however, seeing Dahlia appear out of the blue, pass by her so  indifferently, and make her way to the Mord'Sith on the other side of  the square, she ceased resisting and gave in, too rattled, too  bewildered by all that was going on.

Dahlia, meanwhile,  entirely oblivious of the Mayor's plight, marched head on, looked  directly and only at Cara, shutting everyone else out, knowing exactly  what she needed to do. The confused guards warily stepped aside,  reluctantly gave way as she moved among them... But suddenly, it was no  longer her the guards and the gathered people stared at. Nor the man who  followed behind her, a man whose face no one in Ashford recognised, but  another figure still, a figure shrouded by a red cloak so completely,  face concealed, whose hands were shackled, bound by blackened chains,  urged ahead by the other man, who faithfully followed Dahlia's lead  through the crowd. It was a puzzling picture to say the least, and the  crowd, along with all of the officials, as well as Kahlan and Cara,  stared in astonishment, bewildered. As Dahlia moved forward, the man  followed behind her, tightening the lead of the chains whenever they  slacked to the ground from their own weight, pulling his prisoner on,  like he would a dog, keeping him in order, forcing him into obedience.

  They made their way over the cobblestone, until Dahlia halted before  the Mord'Sith and the Mother Confessor, at which point her two followers  paused also. Cara and Kahlan looked up at her from their kneeling  positions. Jared, the guard, stared in dismay also, however he was a  fair bit more suspicious of the woman than everyone else was in that  moment. An uneasy feeling stirred in the pit of his gut, for he had crossed paths with Dahlia before, whether he explicitly remembered it or not.

"What do you want?" he growled, the ineffable agitation converting into anger.

Dahlia ignored him.

Kahlan's eyes flitted from Dahlia to Cara, back to Dahlia again, as she perceived the intensity of their interlocked gazes. Who knew that a mere country-girl could hold so much sway over Cara Mason, the ferocious Mord'Sith,  she thought, puzzled, curious, her heart aching, throbbing fast. She  attempted to stand up but a pair of guards pressed down on her  shoulders, forced her to remain in place. Irritably she shook them off  but remained on her knees.

Cara, meanwhile, saw none other than  Dahlia before her. She saw her pale eyes, her dark lips... A strange  sense of déjà-vu haunted her, as though she could just about see the  woman, not dressed in her regular clothes, not in her dark green  tattered cloak as she was, but clad in maroon leather, her dark hair  braided, like a whip of foreboding, an agiel in a gloved hand... Though  her lips, her lips were the same, always the same, stained the colour of  dark wine, smirking, concealing something, triumphant, mocking, knowing.