Kahlan tenderly closed both of her hands around Nicci's trembling, loose fist. She hoped that through that connection, that simple act, the woman covered in blood, lying in Jagang's bed, could at least take a small measure of solace. As much as Kahlan ached with empathy, she could offer little help.

It had been a frightening, dreadful night. Jagang often brought women captives to his bed. He frequently hurt them, either simply by not taking into account his own strength, or because he intended them harm when they failed to cooperate.

This was different. With Nicci, he was venting hot jealousy.

He had never hurt any of those other women the way he hurt Nicci. In his own mind, Kahlan knew, he was getting even, settling a score, making Nicci pay the price of being unfaithful to him.

But, in some ways, Jagang was also showing Kahlan what kind of treatment she could look forward to once her memory was finally restored. Kahlan tried to shut the things she'd seen and heard from her mind lest she be sick. She focused instead on the present, and the future.

She let go with one hand and turned to retrieve a waterskin lying on the floor nearby. Nicci lightly caught the remaining hand, apparently fearful of losing the human compassion in that connection.

"Here," Kahlan said in little more than a whisper as she lifted the waterskin to Nicci's lips. Splatters of dried blood masked her face and hair.

Other than loosely holding on to Kahlan's hand, Nicci didn't respond.

"Drink," Kahlan urged. "It's water."

Nicci didn't make any effort to drink, so Kahlan let a little of the water trickle across the woman's cracked lips and into her mouth. She swallowed, then turned her head away from the waterskin with a cry of pain.

"Shh," Kahlan urged. "I know it hurts, but try to stay quiet. You need to try to take a drink. You need water. When you're hurt your body needs water so you can get better."

As much as he had choked her while he railed in fury, it was a miracle that Jagang hadn't crushed Nicci's windpipe. His powerful hands had left behind lurid bruises, though, and not just on her neck.

Nicci's blue eyes slowly opened, focusing on Kahlan's face. Kahlan was down low, sitting on the floor beside the bed. She was leaning in close to Nicci, trying to keep her voice low so that it wouldn't carry to those outside the bedchamber. She didn't want anyone to hear her talking to Nicci. Nicci hadn't wanted Jagang to know that she could see Kahlan. Kahlan thought it wise to never let an enemy know anything more than was absolutely necessary. Apparently, Nicci thought much the same thing.

As awkward as it was leaning over the edge of the bed, Kahlan didn't dare get up off the carpet. She knew the consequences of getting up when Jagang had told her to stay on the floor.

A jagged gash at Nicci's scalp line on the right side of her forehead was still bleeding. A glancing blow from Jagang's ringed fist had ripped up a flap of scalp. Kahlan snatched up a small cloth, folded it, and gently pressed it against the wound on Nicci's forehead, fitting the loose chunk of flesh in place as she applied pressure to stop the bleeding. In mere moments the cloth soaked through with blood. As much as she ached to help, there was little more she could think to do other than try to stop some of the bleeding and offer a drink of water.

The wound from the gold ring pierced through Nicci's lower lip still oozed, leaving a trail of blood down her jaw and the side of her neck, but it wasn't serious, like the wound on her forehead, so Kahlan didn't try to do anything for it.

She carefully pulled a lock of blond hair back off Nicci's face. "I'm so sorry for what he did to you."

Nicci nodded slightly, her jaw trembling slightly as she held back tears.

"I wanted so much to stop him," Kahlan said.

With the back of a finger Nicci caught the tear running down Kahlan's cheek.

"There was nothing you could do," the woman managed. "Nothing."

Her voice was weak but, despite that, it still carried the same silken grace as before. It was a voice that matched the rest of her perfectly. Kahlan would never have guessed that such a lovely voice could also carry such righteous contempt as she'd shown Jagang.

"Nothing any of us can do," Nicci whispered as her eyelids slid closed. "Except maybe Richard."

Kahlan studied the woman's blue eyes a moment. "You really think that Richard Rahl can do something?'

Nicci smiled to herself. "Sorry. I didn't realize that I'd said the last part aloud. Where's Jagang?"

Kahlan checked and saw that the wound under the cloth she had pressed to Nicci's head had at last stopped the bleeding.

"You didn't hear him when he left?" she asked as she set the blood-soaked cloth aside?

Nicci rocked her head side to side to say that she hadn't. Kahlan lifted the waterskin in question. Nicci nodded. She winced as she swallowed, but she drank.

"Well," Kahlan said when Nicci finished drinking, "someone called out for him. He went to the doorway and a man spoke to him in a low voice. I couldn't hear all of it, but it sounded like he said that they'd found something. Jagang came back and put on his clothes. As fast as he got dressed, he was obviously in a hurry to have a look at the discovery. He told me to stay where I was.

"Then he put one knee on the bed, leaned over you, and whispered to you that he was sorry."

Nicci huffed a laugh, but it was cut short when she winced in pain. "He isn't capable of feeling sorry for anyone but himself."

"You'll get no argument from me," Kahlan said. "Anyway, he promised to bring back a Sister to heal you. He ran a hand down your face and again said that he was sorry. Then he paused, looking down at you with a worried look. He leaned a little closer to you and said, 'Please don't die, Nicci.' After that he rushed away, telling me again to stay on the floor.

"I don't know how long he will be gone, but I suspect that a Sister, at least, will be in at any moment."

Nicci nodded, not seeming to really care if she was healed or not. Kahlan could understand, in a way, how Nicci would rather slip into the dark forever of death than face what would be her life from now on.

"I'm terribly sorry that you've been caught up by him, but you don't know how good it is to have another person be able to see me-someone who isn't with them."

"I can only imagine," Nicci said.

"Jillian said that she's seen you before. With Richard Rahl. She told me a little about you. You're as beautiful as she said you were."

"My mother used to tell me that being beautiful was only useful to whores. Perhaps she was right."

"Perhaps she was jealous of you. Or just a fool."

Nicci smiled so broadly that it looked like she might laugh. "It was the latter. She hated life."

Kahlan's gaze drifted away from Nicci as she picked at a loose thread on the bedcover.

"So you know Richard Rahl pretty well, then?"

"Pretty well," Nicci said.

"Are you in love with him?"

Nicci looked over, gazing into Kahlan's eyes for a long moment. "It's more complicated than that. I have responsibilities."

Kahlan smiled a little. "I see." She was glad that Nicci hadn't tried to lie by denying it.

"You have a beautiful voice, Kahlan Amnell," Nicci whispered as she stared at Kahlan. "You really do."

"Thank you, but it doesn't seem beautiful to me. Sometimes I think I sound like a frog."

Nicci smiled. "Hardly."

Kahlan frowned. "You know me, then?"

"Not really."

"But you know my name. Do you know anything about me? About my past? Who I really am?"

Nicci's blue eyes watched her in a most curious fashion. "Just what I've heard."

"And what have you heard?"

"That you are the Mother Confessor."