Naked Empire   ::   Goodkind Terry

No time? She watched his step falter as he made his way across the room. He groped for the window ledge.

At the small window opening in the outer wall of the fortification he signaled with the high, clear whistle of the common wood pewee- the whistle Cara thought was that of the mythical short-tailed pine hawk.

"I used a ladder pole," he explained. "Cara is on her way."

Kahlan tried to make her way over to him, but her body felt alarmingly unfamiliar to her. She staggered a couple of steps, her legs moving woodenly. She had the urge to get down on her hands and feet to walk. She felt like a stranger inside her own skin. It seemed foreign to have to breathe on her own, to have to look through her own eyes, to have to listen through her own ears. It was a strange, haunting sensation to feel her clothes against her skin.

Richard held out his hand to help steady her. Kahlan thought that as wobbly as she was, she might still be more steady on her feet than Richard.

"We're going to have to fight our way out," he said, "but we'll have some help. I'll get you the first sword I can."

" Richard blew out the flame of the single candle before a tin reflector on a small shelf.

"Richard, I'm not yet used to being. . back inside myself. I don't think I'm ready to go out there. I can hardly walk."

"We don't have a lot of choice. We have to get out. Learn as you go.

I'll help you."

"You can hardly walk yourself."

Cara, at the top of a pole ladder Richard had cut, leaned forward and wriggled in through the small window.

Halfway in, Cara gaped in delighted wonder. "Mother Confessor- Lord Rahl did it."

"You don't need to sound so surprised," Richard griped as he helped the Mord-Sith the rest of the way in.

Cara only briefly took note of the dead man sprawled across the floor before Kahlan threw her arms around the woman.

"You can't imagine how glad I am to see you," Cara said.

"Well, you can't imagine how glad I am to see you through my own eyes."

"If only the trade you made had worked," Cara added in a whisper.

"We'll find another way," Kahlan assured her.

Richard slowly drew the door open a crack and peeked out. He shut the door and turned back.

"It's clear. Doors to the left and around the balcony are the rooms with the women in them. Stairs to the right are the closest that lead down.

Some of the rooms at the bottom are for officers; others are barracks for soldiers."

Cara nodded. "I'm ready."

Kahlan looked from one to the other.