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«Insurrection?» Nicci waved a hand dismissively. «Nonsense. It was little more than a misunderstanding. Some of the workers»-she gestured toward Richard without looking."like these ignorant, selfish men, here, wanted more say for themselves and higher wages. It was nothing more than that. As my husband has often told me, it was misconstrued and blown all out of proportion. Selfish men caused an unfortunate panic that got out of control. It was much like this terrible tragedy here tonight-a misunderstanding resulting in needless harm to one of the Creator's innocent children.»
The man regarded her with a long, unreadable look before he spoke. «And all of Altur'Rang feels this way?»
Nicci sighed. «Well, along with the vast majority of the people of Altur'Rang, my husband, the mayor, certainly does. He's been working to bring to task the hotheads and troublemakers. Along with representatives of the people he has worked to make these few reactionary types see what a mistake they made and what great harm they do us all. They acted without considering the greater good. My husband has brought the leaders of the trouble before the people's council and they have decreed the proper punishment. Most have repented. At the same time, he works to reform and reeducate the less intelligent of the lot.»
The man tipped his head to her in a slight bow. «Please tell your husband that he is a wise man and has a wise wife who knows that her place is properly in service to the greater good.»
Nicci nodded in return. «Yes, exactly, the greater good. My husband has often said that, despite our own personal wishes or feelings, we must always consider the greater good above all else; that despite any personal sacrifice we must think only of the betterment of all people and not cling to the sinful ways of individual wishes and greed. No one has a right to place themselves above the well-being of others.»
Nicci's words seemed to have struck a cord with the man; such notions were the fundamental teachings and beliefs of the Imperial Order. She knew precisely how to strum those cords.
«How true,» he said as he watched her, taking another long look down the gaping neckline of her dress. «I guess I'd better be on my way.»
«And where are you headed?» Nicci asked. Her hand came up to modestly contain the sagging front of her dress.
He looked back up to her face. «Oh, we were just traveling through, heading farther to the south to where we have family. We were hoping to take up some work, there. I didn't know this fellow all that well. We've simply been traveling together for the last few days.»
«Well,» Nicci said, «considering what happened here tonight, I'm sure that my husband would suggest that for your own safety you continue with your journey and, considering the few reactionary types still about, it would be best if you were to do so at once. There has already been one tragedy tonight; we would not like to chance another.»
The man passed a murderous glare across the assembled crowd. His gaze settled on Richard, but Richard kept his eyes turned to the ground.
«Yes, of course, madam. Please thank the mayor for trying to bring the filthy troublemakers back to the ways of the Creator.»
Nicci flicked her hand toward a few of the guards. «You men, show this citizen safely out of the city. Take enough men to ensure that there will be no trouble. And I need not remind you of how displeased the mayor and the people's council would be should they discover that any harm whatsoever came to this man. He is to be allowed to go on his way.»
The men bowed and mumbled that they would see to it. By the way they acted, Richard could tell that they knew how to fall back into the role of what life had been like under the Imperial Order. All the people in the stable watched in silence as the men disappeared into the night with their charge. Long after they were gone, everyone stood still in tense silence, watching the empty doorway, fearful to speak until the man was far enough away, lest he hear anything.
«Well,» Nicci said at last with a sigh, «I hope that he makes it back to his fellow soldiers. If he does, then we have gone a long way toward spreading a little confusion before the battle.»
«Oh, he will,» Victor said. «He will be eager to report such news as you have given him tonight. Hopefully, they will be so confident that we can give them a real surprise.»
«Let's hope so,» Nicci said.
Some of the people still remaining in the stable broke into chatter, pleased with Nicci's apparent stratagem of confusing the enemy. Some bid a good night and went on their way. Some stood around the corpse, staring.
Nicci offered Victor a brief smile. «Sorry to have to strike you.»
Victor shrugged. «Well, it was to a good purpose.»
When Nicci turned to Richard, she looked uneasy, as if she feared a lecture or a reprimand.
«I want the troops coming this way to think they will have no trouble crushing us,» she explained. «Overconfidence leads to mistakes.»
«There was more to it,» Richard said.
Nicci cast a quick glance at the people still in the stables and then eased closer to him so that others couldn't hear. «You said that I could come and join up with you once the troops coming to crush the people of Altur'Rang are destroyed.»
«And?»
Her blue eyes turned as hard as iron. «And I intend to see to it.»
Richard considered her for a time, finally deciding to let her do what she could to help the people of Altur'Rang and not interfere with how she planned to accomplish it. Besides, he was more than a little worried about what her plan might be. Right then, he didn't really want to know what she was up to; he already had enough to worry about.
Richard took the loose ends of the cords lacing her bodice, drew them tight, and retied them.
She stood with her hands at her side, watching his eyes the whole time he did it. «Thank you,» she said when he finished. «I guess that must have come undone in all the excitement.»
Richard ignored her lie and checked to the side to see Jamila there, behind some of the other people. The woman, her cheek swollen and red, was kneeling, hugging the frightened little girl.
Richard stepped closer. «How is she?»
Jamila looked up at him. «Safe. Thank you, Lord Rahl. You saved her precious life. Thank you.»
As the little girl sobbed and clutched her mother, she eyed Richard with a look of terror, as if she feared he might slay her next. She had witnessed something terrible at Richard's hand.
«I'm relieved that she's safe and unharmed,» he said to Jamila.
Richard smiled at the girl, but received only a hateful glare in return.
Nicci clasped his arm in empathy, but said nothing.
The people still left in the stable finally spoke up to congratulate him on saving the child. They all seemed to have guessed that Nicci's words to the man were a ruse of some sort. Many spoke up, then, to tell her that they thought her deception was clever.
«That should throw them off,» one of the men said.
Richard knew that she had more planned than to simply «throw them off.» He was concerned about what she intended to do.
He watched briefly as some of the men dragged away the dead spy. At Ishaq's direction, others began quickly cleaning up the gore. The smell of blood made horses nervous and the sooner they were rid of it the better.
The rest of the people bid Richard a safe journey and then departed for their homes. It wasn't long before they had all gone. The men cleaning up the remains finished and left. Only Nicci, Cara, Ishaq, and Victor remained behind. The stables became a quiet and empty place.
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
The man regarded her with a long, unreadable look before he spoke. «And all of Altur'Rang feels this way?»
Nicci sighed. «Well, along with the vast majority of the people of Altur'Rang, my husband, the mayor, certainly does. He's been working to bring to task the hotheads and troublemakers. Along with representatives of the people he has worked to make these few reactionary types see what a mistake they made and what great harm they do us all. They acted without considering the greater good. My husband has brought the leaders of the trouble before the people's council and they have decreed the proper punishment. Most have repented. At the same time, he works to reform and reeducate the less intelligent of the lot.»
The man tipped his head to her in a slight bow. «Please tell your husband that he is a wise man and has a wise wife who knows that her place is properly in service to the greater good.»
Nicci nodded in return. «Yes, exactly, the greater good. My husband has often said that, despite our own personal wishes or feelings, we must always consider the greater good above all else; that despite any personal sacrifice we must think only of the betterment of all people and not cling to the sinful ways of individual wishes and greed. No one has a right to place themselves above the well-being of others.»
Nicci's words seemed to have struck a cord with the man; such notions were the fundamental teachings and beliefs of the Imperial Order. She knew precisely how to strum those cords.
«How true,» he said as he watched her, taking another long look down the gaping neckline of her dress. «I guess I'd better be on my way.»
«And where are you headed?» Nicci asked. Her hand came up to modestly contain the sagging front of her dress.
He looked back up to her face. «Oh, we were just traveling through, heading farther to the south to where we have family. We were hoping to take up some work, there. I didn't know this fellow all that well. We've simply been traveling together for the last few days.»
«Well,» Nicci said, «considering what happened here tonight, I'm sure that my husband would suggest that for your own safety you continue with your journey and, considering the few reactionary types still about, it would be best if you were to do so at once. There has already been one tragedy tonight; we would not like to chance another.»
The man passed a murderous glare across the assembled crowd. His gaze settled on Richard, but Richard kept his eyes turned to the ground.
«Yes, of course, madam. Please thank the mayor for trying to bring the filthy troublemakers back to the ways of the Creator.»
Nicci flicked her hand toward a few of the guards. «You men, show this citizen safely out of the city. Take enough men to ensure that there will be no trouble. And I need not remind you of how displeased the mayor and the people's council would be should they discover that any harm whatsoever came to this man. He is to be allowed to go on his way.»
The men bowed and mumbled that they would see to it. By the way they acted, Richard could tell that they knew how to fall back into the role of what life had been like under the Imperial Order. All the people in the stable watched in silence as the men disappeared into the night with their charge. Long after they were gone, everyone stood still in tense silence, watching the empty doorway, fearful to speak until the man was far enough away, lest he hear anything.
«Well,» Nicci said at last with a sigh, «I hope that he makes it back to his fellow soldiers. If he does, then we have gone a long way toward spreading a little confusion before the battle.»
«Oh, he will,» Victor said. «He will be eager to report such news as you have given him tonight. Hopefully, they will be so confident that we can give them a real surprise.»
«Let's hope so,» Nicci said.
Some of the people still remaining in the stable broke into chatter, pleased with Nicci's apparent stratagem of confusing the enemy. Some bid a good night and went on their way. Some stood around the corpse, staring.
Nicci offered Victor a brief smile. «Sorry to have to strike you.»
Victor shrugged. «Well, it was to a good purpose.»
When Nicci turned to Richard, she looked uneasy, as if she feared a lecture or a reprimand.
«I want the troops coming this way to think they will have no trouble crushing us,» she explained. «Overconfidence leads to mistakes.»
«There was more to it,» Richard said.
Nicci cast a quick glance at the people still in the stables and then eased closer to him so that others couldn't hear. «You said that I could come and join up with you once the troops coming to crush the people of Altur'Rang are destroyed.»
«And?»
Her blue eyes turned as hard as iron. «And I intend to see to it.»
Richard considered her for a time, finally deciding to let her do what she could to help the people of Altur'Rang and not interfere with how she planned to accomplish it. Besides, he was more than a little worried about what her plan might be. Right then, he didn't really want to know what she was up to; he already had enough to worry about.
Richard took the loose ends of the cords lacing her bodice, drew them tight, and retied them.
She stood with her hands at her side, watching his eyes the whole time he did it. «Thank you,» she said when he finished. «I guess that must have come undone in all the excitement.»
Richard ignored her lie and checked to the side to see Jamila there, behind some of the other people. The woman, her cheek swollen and red, was kneeling, hugging the frightened little girl.
Richard stepped closer. «How is she?»
Jamila looked up at him. «Safe. Thank you, Lord Rahl. You saved her precious life. Thank you.»
As the little girl sobbed and clutched her mother, she eyed Richard with a look of terror, as if she feared he might slay her next. She had witnessed something terrible at Richard's hand.
«I'm relieved that she's safe and unharmed,» he said to Jamila.
Richard smiled at the girl, but received only a hateful glare in return.
Nicci clasped his arm in empathy, but said nothing.
The people still left in the stable finally spoke up to congratulate him on saving the child. They all seemed to have guessed that Nicci's words to the man were a ruse of some sort. Many spoke up, then, to tell her that they thought her deception was clever.
«That should throw them off,» one of the men said.
Richard knew that she had more planned than to simply «throw them off.» He was concerned about what she intended to do.
He watched briefly as some of the men dragged away the dead spy. At Ishaq's direction, others began quickly cleaning up the gore. The smell of blood made horses nervous and the sooner they were rid of it the better.
The rest of the people bid Richard a safe journey and then departed for their homes. It wasn't long before they had all gone. The men cleaning up the remains finished and left. Only Nicci, Cara, Ishaq, and Victor remained behind. The stables became a quiet and empty place.
CHAPTER 24
Richard carefully surveyed the shadows before going to see to the horses that Ishaq had collected for him. The stables felt too quiet. He remembered the hush in the room in the inn before the thing came crashing through the wall. It was hard not to find the sudden quiet menacing. He wished he had a way to know if the beast was near, or if it was about to pounce. He wished he knew how to fight such a thing. His fingers touched the pommel of his sword. If nothing else, at least he had his sword and its attendant power.
He remembered all too well the inhuman promises of suffering and torment left lurking within Cara for him to find. It made him nauseated and light-headed just recalling the wordless whisper of those covenants. He had to pause and put a hand on the rail to steady himself for a moment.
As he glanced over to see Cara, he still felt the wordless joy of her being alive and well. It lifted his heart just to see her looking back at him. He felt a profound connection to her as a result of the experience of healing her. He felt as if he knew the woman beneath the armor of Mord-Sith a little better.
Now he needed to help Kahlan, to see her alive and well.
Two of the horses were already saddled and waiting, with the supplies loaded on the others. Ishaq had always been as good as his word. Richard ran his hand along the flanks of the bigger bay mare as he entered her stall, feeling her muscles and letting her know he was behind her so she wouldn't be spooked. One ear swiveled toward him.
With all that had happened, to say nothing of the scent of blood in the air, the horses were all jumpy. The mare tossed her head and stomped nervously at having a stranger near. Before he went about hooking his bow to the saddle, he first stroked the mare's neck and spoke softly to her. He reached up and gently caressed her ear. He was pleased that she settled down after a little assurance.
When he stepped back out from the stall, Nicci was watching him, waiting for him. She looked lost and lonely.
«You will be careful?» she asked.
«Don't worry,» Cara said as she walked past carrying some of her things. On her way into the stall holding the smaller of the two saddled mares she said, «I will be giving him a very long lecture on the foolishness of his unthinking actions tonight.»
«What unthinking actions?» Victor asked.
Cara laid an arm over the shoulder of her horse, idly running her fingers through its mane as she turned back to the blacksmith.
«We have a saying in D'Hara. We are the steel against steel so that the Lord Rahl can be the magic against magic. What it means is that it's foolish for the Lord Rahl to needlessly risk his life in things like battles with blades. We can do that. But we cannot battle the magic. He alone is the one who must do that. To do so, he must be alive. Our job is keeping the Lord Rahl safe from weapons of steel so that he can protect us against magic. That is the Lord Rahl's duty. That is his part of the bond.»
Victor gestured toward Richard's sword. «I'd say he seems to do all right with a blade.»
Cara arched an eyebrow. «Sometimes he is lucky. Need I remind you that he almost died from getting himself shot with a simple arrow? Without a Mord-Sith, he would be helpless,» she added for good measure.
Richard silently rolled his eyes when Victor cast a worried look his way. Ishaq, too, seemed concerned as he peered at Richard as if he were a stranger he was seeing for the first time. Both men had known him for nearly a year as simply Richard, a man who loaded wagons for Ishaq's transport company and hauling iron to Victor's blacksmith shop. They had thought that he was married to Nicci. They didn't know that he had really been Nicci's captive at the time.
Discovering that he was in fact the Lord Rahl, the nearly mythical freedom fighter from far to the north, was still somewhat disorienting for both men. They tended to view him as one of their own who had risen up to fight tyranny with them. That was how they knew him. Whenever the Lord Rahl issue came up, they got nervous, as if they suddenly didn't know how they should behave around him.
As Cara went about loading the rest of her things into saddlebags, Nicci laid a hand on Ishaq's shoulder.
«If you don't mind, I need to see Richard alone for a moment before he leaves.»
Ishaq nodded. «Victor and I will be outside. We have matters to discuss.»
As the two men made for the door, Nicci cast Cara a brief glance. Cara gave her horse a quick pat on the side and then followed the two men out of the stable, pulling the big door closed behind herself. Richard was amazed, and just a little concerned, to see Cara leave without an argument.
Nicci stood before him in the soft lamplight twining her fingers together and looking rather uneasy, he thought.
«Richard, I'm worried about you. I should be with you.»
«You've started something tonight that I think you will have to be the one to finish.»
She sighed. «You're right about that.»
Richard wondered just what it was she had started, what it was she had in mind, but he was in a hurry to leave. While he was concerned for Nicci's safety, he was vastly more worried about Kahlan. He wanted to get going.
«But I still.»
«When you're done helping these people end the immediate threat from the soldiers who are on their way here, you can catch up with me,» Richard told her. «With this wizard, Kronos, leading them, the people here are certainly going to need your help.»
«I know.» She was nodding, having already been over all of this ground already. «Believe me, I intend to eliminate the threat descending upon Altur'Rang. I don't intend to allow it to waste a lot of my time and then I can leave to catch up with you.»
A wave of cold dread washed through him as he suddenly grasped the core of her plan. He wanted to tell her to forget what she was thinking, but he made himself keep silent. He had important and perilous work of his own that he needed to get to. He wouldn't want her telling him that he couldn't do what he had planned.
Besides, she was a sorceress who knew very well what she was doing. She had been a Sister of the Dark-one of six such women who had managed to become his teachers at the Palace of the Prophets. When one of them had tried to kill him to steal his gift, Richard had killed her instead. That had been the beginning of the battle that had brought down the palace. Jagang eventually captured the rest, including Sister Ulicia, their leader. In order to save Kahlan's life, Richard had once allowed five of them to swear a bond to him so that they could escape the dream walker's hold on them. Nicci hadn't been with them at the time. Another later died in the sliph, leaving only those four Sisters of the Dark, besides Nicci, not in Jagang's clutches.
Nicci was certainly a formidable threat to any who opposed her. He just hoped she wasn't taking a foolish chance just to be able to more quickly get back to protect him.
Richard hooked his thumbs behind his belt, not quite knowing what it was she wanted. «You will be welcomed to join me whenever you can manage it. I told you that.»
«I know.»
«A piece of advice.» He waited until her gaze turned up to his. «No matter how powerful you think you are, something as simple as an arrow can still kill you.»
A brief smile visited her face. «That advice goes both ways, wizard.»
A thought occurred to him. «How will you find me?»
She reached up and gripped his shirt at the collar as she leaned against him. «That's why I wanted to be alone with you. I will need to touch you with magic so that I can find you.»
Richard's suspicion flared. «What kind of magic?»
«I guess you could say that it's a little like your bond to the D'Haran people which allows them to find you. Now is not the time to go into an explanation of it.»
Richard began to worry about why she would need to be alone with him to do such a thing. Still gripping his shirt, she pressed against him, her eyes sliding half closed.
«Just stay still,» she whispered.
She looked rather hesitant and reluctant about whatever it was she had planned. She looked and sounded as if she were slipping into a trance.
Richard could have sworn that the lamps had been brighter, before. Now the stable was dimly lit in a mellow orange glow. The hay smelled sweeter. The air felt warmer.
Richard thought that perhaps he shouldn't be allowing her to do whatever it was that she intended to do. In the end, though, he decided that he trusted her.
Nicci's left hand released its grip on his shirt and slipped up and over his shoulder to the back of his neck. Her fingers glided around his neck. Her hand fisted, holding his hair at the back of his head to keep him still.
Richard's level of alarm rose. He suddenly wasn't so sure that he wanted her to touch him with her power. He'd felt her magic several times before and it wasn't something he was exactly eager to experience again.
He wanted to back away, but, somehow, he didn't.
Nicci leaned in even more and gently kissed his cheek.
It was more than a kiss.
The world around him dissolved. The stables, the humid air, the sweet aroma of hay, all seemed to cease to exist. The only thing that existed was his connection to Nicci, as if she were all that held him from evaporating as well.
He was swept into a rising realm of breathless pleasure with all of life itself. It was an overpowering, disorienting, magnificent sensation. Everything, from the feel of the connection to her, the warmth and life of her, to all the beauty of the world, felt as if it flooded through him, filling him until it saturated his mind, making him dizzy with the staggering exhilaration of it.
Every kind of pleasure he had ever known swept through him with overwhelming force, amplified beyond anything he had ever experienced, engulfing him in bliss so intense that the satisfaction of it brought a gasp and tears.
When Nicci broke the kiss on his cheek the world inside the stables swirled back in around him, and yet it seemed more intense than it had before, the sights and smells more vibrant than he remembered. It was quiet but for the hiss of a nearby lamp and the soft neigh of one of the horses. Richard's hands trembled with the lingering sensation of her kiss.
He didn't know if what Nicci had done had lasted for a second or an hour. It was magic completely unlike any Richard had ever felt before. It left him so breathless that he had to remind himself to breath again.
He blinked at her. «What — what did you do?»
The slightest smile blossomed in the curve of her lips and in her blindingly blue eyes. «I touched you with a small trace of my magic so that I can find you. I recognize my power. I will be able to follow it to you. Fear not, the effect will last long enough for me to be able to find you.»
«I think you did more, Nicci.»
Her smile ghosted away. Her brow tightened with her concern. It took her a moment to find the words. At last she peered at him with an intensity that told him that it was important to her that he understand.
«Always before, Richard, I have hurt you with magic-when I took you away; when I held you prisoner; even when I healed you. It was always hurtful or painful. Forgive me, but I wanted, just once, to give you a touch of magic that would not leave you being hurt by me, or hating me.»
Her gaze sank away from his. «I wanted you to have a better memory of me than of those times before when I touched you with the pain of magic. I wanted, just once, to give you a small trace of something pleasant, instead.»
He could not begin to imagine what any more than a «small trace» would have been like.
He lifted her chin, making her look up into his eyes. «I don't hate you, Nicci. You know that. And I know that the times when you healed me you were giving me my life. That was what counted.»
Finally, he was the one who had to look away from her blue eyes. It occurred to him that Nicci was probably the most beautiful woman he had ever met.
Other than Kahlan.
«Thank you, though,» he managed, still feeling the lingering affects of the sensation.
She gently clutched his arm. «You did a good thing, tonight, Richard. I thought some pleasant magic would give you back some of your strength.»
«I've seen a lot of people suffer and die. I couldn't stand the thought of the little girl dying, too.»
«I meant in saving Cara's life.»
«Oh. Well, I couldn't stand the thought of the big girl dying, either.»
Nicci smiled at that.
He gestured to the horses. «I need to get going.»
She nodded and he moved off to collect the horses and check their gear. Nicci went to open the stable door. After she did, Cara came back in to get her horse.
Dawn was still a couple of hours off. Richard realized that he was terribly tired, especially after the emotional strain of having used his sword, but he did feel better after what Nicci had just done. He knew, though, that they wouldn't be getting much sleep for a quite a while. They had a very long way to travel and he fully intended to do it as swiftly as possible. By taking fresh horses with them they would be able to ride hard, change mounts, and then continue to ride just as hard in order to make good time. He intended to ride more than hard.
Nicci held his horse's bit as he stuffed his boot into the stirrup and swung up into the saddle. The horse flicked her tail and danced about, eager to be out of the stable even if it was still night. Richard patted her shoulder to settle her down; she would have plenty of time to show him her spirit.
Cara, once in her saddle, turned to frown at him. «By the way, Lord Rahl, where is it we're traveling to in such a hurry?»
«I need to go see Shota.»
«Shota!» Cara's jaw dropped. «We're going to see the witch woman? Are you out of your mind?»
Nicci, suddenly mortified, rushed to his side. «Going to the witch woman is madness-to say nothing of the Imperial Order troops all along the way back up through the New World. You can't do this.»
«I have to. I think that Shota may be able to help me find Kahlan.»
«Richard, she's a witch woman!» Nicci was beside herself. «She's not going to help you!»
«She's helped me before. She gave Kahlan and me a wedding gift. I think she may remember it.»
«A wedding gift?» Cara asked. «Are you crazy? Shota would just as soon kill you as not.»
There was more truth in that than Cara knew. His relation with Shota had always been an uneasy one.
Nicci put a hand on his leg. «What wedding gift? What are you talking about?»
«Shota wanted Kahlan to die because she feared that together we would conceive what Shota believed would be a monster child: a gifted Confessor. At our wedding, as a truce, she gave Kahlan a necklace with a small dark stone. It's magic of some sort that prevents Kahlan from getting pregnant. Kahlan and I decided that for the time being, with all that's going on and all that we have to worry about, we would accept Shota's truce.»
There had been a time, when the chimes had been loosed, that magic of every sort had failed. For a while they hadn't known about the chimes, and that the necklace's magic had failed. It was then that Kahlan had conceived a child. The men who beat her that terrible night had ended that.
It was also possible that because of that brief failure of magic, the nature of the world had undergone a fundamental, irrevocable change that would eventually lead to the end of all magic. Kahlan certainly believed that it was happening. There had been a number of strange events that were otherwise inexplicable. Zedd had called it the cascade effect. He said that once begun such a thing could not be stopped. Richard didn't know if it was true that magic was failing or not.
«Shota will remember the necklace she gave Kahlan. She will remember her magic, just as you will remember yours so that you will be able to find me. If anyone will remember Kahlan, Shota will. I've had my disagreements with the witch woman, but in the past I've also inadvertently helped her as well. She owes me. She will help me. She has to.»
Nicci threw her hands up. «Of course such a thing has to be a necklace that Kahlan would wear, and not something that you would have. Don't you see what you're doing? Once again your mind has invented something that conveniently can't be proven. Everything you come up with is somewhere else or something we can't see. This necklace is just more of your dream.» Nicci pressed a hand to her forehead. «Richard, this witch woman is not going to remember Kahlan because Kahlan doesn't exist.»
«Shota can help me. I know she can. I know she will. I can't think of any better opportunity to get answers. Time is slipping away. The longer Kahlan is with whoever has her, the greater the danger to her life and the less my chance of helping get her back. I have to go to Shota.»
«And what if you're wrong?» Nicci demanded. «What if this witch woman refuses to help you?»
«I will do whatever it takes to make her help me.»
«Richard, please, put this off for at least a day or two. We can talk it through. Let me help you properly consider your options.»
Richard pulled the reins around, letting his horse and the ones tethered to it start toward the door. «Going to Shota is my best chance of getting answers. I'm going.»
Richard ducked under the big doorway as they rode out into the night. Out across the expanse of grounds the cicadas droned on.
He pulled his horse around to see Nicci standing in the doorway, lit from behind by the lanternlight. «You be careful,» he told her. «If not for yourself, then for me.»
That, at least, made her smile. She shook her head in resignation. «By your command, Lord Rahl.»
He waved his farewell to Victor and Ishaq.
«Safe journey,» Ishaq said as he removed his hat.
Victor saluted with a fist over his heart. «Come back to us when you can, Richard.»
Richard promised them he would.
As they started down the road, Cara shook her head. «I don't know why you bothered going to all the trouble to save my life. We're going to die, you know.»
«I thought you were coming with me to prevent that from happening.»
«Lord Rahl, I don't know if I can protect you against a witch woman. I've never faced their power, nor have I heard of any Mord-Sith who has. A Confessor's power used to be deadly to Mord-Sith; it could be that witch woman's power is just as fatal. I will do my best, but I just think you should know that I might not be able to protect you from a witch woman.»
«Oh, I'd not worry about it, Cara.» Richard said as he squeezed his legs and shifted his weight, urging his horse into a canter. «If I know Shota, she won't let you get anywhere near her, anyway.»
He remembered all too well the inhuman promises of suffering and torment left lurking within Cara for him to find. It made him nauseated and light-headed just recalling the wordless whisper of those covenants. He had to pause and put a hand on the rail to steady himself for a moment.
As he glanced over to see Cara, he still felt the wordless joy of her being alive and well. It lifted his heart just to see her looking back at him. He felt a profound connection to her as a result of the experience of healing her. He felt as if he knew the woman beneath the armor of Mord-Sith a little better.
Now he needed to help Kahlan, to see her alive and well.
Two of the horses were already saddled and waiting, with the supplies loaded on the others. Ishaq had always been as good as his word. Richard ran his hand along the flanks of the bigger bay mare as he entered her stall, feeling her muscles and letting her know he was behind her so she wouldn't be spooked. One ear swiveled toward him.
With all that had happened, to say nothing of the scent of blood in the air, the horses were all jumpy. The mare tossed her head and stomped nervously at having a stranger near. Before he went about hooking his bow to the saddle, he first stroked the mare's neck and spoke softly to her. He reached up and gently caressed her ear. He was pleased that she settled down after a little assurance.
When he stepped back out from the stall, Nicci was watching him, waiting for him. She looked lost and lonely.
«You will be careful?» she asked.
«Don't worry,» Cara said as she walked past carrying some of her things. On her way into the stall holding the smaller of the two saddled mares she said, «I will be giving him a very long lecture on the foolishness of his unthinking actions tonight.»
«What unthinking actions?» Victor asked.
Cara laid an arm over the shoulder of her horse, idly running her fingers through its mane as she turned back to the blacksmith.
«We have a saying in D'Hara. We are the steel against steel so that the Lord Rahl can be the magic against magic. What it means is that it's foolish for the Lord Rahl to needlessly risk his life in things like battles with blades. We can do that. But we cannot battle the magic. He alone is the one who must do that. To do so, he must be alive. Our job is keeping the Lord Rahl safe from weapons of steel so that he can protect us against magic. That is the Lord Rahl's duty. That is his part of the bond.»
Victor gestured toward Richard's sword. «I'd say he seems to do all right with a blade.»
Cara arched an eyebrow. «Sometimes he is lucky. Need I remind you that he almost died from getting himself shot with a simple arrow? Without a Mord-Sith, he would be helpless,» she added for good measure.
Richard silently rolled his eyes when Victor cast a worried look his way. Ishaq, too, seemed concerned as he peered at Richard as if he were a stranger he was seeing for the first time. Both men had known him for nearly a year as simply Richard, a man who loaded wagons for Ishaq's transport company and hauling iron to Victor's blacksmith shop. They had thought that he was married to Nicci. They didn't know that he had really been Nicci's captive at the time.
Discovering that he was in fact the Lord Rahl, the nearly mythical freedom fighter from far to the north, was still somewhat disorienting for both men. They tended to view him as one of their own who had risen up to fight tyranny with them. That was how they knew him. Whenever the Lord Rahl issue came up, they got nervous, as if they suddenly didn't know how they should behave around him.
As Cara went about loading the rest of her things into saddlebags, Nicci laid a hand on Ishaq's shoulder.
«If you don't mind, I need to see Richard alone for a moment before he leaves.»
Ishaq nodded. «Victor and I will be outside. We have matters to discuss.»
As the two men made for the door, Nicci cast Cara a brief glance. Cara gave her horse a quick pat on the side and then followed the two men out of the stable, pulling the big door closed behind herself. Richard was amazed, and just a little concerned, to see Cara leave without an argument.
Nicci stood before him in the soft lamplight twining her fingers together and looking rather uneasy, he thought.
«Richard, I'm worried about you. I should be with you.»
«You've started something tonight that I think you will have to be the one to finish.»
She sighed. «You're right about that.»
Richard wondered just what it was she had started, what it was she had in mind, but he was in a hurry to leave. While he was concerned for Nicci's safety, he was vastly more worried about Kahlan. He wanted to get going.
«But I still.»
«When you're done helping these people end the immediate threat from the soldiers who are on their way here, you can catch up with me,» Richard told her. «With this wizard, Kronos, leading them, the people here are certainly going to need your help.»
«I know.» She was nodding, having already been over all of this ground already. «Believe me, I intend to eliminate the threat descending upon Altur'Rang. I don't intend to allow it to waste a lot of my time and then I can leave to catch up with you.»
A wave of cold dread washed through him as he suddenly grasped the core of her plan. He wanted to tell her to forget what she was thinking, but he made himself keep silent. He had important and perilous work of his own that he needed to get to. He wouldn't want her telling him that he couldn't do what he had planned.
Besides, she was a sorceress who knew very well what she was doing. She had been a Sister of the Dark-one of six such women who had managed to become his teachers at the Palace of the Prophets. When one of them had tried to kill him to steal his gift, Richard had killed her instead. That had been the beginning of the battle that had brought down the palace. Jagang eventually captured the rest, including Sister Ulicia, their leader. In order to save Kahlan's life, Richard had once allowed five of them to swear a bond to him so that they could escape the dream walker's hold on them. Nicci hadn't been with them at the time. Another later died in the sliph, leaving only those four Sisters of the Dark, besides Nicci, not in Jagang's clutches.
Nicci was certainly a formidable threat to any who opposed her. He just hoped she wasn't taking a foolish chance just to be able to more quickly get back to protect him.
Richard hooked his thumbs behind his belt, not quite knowing what it was she wanted. «You will be welcomed to join me whenever you can manage it. I told you that.»
«I know.»
«A piece of advice.» He waited until her gaze turned up to his. «No matter how powerful you think you are, something as simple as an arrow can still kill you.»
A brief smile visited her face. «That advice goes both ways, wizard.»
A thought occurred to him. «How will you find me?»
She reached up and gripped his shirt at the collar as she leaned against him. «That's why I wanted to be alone with you. I will need to touch you with magic so that I can find you.»
Richard's suspicion flared. «What kind of magic?»
«I guess you could say that it's a little like your bond to the D'Haran people which allows them to find you. Now is not the time to go into an explanation of it.»
Richard began to worry about why she would need to be alone with him to do such a thing. Still gripping his shirt, she pressed against him, her eyes sliding half closed.
«Just stay still,» she whispered.
She looked rather hesitant and reluctant about whatever it was she had planned. She looked and sounded as if she were slipping into a trance.
Richard could have sworn that the lamps had been brighter, before. Now the stable was dimly lit in a mellow orange glow. The hay smelled sweeter. The air felt warmer.
Richard thought that perhaps he shouldn't be allowing her to do whatever it was that she intended to do. In the end, though, he decided that he trusted her.
Nicci's left hand released its grip on his shirt and slipped up and over his shoulder to the back of his neck. Her fingers glided around his neck. Her hand fisted, holding his hair at the back of his head to keep him still.
Richard's level of alarm rose. He suddenly wasn't so sure that he wanted her to touch him with her power. He'd felt her magic several times before and it wasn't something he was exactly eager to experience again.
He wanted to back away, but, somehow, he didn't.
Nicci leaned in even more and gently kissed his cheek.
It was more than a kiss.
The world around him dissolved. The stables, the humid air, the sweet aroma of hay, all seemed to cease to exist. The only thing that existed was his connection to Nicci, as if she were all that held him from evaporating as well.
He was swept into a rising realm of breathless pleasure with all of life itself. It was an overpowering, disorienting, magnificent sensation. Everything, from the feel of the connection to her, the warmth and life of her, to all the beauty of the world, felt as if it flooded through him, filling him until it saturated his mind, making him dizzy with the staggering exhilaration of it.
Every kind of pleasure he had ever known swept through him with overwhelming force, amplified beyond anything he had ever experienced, engulfing him in bliss so intense that the satisfaction of it brought a gasp and tears.
When Nicci broke the kiss on his cheek the world inside the stables swirled back in around him, and yet it seemed more intense than it had before, the sights and smells more vibrant than he remembered. It was quiet but for the hiss of a nearby lamp and the soft neigh of one of the horses. Richard's hands trembled with the lingering sensation of her kiss.
He didn't know if what Nicci had done had lasted for a second or an hour. It was magic completely unlike any Richard had ever felt before. It left him so breathless that he had to remind himself to breath again.
He blinked at her. «What — what did you do?»
The slightest smile blossomed in the curve of her lips and in her blindingly blue eyes. «I touched you with a small trace of my magic so that I can find you. I recognize my power. I will be able to follow it to you. Fear not, the effect will last long enough for me to be able to find you.»
«I think you did more, Nicci.»
Her smile ghosted away. Her brow tightened with her concern. It took her a moment to find the words. At last she peered at him with an intensity that told him that it was important to her that he understand.
«Always before, Richard, I have hurt you with magic-when I took you away; when I held you prisoner; even when I healed you. It was always hurtful or painful. Forgive me, but I wanted, just once, to give you a touch of magic that would not leave you being hurt by me, or hating me.»
Her gaze sank away from his. «I wanted you to have a better memory of me than of those times before when I touched you with the pain of magic. I wanted, just once, to give you a small trace of something pleasant, instead.»
He could not begin to imagine what any more than a «small trace» would have been like.
He lifted her chin, making her look up into his eyes. «I don't hate you, Nicci. You know that. And I know that the times when you healed me you were giving me my life. That was what counted.»
Finally, he was the one who had to look away from her blue eyes. It occurred to him that Nicci was probably the most beautiful woman he had ever met.
Other than Kahlan.
«Thank you, though,» he managed, still feeling the lingering affects of the sensation.
She gently clutched his arm. «You did a good thing, tonight, Richard. I thought some pleasant magic would give you back some of your strength.»
«I've seen a lot of people suffer and die. I couldn't stand the thought of the little girl dying, too.»
«I meant in saving Cara's life.»
«Oh. Well, I couldn't stand the thought of the big girl dying, either.»
Nicci smiled at that.
He gestured to the horses. «I need to get going.»
She nodded and he moved off to collect the horses and check their gear. Nicci went to open the stable door. After she did, Cara came back in to get her horse.
Dawn was still a couple of hours off. Richard realized that he was terribly tired, especially after the emotional strain of having used his sword, but he did feel better after what Nicci had just done. He knew, though, that they wouldn't be getting much sleep for a quite a while. They had a very long way to travel and he fully intended to do it as swiftly as possible. By taking fresh horses with them they would be able to ride hard, change mounts, and then continue to ride just as hard in order to make good time. He intended to ride more than hard.
Nicci held his horse's bit as he stuffed his boot into the stirrup and swung up into the saddle. The horse flicked her tail and danced about, eager to be out of the stable even if it was still night. Richard patted her shoulder to settle her down; she would have plenty of time to show him her spirit.
Cara, once in her saddle, turned to frown at him. «By the way, Lord Rahl, where is it we're traveling to in such a hurry?»
«I need to go see Shota.»
«Shota!» Cara's jaw dropped. «We're going to see the witch woman? Are you out of your mind?»
Nicci, suddenly mortified, rushed to his side. «Going to the witch woman is madness-to say nothing of the Imperial Order troops all along the way back up through the New World. You can't do this.»
«I have to. I think that Shota may be able to help me find Kahlan.»
«Richard, she's a witch woman!» Nicci was beside herself. «She's not going to help you!»
«She's helped me before. She gave Kahlan and me a wedding gift. I think she may remember it.»
«A wedding gift?» Cara asked. «Are you crazy? Shota would just as soon kill you as not.»
There was more truth in that than Cara knew. His relation with Shota had always been an uneasy one.
Nicci put a hand on his leg. «What wedding gift? What are you talking about?»
«Shota wanted Kahlan to die because she feared that together we would conceive what Shota believed would be a monster child: a gifted Confessor. At our wedding, as a truce, she gave Kahlan a necklace with a small dark stone. It's magic of some sort that prevents Kahlan from getting pregnant. Kahlan and I decided that for the time being, with all that's going on and all that we have to worry about, we would accept Shota's truce.»
There had been a time, when the chimes had been loosed, that magic of every sort had failed. For a while they hadn't known about the chimes, and that the necklace's magic had failed. It was then that Kahlan had conceived a child. The men who beat her that terrible night had ended that.
It was also possible that because of that brief failure of magic, the nature of the world had undergone a fundamental, irrevocable change that would eventually lead to the end of all magic. Kahlan certainly believed that it was happening. There had been a number of strange events that were otherwise inexplicable. Zedd had called it the cascade effect. He said that once begun such a thing could not be stopped. Richard didn't know if it was true that magic was failing or not.
«Shota will remember the necklace she gave Kahlan. She will remember her magic, just as you will remember yours so that you will be able to find me. If anyone will remember Kahlan, Shota will. I've had my disagreements with the witch woman, but in the past I've also inadvertently helped her as well. She owes me. She will help me. She has to.»
Nicci threw her hands up. «Of course such a thing has to be a necklace that Kahlan would wear, and not something that you would have. Don't you see what you're doing? Once again your mind has invented something that conveniently can't be proven. Everything you come up with is somewhere else or something we can't see. This necklace is just more of your dream.» Nicci pressed a hand to her forehead. «Richard, this witch woman is not going to remember Kahlan because Kahlan doesn't exist.»
«Shota can help me. I know she can. I know she will. I can't think of any better opportunity to get answers. Time is slipping away. The longer Kahlan is with whoever has her, the greater the danger to her life and the less my chance of helping get her back. I have to go to Shota.»
«And what if you're wrong?» Nicci demanded. «What if this witch woman refuses to help you?»
«I will do whatever it takes to make her help me.»
«Richard, please, put this off for at least a day or two. We can talk it through. Let me help you properly consider your options.»
Richard pulled the reins around, letting his horse and the ones tethered to it start toward the door. «Going to Shota is my best chance of getting answers. I'm going.»
Richard ducked under the big doorway as they rode out into the night. Out across the expanse of grounds the cicadas droned on.
He pulled his horse around to see Nicci standing in the doorway, lit from behind by the lanternlight. «You be careful,» he told her. «If not for yourself, then for me.»
That, at least, made her smile. She shook her head in resignation. «By your command, Lord Rahl.»
He waved his farewell to Victor and Ishaq.
«Safe journey,» Ishaq said as he removed his hat.
Victor saluted with a fist over his heart. «Come back to us when you can, Richard.»
Richard promised them he would.
As they started down the road, Cara shook her head. «I don't know why you bothered going to all the trouble to save my life. We're going to die, you know.»
«I thought you were coming with me to prevent that from happening.»
«Lord Rahl, I don't know if I can protect you against a witch woman. I've never faced their power, nor have I heard of any Mord-Sith who has. A Confessor's power used to be deadly to Mord-Sith; it could be that witch woman's power is just as fatal. I will do my best, but I just think you should know that I might not be able to protect you from a witch woman.»
«Oh, I'd not worry about it, Cara.» Richard said as he squeezed his legs and shifted his weight, urging his horse into a canter. «If I know Shota, she won't let you get anywhere near her, anyway.»
CHAPTER 25
As she marched down the side of a wide thoroughfare leading a small knot of men, Nicci thought that in a way it seemed like the sun had gone out since Richard had left. She missed just being able to look into his eyes, at the spark of life in them. For two days she had tirelessly gone about the urgent preparations for the imminent attack, but, without Richard around, life seemed empty, less bright, less — less of everything.
At the same time, when he had been around, his single-minded determination to find his imagined love had been draining. In fact, she had sometimes wanted to strangle him. She had tried everything from patience to anger in an attempt to get him to come around to seeing the truth, but it had been like trying to push against a mountain. In the end, nothing she'd done or said had made any difference.
For his own sake she earnestly wanted to help him to come to grips with reality. To do so she had to challenge him in an effort to try to get him to come to his senses before something terrible happened, but at the same time trying to make him see the truth somehow always seemed to cast her as a villain working against him. She hated being in that position.
Nicci hoped that by the time she finished helping to rid Altur'Rang of the threat of the approaching Imperial Order troops and their wizard, Kronos, she could quickly catch up with Richard and Cara. With spare horses and as fast as she knew he would ride, Nicci realized that she would not be able to catch up with him until after he reached the witch woman. If he even made it that far. If Shota didn't kill him once he did.
From what Nicci knew of witches, Richard's chances of coming out of her lair alive were pretty slim. He would have to face the witch woman without Nicci's help and protection. Still, he knew the woman, and she was a woman in every sense, from what Nicci had heard of her, so maybe Richard would at least be civil. It was not at all wise to be impolite to witches.
But even surviving an encounter with a witch woman he would still be devastated if she didn't help him and Nicci knew she couldn't because there was no missing woman for Richard to find. At times it infuriated her that he was so obstinate about something so obviously nothing more than an illusion. At other times she worried that he really was losing his mind. That was too chilling a thought to contemplate.
Nicci paused at the side of the road with a sudden, terrible realization.
The men following her lurched to a halt when she did, bringing her out of her thoughts. They were all with her either to see to her instructions in regard to some of the defenses of the city or else to carry messages as needed. Now they stood silent and uneasy, not knowing why she had stopped.
«Up there,» she said to the men, pointing at a three story brick building on the corner across the street. «Make sure that we can use that place to good advantage and put at least a couple dozen archers in the windows. See that they have a large supply of arrows.»
«I will go take a look,» one of the men said before running off across the road, dodging wagons, horses, and hand-drawn carts.
People rushed along the side of the street passing around Nicci and the men with her as if they were a rock in a swiftly moving river. Passersby spoke in hushed tones among themselves as they coursed between clusters of hawkers calling out trying to sell their goods, or people gathered to urgently discuss the impending battle for the city and what they would do to protect themselves. Wagons of every sort, from big freight wagons pulled by teams of six horses to small wagons pulled by a single horse, sped past in a hurry to complete the stockpiling of provisions or other necessary work while they still could.
Despite the din of horses, wagons, and people, Nicci didn't really hear any of it; she was thinking about the witch woman.
Nicci had suddenly realized that Shota might not simply be unwilling to help Richard, but she might not tell him so. Witch women had their own way of doing things, and their own ends.
If this woman thought Richard was being too insistent or assertive, she very well might decide to get rid of him by sending him on a useless quest to the ends of the world. She very well might do such a thing simply to amuse herself, or to doom him to die a slow death on an endless march across some distant desert. A witch woman might do such a thing just because she could. Richard, in his urgency to find his fantasy woman, wouldn't consider those possibilities. He would promptly head off to where she pointed.
Nicci was furious with herself for letting him leave to go to such a dangerous woman. But what could she do? She couldn't very well forbid him from going.
Her only chance was to get rid of Brother Kronos and his troops as swiftly as possible and then go after Richard and do what she could to protect him.
She spotted the man she had sent to check the brick building sidestepping his way between the wagons and horses as he ran back across the road. Nicci noticed that even with all the people out traveling the roads of the city, it was still much less busy than an ordinary day. People everywhere were making preparations; some had already holed up in places where they thought they might be safe. Nicci had been with the Order when they swept into a city; there was no safe place.
The man dodged his way around an empty wagon bouncing past and at last reached Nicci's side. He stood silently waiting. He was afraid to speak until she requested his report. He was afraid of her. Everyone was afraid of her. She wasn't just a sorceress; she was a sorceress in a bad mood and they all knew it.
No one understood why she seemed so ill-tempered, but for two days everyone had walked on egg shells when they were around her. It had nothing to do with them, and not even anything to do with Richard racing off on his mad search for a woman who didn't exist, but none of them knew that. Nicci was mentally immersed in preparing herself for the ferocity of the violence to come, rehearsing in her mind the various things she might need to do, and hardening herself to it all.
When on the brink of unleashing almost inconceivable savagery, one did not hum a merry tune and remark on the lovely day. One nursed dark thoughts.
Nicci never bothered to try to explain her mood; going through the effort of doing so would drain some of her store of energy. Preparing in her mind to gather every bit of skill, knowledge, wisdom, and power she had at her disposal required a certain kind of withdrawal. There were violent and deadly forces these people could never begin to comprehend that she had to be ready to unleash in an instant. She couldn't explain all of that to everyone. They would just have to deal with it.
«Well?» she calmly asked the man as he stood silently catching his breath.
«It will work,» he said. «They do knitting and make cloth there. All three floors are pretty open so archers will be able to quickly and easily move from window to window to get the best shot.»
Nicci nodded. She put a hand to her brow to shield her eyes from the low sun as she looked back to the west along the wide boulevard. She studied the layout of the roads and the angles at which they crossed. She finally decided that the crossroads where they stood, with the brick building across the way, was the best spot. With as wide as both thoroughfares were, these roads would likely be the choice of enemy cavalry in the eastern part of the city. She knew the way the Order ran their attacks. They liked width so as to present the strongest front, the most powerful blow in order to break the enemy apart. She was pretty sure that they would send cavalry in this way if they came in from the east, as she expected.
«Good,» she told the man. «See to getting archers here along with a heavy supply of arrows. Be quick about it-I don't think we have much time.»
As he ran to see to it, Nicci spotted Ishaq in the distance racing up the road in a wagon pulled by two of his big draft horses. He looked to be in a hurry. She had a good idea why he was coming for her, but she tried not to think about it. She turned to another of the men with her.
«Back there, just after the brick building where we will station the archers, I want spikes placed. The span of the road is hemmed in by buildings on both sides.» She gestured to the road that crossed the main thoroughfare before the brick building. «Down the street to each side as well, so that if the remaining men charging in try to take either route to escape they will get the same.»
Once the enemy charged up the main route into Altur'Rang, they would abruptly pull up the spikes to impale them. The archers would then pick off all the those caught in the bottleneck between the spikes and the men still rushing up from the rear.
The man nodded and ran off to see to her orders. She had already instructed everyone on the spikes. Victor had his blacksmith shop and a number of others working feverishly to manufacture the simple but deadly traps. They were little more than sharpened iron bar stock that was all connected together, almost like a picket fence, but with different length chain between the top crossbar and the upper portion of the spikes.
Sections of these linked spikes were laid in the roads all over the city. Lying down flat they didn't prevent travel on the road, but when cavalry charged in the pointed ends of the entire section were lifted and an iron brace was jammed in place. The different length of chains attaching the spikes to the crossbar allowed the deadly spikes to hang at varying distances from the crossbar, thus making them stick up at different angles. Making them stick up at uneven angles allowed them to be far more treacherous than a simple straight line of spikes. If it was done properly, the enemy cavalry would unexpectedly run their horses right onto the sharp iron tips. Even if they tried to jump them the horses would more likely than not be ripped open. It was simple but highly effective.
There were traps made of the iron sections all over the city, usually at intersections. Once the sections were lifted they couldn't easily be lowered. The panicked horses would be gored on the spikes or at the least wouldn't be able to escape the confinement created by the obstacle. As the cavalry charged up onto the spikes, the soldiers would either be thrown off their horses and likely injured or killed, or they would have to dismount in order to try to deal with the obstruction. Either way, the archers would then have a much better chance of picking them off than if they were just charging past.
The men manning the sections of spikes were instructed to judge the situation and not to necessarily pull the spikes up just as the cavalry ran up to them. In some cases it would be better to wait until some of the men had already charged past. If there was a large number of cavalry this would allow the defenders to split the enemy force, not only spreading confusion among the attack, but breaking it apart, severing the lines of command, making it lose its advantage of unity, and making it easier to deal with the fragmented force. Decisively eliminating the cavalry was essential to stopping the invasion.
Nicci knew, though, that in the panic of facing a frightening wall of charging enemy soldiers screaming for blood, such careful plans tended to be forgotten. She knew that at the sight of such fearsome soldiers with weapons raised, some of the men would flee, failing to raise the spikes before they did. Nicci had seen such terror before. That was why she had placed redundant sections of spikes.
Nearly everyone in the city was committed to its defense. Some would be more effective than others. Even women at home with children had supplies of things, from rocks to boiling oil, that they intended to throw down on any invading soldiers. There had not been a lot of time to make extravagant weapons, but there were men everywhere with stacks of spears. A sharpened pole wasn't fancy, but if it took down a cavalry horse or impaled a man, it was fancy enough. It didn't matter if it was cavalry or foot soldiers, they all had to be defeated, so there were men of the city by the thousands with bows. With a bow, even an old man could kill a vigorous, muscular, hulking young soldier.
An arrow could even take down a wizard.
It would be futile to have the men of the city trying to fight experienced soldiers in a traditional battle. They had to deny the Order's soldiers everything they were used to using.
Nicci's object had been to make the city one big trap. Now, she had to draw the Order into that trap.
To that end, she saw Ishaq's wagon rumbling toward her. People scattered out of the way. Ishaq pulled back on the reins and drew the big horses to a halt. A cloud of dust boiled up.
He set the brake and leaped down off the wagon, something she wouldn't have expected he could do with such agility. He held his hat on with one hand as he ran. He was holding something else up in his other hand.
«Nicci! Nicci!»
She turned to the men with her. «You'd all best see to the things we've discussed. I don't think we have more than a few hours.»
The men looked surprised and alarmed.
«You don't think they will wait until morning?» one asked.
«No. I believe they will attack this evening.» She didn't tell them why she thought so.
The men nodded and rushed off to their assignments.
Ishaq came to a panting halt. His face was nearly as red as his hat.
«Nicci, a message.» He waved the paper before her. «A message for the mayor.»
Nicci's insides tightened.
«A group of men rode in,» he said. «They were carrying a white flag, just as you said they would. They brought a message for 'the mayor.' How did you know?»
She ignored the question. «Have you read it, yet?»
His face went red. «Yes. So did Victor. He is very angry. It is not a good thing to make the blacksmith angry.»
«Do you have a horse, as I requested?»
«Yes, yes, I have a horse.» He handed her the paper. «But I think that you had better read this.»
Nicci unfolded the paper and read it silently to herself.
Citizen mayor,
I received word that the people of Altur'Rang, under your direction, wish to renounce their sinful ways and bow again to the wise, merciful, and sovereign authority of the Imperial Order.
If it is true that you wish to spare the people of Altur'Rang the total destruction we reserve for insurrectionists and heathens, then as a token of your good intent and willing submission to the jurisdiction of the Imperial Order, you will bind your lovely and loyal wife's hands and send her to me as your humble gift. Fail to turn over your wife as instructed and everyone in Altur'Rang will die.
In the service of the merciful Creator, Brother Kronos, Commander of His Excellency's reunification force.
Nicci crushed the message in her fist. «Let's go.»
Ishaq replaced his hat and scrambled to catch up with her as she marched toward the wagon. «You don't seriously intend to do as this brute demands, do you?»
Nicci put a foot on the iron step and climbed up onto the wagon's wooden seat. «Let's go, Ishaq.»
He muttered to himself as he climbed into the wagon beside her. He threw off the brake and flicked the reins, yelling for people to get out of the way as he swung the wagon around. Dirt and dust spiraled up off the wheels as he turned the wagon around in the road. He cracked his whip above the horses' flanks, crying out to urge them away. The wagon slid around and finally straightened as the horses threw their weight against the hames.
Nicci held on to the side rail with one hand as the wagon lurched ahead, letting her other hand, with the message crumpled in her fist, rest in the lap of her red dress. She watched without seeing as they raced through the streets of Altur'Rang, past buildings and storefronts, other wagons, horses, and people on foot. Low sunlight flickered through rows of trees to the left as they raced north along the wide boulevard. At vegetable, cheese, bread, and butcher stands under awnings, some drab and some striped, a press of people were buying up all the food they could before the impending storm.
The road narrowed as it passed into ancient sections of the city, becoming clogged with wagons, horses, and people. Without slowing much at all, Ishaq swung his two big draft horses off the main road and took shortcuts through alleyways behind tightly packed rows of buildings where entire families lived in a single room. Laundry stretched on lines that crisscrossed small yards and in a number of places, strung between opposing second-story apartments, stretched across the alleyway over their heads. Nearly each tiny plot in the back of the crowded buildings was used for growing food or keeping chickens. Wings flapped and feathers flew as the birds panicked at the sight of the wagon thundering past their yard.
Ishaq deftly handled the team as it raced at a frightening speed, guiding them around obstacles of shacks, fences, walls, and random trees. He called out warnings as he charged across busy roads. Startled people drew back, letting him pass.
The wagon turned up a street Nicci remembered all too well, following beside a short wall that eventually curved it along the entrance road to the warehouse doors of Ishaq's transport company. The wagon bounced into the rutted yard outside the building and came to a crooked halt in the shade of huge oaks rising above the wall.
At the same time, when he had been around, his single-minded determination to find his imagined love had been draining. In fact, she had sometimes wanted to strangle him. She had tried everything from patience to anger in an attempt to get him to come around to seeing the truth, but it had been like trying to push against a mountain. In the end, nothing she'd done or said had made any difference.
For his own sake she earnestly wanted to help him to come to grips with reality. To do so she had to challenge him in an effort to try to get him to come to his senses before something terrible happened, but at the same time trying to make him see the truth somehow always seemed to cast her as a villain working against him. She hated being in that position.
Nicci hoped that by the time she finished helping to rid Altur'Rang of the threat of the approaching Imperial Order troops and their wizard, Kronos, she could quickly catch up with Richard and Cara. With spare horses and as fast as she knew he would ride, Nicci realized that she would not be able to catch up with him until after he reached the witch woman. If he even made it that far. If Shota didn't kill him once he did.
From what Nicci knew of witches, Richard's chances of coming out of her lair alive were pretty slim. He would have to face the witch woman without Nicci's help and protection. Still, he knew the woman, and she was a woman in every sense, from what Nicci had heard of her, so maybe Richard would at least be civil. It was not at all wise to be impolite to witches.
But even surviving an encounter with a witch woman he would still be devastated if she didn't help him and Nicci knew she couldn't because there was no missing woman for Richard to find. At times it infuriated her that he was so obstinate about something so obviously nothing more than an illusion. At other times she worried that he really was losing his mind. That was too chilling a thought to contemplate.
Nicci paused at the side of the road with a sudden, terrible realization.
The men following her lurched to a halt when she did, bringing her out of her thoughts. They were all with her either to see to her instructions in regard to some of the defenses of the city or else to carry messages as needed. Now they stood silent and uneasy, not knowing why she had stopped.
«Up there,» she said to the men, pointing at a three story brick building on the corner across the street. «Make sure that we can use that place to good advantage and put at least a couple dozen archers in the windows. See that they have a large supply of arrows.»
«I will go take a look,» one of the men said before running off across the road, dodging wagons, horses, and hand-drawn carts.
People rushed along the side of the street passing around Nicci and the men with her as if they were a rock in a swiftly moving river. Passersby spoke in hushed tones among themselves as they coursed between clusters of hawkers calling out trying to sell their goods, or people gathered to urgently discuss the impending battle for the city and what they would do to protect themselves. Wagons of every sort, from big freight wagons pulled by teams of six horses to small wagons pulled by a single horse, sped past in a hurry to complete the stockpiling of provisions or other necessary work while they still could.
Despite the din of horses, wagons, and people, Nicci didn't really hear any of it; she was thinking about the witch woman.
Nicci had suddenly realized that Shota might not simply be unwilling to help Richard, but she might not tell him so. Witch women had their own way of doing things, and their own ends.
If this woman thought Richard was being too insistent or assertive, she very well might decide to get rid of him by sending him on a useless quest to the ends of the world. She very well might do such a thing simply to amuse herself, or to doom him to die a slow death on an endless march across some distant desert. A witch woman might do such a thing just because she could. Richard, in his urgency to find his fantasy woman, wouldn't consider those possibilities. He would promptly head off to where she pointed.
Nicci was furious with herself for letting him leave to go to such a dangerous woman. But what could she do? She couldn't very well forbid him from going.
Her only chance was to get rid of Brother Kronos and his troops as swiftly as possible and then go after Richard and do what she could to protect him.
She spotted the man she had sent to check the brick building sidestepping his way between the wagons and horses as he ran back across the road. Nicci noticed that even with all the people out traveling the roads of the city, it was still much less busy than an ordinary day. People everywhere were making preparations; some had already holed up in places where they thought they might be safe. Nicci had been with the Order when they swept into a city; there was no safe place.
The man dodged his way around an empty wagon bouncing past and at last reached Nicci's side. He stood silently waiting. He was afraid to speak until she requested his report. He was afraid of her. Everyone was afraid of her. She wasn't just a sorceress; she was a sorceress in a bad mood and they all knew it.
No one understood why she seemed so ill-tempered, but for two days everyone had walked on egg shells when they were around her. It had nothing to do with them, and not even anything to do with Richard racing off on his mad search for a woman who didn't exist, but none of them knew that. Nicci was mentally immersed in preparing herself for the ferocity of the violence to come, rehearsing in her mind the various things she might need to do, and hardening herself to it all.
When on the brink of unleashing almost inconceivable savagery, one did not hum a merry tune and remark on the lovely day. One nursed dark thoughts.
Nicci never bothered to try to explain her mood; going through the effort of doing so would drain some of her store of energy. Preparing in her mind to gather every bit of skill, knowledge, wisdom, and power she had at her disposal required a certain kind of withdrawal. There were violent and deadly forces these people could never begin to comprehend that she had to be ready to unleash in an instant. She couldn't explain all of that to everyone. They would just have to deal with it.
«Well?» she calmly asked the man as he stood silently catching his breath.
«It will work,» he said. «They do knitting and make cloth there. All three floors are pretty open so archers will be able to quickly and easily move from window to window to get the best shot.»
Nicci nodded. She put a hand to her brow to shield her eyes from the low sun as she looked back to the west along the wide boulevard. She studied the layout of the roads and the angles at which they crossed. She finally decided that the crossroads where they stood, with the brick building across the way, was the best spot. With as wide as both thoroughfares were, these roads would likely be the choice of enemy cavalry in the eastern part of the city. She knew the way the Order ran their attacks. They liked width so as to present the strongest front, the most powerful blow in order to break the enemy apart. She was pretty sure that they would send cavalry in this way if they came in from the east, as she expected.
«Good,» she told the man. «See to getting archers here along with a heavy supply of arrows. Be quick about it-I don't think we have much time.»
As he ran to see to it, Nicci spotted Ishaq in the distance racing up the road in a wagon pulled by two of his big draft horses. He looked to be in a hurry. She had a good idea why he was coming for her, but she tried not to think about it. She turned to another of the men with her.
«Back there, just after the brick building where we will station the archers, I want spikes placed. The span of the road is hemmed in by buildings on both sides.» She gestured to the road that crossed the main thoroughfare before the brick building. «Down the street to each side as well, so that if the remaining men charging in try to take either route to escape they will get the same.»
Once the enemy charged up the main route into Altur'Rang, they would abruptly pull up the spikes to impale them. The archers would then pick off all the those caught in the bottleneck between the spikes and the men still rushing up from the rear.
The man nodded and ran off to see to her orders. She had already instructed everyone on the spikes. Victor had his blacksmith shop and a number of others working feverishly to manufacture the simple but deadly traps. They were little more than sharpened iron bar stock that was all connected together, almost like a picket fence, but with different length chain between the top crossbar and the upper portion of the spikes.
Sections of these linked spikes were laid in the roads all over the city. Lying down flat they didn't prevent travel on the road, but when cavalry charged in the pointed ends of the entire section were lifted and an iron brace was jammed in place. The different length of chains attaching the spikes to the crossbar allowed the deadly spikes to hang at varying distances from the crossbar, thus making them stick up at different angles. Making them stick up at uneven angles allowed them to be far more treacherous than a simple straight line of spikes. If it was done properly, the enemy cavalry would unexpectedly run their horses right onto the sharp iron tips. Even if they tried to jump them the horses would more likely than not be ripped open. It was simple but highly effective.
There were traps made of the iron sections all over the city, usually at intersections. Once the sections were lifted they couldn't easily be lowered. The panicked horses would be gored on the spikes or at the least wouldn't be able to escape the confinement created by the obstacle. As the cavalry charged up onto the spikes, the soldiers would either be thrown off their horses and likely injured or killed, or they would have to dismount in order to try to deal with the obstruction. Either way, the archers would then have a much better chance of picking them off than if they were just charging past.
The men manning the sections of spikes were instructed to judge the situation and not to necessarily pull the spikes up just as the cavalry ran up to them. In some cases it would be better to wait until some of the men had already charged past. If there was a large number of cavalry this would allow the defenders to split the enemy force, not only spreading confusion among the attack, but breaking it apart, severing the lines of command, making it lose its advantage of unity, and making it easier to deal with the fragmented force. Decisively eliminating the cavalry was essential to stopping the invasion.
Nicci knew, though, that in the panic of facing a frightening wall of charging enemy soldiers screaming for blood, such careful plans tended to be forgotten. She knew that at the sight of such fearsome soldiers with weapons raised, some of the men would flee, failing to raise the spikes before they did. Nicci had seen such terror before. That was why she had placed redundant sections of spikes.
Nearly everyone in the city was committed to its defense. Some would be more effective than others. Even women at home with children had supplies of things, from rocks to boiling oil, that they intended to throw down on any invading soldiers. There had not been a lot of time to make extravagant weapons, but there were men everywhere with stacks of spears. A sharpened pole wasn't fancy, but if it took down a cavalry horse or impaled a man, it was fancy enough. It didn't matter if it was cavalry or foot soldiers, they all had to be defeated, so there were men of the city by the thousands with bows. With a bow, even an old man could kill a vigorous, muscular, hulking young soldier.
An arrow could even take down a wizard.
It would be futile to have the men of the city trying to fight experienced soldiers in a traditional battle. They had to deny the Order's soldiers everything they were used to using.
Nicci's object had been to make the city one big trap. Now, she had to draw the Order into that trap.
To that end, she saw Ishaq's wagon rumbling toward her. People scattered out of the way. Ishaq pulled back on the reins and drew the big horses to a halt. A cloud of dust boiled up.
He set the brake and leaped down off the wagon, something she wouldn't have expected he could do with such agility. He held his hat on with one hand as he ran. He was holding something else up in his other hand.
«Nicci! Nicci!»
She turned to the men with her. «You'd all best see to the things we've discussed. I don't think we have more than a few hours.»
The men looked surprised and alarmed.
«You don't think they will wait until morning?» one asked.
«No. I believe they will attack this evening.» She didn't tell them why she thought so.
The men nodded and rushed off to their assignments.
Ishaq came to a panting halt. His face was nearly as red as his hat.
«Nicci, a message.» He waved the paper before her. «A message for the mayor.»
Nicci's insides tightened.
«A group of men rode in,» he said. «They were carrying a white flag, just as you said they would. They brought a message for 'the mayor.' How did you know?»
She ignored the question. «Have you read it, yet?»
His face went red. «Yes. So did Victor. He is very angry. It is not a good thing to make the blacksmith angry.»
«Do you have a horse, as I requested?»
«Yes, yes, I have a horse.» He handed her the paper. «But I think that you had better read this.»
Nicci unfolded the paper and read it silently to herself.
Citizen mayor,
I received word that the people of Altur'Rang, under your direction, wish to renounce their sinful ways and bow again to the wise, merciful, and sovereign authority of the Imperial Order.
If it is true that you wish to spare the people of Altur'Rang the total destruction we reserve for insurrectionists and heathens, then as a token of your good intent and willing submission to the jurisdiction of the Imperial Order, you will bind your lovely and loyal wife's hands and send her to me as your humble gift. Fail to turn over your wife as instructed and everyone in Altur'Rang will die.
In the service of the merciful Creator, Brother Kronos, Commander of His Excellency's reunification force.
Nicci crushed the message in her fist. «Let's go.»
Ishaq replaced his hat and scrambled to catch up with her as she marched toward the wagon. «You don't seriously intend to do as this brute demands, do you?»
Nicci put a foot on the iron step and climbed up onto the wagon's wooden seat. «Let's go, Ishaq.»
He muttered to himself as he climbed into the wagon beside her. He threw off the brake and flicked the reins, yelling for people to get out of the way as he swung the wagon around. Dirt and dust spiraled up off the wheels as he turned the wagon around in the road. He cracked his whip above the horses' flanks, crying out to urge them away. The wagon slid around and finally straightened as the horses threw their weight against the hames.
Nicci held on to the side rail with one hand as the wagon lurched ahead, letting her other hand, with the message crumpled in her fist, rest in the lap of her red dress. She watched without seeing as they raced through the streets of Altur'Rang, past buildings and storefronts, other wagons, horses, and people on foot. Low sunlight flickered through rows of trees to the left as they raced north along the wide boulevard. At vegetable, cheese, bread, and butcher stands under awnings, some drab and some striped, a press of people were buying up all the food they could before the impending storm.
The road narrowed as it passed into ancient sections of the city, becoming clogged with wagons, horses, and people. Without slowing much at all, Ishaq swung his two big draft horses off the main road and took shortcuts through alleyways behind tightly packed rows of buildings where entire families lived in a single room. Laundry stretched on lines that crisscrossed small yards and in a number of places, strung between opposing second-story apartments, stretched across the alleyway over their heads. Nearly each tiny plot in the back of the crowded buildings was used for growing food or keeping chickens. Wings flapped and feathers flew as the birds panicked at the sight of the wagon thundering past their yard.
Ishaq deftly handled the team as it raced at a frightening speed, guiding them around obstacles of shacks, fences, walls, and random trees. He called out warnings as he charged across busy roads. Startled people drew back, letting him pass.
The wagon turned up a street Nicci remembered all too well, following beside a short wall that eventually curved it along the entrance road to the warehouse doors of Ishaq's transport company. The wagon bounced into the rutted yard outside the building and came to a crooked halt in the shade of huge oaks rising above the wall.