Goodkind Terry. Chainfire (Sword of Truth – 9)

   «You would have found it if I hadn't seen it first,» Jillian said, grinning.
   Richard smiled back.
   He turned to Nicci. «What happened to Jagang's men?»
   Nicci shrugged. «Night fog.»
   As Jillian went with her grandfather to greet Lokey on a nearby wall, Richard spoke confidentially to Nicci and Cara.
   «Fog?»
   «Yes.» Nicci interlaced her fingers around a knee. «Some kind of strange smoky fog drifted past them and made them go blind.»
   «Not just blind,» Cara said with obvious delight, «but burst their eyes right in their sockets. It was a bloody mess. I quite enjoyed it.»
   Richard frowned at Nicci, wanting an explanation.
   «They're scouts,» she said. «I know these men and they know me. I didn't want them seeing me. More than that, though, I wanted them to be useless to Jagang-the ones who live, anyway. From what Jillian's grandfather tells me, he doubts that many of them will make it back to Jagang's forces, but I made sure they were near enough to their horses so that their animals will carry them back. I want the ones who live through the ordeal to be able to report only the horror of the fog coming down from the hills-that they were blinded in a strange, forbidding, and haunted land. Such news will send a fright through his men.
   «Raping, pillaging, and slaughtering the helpless is all perfectly entertaining for Jagang's army, but they rather don't like things like this. Dying for the Creator in a grand battle and going to their reward in the afterlife is one thing, being taken by something they can't see coming out of the darkness and ending up helpless in this way is quite another matter.
   «I expect that Jagang will decide to skirt this land rather than allow some unknown out here to give his men a fright that could change their minds about fighting for the glory of the Creator and the Imperial Order. That means they will have to continue on south for a good distance. It will add time to their journey before they can finally swing around and come up into D'Hara.»
   Richard nodded thoughtfully. «Very good, Nicci. Very good.»
   She beamed. «What do you have there?»
   «Chainfire.» He moved up on the steps to sit between Nicci and Cara. «It's a book.» He hesitated in opening the cover. «In case this is some kind of prophecy or something, I'd just as soon you looked at it first.»
   Concern settled in her exquisite features. «Of course Richard. Give it here.»
   Richard handed her the book and stood. He didn't want to risk glancing at it and too late discovering that he shouldn't have, only to discover the beast about to tear into them. Especially not now, not when he was so close to getting answers.
   Nicci was already scanning the book, Cara looking over her shoulder.
   «It makes no sense,» Cara announced as she read from Chainfire.
   Richard didn't think that Nicci shared that opinion. Her face was draining of color. «Dear spirits.» she whispered to herself.
   As she kept reading, not saying anything to them, Richard sat on a rise of ground to the side, under an olive tree. There was a vine growing around the trunk. He reached out to idly pluck a leaf from the vine.
   He stopped, his hand inches from the dusky, variegated leaves.
   Icy gooseflesh prickled up his arms.
   He knew what that vine was.
   From The Book of Counted Shadows, the book that his father had him commit to memory before they destroyed it, the words flooded into his mind: And when the three boxes of Orden are put into play, the snake vine shall grow.
   «What's the matter?» Jillian whispered to him as she leaned close. «You look like you've seen a spirit.»
   «Have you ever seen this plant growing here, where your people live?»
   «No, I don't believe I have.»
   «She's right,» Jillian's grandfather said in a puzzled voice. «I've lived in these parts all my life. I don't recall seeing that vine before, except for a spell almost three years back, I believe it was. That's right, three years this coming autumn. Then it died away. Haven't seen it since.»
   Richard didn't see any pods on the newly sprouted vine. He reached out and carefully plucked a sprig.
   «Richard, this is an incredibly dangerous book,» Nicci said in a gravely troubled voice. She was preoccupied, still reading, and not paying any attention to the rest of them talking. «This is beyond dangerous.» She was reading as she spoke. «I'm only in the beginning, but this is — I don't even know how to begin.»
   Richard rose to his feet, holding the sprig of the vine out, staring at it.
   «We have to go,» he said. «Right now.»
   Something in the tone of his voice made Cara and even Nicci look up.
   «Lord Rahl, what is it?» Cara asked.
   «You look like you just saw the ghost of your father,» Nicci said.
   «No, this is worse,» Richard told her, finally looking up. «I understand. I know what's going on.»
   He ran to the steps down into his tomb. «Sliph! We need to travel!»
   «But Richard, you have come to help me cast the dreams so that the evil people will not come here.»
   «Look, I have to leave. Right now.»
   «Lord Rahl has already helped us as much as he can for now,» her grandfather said as he put an arm around her slender shoulders. «If he can, he will return to us.»
   «That's right,» Richard said, «if I can I'll return. Thank you, Jillian, for helping me. You can't begin to imagine what you have done this day. Tell your people to stay away from that vine.»
   «Richard,» Nicci said, «what's gotten into you?»
   He seized Nicci's dress at her shoulder, and Cara's arm.
   «We have to get to the People's Palace. Now.»
   «Why? What's happening? What did you find?»
   Richard showed her the sprig of vine before stuffing it in a pocket and grabbing her arm again and forcing her down the steps.
   «This is a snake vine. It only grows when the boxes of Orden have been put in play.»
   «But the boxes of Orden are safe in the palace,» Cara protested.
   «They're not safe any longer. Those Sisters have put the magic of Orden in play. Sliph! We need to travel to the People's Palace.»
   «Come, we will travel.»
   Nicci was still fighting him as he pulled her along. «Richard, I don't see what this has to do with your dream of this woman.»
   Richard slapped the metal plate, starting the ceiling of the tomb closing. «Good bye, Jillian. Thank you. I will return someday.»
   As she waved, he snatched up his bow and quiver.
   He turned to Nicci. «They need Kahlan. She's the last living Confessor. They put the boxes of Orden in play. They need the book I have memorized. The first thing it says is 'Verification of the truth of the words of the Book of Counted Shadows, if spoken by another, rather than read by the one who commands the boxes, can only be insured by the use of a Confessor. — ' «
   The ceiling finished closing. In the distance, Richard could hear Jillian call, «Good-bye, Richard. Safe journey.»
   «Richard, this is crazy. It's just.»
   «Now is not the time to argue with me.»
   She knew by his tone of voice that he meant it.
   He climbed up on the wall and hoisted both women up.
   «Here, wait,» Nicci said as she opened the pack. «You had better keep this safe.» She stuffed Chainfire down inside and tied the flap down tight.
   «Any idea what Chainfire is about?» he asked.
   Her blue eyes gazed into his. «From what I was able to tell from the tiny bit I saw in the beginning, it's a theoretical formula for conjuring things that have the potential to unravel existence.»
   «Unravel existence?» Cara asked. «What does that mean?»
   «I'm not exactly sure. But it seems to be a discussion of a theory of a specific magic that if ever initiated could potentially destroy the world of life.»
   «Why in the world would they need that?» Richard asked. «They have the magic of Orden, now.»
   Nicci didn't answer. She didn't believe his theory; it involved Kahlan.
   «Sliph, now, please. Take us to the People's Palace.»
   The silver arm swept them up. «Come, we will travel.»
   Just before they plunged into the silvery froth, Nicci and Cara each seized one of his hands.

CHAPTER 63

   Nicci had hardly gotten her bearings, hardly recognized that they were in a marble room, hardly let the sliph out of her lungs and pulled in a desperate gasp of air, when Richard was already pulling her up over the wall by the hand.
   Despite everything, she was still able, in some dim part of her mind, to thrill at holding his hand, for whatever reason.
   She had thought that while in the sliph traveling to the People's Palace, that she would be able to give thought to Richard's strange new twist of finding a bit of a vine and leaping to the conclusion that the boxes of Orden were in play-all in an attempt to prove that Kahlan was real.
   The room they were in was shielded. Richard pulled her and Cara through the powerful shield. They ran up a marble hall and out a double silver door with a lake embossed into the metal.
   «I know this place,» Cara said. «I know where we are.»
   «Good,» Richard said, «then you lead the way. And hurry.»
   There were times when Nicci almost wished that she had gone along with Zedd, Ann, and Nathan's plan to purge him of his memory of Kahlan.
   Except for one thing. She had tried the theory on one of Jagang's men back in Caska. She had tried to use Subtractive Magic to eliminate the man's memory of the emperor. It sounded simple enough. She had done just as the three had wanted Nicci to do to Richard.
   There had only been one problem.
   It had killed the man. Killed him in a most horrifying fashion.
   When she thought about how she had almost done that to Richard, how for a time she had let them talk her into it and had been committed to doing it, she had gotten so weak and dizzy that she had to sit down on the ground next to the dead soldier. Cara had thought Nicci had been about to pass out. The idea of what she had almost done left her shaking for an hour.
   «Here,» Cara said as she led them up stairs that emptied into a broad corridor with parts of the roof glassed.
   The light flooding in was reddish, so it was either almost sunset or just after dawn, Nicci didn't know which. It was a disorienting feeling not to know if it was day or night.
   The halls were filled with people. Many of them stopped to stare at the three people running along the corridor. Guards also noticed and came running, hands to weapons, until they saw Cara in her red leather outfit. Many of the people recognized Richard and dropped to a knee, bowing as he ran past. He didn't slow to acknowledge them.
   They went up a dizzying array of passages, over bridges, along balconies, between columns, and through rooms. Intermittently they ran up stairs. Occasionally Cara took them through service halls, undoubtedly as shortcuts.
   Nicci took note of how magnificent the palace was, how remarkably beautiful. The patterned stone floors were laid with rare precision. There were grand statues-none as remarkable as the statue Richard had carved, but grand nonetheless. She saw a tapestry that was larger than any she had seen in her life. It depicted a sprawling battle and must have had several hundred horses in it.
   «This way,» Cara said, pointing down a hall as she rushed toward it.
   As they came around the corner, Cara crossed over to the other side of the passageway as she ran down it. Nicci, pulled along by her hand, would have liked to have discussed a number of things, to have asked some important and pointed questions, but it was all she could do to get her breath as she ran. Running was not something she really ever did until she met Richard.
   Cara slid to slow down as she came to a pair of carved mahogany doors. Nicci was revolted to see the snakes carved into them. Without pause, Richard seized one of the door handles, a bronze skull, and yanked the door open.
   Inside the quiet, carpeted room, four guards immediately sprang to block Richard's path. They saw Cara, and looked at Richard again, uncertain.
   «Lord Rahl?» One asked.
   «That's right,» Cara snapped. «Now, get out of the way.»
   The men immediately pulled back, each putting a fist to their hearts.
   «Has anything happened recently?» Richard asked as he caught his breath.
   «Happened?»
   «Intruders? Has anyone slipped in this way?»
   The man snorted a laugh. «Hardly, Lord Rahl. We'd know if that happened and we'd not allow it.»
   Richard nodded his thanks and raced to the marble stairs, nearly pulling Nicci's arm out of the socket in the process. As they ran up the steps, Nicci thought that her legs might simply quit. Her muscles were so exhausted from the long run up through the palace that she could hardly make them go on, but she had to, for Richard.
   At the top of the stairs, soldiers were running toward them, crossbows loaded with red-fletched arrows at the ready. They didn't know it was the Lord Rahl. They thought someone was trying to get into the restricted area. Nicci hoped that someone got hold of their senses before one of the men got careless.
   But by their reactions, Nicci realized that these men were highly trained and not prone to shooting arrows before they were sure of their target. Lucky for them, because she would have been faster.
   «Commander General Trimack?» Richard asked an officer pushing his way through the ring of steel that had surrounded them.
   The man stiffened and clapped a fist to his heart. «Lord Rahl!» He spotted the Mord-Sith. «Cara?»
   Cara nodded in greeting.
   Richard clasped arms with the man. «General, someone has gotten in here. They've taken the boxes in the Garden of Life.»
   The general was momentarily struck speechless. «What? Lord Rahl, that's not possible. You have to be mistaken. No one could get past us without our knowing it. It's been peaceful as can be up here for ages. Why, we've only had one visitor.»
   «Visitor? Who?»
   «The Prelate. Verna. It was a while back. She was in the palace checking on something about books of magic, she said. She said that as long as she was here, she wanted to have a look to make sure the boxes were safe.»
   «So you let her go in there?»
   The general looked a bit indignant. A long scar stood out white when his face went red.
   «No, Lord Rahl. I wouldn't let her go in there. What we ended up doing was opening the doors so she could look in to see that everything was safe.»
   «Look in?»
   «That's right. We surrounded her with men, all pointing these special arrows at her-arrows Nathan Rahl found for us that will stop even the gifted. We had her ringed in steel. The poor woman looked like a pincushion about to happen.»
   Men all around nodded at the general's words.
   «She looked in the garden and said she was relieved to see that everything was fine. I took a look myself and saw the three black boxes sitting on the stone slab across the room. But I never let the woman set foot beyond the doors, I swear.»
   Richard heaved a sigh. «And that's it? No one else has opened those doors?»
   «No, Lord Rahl. No one else has even been up here but my men. No one. We don't let anyone even use these halls around the Garden of Life. As you may recall, you were rather insistent about it the last time you were here.»
   Richard nodded, thinking. He looked up. «Well, let's go have a look.»
   The men, all jangling with weapons and armor, followed the surprise visitors down the polished granite hall until they reached two huge, gold covered doors.
   Without waiting for someone else to do it, Richard pulled one of the heavy doors open and started into the room. The soldiers paused at the doors. This was apparently sacred ground, a sanctuary for the master of the palace alone, and unless invited by the Lord Rahl, none of them would enter. Richard didn't invite them as he rushed off on his own.
   Despite how tired she was, Nicci hurried after him as he made his way down a path among beds of flowers. Overhead, through a glassed roof, she could see that the sky had turned to a darker purple, so she knew it was night, rather than dawn.
   Just like Richard, Nicci paid little attention to the vine covered walls, or the trees, or all the other things growing all around. The garden was a magnificent place, to be sure, but her gaze was riveted on the stone altar she saw in the distance. She didn't see any of the three boxes that were supposed to be there. There was something else standing on the slab of granite, but she couldn't tell what it was.
   By the way Richard's chest was heaving, he did know what was standing there.
   They crossed a ring of grass, and the open dirt. In the dirt, Richard stopped cold in mid-stride and stared down at the ground.
   «Lord Rahl,» Cara asked, «what is it?»
   «Her tracks,» he whispered. «I recognize them. These aren't covered by magic. She was here alone.» He gestured to the dirt. «Two sets. She was in here twice.» He looked back at the grass, following what he could see that they couldn't. «She was on her knees there, in the grass.»
   He took off and ran the rest of the way to the stone altar. Nicci and Cara sprang into a run to keep up with him.
   When they reached the slab of granite, Nicci knew at last what it was that stood there all alone.
   It was the statue of the woman that had been carved in marble in Liberty Square in Altur'Rang. The original statue Richard had told them he had carved. The statue he said belonged to Kahlan. Nicci could see that there were bloody handprints all over it.
   Richard picked up the carved wooden figure in trembling hands and drew it to his breast, gasping back a sob. Nicci thought that he might fall to the ground, but he didn't.
   When he had held it for a moment, he turned to them, tears running down his face. He held out to Cara and Nicci the statue of the proud figure, her head thrown back, her hands fisted at her sides.
   «This is the statue I carved for Kahlan. This is Spirit. This is the statue I told you could not be in Altur'Rang because she had it with her. If they copied this statue in stone down in Altur'Rang in the Old World, then how did it get here?»
   Nicci stared at it, her eyes wide, trying to reconcile what she was seeing. She couldn't comprehend the contradiction. She remembered Richard trying to understand what he had seen at the grave site where the Mother Confessor was buried. Now she knew how he had felt.
   «Richard, I don't understand how that could have gotten here.»
   «Kahlan left it here! She left it here for me to find! She took the boxes of Orden for the Sisters! Don't you get it? Don't you at last see the truth standing before you?»
   Unable to say more, he pulled the statue back to his chest as if it were the most precious treasure in the world.
   In that moment, seeing the pain trembling through him, Nicci wondered what it would be like to have him love her that much.
   At the same time, despite her confusion, despite sadness for what she was seeing, for the pain he was so obviously in, she felt joy, joy that Richard had someone who meant that much to him, someone who could make him feel that way — even if she was imaginary. Nicci was not yet convinced that she wasn't.
   «Do you understand now?» he asked. «Do you two get it, now?»
   Cara, looking as stunned as Nicci felt, shook her head. «No, Lord Rahl, I don't understand.»
   He lifted the small statue. «No one remembers her. She probably walked right past those men and they forgot her, just like you forgot all the thousands of times you've seen her. She's all alone, in the hands of those four Sisters, and they made her come in here and get the boxes. Do you see the blood all over it? Her blood? You should understand that. Can you imagine how she feels, all alone, forgotten by everyone? She left this, probably hoping someone would see it and know she exists.»
   He thrust it at Cara, then at Nicci. «Look at it! It's covered in blood! There's blood on the altar. There's blood on the floor. There are her footprints. How do you think the boxes are gone and this is here? She was here.»
   The indoor garden was dead silent. Nicci was so confused she didn't know what to believe. She knew what she was seeing, but it didn't seem possible.
   «Do you believe me, now?» Richard asked them both.
   Cara swallowed. «Lord Rahl, I believe what you are saying, but I still don't remember her.»
   When his raptor gaze slid to Nicci, she, too, swallowed at the power of that look.
   «Richard, I don't know what is going on. What you say is certainly powerful evidence, but, like Cara says, I still don't remember her. I'm sorry, but I can't lie to you and tell you what you want to hear just to make you happy. I'm telling you the truth. I still don't know what you're talking about.»
   «I know you don't,» he said with sudden, quiet, remarkable sympathy. «It's what I've been telling you. Something terrible is happening. No one remembers her. Anything that could cause such an event is undoubtedly powerful and extremely dangerous conjuring, able to be engendered only by the most powerful people who have command of both sides of the gift. Magic so dangerous that it would be hidden in a book buried in a catacomb behind shields where the wizards who put it there hoped no one would ever find it.»
   «Chainfire» Nicci breathed. «But from the brief bit I saw of it, this somehow has the power to undo the world of life.»
   «What do the Sisters care?» Richard asked in a bitter voice. «They've already put the boxes of Orden in play. It is their intent to end life on behalf of the Keeper of the dead. You should understand that better than anyone.»
   Nicci put a hand to her forehead. «Dear spirits, I think you may be right.» She couldn't feel her fingertips. She was tingling all over with dread. «From the little bit I read, Chainfire sounds like it might be something along the lines of what Zedd, Ann, and Nathan wanted me to do to you-use Subtractive Magic to make you forget Kahlan. If what you say is true, then in a way, that might be what the Sisters did-they made everyone else forget her.»
   Nicci looked up into his gray eyes, eyes she could lose herself in. She felt tears of fright run down her cheeks.
   «Richard, I tried that.»
   «What are you talking about?»
   «I tried what they wanted me to do to you. I tried it on one of Jagang's men, back at Caska. Tried to make him forget Jagang. It was fatal. What if that's what Chainfire does to everyone?»
   Richard heaved an angry breath. «Come on.»
   He marched out of the garden to a general and his guards waiting out in the polished granite hallway, huddled around the entrance to the Garden of Life.
   «Lord Rahl,» the general said, «I don't see the boxes any more.»
   «They've been stolen.»
   Jaws of men standing all around dropped in stunned astonishment. General Trimack's eyes went wide. «Stolen — but, who could have stolen them?»
   Richard held up the statue and waggled it in front of the man. «My wife.»
   General Trimack looked like he didn't know whether to scream in fury or commit suicide on the spot. He instead rubbed a hand back and forth on his mouth as he thought through everything he'd heard and apparently tried to put it together with any other information he had. He looked up at Richard with the kind of intent look that few men other than generals could muster.
   «I get reports all the time, Lord Rahl. I insist that I see all reports-you never can tell what bit of information you might learn that could turn out to be helpful. General Meiffert sends me reports as well. Since he's now close by, I get them within hours. Soon he and the troops will be moving south and it will take longer, but for now, I get them fresh.»
   «I'm listening.»
   «Well, I don't know if it means anything, but the latest report I got early this morning said that they came across a woman, an old woman, who had been stabbed by a sword. She's in bad shape, according to the report. I don't know why he sent me a report on such a thing, but General Meiffert is a pretty smart fellow, and I have to think that there was just something bloody odd about it for him to want me to know.»
   «How close is he?» Richard asked. «The army, I mean. How close?»
   The general shrugged. «By horse? Ride half way hard and they're not more than an hour or two away.»
   «Then get me some horses. Immediately.»
   General Trimack clapped a fist over his heart at the same time as he signaled a couple men forward. «Run on ahead and get some horses ready for the Lord Rahl.» He looked at Richard, then glanced at Cara and Nicci. «Three horses?»
   «Yes, three,» Richard confirmed.
   «And an escort of the First File to show him the way and provide protection.»
   The two men nodded and took off at a dead run for the stairs.
   «Lord Rahl, I don't know what to say. I will of course resign.»
   «Don't be silly. This isn't something you could have done anything about; it was deception by magic. It's my fault for letting this happen. I'm the Lord Rahl. I'm supposed to be the magic against magic.»
   Nicci could only think that he had been trying to be, but no one would believe him.
   Without sparing any time to rest, Richard, Cara, and Nicci, escorted by a company of the palace guards, rushed through the grand, wide corridors of Richard's ancestral home. People along their route scattered out of the way of the wedge of guards coming down the halls. Behind the guards, Cara marched out in front of Richard. Nicci rushed along at his side.
   As they made their way down a smaller corridor, with fewer people, Richard slowed and then stopped. The guards stopped far enough away to be handy, but to give him his privacy. As everyone waited, Richard gazed down a side passageway. Cara looked uncomfortable.
   «Quarters for Mord-Sith,» Cara explained to Nicci in answer to the unspoken question in her eyes.
   «Denna's room was down that hall.» Richard gestured the other way. «Your room was down there, Cara.»
   Cara blinked. «How do you know that?»
   He looked at her for a moment, his expression unreadable. «Cara, I remember being there.»
   Cara turned as red as her leather outfit. «You remember?» Richard nodded. «You know?» she whispered, panic coming into her eyes.
   «Cara,» he said gently, «of course I know.»
   Her eyes brimmed with tears. «How did you know?»
   He gestured to her right wrist. «When I've touched your Agiel, it hurts. An Agiel only hurts when a person touches it if it was used to train them, or if the Mord-Sith intends it to hurt.»
   She closed her eyes. «Lord Rahl — I'm sorry.»
   «It was a long time ago, when you were a different person, and I was the enemy of your Lord Rahl. Things change, Cara.»
   «Are you sure I've changed enough?»
   «Others made you into who you were. You made yourself into what you have become.» He smiled. «Remember when the beast hurt you, and I healed you?»
   «How could I ever forget it?»
   «Then you know how I feel.»
   She smiled at that.
   Richard's brow drew together. «Touch.» His eyes lit up with sudden recognition.
   «The sword.»
   «What?» Nicci asked.
   «The Sword of Truth. That morning, when I was asleep, I think the Sisters cast a spell to make me sleep more soundly so they could take Kahlan. But I put my hand on the sword. I was touching the Sword of Truth when they took her and made everyone forget Kahlan. The sword protected me from that magic. That's why I remember her. The Sword of Truth was a countermeasure to what they did.»
   Richard started out again. «Come on, we need to get to the encampment and see who that injured woman is.»
   Baffled, Nicci followed after him.

CHAPTER 64

   Nicci was surprised by the encampment. She was so used to being among Jagang's army that she hadn't really given any thought to how different these men might be. It made sense, of course, but she had just never given it any thought.
   Even in the dark, there was still the light of all the fires and she expected to be the center of morbid attention, with men calling out the filthiest things they could think of in an attempt to shock her, or humiliate her, or frighten her. Men in the Order encampment always hooted and hollered at her, made obscene gestures, and laughed uproariously as she passed among them.
   These men, to be sure, looked her way. Nicci expected that it was a rare experience to see a woman like her riding into their camp. But they only looked. A glance, an admiring gaze, a smile here and there with a bow of the head in greeting was the most she got. It could be that she was riding in beside the Lord Rahl and a Mord-Sith in red leather, but Nicci didn't think so. These men were different. They were expected to conduct themselves with respect.
   Everywhere when men saw Richard, they were eager to clap a fist to their hearts in salute as they stood in pride, or trotted alone beside his horse for a time. They looked overjoyed to see him riding into their camp, to see their Lord Rahl among them again.
   The camp was also more orderly as well. That it was dry was a help; there were few things worse than an army camp in the wet. In this camp the animals were confined to areas where they wouldn't accidentally create trouble. Wagons were out of the main route through the camp. There actually were deliberate routes through the camp.
   The men looked weary from the long march, but their tents were set up in a rather systematic manner, not the haphazard, every-man-for-himself method the Imperial Order employed. The fires were small and were only what was needed, not the drunken revelry of men dancing, singing, and brawling around the bonfires.
   The other big difference was that there were not any torture tents set up. The Order always had an active area set aside for torture. A steady stream of people flowed in for questioning, and an equal number of corpses flowed out. The constant screams from victims made for a noisy camp.
   That was the other thing. It was rather quiet. Men were finishing with meals and bedding down for the night. It was a quiet time. In the Order's encampment, there wasn't any time that was quiet.
   «There,» one of the men escorting them said as he lifted an arm to point out the command tents in the darkness.
   A big blond-headed officer came out of one of the tents when he heard horses nearby. He had undoubtedly already been alerted that the Lord Rahl was on his way.
   Richard swung down off the saddle and stopped the man from going to his knees to do a devotion.
   «General Meiffert, it's good to see you again, but we don't have time for that.»
   He bowed his head. «As you wish, Lord Rahl.»
   Nicci watched the general's blue eyes glance to Cara as she came up beside Richard.
   He smoothed back his blond hair. «Mistress Cara.»
   «General.»
   «Life is too short for you two to pretend you don't care for each other,» Richard said, his anger surfacing. «You ought to realize that every moment you have together is precious and there is nothing wrong with holding someone in high regard. That's the kind of freedom we're fighting for. Well, isn't it?»
   «Yes, Lord Rahl,» General Meiffert said, somewhat taken aback.
   «We're here because of a report you sent about a woman who was stabbed. Is she still alive?»
   The young general nodded. «I haven't checked in the last hour or so, but she was, earlier. My field surgeons attended to her, but there are wounds well beyond their ability. This is one of those. She was stabbed in the gut. It's a slow and painful way to die. She's lived longer than I expected.»
   «Do you know her name?» Nicci asked.
   «She wouldn't tell us when she was wide awake, but when she was in a fevered state, we asked again and she said her name was Tovi.»
   Richard glanced at Nicci before asking, «What does she look like?»
   «Heavy set, older woman.»
   «Sounds like her,» Richard said as he wiped a hand across his face. «We need to see her. Right away.»
   The general nodded. «Follow me, then.»
   «Wait,» Nicci said.
   Richard turned back to her. «What is it?»
   «If you go in to see her, she won't tell you anything. Tovi hasn't seen me for ages. The last she knew, I was still a slave to Jagang and she had escaped. I might be able to talk to her in a way that will get the truth out of her.»
   Nicci could see how impatient Richard was to get his hands on one of the women that he believed was responsible for taking the woman he loved.
   Nicci still didn't know what she believed. She wondered if she still believed that he was only dreaming up this other woman simply because of her own feelings.
   «Richard,» she said as she stepped close to him so that she could talk confidentially, «let me do this. If you go in there it will spoil what I can do. I think I can get her to talk, but if she sees you, the game will be over.»
   «And how do you plan to accomplish getting her to talk?»
   «Look, do you want to know what happened to Kahlan, or do you want to argue about how I'm going to get that information?»
   He pressed his lips tight for a moment. «I don't care if you pull her intestines out an inch at a time, just get her to talk.»
   Nicci briefly put a hand on his shoulder on her way by as she followed after the general. Once they were away, she moved up and walked beside him as they marched through the nearly dark camp. She could see why Cara found the man attractive. He had one of those handsome faces that just didn't look like it could wear a lie well at all.
   «By the way,» he said, glancing over at her, «I'm General Meiffert.»
   Nicci nodded. «Benjamin.»
   He paused in the dark pathway through the camp. «How do you know that?»
   Nicci smiled. «Cara told me about you.» Still, he stared at her. She took his arm and started him moving again. «And for a Mord-Sith to speak so highly of a man is quite unusual.»
   «Cara spoke highly of me?»
   «Of course. She likes you. But you know that.»
   He clasped his hands behind his back as they walked. «I guess, then, that you must know that I think a lot of her.»
   «Of course.»
   «And who are you, anyway, might I ask? I'm sorry, but Lord Rahl didn't introduce us.»
   Nicci gave him a sidelong glance. «You may have heard of me as Death's Mistress.»
   General Meiffert stumbled to a stop, choking on spit from gasping. He coughed until his face was red.
   «Death's Mistress?» he finally managed. «People are more afraid of you than Jagang himself.»
   «For good reason.»
   «You're the one who captured Lord Rahl, and took him to the Old World.»
   «That's right,» she said as she started out again.
   He walked along beside her, thinking it over. «Well, I'd guess that you must have changed your ways, or Lord Rahl wouldn't have you with him.»
   She simply smiled at him, a smooth, sly smile. It made him uneasy. He gestured to the right.
   «Down here. The tent where we put her is over here.»
   Nicci grasped his forearm to hold him in place. She didn't want Tovi hearing her, yet.
   «This is going to take a goodly amount of time. Why don't you tell Richard that I said he should get some rest. I think Cara ought to get some rest, too. Why don't you see to that, as well?»
   «Ah, I guess I could do that.»
   «And General, if my friend Cara doesn't leave here in the morning with a giddy grin, I'll gut you alive.»
   His eyes widened. Nicci couldn't help but to smile.
   «Figure of speech, Benjamin.» She arched an eyebrow. «You have the night with her. Don't waste it.»
   He smiled at last. «Thank you.»
   «Nicci.»
   «Thank you, Nicci. I think about her all the time. You don't know how much I've missed her-how much I've worried about her»
   «I think I do. But you should tell her that, not me. Now, where is Tovi?»
   He lifted an arm and pointed. «Down there, on the right. The last tent in the line.»
   Nicci nodded. «Do me a favor. See to it that no one disturbs us. Including the surgeons. I need to be alone with her.»
   «I'll see to it.» He turned back and scratched his head. «Ah, it's none of my business, but are you»-he gestured between her and back the way they'd come."you and Lord Rahl, well, you know.»
   Nicci couldn't seem to make herself come up with an answer that she wished to voice.
   «Time is short. Don't keep Cara waiting.»
   «Yes, I see what you mean. Thank you Nicci. I hope to see you in the morning.»
   She watched him rush off into the darkness, then turned to her task. She hadn't really wanted to unnerve the general with talk of Death's Mistress, but she needed to slip back into that part of herself, needed to think that way again, needed to find the icy attitude that was numb to everything.
   She pulled the tent flap aside and slipped inside. There was a single candle lit on a holder made of wrought iron that was stuck in the ground beside a cot. The tent was stuffy and warm. It smelled of stale sweat and dried blood.
   Tovi's bulk lay on her back in the cot, laboring to breathe.
   Nicci sat lightly on a field stool beside the woman. Tovi hardly noticed someone sitting down. Nicci laid a hand on Tovi's wrist and began to trickle in a thread of power to help the woman's suffering.
   Tovi recognized such gifted help and immediately looked over. Her eyes went wide and her breathing quickened. She then gasped in pain and clutched at her abdomen. Nicci increased the flow of power until Tovi sagged back with a moan of relief.
   «Nicci, where have you come from? What in the world are you doing here?»
   «Well, since when do you care? Sister Ulicia and the rest of you left me in Jagang's clutches, his personal slave, left me a captive of that pig.»
   «But you got away.»
   «Got away? Sister Tovi, are you out of your mind? No one got away from dream walker-except you five.»
   «Four. Sister Merissa is no longer living.»
   «What happened?»
   «Stupid bitch tried to play her own game with Richard Rahl. You remember how she hated him-wanted to bathe in his blood.»
   «I remember.»
   «Sister Nicci, what are you doing here?»
   «The rest of you left me to Jagang.» Nicci leaned in so that Tovi could see her glare. «You have no idea of the things I've had to endure. Since then, I've been on a long mission for His Excellency. He needs information and he knows I can get it.»
   Tovi smiled. «Makes you whore for him, to find out what he wants to know.»
   Nicci didn't answer the question, instead letting it answer itself. «I just happened to hear about some fool woman who in the process of getting herself robbed or something also managed to get herself stabbed. Something about the description made me decide to come and check myself to see if it could possibly be you.»
   Tovi nodded. «I'm afraid it's not good.»
   «I hope it hurts. I came to make sure you're a long time dying. I want you to suffer for what you did to me-leaving me in the clutches of Jagang while the rest of you escaped without bothering to even tell me how it could be done.»
   «We couldn't help it. We had a chance and we had to take it, that's all.» A cunning grin came to her. «But you can get free of Jagang, too.»
   Nicci pressed forward. «How-how can I get free?»
   «Heal me and I'll tell you.»
   «You mean, heal you so you can betray me like before. No good, Tovi. You're going to tell it all, or I'm going to sit right here and watch you suffer your way into the Keeper's eternal embrace. I may trickle in just enough to keep you alive a little longer.» She leaned in. «So you can continue to feel the pain twisting in your guts a little longer.»
   Tovi seized a fistful of Nicci's dress. «Please, Sister, help me. It hurts so much.»
   «Talk, 'Sister.'»
   She released her grip on Nicci's dress and let her face roll to face away. «It's the bond to Lord Rahl. We swore a bond.»
   «Sister Tovi, if you think I'm that stupid, I'm going to make you suffer just to make you regret the thought until you die.»
   She turned back to look at Nicci. «No, it's true.»
   «How can you swear a bond to someone you want to eliminate?»
   Tovi grinned. «Sister Ulicia figured it out. We swore a bond to him, but made him let us go before he could hold us to a list of his commands.»
   «This story just gets more preposterous all the time.»
   Nicci withdrew her hand from Tovi's arm, and with it the trickle of relief. As Nicci stood, Tovi groaned in agony.
   «Please, Sister Nicci, it's true.» She grasped Nicci's hand. «In exchange for letting us go, we traded for something he wanted.»
   «What could Lord Rahl possibly want that would convince him to let a clutch of Sisters of the Dark loose? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard.»
   «A woman.»
   «What?»
   «He wanted a woman.»
   «As the Lord Rahl, he can have any woman he wants. He has but to pick her and have her sent to his bed, unless she would choose the executioner's block instead, and none do. He hardly needs the Sisters of the Dark to cart women to his bed.»
   «No, no, not that kind of woman. A woman he loved.»
   «Right.» Nicci huffed a sigh. «Good-bye, Sister Tovi. Be sure to give the Keeper of the dead my regards when you get there. Sorry, but I'm afraid that meeting won't be for a while. I think you look like you may linger for a number of days, yet. Pity.»
   «Please!» Her arm rotated around, searching for the contact of the one person who could save her. «Sister Nicci, please. Please listen, and I will tell you everything.»
   Nicci sat down and gripped Tovi's arm again. «All right, Sister, but just remember, the power can go both ways.»
   Tovi's back arched as she cried out in agony. «No! Please!»
   Nicci had no compunction about what she was doing. She knew that there was no moral equivalence between her inflicting torture and the Imperial Order doing what might on the surface seem like the same thing. But her purpose in using it was solely to save innocent lives. The Imperial Order used torture as a means of subjugation and conquest, as a tool to strike fear into their enemies. And, at times, as something they relished because it made them feel powerful to hold sway over not just agony but life itself.
   The Imperial Order used torture because they had no regard at all for human life. Nicci was using it because she did. While at one time she would have seen no difference, since coming to embrace life she saw all the difference in the world.
   Nicci reversed the suffering she was trickling into the old woman and Tovi sank back in grateful, weeping relief.
   Tovi was covered in a sheen of sweat. «Please, Sister, give me some comfort instead and I will tell you everything.»
   «Start with who stabbed you.»
   «The Seeker.»
   «Richard Rahl is the Seeker. Do you really think I will believe such a story? Richard Rahl would have taken your head off with one swing.»
   Tovi's head rolled side to side. «No, no, you don't understand. This man had the Sword of Truth.» She pointed at her gut. «I ought to know the Sword of Truth when it runs me through. He caught me by surprise and before I knew who he was or what he wanted, the bastard stabbed me.»
   Nicci pressed her fingers to her brow in confusion. «I think you better go back to the beginning.»
   Tovi was already sinking into a stupor. Nicci increased the magic flowing into her, giving her some healing relief without curing her of her injury. Nicci didn't want to cure her, she needed the woman unable to help herself. Tovi looked the kindly grandmother, but she was a viper.