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to create havoc.
Zedd looked up when he saw one of the elite soldiers in leather and
mail pause not far away, his attention keenly focused on something. His
right ear had a big V-shaped notch taken out of the upper portion, the way
some farmers marked their swine. Although he wore the same kind of outfit as
the rest of the elite soldiers, his boots weren't the same. Zedd saw, when
the man looked around, that his left eye didn't open as wide as his right,
but then he moved off into the bands of patrolling soldiers.
As Zedd watched the constantly churning press of soldiers, Sisters, and
others moving past, he kept having the disconcerting visions of people from
his past, and others he knew. It was disheartening to be having such
will-o'-the-wisps--illusions spawned by a mind that from lack of sleep, and
perhaps the constant tension, was failing him. The faces of some of the
elite guards looked hauntingly familiar. He guessed he had been seeing the
men for days and they were beginning to look familiar.
In the distance he saw a Sister walking past who looked like someone he
knew. He had probably met her recently, was all. He'd met a number of
Sisters recently, and it was never congenial. Zedd admonished himself that
he had to keep a grasp on his wits.
One of the little girls not far away, being held prisoner by a big
guard standing over her, was watching Zedd and when he glanced up at her,
she smiled. He thought it the oddest thing a frightened child--mid such
chaos of soldiers, prisoners, and military activity--could do. He supposed
that such a child could not possibly understand that she was there to be
tortured, if necessary, to make sure Zedd told all he knew. He looked away
from her long blond hair cascading down around her shoulders, her beautiful,
oddly familiar face. This was madness-- in more ways than one.
The hump-nosed Sister emerged from the tent. "Bring them in," she
snapped.
The four guards jumped into action, two seizing Adie, the other two
taking Zedd. The men were big enough that Zedd's weight was trivial to them.
The way they held him up by his arms prevented half his steps from touching
the ground. They horsed him into the tent, advanced him around the table,
spun him around, and dropped him into the chair with such force that it
drove the wind from his lungs in a grunt.
Zedd closed his eyes as he grimaced in pain. He wished they would just
kill him so that he wouldn't ever have to open his eyes again. But when they
killed him, they would send his head to Richard. Zedd hated to think of the
anguish that would cause Richard.
"Well?" Sister Tahirah asked.
Zedd opened his eyes and peered at the object sitting before him in the
center of the table.
His breath caught.
He blinked at what he saw, too astonished to let out the breath.
It was constructed magic called a sunset spell.
Zedd swallowed. Surely, none of the Sisters had opened it. No, they
wouldn't have opened it. He wouldn't be sitting there if they had.
Before him on the table sat a small box, the size of half his palm. The
box was shaped like the upper half of a stylized sun--a half disc with six
pointed rays coming out from it, meant to represent the sun setting at the
horizon. The box was lacquered a bright yellow. The rays were also yellow,
but with lines of orange, green, and blue along their edges.
"Well?" Sister Tahirah repeated.
"Ahh..."
She was looking in her book, not at the small yellow box. "What is it?"
"I'm ... not sure I remember," he said, stalling.
The Sister wasn't in a patient mood. "Do you want me to--"
"Oh, yes," he said, trying to sound nonchalant, "I recall, now. It's a
box with a spell that produces a little tune."
That much was true. The Sister was still reading in her book. Zedd
glanced back over his shoulder at Adie sitting on the bench. He could see in
her eyes that she knew by his demeanor that something was up. He hoped the
Sister couldn't detect the same thing.
"It's a music box, then," Sister Tahirah murmured, more interested in
her catalog of magic.
"Yes, that's right. A box that contains a spell for music. When you
remove the lid, it produces a melody." Sweat trickled down from his neck,
down between his shoulder blades. Zedd swallowed and tried not to let his
trembling carry in his voice. "Take the lid off--you'll see."
She peered suspiciously over the top of the book. "You take the lid
off."
"Well... I can't. My hands are shackled behind my back."
"Use your teeth."
"My teeth?"
The Sister used the back end of her pen to push the yellow half-sun box
closer to him. "Yes, your teeth."
He had been counting on her suspicion, but he dared not overplay it. He
worked his tongue in his mouth, desperately trying to work up some saliva.
Blood would be better, but he knew that if he bit the inside of his lip the
Sister would get suspicious. Blood was too common a catalyst.
Before the Sister got leery, Zedd leaned forward and tried to stretch
his lips around the box. He worked to get his bottom teeth at the bottom of
the sun and his top teeth hooked over a pointed ray. The box was a hair too
big. With a hand on the back of his head, Sister Tahirah pushed him down on
it. That was all he needed and he captured the lid with his teeth.
He lifted the lid, but the whole box came up off the table. He shook
his head and, at last, the top came free. He set the lid aside.
If not opened by a party to the theft of items preserved at the Keep, a
sunset spell had to be activated by a wizard whom the spell would recognize.
Quickly, before she saw what he was doing, he let some saliva drop into the
box in order to activate the spell.
Zedd felt giddy as the music started. It worked. It was still viable.
He glanced through the narrow slit of the tent flap. The sun would be down
soon.
He wanted to jump up and dance to the merry tune. He wanted to let out
a whoop. Even though he didn't have long to live, he still felt exhilarated.
The ordeal was almost over. In a short time, all the things of magic that
were stolen would be destroyed, and he would be dead. They would never get
anything out of him. He would not betray their cause.
He felt bad that the captured families who were being used to help gain
his cooperation would also die, but at least they would no longer have to
suffer. He felt a sudden pang of sadness that Adie, too, would die. He hated
the thought of that nearly as much as the thought of her suffering.
The Sister reached in and replaced the lid. "Very cute."
The music stopped. It didn't matter, though. The spell had been
activated. The music was simply confirmation--and a warning to get out of
range. No chance of that.
It didn't matter.
Sister Tahirah scooped the yellow box off the table. "I'm going to put
this back." She leaned down toward Zedd. "While I'm gone, I'm going to have
the guards bring in the next child and let you have a good look at her, let
you think about what those men in the next tent are going to do to
her--without hesitation--if you stall and waste our time like that again."
"But I--"
His words were cut off as she used the Rada'Han around his neck to send
a shock of searing pain from the base of his skull down to his nips. His
back arched as he cried out, nearly losing consciousness. He slumped back in
his chair, his head hanging back, unable to lift it for the moment.
"Come with me," Sister Tahirah said to the guards. "I'll need some
help. The guard who brings in the next child can watch them for a few
minutes."
Panting from the lingering pain, tears filling his eyes, Zedd stared at
the ceiling of the tent. He saw light as the flap was opened. Shadows moved
across the canvas as the Sister and the four men left and she sent in the
guard with the child. Zedd stared up at the ceiling, not wanting to look at
the face of another child.
Finally, recovered from the bout of pain, he sat up.
One of the big elite guards, dressed in their leather, mail, and a
broad belt holding an assortment of weapons, stood to the side with a
blond-headed girl held before him. It was the girl who had smiled. Zedd
closed his eyes a moment in the agony of what they would do to this poor
child who reminded him so much of someone he knew.
When he opened his eyes, she smiled again. Then she winked.
Zedd blinked. She lifted up her flower print dress just enough so that
Zedd could see two knives strapped to each of her thighs. He blinked again
at what he was seeing. He looked up into her smiling face.
"Rachel... ?" he whispered.
Her smile widened into a beaming grin.
Zedd looked up at the face of the big man standing guard behind her.
"Dear spirits ..." Zedd whispered.
It was the boundary warden.
"I hear you've gotten yourself into a bit of trouble," Chase said.
For an instant, Zedd thought that for sure he must be seeing things.
Then he realized why Rachel looked so familiar, yet different; she was more
than two and a half years older than the last time he'd seen her. Her blond
hair, once chopped short, was now long. She had to be nearly a foot taller.
Chase hooked his thumbs behind the broad leather belt. "Adie, as
levelheaded as you are, I imagine it had to be Zedd who got you into this
fix."
Zedd looked over his shoulder. Adie wore a beautiful, tearful smile. He
couldn't remember the last time he had seen her smile.
"He be nothing but trouble," she told the boundary warden.
It had been two and a half years since he'd seen Chase. The boundary
warden was an old friend. He was the one who had taken them to meet Adie
back then so she could show Richard the way through the boundary before
Darken Rahl had brought it down. Chase was older than Richard, but one of
his dearest and most trusted friends.
"An older boundary warden, Friedrich, came looking for me," Chase
explained. "He said that 'Lord Rahl' had sent him to the Keep to warn you
about some trouble. He said that Richard had told him about me, and since
you were gone and the Keep had been captured, he came to Westland looking
for me. Boundary wardens can always count on one another.
"Rachel and I decided to come pull your scrawny hide out of the fire."
Zedd glanced at the sunlight coming through the tent's narrow opening.
"You have to get out of here. Before the sun sets--or you'll be killed.
Hurry, get out of here while you can."
Chase lifted an eyebrow. "I've come all this way and I don't intend to
leave without you."
"But you don't understand--"
A knife poked through the side of the tent and ran a slit down through
the canvas. One of the elite guards pushed his way in through the slit. Zedd
stared in astonishment. The man looked familiar, but he didn't look right.
"No!" Zedd called to Chase as the big man went for the axe hanging at
his hip.
"Stay where you are," the man who came in through the slit in the side
of the tent said to Chase. "There's a man right outside who will put a sword
through you if you move."
Zedd's jaw dropped. "Captain Zimmer?"
"Of course. I've come to get you out of here."
"But, but, you have black hair."
The captain flashed one of his infectious smiles. "Soot. Not a good
idea to have blond hair in the middle of Jagang's camp. I've come to rescue
you."
Zedd was incredulous. "But you all have to get out of here. Hurry,
before the sun sets. Get out!"
"Do you have any more men?" Chase asked the captain.
"A handful. Who are you?"
"An old friend," Zedd told him. "Now, look here--"
At that, cries and shouts came from outside. Captain Zimmer rushed to
the tent's opening. A man poked his head in.
"It's not us," he said in answer to the captain's unspoken question.
In the distance, Zedd could hear the shouts of "Assassin!"
Captain Zimmer rushed behind Zedd and worked a key in the manacles.
They broke open. Zedd's arms were suddenly free. The captain hurried to undo
Adie's as she stood and turned her back to him.
"Sounds like our chance," Rachel said. "Let's use the commotion to get
you out of here."
"The brains of the group," Chase said with a grin.
The first thing Zedd did when his arms were free was fall to his knees
and hug the girl. He couldn't bring forth words, but they weren't needed. To
feel her spindly arms around his neck was better than any words.
"I've missed you, Zedd," she whispered in his ear.
Outside the tent, mayhem had broken out. Orders were being shouted, men
were running, and in the distance the clash of steel rang out.
The Sister burst back into the tent. She saw Zedd free and immediately
released a bolt of power through his collar. The shock sent him sprawling.
Just then, a second, young, blond Sister in a drab brown wool dress
charged in behind Sister Tahirah. Sister Tahirah spun around. The second
Sister smacked her so hard it nearly knocked the woman from her feet.
Without pause, Sister Tahirah unleashed a bolt of her power that lit the
inside of the tent with a blinding flash. Instead of it blasting the second
Sister back through the tent's doorway, as Zedd had expected, Sister Tahirah
cried out and crumpled to the ground.
"Got you!" the second Sister growled as she planted a boot on Sister
Tahirah's neck, keeping her on the ground.
Zedd blinked in astonishment. "Rikka?"
Rikka was already turning, her Agiel in her fist. She held it toward
Chase.
"Rikka?" Captain Zimmer asked from the other side of the tent, sounding
startled, not just to see who it was, but perhaps to see the Mord-Sith with
her blond hair undone from its single braid and flying free.
"Zimmer?" She frowned at his black hair. "What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here? What are you doing here!" He gestured to her
dress. "What are you wearing?"
Rikka grinned that wicked grin she had. "The dress of a Sister."
"Sister?" Zedd asked. "What Sister?"
Rikka shrugged. "One who didn't want to give up her dress. She lost her
head over the whole affair." With her finger and thumb Rikka pulled her
lower lip out. "See? I borrowed her ring, too. I spread the split and hung
it here, so I'd look like a real Sister."
Rikka pulled Sister Tahirah up by her hair and shoved her toward Adie.
"Get that thing off her neck."
"I will do no such--"
Rikka drove her Agiel up under the Sister's chin. Blood gushed out over
her lower lip. The Sister started choking on it as she gasped in agony.
"I said, get that thing off Adie's neck. And don't you ever question me
again."
Sister Tahirah scrambled to Adie to do as the Mord-Sith had commanded.
Chase planted his fists on his hips as he glared down at Zedd, still on
the ground. "So what are we going to do now--draw straws to see who gets to
rescue you?"
"Bags! Isn't anyone listening? You people have to get out of here!"
Rachel shook a finger at Zedd. "Now, Zedd, you know you're not supposed
to say bad words in front of children."
Sputtering in frustration, Zedd gaped up at Chase.
"I know," the boundary warden said with a sigh. "She's been a trial for
me, too."
"The sun's about to set!" Zedd roared.
"It would be better if we could delay until it did," Captain Zimmer
said. "It would be easier to get out of camp in the dark."
A humming noise filled the tent, making the very air vibrate, and then
there was a sudden metallic pop. Adie cried out with relief as the collar
fell away.
"Isn't anyone listening?" Zedd scrambled to his feet and shook his
fists. "I've ignited a sunset spell!"
"A what?" Chase asked.
"A sunset spell. It's a protective device from the Keep. It's a shield
of sorts. When it recognizes that other shields are being violated and
protected items are being taken, it insinuates itself among the stolen
goods. When a thief opens it to see what it is, it activates the spell. At
the first sunset the spell ignites and destroys everything that has been
plundered."
Sister Tahirah shook her fist at him. "You fool!"
Rikka seized his arm. "Then let's get going."
Chase grabbed Zedd's other arm and pulled him back. "Now, hold on."
Zedd yanked both arms free and pointed out through the slit in the side
of the tent at the setting sun. "We've got mere moments until this place is
a fireball."
"How big a fireball?" Captain Zimmer asked.
Zedd threw up his hands. "It will kill thousands. It won't destroy the
camp by any means, but this whole area is going to be leveled."
Everyone started talking, but Chase cut them all off with an angry
command for silence. "Now listen to me. If we look like we're escaping,
we'll be caught. Captain, you and your men come with me. We'll pretend like
Zedd and Adie are our prisoners. Rachel, too--that's how I got in here; I
found out they were holding children." He flipped a hand toward Rikka and
Sister Tahirah. "They will look like Sisters in charge of prisoners, along
with us playing as the guards."
"Do you want that thing off your neck, first?" Rikka asked Zedd.
"No time for that now. Let's go."
Adie grabbed Zedd's arm. "No."
"What!"
"Listen to me, old man. There be those families and children in these
tents around us. They will die. You go. Get to the Keep. I will get the
innocent people out of here."
Zedd didn't like the idea, but arguing with Adie was a fool's task,
and besides, there was no time.
"We split up, then," Captain Zimmer said. "Me and my men will play the
part of guards and get the men, women, and children out of here, back to our
lines, along with Adie."
Rikka nodded. "Tell Verna that I'm going to go with Zedd to help take
back the Keep. He will need a Mord-Sith to keep him out of trouble."
Everyone looked around to see if there would be any arguments. No one
said anything. It suddenly seemed settled.
"Done," Zedd said.
He threw his arms around Adie and kissed her cheek. "Be careful. Tell
Verna I'm going to take the Keep back. Help her defend the passes."
Adie nodded. "Be careful. Listen to Chase--he be a good man to come all
this way for you."
Zedd smiled and then gasped as Chase grabbed his robes and yanked him
out of the tent. "The sun is setting--let's get out of here. Remember,
you're our prisoner."
"I know the part," Zedd grumbled as he was dragged out of the tent like
a sack of grain. He smiled as Adie, already rushing away, looked over her
shoulder one last time. She smiled back, and then was gone.
"Wait!" Zedd called. He quickly reached into one of the wagons and
retrieved something he didn't want to be destroyed. He slipped it into a
pocket. "All right, let's go."
Outside the tent, the camp was in pandemonium. Elite guards, in a state
of high alert and with weapons drawn, raced past on their way toward the
command tents. Other men ran to the ring of barricades. Trumpets blared
alarms and coded messages that directed men to tasks. Zedd feared his small
group might be set upon and held for questioning.
Instead of waiting for that to happen, Chase reached out and snatched a
soldier running past. "What's the matter with you? Get me some protection
for these prisoners until I can get them to a safe place! The emperor will
have our heads if we allow them to be recaptured!"
The soldier quickly collected a dozen men and fell in around Rikka,
Sister Tahirah, Chase, Rachel, and Zedd. Rachel was doing a convincing job
of bawling in fear. For effect, Chase would occasionally give her a shake
and yell at her to shut up.
Zedd glanced back over his shoulder, seeing the sun touch the horizon.
He growled at Rikka, out ahead, for her to pick up her pace.
At the barricades, scowling guards looked them over carefully as they
approached and then opened their ranks. They were preventing anyone from
getting in, and were momentarily confused by such a company of their own men
with prisoners making their way out. One man decided to step out to stop and
question them.
Chase straight-armed him. "Idiot! Out of our way! Emperor's orders!"
The man frowned as he stared at the procession sweeping past. While he
considered what to do, they were past and gone, swallowed up in the larger
camp.
In moments, they were out of the heart of the camp. In short order,
regular soldiers, seeing Rikka at the lead, moved to block their path. A
beautiful woman out among the regular soldiers was asking for trouble, and
with the confusion the men saw in the command area, they believed they had
an opportunity while those in authority were busy. Rikka and Chase kept
their small group moving at a quick pace. The grinning soldiers closed
ranks, blocking the way. One of the men, missing his two front teeth, took a
step out in front of his men. With one thumb hooked behind his belt, he held
up the other hand.
"Hold on there. I think the ladies would like to stay for a visit."
Without pause, Rachel reached under the hem of her dress and pulled a
knife. She didn't slow or even look back as she flipped the knife up over
her shoulder. In one fluid motion, without missing a step, Chase caught the
knife by the tip and heaved it at the toothless man. With a thunk, the knife
slammed hilt-deep into the man's forehead.
As he was still toppling back, Rachel flipped a second knife up over
her shoulder. Chase caught it and sent it on its way. As the second man
twisted toward the ground, dead, the rest of the men backed away to let the
small group, marching onward, in among them. Deadly rights within the
Imperial Order camp were not a rarity.
Elite guards or not, the soldiers were confident in their numbers and,
with a beautiful woman in their midst, sure of what they wanted. Men all
around closed in.
Zedd snatched a quick glance back. "Now! Hit the ground!"
Rikka, Chase, Rachel, and Zedd dove to the dirt.
For an instant, everyone above them froze, staring in surprise. The
soldiers who were accompanying them, weapons already drawn for the fight
they expected, also stopped and stood in confusion.
Sister Tahirah saw her opportunity and cried out. "Help! These people
are--"
The world ignited with brilliant white light.
An instant later a thunderous blast rocked the ground. A wall of debris
followed, driven before a roar of noise.
Men were blown into the air. Some were cut down by flying wreckage. The
elite guards that had escorted them tumbled through the air over Zedd.
Sister Tahirah had turned toward the flash. A wagon wheel shot toward
them at incredible speed, hitting her chest-high, cutting her in two. The
bloodied wheel sailed onward without even being slowed. The Sister's
shredded remains were flung across the ground along with the bodies of
countless men.
As the blast from behind still rumbled, the screams of terribly wounded
men rose into the lingering rays of sunset.
Zedd dearly hoped that Adie had not wasted any time in escaping.
Chase seized Zedd's robes at one shoulder and hauled him to his feet as
he swept Rachel up in his other arm. Rikka grabbed Zedd's robes at the other
shoulder and pulled him ahead. Together, Zedd's two rescuers rushed with him
into the carnage.
Rachel hid her face in Chase's shoulder.
Zedd was about to ask Chase why in the world he would teach a young
girl such things with knives when he recalled that he himself had been the
one who had once commanded Chase to the task of teaching her everything the
boundary warden knew.
Rachel was a special person. Zedd had wanted her to be prepared for
what life might have in store.
"You should have let me make the Sister take off that collar when we
had the chance," Rikka said as they ran.
"If we had taken the time," Zedd answered, "we would have been back
there and caught up in that fireball."
"I suppose," she said.
As they slowed a bit to catch their breath, men ran in every direction.
In the confusion and disorder, no one noticed that the four of them were
making good their escape. As they hastily made their way through the vast
Imperial Order encampment, Zedd put an arm around Rikka's shoulders and
pulled her closer.
"Thank you for coming to save my life."
She flashed him a cunning smile. "I wouldn't leave you to those
pigs--not after all you've done for us. Besides, Lord Rahl has Cara
protecting him; I'm sure he would want a Mord-Sith protecting his
grandfather as well."
Zedd had been right. The world was turned upside down.
"We have horses and supplies hidden," Chase said. "On our way out of
this place, we'd better take a horse for Rikka."
Rachel looked back over Chase's shoulder, her arms around his neck. She
gave Zedd a serious frown as she whispered, "Chase is unhappy because he had
to leave all his weapons behind and be so lightly armed."
Zedd glanced to the battle-axe at one hip, the sword at Chase's other,
and two knives at the small of his back. "Yes, I can see where being so
defenseless would make a man grumpy."
"I don't like this place," Rachel whispered in Chase's ear.
He patted her back as she laid her head on his shoulder. "We'll be back
in the woods in no time, little one."
Amid the screams and death, it was as tender a sight as Zedd could
imagine.
Verna paused when the sentry rushed up in the dark. She moved her hands
up on the reins, closer to the bit, to keep her horse from spooking.
"Prelate--I think it might be an attack of some sort," the soldier said
in breathless worry.
She frowned at the man. "What might be an attack? What is it?"
"There's something coming up the road." He pointed back toward Dobbin
Pass. "A wagon, I think."
The enemy was always sending things at them--men sneaking through the
darkness, horses encased in spells designed to blow a breach in their
shields running wildly toward them, innocent enough wagons with archers
hiding inside, powerful spell-driven winds laced with magic conjuring of
every sort.
"Since it's dark, the commander thinks it's suspicious and we shouldn't
take any chances."
"Sounds wise," Verna said.
She had to get back to their camp. She had made the rounds herself to
get a good look at their defenses, to see the men at the outposts, before
their nightly meeting back at camp to go over the day's reports.
"The commander wants to destroy the wagon before it gets too close.
I've checked, Prelate--there are no other Sisters at hand. If you don't want
to see to this, we can have the men up above drop a rockslide on the wagon
and crush it."
Verna had to get back to meet with the officers. "You had better tell
your commander to take care of it in whatever manner he sees fit."
The soldier saluted with snap of a fist to his heart.
Verna pulled her horse around and put a foot into the stirrup. Why
would the Imperial Order think they could get a wagon through, especially at
night? Certainly, they weren't foolish enough to think it wouldn't be seen
in the dark. She paused and looked at the soldier hurrying away.
"Wait." He stopped and turned. "I changed my mind. I'll go with you."
It was foolish to use the rocks they had ready overhead; they might
need them if a full-scale attack suddenly charged up this pass. It was silly
to waste such a defense.
She followed the man up the trail to the lookout point where his
company waited. The men were all watching through the trees. The road out
ahead and below them looked silver in the light of the rising moon.
Verna inhaled the fragrance of balsam firs as she watched the wagon
making its way up the silvery road, being pulled by a single, plodding
horse. Tense archers waited at the ready. They had a shielded lantern
standing by to light fire arrows in order to set the wagon ablaze.
Verna didn't see anyone in the wagon. An empty wagon seemed pretty
suspicious. She recalled the strange message from Ann, warning her to let an
empty wagon through.
But they had already done that. Verna recalled that the girl with the
message from Jagang had come in by this route and method. Verna's heart
pounded in worry at the thought of what new message Jagang might be sending,
now.
Perhaps it was Zedd's and Adie's heads.
"Hold," she called to the archers. "Let it through, but stand at the
ready in case it's a trick."
Verna made her way down the narrow path between the trees. She stood
behind a screen of spruce, watching. When the wagon was close enough, she
opened a small gap in the weave of the vast shield she and the Sisters had
spun across the pass. The pattern of magic was barbed with every nasty sort
of magic they could conjure. This pass was small enough that the shields
alone could hold it, and if the enemy did come, it was too small for any
numbers to come all at once. Even without the formidable shield, the pass
was relatively easy to hold.
When the wagon passed through the shield, Verna closed the hole. When
it rolled close enough, one of the men ran out of the trees and look control
of the horse. As the wagon drew to a halt, dozens of archers behind him and
on the other side, behind Verna, drew their weapons. Verna had spun a web of
magic and she was prepared to unleash it at the slightest provocation.
The tarp in the bed of the wagon eased back. A little girl sat up. It
was the child who had brought the message the last time. Her face lit up at
seeing Verna, someone she recognized.
Verna's heart skipped a beat at the thought of what the message might
be, this time.
"I brought some friends," the girl said.
People lying in the back of the wagon pulled the tarp aside and started
sitting up. They looked like parents with their frightened children.
Verna blinked in shock when she saw some of the people help Adie up.
The sorceress looked to be exhausted. Her black and gray hair was no longer
parted neatly in the middle, but was in as much disarray as Zedd's usually
was.
Verna rushed over, leaning in to help the woman. "Adie! Oh, Adie, am I
ever glad to see you!"
The old sorceress smiled. "I be awfully happy to see you, too, Verna."
Verna's gaze swept over the people in the wagon, her heart still
pounding with apprehension. "Where's Zedd?"
"He escaped as well."
Verna closed her eyes with a silent prayer of gratitude.
Her eyes popped open. "If he escaped, then where is he?"
"He be on his way back to the Keep, in Aydindril," Adie said in her
raspy voice. "The enemy has captured it."
"We heard."
"That old man intends to have his Keep back."
"Knowing Zedd, I feel sorry for anyone who gets in his way."
"Rikka be with him."
"Rikka! What was she doing over there? I ordered her not to do that!"
Verna realized how that must have sounded. "We thought it would be
pointless, that she wouldn't have a chance and we would just lose her for
nothing."
"Rikka be Mord-Sith. She has a mind of her own."
Verna shook her head. "Well, even though she wasn't supposed to do
that, now that I see you again and know Zedd has escaped as well, I'm glad
that that obstinate woman didn't listen to me."
"Captain Zimmer be on his way back as well."
"Captain Zimmer!"
"Yes, he and some of his men decided to come to rescue us as well. They
be coming back the way they travel, unseen in the night." Adie gestured to
the surrounding trees. "They be up around us, protecting the wagon on our
way in. The captain feared that some of the enemy might stop the wagon and
capture us all over again. He wanted to make sure we be safe."
The captain and his men had special signals that allowed them to move
through the pass without being attacked by their own men, or the Sisters, by
mistake. The nature of the way Captain Zimmer and his men worked was that
they were, for the most part, outside regular command. Kahlan had set it up
that way so they could act on their own initiative. While it could at times
be aggravating, those men accomplished more than anyone ever expected.
"Zedd wanted me to help these people escape." Adie gave Verna a
meaningful look. "There be others we could not help."
Verna glanced over at the people huddling together at the back of the
wagon. "I can only imagine what Jagang has been doing with people like
that."
"No," Adie said. "I doubt you can."
Verna changed to an even more horrifying subject. "Has Jagang been able
to find anything from the Keep, so far, that he will use against us?"
"Thankfully, no. Zedd set a spell that destroyed the things stolen from
the Keep. There be a big explosion in the middle of their camp."
"Like the one back in Aydindril that killed so many of them?"
"No, but it still caused much destruction and killed some important
people--even some of Jagang's Sisters, I believe."
Verna never thought she would see the day that she would be pleased to
hear that Sisters of the Light had died. Those women were controlled by the
dream walker, and even when they had been offered freedom, they had been too
afraid to believe those trying to rescue them. They had chosen to remain
Jagang's slaves.
With a sudden thought, Verna grabbed a fistful of Adie's robes. "Could
the spell Zedd ignited possibly have taken out Jagang?"
With her completely white eyes, Adie looked back up Dobbin Pass toward
the Imperial Order camp. "I wish I had better news, Prelate, but Captain
Zimmer, on the way out, told me that just as we were about to be rescued, an
assassin managed to get deep into the inner camp."
"An assassin? Who was it? Where was he from?"
"None of us knows. He appeared much like others from the Old World. The
intruder be driven by a single-minded determination to get to Jagang and
kill him. He somehow made it into the inner defenses, killed some people,
and took the uniform of the elite guards so he might get to Jagang. The
guards somehow recognized he not be one of their own. They hacked the man to
pieces before he could get close to the emperor.
"Jagang left the area until his men could check over their defenses and
make sure there be no more assassins about. Many of the Sisters went with
him, helping with his safeguards. That be when Zedd set off the sunset
spell. We did not know Jagang had left the area, but it would have make no
difference. Zedd had to use the spell when it be put before him. The spell
be triggered by the sun setting."
Verna nodded. For a moment, she had been hoping ...
"Still, you and Zedd escaped, and that's what matters for now. Thank
the Creator."
"A surprising number of people showed up all at once to rescue us."
Adie lifted an eyebrow. "I do not recall seeing the Creator among them."
The warm breeze ruffled Verna's curly hair. "I suppose not, but you
know what I mean."
The crickets in the woods kept up their steady chirping. Life seemed to
be a little sweeter, their situation a little less hopeless.
She let out a sigh. "I hope the Creator will at least help Zedd and
Rikka take back the Keep."
"Zedd will not need the Creator's help," Adie said. "Another man showed
up to help get us out. Chase be an old friend of Zedd, me, and Richard.
Chase will have those holding the Keep praying for the protection of the
Creator."
"Then we can look forward to the day the Keep is back in our hands and
Jagang is denied help in breaking through the passes into D'Hara."
Verna waved her arm, signaling, and the four couples standing at the
back of the wagon shuffled forward with their children.
"Welcome to D'Hara," Verna told them. "You will be safe, here."
"Thank you for helping get us out," one of the men said with a bow of
his head to Adie. "I feel ashamed, now, of the terrible things I had been
thinking of you."
Adie smiled to herself as she tightened her thin fingers on his
shoulder. "True. But I could not blame you."
The girl who had brought the message the last time tugged on Verna's
dress. "This is my mother and father. I told them how nice you were to me,
before."
Verna squatted down and hugged the girl. "Welcome back, child. Welcome
back."
Whenever a breath of wind sighed among the branches above, silvery
streamers of moonlight cascading down through the forest canopy glided about
in the darkness like ghosts on the prowl. Kahlan peered around, barely able
to make out the somber shapes of the looming trees as she tried to see if
there was anything that did not belong. She heard no chirps of bugs, no
small animals scurrying among the leaf litter, no mockingbirds singing
throughout the night as there had been. Carefully picking her way over the
mossy ground, she did her best to see in the gloom so as not to step in
holes and cracks in the rocky places or pools of standing water in the low
areas.
Ahead of her, Richard slipped through the open forest like a shadow. At
times he seemed to disappear, causing her to fear that he might no longer be
with them. He had ordered everyone following behind him not to talk and to
walk as quietly as possible, but none of them could move through the woods
as silently as he did.
For some reason, Richard was as tense as his bowstring. He felt that
something was wrong, but he didn't know what. While it might seem a
beautiful moonlit night in the woods, the way Richard was acting, on top of
the haunting silence, had draped a pall of foreboding over everyone.
Kahlan was at least pleased that the skies had cleared. The rains of
recent days had made travel not just difficult, but miserable. While it
hadn't really been cold, the wet made it feel so. Taking shelter had not
been an option. Until they had the final dose of the antidote, they had no
choice but to press on.
The antidote from Northwick had improved Richard's condition a little,
in addition to stopping the advance of the symptoms of his poisoning, but
now the temporary improvement was dissipating. Kahlan was so worried for him
that she had no appetite.
They now had well over double the number of men with them, and many
more than that were making their way toward the city of Hawton by different
routes. Those other groups of men planned to eliminate the lesser
detachments of Imperial Order soldiers stationed in villages along the way.
Richard, Kahlan, and their smaller group were pushing toward Hawton as
rapidly as possible, deliberately avoiding contact with the enemy so as to
get there before Nicholas and his soldiers knew they were on their way.
Stealth would afford them the best chance of recovering the final dose of
the antidote.
Once they had the antidote, then they could gather with the rest of the
men for an attack. Kahlan knew that if they could first eliminate Nicholas
it would make it much easier, and less risky, to defeat the remaining
Imperial Order troops. If she could somehow find a way to get close to
Nicholas she could touch him with her power. She knew better than to suggest
such an idea to Richard; he would never go along with it.
To a certain extent, Kahlan felt responsible for what these people had
suffered under the Imperial Order. After all, if not for her freeing the
chimes, the boundary protecting Bandakar would still be in place. Yet, if
these people could rid themselves of the Imperial Order, the changes that
had come about also meant the true freedom they had never really enjoyed
and, with it, the opportunity for better lives.
The change in the people in Northwick had been heartening to witness.
That night, the men Richard and Kahlan had brought had stayed up most of the
night talking to the people there, explaining the things Richard and Kahlan
had explained to them. The morning after the annihilation of the soldiers
who had taken over their city and held them in the grip of fear, the people
had celebrated by singing and dancing in the streets. Those people had
learned not only just how precious freedom really was, but also that their
old ways provided no real tools for improving the quality of their lives.
After Richard had dissolved the ancient illusions of the Wise One's
wisdom and the meaningless tenets the speakers substituted for knowledge,
and after the killing of the enemy soldiers, the men of Northwick had not
been shy about volunteering to help rid their land of the Imperial Order.
Freed from the enforced blindness of a repressive mindset, many now hungered
aloud for a future of their own making.
Kahlan unexpectedly came up against Richard's outstretched arm. She put
a hand to her chest, over her galloping heart, then immediately turned and
passed the signal to stop back to those behind. There was still no sound in
the dark woods--not so much as the buzz of a mosquito.
Richard slipped his pack off of his back, set it on a low rock, and
started quietly searching through it.
Kahlan leaned close to whisper. "What are you doing?"
"Fire. We need light. Pass the word back for some of the men to get out
torches."
While Richard pulled out a steel and flint, Kahlan whispered
instructions to Cara, who in turn passed them back. In short order, several
men tiptoed forward with torches.
The men gathered in close, squatting down beside a low jumble of rock
next to Richard. He picked a stick up off the ground and dipped it in a
small container from his pack. He then wiped the stick across the top of a
high point on the rock.
"I'm putting some pine resin on this rock," he told the men. "Hold your
torches over it so that when I strike a spark and the resin flames up, it
will light the torches."
Pine resin, painstakingly collected from rotting trees, was valuable
for starting fires in the rain. A spark would ignite it even when wet. It
burned hot enough to often be able to catch damp wood on fire.
Richard had always seemed at home in the dark. Kahlan had never seen
him need to have light like this. She stared intently out into the night,
wondering what it was he thought might be out there that they couldn't see.
"Cara," Richard whispered, "pass the word back. I want everyone to get
out a weapon. Now."
Without hesitation, Cara turned to pass on the orders. After a
seemingly endless span of silence, broken only by the soft whisper of steel
sliding past leather, word came back and she leaned down toward Richard.
"Done."
Richard looked up at Kahlan and Jennsen. "Both of you, as well."
Kahlan drew her sword, Jennsen her silver-handled dagger with the
ornate letter R that stood for the House of Rahl.
Richard struck the spark. The pine pitch flamed up with an angry hiss;
the torches caught; light ignited in the heart of the dark forest.
In the sudden, harsh glare, everyone turned and looked about to see
what might be hiding in the darkness around them.
Men gasped.
In the trees all around them, perched on branches everywhere, sat
black-tipped races. Hundreds of them. Beady black eyes watched the people.
In that moment of sudden bright light, everything but the flickering
flame was silent and still.
With a burst of wild cries, the races launched their attack.
From all around, all at once, the races descended on them. The night
air suddenly filled with a riot of glossy black feathers, the sweep of huge
wings, hooked beaks, and reaching talons. After such a long silence, the
sound of piercing cries and beating wings was deafening.
Everywhere, the people met the attack with fierce determination. Some
of the men were knocked to the ground, or stumbled and fell. Others cried
out as they tried to protect themselves with one arm while driving off the
attack with the other. Men hacked at the races atop their friends and turned
to ward off other screeching beasts that flew in toward them.
Kahlan saw the red-striped breast of a race abruptly appear right
before her face. She swung her sword, lopping off a wing, and spun around,
bringing the sword up to hit another bird coming in from the other side. She
stabbed a race on the ground at her feet as it reached in with its beak,
like a vulture, to try to rip flesh from her leg.
Richard's sword was a blur of silver slashing through the winged
attackers. A cloud of black feathers surrounded him. The birds were
attacking everyone, but the assault appeared to be centered around Richard.
It almost seemed as if the races were trying to drive the people back from
Richard so that more of the birds could get at him.
Jennsen frantically stabbed at birds going for him. Kahlan swung at
Zedd looked up when he saw one of the elite soldiers in leather and
mail pause not far away, his attention keenly focused on something. His
right ear had a big V-shaped notch taken out of the upper portion, the way
some farmers marked their swine. Although he wore the same kind of outfit as
the rest of the elite soldiers, his boots weren't the same. Zedd saw, when
the man looked around, that his left eye didn't open as wide as his right,
but then he moved off into the bands of patrolling soldiers.
As Zedd watched the constantly churning press of soldiers, Sisters, and
others moving past, he kept having the disconcerting visions of people from
his past, and others he knew. It was disheartening to be having such
will-o'-the-wisps--illusions spawned by a mind that from lack of sleep, and
perhaps the constant tension, was failing him. The faces of some of the
elite guards looked hauntingly familiar. He guessed he had been seeing the
men for days and they were beginning to look familiar.
In the distance he saw a Sister walking past who looked like someone he
knew. He had probably met her recently, was all. He'd met a number of
Sisters recently, and it was never congenial. Zedd admonished himself that
he had to keep a grasp on his wits.
One of the little girls not far away, being held prisoner by a big
guard standing over her, was watching Zedd and when he glanced up at her,
she smiled. He thought it the oddest thing a frightened child--mid such
chaos of soldiers, prisoners, and military activity--could do. He supposed
that such a child could not possibly understand that she was there to be
tortured, if necessary, to make sure Zedd told all he knew. He looked away
from her long blond hair cascading down around her shoulders, her beautiful,
oddly familiar face. This was madness-- in more ways than one.
The hump-nosed Sister emerged from the tent. "Bring them in," she
snapped.
The four guards jumped into action, two seizing Adie, the other two
taking Zedd. The men were big enough that Zedd's weight was trivial to them.
The way they held him up by his arms prevented half his steps from touching
the ground. They horsed him into the tent, advanced him around the table,
spun him around, and dropped him into the chair with such force that it
drove the wind from his lungs in a grunt.
Zedd closed his eyes as he grimaced in pain. He wished they would just
kill him so that he wouldn't ever have to open his eyes again. But when they
killed him, they would send his head to Richard. Zedd hated to think of the
anguish that would cause Richard.
"Well?" Sister Tahirah asked.
Zedd opened his eyes and peered at the object sitting before him in the
center of the table.
His breath caught.
He blinked at what he saw, too astonished to let out the breath.
It was constructed magic called a sunset spell.
Zedd swallowed. Surely, none of the Sisters had opened it. No, they
wouldn't have opened it. He wouldn't be sitting there if they had.
Before him on the table sat a small box, the size of half his palm. The
box was shaped like the upper half of a stylized sun--a half disc with six
pointed rays coming out from it, meant to represent the sun setting at the
horizon. The box was lacquered a bright yellow. The rays were also yellow,
but with lines of orange, green, and blue along their edges.
"Well?" Sister Tahirah repeated.
"Ahh..."
She was looking in her book, not at the small yellow box. "What is it?"
"I'm ... not sure I remember," he said, stalling.
The Sister wasn't in a patient mood. "Do you want me to--"
"Oh, yes," he said, trying to sound nonchalant, "I recall, now. It's a
box with a spell that produces a little tune."
That much was true. The Sister was still reading in her book. Zedd
glanced back over his shoulder at Adie sitting on the bench. He could see in
her eyes that she knew by his demeanor that something was up. He hoped the
Sister couldn't detect the same thing.
"It's a music box, then," Sister Tahirah murmured, more interested in
her catalog of magic.
"Yes, that's right. A box that contains a spell for music. When you
remove the lid, it produces a melody." Sweat trickled down from his neck,
down between his shoulder blades. Zedd swallowed and tried not to let his
trembling carry in his voice. "Take the lid off--you'll see."
She peered suspiciously over the top of the book. "You take the lid
off."
"Well... I can't. My hands are shackled behind my back."
"Use your teeth."
"My teeth?"
The Sister used the back end of her pen to push the yellow half-sun box
closer to him. "Yes, your teeth."
He had been counting on her suspicion, but he dared not overplay it. He
worked his tongue in his mouth, desperately trying to work up some saliva.
Blood would be better, but he knew that if he bit the inside of his lip the
Sister would get suspicious. Blood was too common a catalyst.
Before the Sister got leery, Zedd leaned forward and tried to stretch
his lips around the box. He worked to get his bottom teeth at the bottom of
the sun and his top teeth hooked over a pointed ray. The box was a hair too
big. With a hand on the back of his head, Sister Tahirah pushed him down on
it. That was all he needed and he captured the lid with his teeth.
He lifted the lid, but the whole box came up off the table. He shook
his head and, at last, the top came free. He set the lid aside.
If not opened by a party to the theft of items preserved at the Keep, a
sunset spell had to be activated by a wizard whom the spell would recognize.
Quickly, before she saw what he was doing, he let some saliva drop into the
box in order to activate the spell.
Zedd felt giddy as the music started. It worked. It was still viable.
He glanced through the narrow slit of the tent flap. The sun would be down
soon.
He wanted to jump up and dance to the merry tune. He wanted to let out
a whoop. Even though he didn't have long to live, he still felt exhilarated.
The ordeal was almost over. In a short time, all the things of magic that
were stolen would be destroyed, and he would be dead. They would never get
anything out of him. He would not betray their cause.
He felt bad that the captured families who were being used to help gain
his cooperation would also die, but at least they would no longer have to
suffer. He felt a sudden pang of sadness that Adie, too, would die. He hated
the thought of that nearly as much as the thought of her suffering.
The Sister reached in and replaced the lid. "Very cute."
The music stopped. It didn't matter, though. The spell had been
activated. The music was simply confirmation--and a warning to get out of
range. No chance of that.
It didn't matter.
Sister Tahirah scooped the yellow box off the table. "I'm going to put
this back." She leaned down toward Zedd. "While I'm gone, I'm going to have
the guards bring in the next child and let you have a good look at her, let
you think about what those men in the next tent are going to do to
her--without hesitation--if you stall and waste our time like that again."
"But I--"
His words were cut off as she used the Rada'Han around his neck to send
a shock of searing pain from the base of his skull down to his nips. His
back arched as he cried out, nearly losing consciousness. He slumped back in
his chair, his head hanging back, unable to lift it for the moment.
"Come with me," Sister Tahirah said to the guards. "I'll need some
help. The guard who brings in the next child can watch them for a few
minutes."
Panting from the lingering pain, tears filling his eyes, Zedd stared at
the ceiling of the tent. He saw light as the flap was opened. Shadows moved
across the canvas as the Sister and the four men left and she sent in the
guard with the child. Zedd stared up at the ceiling, not wanting to look at
the face of another child.
Finally, recovered from the bout of pain, he sat up.
One of the big elite guards, dressed in their leather, mail, and a
broad belt holding an assortment of weapons, stood to the side with a
blond-headed girl held before him. It was the girl who had smiled. Zedd
closed his eyes a moment in the agony of what they would do to this poor
child who reminded him so much of someone he knew.
When he opened his eyes, she smiled again. Then she winked.
Zedd blinked. She lifted up her flower print dress just enough so that
Zedd could see two knives strapped to each of her thighs. He blinked again
at what he was seeing. He looked up into her smiling face.
"Rachel... ?" he whispered.
Her smile widened into a beaming grin.
Zedd looked up at the face of the big man standing guard behind her.
"Dear spirits ..." Zedd whispered.
It was the boundary warden.
"I hear you've gotten yourself into a bit of trouble," Chase said.
For an instant, Zedd thought that for sure he must be seeing things.
Then he realized why Rachel looked so familiar, yet different; she was more
than two and a half years older than the last time he'd seen her. Her blond
hair, once chopped short, was now long. She had to be nearly a foot taller.
Chase hooked his thumbs behind the broad leather belt. "Adie, as
levelheaded as you are, I imagine it had to be Zedd who got you into this
fix."
Zedd looked over his shoulder. Adie wore a beautiful, tearful smile. He
couldn't remember the last time he had seen her smile.
"He be nothing but trouble," she told the boundary warden.
It had been two and a half years since he'd seen Chase. The boundary
warden was an old friend. He was the one who had taken them to meet Adie
back then so she could show Richard the way through the boundary before
Darken Rahl had brought it down. Chase was older than Richard, but one of
his dearest and most trusted friends.
"An older boundary warden, Friedrich, came looking for me," Chase
explained. "He said that 'Lord Rahl' had sent him to the Keep to warn you
about some trouble. He said that Richard had told him about me, and since
you were gone and the Keep had been captured, he came to Westland looking
for me. Boundary wardens can always count on one another.
"Rachel and I decided to come pull your scrawny hide out of the fire."
Zedd glanced at the sunlight coming through the tent's narrow opening.
"You have to get out of here. Before the sun sets--or you'll be killed.
Hurry, get out of here while you can."
Chase lifted an eyebrow. "I've come all this way and I don't intend to
leave without you."
"But you don't understand--"
A knife poked through the side of the tent and ran a slit down through
the canvas. One of the elite guards pushed his way in through the slit. Zedd
stared in astonishment. The man looked familiar, but he didn't look right.
"No!" Zedd called to Chase as the big man went for the axe hanging at
his hip.
"Stay where you are," the man who came in through the slit in the side
of the tent said to Chase. "There's a man right outside who will put a sword
through you if you move."
Zedd's jaw dropped. "Captain Zimmer?"
"Of course. I've come to get you out of here."
"But, but, you have black hair."
The captain flashed one of his infectious smiles. "Soot. Not a good
idea to have blond hair in the middle of Jagang's camp. I've come to rescue
you."
Zedd was incredulous. "But you all have to get out of here. Hurry,
before the sun sets. Get out!"
"Do you have any more men?" Chase asked the captain.
"A handful. Who are you?"
"An old friend," Zedd told him. "Now, look here--"
At that, cries and shouts came from outside. Captain Zimmer rushed to
the tent's opening. A man poked his head in.
"It's not us," he said in answer to the captain's unspoken question.
In the distance, Zedd could hear the shouts of "Assassin!"
Captain Zimmer rushed behind Zedd and worked a key in the manacles.
They broke open. Zedd's arms were suddenly free. The captain hurried to undo
Adie's as she stood and turned her back to him.
"Sounds like our chance," Rachel said. "Let's use the commotion to get
you out of here."
"The brains of the group," Chase said with a grin.
The first thing Zedd did when his arms were free was fall to his knees
and hug the girl. He couldn't bring forth words, but they weren't needed. To
feel her spindly arms around his neck was better than any words.
"I've missed you, Zedd," she whispered in his ear.
Outside the tent, mayhem had broken out. Orders were being shouted, men
were running, and in the distance the clash of steel rang out.
The Sister burst back into the tent. She saw Zedd free and immediately
released a bolt of power through his collar. The shock sent him sprawling.
Just then, a second, young, blond Sister in a drab brown wool dress
charged in behind Sister Tahirah. Sister Tahirah spun around. The second
Sister smacked her so hard it nearly knocked the woman from her feet.
Without pause, Sister Tahirah unleashed a bolt of her power that lit the
inside of the tent with a blinding flash. Instead of it blasting the second
Sister back through the tent's doorway, as Zedd had expected, Sister Tahirah
cried out and crumpled to the ground.
"Got you!" the second Sister growled as she planted a boot on Sister
Tahirah's neck, keeping her on the ground.
Zedd blinked in astonishment. "Rikka?"
Rikka was already turning, her Agiel in her fist. She held it toward
Chase.
"Rikka?" Captain Zimmer asked from the other side of the tent, sounding
startled, not just to see who it was, but perhaps to see the Mord-Sith with
her blond hair undone from its single braid and flying free.
"Zimmer?" She frowned at his black hair. "What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here? What are you doing here!" He gestured to her
dress. "What are you wearing?"
Rikka grinned that wicked grin she had. "The dress of a Sister."
"Sister?" Zedd asked. "What Sister?"
Rikka shrugged. "One who didn't want to give up her dress. She lost her
head over the whole affair." With her finger and thumb Rikka pulled her
lower lip out. "See? I borrowed her ring, too. I spread the split and hung
it here, so I'd look like a real Sister."
Rikka pulled Sister Tahirah up by her hair and shoved her toward Adie.
"Get that thing off her neck."
"I will do no such--"
Rikka drove her Agiel up under the Sister's chin. Blood gushed out over
her lower lip. The Sister started choking on it as she gasped in agony.
"I said, get that thing off Adie's neck. And don't you ever question me
again."
Sister Tahirah scrambled to Adie to do as the Mord-Sith had commanded.
Chase planted his fists on his hips as he glared down at Zedd, still on
the ground. "So what are we going to do now--draw straws to see who gets to
rescue you?"
"Bags! Isn't anyone listening? You people have to get out of here!"
Rachel shook a finger at Zedd. "Now, Zedd, you know you're not supposed
to say bad words in front of children."
Sputtering in frustration, Zedd gaped up at Chase.
"I know," the boundary warden said with a sigh. "She's been a trial for
me, too."
"The sun's about to set!" Zedd roared.
"It would be better if we could delay until it did," Captain Zimmer
said. "It would be easier to get out of camp in the dark."
A humming noise filled the tent, making the very air vibrate, and then
there was a sudden metallic pop. Adie cried out with relief as the collar
fell away.
"Isn't anyone listening?" Zedd scrambled to his feet and shook his
fists. "I've ignited a sunset spell!"
"A what?" Chase asked.
"A sunset spell. It's a protective device from the Keep. It's a shield
of sorts. When it recognizes that other shields are being violated and
protected items are being taken, it insinuates itself among the stolen
goods. When a thief opens it to see what it is, it activates the spell. At
the first sunset the spell ignites and destroys everything that has been
plundered."
Sister Tahirah shook her fist at him. "You fool!"
Rikka seized his arm. "Then let's get going."
Chase grabbed Zedd's other arm and pulled him back. "Now, hold on."
Zedd yanked both arms free and pointed out through the slit in the side
of the tent at the setting sun. "We've got mere moments until this place is
a fireball."
"How big a fireball?" Captain Zimmer asked.
Zedd threw up his hands. "It will kill thousands. It won't destroy the
camp by any means, but this whole area is going to be leveled."
Everyone started talking, but Chase cut them all off with an angry
command for silence. "Now listen to me. If we look like we're escaping,
we'll be caught. Captain, you and your men come with me. We'll pretend like
Zedd and Adie are our prisoners. Rachel, too--that's how I got in here; I
found out they were holding children." He flipped a hand toward Rikka and
Sister Tahirah. "They will look like Sisters in charge of prisoners, along
with us playing as the guards."
"Do you want that thing off your neck, first?" Rikka asked Zedd.
"No time for that now. Let's go."
Adie grabbed Zedd's arm. "No."
"What!"
"Listen to me, old man. There be those families and children in these
tents around us. They will die. You go. Get to the Keep. I will get the
innocent people out of here."
Zedd didn't like the idea, but arguing with Adie was a fool's task,
and besides, there was no time.
"We split up, then," Captain Zimmer said. "Me and my men will play the
part of guards and get the men, women, and children out of here, back to our
lines, along with Adie."
Rikka nodded. "Tell Verna that I'm going to go with Zedd to help take
back the Keep. He will need a Mord-Sith to keep him out of trouble."
Everyone looked around to see if there would be any arguments. No one
said anything. It suddenly seemed settled.
"Done," Zedd said.
He threw his arms around Adie and kissed her cheek. "Be careful. Tell
Verna I'm going to take the Keep back. Help her defend the passes."
Adie nodded. "Be careful. Listen to Chase--he be a good man to come all
this way for you."
Zedd smiled and then gasped as Chase grabbed his robes and yanked him
out of the tent. "The sun is setting--let's get out of here. Remember,
you're our prisoner."
"I know the part," Zedd grumbled as he was dragged out of the tent like
a sack of grain. He smiled as Adie, already rushing away, looked over her
shoulder one last time. She smiled back, and then was gone.
"Wait!" Zedd called. He quickly reached into one of the wagons and
retrieved something he didn't want to be destroyed. He slipped it into a
pocket. "All right, let's go."
Outside the tent, the camp was in pandemonium. Elite guards, in a state
of high alert and with weapons drawn, raced past on their way toward the
command tents. Other men ran to the ring of barricades. Trumpets blared
alarms and coded messages that directed men to tasks. Zedd feared his small
group might be set upon and held for questioning.
Instead of waiting for that to happen, Chase reached out and snatched a
soldier running past. "What's the matter with you? Get me some protection
for these prisoners until I can get them to a safe place! The emperor will
have our heads if we allow them to be recaptured!"
The soldier quickly collected a dozen men and fell in around Rikka,
Sister Tahirah, Chase, Rachel, and Zedd. Rachel was doing a convincing job
of bawling in fear. For effect, Chase would occasionally give her a shake
and yell at her to shut up.
Zedd glanced back over his shoulder, seeing the sun touch the horizon.
He growled at Rikka, out ahead, for her to pick up her pace.
At the barricades, scowling guards looked them over carefully as they
approached and then opened their ranks. They were preventing anyone from
getting in, and were momentarily confused by such a company of their own men
with prisoners making their way out. One man decided to step out to stop and
question them.
Chase straight-armed him. "Idiot! Out of our way! Emperor's orders!"
The man frowned as he stared at the procession sweeping past. While he
considered what to do, they were past and gone, swallowed up in the larger
camp.
In moments, they were out of the heart of the camp. In short order,
regular soldiers, seeing Rikka at the lead, moved to block their path. A
beautiful woman out among the regular soldiers was asking for trouble, and
with the confusion the men saw in the command area, they believed they had
an opportunity while those in authority were busy. Rikka and Chase kept
their small group moving at a quick pace. The grinning soldiers closed
ranks, blocking the way. One of the men, missing his two front teeth, took a
step out in front of his men. With one thumb hooked behind his belt, he held
up the other hand.
"Hold on there. I think the ladies would like to stay for a visit."
Without pause, Rachel reached under the hem of her dress and pulled a
knife. She didn't slow or even look back as she flipped the knife up over
her shoulder. In one fluid motion, without missing a step, Chase caught the
knife by the tip and heaved it at the toothless man. With a thunk, the knife
slammed hilt-deep into the man's forehead.
As he was still toppling back, Rachel flipped a second knife up over
her shoulder. Chase caught it and sent it on its way. As the second man
twisted toward the ground, dead, the rest of the men backed away to let the
small group, marching onward, in among them. Deadly rights within the
Imperial Order camp were not a rarity.
Elite guards or not, the soldiers were confident in their numbers and,
with a beautiful woman in their midst, sure of what they wanted. Men all
around closed in.
Zedd snatched a quick glance back. "Now! Hit the ground!"
Rikka, Chase, Rachel, and Zedd dove to the dirt.
For an instant, everyone above them froze, staring in surprise. The
soldiers who were accompanying them, weapons already drawn for the fight
they expected, also stopped and stood in confusion.
Sister Tahirah saw her opportunity and cried out. "Help! These people
are--"
The world ignited with brilliant white light.
An instant later a thunderous blast rocked the ground. A wall of debris
followed, driven before a roar of noise.
Men were blown into the air. Some were cut down by flying wreckage. The
elite guards that had escorted them tumbled through the air over Zedd.
Sister Tahirah had turned toward the flash. A wagon wheel shot toward
them at incredible speed, hitting her chest-high, cutting her in two. The
bloodied wheel sailed onward without even being slowed. The Sister's
shredded remains were flung across the ground along with the bodies of
countless men.
As the blast from behind still rumbled, the screams of terribly wounded
men rose into the lingering rays of sunset.
Zedd dearly hoped that Adie had not wasted any time in escaping.
Chase seized Zedd's robes at one shoulder and hauled him to his feet as
he swept Rachel up in his other arm. Rikka grabbed Zedd's robes at the other
shoulder and pulled him ahead. Together, Zedd's two rescuers rushed with him
into the carnage.
Rachel hid her face in Chase's shoulder.
Zedd was about to ask Chase why in the world he would teach a young
girl such things with knives when he recalled that he himself had been the
one who had once commanded Chase to the task of teaching her everything the
boundary warden knew.
Rachel was a special person. Zedd had wanted her to be prepared for
what life might have in store.
"You should have let me make the Sister take off that collar when we
had the chance," Rikka said as they ran.
"If we had taken the time," Zedd answered, "we would have been back
there and caught up in that fireball."
"I suppose," she said.
As they slowed a bit to catch their breath, men ran in every direction.
In the confusion and disorder, no one noticed that the four of them were
making good their escape. As they hastily made their way through the vast
Imperial Order encampment, Zedd put an arm around Rikka's shoulders and
pulled her closer.
"Thank you for coming to save my life."
She flashed him a cunning smile. "I wouldn't leave you to those
pigs--not after all you've done for us. Besides, Lord Rahl has Cara
protecting him; I'm sure he would want a Mord-Sith protecting his
grandfather as well."
Zedd had been right. The world was turned upside down.
"We have horses and supplies hidden," Chase said. "On our way out of
this place, we'd better take a horse for Rikka."
Rachel looked back over Chase's shoulder, her arms around his neck. She
gave Zedd a serious frown as she whispered, "Chase is unhappy because he had
to leave all his weapons behind and be so lightly armed."
Zedd glanced to the battle-axe at one hip, the sword at Chase's other,
and two knives at the small of his back. "Yes, I can see where being so
defenseless would make a man grumpy."
"I don't like this place," Rachel whispered in Chase's ear.
He patted her back as she laid her head on his shoulder. "We'll be back
in the woods in no time, little one."
Amid the screams and death, it was as tender a sight as Zedd could
imagine.
Verna paused when the sentry rushed up in the dark. She moved her hands
up on the reins, closer to the bit, to keep her horse from spooking.
"Prelate--I think it might be an attack of some sort," the soldier said
in breathless worry.
She frowned at the man. "What might be an attack? What is it?"
"There's something coming up the road." He pointed back toward Dobbin
Pass. "A wagon, I think."
The enemy was always sending things at them--men sneaking through the
darkness, horses encased in spells designed to blow a breach in their
shields running wildly toward them, innocent enough wagons with archers
hiding inside, powerful spell-driven winds laced with magic conjuring of
every sort.
"Since it's dark, the commander thinks it's suspicious and we shouldn't
take any chances."
"Sounds wise," Verna said.
She had to get back to their camp. She had made the rounds herself to
get a good look at their defenses, to see the men at the outposts, before
their nightly meeting back at camp to go over the day's reports.
"The commander wants to destroy the wagon before it gets too close.
I've checked, Prelate--there are no other Sisters at hand. If you don't want
to see to this, we can have the men up above drop a rockslide on the wagon
and crush it."
Verna had to get back to meet with the officers. "You had better tell
your commander to take care of it in whatever manner he sees fit."
The soldier saluted with snap of a fist to his heart.
Verna pulled her horse around and put a foot into the stirrup. Why
would the Imperial Order think they could get a wagon through, especially at
night? Certainly, they weren't foolish enough to think it wouldn't be seen
in the dark. She paused and looked at the soldier hurrying away.
"Wait." He stopped and turned. "I changed my mind. I'll go with you."
It was foolish to use the rocks they had ready overhead; they might
need them if a full-scale attack suddenly charged up this pass. It was silly
to waste such a defense.
She followed the man up the trail to the lookout point where his
company waited. The men were all watching through the trees. The road out
ahead and below them looked silver in the light of the rising moon.
Verna inhaled the fragrance of balsam firs as she watched the wagon
making its way up the silvery road, being pulled by a single, plodding
horse. Tense archers waited at the ready. They had a shielded lantern
standing by to light fire arrows in order to set the wagon ablaze.
Verna didn't see anyone in the wagon. An empty wagon seemed pretty
suspicious. She recalled the strange message from Ann, warning her to let an
empty wagon through.
But they had already done that. Verna recalled that the girl with the
message from Jagang had come in by this route and method. Verna's heart
pounded in worry at the thought of what new message Jagang might be sending,
now.
Perhaps it was Zedd's and Adie's heads.
"Hold," she called to the archers. "Let it through, but stand at the
ready in case it's a trick."
Verna made her way down the narrow path between the trees. She stood
behind a screen of spruce, watching. When the wagon was close enough, she
opened a small gap in the weave of the vast shield she and the Sisters had
spun across the pass. The pattern of magic was barbed with every nasty sort
of magic they could conjure. This pass was small enough that the shields
alone could hold it, and if the enemy did come, it was too small for any
numbers to come all at once. Even without the formidable shield, the pass
was relatively easy to hold.
When the wagon passed through the shield, Verna closed the hole. When
it rolled close enough, one of the men ran out of the trees and look control
of the horse. As the wagon drew to a halt, dozens of archers behind him and
on the other side, behind Verna, drew their weapons. Verna had spun a web of
magic and she was prepared to unleash it at the slightest provocation.
The tarp in the bed of the wagon eased back. A little girl sat up. It
was the child who had brought the message the last time. Her face lit up at
seeing Verna, someone she recognized.
Verna's heart skipped a beat at the thought of what the message might
be, this time.
"I brought some friends," the girl said.
People lying in the back of the wagon pulled the tarp aside and started
sitting up. They looked like parents with their frightened children.
Verna blinked in shock when she saw some of the people help Adie up.
The sorceress looked to be exhausted. Her black and gray hair was no longer
parted neatly in the middle, but was in as much disarray as Zedd's usually
was.
Verna rushed over, leaning in to help the woman. "Adie! Oh, Adie, am I
ever glad to see you!"
The old sorceress smiled. "I be awfully happy to see you, too, Verna."
Verna's gaze swept over the people in the wagon, her heart still
pounding with apprehension. "Where's Zedd?"
"He escaped as well."
Verna closed her eyes with a silent prayer of gratitude.
Her eyes popped open. "If he escaped, then where is he?"
"He be on his way back to the Keep, in Aydindril," Adie said in her
raspy voice. "The enemy has captured it."
"We heard."
"That old man intends to have his Keep back."
"Knowing Zedd, I feel sorry for anyone who gets in his way."
"Rikka be with him."
"Rikka! What was she doing over there? I ordered her not to do that!"
Verna realized how that must have sounded. "We thought it would be
pointless, that she wouldn't have a chance and we would just lose her for
nothing."
"Rikka be Mord-Sith. She has a mind of her own."
Verna shook her head. "Well, even though she wasn't supposed to do
that, now that I see you again and know Zedd has escaped as well, I'm glad
that that obstinate woman didn't listen to me."
"Captain Zimmer be on his way back as well."
"Captain Zimmer!"
"Yes, he and some of his men decided to come to rescue us as well. They
be coming back the way they travel, unseen in the night." Adie gestured to
the surrounding trees. "They be up around us, protecting the wagon on our
way in. The captain feared that some of the enemy might stop the wagon and
capture us all over again. He wanted to make sure we be safe."
The captain and his men had special signals that allowed them to move
through the pass without being attacked by their own men, or the Sisters, by
mistake. The nature of the way Captain Zimmer and his men worked was that
they were, for the most part, outside regular command. Kahlan had set it up
that way so they could act on their own initiative. While it could at times
be aggravating, those men accomplished more than anyone ever expected.
"Zedd wanted me to help these people escape." Adie gave Verna a
meaningful look. "There be others we could not help."
Verna glanced over at the people huddling together at the back of the
wagon. "I can only imagine what Jagang has been doing with people like
that."
"No," Adie said. "I doubt you can."
Verna changed to an even more horrifying subject. "Has Jagang been able
to find anything from the Keep, so far, that he will use against us?"
"Thankfully, no. Zedd set a spell that destroyed the things stolen from
the Keep. There be a big explosion in the middle of their camp."
"Like the one back in Aydindril that killed so many of them?"
"No, but it still caused much destruction and killed some important
people--even some of Jagang's Sisters, I believe."
Verna never thought she would see the day that she would be pleased to
hear that Sisters of the Light had died. Those women were controlled by the
dream walker, and even when they had been offered freedom, they had been too
afraid to believe those trying to rescue them. They had chosen to remain
Jagang's slaves.
With a sudden thought, Verna grabbed a fistful of Adie's robes. "Could
the spell Zedd ignited possibly have taken out Jagang?"
With her completely white eyes, Adie looked back up Dobbin Pass toward
the Imperial Order camp. "I wish I had better news, Prelate, but Captain
Zimmer, on the way out, told me that just as we were about to be rescued, an
assassin managed to get deep into the inner camp."
"An assassin? Who was it? Where was he from?"
"None of us knows. He appeared much like others from the Old World. The
intruder be driven by a single-minded determination to get to Jagang and
kill him. He somehow made it into the inner defenses, killed some people,
and took the uniform of the elite guards so he might get to Jagang. The
guards somehow recognized he not be one of their own. They hacked the man to
pieces before he could get close to the emperor.
"Jagang left the area until his men could check over their defenses and
make sure there be no more assassins about. Many of the Sisters went with
him, helping with his safeguards. That be when Zedd set off the sunset
spell. We did not know Jagang had left the area, but it would have make no
difference. Zedd had to use the spell when it be put before him. The spell
be triggered by the sun setting."
Verna nodded. For a moment, she had been hoping ...
"Still, you and Zedd escaped, and that's what matters for now. Thank
the Creator."
"A surprising number of people showed up all at once to rescue us."
Adie lifted an eyebrow. "I do not recall seeing the Creator among them."
The warm breeze ruffled Verna's curly hair. "I suppose not, but you
know what I mean."
The crickets in the woods kept up their steady chirping. Life seemed to
be a little sweeter, their situation a little less hopeless.
She let out a sigh. "I hope the Creator will at least help Zedd and
Rikka take back the Keep."
"Zedd will not need the Creator's help," Adie said. "Another man showed
up to help get us out. Chase be an old friend of Zedd, me, and Richard.
Chase will have those holding the Keep praying for the protection of the
Creator."
"Then we can look forward to the day the Keep is back in our hands and
Jagang is denied help in breaking through the passes into D'Hara."
Verna waved her arm, signaling, and the four couples standing at the
back of the wagon shuffled forward with their children.
"Welcome to D'Hara," Verna told them. "You will be safe, here."
"Thank you for helping get us out," one of the men said with a bow of
his head to Adie. "I feel ashamed, now, of the terrible things I had been
thinking of you."
Adie smiled to herself as she tightened her thin fingers on his
shoulder. "True. But I could not blame you."
The girl who had brought the message the last time tugged on Verna's
dress. "This is my mother and father. I told them how nice you were to me,
before."
Verna squatted down and hugged the girl. "Welcome back, child. Welcome
back."
Whenever a breath of wind sighed among the branches above, silvery
streamers of moonlight cascading down through the forest canopy glided about
in the darkness like ghosts on the prowl. Kahlan peered around, barely able
to make out the somber shapes of the looming trees as she tried to see if
there was anything that did not belong. She heard no chirps of bugs, no
small animals scurrying among the leaf litter, no mockingbirds singing
throughout the night as there had been. Carefully picking her way over the
mossy ground, she did her best to see in the gloom so as not to step in
holes and cracks in the rocky places or pools of standing water in the low
areas.
Ahead of her, Richard slipped through the open forest like a shadow. At
times he seemed to disappear, causing her to fear that he might no longer be
with them. He had ordered everyone following behind him not to talk and to
walk as quietly as possible, but none of them could move through the woods
as silently as he did.
For some reason, Richard was as tense as his bowstring. He felt that
something was wrong, but he didn't know what. While it might seem a
beautiful moonlit night in the woods, the way Richard was acting, on top of
the haunting silence, had draped a pall of foreboding over everyone.
Kahlan was at least pleased that the skies had cleared. The rains of
recent days had made travel not just difficult, but miserable. While it
hadn't really been cold, the wet made it feel so. Taking shelter had not
been an option. Until they had the final dose of the antidote, they had no
choice but to press on.
The antidote from Northwick had improved Richard's condition a little,
in addition to stopping the advance of the symptoms of his poisoning, but
now the temporary improvement was dissipating. Kahlan was so worried for him
that she had no appetite.
They now had well over double the number of men with them, and many
more than that were making their way toward the city of Hawton by different
routes. Those other groups of men planned to eliminate the lesser
detachments of Imperial Order soldiers stationed in villages along the way.
Richard, Kahlan, and their smaller group were pushing toward Hawton as
rapidly as possible, deliberately avoiding contact with the enemy so as to
get there before Nicholas and his soldiers knew they were on their way.
Stealth would afford them the best chance of recovering the final dose of
the antidote.
Once they had the antidote, then they could gather with the rest of the
men for an attack. Kahlan knew that if they could first eliminate Nicholas
it would make it much easier, and less risky, to defeat the remaining
Imperial Order troops. If she could somehow find a way to get close to
Nicholas she could touch him with her power. She knew better than to suggest
such an idea to Richard; he would never go along with it.
To a certain extent, Kahlan felt responsible for what these people had
suffered under the Imperial Order. After all, if not for her freeing the
chimes, the boundary protecting Bandakar would still be in place. Yet, if
these people could rid themselves of the Imperial Order, the changes that
had come about also meant the true freedom they had never really enjoyed
and, with it, the opportunity for better lives.
The change in the people in Northwick had been heartening to witness.
That night, the men Richard and Kahlan had brought had stayed up most of the
night talking to the people there, explaining the things Richard and Kahlan
had explained to them. The morning after the annihilation of the soldiers
who had taken over their city and held them in the grip of fear, the people
had celebrated by singing and dancing in the streets. Those people had
learned not only just how precious freedom really was, but also that their
old ways provided no real tools for improving the quality of their lives.
After Richard had dissolved the ancient illusions of the Wise One's
wisdom and the meaningless tenets the speakers substituted for knowledge,
and after the killing of the enemy soldiers, the men of Northwick had not
been shy about volunteering to help rid their land of the Imperial Order.
Freed from the enforced blindness of a repressive mindset, many now hungered
aloud for a future of their own making.
Kahlan unexpectedly came up against Richard's outstretched arm. She put
a hand to her chest, over her galloping heart, then immediately turned and
passed the signal to stop back to those behind. There was still no sound in
the dark woods--not so much as the buzz of a mosquito.
Richard slipped his pack off of his back, set it on a low rock, and
started quietly searching through it.
Kahlan leaned close to whisper. "What are you doing?"
"Fire. We need light. Pass the word back for some of the men to get out
torches."
While Richard pulled out a steel and flint, Kahlan whispered
instructions to Cara, who in turn passed them back. In short order, several
men tiptoed forward with torches.
The men gathered in close, squatting down beside a low jumble of rock
next to Richard. He picked a stick up off the ground and dipped it in a
small container from his pack. He then wiped the stick across the top of a
high point on the rock.
"I'm putting some pine resin on this rock," he told the men. "Hold your
torches over it so that when I strike a spark and the resin flames up, it
will light the torches."
Pine resin, painstakingly collected from rotting trees, was valuable
for starting fires in the rain. A spark would ignite it even when wet. It
burned hot enough to often be able to catch damp wood on fire.
Richard had always seemed at home in the dark. Kahlan had never seen
him need to have light like this. She stared intently out into the night,
wondering what it was he thought might be out there that they couldn't see.
"Cara," Richard whispered, "pass the word back. I want everyone to get
out a weapon. Now."
Without hesitation, Cara turned to pass on the orders. After a
seemingly endless span of silence, broken only by the soft whisper of steel
sliding past leather, word came back and she leaned down toward Richard.
"Done."
Richard looked up at Kahlan and Jennsen. "Both of you, as well."
Kahlan drew her sword, Jennsen her silver-handled dagger with the
ornate letter R that stood for the House of Rahl.
Richard struck the spark. The pine pitch flamed up with an angry hiss;
the torches caught; light ignited in the heart of the dark forest.
In the sudden, harsh glare, everyone turned and looked about to see
what might be hiding in the darkness around them.
Men gasped.
In the trees all around them, perched on branches everywhere, sat
black-tipped races. Hundreds of them. Beady black eyes watched the people.
In that moment of sudden bright light, everything but the flickering
flame was silent and still.
With a burst of wild cries, the races launched their attack.
From all around, all at once, the races descended on them. The night
air suddenly filled with a riot of glossy black feathers, the sweep of huge
wings, hooked beaks, and reaching talons. After such a long silence, the
sound of piercing cries and beating wings was deafening.
Everywhere, the people met the attack with fierce determination. Some
of the men were knocked to the ground, or stumbled and fell. Others cried
out as they tried to protect themselves with one arm while driving off the
attack with the other. Men hacked at the races atop their friends and turned
to ward off other screeching beasts that flew in toward them.
Kahlan saw the red-striped breast of a race abruptly appear right
before her face. She swung her sword, lopping off a wing, and spun around,
bringing the sword up to hit another bird coming in from the other side. She
stabbed a race on the ground at her feet as it reached in with its beak,
like a vulture, to try to rip flesh from her leg.
Richard's sword was a blur of silver slashing through the winged
attackers. A cloud of black feathers surrounded him. The birds were
attacking everyone, but the assault appeared to be centered around Richard.
It almost seemed as if the races were trying to drive the people back from
Richard so that more of the birds could get at him.
Jennsen frantically stabbed at birds going for him. Kahlan swung at