Blood of the Fold

Chapter 5

Sister Verna stood transfixed by the flames, their depths loosing transient whorls of glittering colors and shimmering rays alive with swaying movement, fingers twisting in a dance, luring in air that flapped their clothes in passing, and casting forth heat that would have driven them all back, if not for their shields. The huge bloodred sun hung half emerged at the horizon, at last abating the glory of the fire that had consumed the bodies. A few of the Sisters around her still sobbed softly, but Sister Verna had drained all the tears she had to give.

Well over one hundred boys and young men stood in a ring around the fire, with twice as many Sisters of the Light and novices circled inside them. Except for one Sister and one boy symbolically standing watch over the palace, and of course the one Sister who had become deranged and was locked in an empty, shielded room for her own good, all were on the hill above Tanimura watching the flames leap skyward. Even with this many people standing together, each was touched by profound loneliness, and stood withdrawn in introspection and prayer. As prescribed, no one spoke at the funeral rite.

Sister Verna’s back hurt from standing ward all night over the bodies. Through the hours of darkness they had all stood, praying, and maintaining the linked shield over the corpses in symbolic protection of the revered. At least it was a relief to be away from the incessant drumming down in the city.

At first light the shield had been dropped and each had sent forth a flow of their Han into the pyre, igniting it. Fire, fed by magic, had raced through the stacked logs and the two heavily shrouded bodies, one short and squat, the other tall and powerfully built, creating an inferno of divine power.

They had had to search the vaults for guidance as no one living had ever participated in the ceremony; it had not been performed in almost eight hundred years—791, to be precise: the last time a prelate had died.

As they had learned in the old books, only the Prelate was to have her soul released to the Creator’s protection in the sacred funeral rite, but in this case the Sisters had all voted to grant the same privilege to the one who had struggled so valiantly to save her. The books had said that dispensation from the exclusion could only be granted by unanimous consent. It had taken heated persuasion to make it so.

By custom, as the sun finally and fully gained the horizon, washing the fire with the complete spectacle of Creator’s own light, the flow of Han was withdrawn. Their power recalled, the pyre collapsed, leaving only a stain of ash and a few charred logs to mark the site of the ceremony on the green hilltop. Smoke curled upward, dissipating into the silent, brightening day.

Grayish white ashes were all that was left in the world of the living of Prelate Annalina, and the prophet Nathan. It was done.

Without words, Sisters began drifting away, some in solitude, others placing a comforting arm around the shoulder of a boy or a novice. Like lost souls, they meandered down the hill toward the city, and the Palace of the Prophets, going to a home without a mother. As Sister Verna kissed her ring finger, she guessed that with the prophet also dead, they were in a way without a father as well.

She folded her fingers together over her stomach as she absently watched the others walking off into the distance. She had never had the chance to make her peace with the Prelate before she had died. The woman had used her, humiliated her, and allowed her to be abased for doing her duty and following orders. Though all Sisters served the Creator, and she knew that what the Prelate had done must have been for a greater good, it hurt that the Prelate had exploited that fidelity. It made her feel a fool.

Because Prelate Annalina had been injured in the attack by Ulicia, a Sister of the Dark, and had since remained unconscious for near to three weeks prior to her death, Sister Verna had never had a chance to talk to her. Only Nathan had attended the Prelate, trying tirelessly to heal her, but in the end he had failed. It was cruel fate that took his life, too. Though Nathan had always seemed vigorous to her, the strain must have been too much for him; he had, after all, been near to one thousand years old. She guessed he had aged in the twenty-odd years she had been away seeking Richard and finally bringing him to the palace.

Sister Verna smiled at the memory of Richard; she missed him, too. He had vexed her to the limits of her tolerance, but he, too, had been a victim of the Prelate’s plans, although he seemed to have understood and accepted the things she had done and had not held any ill feelings toward her.

She felt a pang of heartache at the thought that Richard’s love, Kahlan, had probably died in the climax of that terrible prophecy. She hoped it wasn’t so. The Prelate had been a resolute woman, and had orchestrated events in the lives of a great many people. Sister Verna hoped it had truly been done for the good of the Creator’s children, and not simply for the Prelate’s own ambitions.

“You look angry, Sister Verna.”

She turned to see young Warren standing with his hands in the opposite, silver brocade sleeves of his deep violet robes. She glanced around and realized that the two of them were alone on the hillside; the others, long gone, were dark specks in the distance.

“Perhaps I am, Warren.”

“What are you angry about, Sister?”

With the palms of her hands, she smoothed her dark skirt at her hips. “Maybe I’m just angry with myself.” She sought to change the subject as she straightened her light blue shawl. “You’re so young, in your studies I mean, that I’m still having trouble getting used to seeing you without a Rada’Han.”

As if she had reminded him, his fingers stroked his neck where the collar had been for most of his life. “Young for those living under the spell at the palace, perhaps, but hardly young for those in the outside world—I am one hundred and fifty seven, Sister. But I do appreciate that you took my collar off.” He took his fingers from his neck and brushed back a lock of curly blond hair. “It seems like the whole world has been turned upside down in the last few months.”

She chuckled. “I miss Richard, too.”

An easy grin brightened his face. “Really? He was a rare person, wasn’t he. I can hardly believe that he was able to prevent the Keeper from escaping the underworld, but he had to have stopped the spirit of his father, and returned the Stone of Tears to its rightful place, or we would all have been swallowed by the dead. To tell the truth, I was in a cold sweat the whole of winter solstice.”

Sister Verna nodded, as if to add emphasis to her sincerity. “The things you helped teach him must have been valuable. You did well, too, Warren.” She studied his gentle smile for a moment, noticing how little it had changed over all the years. “I’m glad you decided to remain at the palace for a time, even though you have your collar off. We are without a prophet, it would seem.”

He looked to the stain of ashes. “Most of my life I’ve studied the prophecies down in the vaults, and I never knew that some were given by a prophet still living, much less at the palace. I wish they had told me. I wish they had let me talk to him, learn from him. Now the chance is lost.”

“Nathan was a dangerous man, an enigma who none of us could ever fully understand or trust, but maybe it was wrong of them to prevent you from visiting him. Know that in time, when you learned more, the Sisters would have allowed it, if not required it.”

He glanced away. “But now the chance has been lost.”

“Warren, now that you have the collar off, I know you’re anxious to go out into the world, but you’ve said that you intend to stay at the palace, at least for a time, to study. The palace is without a prophet, now. I think you should consider the fact that your gift manifests itself strongly in that area. You could someday be a prophet.”

A gentle breeze rippled his robes as he looked out over the green hills toward the palace. “Not only my gift, but my interest, my hopes, have always involved the prophecies. I’ve only recently begun to understand them in a way that no one else does, but understanding them is different than giving them.”

“It takes time, Warren. Why, when Nathan was your age, I’m sure he was no more advanced in prophecy than you. If you stayed and continued to study, I believe that in four or five hundred years you might be a prophet as great as Nathan.”

He was silent for a time. “But there’s a whole world out there. I’ve heard there are books at the Wizard’s Keep in Aydindril, and other places, too. Richard said there are sure to be many at the People’s Palace in D’Hara. I want to learn, and there may be things to know that can’t be found here.”

Sister Verna rolled her shoulders to ease their ache. “The Palace of the Prophets is spelled, Warren. If you leave, you will age the same as those outside. Look at what’s happened to me in a scant twenty-odd years away from it; even though we were born only a year apart you still look as if you should be thinking of marriage, and I look as if I should be preparing to bounce a grandchild on my knee. Now that I’m back, I will age by the palace’s time again, but what has been lost cannot be recovered.”

Warren averted his eyes. “I think you see more wrinkles than are there, Sister Verna.”

She smiled in spite of herself. “Did you know, Warren, that I was once smitten with you?”

He was so astonished he stumbled back a step. “Me? You can’t be serious. When?”

“Oh, it was a long time ago. Well over a hundred years, I would suppose. You were so scholarly and intelligent, with all that curly blond hair. And those blue eyes made my heart race.”

“Sister Verna!”

She couldn’t hold back a chuckle as his face went crimson. “It was long ago, Warren, and I was young, as were you. It was a fleeting infatuation.” Her smile ghosted away. “Now you seem a child to me, and I look old enough to be your mother. Being away from the palace has aged me in more ways that one.

“Out there, you will have a few brief decades to learn what you could before you grow old and die. Here, you would have the time to learn and perhaps become a prophet. Books from those places could always be borrowed, and brought here for study.

“You’re the closest thing we have to a prophet. With the Prelate and Nathan dead, you may know more about the prophecies than anyone alive, now. We need you, Warren.”

He turned to the sunlight shimmering off the spires and roofs of the palace. “I’ll think on it, Sister.”

“That’s all I ask, Warren.”

With a sigh, he turned back. “What now? Who do you think will be chosen as the new prelate?”

They had learned through their research of the funeral rite that the process of selecting a new prelate was quite involved. Warren would know of it; few knew the books in the vaults as well as he.

She shrugged. “The post requires vast experience and knowledge. That means it would have to be one of the older Sisters. Leoma Marsick would be a likely candidate, or Philippa, or Dulcinia. Sister Maren, of course, would be a top nominee. There are any number of qualified Sisters; I could name at least thirty, though I doubt that more than a dozen truly have a serious chance to become prelate.”

He absently rubbed the side of his nose with a finger. “I suppose you’re right.”

Sister Verna had no doubt that Sisters were already maneuvering to place themselves in contention, if not at the top of the list, with the less venerated choosing their champion and forming rank to back her, doing their best to see to it that she was selected, and hoping to be awarded a position of influence if their favorite became the new prelate. As the field of candidates narrowed, the more influential Sisters who hadn’t yet chosen sides would be courted until they were won over to one or another of the leading Sisters. It was a momentous decision, one that would affect the palace for hundreds of years to come. It would likely be a bitter battle.

Sister Verna sighed. “I don’t look forward to the struggle, but I guess that the selection process must be rigorous, so that the strongest will become prelate. It could drag on for a long time; we could be without a prelate for months, maybe a year.”

“Who are you going to support, Sister?”

She barked a laugh. “Me! You’re only seeing the wrinkles again, Warren. They don’t change the fact that I’m one of the younger Sisters. I have no influence among those who would count.”

“Well, I think you had better try to get some influence.” He leaned closer, lowering his voice even though there was no one around. “The six Sisters of the Dark who escaped on that ship, remember?”

She looked to his blue eyes and frowned. “What does that have to do with who will become prelate?”

Warren twisted the robes at his stomach into a violet knot. “Who’s to say there were only six. What if there’s another at the palace? Or another dozen? Or hundred? Sister Verna, you’re the only Sister I trust to be a true Sister of the Light. You must do something to insure that a Sister of the Dark doesn’t become prelate.”

She glanced to the palace in the distance. “I told you, I’m one of the younger Sisters. My word holds no sway, and the others know that the Sisters of the Dark all escaped.”

Warren looked away, trying to smooth out the wrinkles in his robes. Suddenly, he turned back, suspicion creasing his brow.

“You think I’m right, don’t you. You think there are still Sisters of the Dark at the palace.”

She met his intense eyes with a placid expression. “While I don’t think it entirely out of the realm of possibility, there is no reason to believe it is so, and beyond that, it is only one of a great many matters that must be taken into consideration when—”

“Don’t give me that double-talk that comes so easily to Sisters. This is important.”

Sister Verna stiffened. “You are a student, Warren, speaking to a Sister of the Light; show the proper respect.”

“I’m not being disrespectful, Sister. Richard helped me to see that I must stand up for myself and for what I believe. Besides, you’re the one who took my collar off, and as you said, we’re the same age; you are not my elder.”

“You are still a student who—”

“Who you yourself said probably knows more about the prophecies than anyone else. In that, Sister, you are my student. I admit that you know more than I about a great many things, like the use of Han, but I know more than you about some things. Part of the reason you took the Rada’Han from around my neck is because you know it’s wrong to hold someone captive. I respect you as a Sister, and for the good you do, and for the knowledge you have, but I am no longer a captive of the Sisters. You have earned my respect, Sister, not my submission.”

She studied his blue eyes for a long moment. “Who would have known what was under that collar.” At last, she nodded. “You’re right, Warren; I suspect there are others at the palace who have given a soul oath to the Keeper himself.”

“Others.” Warren searched her eyes. “You didn’t say Sisters, you said others. You mean young wizards, too, don’t you?”

“Have you so soon forgotten Jedidiah?”

He paled a little. “No, I haven’t forgotten Jedidiah.”

“As you said, where there is one, there could be others. Some of the young men at the palace could be sworn to the Keeper, too.”

He hunched closer to her as he knotted his robes again. “Sister Verna, what are we going do about it? We can’t allow a Sister of the Dark to become prelate; it would be a disaster. We must be sure one of them doesn’t become prelate.”

“And how would we know if she was sworn to the Keeper? Worse, what could we do about it? They have command of Subtractive Magic; we don’t. Even if we could find out who they are, we couldn’t do anything about it. It would be like reaching into a sack and grabbing a viper by its tail.”

Warren paled. “I never thought of that.”

Sister Verna clasped her hands. “We’ll think of something. Perhaps the Creator will guide us.”

“Maybe we could get Richard to return and help us, like he did with those six Sisters of the Dark. At least we’ve see the last of those six. They’ll never show their faces again. Richard put the fear of the Creator in them, and sent them running.”

“And in the process, the Prelate was hurt, and later died, along with Nathan,” she reminded him, “Death walks with that man.”

“Not because he brings it,” Warren protested. “Richard is a war wizard; he fights for what’s right, to help people. If he hadn’t done as he did, the Prelate and Nathan would have only been the beginning of all the death and destruction.”

She squeezed his arm; her tone softened. “Of course you’re right; we all owe Richard a great debt. But needing him and finding him are two different things. My wrinkles attest to that.” Sister Verna let her hand drop. “I don’t think we can count on anyone but each other. We’ll think of something.”

Warren fixed her with a dark expression. “We had better; the prophecies hold ominous portent about the next prelate’s reign.”

Back in the city of Tanimura, they were once again surrounded by the incessant sound of drums coming from various directions; a booming, low-pitched, steady cadence that seemed to vibrate deep in her chest. It was unnerving and, she supposed, meant to be.

The drummers and their guards had arrived three days before the prelate’s death, and in short order had set up their huge kettledrums at various stations around the city. Once they had started the slow, steady beat, it had not stopped, day or night. Men took shifts at the drums so that they never ceased, even for a moment.

The pervasive sound had slowly set the people’s nerves on edge, making everyone irritable and short-tempered, as if doom itself were lurking in the shadows, just out of sight, waiting to pounce. Instead of the usual shouting, talking, laughing, and music, a backdrop of eerie quiet added to the brooding mood.

At the outskirts of the city, the indigent people who had erected lean-to shelters cowered in them, instead of engaging in conversation, hawking small items, washing clothes in buckets, or cooking on small fires as they usually did. Shopkeepers stood in doorways or at simple plank tables set up to display their goods, their arms folded and scowls on their faces. Men pulling carts bent somberly to their tasks. People needing goods made their purchases quickly, making no more than a perfunctory examination of the wares. Children kept a hand clutched to their mother’s skirts as their eyes darted about. Men whom she had seen playing at dice or other games in the past huddled against walls.

In the distance, at the Palace of the Prophets, a single bell tolled every few minutes, as it had all the night before and would until the sun set, announcing to all that the Prelate was dead. The drums, however, had nothing to do with the Prelate’s death; manned by soldiers, they announced the impending arrival of the emperor.

Sister Verna met the troubled eyes of people she passed. She touched the heads of the scores who approached, seeking solace, and offered the Creator’s blessing. “I only remember kings,” she said to Warren, “not this Imperial Order. Who is this emperor?”

“His name is Jagang. Ten, maybe fifteen years ago, the Imperial Order started swallowing up the kingdoms, joining them together under its rule.” With one finger, he rubbed his temple in thought, “I spent most of by time in the vaults studying, you understand, so I’m no sure of all the details, but from what I gather, they swiftly came to dominate the Old World, joining it all under their rule. The emperor hasn’t ever caused any trouble, though. At least not way up here in Tanimura. He stays out of palace business, and expects us to stay out of his.”

“Why is he coming here?”

Warren shrugged. “I don’t know. Perhaps just to visit this part of his empire.”

After conferring the Creator’s blessing on a gaunt woman, Sister Verna stepped around a trail of fresh horse dung as she resumed walking. “Well, I wish he would hurry up and get here so that infernal drumming would cease. They’ve been at it four days now; his arrival must be imminent.”

Warren glanced around before speaking. “The palace guards are Imperial Order troops. As a courtesy, the emperor provides them, since he allows no men at arms but his own. Anyway, I talked to one of the guards, and he told me that the drums are only meant to announce that the emperor is coming, not that he will be here soon. He said that when the emperor visited Breaston, the drums sounded for nearly six months beforehand.”

“Six months! You mean we must endure this racket for months!”

Warren hitched up his robes and stepped over a puddle. “Not necessarily. He could arrive in months, or tomorrow. He doesn’t deign to announce when he will arrive, only that he will.”

Sister Verna scowled. “Well, if he doesn’t arrive soon, the Sisters will see to it that those infernal drums stop.”

“That would be fine by me. But this emperor sounds like someone not to be treated casually. I’ve heard that he has an army more vast than any ever assembled.” He gave her a meaningful look. “And that includes the great war that separated the Old World from the New.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why would he need such an army, if he has already seized all of the old kingdoms? Sounds to me like it’s just idle talk of soldiers. Soldiers always like to boast.”

Warren shrugged. “The guards told me they’ve seen it with their own eyes. They said that when the Order masses, they cover the ground in every direction as far as the eye can see. What do you think the palace will make of it when he comes here?”

“Bah. The palace has no interest in politics.”

Warren grinned. “You never were one to be intimidated.”

“Our business is with the Creator’s wishes, not an emperor’s, that’s all. The palace will remain long after he is gone.”

After walking in silence for a time, Warren cleared his throat “You know, way back, when we hadn’t been here long, and you were still a novice . . . well, I was enamored of you.”

Sister Verna stared over incredulously. “Now you’re mocking me.”

“No, it’s true.” His face reddened. “I thought your curly brown hair was the most beautiful I’d ever seen. You were smarter than the others, and commanded your Han with sureness. I thought there was no one your equal. I wanted to ask you to study with me.”

“Why didn’t you?”

He shrugged. “You were always so sure of yourself, so confident. I never was.” He brushed his hair back self-consciously. “Besides, you were interested in Jedidiah. I was nothing to compare to him. I always thought you would just laugh.”

She realized she was smoothing back her hair, and let her arm fall. “Well, perhaps I would have.”

She thought better of the slight. “People can be foolish when they are young.” A woman with a young child approached and fell to her knees before them. Verna paused to bestow the Creator’s blessing on them. As the woman thanked her and then hurried away, Sister Verna turned to Warren. “You could go away for twenty years or so, to study those books you are so interested in, and catch up in age with me. We’d look the same age again. Then you could ask to hold my hand . . . like I wanted you to, back then.”

They both looked up at the sound of someone calling out to them. Through the throng of shuffling people, she saw one of the Palace Guard waving his arm to get their attention.

“Isn’t that Kevin Andellmere?” she asked.

Warren nodded. “I wonder what he’s so stirred up about?”

A breathless Swordsman Andellmere vaulted over a small boy and stumbled to a halt before them. “Sister Verna! Good! I’ve found you at last. They want you. At the palace. Right now.”

“Who wants me? What about?”

He gulped air and tried to talk at the same time. “The Sisters want you. Sister Leoma grabbed me by my ear and told me to go find you and bring you back. She said that if I was slow about it, I’d rue the day my mother bore me. There must be trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

He threw his hands up. “When I asked, she gave me that look Sisters give that can melt a man’s bones, and told me it was Sister business and none of mine.”

Sister Verna let out a tired sigh. “I guess we best return with you, then, or they’ll skin you and use your hide for a flag.”

The young soldier blanched, as if he believed her.