Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

Chapter 3

Kahlan lay on the floor in the near darkness, unable to sleep. She could hear Jagang’s even breathing in the bed above her. On an ornately carved wooden chest against the far wall a single oil lamp, its wick turned down low, cast a weak glow through the gloom of the emperor’s inner sanctum.

The burning oil helped, if only to a small degree, to mask the stench of the encampment: the smells of soot from fires, fetid sweat, rancid refuse, the latrines, the horses and other animals, and manure all mingled together into a ubiquitous stink. In much the same way that the horrific memory of all of the maggot-infested, rotting corpses she had seen along her journey invariably brought to mind the unforgettable, unmistakable, gagging smell of death, it was impossible to contemplate the Imperial Order encampment without it also bringing to mind its singular, pervasive stink, a thing as vile as the Imperial Order itself. Since arriving in the encampment she was always reluctant to draw a breath too deeply. The smell would forever be linked in her mind to the suffering, misery, and death that the soldiers of the Imperial Order visited upon on everything they touched.

As far as Kahlan was concerned, the people who believed in, supported, and fought for the convictions of the Imperial Order did not belong in the world of life among those who valued it.

Through the gauze fabric covering the vents in the top of the tent, Kahlan could see the furious flashes of lightning to the west illuminating the sky overhead to announce the approaching storms. The emperor’s tent, with its hangings, carpets, and padded walls, was relatively quiet, considering the constant din of the sprawling encampment out beyond, so it was hard to hear the thunder, but she could occasionally feel rumbles of it through the ground.

With the cold weather settling in, the rain would make it all the more miserable.

As tired as she was, Kahlan couldn’t stop thinking about the man from earlier that day, the man who had looked out from that cage as it had rolled through the camp, the man with the gray eyes, the man who had seen her—actually seen her—and had called out her name. It was a galvanizing moment for her.

For anyone to see her bordered on miraculous. Kahlan was invisible to almost everyone. Invisible wasn’t really accurate, though, because they actually did see her. They simply forgot having seen her as soon as they had, forgot that they had been aware of her only an instant before. So, while she wasn’t really invisible, she might as well have been.

Kahlan knew well the icy touch of oblivion. The same spell that made people forget her as soon as they’d seen her had also wiped out every memory she had of her past. Whatever there was to her life before the Sisters of the Dark, it was now lost to her.

Among the millions of troops sprawled out across the vast, barren plain, her captors had found only a handful of soldiers who could see her—forty-three, to be exact. These forty-three were men who, like the collar around her neck, the Sisters, and Jagang himself, stood between her and freedom.

Kahlan made it her business to know every one of those forty-three men, to know their strengths, their weaknesses. She studied them silently, mentally making notes about each of them. Everyone had habits—ways of walking, of observing what was going on around them, of paying attention or failing to pay attention, of doing their job. She had learned everything she could about their individual characteristics.

The Sisters believed that an anomaly in the spell they had used was responsible for a handful of people being aware of Kahlan. It was possible that out among the Order’s vast army there were others who could see and remember her, but Jagang had so far not discovered any more. The forty-three soldiers were thus the only men able to serve as her guards.

Jagang, of course, could see her, as well as the Sisters who had used the spell in the first place. Much to the Sisters’ horror they had been captured by Jagang and they, too, had ended up with Kahlan in the wretched encampment of the Imperial Order. Other than the Sisters and Jagang, none of those few who could see her really knew her—knew her from her forgotten past, a past that even Kahlan didn’t know.

But that man in the cage was different. He had known her. Since she didn’t remember ever seeing him before, that could only mean that he was someone who knew her from her past.

Jagang had promised her that when she finally had her past back and knew who she was, when she knew everything, then the real horror for her would begin. He delighted in explaining in vivid detail exactly what he intended to do to her, how he would make her life one of endless torment. Since she didn’t remember her past, his promises of retribution didn’t mean as much to her as he would have liked. Still, the things he’d promised were terrifying enough in and of themselves.

Whenever Jagang promised such vengeance, Kahlan returned only a blank look. It was a way of walling off her emotions from him. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her emotions, her fear. Despite what it would mean for her, Kahlan was proud to have earned the contempt of such a vile man. It gave her the confidence that whatever she had done in her past, her convictions could only have placed her in direct opposition to the will of the Order.

Because of Jagang’s ghastly oaths, Kahlan greatly feared remembering her past, yet after seeing the raw emotion in the captive man’s eyes she longed to know everything about herself. His joyous reaction to seeing her stood out in sharp contrast to all those around her who despised and reviled her. She had to know who she was, who the woman was that could be held in such regard by that man.

She wished she could have looked at the man for longer than the brief glimpse she had gotten. She’d had to turn away. If she had been caught showing any interest in a captive, Jagang surely would have killed him. Kahlan felt protective of the man. She didn’t want to inadvertently bring trouble to someone who knew her, someone so obviously overcome by the sight of her.

Yet again Kahlan tried to put her racing mind to rest. She yawned as she watched the flickers of lightning in the little patch of dark sky. Dawn was not far off and she needed sleep.

With that dawn, though, came the first day of winter. She didn’t know why, but the very idea of the first day of winter made her uneasy. She couldn’t imagine a reason. Something about the first day of winter seemed to knot her insides with anxiety. It seemed that beneath the surface of her ability to remember lurked dangers she could not begin to imagine.

Her head came up at the sound of something falling over. The noise had come from the outer room, the room outside Jagang’s bedroom. Kahlan propped herself up on an elbow, but she dared not get up from her spot on the floor beside the emperor’s bed. She knew well the consequences of disobeying his orders. If she was to endure the pain he could give her through the collar around her neck, it would have to be for something more than moving from the carpet.

In the darkness Kahlan heard Jagang, just above her on the bed, sit up.

Sudden cries and moans broke out on the other side of the padded walls of the bedroom. It sounded like it might have been Sister Ulicia. Since being captured by Jagang, Kahlan had had occasion enough to hear Sister Ulicia sobbing and crying. Kahlan herself had often enough been brought to tears, all because of those Sisters of the Dark, but especially Sister Ulicia.

Jagang threw the covers off. “What’s going on out there?”

Kahlan knew that for the crime of disturbing Emperor Jagang Sister Ulicia was soon going to have even more reason to be moaning.

Jagang stepped down onto the floor, straddling Kahlan on the carpet beside his bed. He looked down deliberately, making sure that in the dim light of the lantern glowing atop the chest, she saw him naked and exposed over her. Satisfied with his silent, implied threat, he retrieved his trousers from a nearby chair. Hopping from one foot to the other he pulled them on as he started for the doorway. He didn’t bother putting on anything more.

He paused before the thick hanging that covered the doorway and turned back, crooking a finger at Kahlan. He wanted to keep an eye on her. As Kahlan rose to her feet, Jagang drew back the heavy covering over the doorway. Kahlan glanced to the side and saw the latest captive woman to be brought in as a prize for the emperor cowering on the bed, the blanket held in her fists up under her chin. Like almost everyone, the woman didn’t see Kahlan and had only been more confused and frightened the evening before when Jagang had spoken to the phantom in the room with him. That had been the least of the woman’s cause for fright that night.

Kahlan felt a jolt of pain sizzle down the nerves of her shoulders and arms, Jagang’s reminder through the collar not to linger in doing as she’d been told. Without letting him see how much it hurt, she hurried after him.

The sight that greeted her in the outer room was confusing. Sister Ulicia was rolling around on the floor, arms flailing as she babbled incoherently between moans and cries. Sister Armina, hunched over the woman at her feet, shuffled to and fro, following as Sister Ulicia writhed around on the floor, afraid to touch the woman, afraid not to, afraid of what might be the problem. She looked like she wanted to collect Sister Ulicia in her arms and quiet her lest she create a disturbance that would get the attention of the emperor. She didn’t yet realize that it was too late for that. Usually when one of those two was in any kind of agony it was agony inflicted by Jagang through his control of their minds, but now he, too, stood watching the strange sight, apparently unsure of what could be causing such behavior.

Sister Armina, already bent over the woman floundering on the floor, suddenly noticed Emperor Jagang and bowed deeper yet. “Excellency, I don’t know what is wrong with her. I’m sorry that she has disturbed your sleep. I will try to quiet her.”

Jagang, being a dream walker, didn’t need to speak to those whose minds were his domain. His consciousness wandered at will among their most intimate thoughts.

Sister Ulicia thrashed around, one wildly swinging arm knocking over a chair. Guards—the guards who had been specially selected because they were the few who could see and remember Kahlan—had all backed off in a circle around the woman rolling on the floor. They had been tasked with seeing to it that Kahlan didn’t leave the tent without Jagang. Sisters were not their responsibility. Other guards, Jagang’s personal elite guards, huge brutes all covered in tattoos and metal studs piercing their flesh, stood like statues near the doorway of the tent. The job of the elite guard was to see to it that no one entered the tent without invitation. They looked only mildly curious about what might be happening in their midst.

Off in the darker corners of the expansive tent, slaves waited in the shadows, always silently at the ready to carry out the emperor’s wishes. They, too, would show little reaction no matter what might happen right before them. They were there to serve at the whim of the emperor and nothing more. It was unhealthy for any of them, individually, to distinguish themselves in any way that might bring them notice.

The Sisters, sorceresses all, were Jagang’s personal weapons, his personal property and marked as such with rings through their lower lips. They were not the responsibility of any of the guards unless specifically instructed. Jagang could have cut Sister Ulicia’s throat, or raped her, or invited her to tea, and his elite guards would not have batted an eye. If it had been tea the emperor wanted, the slaves would have dutifully fetched it. If a bloody murder had been committed right before their eyes, they would have waited until he was finished and then without a word cleaned up the mess.

When Sister Ulicia cried out again, Kahlan realized that it didn’t look, as she had at first thought, like the woman was in pain. It looked more like she was . . . possessed.

Jagang’s nightmare gaze passed among the dozen guards. “Has she said anything?”

“No, Excellency,” one of the special guards said. The rest of the soldiers, those who could see Kahlan, shook their heads in agreement. The emperor’s elite guard did not dispute the account of the lesser men.

“What’s wrong with her?” Jagang asked the Sister, who looked ready to fall to the ground and grovel at his feet.

Sister Armina winced at the anger in his voice. “I don’t have any idea, Excellency, I swear.” She gestured toward the far side of the room. “I was asleep, waiting until I could be of service. Sister Ulicia was asleep as well. I woke when I heard her voice. I thought she was speaking to me.”

“What was she saying?” Jagang asked.

“I couldn’t understand her, Excellency.”

Kahlan realized, then, that Jagang didn’t know what Sister Ulicia had said. He always knew what the Sisters had said, what they’d thought, what they were planning. He was a dream walker. He wandered the landscape of their minds. He was always privy to everything.

And yet, he was not privy to this.

Or, Kahlan surmised, perhaps he didn’t want to say aloud what he already knew. He liked to test people that way, asking questions to which he already knew the answers. It displeased him greatly whenever he caught anyone in a lie. Only the day before he had erupted in a rage and strangled the life out of a new captive slave who’d lied to him about having taken a bite to eat off a tray coming in for the emperor’s dinner. Jagang, as heavily muscled as any of his elite guard, had accomplished the deed with one powerful hand around the gaunt man’s throat. The rest of the slaves had waited patiently until the emperor had finished the gruesome murder, and then dragged the body away.

Jagang reached down and with one meaty fist hauled the Sister to her feet by her hair. “What’s this about, Ulicia?”

The woman’s eyes rolled, her lips moved, and her tongue wandered aimlessly in her open mouth.

Jagang seized her by the shoulders and shook her violently. Sister Ulicia’s head whipped back and forth. Kahlan thought he very well might break her neck. She wished he would; then there would be one less Sister for Kahlan to worry about.

“Excellency,” Sister Armina said in a confidential tone of discreet counsel, “we need her.” When the emperor glared at her, she added. “She is the player.”

Jagang considered Sister Armina’s words, looking none too happy about them, but not arguing, either.

“First day . . .” Sister Ulicia moaned.

Jagang pulled her a little closer. “First day what?”

“Winter . . . winter . . . winter,” Sister Ulicia mumbled.

Jagang looked around, frowning at those in the room, as if asking them to explain it. One of the soldiers lifted an arm, pointing toward the doorway out of the grand tent. “It’s just dawn, Excellency.”

Jagang fixed him in a glare. “What?”

“Excellency, it’s just dawn of the first day of winter.”

Jagang let go of Sister Ulicia. She dropped heavily to the carpets that covered the floor.

He stared at the doorway. “So it is.”

Outside, through the slight slit of an opening at the side of the heavy covering hung over the doorway, Kahlan could see the first streaks of color in the sky. She could also see more of the ever-present elite guard who always surrounded Jagang. None of them could see Kahlan; they were totally unaware of her presence. The special guards inside the tent, the ones who were always at hand, could see her just fine, though. Outside, with Jagang’s elite guard, there would be more of those special guards. Their job was to insure that Kahlan never came out of the tent alone.

On the floor, Sister Ulicia, as if in a trance, mumbled, “One year, one year, one year.”

“One year what?” Jagang yelled. Several of the closer guards flinched back.

Sister Ulicia sat up. She began rocking back and forth. “Starts over. Year starts over. Starts over. One year. It must start over.”

Jagang looked up at the other Sister. “What’s she gibbering about?”

Sister Armina spread her hands. “I’m not sure, Excellency.”

His glare darkened. “That’s a lie, Armina.”

Sister Armina, a little of the color draining from her face, licked her lips. “What I meant by that, Excellency, is that the only thing I can imagine is that she must be referring to the boxes. She is the player, after all.”

Jagang’s mouth twisted with impatience. “But we already know that we have a year from back when Ulicia put them in play”—he flicked a hand in the direction of the towering plateau—“right after Kahlan took them from the palace up there.”

“New player!” Sister Ulicia shouted, eyes closed, as if to correct him. “New player! The year starts over!”

Jagang looked genuinely surprised at her words.

Kahlan wondered how it was that the dream walker could be surprised by such a thing. For some reason, though, he seemed to be unable, at the moment anyway, to use his ability on Sister Ulicia. Unless he was simply playing a trick. Jagang didn’t always reveal exactly what he knew and what he didn’t know. Kahlan had never felt that he could read her mind, but she always remained cautious that he might want her to think just that. What if all the time he was reading her every thought?

Still, she just didn’t believe it was so. She couldn’t put her finger on any one thing that made her think that he was unable to use his ability as a dream walker on her, but rather it was an impression based on the cumulative evidence of many small little things.

“How is it possible for there to be a new player?” Jagang asked in a tone that made Sister Armina begin to tremble just the slightest bit.

She had to swallow twice before she was able to speak. “Excellency, we don’t have . . . all three boxes. We have but two. There is the the third box, after all, the one that Tovi had.”

“You mean the box that was stolen because you stupid bitches sent Tovi off by herself rather than having her stay with the rest of you.” It was an angry charge, not a question.

Sister Armina, on the verge of panic, thrust a finger out at Kahlan. “It was her fault! If she had done as we instructed and brought all three boxes out together, we would all have been together and we would have the three boxes. But she failed to bring them all out together. It’s her fault!”

Sister Ulicia had told Kahlan to hide all three boxes in her pack and bring them out. All three wouldn’t fit, so she brought one out first, intending to go back for the others. Sister Ulicia had not been pleased, to say the least. She had beaten Kahlan nearly to a bloody death for failing to somehow do the impossible and fit all three in a pack that was not big enough.

Kahlan didn’t bother to speak up in her own defense. She refused to lower herself to trying to reason with people who didn’t abide by reason.

Jagang looked back over his shoulder at Kahlan. She met his gaze with nothing but her blank countenance. He turned back to Sister Armina.

“So what? Sister Ulicia put the boxes in play. That makes her the player.”

“Another player!” Sister Ulicia shouted up from the floor between them. “Two players now! The year starts over! It’s impossible!” Sister Ulicia lunged. “Impossible!”

There was nothing there and her arms caught only air.

She sat back heavily on the floor, breathing rapidly. Trembling hands covered her face, as if she was overwhelmed by what had just taken place.

Jagang turned away, lost in thought as he considered. “Can there be two people who both have the boxes in play at the same time?” he asked himself.

Sister Armina’s eyes darted about. She seemed unsure if she was supposed to attempt an answer. In the end she remained silent.

Sister Ulicia rubbed her eyes. “He vanished.”

Jagang frowned down at her. “Who vanished?”

“I couldn’t see his face.” She gestured vaguely. “He was just there, telling me, but he vanished. I don’t know who it was, Excellency.”

The woman looked shaken to her core.

“What did you see?” Jagang asked.

As if jolted by an unexpected sudden shock, she shot to her feet. Her eyes had gone wide with pain. Blood trickled from one ear.

“What did you see?” Jagang repeated.

Kahlan had seen him give the Sisters pain in the past. Whether or not he was able to be in Sister Ulicia’s mind before, it was clear that he now had no difficulty making his presence felt.

“It was someone—” Sister Ulicia said with a gasp. “Someone who was just here, in the tent, Excellency. He told me that there was a new player, and because of that the year must start anew.”

Jagang’s brow was drawn down in a tight knot. “A new player for the power of Orden?”

Sister Ulicia nodded, as if fearing to admit it. “Yes, Excellency. Someone else has also put the boxes of Orden in play. We are warned that the year must start over. We now have one year from today, the first day of winter.”

Looking to be deep in thought, Jagang started toward the doorway. Two of the elite guards pulled open the double hanging, allowing their emperor to walk through the opening without pause. Kahlan, knowing that if she didn’t stay close at hand the pain of the collar was only an instant away, followed him out before he gave her that reminder. Behind her, Sisters Ulicia and Armina hurried to keep up.

The big men of the elite guard outside the tent casually stepped away to each side, making way for the emperor. The other soldiers—Kahlan’s special guards—marched back and forth just beyond them.

Standing close behind Jagang in the cold dawn, Kahlan rubbed her arms, trying to work up some warmth. A wall of dark clouds towered to the west. Even through the stink of the encampment, she could smell the rain carried on the damp air. The thin clouds fleeing to the east were stained bloodred in the sunrise of the first day of winter.

Jagang stood silently considering the immense plateau in the distance. Atop that towering tableland was the People’s Palace. While certainly a palace, it was vast almost beyond belief. It was also a city, really, a city that was the seat of power for all of D’Hara. That city stood as the last vestige of resistance to the Imperial Order’s lust to rule the world and enforce their beliefs on mankind. The army of the Order spread like a poisonous black sea across the Azrith Plain around the plateau, leaving it isolated from any hope of rescue or salvation.

The first rays of light were just touching the distant palace, making the marble walls, columns, and towers glow golden in the sunrise. It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight. To all these people of the Order, though, the sight of the palace, of such beauty yet untouched by their lecherous hands, only inspired jealousy and hate. They lusted to destroy the place, to blot such majesty out of existence, to insure that man never again aspired to such merit.

Kahlan had been up in that palace—Lord Rahl’s palace—when the four Sisters had taken her there to have her steal the boxes out of the Garden of Life. The splendor of the place was awe-inspiring. Kahlan had hated to take those boxes from Lord Rahl’s garden. They didn’t belong to the Sisters, and, worse, the Sisters were driven by evil intent.

On that altar where the boxes had sat, Kahlan left in their place her most precious possession. It was a small carving of a woman, her head thrown back, her fists at her sides, her back arched as if opposition to a force trying to subdue her. Kahlan could not imagine where she would have gotten such a beautiful thing.

She was heartbroken to have to leave that carving behind, but she had to in order to fit the last two boxes in her pack. Had she not, Sister Ulicia would have killed her. As much as she loved that small statue, she loved her life more. She hoped that Lord Rahl, when he saw it, would somehow understand that she was sorry for taking what was his.

Now Jagang had captured the Sisters and he had possession of the sinister black boxes. Two of them, anyway. Sister Tovi had started ahead with the first of the three boxes. Now she was dead and the box she’d had was missing. Kahlan had killed Sister Cecilia. That left Sisters Ulicia and Armina, out of her four original captors. Of course, Jagang had other Sisters under his control.

“Who could put a box in play?” Jagang asked as he stared off toward the palace atop the plateau. It wasn’t entirely clear if he was asking the Sisters for an answer, or if he was merely thinking out loud.

Sisters Ulicia and Armina shared a look. The elite guards stood like stone sentinels. The special guards marched slowly back and forth, the closest one taking note of Kahlan, giving her a superior, smug glance each time he turned to march in the opposite direction. Kahlan knew the man, knew his habits. He was one of her less intelligent guards, substituting arrogance for competence.

“Well,” Sister Ulicia finally said into the uneasy silence, “it would take someone with both sides of the gift—both Additive and Subtractive Magic.”

“Other than the Sisters of the Dark you have here, Excellency,” Sister Armina added, “I’m not sure who could accomplish such a task.”

Jagang shot a look back over his shoulder. The soldier was not the only one who foolishly harbored an attitude of arrogant superiority. Jagang was a lot smarter than Sister Armina; she just wasn’t smart enough to know it. She was, however, smart enough to recognize the look in Jagang’s eyes, the look that said he knew she was lying. She quailed, momentarily struck silent by the emperor’s glare.

Sister Ulicia, also a great deal smarter than Sister Armina, quickly recognized the danger of the situation and spoke up.

“There are only a couple of people it could be, Excellency.”

“It had to have been Richard Rahl,” Sister Armina was quick to put in, eager to redeem herself.

“Richard Rahl,” Jagang repeated in a flat tone of cold hatred. He didn’t sound the least bit surprised by the Sister’s suggestion.

Sister Ulicia cleared her throat. “Or Sister Nicci. She is the only Sister you don’t have who is able to wield Subtractive Magic.”

Jagang’s glare fixed on her for a moment before he finally turned back to consider the People’s Palace, now lit by the sun so that it glowed like a beacon above the dark plain.

“Sister Nicci knows everything you stupid bitches did,” he finally announced.

Sister Armina blinked in surprise. She couldn’t resist speaking. “How is that possible, Excellency?”

Jagang clasped his meaty hands behind his back. His heavily muscled back and neck looked more like those of a bull than those of a man. Curly black body hair only added to the impression. His shaved head made him look all the more menacing.

“Nicci was there with Tovi when she was dying,” Jagang said, “after she had been stabbed and the box stolen from her. It had been a very long time since I’d seen Nicci. I was surprised to see her show up out of the blue. I was there, in Tovi’s mind, watching the whole thing. Tovi didn’t know I was in her mind, though, the same as you two didn’t know.

“Nicci didn’t know I was there, either.

“Nicci questioned Tovi, used the woman’s grievous wound to prod her into revealing your plan, Ulicia. Nicci told Tovi quite the story about wishing she could escape my control and with that lie gained Tovi’s confidence. Tovi told her everything—everything about the Chainfire spell you ignited, the boxes you stole with Kahlan’s help, how the boxes were meant to work in conjunction with the Chainfire spell, all of it.”

Sister Ulicia was looking sicker by the moment. “Then it very well could be Nicci who did this. It has to be one or the other.”

“Or Nicci and Richard Rahl together,” Sister Armina suggested.

Jagang said nothing as he stared off at the palace.

Sister Ulicia leaned forward the slightest bit. “If I may ask, Excellency, why is it that you are unable to . . . well, why is Nicci not here, with you?”

Jagang’s completely black eyes turned to the woman. Cloudy shapes shifted in those inky eyes, a storm of his own brewing.

“She was with me. She left. Unlike your clumsy and insincere attempt at trying to shield your minds from me with the bond to the Lord Rahl, the bond worked for Nicci. For reasons I can’t begin to understand she was sincere, and so it worked. She gave up everything she had worked for her whole life—gave up her moral duty!”

He rolled his shoulders, pulling the mantle of calm authority back around himself. “The bond worked for Nicci. I can no longer enter her mind.”

Sister Armina stood frozen in more than simple fear of the man; she was obviously baffled by what she’d just heard.

Sister Ulicia nodded to herself, staring off into memories. “I guess that, in retrospect, it’s not a surprise. I guess I always knew that she loved Richard. She never said a word to us, of course, to the other Sisters of the Dark, but back at the Palace of the Prophets she gave up a great deal—things I would never have imagined her giving up—in exchange for me naming her to be one of his six teachers.

“The price she paid for that chance to be his teacher made me suspicious of her motives. A couple of the others were driven by greed. They simply wanted to suck the gift out of that man—have it for themselves. But not Nicci. That wasn’t what she was after. So I watched her.

“She never gave it away—dear spirits, I don’t think she was even aware of it herself at the time—but there was a look in her eyes. She was in love with him. I never really understood that look back then, probably because she seemed so sure of her hatred for the man and for all that he represented, but she was in love with Richard Rahl. Even back then, she was in love with him.”

Jagang had gone crimson. Absorbed in her recollections, Sister Ulicia hadn’t noticed his mute rage. Sister Armina surreptitiously touched the other woman’s arm in warning. Sister Ulicia looked up and blanched at seeing the look on the emperor’s face, and immediately changed the subject.

“Like I said, she never said any such thing, so perhaps I’m just imagining it. In fact, now that I think about it, I’m sure of it. She hated the man. She wanted him dead. She hated everything he represented. She hated him. Plain as day. She hated him.”

Sister Ulicia closed her mouth, visibly forcing herself to stop babbling.

“I gave her everything.” Jagang’s voice rumbled like bottled thunder. “I made her as good as a queen. As Jagang the Just, I granted her the authority to be the fist of the Fellowship of Order. Those who opposed the righteous ways of the Order came to know her as Death’s Mistress. She was able to fulfill that virtuous call to duty only because of my generosity. I was foolish to have given her so much latitude. She betrayed me. Betrayed me for him.”

Kahlan didn’t think that she would ever see Jagang in the grip of hot jealousy, but she was seeing it now. He was a man who took what he wanted. He was not used to being denied anything. Apparently, he couldn’t have this woman Nicci. Apparently, Richard Rahl had her heart.

Kahlan swallowed back her own confused feelings over Richard Rahl—a man she had never met—and stared at her guards marching back and forth.

“But I’ll have her back.” Jagang held up a fist. Muscled cords stood out on his arms as the fist tightened. Veins in his temples bulged. “Sooner or later I will crush the immoral resistance offered by Richard Rahl, and then I’ll deal with Nicci. She will pay for her sinful ways.”

Kahlan and this Nicci had something in common. If Jagang ever got his hands on Nicci, Kahlan knew, he was going to do his worst to her as well.

“And the boxes of Orden, Excellency?” Sister Ulicia asked.

The arm dropped. He turned a grim smile on her. “Darlin, it doesn’t matter if one of them has somehow managed to put the boxes of Orden in play. It will do them no good.” He pointed a thumb back over his shoulder at Kahlan. “I have her. I have what we need to put the power of Orden to use for the cause of the Fellowship of Order.

“We have right on our side. The Creator is on our side. When we unleash the power of Orden we will wipe the blasphemy of magic from the world. We will make all men bow down before the teachings of the Order. All men will submit to divine justice and be of one faith.

“It will be a new dawn for mankind, the dawn of the age of man without magic to taint men’s souls. All men will rejoice to be part of the glory that is the cause of the Order. In that new world of man, all men will be equal. All men can then dedicate themselves in service to their fellow man, as is the will of the Creator.”

“Yes, Excellency,” Sister Armina said, eager to find an opening to worm her way back into his favor.

“Excellency,” Sister Ulicia ventured, “as I’ve explained before, while we may have many of the elements needed, as you have so rightly pointed out, we must still have all three boxes if we are to accomplish the goal of accessing the power of Orden for the cause of the Fellowship of Order. We still need that third box.”

His grisly grin returned. “As I told you, I was there in Tovi’s mind. I may have an idea about who was involved in taking it.”

Sisters Ulicia and Armina looked not only surprised, but curious.

“You do, Excellency?” Sister Armina asked.

He nodded. “My spiritual advisor Brother Narev had a friend he had dealings with from time to time. I suspect she might be involved.”

Sister Ulicia looked skeptical. “You think a friend of the Fellowship of Order might have been involved?”

“No, I didn’t say a friend of the Fellowship. I said a friend of Brother Narev. A woman I, too, have had occasional dealings with in the past on Brother Narev’s behalf. I think you may have heard of her.” Jagang arched an eyebrow at the woman. “She goes by the name of Six.”

Sister Armina gasped and went stiff.

Sister Ulicia’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “Six . . . Excellency, surely you don’t mean Six, the witch woman?”

Jagang looked pleased by the reaction. “Ah, so you know her.”

“I had occasion to cross paths with her once. We had a talk, of sorts. It was not what I would describe as a pleasant conversation. Excellency, no one can deal with that woman.”

“Well, you see, Ulicia, that’s just one more area where you and I differ. You have nothing of value to offer her but your boneless carcass to feed to those with a taste for human flesh she keeps back in her lair. I, on the other hand, have a pretty good grasp on what the woman needs and wants. I’m in a position to grant her the kinds of indulgences she seeks. Unlike you, Ulicia, I can deal with her.”

“But if Richard Rahl or Nicci put the box in play, that can only mean that they are now in possession of it,” Sister Ulicia said. “So, even if Six really did once have the box after Tovi, it’s now out of her grasp.”

“So you think such a woman will abandon her burning desires? All the things she lusts after?” Jagang shook his head. “No, it will not sit well with Six that her plans were . . . interrupted. Six is a woman who will not be denied. She does not treat very kindly anyone who gets in her way. Am I correct, Ulicia?”

Sister Ulicia swallowed before nodding.

“I expect that a woman of her dark talents and boundless determination will not rest until she has corrected the injustice, and then she will have to deal with the Order. So, you see, I think everything is well in hand. That one of those two criminals, Nicci or Richard Rahl, put that box in play will mean nothing in the end. The Order will prevail.”

Sister Ulicia, her fingers folded tightly together to stop them from trembling ever since she first heard the name Six, bowed her head. “Yes, Excellency. I can see that you do indeed have everything well in hand.”

Jagang, seeing her defeated demeanor, snapped his fingers as he turned his attention toward one of the shirtless slaves standing back near the entrance to the royal tent.

“I’m hungry. The Ja’La tournaments start today. I want a hearty meal before going to watch the games.”

The man bowed deeply from the waist. “Yes, Excellency. I will see to it at once.”

After he’d run off to see to the task, Jagang gazed out over the sea of men. “For now, our brave fighters need a diversion from the difficult work. One of the teams out there will eventually win a chance to play my own team. Let’s hope the team that eventually wins the right to play my team is good enough to at least make my men break a sweat in beating them.”

“Yes, Excellency,” the Sisters said together.

Jagang, looking annoyed by their groveling, gestured to one of the special guards as the man marched by. “She’s going to kill you first.”

The man froze, panic in his eyes. “Excellency?”

Jagang tilted his head to indicate Kahlan only a half step behind him and to his right. “She’s going to kill you first, and you deserve it.”

The man dipped his head deferentially. “I don’t understand, Excellency.”

“Of course you don’t—you’re stupid. She’s been counting your steps. You take the same number of paces each time before you turn to march in the opposite direction. Each time you turn you look to check on her, then march away.

“She’s counted your paces. When it’s time for you to turn, she doesn’t have to be looking in your direction because she knows exactly when you will turn. She knows that just before you turn, you’ll check on her and see her looking the other way. That will put you at ease.

“When you march up to us from the right and turn, you pivot the same way each time—to your right. Each time you turn, the knife on your belt at your right hip is on the side closest to her.”

The man looked down at the knife on his belt. He covered it protectively with a hand. “But Excellency, I wouldn’t let her get my knife. I swear. I would stop her.”

“Stop her?” Jagang snorted a brief laugh. “She knows that she is but two strides from the spot where you turn, two strides from snatching your knife right out of its sheath.” He snapped his fingers. “Quick as that, she’ll have your knife. You probably won’t even realize it before you die.”

“But I would—”

“You will look to check on her, see her looking in another direction, and then turn. By the time you’ve taken your third step, she will have your knife. It will then be but an instant before she rams the entire length of the blade into your tender right kidney. You’ll be as good as dead before you know what hit you.”

Despite the cold, sweat beaded on the man’s forehead.

Jagang glanced back at Kahlan. She showed him only a blank expression devoid of any emotion.

Jagang was wrong. The man would die second. He was stupid, just as Jagang had said. Stupid men were easier to kill. It was harder to kill smart, attentive men. Kahlan knew each of her special guards. She made it her business to learn everything she could about each one of them. The other man marching before the tent was one of the smartest among her special guard.

Wherever she was, she always analyzed the situation and envisioned how she would implement an attempt to escape. This was not the time, or place, but she still had thought it through.

She wouldn’t kill the stupid one first, but she would take his knife, just as Jagang had said. Then she would turn to the smart one because he was more watchful and his reactions were far quicker. The special guards’ task was to prevent her from escaping; they weren’t supposed to use lethal force against her. When the smart one came at her to tackle her, she would already have the knife and would use their closing momentum as she spun toward him to slash his throat. She would sidestep his falling dead weight to his left side, spin, and plunge the knife into the kidney of the stupid fellow, just as Jagang had suggested.

“You have me dead to rights,” Kahlan told the emperor in a flat tone. “Well done.”

His left eye twitched just the slightest bit. He didn’t know if she was telling the truth, or lying.