Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

Chapter 31

Verna glanced up when the Mord-Sith marched up to the other side of the small desk and came to a halt.

“What is it, Cara?”

“Any word in the journey book?”

Verna sighed heavily as she set down the watch reports she had been studying. They indicated that there was increasing activity surrounding the Ja’La matches down in the Order’s encampment. Verna remembered what seemed like a lifetime ago, back at the Palace of the Prophets, when Warren had first told her all about Ja’La Day, about how Emperor Jagang was bringing Ja’La dh Jin to all of the Old World. Like so many things, Warren had studied Ja’La dh Jin and knew a great deal about it.

She supposed that she wasn’t so much reading the reports as she was reminiscing about Warren. How she missed him. How she missed so many people who had been lost in this war.

“No, I’m afraid not,” Verna said. “I left a message in the journey book in case Ann should happen to take a look in hers, but she hasn’t answered, yet.”

Cara tapped an insistent finger on the desktop. “It’s obvious that something has happened to Nicci and Ann.”

“I don’t disagree.” Verna spread her hands. “But we can’t do anything about it if we don’t even know what happened to them. What are we to do? Where are we to look? We’ve searched the palace but the place is so vast that there is no telling how many places we might have overlooked.”

Cara’s expression was part anger, part worry, and part impatience. With this on top of Richard being nowhere to be found, Verna understood all too well how the woman felt.

“Have your Sisters found anything at all unusual?”

Verna shook her head. “The other Mord-Sith?”

“Nothing,” Cara said under her breath as she went back to pacing. She mulled over the situation for a moment, then turned back to Verna. “I still think that whatever happened had to have happened the night they went down to the tomb.”

“I’m not saying that you’re wrong, Cara, but we’re not even sure that they ever made it down to the tombs. What if they changed their mind for some reason and went somewhere else first? What if someone brought a message or something to Ann, and they rushed off somewhere else? What if something happened before they even went down to the tomb?

“I don’t think so,” Cara said as she folded her arms and paced. “I still think something down there is wrong. Something down in the tombs just feels wrong.”

Verna didn’t question what could be “wrong.” She had already done that to no avail. Cara didn’t know what was wrong. She simply had a vague feeling that something was not right down in the tombs.

“Your feeling doesn’t give us much to go on. Maybe if it was something a little more specific.”

“Don’t you think I’ve tried to think of what could be the cause of it?”

Verna watched Cara slowly pace. “Well, if you don’t know what’s giving you this feeling about the place, maybe there is someone else who would know why you think something is wrong down there.”

“That sounds like Lord Rahl. He always says to think of the solution, not the problem.” Cara sighed. “But no one ever goes down—” She spun around and snapped her fingers. “That’s it!”

Verna frowned suspiciously. “What’s it?”

“Someone who knows the place.”

“Who?”

Cara put both hands on the desk and leaned in with a cunning grin. “The crypt staff. Darken Rahl had people who took care of the tombs—took care of his father’s tomb, anyway.”

“What’s this about the tombs?” Berdine asked as she strolled into the room.

Nyda, a tall, blond, blue-eyed Mord-Sith, was with her. Verna saw Adie bringing up the rear.

“It just occurred to me that the crypt staff would know about the tombs,” Cara said.

Berdine nodded. “You’re probably right. Some of the writing down in the tombs is in High D’Haran, so Darken Rahl sometimes took me with him down there to help him with things he was having difficulty translating.

“Darken Rahl was quite picky about how his father’s tomb was cared for. He had people put to death for failing to properly care for the place. His father’s tomb, anyway.”

“It’s just stone vaults.” Verna was incredulous. “There’s nothing down there—no furniture, drapes, or carpeting. What is there to be picky about?”

Berdine rested a hip against the desk as she folded her arms and leaned in as if she was full of gossip.

“Well, for one thing he insisted that fresh white roses always fill the vases. They had to be pure white. He also demanded that the torches always be kept burning. The crypt staff was not suppose to allow a rose petal to remain on the floor, or a torch that went out to go cold without being replaced with a fresh, burning one.

“If Darken Rahl was visiting his father’s crypt and he saw a rose petal on the floor, or if one of the torches burned out, he would get furious. People on the crypt staff were beheaded for such infractions, so, as you can imagine, they were quite attentive to their duties down there. They would be familiar with the place.”

“Then we need to go have a talk with the crypt staff,” Verna said.

“You can try,” Berdine said, “but I don’t think they will have much to say.”

Verna stood. “Why not?”

“Darken Rahl feared that they might speak ill of his dead father while down in the crypt”—Berdine made a snipping motion with two fingers—“so he had their tongues cut out.”

“Dear Creator,” Verna muttered as she touched her fingers to her forehead. “That man was a monster.”

“Darken Rahl is long dead,” Cara said, “but the crypt staff must still be around. They would know the place better than anyone.” She started for the door. “Let’s go see what we can find out.”

“I think you’re right,” Verna said as she made her way around the desk. “If we’re able to get any information out of them it will at least settle the matter. If there really is anything wrong down there we need to know about it. If not, then we need to put our efforts elsewhere.”

Adie caught Verna’s arm. “I only came to tell you that I be leaving.”

Verna blinked in surprise. “Leaving? Why?”

“It has been troubling me that there be no one at the Wizard’s Keep. What if Richard goes there seeking our help? He will need to know what be happening. He will need to know that the Keep be shut down. He will need to know what Nicci has done by putting the boxes in play in his name. He will need to know about Ann and Nicci vanishing. He may even need gifted help. There should be someone there if he shows up at the Keep.”

Verna gestured off to the west before staring into Adie’s completely white eyes. “But the Keep is closed up. Where would you stay?”

Adie’s broad smile pushed aside a network of fine wrinkles. “Aydindril be deserted. The Confessors’ Palace be empty. I will hardly want for a roof. Besides, I be at home in the woods, not in this”—she waggled a finger at her surroundings—“this place. It weakens my gift the same as any other gifted person but a Rahl. I have difficulty using my gift here so that I might see. It be uncomfortable for me here. I would rather do something than sit here, useless in the darkness this place imposes.”

“You are hardly useless,” Verna objected. “You helped with a number of things we found in the books.”

Adie held up a hand to silence her. “You would have figured it out without me. I be useless here. I be an old woman who be underfoot.”

“That’s hardly true, Adie. All of the Sisters value your knowledge. They’ve told me so.”

“Maybe, but I would feel better if I felt I had a purpose rather than wandering around this, this”—she again gestured vaguely around her—“great stone maze.”

Verna sadly relented. “I understand.”

“I’ll miss you,” Berdine said.

Adie nodded. “True. And I shall miss you, too, child, and the talks we’ve had.”

Cara cast a suspicious look at Berdine but said nothing.

Adie reached out and gripped Nyda’s shoulder. “Nyda be here for you.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep her company,” Nyda said as she gazed at Berdine. “I won’t let her get lonely.”

Berdine smiled appreciatively at Nyda and nodded to Adie.

“We’re surrounded by more enemy men than stars in the sky,” Cara said. “How do you expect that a blind woman is going to get through all of them?”

Adie pursed her lips as she gathered her thoughts. “Richard Rahl be a smart man, hmm?”

Cara looked surprised by the question, but she answered it anyway. “Yes.” She folded her arms. “Sometimes too smart for his own good.”

Adie smiled at the last part. “He be smart, so you always follow his orders?”

Cara snorted a brief laugh. “Of course not.”

Adie’s eyebrows lifted in mock wonder. “No? Why not? He be your leader. You just said that he be a smart man.”

“Smart, yes. But he doesn’t always see the danger around him.”

“But you do?”

Cara nodded. “I can see danger he cannot.”

“Ah. So you can see dangers that his sighted eyes cannot?”

Cara smiled. “Sometimes Lord Rahl is as blind as a bat.”

“Bats also see in the dark, do they not?”

Cara sighed unhappily. “I suppose so.” She went back to the subject at hand. “But Lord Rahl needs me to see the dangers all around him that he can’t see.”

With a long, thin finger, Adie tapped Cara’s temple. “You see with this, yes? See the dangers to him?” Adie arched an eyebrow. “See dangers that eyes alone cannot see? Sometimes not having eyes lets me see more.”

Cara frowned. “That may all be well and good, but still, how do you think you are going to be able to get past the Order’s army? Surely you can’t be thinking of trying to walk through the camp.”

“That be exactly what I must do.” Adie waved a finger toward the ceiling. “There be clouds today. Tonight will be a dark night. With the thick overcast, once the sun goes down and before the moon rises, it be black as pitch. On such a night, those with eyes cannot see, but I be sighted in the darkness in ways they are not. I will be able to walk among them and they will not see me. If I keep to myself, and keep away from those who are awake and watchful, I will be no more than a shadow among shadows. No one will pay me any mind.”

“They have fires,” Berdine pointed out.

“The fire will blind their eyes to what be in the darkness. When there is fire men watch what is in the light, not what is in the darkness.”

“And what if by chance some of those soldiers do happen to see you, or hear you, or something?” Cara asked. “Then what?”

Adie smiled just a little as she leaned toward the Mord-Sith. “You would not want to meet a sorceress in the dark, child.”

Cara looked worried enough by the answer not to object.

“I don’t know, Adie,” Verna said. “I really would like you to be here, and safe.”

“Let her go,” Cara said.

When everyone looked at her in surprise, she went on. “What if she’s right? What if Lord Rahl does show up at the Keep? He will need to know everything that has happened. He will need to know that he shouldn’t enter the Keep or he could get himself killed by the traps Zedd set in the place.

“What if Lord Rahl needs her help? If she thinks he might need her, then she should be there for him. I wouldn’t want anyone to stop me from helping him.”

“Besides,” Berdine said as she shared a sad look with the old sorceress, “there is nothing safe about this place. She will probably be safer than any of us here. When that army down there finally gets in the palace, it’s going to be anything but safe in here. It’s going to be one long bloody nightmare.”

Adie smiled as she reached out and touched Berdine’s cheek. “The good spirits will watch over you, child, and all those here.”

Verna wished she believed that.

She wondered what she was doing being the Prelate of the Sisters of the Light if she didn’t.