Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

Chapter 40

Richard peered out from under the canvas tarp as the wagon rolled through the outer fringes of the Order’s camp. Every time a gust of wind buffeted the wagon he had to keep a good hold on the tarp to keep it down. The towering monstrosity of the ramp loomed overhead. Up this close he could see just how immense it had already become. It didn’t seem a false hope that it could eventually reach the palace at the top of the plateau.

After Adie had used her gift to help them make it through the fighting around the Ja’La field, it had been a relatively uneventful journey across the rest of the vast Imperial Order encampment. Regular soldiers wanted nothing to do with the potential trouble offered by a small wagon escorted by what appeared to be a high-ranking royal guard and a Sister. Men mostly ignored them as they passed.

The riot, as large as it was, had primarily been confined to the spectators at the Ja’La match. While it seemed that perhaps hundreds of thousands of men were involved in the fight over the outcome of the game, and it was a vast, gruesome bloodbath, the trouble was still limited to a fraction of the encampment. In much of the rest of the camp commanders had rushed armed men in to clamp down on movement and contain the trouble.

Despite that effort, the turmoil had spread to a certain extent. Most of these men had not joined a struggle to be cold, hungry, and spend their lives digging dirt. They were becoming resentful of having to work at menial labor rather than being about the business of murder, rape, and plunder. Waiting for the prospect of conquest was one thing, but now the remaining spoils looked rather limited and the work of getting to them was considerable. It seemed that self-sacrifice for the cause of the Order had its limits. The line appeared to have been drawn at actually having to work.

Authorities, though, were not only quick but brutal in crushing pockets of trouble as they broke out. As unhappy as many of the men were with their conditions, when they saw what happened to some of those who stirred up unrest, they lost the stomach to join in.

Several times General Meiffert had had to bluff his way through groups of men. Once his bluster had needed to be reinforced by killing a man with a swift slash across the side of his neck. Other times Adie had quietly used her powers to ease their way through potential trouble. Having the soldiers think she was one of Jagang’s Sisters ended a lot of questions before they even began. Several times, when she had been stopped and questioned by soldiers foraging for loot, she merely stared at the men without answering. Looking into her completely white eyes as she glared at them, they lost their nerve and vanished back into the darkness.

Far behind them at the Ja’La field there were pockets within the riot that were finally being brought under control, but for the most part the night there had been abandoned to chaotic battles between drunken soldiers. The emperor’s guard hadn’t really cared about restoring order; they had only been interested in saving the life of the emperor.

Nicci’s trembling pain told Richard that Jagang was still alive and able to exert his influence. That didn’t mean he was conscious, though. What Richard didn’t know was if Jagang at some point, when unable to force her to return, might decide to kill her through the collar. If he did, there was nothing Richard could do to stop him. Getting the collar off from around her neck was the only solution, and to do that they needed to get to Nathan up in the palace.

Peeking out from under the tarp, Richard spotted a confusion of vast pits spread out ahead in the torchlight. Richard could see lines of men, animals, and wagons leading out of pits where material was being dug up. Clouds of dust streamed away from areas where men were actively digging. The lines of men and wagons coming out of those pits stretched all the way to the ramp. Those lines were all in constant motion as they conveyed the dirt and rock to the construction site.

Richard again glanced at Nicci, lying in the low wagon bed right beside him. She had his hand in a death grip. Her whole body trembled. He ached with sympathy for her agony. He knew what it felt like. He had endured the same magic from a collar. His ordeal hadn’t lasted as long, though. He didn’t know how long she could live through such pain.

Jillian lay on the other side of Nicci, holding her other hand. Bruce lay beyond Jillian, carefully peering out from under the tarp on that side from time to time, sword at the ready in case he had to help them fight their way out of trouble.

Richard wasn’t sure how much he could trust the man. Bruce had more than once stepped in to protect Richard at great risk to his own life. Richard knew that not every single man in the Order’s camp would choose the Order, if really given the choice. There had to be some, even if only a few, who would rather have nothing to do with the Order. Richard didn’t really know Bruce all that well, so he didn’t know what experiences the man had lived through that would cause him to take this chance to side with him, but Richard was glad that he had. In a small way it gave him hope that not the whole world had gone mad. There were still some people who valued their own lives and wanted the freedom to live those lives as they saw fit. They were even willing to fight for it.

As the wagon wobbled to a halt, Adie stepped close, laying an elbow casually over the short sidewall beside Richard. She glanced over. “We be here.”

Richard nodded, then leaned close to Nicci. “We’re here. We’re near the ramp.”

Her brow was tightly creased in agony. She seemed to be in a faraway world of suffering. With great effort she released some of the pressure on his hand, then squeezed again to let him know that she’d heard him.

Despite how cold it was, she was drenched in sweat. Her eyes were closed most of the time. Occasionally they opened wide as she gasped from a terrible twist of pain.

It was making Richard crazy that he couldn’t help her right then and there, that she had to wait, suffering in her isolated world of torment, enduring the dragging eternity it seemed to be taking to get her to Nathan.

“Nicci, can you tell me what we need to do? We’re here, but I don’t know why. Why did you want us to go to the ramp?”

He gently pulled back hair that was plastered to her beaded brow. Her eyes opened wide with a stitch of overpowering pain.

“Please . . .” she whispered.

Richard leaned closer yet so he could hear her. “What is it?”

He put his ear closer to her mouth.

“Please . . . end it. Kill me.”

She shook with a moan as another bout of pain cascaded through her. She started to sob.

Richard, terror rising in his throat, clutched her close. “We’re almost there. Hold on. If we can get inside the palace I think Nathan can get that collar off. Just hold on.”

“Can’t,” she wept.

Richard pressed his hand against the side of her face. “I’ll help you get it off. I promise. We just need to get inside. I need to know how do we get in.”

“Catacombs,” she said in a gasp as her back arched.

Catacombs? Richard blinked at the word. Catacombs?

He lifted the flapping canvas tarp a little and peered out again. The ramp stood nearby. Beyond the ramp the black wall of the plateau, only some of the fringe at the bottom visible in the torchlight, soared up into the night.

As he looked at the plateau, it made sense.

Jillian leaned over Nicci. “Could she mean catacombs like at my homeland?” She looked down at Nicci. “Catacombs like in Caska?”

Nicci nodded.

Richard again looked out from under the tarp, searching for anything that looked different, for any sign of where the entrance could be. He went over in his mind everything he could remember about the ancient catacombs in Caska. Deep within those underground rooms was where they’d found the Chainfire book. The maze of ancient tunnels and chambers had run on for miles. Richard had spent nearly the whole night searching through the catacombs and he knew that he’d only seen a fraction of them.

Finding the entrance, though, had been difficult. It had been only a small opening that had led him down into the hidden underground world of the catacombs. Finding such an opening out here in the open, with all these men around, was going to be far more than merely difficult.

He turned back. “Nicci, how did you find catacombs down in the palace?”

She shook her head. “Found us.”

“They found you?” Richard peered out again as the realization hit him. “Dear spirits . . .”

It all started to make sense to him. Jagang’s men, digging the pits, had uncovered ancient catacombs. They must have used those tunnels to get up into the palace.

“They got up into the palace and captured you? Is that what you mean?”

Nicci nodded.

But if they had gotten up into the palace, then why would they still be working on the ramp? He realized that if the catacombs were anything like the ones in Caska they would need more than those tunnels to get an army up into the People’s Palace. It would be like trying to force sand through an hourglass.

It could also be that the ramp was a diversion to buy them time to do just that.

Diversion or not, Jagang might have gotten spies up into the palace through the catacombs. If there was a way in, there was no telling the damage such a breach could cause.

It had to be Sisters who had snuck in. It would have taken Sisters to have captured Nicci. With their powers weakened by the spell of the palace, he knew that it would have taken more than one.

“The crews digging dirt for the ramp discovered catacombs,” Richard guessed out loud to Nicci. “Sisters went through the catacombs and found a way to get up into the palace. That’s how they captured you.”

Though the trembling and pain, Nicci squeezed his hand in confirmation.

Richard leaned close to Nicci. “Does anyone up there know that Jagang has a way in?”

She rocked her head from side to side. “Gathering inside,” she managed.

Richard’s heart missed a beat. “They’re gathering men inside to attack the palace?”

She nodded again.

“Then we’d better get in there and warn them,” Bruce said.

“Adie,” Richard said to the old woman standing right beside the wagon, “did you hear all that?”

“Yes. The general be right here. He heard as well.”

Richard looked out from under the tarp. Off in the distance to the right a little he saw a pit where there were no lines of men and wagons.

Richard pointed out from under the tarp. “Look there, around that pit. There are men standing evenly spaced around the entire area.”

“Guards,” General Meiffert confirmed.

“That has to be where they found the catacombs—down in that pit. Look at the way they’ve halted all digging between there and the plateau.”

“Why would they do that?” the general asked.

“The catacombs would be ancient. There’s no telling what condition they might be in. They don’t want to risk caving in any of the tunnels running in under the palace.”

“It must be so,” Adie said.

“How are we going to get down into the pit?” General Meiffert asked.

“If we had more royal-guard uniforms we might be able to get down in there,” Bruce suggested.

“Maybe,” Richard said, “but what about Nicci and Jillian?”

Bruce didn’t have an answer.

“They certainly couldn’t walk in there,” General Meiffert agreed, “and a wagon going down into a guarded pit would obviously be cause for suspicion.”

“Maybe,” Richard said, thinking out loud. “Maybe not.”

General Meiffert looked back over his shoulder. “What do you have in mind?”

Richard gently shook Nicci’s shoulders. “Are there books down in the catacombs?”

“Yes,” she managed.

Richard turned back to the general. “We could tell the guards that, with all the trouble in the camp tonight, the emperor wants to bring a load of important books back to his compound to be sure that they’re safe. He sent this Sister along to see to getting the books he’s concerned about. You tell them that you need them to organize a contingent of guards to escort the wagon back to the compound.”

“They’ll want to know why we didn’t bring guards with us.”

“Because of the trouble,” Bruce suggested. “Tell them that with the rioting the officers didn’t want to risk any guards taken from the duty of protecting the emperor.”

Richard nodded at the idea. “While they’re busy going off to gather us some men, we slip down into the catacombs.”

“Not all the guards are going to leave the site to go gathering up men for you,” Bruce said. “It would sound awfully suspicious if we even suggested such a thing. Any men left in the area will see the two women—especially since we’ll have to help Nicci.

“Don’t underestimate these guards. See their uniforms? These are men the emperor trusts. I know what these men are like. They aren’t fools and they’re not lazy. They don’t miss much.”

“That makes sense,” Richard said as he considered Bruce’s advice. He frowned in thought as an idea came to him. He turned to Adie. “It’s windy out tonight. Do you think you could help the wind?”

“Help the wind?” Her completely white eyes gazed at him in the dim torchlight. “What be your idea?”

“To have you use your gift to stir up the air. Some random gusts, that sort of thing. Make it appear that the wind is kicking up stronger all the time. After General Meiffert has told them to begin gathering some of their men to serve as escorts, we move the wagon down into the pit. Then an even bigger gust of wind comes through and blows out the nearby torches. When it goes dark, and before the guards can bring more torches down there to relight the ones that went out, we slip Nicci and Jillian down into the tunnels.”

“All right, so we get down into the tunnels,” General Meiffert said. “There will still be guards down there and who knows how many troops. What do you propose about that?”

Richard shared a troubled look with the man. “We have to get past them, one way or another. But you’re right, there are liable to be a lot of them.”

Bruce propped himself up on an elbow. “It will be difficult to fight in tunnels. That helps to even the odds.”

“You have a point,” General Meiffert said. “To a certain extent it doesn’t matter how many guards are down in there. They can’t swarm over us. In such confined spaces they can only have a few men at a time fighting us.”

Richard let out a sigh. “But that’s still trouble we don’t need. We’d have to walk over every guard we kill and every one of the men down there will be trying to stop us. As we force our way farther in they can surround us from behind. There are sure to be countless chambers, giving them the opportunity to come in from the sides as we advance. It’s a long way. What with helping Nicci it’s going to be more than difficult to fight our way through.”

“What choice do we have?” General Meiffert asked. “We need to get through and the only way is to eliminate anyone who tries to stop us. It won’t be easy, but it’s our only hope.”

“Catacombs be black as pitch,” Adie said in her raspy voice. “If I use my gift to snuff out all the lights down there they not be able to see us.”

“But then how can we see?” Bruce asked.

“Your gift,” Richard said to Adie as he realized her plan. “You see with your gift.”

She nodded. “I be our eyes. My eyes be blinded when I be young. I see by my gift, not by light. I use my gift to snuff out their lights, then go first into the blackness. You all follow. We be as quiet as mice. They not even know that we be slipping through their midst. If I encounter guards, I find a way to slip around them by other routes so they not know we be there. If we must, we kill them, but it be better to sneak past them.”

“That sounds to me like our best chance.” Richard glanced at Nicci before looking to each of them in turn. No one offered any objections, so he went on.

“It’s set, then. General Meiffert talks to the captain of the guards. We take the wagon down into the pit while he goes after men for an escort. Once down in the pit Adie uses her gift to bring up a gust of wind to blow out the torches. In the confusion before they can light the torches we climb down into the catacombs. They’ll probably just assume that we started in on our work of collecting the books for the emperor. Once down inside, Adie leads the way and extinguishes any light we come across. She guides us through by the safest route. Anyone in the way who tries to stop us dies.”

“Just be ready if the captain of the guard is suspicious and wants to give us trouble,” the general said.

“If need be,” Adie said, “there be trouble. I make sure of it.”

Richard nodded. “We need to hurry, though. It’s going to be light soon. We need darkness to get down in the catacombs without any of the guards seeing Nicci and Jillian. After we’re down inside it won’t matter, but out here we need to make this happen while we still have the night.”

“Then let’s get going,” the general said as he headed forward to lead the horses.

Richard glanced quickly to the eastern sky. Dawn was not far off. He and Bruce pulled the tarp down tight as the wagon began to rumble forward. Richard hoped they could get down into the eternal night of the catacombs in time.

Next to him, Nicci wept softly, unable to endure the agony, unable to summon death.

Her suffering was breaking Richard’s heart. All he could do was to squeeze her hand to let her know that she was not alone.

Richard listened to the wind howl as General Meiffert spoke in muffled words to the captain of the guard.

Richard leaned close to Nicci and whispered to her, “Hold on. It won’t be much longer.”

“I don’t think she can hear you anymore,” Jillian whispered from just on the other side of Nicci.

“She can hear me,” Richard said.

She had to hear him. She had to live. Richard needed her help. He didn’t know how to open the right box of Orden. He didn’t know anyone who could be more help to him than Nicci.

More important than that, though, Nicci was his friend. He cared deeply for her. He could always find other solutions if it came to that, but he couldn’t bear to lose her.

Nicci had often been the only person he could turn to, the person who had helped keep him focused, who had reminded him to trust in himself. In many ways she had been his only confidant since Kahlan had been taken.

He couldn’t stand the thought of losing her.