Stone of Tears

Chapter 29

They were confronted by steps, twenty strides wide, that revealed themselves for what they were only at the far right, where the wind had funneled down next to the sweeping, pink marble balustrade and kept the snow clear. Pausing for only a moment as she realized they had reached her destination, Kahlan set her snowshoes firmly into the snowdrift that covered the steps, and ascended to the portico, its fascia decorated with a row of statues swathed in cut stone that mimicked the drape of cloth so well it seemed as if it might move in the light breeze. Ten white columns to each side held the massive entablature at a dizzying height above the arched entrance. Bodies fallen in a desperate battle were sprawled atop one another all over the snow-covered lawns, and sat as if in repose against the walls of the domed exterior entrance hall.

The ornate doors, displaying delicately carved royal shields of the House of Amnell, held aloft by twin mountain lions, lay in splinters on the floor of the vestibule. Flanking the rope-carved stone arch at the far end stood life-size statues of Queen Bernadine and King Wyborn, each holding a spear and shield in one hand, the queen a sheaf of wheat in the other, and the king a lamb. The queen’s breasts were broken away; flakes of stone and stone dust littered the rust colored marble tiles. Both statues were without their heads.

With nearly numb fingers, Kahlan untied the bindings of her snowshoes and leaned them against the queen’s statue. Chandalen followed her example before following her into the reception hall lined with broken mirrors and torn tapestries. She pulled her mantle tight around herself as clouds of their breath rose lazily into dead still air that was somehow much colder than that outside.

“What is this place used for?” Chandalen asked in a whisper, as if afraid he might wake the spirits of the dead.

She had to force herself not to whisper. “It is the home of the queen of this land. Her name is Cyrilla.”

His doubting voice echoed down the stone hall. “One person lives in a place such as this?”

“Many people live here. There are advisors, much like the elders among your people, and others that are responsible for governing the needs of the land, and people who tend to their needs so they may perform their duties. Many people call this their home, but the queen is the head of the household, as she is the head of her land. She is above them all.”

Chandalen followed silently as she began to search the palace. His eyes slid from one wondrous object to another; from elaborately carved furniture that now lay everywhere in splinters, to the heavy red, blue, gold, or green draperies that adorned the ten-foot-tall, square-top windows, all broken now.

She descended a flight of stairs to the lower rooms, the oak treads creaking with every step in the cold. He insisted on entering each room first, pushing doors open with a foot and gliding in behind a fully drawn ten-step arrow, before allowing her to search inside.

They found only the dead. In a few of the rooms they found some of the staff, who had been lined up against a wall and pincushioned with arrows. In the kitchens it looked as if after executing the cooks, cook’s helpers, wine stewards, assistants, dishwashers, potboys, spit boys, and scullions, the invaders had sat down and had a drunken feast. The ale and wine casks were empty. It appeared they had thrown more food at the walls than they had eaten.

While Chandalen checked the ransacked larder, Kahlan’s eye was caught by the bodies of two young women, kitchen help, on the floor behind a long chopping block. One was completely naked, and the other had but one brown, woolen stocking, bunched down around her thin ankle. Her first assumption had been wrong. Not all the help had been killed before the drunken feast.

Her face as still as those of the dead women, she turned and strode from the kitchen and started up the servants’ stairs to check the upper floors. Chandalen’s thumping footfalls came charging up behind as he took three steps at a time to catch her.

She knew he didn’t like it that she had left without him, but he didn’t voice it. “There is salted meat. Maybe we could take a little? I do not think these people would think it wrong for us to do so. They would not deny us a little food.”

Kahlan put her hand to the railing as she climbed with a steady cadence, but then pulled the hand back inside her mantle, because the polished maple was so cold to the touch it stung her fingers. “If you eat the meat, you will die. They will have poisoned it, so that if any of the dead’s countrymen return to this place and eat any of the food here, they, too, will die.”

They found the main floor clear of bodies. It looked to have been used as an army headquarters. Empty barrels of wine and rum lay about the ballroom floor. Food scraps, mugs and cups, broken dishes, pipe ashes, bloody bandages, oily rags, broken or bent swords, spears and maces, dark wood shavings from a walnut table leg someone had whittled away until it was nothing but a stub, basins of frozen water, dirty linen, bedsheets ripped into strips, and filthy, quilted bedcovers of every color littered the carpeted floor. Dirty bootprints were everywhere, even on the tabletops. By the swirling scratches, it looked as if men had danced atop them.

Chandalen walked through the rubble, inspecting various bits. “Two, maybe three days they were here.”

She nodded her agreement as her eyes cast about. “It looks that way.”

He rolled a wine barrel back and forth with his foot, testing if it was empty. It was. “I wonder why they stayed so long? Just to drink, and dance?”

Kahlan sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe they were resting and tending to their wounded. Maybe they just went on a drunken binge to celebrate their victory over these people.”

He looked up sharply. “Killing is not a thing to celebrate.”

“It is, for the people who did this killing.”

Reluctantly, Kahlan at last climbed the stairs to the top floor. She didn’t want to look up there. That was where the bedchambers were.

They checked the west wing first: the men’s apartments. They looked to have been used by the troops as sleeping quarters. With an army of as many men as had to have done this, they would have had many men of rank. The officers probably stayed here, in the fine rooms. The soldiers under their command would have used the inns and more common houses.

With a deep breath to strengthen her resolve, she set her jaw and crossed the central hall, with its balcony that overlooked the grand staircase, to the east-wing rooms. Chandalen, close at her heels, wanted to open the doors for her and check the rooms first, but here she wouldn’t allow it. Her hand paused for a moment on the doorknob, then finally opened the first door. She stood for a time, staring at the scene inside. She went to the next door and flung it open, and then to the next.

All the rooms were occupied. Each bedchamber had women in it, none clothed. Room after room after room were all the same. By the filthy condition of the carpets, there looked to have been a steady stream of traffic. Wood shavings lay in little piles about the floor, where a man had passed the time whittling on whatever was handy while he waited his turn.

“Now we know why they spent several days here,” Kahlan said without meeting Chandalen’s eyes. He remained silent. She couldn’t bring forth more than a whisper. “So they could do this.”

Those few days had undoubtedly been the longest of these women’s lives. Kahlan prayed that their spirits were at peace, now.

She reached the door at the end, the door to the room the younger women shared. Slowly, she opened it, and stood looking in, Chandalen close behind her looking past her shoulder.

Stifling a gasp, she turned and put a hand to his chest. “Please, Chandalen, wait here.”

He nodded as he furiously studied his boots.

Kahlan closed the door behind herself and stood with her back against it for a time. One hand at her side, and the other covering her mouth, she skirted an overturned, wrecked wardrobe, and walked the length of the frigid room, between the rows of beds, looking from one side to the other. The precious hand mirrors, brushes, combs, and pins that at one time had been arranged with loving care on tables between the beds now lay scattered about the floor. The blue moire curtains billowed slightly in the icy air coming through the broken windows.

These were the queen’s ladies-in-waiting. Young women of fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, a few a little older. These were not just nameless corpses; Kahlan knew many of these young women.

The queen had taken them with her when she had traveled to Aydindril to speak before the council. Kahlan could not have failed to notice them, their vibrancy, their wide-eyed excitement at being in Aydindril. Seeing the grandeur of Aydindril through their young eyes had given Kahlan new vision of the things around her, and brought a smile to her lips. She had longed to give them a tour, personally, but being with the Mother Confessor would have frightened them, and so she hadn’t. But she had admired them from afar, and envied their lives of possibility.

Kahlan stopped at various beds, her back stiff, her head held high, her jaw rigid, as she reluctantly cast her eyes down at faces she knew. Juliana, one of the youngest, had always been self-confident and assertive. She knew what she wanted and wasn’t timid about going after it. She had always been smitten with young men in uniform: soldiers. One time, it had brought her to grief with her chaperone, Mistress Nelda. Kahlan had surreptitiously interceded on her behalf, informing Mistress Nelda that despite Juliana’s dalliances, the Aydindril Home Guard were all men of impeccable honor, and would never lay a finger on a queen’s lady. Her wrists were now tied to the headpost, and by the way they had bled, looked to have been that way through the whole of her ordeal. Kahlan silently cursed the spirits for their cruel humor in giving the young innocent what she had thought she wanted.

Little Elswyth was in the next blood-soaked bed. Her breasts had been stabbed countless times, and her throat slit, as were many of the rest, like hogs at slaughter. At the end of the room, Kahlan stopped at the foot of the last bed. Ashley, one of the older teenagers, had each ankle tied to a footpost. She had been strangled with a curtain tieback. Her father was one of the Galean aides to the ambassador in Aydindril. Her mother had been thrilled to tears when Queen Cyrilla had agreed to take Ashley on as one of her ladies-in-waiting.

How would she ever find the words to tell Ashley’s father and mother what had happened to their little girl while in the service of their queen?

As Kahlan retraced her steps through the length of the room, taking a last look at each dead body, at each face frozen in horror or in blank submission, she idly wondered why she wasn’t crying. Shouldn’t she cry? Shouldn’t she fall to her knees, scream in anguish, pound her fists, and cry until she drowned in tears? But she didn’t. She felt as if there were no tears to be had.

Perhaps there were too many. Perhaps she had seen so many that day that it had simply numbed her to it. Like when you get into a tub of water for a bath, and at first you feel that it is too hot to stand, that surely you are being scalded, but after a few minutes it seems only warm.

She softly pulled the door closed. Chandalen stood in the exact same spot she had left him. His knuckles were white on his bow. Kahlan walked past him, expecting him to follow. He didn’t.

“Most women would cry,” he said as he stared at the door.

She felt a flush of heat in her cheeks. “I am not most women.”

Chandalen didn’t take his eyes from the door. “No, you are not.”

His eyes finally left the door to look down at his bow. The tension left his shoulders as he pulled a deep breath, as if it was the first he had taken in a while. “I wish to tell you a story.”

Kahlan waited a few paces away. “I do not wish to hear a story right now, Chandalen. Perhaps later.”

He turned his fierce brown eyes to her. “I wish to tell you a story,” he repeated, a little louder this time.

She sighed. “If it’s important to you, then tell me.”

Holding her gaze, he closed the distance between them. He was a scant inch shorter than she, but right then he looked taller to her. “When my grandfather was as young, and strong”—he tapped his puffed-up chest—“as I am now, he already had a wife, and two sons. Many peoples came to our village to trade. We let all come. We kept no one away. All were welcome. The Jocopo were one of these people who came to trade.”

“Who are the Jocopo?” Kahlan knew every people in the Midlands, but had never heard of these.

“People who lived to the west, closer to where the boundary was.”

Kahlan frowned as her mind searched a mental map. “No one lives to the west of the Mud People. That land is deserted.”

Chandalen watched her from under his eyebrows. “The Jocopo were big people.” He held his hand a head higher than he was, before letting it fall to his side. “But they were always peaceful. Like the Bantak. Like our people. Then they made war on us. We do not know the reason. But our people were very afraid. They would shake at night, in the fear that the Jocopo might come again the next day. They would come to our village, and cut the men’s throats, and take women, and do these things to them.” He flicked his hand selfconsciously at the door.

“Rape,” she said in an even tone. “It is called rape.”

He nodded. “The Jocopo would do this to our women. They stole many women, and did this rape to them.” He glanced at the door again. “In the way it was done to these women. Do you understand?”

“They were raped by many men and tortured and murdered.”

He nodded, relieved that he didn’t have to elaborate. “The Mud People did not have fighters, like we do now, like me.” His chest swelled again, and his chin came up. At last, the wind left his lungs. “We never had to fight with anyone. None of our people wanted to fight others. They thought it was wrong. But the Jocopo made us want to fight.

“They stole my grandmother. My grandfather’s wife. The mother to my father. My grandfather gave an oath to send the Jocopo to the spirit world. He gathered men together, men who had their wives, or sisters, or mothers taken, and . . .” He wiped his forehead as if he were sweating, but in the cold he was not.

Kahlan put a hand on his arm. He didn’t flinch this time. “I understand, Chandalen.”

“My grandfather called for a gathering, and was visited by our ancestors’ spirits. He wept for his wife before the spirits, and asked if the ancestors’ spirits would teach him how to stop the Jocopo. They told him that first he must stop weeping until after the fighting was done.”

Kahlan took her hand back and absently stroked the fur at her neck. “My father taught me something very much like that. He said, ‘Don’t shed tears over those already in the ground, until after you have brought vengeance to those who put them there. There will be time enough, then.’ ”

Chandalen appraised her approvingly. “Then your father was a wise man.”

Kahlan waited silently until at last he seemed to mentally gather up the memories of the stories, and continued.

“The ancestors’ spirits came to my grandfather every night in a gathering. They taught him what he must do, how to kill. He taught these men what he had learned. He taught them how to put mud on themselves, and tie grass to themselves, so not to be seen. Our men became like the shadows. The Jocopo could not see them if they stood as close as we do now.

“My grandfather and his men made war with the Jocopo. Not war the way the Jocopo made war, but the way the spirits taught. The Jocopo made war in the day, because they were many, and had no fear of us. The spirits told grandfather that he must not fight the Jocopo the way they wanted, but must make them fear the night, and the empty grassland, and every call of a bird or frog or bug.

“For every one of the Mud People, there were five Jocopo. At first, they were not afraid of us, because of their numbers. We killed Jocopo when they hunted food, when they tended their crops, when they cared for their animals, when they went for water, when they went to squat, when they slept. Any Jocopo. Every Jocopo. We did not try to fight them; we only killed them. Until there were no more Jocopo in this world, only in the spirit world.”

She wondered briefly if he meant that they had killed the children, too, but she knew the answer; there were no more Jocopo. Something else her father had taught her came to mind: If war is brought to you, then it is incumbent upon you to show no mercy. Surely you will be shown none, and you will be a traitor to your people and as good as their enemy if you let any clemency slip its bounds, for your people will pay for your mistake with their lives.

“I understand, Chandalen. Your people did the only thing they could. Your grandfather did what was necessary to protect his people. My father also taught me, ‘If war is brought to you, then let there be war like your enemy has never imagined in his most frightening nightmares. Anything less, and you hand victory to your foe.’ ”

“Your father, too, must know the spirits of his ancestors. He did well to teach you their lessons.” His voice lowered sympathetically. “But I know they are harsh lessons to live by, and can make you look hard to others.”

“I know the truth of that. Your grandfather brought honor to the Mud People, Chandalen. I’m sure that when it was done, he shed many tears for those of his people who were murdered.”

Chandalen untied the thong at his neck and shrugged back his mantle, letting it drop to the floor. He wore a heavy buckskin tunic and pants. At each shoulder, held with a band made of woven prairie cotton around his upper arm, was a bone knife. The lower end was sharpened to a point, and the knuckle at the other end was covered with the same woven cotton for a better grip. Black feathers hung from the top.

He tapped one of the bones. “This is of my grandfather.” He touched the other. “This is of my father. One day, when I have a strong son, he will wear one of me, and of my father, and the one of my grandfather will be put to rest in the ground.”

When Kahlan had first seen the bone knives, when they had left the Mud People village, she had thought they were ceremonial. With terrible certainty, she now knew they were not. They were real weapons: spirit weapons.

“What are the feathers?”

He stroked the glossy black feathers on the one at his right shoulder. “The Bird Man we had then, when this was made, placed these.” He touched the ones on his left shoulder. “The Bird Man we have now placed these. They are raven.”

The raven was a powerful spirit to the Mud People. Its image invoked death. While she thought the idea of wearing a knife made from your grandfather and father’s arm bone was gruesome, she knew it was an honor to Chandalen, and so didn’t say anything to insult his beliefs. “It brings me honor, Chandalen, that you would bring the spirits of your ancestors to protect me.”

He didn’t look happy. “The Bird Man says you are Mud People, too, and must be protected, so I wear these. It is my duty.”

He stroked his grandfather’s bone again. “My grandfather taught my father, and my uncle, Toffalar, the man you killed, to be protectors of our people.” He touched his father’s bone. “My father taught me. I will teach my son, when he comes, and someday he will carry my spirit with him as he protects our people.

“Since the time we killed the Jocopo, we have not let many come onto our land. Our ancestors’ spirits teach us that to invite others to come as they wish is to invite death. The spirits speak true. You brought Richard With The Temper to us, and because of him, Darken Rahl came and killed many of our people.”

So it came down to this. Chandalen was supposed to be a protector of his people, but they had been killed and he hadn’t been able to stop it. “The ancestors’ spirits helped us to save the Mud People, Chandalen, and countless others. They saw that Richard’s heart was true, that he was risking his life, the same as you, to save others who did not want war.”

“He stayed in the spirit house while Darken Rahl killed our people. He did not try to stop him. He did not fight. He let our people die.”

“Do you know why?” She waited as he stood stone-faced, but when he didn’t reply, she resumed. “The spirits told him that if he went out to fight Darken Rahl, he would be fighting the way Darken Rahl fought, and Richard would die, never to help anyone. They told him that if he wanted to defeat Darken Rahl and save the rest of the Mud People, he must not fight the way Darken Rahl did, but wait and fight his own way, later, just as the spirits told your grandfather.”

He regarded her skeptically. “This is his story.”

“I was there, Chandalen. I heard them say this. Richard wanted to fight. He wept with frustration when the spirits told him he must not. There was nothing that could have been done to stop Rahl just then. It was not Richard’s fault, nor was it yours. You could have done nothing to stop it, the same as Richard could have done nothing. If he had tried, he would be dead, and Darken Rahl would have won.”

He leaned a little closer. “If you had not brought him, it would not have happened. Darken Rahl would not have come looking for him.”

She drew herself up straight. “Chandalen, do you know what I do? What my specialty is?”

“Yes. Like all Confessors, you make people afraid of you, so you may tell them what to do, and because they are afraid, they will do as you say.”

“In a way. I lead the Council of the Midlands. I represent all the people and protect their rights. I make it possible for those like the Mud People to live as they wish.”

“We protect ourselves.”

She gave him a sober nod. “You think so? For every one of the Mud People, there were five Jocopo. Your grandfather was brave, and defeated an enemy that outnumbered him. But for every man, woman, and child of the Mud People, there are over a hundred dead soldiers here, and this is only one city of this land. They were defeated as if they were nothing. One hundred fighting men for every Mud Person, and they fought bravely, you said so. What chance do you think you would have against an army that could defeat this many? Against an army half that size?”

Chandalen shifted his weight without answering.

“There are lands, Chandalen, that have no say, like the Mud People, and the Bantak. They are not represented on the council. The larger lands, like this one, and the one that defeated them, are very powerful, yet Darken Rahl conquered them. I speak for the lands that have no voice on the council. I protect your wish to be left alone, and forbid others to come onto your land.

“Without me to make them afraid, and tell them what to do, they would take your land for themselves. You have seen the country we have traveled through. Much of it is difficult to plant. People would take your land for farms, and to raise animals. Your sacred grasslands would be burned and tilled and planted with crops to trade for gold.

“As brave and strong as you are, you would not be able to protect your people. These outsiders would blacken your land with their numbers. Just because you are brave, and strong, does not mean you will win. The soldiers here were brave, and strong, and a hundred times your number, and look what happened to them. And this is only one city. There are many larger.

“Being brave does not mean you have to be stupid, Chandalen. You saw what was done here. How long do you think you could fight against an army like that which did this? Even if every one of your men killed fifty, they would hardly notice. You would be like the Jocopo, gone. Every last one of you.”

Kahlan jabbed a finger at her own chest. “I am the one who tells them they may not. They do not fear you, but they fear me, and the alliance I represent. There are good people in the Midlands, people who are willing to fight to protect others who are less powerful. The dead here are one of those peoples. They are one that has always backed me when I said no land may attack another to gain land.

“I head the Council of the Midlands and hold together the lands that want peace. Under me they would fight any who would make war on others. Yes, I make people afraid, so they will do what I say. But not to have the glory of power. I hold power to keep the people of the Midlands—including the Mud People—free of oppression. These people here have fought before to keep all the people of the Midlands free to live as they wished. They have fought for you, for your rights, though you have never known of the blood they have shed on your behalf.”

She clutched her mantle more tightly. “You have never before had to fight for them, until Darken Rahl threatened all. I came to the Mud People, with Richard, to seek help. Your ancestors’ spirits saw the truth of our struggle, and they helped us so that the Mud People, and all others, could live free. For the first time, Mud People had to shed blood for the Midlands. Your ancestors’ spirits saw the truth of this, and they helped us.

“The people of the Midlands owe the Mud People a debt for their sacrifice, but you also owe them.

“Richard With The Temper put his life at risk for your people. He lost loved ones in the struggle, the same as you. He suffered things you could never understand. You could not imagine what was done to him by Darken Rahl before Richard killed him.”

Kahlan stood in fury, clouds of her hot breath rising into the cold air.

“I make people afraid of me so you may continue to be blind and stubborn. Richard and I have fought to keep all the people of the Midlands, including the Mud People, from being murdered, as the Jocopo murdered Mud People, even though you would deny us your help, or simple gratitude.”

Silence echoed around them.

Chandalen walked slowly to the railing, idly running a finger along its polished surface. She watched each slow cloud of his breath dissipate, to be followed by another. He spoke softly. “You see me as stubborn. I see you, too, as stubborn. Maybe our fathers should have also taught us to see that sometimes people do as they do, not because they are stubborn, but because they fear for those they protect. Maybe you and I should be able to see each other not as harsh, but as doing the best we know, to keep our people safe.”

A small smile came unexpectedly to Kahlan’s lips. “Perhaps, Chandalen is not so blind as I thought. I will try, myself, to see better, see you for the man of honor you are.”

He gave a nod, and a small smile of his own. “Richard With The Temper is not a stupid man.” He put his hands to the railing, looking out over the first floor. “He said that if he had to pick one man to fight beside him, he would pick Chandalen.”

“You speak the truth,” she said softly. “He is not a stupid man.”

“Richard also sacrificed himself as your mate. He has saved our men from being chosen, as surely you would have picked one of us, because we are so strong.” His voice rose with pride. “You would probably have picked me, so that you might have the strongest mate. Richard has saved me.”

Kahlan smiled again in spite of herself as he stared out over the railing. “I’m sorry you feel the task of being my mate is so onerous a thing.”

Chandalen came back to her. He stood a moment, studying her eyes, and then began untying the band at his right arm. He pulled the band and bone knife free, holding it out before her.

“Grandfather would be proud to protect you, one of his own, one of his Mud People.” He flipped her mantle back over her left shoulder.

“Chandalen, I cannot accept this. It holds the spirit of your grandfather.”

He ignored her words and tied the band to her left arm. “I have the spirit of my father with me, and I am strong. You fight to protect our people. Grandfather would want to be with you in your fight. You do him an honor.”

She held her chin up as he slipped the bone knife into the band. “I’m honored, then, to have your grandfather’s spirit with me.”

“This is good. You have the duty now to fight as my grandfather fought to protect your people. All of your people.” He lifted her right hand and placed it on the bone knife. “Swear to carry this duty in your heart.”

“I have already sworn to protect the Mud People, and the others of the Midlands. I have already fought and will continue to fight for all of you.”

He squeezed her hand tighter to the bone. “Swear to Chandalen.”

She studied his grim expression a long moment. “You have my vow, Chandalen. I swear it before you.”

He smiled as he pulled her mantle back over her shoulder, over the bone knife. “Chandalen will thank Richard With The Temper, when I see him again, for saving me from being chosen as the mate to the Mother Confessor. I will wish him no bad fortune. He fights, too, for the Mud People, as the Bird Man has told us.”

Kahlan bent to pick up his mantle. “Here. Put this back on, I don’t want you to freeze. You must still get me to Aydindril.”

He nodded, still wearing the small, tight smile, as he threw the mantle over his shoulders. His smile died as he glanced at the doors. “Someone has been here since this was done.”

Kahlan frowned. “What makes you think that?”

“Why did you close the doors after you had looked?”

“Out of respect for the dead.”

“When we came to them, they were closed. Those who did this rape had no respect. They would not have closed all the doors. They wanted anyone who came to see what they had done. Someone else has been here, and closed the doors.”

Kahlan glanced to the doors, seeing the meaning of what he said. “I think you’re right.” She shook her head. “Those who did this would not have closed the door.”

Chandalen leaned on the railing again, looking down at the wide stairs. “Why are we here?”

“Because I had to know what happened to these people.”

“You saw that outside. Why are we here, in this house?”

Kahlan glanced at the steps leading up to the top floor. “Because I have to know if the queen was killed, too.”

He looked over his shoulder toward her. “She means something to you?”

Kahlan was suddenly aware of the pounding of her heart. “Yes. Do you remember the statues near the door we entered?”

“A woman, and a man.”

She nodded. “The statue of the woman is a statue of her mother. My mother was a Confessor. The statue of the man is a statue of her father. King Wyborn. He was also my father.”

Chandalen lifted an eyebrow. “You are sister to this queen?”

“Half sister.” Summoning courage, she started for the stairs. “Let’s see if she is here, and then we can be on our way to Aydindril.”

Kahlan’s heart was still pounding as she stood before the door to the queen’s chambers. She couldn’t bring herself to open it. It smelled dreadful in the hall, but she hardly noticed.

“Do you wish me to look for you?”

“No,” she said. “I must see with my own eyes.”

She turned the knob. The door was locked, the key still in place. She touched the icy metal plate. “This is a lock, the thing I told you of before,” she lectured as she pulled the key out and held it up. “This is a key.” Replacing the key, she twisted it with shaking fingers. “If you have a key, you can open the lock, and then the door.”

Someone had obviously locked the door, out of respect for the queen.

The windows were intact, as was the furniture. The room was as freezing cold as the rest of the palace, but the smell made them suddenly gag and hold their breath.

Human excrement covered everything in the outer sitting room. The two of them stared in shock. Dark piles dotted the carpets and sat on the desk and table. The blue velvet chairs and couches were soaked with yellow, frozen urine. Someone had even squatted neatly in the fireplace.

Holding their mantles across their noses, they stepped carefully across the room to the next closed door. The queen’s bedchamber was worse. There was hardly a place to put a foot without stepping in it. But as covered as the floor was, the worst was the bed; it was heaped with feces. Delicately painted floral scenes on the walls were smeared with it. If everything hadn’t been frozen solid, they would have been driven from the room by the stench. As it was, it was barely tolerable.

Thankfully, there were no bodies. The queen was not here.

The names on Kahlan’s mental roster of who could have done all this fell away, and only one nation was left. The ones who had been at the top, before.

“Keltans,” she hissed to herself.

Chandalen was dumbfounded. “Why would these men do this? Are they children who do not know better?”

After a last look around, Kahlan led them back out into the hall, locking the door once more, at last taking a full breath. “It’s a message. It’s meant to show their disrespect for the people who lived here. It says that they have nothing but scorn for these people, and anything that’s theirs. They’ve soiled their foe’s honor in every way they could think of.”

“At least your half sister is not here.”

Kahlan snugged the thongs of her mantle tight at her neck. “At least there is that.”

She descended the steps, pausing to look once more at the closed doors on the second floor. Chandalen watched her after he, too, glanced to the row of doors.

She sought to fill the silence. “We must go and find Prindin and Tossidin.”

His face was lined with ire. “Does this not make you angry?”

She realized only then that she was wearing her Confessor’s face. “It would do no good for me to show my anger right now. When the time is right, you will know just how angry I am.”