Wasteland

12

Edward Harris wasted no time as he led Richard and everyone with him to one of the grand marble staircases to begin their descent from the upper level to the secure lower vault where the palace design plans were located. Because it was so open, this was one of the few staircases that didn’t echo with all their footsteps. Instead, the whispers of conversation drifted up to them.

When they reached the main floor, Richard saw large numbers of people gathered in small groups all around the expansive corridor, engaged in worried talk about what had just happened. Richard could see soldiers and workers in the distance dealing with the remains of Mr. Burkett as well as a broad area covered with greasy ash—the remains of the Glee Richard had killed.

The hushed conversations, fearful talk, and tearful stories tapered off and died out when the Lord Rahl, the Mother Confessor, and the alluring Shale marched through their midst with five Mord-Sith in red leather escorting them. The eyes of hundreds of people watched them making their way along the corridor. Some were probably surprised to see the Mother Confessor in traveling clothes and wearing a long knife at her belt. Business at the shops had come to an end after many of the customers as well as the people working in the shop had fled in fear for their lives.

Richard wondered if the Golden Goddess was watching through any of those eyes, and if another attack would suddenly appear out of nowhere, possibly with many times the numbers sent for the last attack. He hoped the goddess had been watching through someone’s eyes and had been discouraged from the notion that simply sending large numbers would bring her success. Richard feared it would, but maybe if she saw the ashes of hundreds of her kind up on the balcony it would discourage her.

Everyone with him watched nervously for another attack. Down in the corridor the Glee could kill hundreds. For the time being, though, they seemed to be focused on killing Richard and Kahlan, not the people in the palace.

Richard knew that by now a great number of people—both those seeing the battles play out up on the balcony, and others watching from the upper galleries—would have finally seen the frightening Glee. There was no more keeping it secret. Talk of such sightings, the deadly battle, and power unleashed by the Lord Rahl against the howling monsters would be spreading to every corner of the palace. By morning, everyone would have heard about it. Everyone would be talking about little else.

He knew that fear would have many people either holed up in their quarters or fleeing the palace. There was no safe place anywhere in their world, of course, but the people didn’t know that. As far as Richard was concerned, his job was to worry about finding a way to stop the threat, not to give them comfort and assurances.

As they quickly moved down the corridor, he wondered about the lone Glee he had seen off on the opposing balcony, just standing there, watching him. Richard feared to imagine what that was about. Something about the look they shared still haunted him.

At the least that silent observer had seen Richard turn more than a hundred of its kind to ash. If it had been there as a spy for the goddess, then it had some bad news to report back to her. He didn’t know if such a report would strike fear into her heart, or merely make her angry and even more determined. What he did know was that appeasement wasn’t an option.

Turning off the main corridor, Harris, in the lead, finally took Richard and company out of the public areas and out of the sight of so many people. He wondered if she would think of watching them through Harris’s eye. Once they were in the restricted areas, he took them down a series of hallways and corridors.

Kahlan, almost having to run, put her arm through Richard’s as she leaned close. “We will get her back, Richard.”

Richard nodded. “As long as I’m alive, we will.”

“Don’t put it that way,” she admonished. “Not after what just happened back there.”

Richard forced himself to show her a smile as he briefly hugged her close with one arm.

Four soldiers standing guard over an even more highly restricted area saw him coming accompanied by Mord-Sith. They saluted with fists to hearts. Richard was aware that it would only take one ungifted person, like one of those four soldiers, for the goddess to see where they were going.

Richard didn’t have any idea how the goddess selected a person to use as an observer. He hoped that maybe it took her a bit of time to find a new person.

“Just because we’re in the restricted corridors,” he told the rest of those with him, “doesn’t mean we’re safe. The Glee can show up in here just as easily as they did up on the balcony. Stay alert.”

The Mord-Sith, all spinning their Agiel at the end of the fine gold chains around their wrists, nodded.

Inside the next set of doors was a simple stone service stairwell that did echo all the way down four flights of stairs. At the bottom there was a small room with a locked door. Harris, who fortunately had keys for such doors, hurriedly unlocked it. Beyond, a broad hallway stretched off into darkness.

“People don’t have any reason to regularly come down here, so it isn’t kept lighted,” Harris explained. He gestured to shelves. “We’ll need to take some of those lamps.”

He collected one of the dozens from the shelf, then lit it with a splinter he caught to flame from another lamp mounted to the wall outside that door. Each of the Mord-Sith collected a lamp and let him light theirs from the same splinter.

Harris pointed off into the darkness. “Down that way is where all of the palace plans are kept.”

Nyda stepped out in front of the group. “Wait here. Let me and Vale go check, first.”

Richard was in a hurry, but considering how many surprise attacks they had experienced, he decided to let them do their job. He tilted his head for them to go on ahead, then watched as the bubble of light moved with them down the long, dark stone passageway until they reached double doors the end.

Nyda’s voice echoed when she turned and called back to them, “Clear.”

Richard knew that there was no such thing as clear. The Glee could show up anywhere, but at least he knew they weren’t waiting for them down in the darkness. At least, not yet.

“Let’s go,” he said as he started out.

The rest of the group followed down the passageway of gray stone to the gray-painted, broad metal door. There was an odd kind of lock built into the door that required moving a series of five levers sticking out of the metal covering up or down to one of several dozen specific, marked positions. Once the man had the levers properly positioned, he pulled up on a heavy lever to draw the bolt back. The hinges squealed in protest as it swung open. The air that escaped smelled musty.

“What do you do if you forget the lock sequence?” Richard asked. “Or if you go missing and they need to open the door?”

Harris shrugged with a smile. “There are a half-dozen palace officials who know the lock sequence, but if none of them could be found and if it was important enough, then I guess the soldiers would simply break it down. It’s not like a vault door, such as the one to get into the inner shaft of the plateau, and it’s not protecting a treasure of gold. It’s a strong metal door, but with enough effort I would guess it could be broken down. The lock is basically meant to keep out people who might be snooping around where they don’t belong. An enemy who wanted to attack the palace, for example, could make good use of all the plans and diagrams in here. That’s why it’s locked.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Richard said as all of the Mord-Sith rushed in before the door was even fully opened.

“Did Mr. Burkett know the sequences for the lock levers?”

“Of course. Him and then six of his assistants, including me.”

Richard didn’t say anything, but Mr. Burkett had already proven he was willing to betray the interests of the palace. Richard had wanted him out of the palace and banished forever. But considering that he knew the lock combination, not only to this place but, Richard had to assume, to many others, it was probably a good thing that he was dead.

Once inside, Shale swept out her arm to light all the lamps placed liberally around the surprisingly vast room. It was a lot bigger than Richard had envisioned. Arches all around the outside walls were held up by unadorned stone pillars. Three more substantial pillars down the center of the room held up the row of arches that in turn held up the vaulted ceilings.

Between each pillar against all the walls, crosshatched boards created what had to be thousands of uniform, diamond-shaped cubbyholes for all the rolled-up diagrams. A series of at least a dozen large tables sat in the center of the room, each big enough to spread out one or more of the diagrams. Richard couldn’t even begin to guess at the number of rolled-up plans.

Harris went to the right, to the nearest series of cubbyholes holding rolled plans. He pointed up at the label in the top of the arch.

“See? Everything is numbered and labeled so you can find the plan you need if you know the section name in the palace. If you don’t, there is a map of each floor over there where each section is labeled. This section between pillars and the ones next to it are all ‘W.’ We need sections with ‘M’ at the top.”

The five Mord-Sith spread out, going around the room, looking at the letter at the top of each arch.

“Here they are,” Cassia called out from the far-right corner. “Section M.”

“See here?” Harris asked when they reached the section she had found. “They’re organized in vertical rows. Here are rows A and then rows B and so on. Depending on the number of areas with rolled plans, those rows might continue on the other side of the pillar.”

He trailed his finger down one row and then down two more before he leaned in to check the numbers on the bottom of the cubbyholes. He had to go to the end of the section they were in; then he pulled out a long, rolled plan. At the nearest table he spread it out, putting weights each table had on the sides to keep the plans from rolling back up.

He pointed. “See, it’s written here, down at the bottom. ‘M111-B.’”

Richard, standing at the edge of the table, looking down at the diagram, leaned in a little. Everyone to either side leaned in, looking with him. Richard was the only one who actually knew what he was looking at.

He stared at what he was seeing, hardly able to believe it.

“What’s wrong?” Kahlan asked. “Your face just turned white.”

“Lord Rahl, what is it?” Shale asked in the dragging silence.

Richard’s gaze traced all of the passageways, the rooms, the circular halls, the dead ends, the entrapments, the false helix, the lateral routes, the complex of twinned and tripled passageways, checking, hoping he was wrong.

He wasn’t.

“We’re in trouble,” he said, not really having intended to say it out loud.