Wasteland

6

The eight of them hurried through the halls and corridors of the palace urgently going after the ninth. Nyda and Rikka, both tall and blond, were in the lead, Richard, Kahlan, and Shale in the middle, with Vale, Berdine, and Cassia guarding them from the rear. They took the shortest route, which necessarily meant going through the public areas.

Even at night there were quite a number of people in the sprawling corridors. When they saw the five Mord-Sith in red leather, they kept their heads down and averted their eyes, wanting nothing to do with why they might be rushing through the halls. Richard couldn’t help wondering if the Golden Goddess was also watching them. Right then, what mattered the most was not only getting Vika back, but stopping Michec from running free in the palace.

Without the Mord-Sith saying anything, Richard knew where they were headed. They were going to the Mord-Sith’s traditional quarters. Vika would once have had quarters there. It seemed unlikely but possible that Moravaska Michec would have taken her back to her room and would be using the adjacent training room to punish her for ever thinking she could walk away from the master who owned her.

In places the cavernous corridors were open to the sky in order to fill the palace with light. Since it was long after dark, that left the lamps and the isolated, flickering light of torches the task of providing light in the corridors. Many of the shops located in the main corridors closed down at night, but a number of others stayed open for the customers who worked in the palace even in the dead of night. Each of the halls and passageways they used stretched nearly out of sight. Sometimes they took to the private passageways in order to take shortcuts.

Because the purpose of the shape of the palace was to function as a massive spell-form, there weren’t convenient, direct routes from one place to another. At intervals, wide marble stairs provided a quick way up or down in order to get to other passageways that crossed over constricted areas so they could continue heading in the direction they needed to go.

In other places they passed statues of people in proud poses. The statues were made of carved and polished stone with different colors of veining, though they were predominantly white. In some areas the statues were twice life size. It had been a very long time since Richard had seen those particular statues. They reminded him in a way of the massive statue he had once carved.

Nyda led them past a sprawling square open to the sky above a small indoor forest. It was a large enough area that many of the trees were full grown, the branches reaching all the way up through the open roof. Mosses and ferns covered the ground. It was a convincing imitation of being outdoors in a beautiful grove. For a brief moment it reminded him of his forest home in Hartland.

“I’ve never seen such an indoor forest before,” Shale said in amazement as they made their way along the path of clay tiles through the center of it. “I suppose there must be many different kinds of places here that would surprise me. I wouldn’t have believed such a place existed inside the palace. Did you know this was in here?”

Richard nodded, not wanting to get into how he knew.

Nyda and Vale led them past an official palace dining room that never closed. It was for the exclusive use of the many people who worked at the palace, especially those who worked at night. Beyond the dining room, they hurried through the halls to another area open to the sky, with pillars supporting arches on all four sides.

Instead of a forest, under the open sky was a square made of short tiled walls filled with white sand raked in concentric lines around an irregular-shaped dark pitted rock in the center. On the top of the rock was a bell to call people to devotion—a devotion that now was key to keeping their world safe from the Golden Goddess and her predator race.

Devotions used to be hours long. Richard thought that was a waste of time and had shortened them to three repetitions, as was the custom when in the field away from the palace. He judged three repetitions to be more than enough to satisfy the magical connection between the people and the Lord Rahl.

When Nyda turned off the main corridor, she took them down a passageway that led them to a place Richard knew all too well.

“These are the Mord-Sith’s quarters,” Nyda said, in a quiet voice in case Michec should be in one of the nearby rooms.

“Do you know which one was Vika’s room?” Richard asked.

Nyda gestured. “This one right here.”

While everyone waited, the Mord-Sith with Agiel in hand and Kahlan standing beside Shale, Richard took a lantern from the wall and went in. With one hand on his sword, and the other holding the lantern, he checked the room. It was small, with a little training room beyond. He opened the wardrobe to be sure, but there was no one hiding in the room, and no place to hide.

“Empty,” he said when he came back out. “We need to check all the rest of the rooms.”

The Mord-Sith each looked in rooms, as did Richard. After checking several dark and empty rooms, he went into one with polished wood floors, a window with a pointed top and trimmed with simple drapes open to the darkness outside, and a bed with a blanket and pillow. Richard was abruptly staggered to remember sleeping at the foot of that bed, as well as being in it. Next to it was a nightstand with a lamp. On the other side of the small room were a simple table and chair. Next to a door into the training room were dark wood cabinets built into the wall. He opened the doors and found the cabinets empty.

He went into the training room to check. It seemed smaller than he remembered. A pulley in the ceiling had a rope that was attached at the wall. The floor had a drain for the blood. He stood frozen for a brief moment before turning away and leaving.

All five of the Mord-Sith silently watched him as he came out. They all knew it had been Denna’s room. None of them said a word. They didn’t have to. But he was glad they remained silent, because the last thing he would have wanted was for Kahlan to know whose room that had been.

“Nothing,” he said. “It’s empty. We need to hurry and check the others. If Michec is hurting her, the sooner we can get to her the better.”

By the time they had finished checking all the rooms, they had found no sign that either Michec or Vika had been there.

“This is getting us nowhere,” he finally said in frustration. “Do any of you have any idea where Michec could have taken her?”

All the Mord-Sith looked equally disappointed as they shook their heads.

“Do any of you have any idea where Michec’s quarters used to be?”

Again, they all shook their heads.

Richard paced down the hall a short distance and then back, pinching his lower lip as he tried to think how they could find her in the enormous People’s Palace. Everyone watched in silence as he paced.

His head suddenly came up.

“I know someone who should know where Michec would be.”