Wasteland

8

“Wait—what?” Edward Harris suddenly leaned in with alarm. “Do you mean to say that Moravaska Michec is in the People’s Palace? Michec is here?”

“Yes. And your superior here knew it.” Richard turned back to the suddenly silent man he was holding up against the wall. “Didn’t you, Mr. Burkett? You knew. Didn’t you!”

The man was clearly caught in the lie, his tongue nervously flicking in and out.

“I asked you a question! You knew Moravaska Michec was here at the palace when I asked for all the gifted to be sent up to the library, didn’t you? Even though your duty is to report all the gifted to the Lord Rahl, you deliberately hid the fact that he is here, at the palace, isn’t that right?”

“Well, I, I, I couldn’t. You have to understand, I just couldn’t.”

Richard slammed him against the wall again, extending the crack in the plaster out on either side of his head.

“Why couldn’t you tell me?”

“Michec was always loyal to Darken Rahl because they shared certain exotic … indulgences. As long as he left me and my staff alone, it was none of my business.”

“What does that have to do with you not letting me know about him or sending him up to the library with the other gifted?”

“He thought you only defeated Darken Rahl because of luck. He was certain that your luck would run out in the war and that you would never be seen again. He would then step in and assume a place of power here at the palace. He said that he would use a spell to do something horrifying to me if I told you he was living here.”

The muscles in Richard’s jaw flexed at the thought of Vika being back in that man’s hands. “I am the Lord Rahl. It is treasonous to deceive the Lord Rahl about someone scheming against him in his own house!”

Burkett winced as he nodded. “I know, I know, and I would have told you, but he threatened me if I ever did.”

“How many times have you been to the devotions, Mr. Burkett?”

“The devotions? Why, three times a day, of course. Every day. I never miss a devotion.”

“And you lied each of those times you swore loyalty to me, isn’t that right, Mr. Burkett?”

“Not because I wanted to. Don’t you see? It was because I had to. Michec said that if I told anyone, especially you, that he was living here and planning on taking away your power, he would kill me in the most painful way imaginable.”

“I can understand people being afraid of magic, but as the Lord Rahl I am the magic against magic. You should have told me that he was here, and that he threatened you, to say nothing of his threats against my rule. I would have handled it and I would have protected you. That’s my duty in the oath of the devotion. Now, because of your disloyalty, his schemes are threatening the lives of those loyal to me as well as the Mother Confessor, as well as everything we have fought for.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Mr. Harris asked of Mr. Burkett. “If you were afraid to tell Lord Rahl, I would have done it for you. Why didn’t you simply tell me?”

Burkett stammered and flicked his tongue out, ignoring Harris, trying to downplay his breach of trust. “I, I didn’t know he would hurt anyone, Lord Rahl. I swear. I didn’t know Michec would hurt anyone.”

Richard was not about to argue so obvious a lie. “What kind of gift does Michec have?” Richard demanded. “What kind of things can he do?”

Burkett looked past Richard to all the people watching him—the Mother Confessor, the soldiers, and the Mord-Sith. “Well, I, I, I’m not sure.”

“I know all too well who Moravaska Michec is,” Harris said when Burkett wouldn’t admit what he knew. “I thought he fled long ago when you defeated Darken Rahl. I never expected to see that wicked man again. I had no idea he had returned.”

Richard turned to him. “Do you know what kind of gift he has? Is he a wizard?”

Harris shook his head. “No, Lord Rahl, not a wizard. Moravaska Michec is a warlock. You know, a witch man.”

“A witch!” Shale exclaimed as she stepped forward. With a finger, she poked Richard’s shoulder. “That was what I smelled!”

Richard frowned back at her. “What?”

“At the stables, remember? I told you I smelled something that I thought I recognized. I did. I smelled a witch.”

Richard turned back to Edward Harris. “Do you know where he would be?”

“Sorry, Lord Rahl, I don’t.” He lifted out his hands in frustration that he didn’t have an answer. “You know how big the People’s Palace is. There are probably a thousand places he could be living and we would never know about it.”

Richard turned back to Burkett. “Where are his quarters? You knew he was here, so you would know where he is staying in the palace, or should I say where he is hiding. Now, where is he?”

Burkett licked his lips. “He said that if I told anyone he was here, he would do something terrible to me, something that would make me suffer before I died.”

“You don’t need to worry about a spell from Michec. He’s not here. You need to worry about me. Once I find him, he won’t be putting any spells on anyone anymore, because he will be dead.” Richard shook the man again. “Now where is he!”

Burkett trembled as he panted. “He’s, he’s in a remote place where no one ever goes, down a level below where the tombs of your ancestors are located, in an area called M111-B.”

“M111-B,” Richard repeated, keeping his focus on Burkett although he sensed the Mord-Sith shifting uneasily and sharing a look.

Burkett nodded. “That’s right, M111-B. But a witch’s lair down there will be a very dangerous place. You won’t be able to get him out, not out of that place.”

Richard dropped the man down in the chair. “Mr. Burkett, you are relieved of your position.” He turned to the dark-haired man. “Mr. Harris, you are second in charge, under Mr. Burkett?”

“That’s right.”

“As of this moment, you are promoted to Mr. Burkett’s former position.”

“You can’t do that!” Burkett cried out from the chair. “I know more about the palace workings than anyone! I have years of experience!”

“What good is any of it if you take orders from someone working against my rule, working against the peace of the D’Haran Empire? I came to you before and asked you for all the gifted, expecting you to be truthful. You schemed to deceive me. You lied to me.”

“But I had to! I told you, Michec threatened me if I told anyone, especially you.”

“It’s done,” Richard said, incensed by the excuses. “You are relieved of your position.”

The man’s fingers took refuge on the gold bands on the sleeves of his robes. “What position will you put me in, then?”

“None.”

“You can’t do this!”

“We fought a long and terrible war. Many, many people sacrificed their lives so that other people could live in peace and freedom. Even though I have fought and bled for them, everyone is free to dislike me if they so choose. But no one can be here if they are disloyal to the empire and plot against me or the Mother Confessor. No one.”

Richard turned to the grim-faced soldiers. “See to it that Mr. Burkett is escorted from the palace as soon as he can pack his belongings. Watch over him as he does so. Come sunrise, I want him gone. He is banished from the People’s Palace forever under penalty of death if he ever tries to sneak back in. Let your officers know my orders.”

As one they all clapped fists to hearts.

“But Lord Rahl, I made a mistake,” the man pleaded. “That’s all, just a mistake.”

Richard turned back to Burkett. “We all make mistakes. I can understand and forgive mistakes. But this was not a mistake. You acted deliberately. This betrayal cannot be forgiven.” The man started to speak, but Richard held up a finger, warning him not to say anything. “Count your blessings that I don’t have you beheaded for treason.”

Richard turned to the dark-haired palace official. “Mr. Harris, you are in charge now.”

Edward Harris clapped a fist to his heart. “I will not betray your trust, Lord Rahl.”

Richard briefly smiled his appreciation and then turned to the Mord-Sith. “Do you know this place called M111-B?”

All five of them again shared glances.

Richard couldn’t miss the troubled expressions. “Obviously, you do. What do you know about M111-B?”

“Darken Rahl used to call it the Wasteland,” Rikka said.

Richard had never heard of an indoor place with such a name. “The Wasteland? Why did he call it that?”

Rikka shared another look with some of the others. “He didn’t understand the place and didn’t care to. It’s a vast, remote, isolated area. He didn’t know why it was here in the palace. He rarely if ever went down there.”

“He was afraid of it,” Nyda added when Rikka didn’t say it.

Richard’s gaze shifted to her. “Why?”

For a moment, Nyda seemed to search for a way to explain it. “M111-B is a strange, surreal place. It’s kind of self-contained labyrinth of confusing passageways and dead ends. It would be easy to become lost in there and never find your way out.”

“It’s so dangerous that it’s not merely restricted,” Rikka explained. “The whole area is closed off behind a series of locked doors. We can take you there, but if there is a witch man down in there, it is going to be beyond merely dangerous. Unlike Darken Rahl, Michec had a certain … fascination with the Wasteland. He used it often. As Berdine can attest, Michec is a very sadistic man. Some called him Michec the Butcher.”

When Richard looked to her, Berdine reluctantly spoke. “The Wasteland is a place you wouldn’t ever want Moravaska Michec to take you. When Darken Rahl ruled, the Wasteland was a kind of refuge for Michec. He used to take people in there where he wouldn’t be disturbed. None of those people he took in there ever came back. If he took Vika in there…”

Richard gripped Berdine’s arm and leaned close. “We’re going to get Vika back. That’s a promise.”

Berdine swallowed her emotion. “I know you will try, Lord Rahl. But you don’t understand Michec … or the Wasteland.”

“Lord Rahl,” Harris said, “M111-B is more than a confusing and simply dangerous place. I can’t imagine the purpose of it, or why it’s down there, but I’ve heard that in the past somehow people have accidentally managed to get in there. Only a couple ever made it out. I don’t really know about them, but the rest must have died in there. Anyone who knows it fears that place.” He gestured at the Mord-Sith. “As they say, Darken Rahl may have been afraid of the place, but Michec used to go in there.”

Richard wondered why there would be a labyrinth of any kind down in the lower reaches of the palace. In the Keep, yes, there were any number of such places, some of them so complex that it had been a thousand years since people had set foot in some of the confusion of rooms, but those areas had a defensive purpose as traps for intruders. He had never seen anything of the kind at the People’s Palace, and even if it was somehow meant to be defensive, he couldn’t imagine any strategic reason for it to be down in a lower area of the palace.

“With a witch man casting webs down there,” Shale said, “that is only going to make it all the more dangerous, especially when we don’t know the layout of this Wasteland place. He would be able to use that to his advantage to trap us and kill us.”

Richard tapped his thumb on the scabbard at his hip. “A labyrinth of confusing halls and rooms is a real problem by design. We could get really lost in there. Since we don’t know the layout of the maze, we won’t know where we are once we’re in there.”

“I can help with that much, at least,” Harris said, lifting a hand to break into the conversation. “We have maps of every area in the palace. There would be diagrams of M111-B. That number is a charting designation.”

Richard frowned. “You think you have a diagram showing a layout of that place, M111-B? The Wasteland?”

Harris nodded with conviction. “I haven’t seen that specific one myself, but there are plans of every part of the palace. They are necessary for a variety of reasons, from repair work to locating sources of leaks and every other sort of malfunction that needs to be addressed. I’m sure there would be one of M111-B.”

“Show us,” Richard said.

Going for the door without a word, Edward Harris wove his way among the soldiers as they started for Mr. Burkett.