Jagang, being a dream walker, didn’t need to speak to those whose minds were his domain. His consciousness wandered at will among their most intimate thoughts.
Sister Ulicia thrashed around, one wildly swinging arm knocking over a chair. Guards—the guards who had been specially selected because they were the few who could see and remember Kahlan—had all backed off in a circle around the woman rolling on the floor. They had been tasked with seeing to it that Kahlan didn’t leave the tent without Jagang. Sisters were not their responsibility. Other guards, Jagang’s personal elite guards, huge brutes all covered in tattoos and metal studs piercing their flesh, stood like statues near the doorway of the tent. The job of the elite guard was to see to it that no one entered the tent without invitation. They looked only mildly curious about what might be happening in their midst.
Off in the darker corners of the expansive tent, slaves waited in the shadows, always silently at the ready to carry out the emperor’s wishes. They, too, would show little reaction no matter what might happen right before them. They were there to serve at the whim of the emperor and nothing more. It was unhealthy for any of them, individually, to distinguish themselves in any way that might bring them notice.
The Sisters, sorceresses all, were Jagang’s personal weapons, his personal property and marked as such with rings through their lower lips. They were not the responsibility of any of the guards unless specifically instructed. Jagang could have cut Sister Ulicia’s throat, or raped her, or invited her to tea, and his elite guards would not have batted an eye. If it had been tea the emperor wanted, the slaves would have dutifully fetched it. If a bloody murder had been committed right before their eyes, they would have waited until he was finished and then without a word cleaned up the mess.
When Sister Ulicia cried out again, Kahlan realized that it didn’t look, as she had at first thought, like the woman was in pain. It looked more like she was…possessed.
Jagang’s nightmare gaze passed among the dozen guards. “Has she said anything?”
“No, Excellency,” one of the special guards said. The rest of the soldiers, those who could see Kahlan, shook their heads in agreement. The emperor’s elite guard did not dispute the account of the lesser men.
“What’s wrong with her?” Jagang asked the Sister, who looked ready to fall to the ground and grovel at his feet.
Sister Armina winced at the anger in his voice. “I don’t have any idea, Excellency, I swear.” She gestured toward the far side of the room. “I was asleep, waiting until I could be of service. Sister Ulicia was asleep as well. I woke when I heard her voice. I thought she was speaking to me.”
“What was she saying?” Jagang asked.
“I couldn’t understand her, Excellency.”
Kahlan realized, then, that Jagang didn’t know what Sister Ulicia had said. He always knew what the Sisters had said, what they’d thought, what they were planning. He was a dream walker. He wandered the landscape of their minds. He was always privy to everything.
And yet, he was not privy to this.
Or, Kahlan surmised, perhaps he didn’t want to say aloud what he already knew. He liked to test people that way, asking questions to which he already knew the answers. It displeased him greatly whenever he caught anyone in a lie. Only the day before he had erupted in a rage and strangled the life out of a new captive slave who’d lied to him about having taken a bite to eat off a tray coming in for the emperor’s dinner. Jagang, as heavily muscled as any of his elite guard, had accomplished the deed with one powerful hand around the gaunt man’s throat. The rest of the slaves had waited patiently until the emperor had finished the gruesome murder, and then dragged the body away.
Jagang reached down and with one meaty fist hauled the Sister to her feet by her hair. “What’s this about, Ulicia?”
The woman’s eyes rolled, her lips moved, and her tongue wandered aimlessly in her open mouth.
Jagang seized her by the shoulders and shook her violently. Sister Ulicia’s head whipped back and forth. Kahlan thought he very well might break her neck. She wished he would; then there would be one less Sister for Kahlan to worry about.
“Excellency,” Sister Armina said in a confidential tone of discreet counsel, “we need her.” When the emperor glared at her, she added, “She is the player.”
Jagang considered Sister Armina’s words, looking none too happy about them, but not arguing, either.
“First day…” Sister Ulicia moaned.
Jagang pulled her a little closer. “First day what?”
“Winter…winter…winter,” Sister Ulicia mumbled.
Jagang looked around, frowning at those in the room, as if asking them to explain it. One of the soldiers lifted an arm, pointing toward the doorway out of the grand tent. “It’s just dawn, Excellency.”
Jagang fixed him in a glare. “What?”
“Excellency, it’s just dawn of the first day of winter.”
Jagang let go of Sister Ulicia. She dropped heavily to the carpets that covered the floor.
He stared at the doorway. “So it is.”
Outside, through the slight slit of an opening at the side of the heavy covering hung over the doorway, Kahlan could see the first streaks of color in the sky. She could also see more of the ever-present elite guard who always surrounded Jagang. None of them could see Kahlan; they were totally unaware of her presence. The special guards inside the tent, the ones who were always at hand, could see her just fine, though. Outside, with Jagang’s elite guard, there would be more of those special guards. Their job was to insure that Kahlan never came out of the tent alone.
On the floor, Sister Ulicia, as if in a trance, mumbled, “One year, one year, one year.”
“One year what?” Jagang yelled. Several of the closer guards flinched back.
Sister Ulicia sat up. She began rocking back and forth. “Starts over. Year starts over. Starts over. One year. It must start over.”
Jagang looked up at the other Sister. “What’s she gibbering about?”
Sister Armina spread her hands. “I’m not sure, Excellency.”
His glare darkened. “That’s a lie, Armina.”
Sister Armina, a little of the color draining from her face, licked her lips. “What I meant by that, Excellency, is that the only thing I can imagine is that she must be referring to the boxes. She is the player, after all.”
Jagang’s mouth twisted with impatience. “But we already know that we have a year from back when Ulicia put them in play”—he flicked a hand in the direction of the towering plateau—“right after Kahlan took them from the palace up there.”
“New player!” Sister Ulicia shouted, eyes closed, as if to correct him. “New player! The year starts over!”
Jagang looked genuinely surprised at her words.
Kahlan wondered how it was that the dream walker could be surprised by such a thing. For some reason, though, he seemed to be unable, at the moment anyway, to use his ability on Sister Ulicia. Unless he was simply playing a trick. Jagang didn’t always reveal exactly what he knew and what he didn’t know. Kahlan had never felt that he could read her mind, but she always remained cautious that he might want her to think just that. What if all the time he was reading her every thought?
Still, she just didn’t believe it was so. She couldn’t put her finger on any one thing that made her think that he was unable to use his ability as a dream walker on her, but rather it was an impression based on the cumulative evidence of many small little things.
“How is it possible for there to be a new player?” Jagang asked in a tone that made Sister Armina begin to tremble just the slightest bit.
She had to swallow twice before she was able to speak. “Excellency, we don’t have…all three boxes. We have but two. There is the third box, after all, the one that Tovi had.”
“You mean the box that was stolen because you stupid bitches sent Tovi off by herself rather than having her stay with the rest of you.” It was an angry cha
rge, not a question.
Sister Armina, on the verge of panic, thrust a finger out at Kahlan. “It was her fault! If she had done as we instructed and brought all three boxes out together, we would all have been together and we would have the three boxes. But she failed to bring them all out together. It’s her fault!”
Sister Ulicia had told Kahlan to hide all three boxes in her pack and bring them out. All three wouldn’t fit, so she brought one out first, intending to go back for the others. Sister Ulicia had not been pleased, to say the least. She had beaten Kahlan nearly to a bloody death for failing to somehow do the impossible and fit all three in a pack that was not big enough.
Kahlan didn’t bother to speak up in her own defense. She refused to lower herself to trying to reason with people who didn’t abide by reason.
Jagang looked back over his shoulder at Kahlan. She met his gaze with nothing but her blank countenance. He turned back to Sister Armina.
“So what? Sister Ulicia put the boxes in play. That makes her the player.”
“Another player!” Sister Ulicia shouted up from the floor between them. “Two players now! The year starts over! It’s impossible!” Sister Ulicia lunged. “Impossible!”
There was nothing there and her arms caught only air.
She sat back heavily on the floor, breathing rapidly. Trembling hands covered her face, as if she was overwhelmed by what had just taken place.
Jagang turned away, lost in thought as he considered. “Can there be two people who both have the boxes in play at the same time?” he asked himself.
Sister Armina’s eyes darted about. She seemed unsure if she was supposed to attempt an answer. In the end she remained silent.
Sister Ulicia rubbed her eyes. “He vanished.”
Jagang frowned down at her. “Who vanished?”
“I couldn’t see his face.” She gestured vaguely. “He was just there, telling me, but he vanished. I don’t know who it was, Excellency.”
The woman looked shaken to her core.
“What did you see?” Jagang asked.
As if jolted by an unexpected sudden shock, she shot to her feet. Her eyes had gone wide with pain. Blood trickled from one ear.
“What did you see?” Jagang repeated.
Kahlan had seen him give the Sisters pain in the past. Whether or not he was able to be in Sister Ulicia’s mind before, it was clear that he now had no difficulty making his presence felt.
“It was someone—” Sister Ulicia said with a gasp. “Someone who was just here, in the tent, Excellency. He told me that there was a new player, and because of that the year must start anew.”
Jagang’s brow was drawn down in a tight knot. “A new player for the power of Orden?”
Sister Ulicia nodded, as if fearing to admit it. “Yes, Excellency. Someone else has also put the boxes of Orden in play. We are warned that the year must start over. We now have one year from today, the first day of winter.”
Looking to be deep in thought, Jagang started toward the doorway. Two of the elite guards pulled open the double hanging, allowing their emperor to walk through the opening without pause. Kahlan, knowing that if she didn’t stay close at hand the pain of the collar was only an instant away, followed him out before he gave her that reminder. Behind her, Sisters Ulicia and Armina hurried to keep up.
The big men of the elite guard outside the tent casually stepped away to each side, making way for the emperor. The other soldiers—Kahlan’s special guards—marched back and forth just beyond them.
Standing close behind Jagang in the cold dawn, Kahlan rubbed her arms, trying to work up some warmth. A wall of dark clouds towered to the west. Even through the stink of the encampment, she could smell the rain carried on the damp air. The thin clouds fleeing to the east were stained bloodred in the sunrise of the first day of winter.
Jagang stood silently considering the immense plateau in the distance. Atop that towering tableland was the People’s Palace. While certainly a palace, it was vast almost beyond belief. It was also a city, really, a city that was the seat of power for all of D’Hara. That city stood as the last vestige of resistance to the Imperial Order’s lust to rule the world and enforce their beliefs on mankind. The army of the Order spread like a poisonous black sea across the Azrith Plain around the plateau, leaving it isolated from any hope of rescue or salvation.
The first rays of light were just touching the distant palace, making the marble walls, columns, and towers glow golden in the sunrise. It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight. To all these people of the Order, though, the sight of the palace, of such beauty yet untouched by their lecherous hands, only inspired jealousy and hate. They lusted to destroy the place, to blot such majesty out of existence, to insure that man never again aspired to such merit.
Kahlan had been up in that palace—Lord Rahl’s palace—when the four Sisters had taken her there to have her steal the boxes out of the Garden of Life. The splendor of the place was awe-inspiring. Kahlan had hated to take those boxes from Lord Rahl’s garden. They didn’t belong to the Sisters, and, worse, the Sisters were driven by evil intent.
On that altar where the boxes had sat, Kahlan left in their place her most precious possession. It was a small carving of a woman, her head thrown back, her fists at her sides, her back arched as if in opposition to a force trying to subdue her. Kahlan could not imagine where she would have gotten such a beautiful thing.
She was heartbroken to have to leave that carving behind, but she had to in order to fit the last two boxes in her pack. Had she not, Sister Ulicia would have killed her. As much as she loved that small statue, she loved her life more. She hoped that Lord Rahl, when he saw it, would somehow understand that she was sorry for taking what was his.
Now Jagang had captured the Sisters and he had possession of the sinister black boxes. Two of them, anyway. Sister Tovi had started ahead with the first of the three boxes. Now she was dead and the box she’d had was missing. Kahlan had killed Sister Cecilia. That left Sisters Ulicia and Armina, out of her four original captors. Of course, Jagang had other Sisters under his control.
“Who could put a box in play?” Jagang asked as he stared off toward the palace atop the plateau. It wasn’t entirely clear if he was asking the Sisters for an answer, or if he was merely thinking out loud.
Sisters Ulicia and Armina shared a look. The elite guards stood like stone sentinels. The special guards marched slowly back and forth, the closest one taking note of Kahlan, giving her a superior, smug glance each time he turned to march in the opposite direction. Kahlan knew the man, knew his habits. He was one of her less intelligent guards, substituting arrogance for competence.
“Well,” Sister Ulicia finally said into the uneasy silence, “it would take someone with both sides of the gift—both Additive and Subtractive Magic.”
“Other than the Sisters of the Dark you have here, Excellency,” Sister Armina added, “I’m not sure who could accomplish such a task.”
Jagang shot a look back over his shoulder. The soldier was not the only one who foolishly harbored an attitude of arrogant superiority. Jagang was a lot smarter than Sister Armina; she just wasn’t smart enough to know it. She was, however, smart enough to recognize the look in Jagang’s eyes, the look that said he knew she was lying. She quailed, momentarily struck silent by the emperor’s glare.
Sister Ulicia, also a great deal smarter than Sister Armina, quickly recognized the danger of the situation and spoke up.
“There are only a couple of people it could be, Excellency.”
“It had to have been Richard Rahl,” Sister Armina was quick to put in, eager to redeem herself.
“Richard Rahl,” Jagang repeated in a flat tone of cold hatred. He didn’t sound the least bit surprised by the Sister’s suggestion.
Sister Ulicia cleared her throat. “Or Sister Nicci. She is the only Sister you don’t have who is able to wield Subtractive Magic.”
Jagang’s glare fixed on her for a moment before he final
ly turned back to consider the People’s Palace, now lit by the sun so that it glowed like a beacon above the dark plain.
“Sister Nicci knows everything you stupid bitches did,” he finally announced.
Sister Armina blinked in surprise. She couldn’t resist speaking. “How is that possible, Excellency?”
Jagang clasped his meaty hands behind his back. His heavily muscled back and neck looked more like those of a bull than those of a man. Curly black body hair only added to the impression. His shaved head made him look all the more menacing.
“Nicci was there with Tovi when she was dying,” Jagang said, “after she had been stabbed and the box stolen from her. It had been a very long time since I’d seen Nicci. I was surprised to see her show up out of the blue. I was there, in Tovi’s mind, watching the whole thing. Tovi didn’t know I was in her mind, though, the same as you two didn’t know.
“Nicci didn’t know I was there, either.
“Nicci questioned Tovi, used the woman’s grievous wound to prod her into revealing your plan, Ulicia. Nicci told Tovi quite the story about wishing she could escape my control and with that lie gained Tovi’s confidence. Tovi told her everything—everything about the Chainfire spell you ignited, the boxes you stole with Kahlan’s help, how the boxes were meant to work in conjunction with the Chainfire spell, all of it.”
Sister Ulicia was looking sicker by the moment. “Then it very well could be Nicci who did this. It has to be one or the other.”
“Or Nicci and Richard Rahl together,” Sister Armina suggested.
Jagang said nothing as he stared off at the palace.
Sister Ulicia leaned forward the slightest bit. “If I may ask, Excellency, why is it that you are unable to…well, why is Nicci not here, with you?”
Jagang’s completely black eyes turned to the woman. Cloudy shapes shifted in those inky eyes, a storm of his own brewing.
“She was with me. She left. Unlike your clumsy and insincere attempt at trying to shield your minds from me with the bond to the Lord Rahl, the bond worked for Nicci. For reasons I can’t begin to understand she was sincere, and so it worked. She gave up everything she had worked for her whole life—gave up her moral duty!”