Terry Goodkind - Confessor - Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

“Now I understand,” Kahlan, standing close beside him, whispered to herself as if she, too, had had her own revelation. “Now I see who he wants to hurt through me, and why it would be so terrible.”

She looked up into Richard’s eyes with a countenance of sudden comprehension.

Richard couldn’t afford to be distracted right then. He returned his attention to the Sisters. He still had a few things he needed to reason out. He needed to make sure it all made sense, or else they would all die—by his hand.

Several Sisters knelt before the sorcerer’s sand, smoothing it out in preparation. By the way they were working as a team, Richard figured that they had already studied the original of The Book of Counted Shadows in preparation and had all the procedures and enchantments memorized.

He was surprised to see them all starting to draw the required elements. He recognized them from The Book of Counted Shadows that he’d memorized as a young man. He had expected Sister Ulicia, the one who had put the boxes in play, to be the one to draw those elements, but as they worked, Sister Ulicia instead went from one symbol to the next, finishing the final part that completed it. Richard realized that it made sense; it was only necessary that the elements be done, and this saved a great deal of time. Since Sister Ulicia was the one finishing each element, Richard guessed that the book had some requirement that the player be involved, probably requiring that they be the one to complete the spell-forms.

She was the one invoking Orden. She was the player. Jagang, though, possessed her mind and thus ultimately would control Orden.

Richard remembered well how long it had taken Darken Rahl to run through all the procedures. The way they were doing it the Sisters were not going to take anywhere near that long. By working together they were able to divide the work into simpler components.

Jagang paced back to Richard. “Where’s Nicci?” he growled as his black eyes glared.

Richard had been wondering how long it would be before he asked that question. It was even sooner than Richard expected.

“She is being held for you, as promised.”

Jagang’s heated expression turned to a grin. “Too bad you don’t really know how to play Ja’La dh Jin.”

“I beat you.”

Jagang’s grin only widened. “Not in the end.”

As the emperor went back to his impatient pacing, Sister Ulicia directed the elements from the book, reading pertinent parts when necessary. Richard understood the things they were drawing. Parts were the dance with death. When Darken Rahl had first drawn them they had seemed so mysterious, but now the language of them all made sense.

Jagang was looking more and more edgy by the moment.

Richard knew why.

“Ulicia,” the emperor finally said, “I’m going to go get Nicci. There is no reason for me to stand here while you work. I can watch this through your eyes just as well.”

Sister Ulicia bowed her head. “Yes, Excellency.”

Jagang turned his glare on Richard. “Where is she?”

Richard gestured to one of the officers of the First File standing not far away, the man Richard had ready for this purpose. There were only a few of the First File present, all having waited with Richard for the Imperial Order to arrive. They were there to guard him until the bitter end.

“Take the emperor down to Nicci’s cell,” Richard told the officer.

The man saluted with a fist to his heart. Before leading Jagang away, the contented-looking emperor turned back to Richard.

“Looks like you lose at the final turn at Ja’La dh Jin this time as well.”

Richard wanted to say that the time had not run out and the game was not yet over, but instead he simply watched the man leaving as he waited for the nightmare to begin in earnest.

Kahlan stood silently at his side. The way she glanced up at him made him uneasy.

Zedd and Nathan looked lost in their own thoughts. Verna looked angry and bitter that it had come to this. Richard couldn’t blame her. Cara, standing beside Benjamin, took hold of his hand. Along with the rest of his party, Jagang had brought Jennsen into the Garden of Life. The royal guards kept her on the other side of the room. Tom’s gaze was fixed on her. She stared back at him, unable to say all the things she obviously wanted to say.

Cara inched closer. “Whatever happens now, Lord Rahl, I’m with you until my last breath.”

Richard returned a smile of appreciation.

Zedd, not far away, nodded his agreement with Cara’s sentiment. Benjamin lightly clapped his fist to his heart. Even Verna finally smiled and gave him a single nod. They were all with him.

Kahlan, close at his side, whispered, “Would it be all right if you just held my hand?”

Richard could not imagine how alone she must feel at that moment. With a heavy heart that he couldn’t say anything, he took her hand.

Nicci sat in the near darkness on the bench carved out of the same stone as the walls. The outer room, a second layer of protection guarding the room hollowed out of solid rock, was shielded. The only way in or out was through the double set of iron doors with the shielded room between them. This was where the most dangerous of prisoners were held, prisoners who could command magic.

There was no telling how many people had sat in this very room as they awaited their appointment with death, or worse.

Nicci could hear footsteps in the outer passageway beyond the two iron doors. Someone was coming.

She had known that it was only a matter of time until he came.

Nicci was in a state of utter calm. She knew why she was there. She knew why Richard had told Nathan to have her locked in this cell.

She heard the lock in the outer door clang open, the metallic sound echoing through the network of low corridors. She could hear someone grunting as they tugged in a series of muscular pulls, forcing the door bound up on rusty hinges to open enough to get through. When she saw shadows through the small opening in the door to her inner cell, Nicci blew out the flame on the lamp beside her on the stone bench that was the room’s bed and only furnishing.

A key scraped and then the lock to her cell sprang open. After being in complete silence for so long, she found the strident sound exceptionally loud. As the door grated open the light from a lantern flooded in. Dust from the rusty door floated up in that harsh yellow light.

Emperor Jagang ducked down as he stepped over the high sill to squeeze in through the doorway. Nicci stood.

He was wearing his sleeveless vest so as to display his muscular bulk. His shaved head reflected the single flame of the lantern he’d brought. His black eyes looked entirely at home in the depths of the dark hole in the rock. Those black eyes gleamed as he took in the sight of her. She had made sure to loosen the top of her dress so that he would have something to catch his attention. It worked.

“I’ve been dreaming of you, darlin’,” he said as if he thought it would impress her.

He always had believed that his lust proved something to her, as if his lack of civility or restraint only demonstrated how overwhelmingly appealing she was to him. To Nicci it only served to prove that he was an unprincipled savage.

Nicci stood tall, saying nothing, refusing to shy away as Jagang moved in close. He circled his muscular arm around her waist, pulling her tight against his powerful bulk, demonstrating his command of her, his virility, his unchallenged authority.

Nicci had no desire to drag it out.

She casually reached her arms up around him and snapped the Rada’Han closed around his bull neck.

He staggered back a step in confusion.