Chainfire (Sword of Truth 9)

Richard nodded his appreciation, whether of her offer or her softer tone she wasn’t sure.

Nicci could see in Richard and Cara’s eyes that the experience had brought the two of them closer. When she realized that he would soon be leaving, Nicci’s brief bout of joy at seeing Cara alive and well faded.

“Besides,” Richard said as he scanned the darkness, “we don’t even know if this had anything to do with the thing back in the woods.”

“Well of course it did,” Nicci said.

His gaze returned to her. “How do you know? That thing tore all those men apart. This was a different kind of attack. For that matter, we don’t even know for certain that either attack was the beast that Jagang ordered to be created.”

“What are you talking about? What else could it be? It has to be the weapon that Jagang directed the Sisters to conjure.”

“I’m not saying that it isn’t—it very well could be—but a lot of it doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“Like what?”

Richard raked his fingers back through his hair. “The thing in the forest attacked the men—it didn’t attack me even though I wasn’t far away. Here, it didn’t bother to tear Cara apart like it did the men. If it was the same thing, then we know it could have easily killed me. So when it was right here and had the chance, why didn’t it use the opportunity?”

“Maybe because I tried to capture its power,” Cara offered. “Maybe it just passed me by because I was a threat or maybe I distracted it enough that it decided to flee.”

Richard shook his head. “You were no threat. It went right through you, and besides, its touch was enough to eliminate your interference. Then, it came through the wall for me, but as it reached my room it didn’t flee, it simply disappeared.”

Nicci abruptly turned suspicious. She never had heard the whole story.

“You were in the room and it just vanished?”

“Not exactly. I jumped out the window to escape it as it came through the wall into my room. As I hung there some kind of dark thing, like a moving shadow, came out the window and as it did it seemed to evaporate into the night.”

Nicci idly drew the end of the cord of her bodice through her fingers as she considered what he’d said. She tried to fit the pieces into everything else she knew, but none of it would match. Nothing that the beast did seemed to make sense—if it really was the same beast. Richard was right in that it all seemed to defy logic.

“Maybe it didn’t see you,” she murmured half to herself as she considered the puzzle.

Richard flashed her a skeptical expression. “So you’re saying that it could find me, at night, inside the inn, and it then crashed right through a succession of walls as it was coming for me, but then when I just barely managed to jump through the only window, it became confused and so it wandered off?”

Nicci appraised his eyes a moment. “Both attacks have something important in common. They both displayed incredible power—shattering trees like they were twigs and going through walls as if they were no more than paper.”

Richard sighed unhappily. “I suppose that’s true.”

“What I’d like to know,” Nicci added as she folded her arms, “is why it didn’t kill Cara.”

She caught the slight flicker in his eyes and she knew then that he knew something more than he had said. Nicci cocked her head as she watched him while she waited.

“When I was there in Cara’s mind, taking up the pain of the touch of that vile thing, there was something more that it left behind,” he admitted in a quiet voice. “I think it wanted to leave a message for me to find, a message that it’s coming for me, that it will find me, and that for all eternity it will make my death a luxury beyond reach.”

Nicci’s gaze slid to Cara.

“I didn’t choose for him to come after me to that twilight place, as you called it. I didn’t ask him to and I didn’t want him to.” The Mord-Sith’s hands fisted at her sides. “But I can’t lie and say that I’d rather be dead.”

Nicci couldn’t help but to smile at such simple honesty.

“Cara, I’m joyful that you’re not dead—I truly am. What kind of man would we be following if he easily let a friend die without trying his best to save her?”

Cara’s expression cooled as Nicci looked again at Richard.

“I’m still perplexed as to why it didn’t kill Cara. After all, a message like that could have just as easily been given directly to you once it had you in its clutches. If the threat is credible—and I certainly don’t doubt that it is—then the beast would have all the time it wished to make you suffer if it would have snatched you right then. Such a message serves no real purpose. What’s more, it makes no sense for the beast to be right there and then vanish.”

Richard drummed his fingers on the cross guard of his sword as he thought it over. “All good questions, Nicci, but I just don’t have good answers.”

With the palm of his left hand resting on the hilt of his sword, he scanned the darkness again, checking for any threat. “I think Cara and I had better be on our way. Considering what happened to Victor’s men, I’m concerned about what will happen if that thing comes back here after me. I’d not like that kind of beast rampaging through the city in a blood frenzy. I don’t want any more people to be needlessly hurt or killed. Whatever that thing is—the beast Jagang had his Sisters conjure, or something we don’t even know about—it seems to me that I’ll have a better chance to stay alive if I keep moving. Sitting in one place feels too much like waiting for the executioner to arrive.”

“I don’t think that you are necessarily making logical assumptions,” Nicci said.

“Nonetheless I need to be going anyway and I’d feel better if it was sooner rather than later—for a variety of reasons.” He hoisted his pack higher on his back. “I have to find Victor and Ishaq.”

Resigned, Nicci gestured behind her. “After the attack I went and got them. They are both over at the stables, back there. Ishaq has the horses you requested. Some of the men helped him gather supplies for you.” She put a hand on his arm. “Some of the relatives of Victor’s men, the ones who were killed, are there, too. They want to hear fro

m you.”

Richard nodded as he let out a deep breath. “I hope I can offer them some comfort. Grief is fresh in my mind.” He gave Cara a quick squeeze on her shoulder. “But mine has been lifted.”

Richard hitched his bow higher up onto his shoulder as he started away. In little more than a blink he dissolved into the darkness.

Chapter 21

As Cara went past, following in Richard’s wake, Nicci caught the Mord-Sith’s arm, holding her back until she could speak without Richard hearing.

“How are you, Cara? Really?”

Cara met Nicci’s direct gaze with a steady look of her own. “I’m tired, but I’m fine, now. Lord Rahl made it right.”

Nicci nodded her satisfaction. “Cara, may I ask you a personal question?”

“As long as I don’t have to promise I’ll answer it.”

“Do you have a man for whom you care greatly named Benjamin Meiffert?”

Even in the dim light, Nicci could see Cara’s face go as scarlet as her red leather outfit. “Who told you such a thing?”

“Do you mean to say, then, that it’s a secret and no one knows?”

“Well, that’s not what I’m saying, exactly,” Cara stammered. “I mean…you’re trying to trip me into saying something I don’t intend.”

“I’m not trying to trip you into saying anything, especially something that isn’t true. I only asked about Benjamin Meiffert.”

Cara’s brow drew tight. “Who told you such a thing?”

“Richard.” Nicci arched an eyebrow. “Is it true?”

Cara pressed her lips tight. At last she looked away from Nicci to glare off into the night. “Yes.”

“So you told Richard all about how you care a great deal for this soldier?”

“Are you crazy? I would never have told such a thing to Lord Rahl. Where could he have heard it?”

For a moment, Nicci listened to the cicadas singing their incessant mating songs as she considered the Mord-Sith.