Chainfire (Sword of Truth 9)

With his fist tightly gripping the wire wound hilt of his sword, Richard pulled a breath. The world around him seemed to go silent and still.

As he reached the apex of his backward twist, he paused.

Richard felt his heart begin a beat.

With all his power, as people stood frozen, as the man with the knife stood at the brink of murder, as the girl’s shrill scream drew out into a wire-thin sound filling the empty void in time, Richard unleashed himself in an explosive movement.

With all his strength he uncoiled. His blade erupted from its sheath fully charged not only with a wrath of its own but with Richard’s deadly resolve.

At the same time as the Sword of Truth rang with the unique sound of its liberation, Richard released a cry of fury. As he spun, he emptied all his rage into that roar. With every ounce of effort he had, he drove the blade around with as much speed and power as he could put behind it.

In a crystal-clear instant in time, Richard’s vision focused on the man with the knife standing rigid with surprise. Into that void in time Richard poured all his effort, all his muscle, all his wrath, all his need. That instant belonged to him alone and he used it to his singular purpose.

He could see the drops of sweat leave the man’s face as his head snapped toward Richard. Yellow-orange light from the lanterns reflected in tiny points on those drops as they floated weightless in midair. Richard could count each point of light from each lantern in each individual droplet of sweat as his sword ever so slowly swept around. He could count each greasy strand of the man’s hair as it whipped around, floating up into the air with the droplets.

Richard knew that eyes all around the stable were watching, that the eyes of the girl, too, were watching, but that made no difference. The only eyes that mattered to him were the dark eyes that at last met his glare.

In those black eyes Richard could see the initiation of thought. The tip of Richard’s sword whistled through the dusty air. Lantern-light glinted off the razor sharp steel. He could see the blade mirrored in the man’s dark eyes. Those eyes reflected the recognition of the full dimension of the threat.

Onward came the sword, sweeping like the crack of a whip toward those eyes, sweeping around toward the target Richard held in his own sight.

In that instant, the man completed his thought and made the decision to act. But even in the infinitesimal fragment of time that it took to come to the conclusion of that thought, the lightning arc of the blade closed most of the distance. Even as the man’s decision was being made, flinching fear from Richard’s battle cry caused the man to tense.

For that instant in time, the muscles of the man’s arms paused as fear fought intent.

It became a race to see which blade would first bite flesh.

Losing that race would be irrevocable.

With his gaze riveted on the man’s eyes, Richard at last saw his sword, flying at frightening speed, entering his line of sight. Seeing that blade again filled him with exhilaration.

Driven by thundering rage, the blade caught the side of the man’s head level with his dark eyes, exactly where Richard intended it.

In that instant, the crystal-clear moment in time that had been stretched to the breaking point shattered in sound and fury. The world went red in Richard’s vision as the man’s head came apart around the blade crashing through his skull. The hammer-hard sound of it thundered through the stables.

Bone fragmented. Crimson droplets sprayed up and away. The entire top of the skull lifted as the blade crashed through living tissue. In a long trail across the wall, bone, tissue, and blood traced the route of the sword’s sweep.

In that instant of shattering violence, the man’s life was gone. Richard’s remorseless rage shielded him from feeling the pain of any pity.

The force of the sword’s impact caused the arm with the knife to fall away from the girl even before the swing of Richard’s sword was complete. The man’s body, like nothing more than boneless meat, began collapsing.

The man had decided to kill the girl, but after he had made that choice, he had not had enough time to make his blade do his bidding.

Richard had.

He felt his heart finish the beat it had begun when he had leaped into the narrow window of time.

The man’s body gathered speed as it descended until it hit the ground heavily, lifting a small cloud of dust. The top portion of his head, most of his scalp still attached, landed with a heavy thud just outside the open stable doors, bouncing and tumbling away into the night, leaving a trail of gore to trace its crooked route.

Richard heard people gasp in shock. Others screamed.

The little girl, shrieking in terror, scrambled away into her mother’s outstretched arms.

As he held the blade cocked, ready for any other threat, Richard met the gaze of the wide eyes of the second man, still standing in place, held fast by Victor’s guards. The man made no attempt to escape or to fight.

Victor charged in through a gap in the bystanders, his heavy mace raised and ready. From somewhere Cara had appeared behind Richard, her Agiel in her fist.

Richard spotted Nicci for the first time. She raced across the passageway, her arms held up.

“No!” she screamed. “Stop!”

Victor straightened in surprise. Nicci seized his raised wrist as if she believed he was about to slaughter the other prisoner.

“Stand down, blacksmith!”

Startled, Victor paused and let his arm drop.

Nicci turned a furious glare on Richard. “You too, carpenter! You will do as I say and stand down. Do you hear me!” she screamed in fury.

Richard blinked. Carpenter?

Chapter 23

Through the haze of the sword’s anger storming through him, Richard realized that Nicci had to be up to something. He didn’t know her intent, but by calling both Victor and him by a trade rather than by their real names she was sending them a signal that was too obvious to miss. She was making an emphatic bid for them to catch on to her effort and to follow her lead.

Probably because people often did call him “blacksmith,” Victor didn’t seem to get the hint. He started to open his mouth to say something. Nicci smacked him across the face.

“Silence! I will hear none of your excuses.”

Shocked, Victor took a step back. The shock quickly curdled into a dark scowl but he didn’t say anything.

Seeing that Victor got the message to keep quiet, Nicci turned her ire on Richard. She shook her finger at him. “You will have to answer for this, carpenter.”

Richard didn’t have any idea what she was up to, but when their eyes met he gave her a slight nod. He feared to do anything else lest he spoil whatever it was she was doing.

Nicci appeared to be worked up into a fit. “What’s the matter with you?” she yelled at him. “Where would you ever get the unacceptable idea that you can act of your own accord in such a manner?”

Richard didn’t know what she wanted him to to say so he offered only a humble shrug, as if he were too ashamed to speak up for himself.

“He was saving my child!” cried Jamila. “That man was going to cut her throat.”

Nicci wheeled indignantly to the woman. “How dare you show such little regard for our fellow man! How dare you judge what is in another man’s heart! That is the Creator’s exclusive right, not yours. Are you a witch woman who can see the future? If not, then you can’t say what he would have done. Do you think he should be murdered for what you think he might do? Even if he would have acted, none of us alone has the authority to judge the right or wrong of whatever he did.”

Nicci turned again to Richard. “What would you expect the poor man to do? The two of them are dragged in here by a mob, without any charges, trial, or even being allowed to explain themselves. You treat a man like an animal and then are surprised when he acts out of confusion and fear?

“How do you expect Jagang the Just to ever decide to give our people another chance to do what is

right and proper when we act like this? The man had a right to fear for his life when among such a mindless rabble as he saw all around him.

“As the mayor’s wife, I will not allow such behavior! Do you hear me! The mayor will not like to hear how shamefully some of our fellow citizens have acted tonight. In the mayor’s absence, I will see that our ways are upheld. Now, put away your sword.”