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!”