Confessor (Sword of Truth 11)

No one spoke up to argue.

As they made their way through the white marble corridor Nicci glanced over at Richard with a look that he recognized. It was the look of a disapproving teacher.

“We need to talk about those symbols in red paint all over you.”

“Yes,” Nathan said with a frown. “I would like to be a part of that conversation.”

Richard cast a look Nicci’s way. “Good. While we’re having those discussions, I’d like to hear all about how you put the boxes of Orden in play in my name.”

Nicci winced just a little. “Oh, that.”

Richard leaned toward her a little. “Yes, that.”

“Well, like you said, we’ll have to talk about it. As a matter of fact, some of those symbols painted on you have a direct bearing on the boxes of Orden.”

Richard wasn’t at all surprised by that. He knew that some of the symbols had to do with the power of Orden. He even knew what they meant. That was, after all, why he had painted them on his men and on himself in the first place.

Nicci pointed. “Here it is. This is where they got in—in that tomb.”

Richard gazed around as they entered the rather simple room. Words in High D’Haran were inscribed in the stone walls, words about those long buried. The casket had been pushed aside, exposing the stairway down. When they had rushed up, getting back into the palace from the catacombs, it had been pitch black, so Richard hadn’t seen their surroundings. Adie had been leading them in total darkness. Richard hadn’t even known where they were once they’d gotten back in the palace.

Nicci gestured down into the darkness. “This is where the Sisters first got in.”

“So they still have Ann, then,” Nathan said after looking down the dark well.

Nicci hesitated. “I’m sorry, Nathan. I thought you knew.”

His frown darkened. “Knew what?”

She clasped her hands loosely before herself. Her gaze dropped away. “Ann was killed.”

Nathan stared for a moment. Richard hadn’t known about Ann’s death, either. He felt terrible for Nathan, for the shock of Nicci’s news. Richard knew how close the prophet was to the prelate. It almost seemed impossible that Ann was actually gone.

“How?” was all Nathan could ask.

“The last time I was here—when Ann and I came down here. We were surprised by three Sisters. They had linked their gift so that they would be able to use their power in here. Ann was killed before we even realized they were there. Jagang wanted me captured alive, or I’m sure they would have been only too happy to kill me, too.”

Nicci laid a hand lightly on the prophet’s arm. “She didn’t suffer, Nathan. I don’t think she was even aware of it as it happened. She died in an instant. She didn’t suffer.”

Nathan, staring off into distant memories, nodded.

Richard put a hand on Nathan’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

Nathan’s brow drew down with what looked to be dark thoughts. By the iron edge in his glare, Richard didn’t have any trouble imagining the kinds of things the prophet was contemplating. Richard thought they must be the same sorts of things he often contemplated.

In the awkward silence, Richard gestured down inside the exposed stairwell. “I think we need to insure that there are none of them hiding down there.”

“Gladly,” Nathan said.

Wizard’s fire ignited between his inward-turned palms. The angry ball of liquid flame began turning, throwing hot light around the room as it slowly rotated, waiting to do his bidding.

Nathan leaned over the dark opening and released the deadly inferno. It dropped away into the darkness, howling with fury as it went, lighting the carved stone walls along its swift flight.

“After it does its work,” Nathan said, “I’ll go down there and collapse the tunnel where they got in to make sure that at least they can’t get in that same place again.”

“I’ll help put up some shields of Subtractive Magic to insure they don’t just dig it out again,” Nicci offered.

Nathan nodded absently, lost in his own thoughts.

“Lord Rahl,” Cara asked in a low voice, “what is Benjamin doing here?”

Richard looked out into the corridor where the general stood, patiently waiting. “I don’t know. He hasn’t had time to tell me yet.”

Leaving Nathan to his private thoughts as he stared down into the catacombs, Richard, with Cara and Nicci at his side, stepped out of the room to a waiting General Meiffert.

“What are you doing here, Benjamin?” Cara asked before Richard had the chance. “I thought you were supposed to be in the Old World laying waste to the Order.”

“That’s right,” Richard said. “Not that I don’t appreciate the help, but why are you here? You said before that you needed to find me to give me a report about some kind of trouble you’ve run into.”

He pressed his lips tightly together for a moment. “That’s right, Lord Rahl. We’ve run into a big problem.”

“A big problem? What sort of big problem?”

“A red one. With wings. Ridden by a witch woman.”

CHAPTER 47