Confessor (Sword of Truth 11)

Throughout the palace, men of the Imperial Order bowed to him as he passed. Nicci didn’t allow Jagang to acknowledge them. The men of the Order were used to his superior arrogance, his indifference to them, so they thought nothing of seeing him march past without so much as a look.

There was no easy way to get to the Garden of Life. The entire palace was laid out in the form of a power spell, designed to enhance the gift of the Lord Rahl and interfere with the gift of any other. To get anywhere, one had to navigate hallways that were really elements of the spell-form. The major lines of the form were the vast corridors. The subordinate elements were formed by smaller halls.

The entire palace was a maze of corridors with columns and halls guarded by rows of statues. Much of the interior of the palace was done in stone beautifully crafted in extravagant designs. The whole palace, while being a spell-form, was also a city, with streets made of the spell’s corridors and halls.

But getting anywhere required maneuvering through the complex lines of that spell-form. That made getting anywhere time-consuming. The journey from the dungeons up to the Garden of Life was a long one. As they made their way past places with skylights, Nicci saw that the sky was just beginning to take on a hint of blue.

By the time they reached the garden level of the palace, the sun was just up. The first warm rays coming in through the east windows were touching the white marble on the opposite walls.

Nicci’s intention was to go into the garden with Jagang to see Richard one last time. She had found out from brief questions that Richard had somehow made it back. Jagang didn’t know how. Nicci supposed that it didn’t really matter, now. He was back, and she wanted to see him one last time before the end. She wanted to let him see Jagang so that he would know that at least the emperor would not enjoy the terrible fruit of the long war he had carried into the new world. After all he had done, Richard deserved at least to know of that small victory.

When they went through the double doors into the Garden of Life, Nicci could see between the trees that the sun was just touching the altar. Half a dozen Sisters were gathered around Sister Ulicia. She was standing before the boxes.

Even as the boxes were bathed in the sunlight, it looked like they were black voids in the world. The sunlight did nothing to illuminate the boxes. They, instead, looked like they were pulling that sunlight in, taking it down to where it would never be seen again.

Jagang struggled mightily to move closer, to fight off the control of the collar, but he couldn’t. Nicci kept him in place, in the back, where his guards thought he was merely watching and didn’t want to be disturbed.

Nicci knew that she could end Jagang’s life in an instant. When the time came, she would. No one had any chance to rescue their emperor, even if they had known that he was in mortal trouble. He was hers now.

Nicci could see Richard in his magnificent war wizard’s outfit. The sight of him made her heart ache.

Kahlan stood quietly beside him. If Richard had preserved the sterile field in order to have a chance to counter Chainfire, she wouldn’t even know his true feelings for her. Now it looked like Richard would never get that chance, and she would die without ever knowing the truth.

Richard spotted Nicci. He saw Jagang beside her and understood that she had succeeded in using the gift he had given her. He gave her a small, private smile.

Sister Ulicia tapped the box on the right. “This one.”

The other Sisters were beaming at their success. They would now be able to deliver the power of Orden to the emperor. They didn’t know that he would never be able to celebrate their victory.

Sister Ulicia lifted the lid on the box on the right. Golden light flowed from within, almost as if it were liquid. It enveloped the Sisters standing before the stone altar.

They all smiled with exhilaration at what they had accomplished, even if it was to be put into service of the Imperial Order, and not themselves. Of course, they would put it to that service without even realizing that Jagang was no longer controlling their minds.

If Nicci made them aware of that, though, then the Sisters would use the gateway to free the Keeper of the underworld. Nicci’s choice was to allow them to give the world over to the Order, or to the Keeper.

She knew that was no real choice. At least life under the Imperial Order would be life. If Sisters of the Dark were allowed to do as they would prefer, there would be no real life.

Nicci did not want to live to see what was going to come of the new world brought into being by hate.

She supposed that she would not have to worry about it. She expected that she had mere moments to live.

But Jagang would die before she did. She would make sure of that.

Justice would finally visit Jagang the Just.

The one thing Nicci couldn’t understand was why Richard was smiling.

CHAPTER 61

Richard watched as the golden light coming from the box of Orden lifted the seven Sisters.

Kahlan’s hand tightened on his. The others in the room watched with a mix of awe and terror. This was something unlike anything that any of them had ever seen, or would ever see again.

Richard glanced at Nicci. Even she was transfixed by the sparkling light that swirled around the Sisters. Jagang, standing beside her, was smiling. Richard could just see the metal of the collar peeking through the front of the vest. Jagang knew that his cause would have the power of Orden, even if he didn’t live to see it. He believed that was all that mattered. He believed in their cause.

The Sisters within the golden glow appeared to be delighted by the heady power of Orden.

It was short-lived.

The light darkened as it swept them all up into the air, carrying them toward the darkening sea of sorcerer’s sand.

The floating Sisters glided together, collecting in a tight cluster above the ground. They all began to rotate helplessly in the sparkling amber light. The room darkened as a few flashes of lightning began to flicker about over their heads. Several Sisters screamed. A low roar grew to fill the room.

The ground trembled as the tight clump of seven Sisters floated out over the sorcerer’s sand.

The sand beneath them began to rotate along with the light. The sparkles within the light connected with the fits of lightning dancing around the room, giving the sisters a flickering appearance.

“What’s going on!” Sister Ulicia screamed.

Richard let go of Kahlan’s hand and walked across the grass to the edge of the sorcerer’s sand that was slowly darkening from honey-colored to amber to a burnt brown. Richard could smell it burning.

“What’s going on!” Sister Ulicia again demanded as her panicked gaze found him.

“Did you read The Book of Life?” he calmly asked her.

“Of course! You have to use The Book of Life to put the boxes of Orden in play. We all read it! We followed every formula and instruction exactly!”

“You may have followed the instructions contained within the book, but you didn’t abide by its meaning. You read what you wanted to read—the formulas and spell-forms.”

Several of the Sisters screamed as lightning cracked through the air right near their faces.

Sister Ulicia was enraged. “What are you talking about!”

Richard clasped his hands behind his back. “At the very beginning there was only one thing all by itself on the first page to emphasize how important—how central—it was. It wasn’t a formula, or a spell-form, but it was the first thing The Book of Life said. It was first for a very important reason. In your arrogance, your greed to have what you wanted, you ignored it.

“The introductory statement to The Book of Life is a warning to anyone who would use the book.

“It says, ‘Those who have come here to hate should leave now, for in their hatred they only betray themselves.’”

“What are you babbling about?” one of the other Sisters asked, not concerned with what they saw as a dusty aphorism.

?

??I’m talking about a book of instruction on using the power of Orden. The Book of Life is the very first thing needed to use that power. Such power is dangerous almost beyond measure. Those who created it wanted to protect it. Most dangerous things of magic are protected by guards, defensive shields, and fail-safes.

“Orden was designed to counter Chainfire, but because it needed to be profoundly powerful to do that, that also made it profoundly dangerous. Those who created it came up with a fail-safe that is at once both striking in its simplicity, and foolproof.

“That safeguard says, ‘Those who have come here to hate should leave now, for in their hatred they only betray themselves.’”

“So what!” Sister Ulicia screamed.

“So,” Richard said with a shrug, “it’s a warning—about as deadly a warning as there can be. It’s telling you that hate will trigger a deadly reaction from the power of Orden. If you want to use Orden to cause harm then that can only mean that you would have to be someone who hates. Only those with hate in their hearts would scheme to use such a thing to harm others.”

“That doesn’t make any sense! How would it harm someone who is evil?” she asked. “How could you use Orden to stop us? You hate us, you would be using Orden for hate.”

Richard shook his head. “You mistake hate and justice. Eliminating those like you who harm innocent people is not done out of hate, but out of love for those who have done no wrong and are being hurt and killed. It’s love and respect for innocent life.

“Eliminating such people is not hate. It is a product of reasoned justice.”

“But we don’t hate!” another Sister cried out. “We want to eliminate those who are heathens, sinners, and are only selfishly concerned with themselves.”