Warheart: Sword of Truth: The Conclusion (Sword of Truth 15)

The Mord-Sith led them through the private passageways, keeping them away from the crowded public halls that might have slowed them down. With the palace under siege, people were frightened and could become a problem, so it was better to stay out of the public areas if possible.

Everywhere they went, soldiers of the First File, all with weapons to hand, were searching, going into every room off every passageway. When she looked into libraries along the way, Kahlan saw soldiers searching between the rows of shelves, looking for the missing Lord Rahl. Kahlan knew now that they would not find him.

When they reached it, she saw that the door to the sliph’s room was ajar. Kahlan pushed it back, letting it swing in. A lamp hanging from a bracket on the wall was lit.

With Nicci beside her and the three Mord-Sith behind her, Kahlan stepped into the room. The sliph, apparently hearing them coming, rose up in a lump from the well. The mound of liquid silver formed into a smiling face.

“You wish to travel?”

“Maybe,” Kahlan said.

The reflective gaze turned to Rikka and Nyda. “I know that you two can’t travel. You don’t have the required properties.”

Kahlan glanced over at Nicci. “That’s why he took Cassia. He knows she has what is needed to travel.”

“But why?” Nicci whispered back.

Kahlan stepped closer to the sliph. “We need to know where your master went.”

The sliph smiled politely. “I am sorry, but I do not discuss my clients with anyone.”

“I’m his wife,” Kahlan said.

The sliph only stared back.

“This is a matter of life and death. Richard–your master–has a sickness and he needs to be cured.”

“I told you all before that he has death in him.”

“That’s right, and it is getting stronger all the time. If we don’t take him to where we can get that poison out of him, he is going to die. You don’t want that to happen, do you? You don’t want your master to die?”

The silver smile faded a little. “I am sorry, but I cannot help you.”

“He told you not to tell us, didn’t he?” Kahlan asked.

“Do you wish to travel?” the sliph asked in a more formal tone.

Kahlan stepped up and rested her hands on the edge of the well. “Yes, I do wish to travel. Take me to the place you took Richard and Cassia earlier tonight.”

“You must name a place if you wish to travel.”

Kahlan stared at the silver face that from only inches away revealed her own face in the distorted reflection.

“The place where you took Richard.”

The smile widened on the silver face. “Call on me anytime if you decide you would like to travel. Please know your destination when you come back.”

With that, the silver face that was the sliph melted back down into the quicksilver pool.

Kahlan and Nicci shared a look.

“I guess now we know that Richard took the sliph out of the palace.”

“It would seem so,” Nicci agreed. “But why?”

A hard thud jolted the room. Everyone looked up as dust fell from the plastered ceiling.

“That sounded like wizard’s fire,” Nicci said.

“Let’s go.”

Kahlan raced for the door. Everyone followed on her heels. Once they were out in the hallway, Rikka and Nyda closed in to protect Kahlan and Nicci from the front, while Vale protected them from behind. They took several intersections in the plastered halls, and then service stairwells that headed back up into the palace.

As they cleared the top step up into a broad hallway, half people leaped at them from behind the wall to the left. One of them took Nyda from her feet, rolling with her across the floor.

Another, mouth opened wide, sprang at Kahlan.

Before he even got close, a sword swept around and took off the head of the half-naked half person. It was General Zimmer who had acted just in time to protect her. The head bounced heavily on the floor, leaving a trail of blood as it rolled away. Another soldier stabbed the man grappling with Nyda.

Soldiers raced down the stairs and quickly cut down the dozen or so half people in the hallway.

“Sorry, Mother Confessor.” General Zimmer wiped blood off his forehead with the back of his wrist. “I tried to stop them before they got that close, but there were a lot of them.”

Nyda pushed the dead half person off her and sprang up, furious that she had been blindsided.

“What’s going on?” Kahlan asked.

General Zimmer pointed with his sword. “They created a breach of some sort down in the area of the crypts, down where the walls were melting. I wasn’t there at the time so I didn’t see it. The men said they were trying to keep the enemy from getting out of the area where we have them contained.

“Apparently more of them managed to get in somewhere else and come up behind my men. It was a bloody battle, but they managed to fall back to a secondary defensive zone. Nathan was using wizard’s fire to help keep them from breaking through and flooding into the palace.”

“Show me the way,” Nicci said. “I need to go help him.”

CHAPTER

55

“Richard! What are you doing here?” Chase asked.

The big man rubbed sleep from his eyes with one hand and used his other for leverage against his knee as he stood. He had apparently been sleeping while sitting against the wall just outside the tower room.

Richard slipped the baldric of his sword over his head and strapped the belt around his waist as he headed for the stairs to the hallway he needed on the next level.

“I’m in a hurry, Chase.”

Chase arranged the knives along his belt, then straightened the sword at his hip before checking that the sword strapped over the back of his shoulder was secure.

Chase followed quickly after them. “Well, all right, but where are you in a hurry to?”

“I need to get back to that place we came out of, back to the catacombs.”

Chase caught his sleeve, stopping him, and with his other hand pointed down a side hall. “Then this way is quicker.”

Richard nodded. “Lead the way.” He looked over at Cassia as they hurried down the starkly plain stone corridor. “Are you all right?”

Cassia tugged down the sleeves of her red leather outfit at the wrists. “I’m fine. I’m just not sure I’m getting any more comfortable traveling in that liquid silver.”

“What’s this about?” Chase asked. “What’s going on?”

“Long story.”

Chase frowned over as he pointed Richard down a stairwell. “You seem to be full of a lot of long stories. Is there a short version?” Chase snatched Richard’s shirt. “Nope. That way shields a library with books of magic. You need to take this intersection to the right, then take the stairs down a level, then the hall, then back up to get around it.”

Richard nodded. “The short version is that Emperor Sulachan and Hannis Arc have an entire nation of those half people surrounding the People’s Palace. They are soon going to get in, if they haven’t already.”

“So then what are you doing here?”

“I came to get something I left behind.”

“You mean your sword? So you can fight?”

“Yes, that too.”

“What did you leave behind in the catacombs?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Chase pointed. “That one. Take that hall. The big chamber is just beyond. So try me. What wouldn’t I believe?”

Just as he had said, they soon found themselves in the massive room with the entrance to the catacombs. Torches in brackets down each side lit the area well enough. Richard headed for the entrance to the lower world.

“If you want, you can come with us and see for yourself.”

“Good. You might need my sword, too.”