Blood of the Fold (Sword of Truth 3)

“Well, Verna, it looks as if you found your way out. I thought you might.” She stepped close, where they could see her. It was Sister Philippa, Verna’s other advisor. She kissed her ring finger. Philippa’s narrow mouth spread in a smile. “Thank the Creator. Welcome back, Prelate.”

“Philippa, we must get the Sisters away tonight, before Jagang gets here, or we will be captured and used.”

“What are we to do, Prelate?” Sister Philippa asked.

“All of you, listen carefully, now. We must hurry, and we must be more than careful. If we are caught, we will all be in collars.”

Richard was winded from his run from the Hagen Woods, so he slowed to a trot to catch his breath. He saw Sisters prowling the grounds of the palace, but they didn’t see him. Though he was shrouded in the mriswith cape, he couldn’t search the entire palace; it would take days. He had to find out where Kahlan, Zedd, and Gratch were being held so he could get back to Aydindril. Zedd would know what to do.

Zedd would probably furiously upbraid him for his stupidity, but Richard deserved it. His stomach was in a knot thinking about the trouble he had caused. He could not even credit his wits for his foolhardy actions not ending in his being killed. How many lives had he put in jeopardy by his reckless actions?

Kahlan was probably going to be more than furious with him. And why not?

Richard shuddered to think why the mriswith went to Aydindril. He felt a pang of dread for his friends there. Maybe the mriswith only wanted to establish a new home, like the Hagen Woods here, and would stay there and keep to themselves. An inner voice laughed at his wishful thinking. He had to get back there.

Stop thinking about the problem, he reprimanded himself. Think about the solution.

He would get his friends out of here first, and then he would worry about the rest.

It was puzzling that Kahlan, Zedd, and Gratch would be held at the palace, but he didn’t doubt what Merissa had told him; she had thought she had him, and so would have had no reason to lie. He couldn’t understand why the Sisters of the Dark would hide their catch in a place that could be a danger to them.

Richard halted. A small group of people was crossing the lawn in the moonlight. He couldn’t see who they were, and was about to go find out, but decided that his first thought was the correct one: go see Ann. The Prelate would be able to help him. Other than Prelate Annalina and Sister Verna he didn’t know which of the Sisters he could trust. He waited until the people moved off down a covered corridor before he started out again.

When he had left the palace months ago, he knew there could still be Sisters of the Dark among the sorceresses here, and they must be the ones who had hidden Kahlan away, but he didn’t know who they were. He could look for Verna, but he didn’t know where she would be. He did know where to find the Prelate, though, so that was where he would start.

If he had to, he would tear the Palace of the Prophets down, stone by stone, to find Kahlan and his friends, but he was wary of violating the Wizard’s Third Rule again, and decided that this time he would start out, at least, with reason instead of passion.

Dear spirits, where did one end and the other begin?

At the outer gate to the Prelate’s compound, Kevin Andellmere was standing guard. Richard knew Kevin, and was reasonably sure that he could be trusted. “Reasonably sure” wasn’t good enough, so Richard kept the mriswith cape closed around himself and slipped past Kevin into the inner compound. In the distance, Richard could hear the raucous laughter of several men coming up a walkway, but they were a goodly distance away.

Richard knew the Prelate’s former administrators. One had been killed when the other, Sister Ulicia, had attacked the Prelate. After the attack, Sister Ulicia and five other Sisters of the Dark had fled aboard the ship, the Lady Sefa. The desks outside the Prelate’s office were empty, now.

No one was around out in the hall, or the outer office, and the door to the Prelate’s office was open, so Richard let the mriswith cape fall open as he relaxed his concentration. He wanted Ann to recognize him.

The moonlight coming through the double doors in the rear of the dark room silhouetted her enough for Richard to tell that she was sitting in her chair at the table. He could see in the faint light that her head was tilted down. She must be napping.

“Prelate,” he said gently, so as not to startle her awake. She stirred, her head coming up a bit, and her hand lifting. “I need to talk with you, Prelate. It’s Richard. Richard Rahl.”

A glow lit in her upturned palm.

Sister Ulicia smiled up at him. “Come to talk, have you? How very interesting. Well, a talk would be nice.”

As her wicked grin widened, Richard took a step back, his hand going for the hilt of his sword.

He had no sword.

He heard the door slam shut behind him.

He spun and saw four of his teachers: Sisters Tovi, Cecilia, Armina, and Merissa. He saw as they closed the distance that each wore a ring in her lower lip. Only Nicci was missing. They all grinned like hungry children staring at a candy reward at the end of a three-day fast.

Richard felt his need ignite within.

“Before you do anything foolish, Richard, you had better listen first, or you will die where you stand.”

He paused and looked to Merissa. “How did you beat me back here?”

She arched an eyebrow over a dark, malevolent eye. “I returned on my horse.”

Richard turned back to Ulicia. “This was all planned, wasn’t it? You did this to trap me.”

“Oh, yes, my boy, and you have done your part splendidly.”

He pointed back at Merissa while he spoke to Ulicia. “How did you know I wouldn’t be killed when she threw me off that tower?”

Ulicia’s smile vanished as she glared up at Merissa. Richard realized by seeing that look that Merissa had been acting outside of instructions.

Ulicia brought her gaze back to Richard. “The point is, you are here. Now, I want you to calm down, or someone could get hurt; you may have been born with both sides of the gift, but we have use of both magics, too. Even if you managed to kill one or two of us, there is no way you will get us all, and then Kahlan will die.”

“Kahlan…” Richard glared down at her. “I’m listening.”

Ulicia folded her hands. “You see, Richard, you have a problem. Fortunately for you, we also have a problem.”

“What sort of problem?”

Her eyes hardened with distant menace. “Jagang.”

The others moved around the table to stand beside Ulicia. None of them were smiling anymore. The loathing in their eyes at the name Jagang, even the kindly seeming Tovi and Cecilia, looked as if it could burn stone.

“You see, Richard, it’s almost time for bed.”

Richard frowned. “What?”

“You don’t have any visits from Emperor Jagang in your dreams. We do. He is becoming a problem to us.”

Richard could feel the control around her voice. This woman wanted something more than life itself.

“Problems with the dream walker, Ulicia? Well, I wouldn’t know. I sleep like a baby.”

Richard usually knew when a person with the gift was touching their Han; he could sense it, or see it in their eyes. The air about these women fairly sizzled. There seemed enough power bottled up behind all those eyes to melt a mountain. Apparently, it wasn’t enough. A dream walker must be a formidable opponent.

“All right, Ulicia, let’s get to the point. I want Kahlan, and you want something. What is it?”

Ulicia fingered the ring through her lip as she looked away from his eyes. “This has to be decided before we sleep. I have only just told my Sisters of the plan I devised. We couldn’t find Nicci to include her. If we go to sleep before this is resolved, and any of us dreams of it…”

“Resolved? I want Kahlan. Just tell me what you want.”

Ulicia cleared her throat. “We want to swear loyalty to you.”

Richard stared, unable

to blink. He wasn’t sure he had just heard what he thought he had heard. “You’re all Sisters of the Dark. You know me, and you all want to kill me. How can you break your oath to the Keeper?”

Ulicia’s iron gaze came up. “I did not say that we wished to do that. I said we would like to swear loyalty to you, in this, the world of life. I don’t think, in view of the overall picture, that the two are incompatible.”

“Not incompatible! Are you crazy, too!”

Her eyes took on an ominous set. “Do you want to die? Do you want Kahlan to die?”

Richard made an effort to calm his racing mind. “No.”

“Then be quiet and listen. We have something you want. You have something we want. Each of us has conditions. For instance, you want Kahlan, but you want her alive and well. Am I correct?”