Blood of the Fold (Sword of Truth 3)

Verna brought the hand closer to her face, staring at the ring. “Richard… were did you get this?”

“I made Sister Ulicia give it to me. She had no business wearing it.”

“You made…”

“Verna was named Prelate, Richard,” Warren said as he put a reassuring hand to her shoulder.

Richard grinned. “I’m proud of you, Verna. Put it back on, then.”

“Richard, Ann isn’t… The ring was taken from me.… I was convicted by a tribunal… and removed as Prelate.”

Sister Dulcinia stepped forward. “Verna, you are the Prelate. At the trial, every Sister here with us voted with you.”

Verna searched all the faces watching her. “You did?”

“Yes,” Sister Dulcinia said. “We were overruled by the others, but we all believed in you. You were named by Prelate Annalina. We need a Prelate. Put the ring back on.”

Verna nodded her tearful gratitude to the Sisters as they voiced their agreement. She slipped the ring back on her finger and kissed it. “We have to get everyone away at once. The Imperial Order is coming to take the palace.”

Richard gripped her arm and pulled her back around. “What do you mean ‘the Imperial Order is coming to take the palace’? What do they want with the Palace of the Prophets?”

“The prophecies. Emperor Jagang intends to use them to know the forks in the books so he can alter events to his advantage.”

The other Sisters behind Verna gasped. Warren slapped a hand over his face as he groaned.

“And,” Verna added, “he plans to live here, under the palace’s spell, so he can rule the world after the prophecies help him crush all opposition.”

Richard released her arm. “We can’t let him do that. We would be frustrated at every fork. We wouldn’t have a chance. The world would suffer under his tyranny for centuries.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” Verna said. “We have to get away or we’ll all be killed here, and then there’s no chance for us to help—to think of a way to fight back.”

Richard swept his gaze across the gathered Sisters, many of whom he knew, and then looked back to Verna. “Prelate, what if I were to destroy the palace?”

“What! How can you do that?”

“I don’t know. But I destroyed the towers, and they were made by the wizards of old, too. What if there were a way?”

Verna licked her lips as she stared off. The crowd of Sisters stood silent. Sister Phoebe pushed her way through the others.

“Verna, you can’t allow it!”

“It may be the only way to stop Jagang.”

“But you can’t,” Phoebe said, on the verge of tears. “It’s the Palace of the Prophets. It’s our home.”

“It’s going to be the dream walker’s home, now, if we leave it for him.”

“But Verna,” Phoebe said, gripping Verna’s arms, “without the spell, we will grow old. We’ll die, Verna. Our youth will be gone in a twinkling. We’ll get old and die before we have a chance to live.”

With a thumb Verna wiped a tear from the other’s face. “Everything dies, Phoebe, even the palace. It can’t live forever. It has served its purpose, and now, if we don’t do something, its purpose will turn to harm.”

“Verna, you can’t do this! I don’t want to get old.”

Verna hugged the young woman. “Phoebe, we’re Sisters of the Light. We serve the Creator in his work to make the lives of the people in this world better. The only chance we have to better their lives, now, is to become like the rest of the Creator’s children; to live among them.

“I understand your fear, Phoebe, but trust in me that it won’t be as you fear. Time feels different to us under the spell of the palace. We don’t feel the slow passing of centuries, the way those outside imagine, but the rapid pace of life. It really doesn’t feel much different when you live outside.

“Our oath is to serve, not simply to live long. If you wish to live a long and empty life, Phoebe, you can remain with the Sisters of the Dark. If you wish to live a meaningful, helpful, fulfilled life, then come with us, with the Sisters of the Light, to our new life beyond what has been.”

Phoebe stood silent, tears running down her cheeks. Off in the distance, fire roared, and occasional explosions punctuated the night. The cries of men at battle were coming closer.

At last, Phoebe spoke. “I am a Sister of the Light. I wish to go with my Sisters… wherever that takes us. The Creator will still watch over us.”

Verna smiled, running a tender hand down Phoebe’s cheek. “Anyone else?” she asked, looking among the others gathered. “Does anyone else have any objection? If you do, it must be heard now. Don’t come to me later and say you didn’t have the chance. I give it now.”

All the Sisters shook their heads. Soon they were all voicing their wish to go.

Verna twisted the ring on her finger as she looked up at Richard. “Do you think you can destroy the palace? The spell?”

“I don’t know. Do you remember when you first came for me, and Kahlan used that blue lightning? Confessors’ have an element of Subtractive Magic from the wizards who created their power. Maybe that will do some harm to the vaults, if I can’t.”

Kahlan’s fingers touched his back as she whispered. “Richard, I don’t think I can do that. That magic was invoked for you—to defend you. I can’t call it for anything else.”

“We have to try. If nothing else, we can set the prophecies afire. If we start a fire among all those books, they’ll all be consumed, and then at least Jagang can’t use them against us.”

A small group of women and half a dozen young men came rushing up to the gate. “Friends of Richard,” came the urgent whisper. Kevin opened the gate, letting the breathless group in.

Verna clutched a woman’s arm. “Philippa, did you find them all?”

“Yes.” The tall woman paused to catch her breath. “We have to get out of here. The emperor’s advance guard are in the city. Some are already coming across the south bridges. The Blood of the Fold are engaging them in pitched battle.”

“Did you see what’s going on at the docks?” Verna asked.

“Ulicia and some of her Sisters are down there. Those women are ripping the entire harbor apart. It looks like the underworld unleashed.” Philippa put trembling fingers to her lips as she closed her eyes for a moment. “They have the men from the Lady Sefa.” Her voice faltered. “You can’t imagine what they’re doing to those poor men.”

Philippa turned, dropped to her knees, and vomited. Two of the other sisters who had returned with her did the same. “Dear Creator,” Philippa managed between retches, “you cannot conceive of it. I will have nightmares the rest of my life.”

Richard turned to the shouts and cries of battle. “Verna, you have to get out of here right now. There’s no time to waste.”

She nodded. “You and Kahlan can catch up with us.”

“No. Kahlan and I have to get to Aydindril at once. I don’t have time to explain right now, but she and I have the magic required that will allow it. I wish I could take the rest of you, but I can’t. Hurry. Head north. There’s an army of a hundred thousand D’Haran soldiers heading south looking for Kahlan. You’ll have more protection with them, and they with you. Tell General Reibisch that she is safe with me.”

Adie stepped through the others and took Richard’s hands. “How be Zedd?”

Richard’s voice caught in his throat. He closed his eyes against the pain. “Adie, I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen my grandfather. I fear he may have been killed at the Keep.”

Adie wiped her cheek as sh

e cleared her throat. “I be sorry, Richard,” she whispered in her raspy voice. “Your grandfather be a good man. But he takes too many desperate chances. I have warned him.”

Richard hugged the old sorceress as she wept softly against his chest.

Kevin came in a rush from the gate, sword in hand. “We either have to go now, or we have to fight.”

“Go,” Richard said. “We won’t win this war if you die in this battle. We must fight by our rules, not Jagang’s. He’ll have those with the gift with him, not just soldiers.”

Verna turned to the gathered Sisters, novices, and young wizards. She took the hands of two young girls who looked to be in need of reassurance. “All of you, listen. Jagang is a dream walker. The only protection is our bond to Richard. Richard has been born with the gift, and with a magic passed down from his ancestors that protects against dream walkers. Leoma tried to break that bond to allow Jagang to enter my mind and take me. Before we go, all of you, bow down and swear fidelity to Richard to be certain we will be protected from our enemy.”

“If it is your wish to do this,” Richard said, “then do it as was set down by Alric Rahl, the one who created the bond and its protection. If you wish to do this, then I ask you to give the devotion as it was passed down, as it was meant to be.”

Richard told them the words, as he had said them himself, and then stood silent, feeling the weight of responsibility, not only to those gathered, but to the thousands in Aydindril who were depending on him, as the Sisters of the Light and their charges went to their knees and with one voice rising into the night above the sound of battle, proclaimed their bond.

“Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours.”

51

Richard pressed Kahlan up against the wall in the dank, dark stone corridor as he waited for the knot of crimson-caped soldiers to pass the intersection. As the echo of their boots faded in the distance, Kahlan stretched up on her toes and whispered, “I don’t like it down here. Are we going to be able to get out of this place alive?”