“That makes sense,” Zedd told the man.
“I think I had better go to the People’s Palace,” Nicci said.
Zedd frowned. “Why?”
“Well, I can use the sliph. From the People’s Palace I can take the sliph down to the area of Tamarang and meet you there. The sliph is much faster, so I will have time at the palace to check into some things.”
“Like what?” Zedd asked.
“Well, with Richard missing and cut off from his power, Nathan is acting in the capacity of Lord Rahl. That bond is all that stands between us and the dream walker being able to enter our minds. I want to see how he’s doing.”
Zedd nodded in thought.
“There are defenses at the palace that are powered by magic, much the same as here at the Keep,” Nicci said. “Ann and Nathan need to know that the chimes are corrupting that magic. They need to know what happened here so they will be prepared if it happens there as well, and not caught unaware as we were.
“But most of all we need to get the box of Orden back. Six was from the Old World. Ann and Nathan lived there a very long time. They said they didn’t know anything about Six but maybe they’ve thought of something by now or can offer a clue. Six was secretive when she lived down there in the Old World, but maybe someone knows something about her. Ann and Nathan may be able to point me in the direction of such a person. Right now we know next to nothing about the witch woman. We need information.
“I’m at a loss to know where to look for Six. This is at least a place to start asking questions.”
Zedd sighed. “That makes sense. But if you find anything out, you come to Tamarang first—come to me first before you think to go after her yourself. We may need your help to deal with what ever is going on down there in Tamarang, and you will definitely need my help to come up with a way to deal with Six. She has already proven how dangerous she is. You’re not going to be able to sneak up on her and take back the box. If we get a lead on where she might be, we’re going to have to put our heads together and come up with a plan.”
“Agreed,” Nicci said. “What about the sliph—after I’ve gone through, I mean? Will anyone be able to sneak back into the Keep?”
“The protective spell takes special precautions at the points of entry. The sliph will draw branches of the spell, hardening that entry point just like any other. Once you leave through the sliph I’ll activate the spell.”
“I’m going with you,” Cara said to Nicci. It wasn’t a request.
“I’ll go with Zedd, then,” Rikka said. “He’ll need one of us looking after him.”
Zedd shot her a sour glare but didn’t say anything.
Cara drew her blond braid through a loose fist. “Makes sense. It’s decided, then.”
It was as if the two of them were settling how the operation would be conducted. Nicci was beginning to appreciate Richard’s remarkable forbearance.
“Let’s get our things together,” Zedd said. “It will be light soon.”
Nicci took Rikka by the elbow and pulled her aside. “As soon as I change into my clothes, I’ll fix up the nightdress for you so that you can pack it with your things.”
Rikka smiled. “All right.”
Nicci thought that the woman looked quietly excited at the prospect of having something pretty, something that had nothing to do with the outfit of a Mord-Sith.
Nicci concentrated on that happy thought, rather than on how nervous she was about again traveling in the sliph. This time, Richard would not be with her to help her.
CHAPTER 15
“What is it?” Jennsen whispered to the young woman ahead of her as they both crawled through the tall, dry grass.
“Shh” was Laurie’s only answer.
Laurie and her husband had been out in the desolate place picking a late crop of wild figs that grew among the low hills. In the course of their work, as they had picked farther and farther afield, they had separated. As the afternoon drew to a close Laurie had wanted to head back to town but she hadn’t been able to find her husband. He seemed to have vanished.
Increasingly distraught, she’d eventually run back to the town of Hawton seeking Jennsen’s help. Needing to rush, Jennsen had decided to leave her pet goat, Betty, in her pen. Betty hadn’t been happy about it, but Jennsen was more concerned about finding Laurie’s husband. By the time they had returned with a small search party the sun had long since gone down.
As Owen, his wife Marilee, Anson, and Jennsen had spread out searching in among the low hills for Laurie’s missing husband, Laurie had found something she hadn’t expected. It had clearly shaken her. She wouldn’t say what it was; she wanted Jennsen to hurry to see it for herself, and she wanted Jennsen to be quiet about it.
Laurie cautiously lifted her head just enough to look off into the night.
She pointed and at the same time leaned back so that Jennsen could hear her whisper. “There.”
By now infected with Laurie’s obvious sense of alarm, Jennsen carefully stretched her neck up to peer into the darkness.
The tomb was open.
The great granite monument to Nathan Rahl had been slid to the side. Light shone up from under the ground, creating a softly glowing beacon in the dark heart of the starlit night.
Jennsen knew, of course, that it was not really Nathan Rahl’s tomb. Laurie wouldn’t know that, though.
Back when Nathan and Ann had been staying with them, Nathan had discovered the tomb with his name on it. He had also discovered that what appeared to be a rather extravagant tomb in the ancient graveyard was actually an entrance to secret underground rooms filled with books. He and Ann had told Jennsen that the stash was thousands of years old and had been protected all that time by magic.
Jennsen wouldn’t know; she had no magic. She was pristinely ungifted—a hole in the world, as it was sometimes called because those with magic were unable to use their gift to sense those like Jennsen. She was a rare creature—a pillar of Creation.
She and the people with her down in Bandakar were all pillars of Creation. In ancient times it had been learned that when the pristinely ungifted mingled with normal people, all of whom possessed at least a small spark of the gift, every child of such unions would be pristinely ungifted. Roaming free in the world they forever carried the latent potential to breed the gift itself out of mankind. In antiquity the solution to the ever-growing numbers of the pristinely ungifted had been to gather them all together and banish them.
The pristinely ungifted trait originated in the offspring of the Lord Rahl. Pristinely ungifted births were exceedingly rare, but once those with the trait became adults, the anomaly was spread forth into the general population. After the ancestors of these people in Bandakar had been banished, every child of a Rahl was tested. If found to be born pristinely ungifted such a child would immediately be put to death to prevent the trait from ever again spreading into the general population.
Jennsen, the offspring of rape by Darken Rahl, had managed to defy the odds and escape detection. Since Richard was now the Lord Rahl, eliminating any such flaw in his lineage fell to him.
But Richard found the very thought abhorrent and would not do such a thing. He believed that Jennsen and those like her had the same right to life as did he. He had actually been happy to discover that he had a half sister—pristinely ungifted or not. He had greeted her with open arms rather than murderous intent, as she had once expected.
Richard had broken the banishment and freed these people to live their own lives. Since Richard had become the Lord Rahl, they were no longer banished but welcomed into the world, as was Jennsen. Despite what it would eventually mean for the existence of magic within mankind, he had destroyed the barrier barring these people from the rest of the world.
Since the barrier had come down, many of the people from Bandakar had been captured by the Imperial Order and taken away to be used for breeding stock to hasten the end of magic. After the Imperial Order had been driven from Bandakar, most of t
he rest of these people had chosen to remain in their ancestral homeland for the time being. They wanted to take some time to learn about the outside world before deciding what they would do.
Jennsen felt a kinship with these people. Having been in hiding her whole life for fear of being put to death for the crime of her birth, she had in a way suffered under her own form of banishment. She had wanted to remain with these people as they all learned to be a part of their new, wider world. That new beginning, that excitement of building a new life for themselves full of possibilities, was a passion shared by them all.