Confessor (Sword of Truth 11)

“Excellency,” Sister Ulicia said in a hesitant voice, “it is still too early to tell.”

“We must have the other copies if we are to know for sure,” Sister Armina blurted out.

Jagang turned his gaze on her for a moment and then, un-characteristically, merely grunted indifferently. He glanced around, checking that Kahlan was still in the chair where he’d told her to stay. He saw, too, that Jillian was on the floor and guards were watching over all of them.

“Keep studying the books,” Jagang told the two Sisters. “I’m going to the Ja’La games. Watch the girl.”

He shoved Nicci out ahead of him and then snapped his fingers at Kahlan, indicating that he expected her to come along as well, and that he expected her to stay close to him. Kahlan snatched up her cloak and followed after him. She was at least glad that Jillian would not have to be anywhere near the mobs of soldiers, or Jagang. Of course, Jagang could exert his control through the Sisters and thus harm Jillian in any way he wished, anywhere he wished, any time he wished.

After throwing her cloak around her shoulders, Kahlan gave the worried Jillian a hand gesture to urge her to stay put. The girl’s copper-colored eyes stared up at Kahlan as she returned a nod. She was afraid to be left alone. Kahlan sympathized, but she could offer no real protection even if Jillian was with her.

Outside the tent a few hundred well-armed guards quickly assembled into ranks, ready to escort the emperor. Such big men, with chain-mail armor and gleaming weapons, were an intimidating presence. Half a dozen of Kahlan’s special guards, looking somewhat less intimidating but no less brutish, formed up around her. Jagang’s meaty hand gripped Nicci’s slender white arm, steering her through the spaces that opened in overlapping walls of the men.

Most of those men took a good long look at Nicci. She might have been Jagang’s woman, but they still wanted a look. They were careful, though, to make sure that the emperor didn’t see them leering. Those looks left Kahlan relieved that most of these men couldn’t see her.

Although it was overcast, the clouds didn’t look thick enough to threaten rain. It hadn’t rained in quite a while and the ground had turned to dusty hardpan. In the flat, gray light the army camp looked all the darker, all that much grimier. Smoke from cook fires hung in the air, masking the stench to a degree.

As they marched through endless, noisy clusters of men and equipment, Jagang asked one of his more trusted personal guards about the Ja’La games. The man filled the emperor in on the various matches that had taken place since the last report, giving Jagang a rundown on each of the teams as he asked about them.

“Karg’s team?” Jagang asked. “Have they been doing well?”

The guard nodded. “Undefeated so far. Their margin of victory yesterday wasn’t as great as it has been, though.”

Jagang’s steely smile was as cold as the sky. “I hope they win today. Of all the teams come to challenge me, I hope my team gets to crush that team.”

The guard gestured off to the left. “They’re playing today—over that way. This is the final game for them. With the way the matches have gone so far, if they win today then they alone will advance to the head of all the teams and you will have your wish, Excellency. If not, then there will have to be elimination games. But your team will play them if they are the winner of this match.”

As they walked, with Jagang conversing with his guard, Nicci cast a brief glance back over her shoulder at Kahlan. Kahlan knew that she was thinking about the man Kahlan had told her about. Kahlan felt a flutter of anxiety.

As they took a course through the jumble of the camp in the direction the guard indicated, pushing their way through tightly packed throngs of men as they got ever closer to the Ja’La field, Kahlan could hear soldiers in the distance cheering and shouting encouragement to their favored team. Even this far back, with no chance to see the action, men waited for word on the score to be relayed back to them.

There were far more spectators than Kahlan had seen at the previous games. This was obviously an important match and she could see the excitement of the crowd. When a deafening roar suddenly went up she knew that one of the teams had scored. Men pushed in closer, jostling each other, eager for word on which team had scored.

As the guards growled orders or shoved men, the tight press of soldiers looked over their shoulders and then reluctantly parted to let the emperor’s party through. With a wedge of big guards opening a pathway, they finally made it to an area that had been roped off for the emperor next to the field. Yet more of Jagang’s guards who had gone on ahead had already formed a wall to each side to keep the men back.

Through the screen of spectators Kahlan caught flashes of men running across the field. The yells and shouts from the crowd made it hard for her to hear her own thoughts. She caught brief flashes of red paint. With the press of soldiers watching the game, and the wall of royal guards to each side, to say nothing of the bull of an emperor in front of her flanked by his huge personal guards, it was difficult to see anything other than short snatches of the action on the field.

Another wild cry rose from the crowd as a team scored. The roar shook the ground beneath Kahlan’s feet.

Through the small gaps between guards, she spotted something different about this game. All the way around the edge of the field, in front of the spectators, men stood at even intervals, feet spread, hands clasped behind their backs. None wore shirts, apparently to display their powerful builds.

Kahlan had rarely seen the likes of such men. Each was a huge specimen. They all looked like statues, as if they had been smelted from the same iron ore and forged from ingots of white-hot steel.

As Jagang moved out in front, going to the edge of the field to see what was happening, Nicci, seeing the grim men Kahlan was looking at, leaned closer. “Jagang’s team,” she said under her breath.

Kahlan understood, then, what they were doing. The winner of this match would play the emperor’s team. These men were not merely there to watch the tactics of the team they would face. They were there to intimidate the men before them, the men who would win the chance to play them. It was an open threat of pain to come.

Commander Karg spotted the newly arrived emperor and squeezed his way through the wall of guards. Kahlan had come to recognize the man by his unique pattern of snake-scale tattoos. He and Jagang exchanged pleasantries as cheers of encouragement went up for another play on the field.

“Your team seems to be faring well,” Jagang said when the cheering died down a little.

Commander Karg glanced back over his shoulder at Nicci like a snake considering its p

rey. Her glare was already on the man. His knowing gaze swept over the length of her before his attention returned to Jagang.

“Well, Excellency, despite how good my team is, I’m well aware that your team is not merely good, but unbeaten. They are the best, of course.”

The back of Jagang’s shaved head and bull neck creased as he nodded. “Your team is unbeaten as well, but not truly tested against real competition. My men will easily defeat them. There is no doubt in my mind.”

Commander Karg folded his arms, watching the play for a time. The crowd screamed with excitement as a cluster of men raced past, only to moan with disappointment as they apparently failed to make the score. Karg turned once more to the emperor.

“But if they do win against your team—”

“If they do,” Jagang interrupted.

Karg smiled as he bowed his head. “If they do, then it would be a great accomplishment for a humble challenger, such as myself.”

Jagang viewed his commander with good-natured suspicion. “A great accomplishment worthy of a great reward?”

Karg gestured out at the men on the field. “Well, Excellency, if my team were to win each of them would have a reward. Each would have the woman of his choice.” He clasped his hands behind his back as he shrugged. “It seems only right that as the one who handpicked each player and runs such an accomplished team I would have a similar reward.”

Jagang’s deep chuckle was so lewd that it gave Kahlan a shiver.

“I suppose you’re right,” Jagang said. “Name her, then, and if you win, she is yours.”

Karg rocked on his heels a moment, as if considering his choices.

“Excellency, if my team wins”—Commander Karg turned a sly smile back over his shoulder—“I would like to have Nicci in my bed.”

Nicci’s cold glare could have cut steel.

His amusement dying out, Jagang glanced back over his shoulder at the woman who had had his recent undivided attention.

“Nicci is not available.”