“That’s right,” Cassia added. “I am sorry one of the men of the First File was killed, but that’s all the more reason we should not leave our post guarding the Mother Confessor.”
Vika looked to her sister Mord-Sith. “Lord Rahl sometimes gets crazy ideas to expose himself to danger. Fortunately, I was there to stop him from doing something foolish and dangerous only a little while ago, in a similar situation.”
The rest of them nodded solemnly.
“Protecting him is often a burden,” Berdine confirmed.
Richard was used to the Mord-Sith talking about him in such a way, right in front of him, as if he were a doddering old fool who could barely feed himself.
He turned back to Kahlan, spellbound by her green eyes, but needing to return to business.
“I asked the officers to meet us in a devotion area not far from here,” he finally said. “With two men killed already this morning, I’m sure rumors will be circulating among the First File. We need to let them at least know the nature of the threat. We need to come up with a plan to fight it.”
“They can appear out of thin air,” Kahlan said, sounding skeptical that any planning could be possible.
“I know. That makes it difficult, but we’ve learned one thing. They are attacking targets around both of us to try to draw us out and into a surprise ambush.”
Kahlan looked more than a little concerned. “It seems they can appear anywhere, so why wouldn’t they simply attack us right there in our rooms, much like the way they did when I was alone with Nolo? Why not surprise us that way?”
Richard stared off for a moment, trying to reason it out in his own mind. He finally looked back at Kahlan.
“They are afraid of our magic. They tried a direct surprise attack on you when you touched Nolo with your power. They struck when you were at your weakest. Even though that thing ripped into you, I suspect that it vanished before finishing the job because at the same time your power was already returning. Nolo says they are fearful of our magic.
“Before, when Shale was beginning to heal you, I was going down a hallway that was dark because the lamps had gone out. One of them appeared suddenly. I don’t know where it came from, or if it came out of nowhere. It was simply suddenly there.”
“What did it look like?” Kahlan asked.
“It was too dark to get a good look at it. This dark shape suddenly came rushing at me out of nowhere. I had my sword out before it was on me and I was able to take a swing right through the middle of it.”
Kahlan leaned in. “And then what? What happened? Did you kill it?”
Richard shook his head in regret. “Then it just wasn’t there, as if it never had been. For just an instant I thought I had only imagined the whole thing, imagined I had seen something in the dark—a shadow or a twist of the light. I wondered if I’d been scared by my own shadow. But I wasn’t. Something was there. My magic—the sword’s magic—must have scared it off. I suspect they are attacking people around both of us to test the limits of our powers.”
“Or to try to test themselves against it,” Shale said.
“That could be, too,” Richard said in a worried tone as he paced off a few feet, thinking.
“We need to warn people of this new danger,” Kahlan said.
“Can people defend themselves against these things,” Vika asked, “these scribbly men, as you called them?”
Kahlan shook her head. “No, they can’t. No one can, except maybe Richard and maybe me.”
“Then what can be accomplished by telling everyone that our world is under attack from an unknown threat that will come out of nowhere to rip them apart and there’s nothing they can do to save themselves? That would terrify people, which is exactly what Nolo said these predators seek: terror.”
Richard rubbed his chin in thought. “I’m afraid Vika is right.”
“Along with the First File, we are the steel against steel,” Vika said. “You are the magic against magic, Lord Rahl. This what you were born to do.”
“These predators don’t have magic,” Richard reminded her.
“Well, they have something that enables them to get from their world to ours in order to hunt and kill us. You are the only one who can figure out how to fight beings that can do that.”
“Right now, you can’t worry about the people living in the palace,” Berdine added. “You need to focus on stopping this threat, not managing panicked people.”
“They have a point,” Kahlan said.
“I’m afraid I have to agree.” Richard let out a deep sigh. “The Golden Goddess and her kind are using our empathy for others against us to goad us into traps.”
Kahlan shook her head in despair. “What can we do about that?”
Richard’s gaze swept over the six women in red leather all standing at ease, watching him. “We have a secret weapon.”
Kahlan frowned. “What secret weapon?”
“The Mord-Sith,” Richard said with a wry smile. “They have no empathy.”
The Mord-Sith all flashed self-satisfied grins.
7
Richard watched a school of gold-colored fish in a loose group gliding gracefully through the reflecting pool in the center of the devotion square, their long, flowing tails swaying rhythmically side to side as they slowly circled the large, black, pitted boulder sitting in the center of the pond. Vines, with delicate little blue flowers and roots fanning out in the water, grew up along the sides of that boulder, clinging to it, reaching for the light above. It was the way of life, it seemed, to always reach for the light.
The predators that hunted them, though, sought the darkness from where they struck.
Overhead, the roof above the pool was open to a gloomy, gray sky. The heavy rain of the night before had stopped, but by the way the sky looked it could easily start again at any time.
Richard stepped up on the short blue tiled wall that surrounded the square pool, and turned to the dozens of silent officers standing at attention in neat rows before him. Kahlan stood on the floor in front of him to the right. Three of the Mord-Sith stood at ease to her right, three more to Richard’s left.
Shale stood off a little farther to the left, hands clasped before her, watching. Her hair, parted in the middle, wasn’t nearly as long as Kahlan’s, and it was dark, but like Kahlan’s it gleamed in the flat light from above. Most of the men hadn’t been able to avoid staring at her when they had come into the square. Shale had an arresting presence. She looked both alluring and intimidating at the same time, as if daring men to look at her and threatening them if they did.
Richard knew that was the witch woman in her. Witch women were dangerous. Shale radiated that danger even without intending to do so. For some witch women, like Shota, they intended every bit of that threat and more.
Most of the soldiers standing before them wore chain mail under shaped leather armor along with broad weapons belts holding at least a sword, a double-bladed axe, or a mace. Many had two weapons, some all three. A few of the men, specialists in close-quarters combat, additionally had metal bands with razor-sharp projections around their arms just above their elbows. Those projections could tear an opponent apart in seconds.
Richard clasped his hands behind his back as he began. “While we are all grateful that the long and terrible war has finally ended, we unfortunately find ourselves facing a new threat unlike anything we have faced before.” His expression was grim as terrible memories flashed through his mind. “And we have faced many terrible things before.”