“It’s so dangerous that it’s not merely restricted,” Rikka explained. “The whole area is closed off behind a series of locked doors. We can take you there, but if there is a witch man down in there, it is going to be beyond merely dangerous. Unlike Darken Rahl, Michec had a certain … fascination with the Wasteland. He used it often. As Berdine can attest, Michec is a very sadistic man. Some called him Michec the Butcher.”
When Richard looked to her, Berdine reluctantly spoke. “The Wasteland is a place you wouldn’t ever want Moravaska Michec to take you. When Darken Rahl ruled, the Wasteland was a kind of refuge for Michec. He used to take people in there where he wouldn’t be disturbed. None of those people he took in there ever came back. If he took Vika in there…”
Richard gripped Berdine’s arm and leaned close. “We’re going to get Vika back. That’s a promise.”
Berdine swallowed her emotion. “I know you will try, Lord Rahl. But you don’t understand Michec … or the Wasteland.”
“Lord Rahl,” Harris said, “M111-B is more than a confusing and simply dangerous place. I can’t imagine the purpose of it, or why it’s down there, but I’ve heard that in the past somehow people have accidentally managed to get in there. Only a couple ever made it out. I don’t really know about them, but the rest must have died in there. Anyone who knows it fears that place.” He gestured at the Mord-Sith. “As they say, Darken Rahl may have been afraid of the place, but Michec used to go in there.”
Richard wondered why there would be a labyrinth of any kind down in the lower reaches of the palace. In the Keep, yes, there were any number of such places, some of them so complex that it had been a thousand years since people had set foot in some of the confusion of rooms, but those areas had a defensive purpose as traps for intruders. He had never seen anything of the kind at the People’s Palace, and even if it was somehow meant to be defensive, he couldn’t imagine any strategic reason for it to be down in a lower area of the palace.
“With a witch man casting webs down there,” Shale said, “that is only going to make it all the more dangerous, especially when we don’t know the layout of this Wasteland place. He would be able to use that to his advantage to trap us and kill us.”
Richard tapped his thumb on the scabbard at his hip. “A labyrinth of confusing halls and rooms is a real problem by design. We could get really lost in there. Since we don’t know the layout of the maze, we won’t know where we are once we’re in there.”
“I can help with that much, at least,” Harris said, lifting a hand to break into the conversation. “We have maps of every area in the palace. There would be diagrams of M111-B. That number is a charting designation.”
Richard frowned. “You think you have a diagram showing a layout of that place, M111-B? The Wasteland?”
Harris nodded with conviction. “I haven’t seen that specific one myself, but there are plans of every part of the palace. They are necessary for a variety of reasons, from repair work to locating sources of leaks and every other sort of malfunction that needs to be addressed. I’m sure there would be one of M111-B.”
“Show us,” Richard said.
Going for the door without a word, Edward Harris wove his way among the soldiers as they started for Mr. Burkett.
9
As they left Mr. Burkett’s apartment, Kahlan felt shock and dismay over the discovery of how disloyal the man had been. In his position he had uncaringly put the lives of everyone in the palace at risk. His betrayal had led to Vika being taken, and she was now in the hands of the shadowy Moravaska Michec. With a gifted man possessing such powers holed up inside the palace, and in a perilous place, no less, it was now a situation beyond merely dangerous.
Kahlan knew that, in a way, Shale had been right that their purpose of getting to the Wizard’s Keep overrode the life of one person who, after all, had sworn to protect them with her life. Vika was doing just that. She would want them to leave her and get to the safety of the Wizard’s Keep.
The Mord-Sith always came after her and Richard without question or hesitation. Kahlan hated the thought of her in silent terror, thinking no help would be coming.
But at the same time, this was also about much more than saving Vika’s life. Evil could not be left to fester and grow inside the House of Rahl. There was no telling what Michec would do once they left for the Keep.
As they reached the end of the hall where it came out to the balcony area, with Mr. Harris leading the way, Kahlan heard a commotion behind her. Along with everyone else, she turned to look back down the hall. Mr. Burkett suddenly bolted out of his room. Unbelievably, he ran toward them in his stocking feet, fist raised in the air, the three soldiers chasing after him. One of the men stretched out, snatching for Mr. Burkett, but the wiry man twisted away. He was yelling drunken curses at Richard.
As the four of them raced out into the balcony, everyone turned to the threat. It wasn’t much of a threat, though, so Richard didn’t bother drawing his sword. He looked like he intended to simply hook the man with an arm and turn him over to the soldiers.
The Mord-Sith weren’t so casual about the threat from an unarmed, skinny, older man. They all had their Agiel to hand and looked like they intended him great violence. As Mr. Burkett charged out of the hall, yelling that Richard had no right to remove him after his years of service, something out of the corner of her eye caught Kahlan’s attention.
She heard their howls at the same time that she turned and saw them. Four or five Glee, in a tight group, had already materialized and were racing down the hall toward them with alarming speed, steam still trailing off their dark, wet bodies.
Just as they all turned to confront the threat, another group of the creatures they hadn’t seen materialize crashed through the center of their group from the opposite side, catching them all by surprise. Everyone ducked as claws flashed by and wicked, pointed teeth snapped. With Glee converging on them all from both directions at the same time, several of the Mord-Sith were blindsided and knocked to the floor by the tall, dark creatures going for Kahlan.
Richard’s arm swept behind, circling Kahlan’s waist. As he spun around, he took her from her feet and to the floor just as a claw swept by right over their heads.
A claw did catch one of the soldiers by surprise as he charged out of the hall after Mr. Burkett. It ripped through the leather armor and the flesh and bone under it.
Another one of the dark creatures swung at Mr. Burkett, ripping out his throat so deeply and with such force that the claw hooked his spine and threw the man flying. When he slammed into the short wall, his upper body flipped backward over the wall. Mr. Burkett plummeted to the stone floor far below.
As the dark, slimy creatures attacked from both sides, the Mord-Sith, after having scrambled to their feet, rammed their Agiel into the center of the tall monsters. Kahlan knew they bled; when she heard the shrieks, she knew that they also felt pain. By the sound of their shrieks, they felt no less pain than any human would under an Agiel.
Richard grabbed the arm of one as it stormed through the midst of the group, clawing wildly at them. He twisted the arm around as the creature’s weight carried it on past. Its arm wrenched around with enough force to partially rip it off. When it smacked the floor, the Glee began to dissolve into scribbles. In an instant it had vanished. Others the Mord-Sith caught also vanished before any more damage could be done.
A soldier swung his sword, taking the head off one Glee just before the wicked claws of another hooked his arm, tearing flesh from bone. Another claw ripped open his middle. The soldier fought in vain as he was being taken down and mauled to death.