Blood of the Fold

"The things he tells me are becoming more and more unsound."

"The Creator? Unsound?"

Brogan's gaze slid over to meet his sister's. "Lunetta, I believe there is trouble. I believe the Creator is going insane."

CHAPTER 45

When the coach stopped, the mriswith climbed out, leaving the door open. Kahlan glanced out the window to one side and the door to the other, seeing that the mriswith were moving off to talk. The two of them were at last alone.

"What do you think is going on?" she whispered. "Where are we?"

Adie leaned to the side, looking out the window, "Dear spirits," she whispered in dismay, "we be in the heart of enemy territory."

"Enemy territory? What are you talking about? Where are we?"

"Tanimura," Adie whispered. "That be the Palace of the Prophets."

"The Palace of the Prophets! Are you sure?"

Adie straightened in the seat. "I be sure. I spent time here when I be younger, fifty years ago."

Kahlan stared incredulously. "You went to the Old World? You have been to the Palace of the Prophets?"

"It be a long time ago, child, and a long story. We not have time for the story just now, but it be after the Blood killed my Pell."

They rode until well after dark, and were on their way long before the sun came up each day, but Kahlan and Adie were at least able to get some sleep in the coach. The men riding horseback got little sleep. A mriswith, and sometimes Lunetta, always guarded them, and they hadn't been able to speak more than a few words in weeks. The mriswith didn't care if they slept, but had warned them what would happen if they spoke. Kahlan didn't doubt their word.

Over the weeks as they traveled south, the weather had become warmer, and she no longer shivered in the coach, she and Adie pressed together for a little warmth.

"I wonder why they brought us here?" Kahlan said.

Adie leaned closer. "What I wonder is why they haven't killed us,"

Kahlan peeked out the window to see a mriswith speaking with Brogan and his sister. "Because we are of more value to them alive, obviously."

"Value for what?"

"What do you think? Who would they want? When I tried to rally the Midlands, they sent that wizard to kill me, and I had to flee as Aydindril slipped into the hands of the Imperial Order. Who is forging the Midlands in opposition to them now?"

Adie's eyebrows went up above her white eyes. "Richard,"

Kahtan nodded. "That's all I can think of. They had started to take the Midlands, and were having success by getting lands to join with them. Richard changed the rules, and disrupted those plans by forcing the lands to surrender to him."

Kahlan stared off out the window. "As much as it hurts to admit it, Richard may have done the only thing that has a chance to save the people of the Midlands."

"How can we be used to get to Richard?" Adie patted Kahlan's knee. "I know he loves you, Kahlan, but he not be stupid."

"Neither is the Imperial Order."

"What else could it possibly be, then?"

Kahlan looked into Adie's white eyes. "Have you ever seen the Sanderians hunt a mountain lion? They tie one of their lambs to a tree, letting it bleat for its mother. Then they sit and wait."

"You think we be lambs tied to a tree?"

Kahlan shook her head. "The Imperial Order may be vicious and cruel, but they are not stupid. By now they will not believe Richard is, either. Richard would not trade one life in exchange for the freedom of all, but he has also shown them that he is not afraid to act. They could be tempting him to think he could effect a rescue without having to surrender anything."

"Do you think they be right?"

Kahlan sighed. "What do you think?"

Adie's cheeks pushed back in a humorless smirk. "As long as you be alive, he would draw his sword on a lightning storm."

Kahlan watched Lunetta climb down from her horse. The mriswith were walking away, toward the rear of the columns of crimson-caped men.

"Adie, we have to escape, or Richard will come after us. The Order must be counting on his coming, or we would be dead."

"Kahlan, I cannot even light a lamp with this cursed collar around my neck."

Kahlan sighed in frustration as she looked back out the window and saw the mriswith moving off into the dark woods. As they walked, they drew their capes around themselves and vanished.

"I know, I can't touch my power either."

"Then how can we escape?"

Kahlan watched the sorceress dressed in scraps of different-colored cloth as she approached the coach. "If we could turn Lunetta to our side, she could help us."

Adie let out a disagreeable grunt. "She will not turn against her brother." Adie's brow wrinkled in puzzled thought. "She be an odd one. There be something strange about her."

"Strange? Like what?"

Adie shook her head. "She touches her power all the time."

"All the time?"

"Yes. A sorceress, or a wizard for that matter, only calls upon their power when they need it. She be different. For some reason, she be touching her power all the time. I have never seen her not clutching it around herself, like her colored cloth patches. It be very odd."