Blood of the Fold

Hand over hand, propelled by fear, not only of Merissa, but also of the height, he started down the rib. Merissa headed for the stairs. As he descended, the rib steepened, becoming nearly vertical as it approached the edge of the dome.

Grunting with effort as he hurried, his fingers aching, Richard was overwhelmed by shame. How could he be so stupid? What was he thinking? It came to him with sickening comprehension.

The mriswith cape.

He remembered Berdine running out, holding Kolo's journal, screaming at him to take off the cape. He remembered reading in the journal how not only they, but their enemies, too, created things of magic that brought about the changes needed to give people certain properties, such as strength and stamina, or the power to focus a line of light into a destructive point, or the ability to see great distances, ever at night.

The mriswith cape must be one of those things, used to give wizards the ability to become invisible. Koto had mentioned how many of the weapons they developed had gone terribly awry. It could be, too, that the mriswith were developed by the enemy.

Dear spirits, what trouble had he caused? What had he done? He had to get the cape off his back. Berdine had been trying to warn him.

Wizard's Third Rule: Passion rules reason. He had been so passionate to get to Kahlan that he had not used his reason and listened to Berdine's warning. How was he going to stop the Order now? His folly had aided them.

Richard strained to hold the rib as it became nearly vertical. Ten more feet.

Merissa appeared in a doorway. He saw a bolt of lightning arc across the room. He let go, and dropped to the ground, wishing that he could fall faster. The loud crack of the lightning hurt his ears as it came perilously close to taking off his head He had to get away from her. He had to run.

"I've met your bride-to-be, Richard."

Richard froze in his tracks. "Where is she?"

"Come out of there, and we'll talk about it. I'll tell you all about how I'm going to enjoy hearing her scream."

"Where is she!"

Merissa's laughter echoed around the dome. "Right here, my student. Right here in Tanimura."

In a fury, Richard unleashed a bolt of lightning. It lit the chamber, thundering across the room to where he had seen her last. Stone chips trailing smoke sailed through the air. He only dimly wondered how he had done such a thing. Need.

"Why! Why would you want to hurt her?"

"Oh, Richard, it's not her I care about hurting. It is you. Her pain will give you pain; it's that simple. She is merely a means to your blood."

Richard eyed the passageways. "Why do you want my blood?"

As soon as he had finished asking, he ducked down and headed for a passageway.

"Because you have ruined everything. You locked my master back in the underworld. I was to have my reward. I was to have immortality. I did my part, but you ruined it."

A twisting bolt of black lightning sliced a clean void through a wall right beside him. She was using Subtractive Magic. She was a sorceress with unimaginable power, and she could tell where he was; she could sense him. Then why was she missing?

"But worse," she said as a slender finger tapped the gold ring through her lower Up, "because of you, I must serve that pig Jagang. You have no idea of the things he did to me. You have no idea of the things he makes me do. All because of you! All because of you, Richard Rahl! But I will make you pay. I have sworn to bathe in your blood, and I shall."

"What about Jagang? You're going to make him angry if you kill me."

Fire erupted behind him, racing him to next column.

"Quite the contrary. Now that you have done what was required of you, you are no longer of use to the dream walker. As a reward, I am being allowed to do away with you as I wish, and I have some grand wishes."

Richard realized he was not going to be able to get away from her like this. He could be behind a wall, and she would be able to sense him with her Han.

He thought again about Berdine, and just as he reached up and clutched a fistful of the mriswith cape to rip it off his back, he paused. Merissa wouldn't be able to see him with her Han if he was shrouded with the cape's magic. But the cape's magic was the force that created the mriswith.

Kahlan was a captive. Merissa said her pain would give him pain. He couldn't allow them to hurt Kahlan. He had no choice.

He flung the cape around himself, and vanished.

CHAPTER 48

That is the last of them, as I promised."

Verna stared into the eyes of a woman she had known for a hundred and fifty years. Her heart was sick. Known not well enough. There were many she had not known well enough.

"What does Jagang want with the Palace of the Prophets?"