Blood of the Fold

Richard could feel the control around her voice. This woman wanted something more than life itself.

"Problems with the dream walker, Ulicia? Well, I wouldn't know. I sleep like a baby."

Richard usually knew when a person with the gift was touching their Han; he could sense it, or see it in their eyes. The air about these women fairly sizzled. There seemed enough power bottled up behind all those eyes to melt a mountain. Apparently, it wasn't enough. A dream walker must be a formidable opponent.

"All right, Ulicia, lets get to the point. I want Kahlan, and you want something. What is it?"

Ulicia fingered the ring through her lip as she looked away from his eyes. "This has to be decided before we sleep. I have only just told my Sisters of the plan I devised. We couldn't find Nicci to include her. If we go to sleep before this is resolved, and any of us dreams of it…"

"Resolved? I want Kahlan. Just tell me what you want."

Ulicia cleared her throat. "We want to swear loyalty to you."

Richard stared, unable to blink. He wasn't sure he had just heard what he thought he had heard. "You're all Sisters of the Dark. You know me, and you all want to kill me. How can you break your oath to the Keeper?"

Ulicia's iron gaze came up. "I did not say that we wished to do that. I said we would like to swear loyalty to you, in this, the world of life. I don't think, in view of the overall picture, that the two are incompatible."

"Not incompatible! Are you crazy, too!"

Her eyes took on an ominous set. "Do you want to die? Do you want Kahlan to die?"

Richard made an effort to calm his racing mind. "No."

"Then be quiet and listen. We have something you want. You have something we want. Each of us has conditions. For instance, you want Kahlan, but you want her alive and well. Am I correct?"

Richard returned the ominous glare in kind. "You know it is. But what makes you think I would make a pact with you? You tried to kill Prelate Annalina."

"Not only tried, but succeeded."

Richard closed his eyes with an anguished groan. "You admit to murdering her, and then you expect I would trust. ."

"I'm running out of patience, young man, and your bride-to-be is running out of time. If you don't get her away before Jagang gets here, I can assure you, there is no hope you will ever see her again. You have no time to search."

Richard swallowed. "All right. I'm listening."

"You put the lock back on the Keeper's gateway to this world. You thwarted the plans we laid. In so doing, you diminished the Keeper's power in this world, restoring the balance between him and the Creator. In the balance you created, Jagang makes his move to take the world for himself.

"He has also taken us. He can come to us any time he wishes. We are his prisoners, no matter where we are. He has demonstrated to us just how unpleasant a captor he can be. There is no way for us to escape him, but one."

"You mean the bond to me."

"Yes. Now, if we do as Jagang has instructed, then we continue on in his good graces, as it were. While it is… unpleasant, at least we live. We want to live.

"If we swear fidelity to you, we can break the hold Jagang has on us, and escape."

"You mean you want to kill him," Richard observed.

Ulicia shook her head. "We want never to see his face again. We don't care what he does, we just want out of his clutches.

“I will tell you the truth of it. We will return to our work of bringing our Master, the Keeper, to dominance. If we succeed, we will be rewarded. I don't know if it's possible for us to succeed, but that is the risk you will have to bear."

"What do you mean, that's the risk I'll have to bear? If you're bonded to me, then you have to work toward my ends: fighting against the Keeper and the Imperial Order."

Ulicia's lips spread with a cunning smile. "No, my boy. I've thought this out very carefully. Here is my offer: We swear fidelity to you, you ask us where Kahlan is, and we tell you. In return, you can ask nothing else of us, and must allow us to leave immediately. You won't see us, we won't see you."

"But if you work to free the Keeper, that's against me, and violates the bond. It won't work!"

"You are looking at it through your eyes. The protection your bond provides is invoked through the conviction of the person bonded — their doing what they think is called for by their fidelity.

"You want to take the world. You think this is for the good of the people of the world. Have all the people you've tried to win to your side believed you, and stayed to stand with you? Or have some seen your benevolent offers as something else, as abuse, and fled in fear of you?"

Richard remembered the people leaving Aydindril. "I guess I can understand, in a way, but. ."

"We don't view loyalty through your moral filter; we view our loyalty by our own standards. To our sensibilities, as Sisters of the Dark, as long as we are doing nothing that is directly harming you, we will not be breaking our loyalty because not harming you is definitely to your benefit."