Blood of the Fold

"Yes. Hurry. I have to go inside to get a friend out. You can't let your man bring his team through this way, though; the palace grounds are becoming a battlefield. He'll never make it.

"The stables are at the north end. That's the way we're leaving. I have Sisters guarding the small bridge there. Have him head north to the first farm on the right with a stone wall around the garden. That's our secondary meeting place, and it's secure. For the moment, anyway."

"I'll hurry," Kahlan said.

Verna caught her arm. "We can't wait for you if you don't get back here in time. I must get a friend and then we must escape."

"I don't expect you to wait. Don't worry, I have to get away, too. I think I'm the bait to draw Richard here."

"Richard!"

"Another long story, but I have to get away before they can use me to lure him here."

The night suddenly lit, as if by silent lightning, except it didn't go out like lightning. They all turned to the southeast and saw massive balls of flame boiling up into the night sky. Thick black smoke billowed into the air. It seemed the entire harbor was aflame. Huge ships were thrown into the air atop colossal columns of water.

The ground suddenly shook, and at the same time the air boomed with the rumbling sound of distant explosions.

"Dear spirits," Kahlan said. "What's going on?" She glanced about. We're running out of time. Adie, stay with the Sisters. I hope to be back soon."

"I can get the Rada'Han off," Verna called out, but too late. Kahlan had already dashed away into the shadows.

Verna took Adie's arm. "Come on. I'll take you to some of the other Sisters behind the wall. One of them will get that thing off you while I go inside."

Verna's heart pounded as she slipped through the halls inside the prophet's compound after leaving Adie with the others. As she moved deeper into the dark halls, she braced herself for the possibility that Warren was dead. She didn't know what they had done to him, or if they had decided to simply eliminate him. She didn't think she could endure it if she were to find his body.

No. Jagang wanted a prophet to help him with the books. Ann had warned her, what seemed ages ago, to get him away at once.

The thought entered her mind that maybe Ann wanted her to get Warren away to keep the Sisters of the Dark from killing him because he knew too much. She put the troubling thoughts from her mind as she scanned the halls for any sign that a Sister of the Dark might have slipped into the building to hide from the battle.

Before the door to the prophet's apartments, Verna took a deep breath, and then moved into the inner hall, through the layers of shields that had kept Nathan a prisoner in the place for near to a thousand years, and now kept Warren.

She breached the inner door into the gloom. The far double doors to the prophet's small garden stood open, letting in the warm night air and a shaft of moonlight. A candle on a side table was lit, but provided little illumination.

Verna's heart pounded as she saw someone rise from a chair.

"Warren?"

"Verna!" He rushed forward. "Thank the Creator you escaped!"

Verna felt a clutch of dismay as her hopes and longings sparked her old fears. She retreated from the brink. She shook a finger at him. "What kind of foolishness was that, sending me your dacra! Why didn't you use it and save yourself — to escape! That was reckless sending it to me. What if something had happened? You already had it, and you let it out of your hands! What were you thinking?"

He smiled. "I'm glad to see you, too, Verna."

Verna dammed up her feelings behind a gruff reply. "Answer my question."

"Well, first of all, I've never used a dacra, and worried I might do something wrong, and then we would lose our only chance. Secondly, I have this collar around my neck, and unless I get it off, I can't get through the shields. I feared that if I couldn't get Leoma to take it off, if she would rather die than do it, then it would all be for naught.

"Third," he said, taking a tentative step toward her, "if only one of us was to have a chance to get away, I wanted it to be you."

Verna stared at him a long moment, a lump rising in her throat. She could help herself no longer and threw her arms around his neck.

"Warren, I love you. I mean I really truly love you."

He embraced her tenderly. "You have no idea how long I dreamed of hearing you say those words, Verna. I love you, too."

"What about my wrinkles?"

He smiled a sweet, warm, glowing Warren smile. "Someday, when you get wrinkles, I'll love them, too."

For that, and everything else, she let herself go and kissed him.

A small knot of crimson-caped men burst around the corner, intent on killing him. He spun into them, kicking one in the knee as he brought his knife up into the gut of a second. Before their swords could block him, he had cut another's throat and broken a nose with an elbow.

Richard was livid — lost in the thundering rage of the magic storming through him.