Blood of the Fold

Once they were on the other side of the river and not far into the city, the night vanished in a harsh glare that cast sudden inky shadows pointing away from the palace. The two of them ducked behind the plastered wall of a closed-up shop and, squatting down, gasped to caich their breath. Richard peeked around the side of the building and saw dazzling light blazing from all the windows in the palace, even those in the high towers. Light seemed to be oozing through the joints in the stone.

"Can you run some more?" he asked as he panted.

"I didn't want to stop," she said.

Richard knew the city well between the palace and the countryside. He led Kahlan though the confused, frightened, ululating mass of people, up streets tighl with buildings and those wide with trees, until they reached the outskirts of Tanimura.

Halfway up the hill out of the valley where the city lay, he felt a hard thud ir. the ground that nearly took his feet out from under him. Without looking back, Richard swept an arm around Kahlan and dove with her into a low cut in the granite. Sweaty and exhausted, they clung together as the ground shook.

They stuck their heads up just in time to see the light ripping apart the massive towers and stone walls of the Palace of the Prophets as if they were paper before a hurricane. The whole of Halsband Island seemed to rend. Parts of trees and huge chunks of lawns lifted into the air along with stone of every size. A blinding flash drove a dome of dark debris before it. The river was stripped of water and bridges.

The curtain of light expanded outward with a clacking roar. The city beyond the island somehow stood up against the fury.

Overhead, the sky lit as if a celestial vault were flaring in sympathy with the bedazzling core below. The skins of the shimmering bell of light overhead cascaded to the ground miles away from the city. Richard remembered that boundary; it was the outer shield that kept him here when he wore a Rada'Han.

"Bringer of death, indeed," Kahlan whispered as she watched, awestruck. "I didn't know you could do such a thing."

"Neither did I," Richard said under his breath.

A blast of air tore at the grass as it roared headlong up the hill. They ducked down as a roiling wall of sand and dirt raced past.

They cautiously sat up when all went still. Night had returned, and in the sudden darkness, Richard couldn't see much below, but he knew — the Palace of the Prophets was gone.

"You did it, Richard," Kahlan said at last.

"We did it," he answered as he stared down at the dead, dark hole in the center of the city lights.

"I'm glad you brought that book. I want to know what else.it says about you." A smile began to spread on her lips. "I guess Jagang won't be living there."

"I guess not. Are you all right?"

"Fine," she said. "But I'm glad it's over."

"I'm afraid it's only just begun. Come on, the sliph will get us back to Aydindril."

"You still haven't told me what this sliph is."

"I don't think you would believe me. You'll just have to see it for yourself."

"Quite impressive, Wizard Zorander," Ann said, turning away.

Zedd gave a dismissive grunt. "Not my doing."

Ann wiped the tears from her cheeks, glad for the darkness so he couldn't see them, but she had to work to keep her voice from betraying her emotion. "You may not have thrown on the torch, but you did the work of stacking the pyre. Quite impressive. I've seen a light web tear apart a room, but this…"

He laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Ann."

"Yes, well, what must be, must be."

Zedd squeezed her shoulder as if to say he understood. "I wonder who direw the torch?"

"The Sisters of the Dark can use Subtractive Magic. One of them must have accidentally ignited the light web."

Zedd peered over at her in the dark. "Accidentally?" He took his hand back as he voiced only a dubious snort.

"That had to have been it," she said as she sighed.

"A little bit more than an accident, I would say." She detected a hint of pride in his wistful whisper.

"Like what?"

He ignored her question. "We'd better find Nathan."

"Yes," Ann said, suddenly remembering the prophet. She squeezed Holly's hand. "This is where we left him. He has to be around here somewhere."

Ann stared off toward the moonlit hills in the distance. She could see a group of people moving up the north road: a coach and a band of people, mostly on horseback. There were too many not to be able to sense them. It was her Sisters of the Light. Thank the Creator; they had gotten away after all.

"I thought you could find him by that infernal collar,"

Ann began casting about in the brush. "I can, and it tells me he should be right here somewhere. Perhaps the blast injured him. Since the spell was destroyed, he had to have been here doing his part with the outer shield, so maybe he was hurt. Help me look."