Blood of the Fold

Brogan waved off the threat. "No one is going to cause trouble, here in Aydindril, because we don't attend a social affair to meet a new tribal leader."

"Lord General, Kings Row be shoulder to shoulder with D'Haran soldiers. Every palace on the Row be surrounded, along with city administration buildings. The man who gave me the paper said he be here to 'escort' us to the Confessors' Palace. He said that if we are not out there soon, they would come in and get us. He had ten thousand troops standing behind him, watching me, as he said it.

"These men are not shopkeepers and farmers playing at being soldier for a few months; these be professional warriors, and they look very determined.

"I have faith in the Blood of the Fold to go against these men, if we could get to our main force, but we brought only a fist of the Fold with us into the city. Five hundred are not near enough men to fight our way out. We would not make it twenty yards before every one of us would be cut down."

Brogan glanced at Lunetta, standing against the wall. She was stroking and smoothing her colored patches, not paying any attention to the discussion. They might have only five hundred men in the city, but they also had Lunetta.

He didn't know what this Lord Rani's game was, but it didn't really matter; D'Hara was aligned with, and took orders from, the Imperial Order. It was probably just an attempt to put himself in higher standing within the Order. There were always those who wanted power, but didn't want to concern themselves with the moral imperative that went along with it.

"Very well. It will be dark soon, anyway. We will go to this ceremony, smile at the new Master Rahl, drink his wine, eat his food, and make him welcome. At dawn we leave Aydindril to the Imperial Order and be off after the Mother Confessor. ' He gestured to his sister. "Lunetta, come with us."

"And how will you find her?" Lunetta scratched her arm. "The Mother Confessor, Lord General, how will you find her?"

Tobias pushed his chair back and stood. "She be to the southwest. We have more than enough men to search. We will find her."

"Really?" Lunetta still displayed a streak of insolence from having used her power. "Tell me how you will know her."

"She be the Mother Confessor! How could we not know her, you stupid strega-nicha!"

One brow arched as her feral gaze rose to meet his eyes. "The Mother Confessor be dead. How can you see a dead person walking?"

"She not be dead. The cook knows the truth of that; you said so yourself. The Mother Confessor be alive, and we will have her."

"If what the old woman say be true, and a death spell was cast, then what would be its purpose? Tell Lunetta."

Tobias frowned. "To make people think she was killed so she could escape."

Lunetta smiled a sly smile. "And why is it they did not see her escape? For the same reason you will not find her."

"Stop talking your magic jabber and tell me what you be talking about."

"Lord General, if there be such a thing as a death spell, and it be used on the Mother Confessor, then it would only make sense that the magic would hide her identity. It would explain how she escaped; no one recognized her because of the magic around her. For the same reason, you will not recognize her either."

"Can you break it, break the spell?" Tobias stammered.

Lunetta chuckled. "Lord General, I never heard of such magic before. I know nothing about it."

Tobias realized his sister was right. "You know about magic. Tell me how we can know her."

Lunetta shook her head. "Lord General, I do not know how to see the strands of a wizard's web that was cast for the express purpose of hiding. I tell you only what would make sense, and that be that if such a spell were used to hide her, then we, too, would not recognize her."

He lifted a finger toward her. "You have magic. You know a way to show us the truth."

"Lord General, the old woman said that only a wizard could cast a death spell. If a wizard cast such a web, then to unravel it we must be able to see the strands of his web. I do not know how to see the truth through the magic's deception."

Tobias rubbed his chin as he thought it over. "See through the deception. But how?"

"A moth be caught in a spider's web because he cannot see the strands. We be caught in this web, the same as those who saw her beheading, because we cannot see its strands. I do not know how we can."

"Wizard," he murmured to himself. He gestured to the silver coin on the table. "When I asked her if there be a wizard here in Aydindril, she showed me that coin with a building on it."

"The Palace of the Prophets."

The name brought his head up. "Yes, that be what she called it. She said to ask you what it be. How do you know of it? Where did you hear about this Palace of the Prophets?"

Lunetta shrank back into herself and looked away. "Just after you be born. Mamma told me about it. It be a place where sorceresses — "

"Streganicha," he corrected.

She paused a moment. "It be a place where Streganicha train men to be wizards."