Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

"I don't care what trifle you have rolled up in your bedroll. You should have left it out. The boxes are more important."

Kahlan could only stare, unable to move because of the force keeping her flattened to the wall, and unable to talk because of the force of pain crushing her mind. It felt like ice picks were being slowly shoved and twisted into her ears. Her ankles and wrists twitched involuntarily. She gasped with each throbbing wave of agony wrenching through her head, trying, but unable to squirm away from the piercing pain.

"Now," Sister Ulicia said in a low, menacing voice that carried deadly threat, "do you think you can do that? Do you think you can go back up there and roll the other two boxes in your bedroll and bring them back to me like you should have done in the first place?"

Kahlan tried to talk, but couldn't. She nodded instead, desperate to agree, desperate for the pain to stop. She could feel the blood running from her ear and the side of her head soaking the collar of her shirt. She was on her tiptoes, pressed back, wishing she could melt through the wall in order to get away from Sister Ulicia. The pain wouldn't let up enough for her to catch a breath.

"Do you remember seeing some of the hundreds and hundreds of big, lonely soldiers quartered down in the lower reaches of this place as we were coming up?" Sister Ulicia asked.

Kahlan nodded again.

"Well, if you fail me again, then, when I'm done breaking every bone in your body and making you suffer the agony of a thousand deaths, I'm then going to heal you enough so that I can sell you to those soldiers down there to be their barracks whore. That will be where you spend the rest of your life, being passed from one stranger to another with no one to care what happens to you."

Kahlan knew that Sister Ulicia never made empty threats. The Sister was absolutely ruthless. Kahlan averted her eyes as she sucked back a sob, unable to stand the Sister's scrutiny any longer.

CHAINFIRE 581

Sister Ulicia seized Kahlan's jaw and turned her face back. "Are you certain that you understand the price should you fail me again?"

Kahlan, her chin held firm, managed to nod.

She felt the pressure pinning her to the wall suddenly release. She collapsed to her knees, gasping with the waves of searing pain all along the left side of her face. She didn't know if any bones were broken, but it certainly felt like it.

"What's going on here?" A soldier asked.

Sisters Ulicia and Tovi turned and smiled at the man. He glanced down at Kahlan, frowning. She stared up pleadingly at him, hoping to be rescued from these monsters. The man looked up, his mouth open, about to say something to the Sisters, but then he never did. He looked from Sister Ulicia's smile to Tovi's, and smiled himself.

"Is everything all right, ladies?"

"Oh, yes," Sister Tovi said with a jovial chuckle. "We were just about to have a rest on the bench, here. I was complaining about my backache, that's all. We were both saying what a nuisance it is to get older."

"I guess it is." He bowed his head. "Good day, then, ladies."

He walked off without ever acknowledging Kahlan's existence. If he saw her, he forgot about her before he could say anything. Kahlan realized that it was the way she, too, seemed to forget things about herself.

"Get up," the voice over her growled.

Kahlan struggled to her feet. Sister Ulicia jerked Kahlan's pack around in front again. She flipped back the flap and dragged out the sinister black box wrapped in Kahlan's satiny white dress.

She handed the bundle to Sister Tovi. "We've already been here too long. We're starting to draw attention. Take this and get going."

"But that's mine!" Kahlan cried out as she grabbed for the dress.

Sister Ulicia backhanded her hard enough to make her teeth slam together. The blow knocked her sprawling. Lying on her side on the floor, Kahlan drew her legs up as she cradled her head in agony. Blood was smeared all over the marble. She shook as the pain bore down and would not let up.

"You want me to leave without you?" Sister Tovi asked as she tucked the box wrapped in the white dress under her arm.

"I think it would be best. It will be safest if we get this box on its way while this worthless bitch goes back to get the others. If it takes as long as the first one, I'd just as soon not have us both standing around here in the hall waiting for soldiers to decide to have a look. We don't need a battle; we need to slip away without a trace."

"If we were questioned it wouldn't do to have them find we had one of the boxes of Orden," Sister Tovi agreed. "I should just start out, then, and wait for you somewhere? Or keep going until I reach our destination?"

"You'd best not stop for now." Sister Ulicia motioned Kahlan to her feet as she spoke to Sister Tovi. "Sisters Cecilia, Armina, and I will meet back up with you once we get to where we're going."