Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

"The alternative is that I let you men do your job and present the steel to keep the Order from choosing instead to run rampant through our lands.

"Meanwhile, I pledge to do my job of being the magic against magic. I will do what only I can and work to find a way to defeat the enemy without any of you men having to lose your life in battle with them. I want to find a way, with my power, to banish or destroy them before we have to fight them.

"I can't guarantee that I will succeed. If I fail, I will die in the attempt and you men will have to face the enemy."

"Do you think you can stop them with magic of some sort?" Another man asked?

Nicci jumped up beside him. "Lord Rahl has already set people in the Old World against Jagang's forces. We have fought battles in their own homeland in the hopes of taking away their support.

"If you insist on keeping Lord Rahl here, with you, then you are wasting his singular talent, and you might die as a result. I ask, as one who fights at his side, that you let him be the Lord Rahl, let him do as he must, while you do as you must."

"I couldn't say it any better," Richard told them. "There it is, then. That is the choice I give you."

Unexpectedly, men began going to their knees. Far and wide dust rose as men shuffled to make space to kneel down.

In one voice, the chant began.

"Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours."

Richard watched out over the sea of men as the sun broke the horizon. The devotion was repeated a second time, and then a third time, as was customary in the field. Once it was done, men began to return to their feet.

"I guess that's your answer, Lord Rahl," General Meiffert said. "Go get the bastards."

The men cheered their agreement.

Richard hopped down and took Nicci's hand to help her down. She ignored the hand and jumped down of her own accord. Richard turned to Cara.

"Well, I have to go. We're in a hurry. Look, Cara, I want you to know that I would be fine with it if you would like to stay with — the army."

A dark frown descended over Cara as she folded her arms. "Are you crazy?" She looked up over her shoulder at the general. "I told you, the man is crazy. See what I have to put up with?"

General Meiffert nodded seriously. "I don't know how you do it, Cara."

"Training," she confided. She trailed her fingertips across his cheek, smiling up at him in a way Richard had never seen her do before. "Take care of yourself, General."

"Yes, ma'am." He smiled at Nicci before bowing his head. "As per your orders, Mistress Nicci."

Richard's mind was already elsewhere. "Come on. Let's get going."

CHAPTER 66

Marching down the frame and panel hall, Rikka leading the way, Cara and Nicci in tow, Richard reached the intersection and turned down a stone passageway with a towering vaulted ceiling that soared up for nearly two hundred feet. Fluted columns to the sides rose up at evenly spaced intervals. Through large windows at the top the massive exterior buttresses that supported the lofty walls could be seen. Streamers of light angled in high overhead and from small round windows down lower. Their boot strikes echoed like hammers through the cold hall.

Richard's cape that looked like it was made from spun gold billowed behind him as if in a gathering storm. The gold symbols around the black tunic fairly glowed in the muted light. Passing each shaft of sunlight, the silver emblems in his boots, on his wide, multilayered leather belt, and on his leather-padded wristbands sent blades of light flashing around them, announcing the arrival of a war wizard.

The fury of any Mord-Sith was enough to cause most people's blood to pause in their veins, but cold anger on Cara's attractive features seemed capable of turning that stilled blood to ice. To his other side the former Death's Mistress in black looked no less formidable. From the first time he'd met her, Richard could almost hear the air around Nicci crackle with her power and it was doing that now.

Richard passed padded chairs and tables set in niches. Carpets at angles stuck partly into the hall in places, inviting people into quiet, cozy nooks. Richard skirted the carpets because the sounds of his boots on polished granite suited him. None of those with him walked across the carpets, either. With the reverberation coming back at them from the long hall, the sound built until it sounded almost like an invading army pouring through the Keep.

Rikka turned to him without slowing. She gestured to the right. "They're in here, Lord Rahl."