Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

Even though it felt strange to be back, the camp itself was no different than she remembered. It was the usual jumble of men, tents, animals, and equipment. The only difference was that as it sat unmoving for so long it was all beginning to take on the look of rot and decay. Firewood out on the Azrith Plain was virtually nonexistent, so fires were few and small, leaving the whole place gripped by a kind of grim gloom. Sloppy midden heaps growing everywhere among the men drew clouds of flies. With so many animals and men in the same place for so long the smell was worse than the usual stench.

The crush of unkempt men crowding in all around, which she had never paid a great deal of attention to in the past, was unnerving. They barely looked human. In many ways they weren't. In the past, not caring what happened to her, Nicci had been indifferent to these brutes. Now, since she cared about her life, it was different. More than that, though, in the past she had always known that she had the use of her power if their fear of her for some reason didn't keep them away. Now she could only count on their fear to keep them at arm's length.

It was a long walk through hundreds of thousands of men to reach her destination, but because the camp had been in place for so long trails had become established. In places trails had widened into roads that had gradually pushed aside tents and corrals. Now, as Nicci walked those roads, trailed by her entourage, wide-eyed men lined the way, watching.

Beyond the immediate silence of the men standing close by staring at her as she passed, the camp was a noisy place, even at this late hour. Behind her was the sound of the work on the ramp, wagons rolling, rock scraping and tumbling, and men calling out in unison as they pulled on heavy lines. In the camp all around the voices of soldiers laughing, talking, and arguing carried through the cold night air. She heard orders being yelled over the rhythmic sound of hammers ringing.

She could also hear the distant roar of crowds cheering for Ja'La games still going on even at this late hour. Sometimes collective boos of disapproval rose into the night air, only to be drowned out by wild yells of support. During runs with the broc men sometimes chanted shouts for their team to score.

As she made her way past a corral filled with huge warhorses, and then a line of empty supply wagons, the command tents came into view. Beneath a starlit sky flags atop the tents fluttered in the cold breeze. The sight of the largest tent, the emperor's tent, threatened to drain her of courage. She wanted to run, but she was not going to be able to run ever again.

This was the place where Nicci's whole life caught up with her.

This was the place where it all ended.

Rather than avoid the inevitable, she marched purposefully toward it. She didn't slow for the first of the checkpoints in the outer rings of protection around the command area. The big men standing watch eyed her as she approached. Their gazes also took in the contingent of the emperor's personal guard marching behind her. She was glad that she happened to be wearing a black dress because that was what she had always worn when these men would have seen her in the past. She wanted them to recognize her. A brief glare insured that none accosted her.

Each successive layer of men in closer to the center of the compound was more trusted. Each ring of men around the command tents had their own units, methods, and equipment. Each wanted to be the ones to stop any harm from reaching their emperor. They each had different protocol for entering their area of responsibility.

Nicci ignored those protocols. She was Death's Mistress, the emperor's Slave Queen. She stopped for no one. No one challenged her.

Jagang's tent was set back in a grouping of larger tents but, unlike all the other tents in the camp, it had ample space around it. Sisters patrolling the area took note of Nicci, as did the gifted young men she saw, but their gazes fell away when Nicci fixed them in her glare. The guards, too, all watched her but tried to be less obvious about it.

Nicci was encouraged to see that none of these people saw her as anything but what she had been when last among them.

She saw then a strange sight. Besides a cadre of Jagang's personal guards standing to either side of the heavy hanging covering the opening into his tent, there were other soldiers as well-regular soldiers. Pacing back and forth, they, too, appeared to be guarding the tent. She couldn't imagine why in the world regular soldiers would be inside the emperor's compound, much less guarding his tent. Such men had never before been trusted inside the command area.