Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

If he did, and Kahlan couldn't give him an answer that satisfied him, Jillian would be the one to pay the price.

So far the Sisters had not been able to find any dissimilarities between the three copies. Of course, as they had hesitantly pointed out to the emperor, dissimilarities would prove nothing. All three could be different and still be false copies. How were they to know? There was nothing to say that the newest book, even if it turned out to be different from the other two, was a true copy. Being different, in and of itself, didn't prove anything.

As far as Kahlan could see, the only real way to identify the one true copy would be if they had the original and all five copies. Despite his bluster and demands, Jagang had to know that as well. That was undoubtedly why he had people dedicated to locating the other books.

Be that as it may, Jagang still wanted the books checked for any discrepancy, so the Sisters were checking-one word at a time.

Jagang had given them ample time to go over the books. While he was greatly interested in discovering the truth of The Book of Counted Shadows, for the time being he was more interested in Nicci.

Ever since Nicci had been captured he had been obsessed with her. He had not taken another woman to his bed and had even forgone the Ja'La matches. It almost seemed to Kahlan as if he thought that if he could satisfactorily demonstrate to Nicci how profound his lust for her really was, then she would be convinced of his true feelings for her, and her defiance would melt away as she was won over.

For her part, Nicci had only become more detached.

Her dispassionate, distant attitude strangely attracted Jagang, but her defiance provoked him to violence and only made her ordeal worse. Kahlan couldn't imagine, though, when her turn came, being anything but defiant.

Several times, after a fit of wild rage, Jagang's anger had died out when he suddenly realized that he might have gone too far. On those occasions Sisters had been rushed in to try to revive Nicci. All the while as they worked desperately to save her life and heal her, Jagang paced with a worried, guilty look. Later, after she had been healed, he would regain his indignation and blame Nicci for driving him to such violence in the first place.

Sometimes, like the night before, he would leave Kahlan and Jillian in the outer room while he took Nicci inside to be alone with her for the night. Kahlan supposed that such privacy was his idea of tender romance. As Nicci had been led to the bedchamber she had shared a brief, covert gaze with Kahlan. It had been a look of shared understanding of the utter madness that gripped the world.

Jagang had been so distracted since having Nicci back that he had ignored just about everything else, from The Book of Counted Shadows to the Ja'La matches. Kahlan didn't like the Ja'La games, but she desperately wanted to see the man everyone called Ruben. She knew from daily reports shared between the guards that Commander Karg's team had so far won all their matches, but Kahlan wanted to see the point man with the strange designs painted on him, the man with the gray eyes, the man who knew her.

"Look here," Sister Ulicia said, tapping the page in one of the books. 'This formula is different from those two."

Kahlan watched their backs as both hunched over the table, comparing the books laid open before them. Jagang's two big bodyguards standing across the room, near the entrance to the tent, also kept an eye on the Sisters. The two regular soldiers-Kahlan's special guards-didn't appear to be interested in the Sisters; they were watching Kahlan. Kahlan, her face going red when she realized what they were looking at, pulled a thick skein of hair over the view provided by the missing top button of her shirt.

"Yes . . ." Sister Armina said in a drawl. "The constellation is different. Isn't that odd."

"It certainly makes the differences difficult to spot. Not only that, but look here. The azimuth angels are dissimilar." Sister Ulicia pulled one of the oil lamps closer. "They're different in all three copies."

Sister Armina was nodding as she looked between the books. "We never caught that before in the first two books. I always thought they were the same, but they're not."

"Being such a small thing it's easy to see why we missed it." Sister Ulicia gestured at the books. "This makes all three different."

"What do you think it means?"

Sister Ulicia folded her arms. "It can only mean that at least two have to be false copies, but in reality, for all we know, all three could be."

Sister Armina heaved an unhappy sigh. "So now we know something new, but it doesn't really tell us anything useful."

Sister Ulicia cast the other woman a sidelong glance. "His Excellency has a way of coming up with things I would never have expected him to find. Perhaps he will uncover the other copies and then we will at last have a means to be able to tell something for certain."