Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

As they moved onward through the broad corridors, they passed countless burned corpses frozen in grotesque poses. The white marble walls bore scorch marks where men, on fire, had crashed blindly into them and left their impression. Those sooty silhouettes looked a little like manifestations of ghosts, except for the smears of blood that stood as mute evidence that it had been men who had made the marks, not apparitions.

In the rooms and passageways to the sides Richard saw yet more dead Imperial Order soldiers. They had been using the blocked-off corridors as hidden staging areas.

"You kept your promise," Nicci said in a tired tone of not simply gratitude but amazement.

"My promise?"

She smiled through her crippling weariness. "You promised that you would get that thing off my neck. When you said it I never believed you. I couldn't answer, but I never believed you could do it."

"Lord Rahl always keeps his promises," Berdine said.

Nicci smiled as best she could. "I guess he does."

Nathan spotted them all making their way down the corridor so he stopped at an intersection and waited for them to catch up. He had been coming from a hallway to the right.

Astonishment overcame him. "Nicci! What happened?"

"Richard's gift returned. He was able to get the collar off my neck."

"And then a beast appeared," Cara added.

Nathan's brow drew tight as he peered at Richard. "The beast that's after you? What happened to it, then?"

"Lord Rahl shot it," Berdine said. "Those special bolts for the crossbows that you found worked."

"This time," Nicci said under her breath.

"I'm relieved they ended up being of use," Nathan said as he laid a hand on Nicci's head. "I had thought they might," he mumbled absently as his thumb lifted Nicci's eyelid. As he looked closely into her eye he made a sound in his throat that said he wasn't entirely pleased by what he saw there. "You need to rest," he finally announced.

"I know. I will, soon."

"What about all the corridors down here?" Richard asked Nathan.

"We've just finished clearing them all. Found quite a few Order soldiers trying to hide. Fortunately, the area they had blocked off with the slab of stone had no other way up into the palace. It was a dead end."

"That's a relief," Richard said.

One of the officers of the First File leaned out past Nathan. "We eliminated them all. Fortunately they hadn't yet gotten vast numbers up into the palace. We've cleared everything all the way to the tomb room where they got in. We have men there, waiting for us."

"I was just about to do as you suggested," Nathan said, "and purge the catacombs of any more of them."

"Then we need to collapse some tunnels, or something, to make sure that no one else can get in." Richard knew that enemy soldiers were not their biggest worry. Sisters of the Dark getting into the palace could be far worse.

"I'm not sure that's possible," Nicci said.

Richard glanced over at her. "Why not?"

"Because we don't know how extensive the catacombs actually are. We can shut off the place where they got in, but they very well might find another passageway that we're unaware of in a completely different area. There could be miles and miles of tunnels down there. The whole network down there is not just vast but a complete unknown."

Richard sighed. "We need to think of something."

No one spoke up to argue.

As they made their way through the white marble corridor Nicci glanced over at Richard with a look that he recognized. It was the look of a disapproving teacher.

"We need to talk about those symbols in red paint all over you."

"Yes," Nathan said with a frown. "I would like to be a part of that conversation."

Richard cast a look Nicci's way. "Good. While we're having those discussions, I'd like to hear all about how you put the boxes of Orden in play in my name."

Nicci winced just a little. "Oh, that."

Richard leaned toward her a little. "Yes, that."

"Well, like you said, we'll have to talk about it. As a matter of fact, some of those symbols painted on you have a direct bearing on the boxes of Orden."

Richard wasn't at all surprised by that. He knew that some of the symbols had to do with the power of Orden. He even knew what they meant. That was, after all, why he had painted them on his men and on himself in the first place.

Nicci pointed. "Here it is. This is where they got in-in that tomb."

Richard gazed around as they entered the rather simple room. Words in High D'Haran were inscribed in the stone walls, words about those long buried. The casket had been pushed aside, exposing the stairway down. When they had rushed up, getting back into the palace from the catacombs, it had been pitch black, so Richard hadn't seen their surroundings. Adie had been leading them in total darkness. Richard hadn't even known where they were once they'd gotten back in the palace.

Nicci gestured down into the darkness. "This is where the Sisters first got in."

"So they still have Ann, then," Nathan said after looking down the dark well.