Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

Most of Jillian's ancestors had been killed, but a number had been captured and turned over to the wizards from the Old World, who coveted their unique ability. Those people were used by the wizards as the raw material to create human weapons. What those wizards had conjured from the captives had become the dreamwalkers-men used not to cast dreams. but to invade them.

Now Jagang was the only living dreamwalker, the living link to the great war from three thousand years before, the war that had reignited. From what Richard had learned, a dreamwalker had been born into the world again because an enemy spy had gotten into the Temple of the Winds and tampered with magic banished there. Wizard Baraccus had found a solution-insuring that Richard would be born with both sides of the gift in order to counter that threat. Jillian's people were descended from the same stock Jagang had come from. His ancestors had once been dreamcasters, like Jillian.

And now Jillian was once again, as the priestess of the bones, about to fulfill her ancient calling of casting dreams to repel the invaders . . . with one exception.

Back in the great war Jillian's ancestors had failed. Everything Jiilian knew from the tellings spoke of casting dreams.

Richard thought that might have been why they failed.

He, instead, intended to cast nightmares.

"Do you have the nightmares fixed in your mind?" he asked in a quiet voice.

Jillian's copper-colored eyes opened, appearing in the blackness of the painted band. "Yes, Father Rahl. I never had nightmares before these cruel people from the Old World returned. I only had dreams. I never really knew what nightmares were." She swallowed. "Now I know nightmares."

"Someday, Jillian," Richard said as he bent and drew a starburst symbol before her, "I hope you can forget what nightmares are, but for now I need you to keep your thoughts focused on them."

"I promise, Lord Rahl. But I'm only a girl. Are you really sure that I can cast nightmares to all those men?"

Richard looked up into her eyes. "Those men have come to kill everything you love. You think up the nightmares, and Lokey will carry them to the men down in that camp-I will see to it."

Nicci squatted down beside Richard. "Jillian, don't think about how many men there are down there. It doesn't matter. Honestly. Where Lokey goes, he carries your dreams. As he flies over the camp, the nightmares will be dropping from his midnight black wings like an icy rain. It may not touch every man, but that doesn't matter. It will touch a great many, and that's all that counts."

Nicci gestured to the spell-forms before the girl. "These are the power, not you. These spells do the work of planting the nightmare over and over in those men, not you. Your only job is to think of the nightmare. See this spell here?" Nicci asked as she gestured to a continuous loop that folded in on itself. "This part endlessly multiplies your nightmare over and over."

"But it seems like it would take more effort than I can do."

With a small smile of reassurance, Richard reached out and laid a hand on Jillian's arm. "It is I who helps you cast the dreams, remember? You must only think them; it is I who casts them as needed. It's your thoughts along with my strength that does it."

"I can sure enough think of nightmares." She smiled a little, then. "And you're sure enough strong, Lord Rahl. I guess it makes sense when you both put it like that. Now I understand why I've needed you to cast dreams. That's why the priestess of the bones had to wait for you to return to us."

Richard patted her arm. "The other thing you need to remember is that after Lokey flies around the camp, you must send him to land on Jagang's tent. We want to give nightmares to as many men as possible, but Jagang is the focus of those nightmares, and that special dream with which I want to torment him, so when I whisper to you that it's time for Lokey to land, you think about Jagang in his tent. This spell here"-he pointed-"will send Lokey to perch by the man. When I tell you, all you have to do is to remember Jagang and Lokey will go to his tent."

Jillian nodded. "I remember that awful tent." Her copper-colored eyes, filling with tears, turned to Nicci. "And I sure enough know the nightmares that happen there."

Overhead, Lokey cawed and flapped his wings, eager to be away with his cargo of nightmares.

CHAPTER 50

Jennsen winced as the muscular guard twisted her arm and shoved her through the tent's opening. She stumbled but was able to keep herself from falling. After riding through the sprawling camp in the bright winter sunlight, she found it difficult to see in the somber royal quarters. She squinted, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. She could see the hulking shapes of guards to either side.