Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

Nor would killing Jagang stop those who had put the boxes of Orden in play, or the Chainfire spell, or the taint from the chimes, or the vast army who lay in wait, surrounding the palace, so eager for blood and plunder. This would not change any of that.

But Richard had wanted to give her the last gift of being able to see this small bit of justice done before her own life was snuffed out, along with the rest of them, by the Sisters invoking the power of Orden in service to the army devoted to the beliefs of the Fellowship of Order.

It was Richard's only way to thank her for all she had done, to allow her this one small bit of final salvation from the man who had so terribly abused her.

Nicci stepped over the high sill. Her prisoner, unable to protest, followed. While her gift was limited within the People's Palace, it was enough to easily use the unique nature of the Rada'Han. She could have dropped Jagang to the ground in overwhelming agony, but she used only the power necessary to overcome his unwillingness to follow her silent directives.

Outside the second door several officers of the First File, men who had brought Jagang down to his caged prize, waited. The passageway was so low and cramped that the men had to hunch under the low ceiling and stand in a line because they wouldn't fit side by side.

They were shocked to see Nicci now in command of the emperor.

A big man in a uniform, the captain of the prison guards, was there with them. The man had been kind to her, offering to bring her anything she wanted. She now had what she wanted.

"Captain Lerner," she said, "if you would be so kind as to show us out of this maze?"

He gazed at the muscular man behind her in a collar and then smiled at her. "I would be only too happy to do so."

Once up into the immense halls of the palace, Nicci made Jagang lead the way. She followed close behind him, making sure that he kept going, that he talked to no one, that he acknowledged no one. He tried mightily to overcome the power of the collar. It was ridiculously easy for Nicci to overwhelm all of his resistance, all of his might and fury. He was as helpless as a puppet.

Throughout the palace, men of the Imperial Order bowed to him as he passed. Nicci didn't allow Jagang to acknowledge them. The men of the Order were used to his superior arrogance, his indifference to them, so they thought nothing of seeing him march past without so much as a look.

There was no easy way to get to the Garden of Life. The entire palace was laid out in the form of a power spell, designed to enhance the gift of the Lord Rahl and interfere with the gift of any other. To get anywhere, one had to navigate hallways that were really elements of the spell-form. The major lines of the form were the vast corridors. The subordinate elements were formed by smaller halls.

The entire palace was a maze of corridors with columns and halls guarded by rows of statues. Much of the interior of the palace was done in stone beautifully crafted in extravagant designs. The whole palace, while being a spell-form, was also a city, with streets made of the spell's corridors and halls.

But getting anywhere required maneuvering through the complex lines of that spell-form. That made getting anywhere time-consuming. The journey from the dungeons up to the Garden of Life was a long one. As they made their way past places with skylights, Nicci saw that the sky was just beginning to take on a hint of blue.

By the time they reached the garden level of the palace, the sun was just up. The first warm rays coming in through the east windows were touching the white marble on the opposite walls.

Nicci's intention was to go into the garden with Jagang to see Richard one last time. She had found out from brief questions that Richard had somehow made it back. Jagang didn't know how. Nicci supposed that it didn't really matter, now. He was back, and she wanted to see him one last time before the end. She wanted to let him see Jagang so that he would know that at least the emperor would not enjoy the terrible fruit of the long war he had carried into the new world. After all he had done, Richard deserved at least to know of that small victory.

When they went through the double doors into the Garden of Life, Nicci could see between the trees that the sun was just touching the altar. Half a dozen Sisters were gathered around Sister Ulicia. She was standing before the boxes.

Even as the boxes were bathed in the sunlight, it looked like they were black voids in the world. The sunlight did nothing to illuminate the boxes. They, instead, looked like they were pulling that sunlight in, taking it down to where it would never be seen again.

Jagang struggled mightily to move closer, to fight off the control of the collar, but he couldn't. Nicci kept him in place, in the back, where his guards thought he was merely watching and didn't want to be disturbed.