Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

The bottom of the pit was an uneven mess where thousands of men had toiled at digging and loading. Since some of the ground was softer and easier to dig, those places were deeper. In other spots, where it was more rocky and harder to dig, there were mounds nearly twice Kahlan's height that had yet to be reduced.

Following the messenger through the disorder, Jagang descended into one of the deeper areas. Kahlan followed them down into the muck, her guards staying close around her. She wanted to stay close to Jagang in case he became distracted by whatever was in the pit. If she got a chance, no matter the risk, she would try to kill him.

The messenger squatted down as they came to a halt. "This is it, Excel­lency."

He slapped his hand on something just peeking up from the ground. Kahlan frowned, looking along with everyone else at the smooth expanse that had been exposed.

The messenger had been right, it definitely did not look natural. She could see what looked like joints. It did look like a structure buried deep in the ground.

"Clean it off," Jagang said to some of the foremen from the project who had come down into the pit.

Apparently, as per standing orders, when the structure had been discov­ered all work was abandoned and the workers pulled out until Jagang could personally inspect the find. The form was slightly rounded, as if they had uncovered the very top portion of a massive, long, rounded shape.

As men worked with shovels and brooms, Jagang directing where they dug, it quickly became apparent that the messenger had been accurate in his report: it did look like the exterior of a barrel-vaulted ceiling.

As the men cleaned it off, Kahlan could see that the structure was made of large stones cut to precise shapes to make up the curve of the arch. It reminded her of nothing so much as a buried building, except that there was no roof, just the exposed outer structure of an interior vaulted ceiling.

Kahlan could not imagine what such a thing could be doing buried all the way out here on the Azrith Plain. There was no telling how many hun­dreds of even thousands of years whatever was inside had been entombed.

When enough of the dirt and debris had been cleared off, Jagang crouched down and ran his hand over the wet stone. His fingers traced a few of the joints. They were so tight that not even a thin knife blade would have slipped between them.

"Get some tools down here-pry bars and such," he said. "I want this opened. I want to know what's down inside it."

"At once, Excellency," one of the construction bosses said. "Use your assistants instead of the laborers." Jagang stood, sweeping an arm around at the general area. "I want this whole place cordoned off. I don't want any of the regular soldiers anywhere near here. I will have some of my guards stationed here to watch the site at all times. This area is to be as restricted as my own tents."

Kahlan knew that if any of the soldiers were to get into a tomb-or whatever ancient thing it was that they'd found-they would loot everything of value. The plundered rings he wore said that Jagang knew the same thing.

Kahlan glanced up when she noticed some of Jagang's guards rushing down the slope into the pit. They pushed their way through the construction foremen and other guards to get in near the emperor. "We got her," one of the breathless men reported. Jagang smiled a slow, wicked grin. "Where is she?" The man pointed. "Just up there, Excellency."

Jagang glanced briefly at Kahlan. She didn't know what he was up to, but the look he gave her ran a chill up her spine. "Bring her down here, now," Jagang told the man. He and another of the guards hurried back up the slope to get whoever it was they had. Kahlan could not imagine who the men had been talking about, and why it gave Jagang such satisfaction.

As they waited, the construction supervisors continued to expose more of the buried structure. In short order, a stretch of the stone nearly fifty feet long had been exposed. All of it that they had uncovered ran in a straight line, the arch uniform along the entire length.

Other men worked at widening the excavation around the smooth stonework. The more of it they uncovered, the more the shape-and scale-of it came into view. This was no small thing. If the stone really was a ceiling of something beneath, then that room, or tomb, would have to be nearly twenty feet across. Since it showed no sign of terminating, there was no telling how long it was. From what she could see of it, it looked something like a buried hallway.

At the sounds of muted cries and a scuffle, Kahlan looked up. The big guards were bringing a struggling, slender figure down the muddy slope.

Kahlan's eyes went wide. Her knees went weak.

The men each held a thin, spindly arm of a girl not half their height.

It was Jillian, the girl from back in the ancient ruins in the city of Caska, the girl Kahlan had helped to escape. Kahlan had killed two of Jagang's guards and Sister Cecilia so that Jillian could get away.