Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

Jennsen realized that the woman had to be a sorceress, probably one of Jagang's Sisters. Jennsen could not be directly harmed by the powers of such a woman, or anyone with magic, but under the circumstances, that hardly meant that she wasn't a threat. After all, she didn't need magic to orrder the soldiers to put Jennsen to death.

The woman held out the knife, peering at what was on the handle. Her brow drew down as she grasped the significance of the ornate letter "R." the symbol standing for the House of Rahl, engraved on the silver handle.

Her eyes turned up to Jennsen, this time filled with a kind of grim recognition. Unexpectedly, she dropped the knife. It stuck in the ground at her feet as she put the fingers of one hand to her forehead, wincing as if in pain. The silent soldiers shared troubled looks.

When she looked up again, the woman's face had gone blank. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Jennsen Rahl." Her voice sounded different. It was deeper, and carried a threatening, masculine tone.

It was Jennsen's turn to frown. "You know me?"

"Oh yes, darlin, I know you," the woman said in a voice that had turned deep and husky. "Seems I recall you swearing to me that you would kill Richard Rahl."

Jennsen understood, then. It was Emperor Jagang, seeing her through the eyes of this woman. Jagang was a dream walker. He could do such seemingly impossible things.

"And what of your promise?" the woman asked in a voice that wasn't entirely her own. Her movements were puppetlike and appeared to be painful.

Jennsen didn't know if she was talking to the woman or to Jagang. "I failed."

The woman's lip curled derisively. "You failed."

"That's right. I failed."

"And what of Sebastian?"

Jennsen swallowed. "He died."

"He died," she said in a mocking tone. She took a step closer and cocked her head, peering with one angry eye. "And how did he die, darlin?"

"By his own hand."

"And why would a man like Sebastian take his own life?"

Jennsen would have taken a step back had she not already been pressed up against the chest of the hulking soldier. "I guess it was his way of saying that he no longer wanted to be a strategist to the emperor of the Imperial Order. Maybe he realized that his life had been wasted, that it had been for nothing."

The woman glared but said nothing.

Jennsen saw then a soft gold glint off the book the woman was holding in the same hand as the lantern. Jennsen could just make out the title in faded, worn gold lettering.

It said The Book of Counted Shadows.

Everyone turned at the sound of a commotion. Yet more men were dragging other captives closer. When they reached the light Jennsen's heart sank. The big soldiers had Anson, Owen, and Owen's wife, Marilee. All three were disheveled and bloody.

The woman bent and retrieved Jennsen's knife at her feet.

"His Excellency has decided that he may have a use for these people," the woman said as she straightened. She gestured with Jennsen's knife. "Bring them along."

CHAPTER 16

Nicci paused and turned at the sound of her name called out from behind. It was Nathan. Ann followed close on his heels. For every one of Nathan's long strides Ann had to take three just to keep up.

Their footsteps echoed off the golden-yellow and brown marble floor of the empty hallway. The rather simple hall was part of the private complex within the palace, used by the Lord Rahl, staff and officials, and, of course, Mord-Sith. It was a passageway of unadorned utility, making no pretense of grandeur.

In her modest gray dress buttoned to her throat, Ann looked about the same to Nicci as she had when Nicci had been a child. Short and compact, like a dense thundercloud scudding across the landscape, she always seemed about to throw off lightning. The woman had loomed as an imposing figure in Nicci's mind from the time she'd first been sent to the Palace of the Prophets to become a young novice.

Annalina Aldurren had always been the kind of woman who could elicit a babbling confession with nothing more than a stony stare. She struck terror into novices, fear into young wizards, and trepidation into most of the Sisters. As a novice, Nicci had suspected that the Creator Himself would walk on eggshells in the presence of the forbidding prelate, and mind his manners as well.

"We got the message that you've just arrived from the Keep," the tall prophet said in a deep, powerful voice as he and Ann caught up with Nicci and Cara.

Considering that he was nearly a thousand years old, Nathan was still ruggedly handsome. He had Rahl features in common with Richard, including a hawklike brow. His eyes, though, were a beautiful azure color, while Richard's were gray. Despite his age, the prophet had a vigorous, purposeful stride.