Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

Now, far below, people filling the various passageways hurried in every direction. Their movements looked purposeful. Nearly all of the benches were empty. Nicci didn't see people gathered in casual conversation the way they had in the past. This was a time of war; the People's Palace was under siege. Worry was everyone's constant companion. Guards patrolled, watching not just every person, but every shadow.

Trying to decide how to sum up the troubling news, Nicci ran her fingers through her hair, sweeping it back away from her face. "Remember Richard telling us about how the taint left by the chimes having been in the world of life was causing magic to fail?"

Ann flicked her hand in a dismissive gesture as she heaved a sigh, apparently annoyed to revisit an old topic. "We remember. But I hardly think that it's our most pressing problem."

"Maybe not," Nicci said, "but it has begun to cause some very real trouble."

Nathan lifted a hand, the backs of his fingers touching Ann's shoulder, as if to implore her to let him handle the matter. "How so?"

"We've been forced to abandon the Wizard's Keep," Nicci told him. "For the time being, at least."

Nathan's eyebrows lifted. As he tilted his head toward her some of his long white hair fell forward over his broad shoulders. "Why? What happened?"

Nicci smoothed the black dress at her hips. "The magic of the Keep is beginning to fail."

"How do you know?" Ann demanded.

"The witch woman, Six, got into the Keep," Nicci said. "The alarms failed to warn us. A number of the shields are down. She was able to go where she pleased within the Keep without the shields stopping her."

Ann poked a loose strand of gray hair back into the knot of hair at the back of her head as she considered Nicci's words.

"That isn't necessarily convincing evidence that the magic of the Keep is failing," she finally said, "or even that magic is tainted„by the chimes and failing. It's difficult telling just how talented a woman like Six is liable to be. Just because there is some sort of problem with the Keep there is no way to know its cause, much less know that the chimes are the cause. With a place as complicated as the Keep it's difficult to really know if it really is all that serious. It could simply be a temporary-"

"Blood is coming out of the stone walls of the Keep," Nicci said in a tone that made it clear she didn't want to debate it. She didn't appreciate being treated like a novice frightened by shadows on her first night away from home. She needed to get on to other matters. "It's worse down in the lower areas, in the foundation."

Ann and Nathan both straightened.

Ann opened her mouth to say something, but Cara spoke first, apparently as disinterested in having to argue the point as Nicci. "The blood oozing out of the stone in various places all over the Keep is all human blood."

Again, both the prophet and the former prelate went mute with surprise.

"Well now," Nathan finally said as he scratched under his jaw with one finger, "that certainly is serious." He gestured up the hall. "Where are you headed?"

"Cara and I need to go out to see how Jagang's ramp is progressing. I also want to have a look at the Order's army and see if I can tell how they're doing. I'm hoping that Richard's plan will work, that the D'Haran troops sent to the Old World will be able to cut the supply lines. If they succeed, Jagang is going to have a problem. If all those men down there can't be supplied, they can't sit there all winter. They'll starve. I think it may turn out to be a race between the ramp and their supplies running out."

Nathan nodded as he stepped past Nicci and Cara. "Come on, then. We'll go with you and you can tell us about your encounter with this witch woman."

Nicci stood her ground, not following after the prophet. "She took the box of Orden."

Nathan turned back and stared at her. "What?"

"She stole the box of Orden we had. The one that the witch woman's companion, Samuel, stole from Sister Tovi and that Rachel had then managed to get ahold of and bring to us. We thought it was safe in the Keep. Turns out it wasn't."

"It's gone?" Ann seized Nicci's sleeve. "Do you have any idea where she went with it?"

"I'm afraid not," Nicci said. "I'm hoping that you two can give us some clues about the witch woman. We need to find her. Anything you can tell me about her, no matter how insignificant it seems, might be of help. We need to get that box back."

"At least Nicci was able to put the power of Orden in play before the box was taken," Cara said.

Nathan and Ann could not have looked more stunned.

"She did what?" Nathan whispered, seemingly unable to stop staring at Cara, as if hoping he might have heard her wrong or, if he hadn't, that she might think better of what she'd said and recant the claim.

"Nicci put the power of Orden in play," Cara said.

Nicci thought that the Mord-Sith sounded a bit proud of the accomplishment, proud of Nicci.