Naked Empire

"Have you heard what this is about?"

Rikka gave her a blank look. "What what's about?"

The messenger stopped on the other side of the intersection of informal roads. Horses trotted past in both directions, one pulling a cart of water barrels. Fully armed men crossed on the side road. The encampment, one of several, surrounded by a defensive berm, had evolved into a city of sorts, with byways through its midst for men, horses, and wagons.

"Something is going on," Verna said.

"Sorry, I haven't heard anything."

"Are you busy?"

"Nothing urgent."

Verna took a good grip on Rikka's arm and started her walking. "General Meiffert sent for me. Maybe you'd best come along. That way if he wants you, too, we won't have to send someone looking for you."

Rikka shrugged. "Fine by me." The Mord-Sith's expression turned suspicious. "Do you have any idea what's wrong?"

As Verna kept an eye on the messenger ahead of her weaving his way among men, tents, wagons, horses, and repair stations, she glanced over at Rikka. "Nothing that I know of." Verna's expression contorted a bit as she tried to put her queazy mood into words. "Did you ever wake up and just feel like there was something wrong, but you couldn't explain why it seemed like it was going to be a bad day?"

"If it's to be a bad day, I see to that it's someone else's, and I'm the cause of it."

Verna smiled to herself. "Too bad you're not gifted. You would make a good Sister of the Light."

"I would rather be Mord-Sith and be able to protect Lord Rahl."

The messenger stopped at the side of the camp road. "Back there, Prelate. General Meiffert said to bring you to that tent by the trees."

Verna thanked the young man and made her way across the soft ground, Rikka at her side. The tent was away from the main activity of the camp, in a quieter area where officers often met with scouts just back from patrols.

Verna's mind raced, trying to imagine what news scouts could have brought back. There was no alarm, so the passes still held. If there was trouble, there would be a flurry of activity in the camp, but it seemed about the same as any other day.

Guards saw Verna coming and ducked into the tent to announce her arrival. Almost immediately, the general stepped out of the tent and rushed to meet her. His blue eyes reflected iron determination. The man's face, though, was ashen.

"I saw Rikka," Verna explained as General Meiffert dipped his head in a hurried greeting. "I thought I ought to bring her just in case you needed her, too."

The tall, blond-headed D'Haran glanced briefly at Rikka. "Yes, that's fine. Come in, please, both of you."

Verna snatched his sleeve. "What's this about? What's going on? Is something wrong?"

The general's eyes moved to Rikka and back to Verna. "We've had a message from Jagang."

Rikka leaned in, her voice taking on an edge. "How did a messenger from Jagang get through without someone killing them?"

It was standard practice that no one came through for any reason. They didn't want so much as a mouse making it through. There was no telling if it might be some kind of trick.

"It was a small wagon, pulled by a single horse." He tilted his head toward Verna. "The men thought the wagon was empty. Remembering your instructions, they let it through."

Verna was somewhat surprised that Ann's warning to let an empty wagon through had been so correct. "A wagon came of its own accord? An empty wagon drove itself in?"

"Not exactly. The men who saw it thought it was empty. The horse appears to be a workhorse that is used to walking roads, so it plodded along the road as it had been trained." General Meiffert pressed his lips together at the confusion on Verna's face and then turned away from the tent. "Come on, and I'll show you."

He led them to the third tent down the line and held the flap aside.

Verna ducked in, followed by Rikka and the general. On a bench inside sat a young novice, Holly, with her arm around a very frightened-looking girl no more than ten years old.

"I asked Holly to stay with her," General Meiffert whispered. "I thought it might make her less nervous than a soldier standing over her."

"Of course," Verna said. "Very wise of you. She's the one who brought the message, then?"

The young general nodded. "She was sitting in the back of the wagon, so the men seeing it coming at first thought it was empty."

Verna now understood why such a messenger got through. Soldiers weren't nearly so likely to kill a child, and the Sisters could test her to insure she was no threat. Verna wondered if Zedd would have something to say about that; threat often came in surprising packages. Verna approached the pair on the bench, smiling as she bent down.

"I'm Verna. Are you all right, young lady?" The girl nodded. "Would you like something to eat?"

Trembling slightly as her big brown eyes took in the people looking at her, she nodded again.

"Prelate," Holly said, "Valery already went to get her something."