Naked Empire

He felt bad that the captured families who were being used to help gain his cooperation would also die, but at least they would no longer have to suffer. He felt a sudden pang of sadness that Adie, too, would die. He hated the thought of that nearly as much as the thought of her suffering.

The Sister reached in and replaced the lid. "Very cute."

The music stopped. It didn't matter, though. The spell had been activated. The music was simply confirmation-and a warning to get out of range. No chance of that.

It didn't matter.

Sister Tahirah scooped the yellow box off the table. "I'm going to put this back." She leaned down toward Zedd. "While I'm gone, I'm going to have the guards bring in the next child and let you have a good look at her, let you think about what those men in the next tent are going to do to her-without hesitation-if you stall and waste our time like that again."

"But I-"

His words were cut off as she used the Rada'Han around his neck to send a shock of searing pain from the base of his skull down to his nips. His back arched as he cried out, nearly losing consciousness. He slumped back in his chair, his head hanging back, unable to lift it for the moment.

"Come with me," Sister Tahirah said to the guards. "I'll need some help. The guard who brings in the next child can watch them for a few minutes."

Panting from the lingering pain, tears filling his eyes, Zedd stared at the ceiling of the tent. He saw light as the flap was opened. Shadows moved across the canvas as the Sister and the four men left and she sent in the guard with the child. Zedd stared up at the ceiling, not wanting to look at the face of another child.

Finally, recovered from the bout of pain, he sat up.

One of the big elite guards, dressed in their leather, mail, and a broad belt holding an assortment of weapons, stood to the side with a blond-headed girl held before him. It was the girl who had smiled. Zedd closed his eyes a moment in the agony of what they would do to this poor child who reminded him so much of someone he knew.

When he opened his eyes, she smiled again. Then she winked.

Zedd blinked. She lifted up her flower print dress just enough so that Zedd could see two knives strapped to each of her thighs. He blinked again at what he was seeing. He looked up into her smiling face.

"Rachel…?" he whispered.

Her smile widened into a beaming grin.

Zedd looked up at the face of the big man standing guard behind her.

"Dear spirits…" Zedd whispered.

It was the boundary warden.

"I hear you've gotten yourself into a bit of trouble," Chase said.

For an instant, Zedd thought that for sure he must be seeing things.

Then he realized why Rachel looked so familiar, yet different; she was more than two and a half years older than the last time he'd seen her. Her blond hair, once chopped short, was now long. She had to be nearly a foot taller.

Chase hooked his thumbs behind the broad leather belt. "Adie, as levelheaded as you are, I imagine it had to be Zedd who got you into this fix."

Zedd looked over his shoulder. Adie wore a beautiful, tearful smile. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen her smile.

"He be nothing but trouble," she told the boundary warden.

It had been two and a half years since he'd seen Chase. The boundary warden was an old friend. He was the one who had taken them to meet Adie back then so she could show Richard the way through the boundary before Darken Rahl had brought it down. Chase was older than Richard, but one of his dearest and most trusted friends.

"An older boundary warden, Friedrich, came looking for me," Chase explained. "He said that 'Lord Rahl' had sent him to the Keep to warn you about some trouble. He said that Richard had told him about me, and since you were gone and the Keep had been captured, he came to Westland looking for me. Boundary wardens can always count on one another.

"Rachel and I decided to come pull your scrawny hide out of the fire."

Zedd glanced at the sunlight coming through the tent's narrow opening.

"You have to get out of here. Before the sun sets-or you'll be killed.

Hurry, get out of here while you can."

Chase lifted an eyebrow. "I've come all this way and I don't intend to leave without you."

"But you don't understand-"

A knife poked through the side of the tent and ran a slit down through the canvas. One of the elite guards pushed his way in through the slit. Zedd stared in astonishment. The man looked familiar, but he didn't look right.

"No!" Zedd called to Chase as the big man went for the axe hanging at his hip.

"Stay where you are," the man who came in through the slit in the side of the tent said to Chase. "There's a man right outside who will put a sword through you if you move."

Zedd's jaw dropped. "Captain Zimmer?"

"Of course. I've come to get you out of here."

"But, but, you have black hair."

The captain flashed one of his infectious smiles. "Soot. Not a good idea to have blond hair in the middle of Jagang's camp. I've come to rescue you."