Blood of the Fold (74 page)

Mriswith. It had to be mriswith. Richard had described them to her. This nightmare creature could only be a mriswith.

Adie darted closer, casting sparkling light toward the woman. The woman flicked her hand, almost indifferently, and Adie went down, the sparkles settling harmlessly to the snow.

The woman bent, took Adie’s wrist, and cast her away like a chicken for later plucking. Kahlan burst into action, diving forward with her sword.

The thing, the mriswith, swept before her like a gust of wind. She saw its dark cape billow open as it spun past. She heard the ring of steel.

She realized she was on her knees. Her empty sword hand tingled and stung. How could it move that fast? When she looked up, the woman was closer. Her hand came up, and the air shimmered. Kahlan felt a blow to her face.

She blinked the blood from her eyes, seeing the woman lift her hand again, her fingers curling.

The woman’s arms suddenly splayed in the air as she was hit from behind by a mighty wallop. Adie must have used everything she had left. The invisible blast of magic from Adie, hard as a hammer, threw the woman forward. Kahlan caught her hand as she tried desperately to snatch it back.

It was too late. Everything slowed in Kahlan’s mind. The sorceress seemed to be suspended in midair, Kahlan gripping her hand. Time was Kahlan’s, now. She had all the time in the world.

The sorceress began to gasp. She began to look up. She began to flinch. In the calm center of her power, her magic, Kahlan was in control. The woman had no chance.

As Kahlan watched, she could feel the magic within, the Confessor’s magic, rip through every fiber of her being, screaming onward.

In that timeless place of her mind, Kahlan released her power.

Thunder without sound jolted the night.

As the concussion slammed through the air, even the stars above seemed to stagger, as if a celestial fist had struck the great, silent bell of the night sky.

The shock shuddered the trees. A ring of snow lifted, billowing outward in a ring.

The impact of magic had knocked the mriswith from its feet.

The woman looked up, her eyes wide, her muscles slack.

“
Mistress,” she whispered, “command me.”

Men were crashing through the trees. The mriswith was staggering to its feet.

“
Protect me!”

The sorceress sprang up, spinning with a hand out. The night ignited.

Lightning ripped through the trees in an arc. Tree trunks exploded as the twisting line of light sliced across them. Splintered wood spun through the air, trailing smoke. Men were no less naked before the rending violence than were the trees. Not so much as a scream escaped their lungs, nor would it have been heard above the pandemonium.

The mriswith vaulted toward her. Scales, like the feathers of a bird hit by a rock from a sling, filled the air.

The night roared with fire. The air was rife with flame, flesh, and bone.

Kahlan wiped blood from her eyes, trying to see, as she scooted backward across the snow. She had to get away. She had to find Adie.

She bumped into something. She thought it must be a tree. A fist snatched her by the hair. She reached for her power, realizing too late that it was gone.

Kahlan spit blood from her mouth. Her ears rang. And then there was pain. She couldn’t push herself up. Her head felt as if a tree had fallen on it. She heard a voice above her.

“
Lunetta, put a stop to this at once.”

Kahlan turned her head in the snow and saw the sorceress she had touched with her power seem to grow bigger, to come apart. Her arms went in two different directions. That was all Kahlan could recognize as a cloud of red misted the air where the woman had been.

Kahlan slumped into the numbing snow. No. She couldn’t give up. She twisted up onto her knees, pulling her knife. Brogan’s boot caught her in the middle.

Looking up at the stars, she tried to draw a breath. She couldn’t. Cold panic swept through her as she tried to get air. It wouldn’t come. Her stomach muscles clenched in spasms, but she couldn’t get a breath.

Brogan knelt beside her, pulling her up by her shirt. Breath finally came in convulsing coughing, choking, pulls.

“
At last,” he whispered. “At last, I have the prize of prizes—the Keeper’s most precious pet, the Mother Confessor herself. Oh, you have no idea how I’ve dreamed of this day.” He backhanded her across the jaw. “No idea at all.”

Kahlan labored for air as Brogan twisted the knife from her grip. She fought to keep her mind from going black. She had to remain conscious if she was to think, if she was to fight.

“
Lunetta!”

“
Yes, my lord general, I be here.”

Kahlan felt the buttons on her shirt pop off as he ripped it open. She weakly lifted an arm to check his hands. He batted the arm away. Her arms felt too heavy to lift.

“
First, Lunetta, we must take her before her power returns. Then we will have all the time we want to question her before she pays for her crimes.”

He leaned closer in the moonlight, leaning a knee into her gut, holding her down. She fought to get air back into her lungs, but then it rushed out with a scream as his brutal fingers wrenched her left nipple.

She saw the knife come up in his other hand.

With wide eyes, she saw a white glimmer before Brogan’s grin. In the moonlight, three blades poised before his bloodless face. Kahlan’s eyes, along with Brogan’s, turned to see two mriswith above them.

“
Releassse her,” the mriswith hissed, “or die.”

Kahlan covered the piercing pain in her breast when he had done as he was told. Her eyes watered with the intensity of hurt. At least it helped clear them of the blood.

“
What be the meaning of this,” Brogan growled. “She be mine. The Creator wishes her punished!”

“
You will do as the dreamssss walker commandsss, or you will die.”

Brogan cocked his head. “He wishes this?” The mriswith hissed confirmation. “I don’t understand… .”

“
You question?”

“
No. No, of course not. It will be as you advise, sacred one.”

Kahlan was afraid to sit up, hoping they would tell Brogan to let her go, next. Brogan stood, backing away.

Another mriswith appeared with Adie, shoving her to the ground beside Kahlan. The sorceress’s touch on Kahlan’s arm said without words that she was all right, if bruised and cut. Adie put an arm around Kahlan’s shoulders and helped her sit up.

Kahlan hurt everywhere. He jaw throbbed where Brogan had hit her, her stomach ached, and her forehead stung. Blood was still running into her eyes.

One of the mriswith selected two rings from a number looped over its wrist, and shoved them at the sorceress in tattered rags—Lunetta, Brogan had called her. “The other is dead. You must do it instead.”

Lunetta, looking puzzled, took the rings. “Do what?”

“
Use your gift to put these around their neck, so they can be controlled.”

Lunetta pulled and one of the collars snapped, coming open. She seemed surprised, even pleased. Holding it out, she bent over Adie.

“
Please, sister,
” Adie whispered in her native tongue, “
I be from your homeland. Help us.
”

Lunetta paused, looking into Adie’s eyes.

“
Lunetta!” Brogan kicked her rump. “Hurry up. Do as the Creator wishes.”

Lunetta snapped the metal collar around Adie’s neck, then shuffled over to Kahlan and did the same. Kahlan blinked at the childlike smile Lunetta gave her.

Kahlan reached up after Lunetta straightened, and felt the collar. In the moonlight, she thought she recognized it, but when she felt the smooth metal and could no longer find the seam, she was sure. It was a Rada’Han, like the Sisters of the Light had put around Richard’s neck. She knew that those sorceresses used the collar to control him. The purpose must be the same for them: to control their power. Kahlan suddenly feared that her power would not be returning in a few hours.

When they reached the coach, Ahern was there, at the point of a mriswith blade. He had told Kahlan, Adie, and Orsk to dive out of the coach on a curve and he would lead their pursuers away from her. A bold, and brave, move that, in the end, had failed.

Kahlan was suddenly relieved she had made everyone else go to Ebinissia, as planned. Kahlan had told Jebra to care for Cyrilla, and the rest of the men to carry out their plans to bring Ebinissia back from the ashes. Kahlan’s sister was home. If Kahlan died, Galea still had a queen.

Had she brought any of those gallant young men, these mriswith, these nightmare creatures of the wind, would have gutted them all, as they had done to Orsk.

She felt a pang of sorrow for Orsk, and then a claw shoved her into the coach. Adie was pushed in right behind her. Kahlan heard a brief conversation, and then Lunetta climbed in the coach, sitting across from Kahlan and Adie. A mriswith entered and sat beside Lunetta, its beady eyes taking account of them. Kahlan pulled her shirt closed and tried to wipe the blood from her eyes.

She heard more talking outside, something about replacing the runners on the coach with wheels. Through the window, she saw Ahern, at swordpoint, climb up to the driver’s seat. The man in the red cape followed him up, and then another of the mriswith.

Kahlan felt her legs trembling. Where were they taking them? She was so close to Richard. She clenched her teeth, holding back a wail. It wasn’t fair. She felt a tear roll down her cheek.

Adie’s hand slid between their legs, and by its little movement against her thigh, she read the comfort in that touch.

The mriswith leaned toward them as its slit of a mouth seemed to widen in a grim smile. It lifted the three-bladed knife in its claw, giving it a little wiggle before their eyes.

“
Try to esssscape, and I will ssslice the bottoms of your feet.” It cocked its smooth head. “Understand?”

Kahlan and Adie both nodded.

“
Speak,” it added, “And I ssslice out your tonguesss.”

They nodded again.

It turned to Lunetta. “With your gift, through the collar, seal their power. Like I show you.” It put a claw to Lunetta’s forehead. “Understand?”

Lunetta smiled with comprehension. “Yes. I see.”

Kahlan heard Adie grunt, and at the same time she felt something tighten in her own chest. It was the place where she always felt her power. In dismay, she wondered if she would ever feel it return. She remembered the forlorn emptiness when the Keltish wizard had used magic to make her lose the connection with her power. She knew what to expect.

“
She bleeds,” the mriswith said to Lunetta. “You must heal her. Skin brother would not be pleased if she were scarred.”

She heard the whip snap, and Ahern’s whistle. The coach lurched ahead. Lunetta leaned forward to heal her wound.

Dear spirits, where were they taking her?

Ann’s eyes stung with tears as a shuddering cry escaped her throat. She had long ago forsaken her determination to keep from crying out. Who but the Creator would hear, or care?

Valdora lifted the knife, greasy with blood. “Hurt?” A gap-toothed grin came to her as a chuckle fought its way out. “How do you like it when someone else chooses what will happen to you? That’s what you did. You chose how I would die. You denied me life. Life I could have had at the palace. I would still be young. You chose to let me die.”

Ann flinched as the knifepoint pricked her side. “I asked a question, Prelate. How do you like it?”

“
No more than you, I would expect.”

The grin returned. “Gooood. I want you to know the pain I’ve lived with all these years.”

“
I left you with a life the same as everyone else has. A life to live as you would. You were left with what the Creator gave you, the same as everyone else come into this world. I could have had you executed.”

“
For casting a spell! I’m a sorceress! That’s what the Creator gave me, and I used it!”

Though Ann knew the arguments were pointless, she favored them over Valdora going back to her silent knifework.

“
You used what the Creator gave you to take from others what they would not have given willingly. You thieved their affections, their hearts, their lives. You had no right. You sampled devotion like candies at a fair. You bound them to you with glamours and then cast them away to snare another.”