I you. You didn't have to kill a little boy today."
     Verna nodded in sympathy but didn't argue.
     "Adie,"  Kahlan asked,  "do you think there would be anything you might
be able to  do for the woman who was accidentally blinded? Perhaps you could
help her?"
     Adie nodded. "That be a good idea. Verna, take me  to her, and  let  me
see what I can do."
     Kahlan cocked her head as the  two women moved toward the tent opening.
"Did you hear that?"

     "The horn?" Verna asked.
     "Yes. It sounds like alarm horns."
     Verna  squinted  in  concentration.  She turned her head  to  the side,
listening attentively.
     "Yes, it  does sound like alarm horns,"  she finally declared,  "but it
doesn't  have  the right  trace  of magic through  it.  The enemy  does that
often-tries to get us  to  act based on false alarms. We've been having more
and more lately."
     Kahlan frowned. "We have? Why?"
     "Why . . . what?"
     Kahlan  stood. "If we know  they're false alarms,  and they don't work,
then why would the Order increase the attempts? That makes no sense."
     Verna's  gaze roved  about as as  if  searching in  vain for an answer.
"Well,  I  don't  know. I can't  imagine.  I'm no expert in the  tactics  of
warfare."
     Cara turned to go have a look. "Maybe it's just some scouts coming back
in."
     Kahlan turned her  head, listening. She heard horses  running, but that
wasn't  so  rare.  It  could be, as Cara  suggested,  scouts returning  with
reports. But, by the sound of the hooves, the horses sounded big.
     She heard men yelling. The clash of steel rang out-along with  cries of
pain.
     Kahlan  drew her Galean royal sword  as  she started around  the table.
Before any of them could get  more than a step, the tent shuddered violently
as  something crashed against its  walls.  For an instant,  the whole  thing
tipped at an impossible angle;  then  steel-tipped  lances burst through the
canvas. With a rush of wind the tent collapsed around them.
     The  heavy canvas  drove  Kahlan to  the ground as  it  caved  in.  She
couldn't get a grip on anything solid as the tent rolled her  over and began
dragging her  along. Hooves thundered past, pounding the ground right beside
her head.
     She could smell  lamp  oil  as it  sloshed  across  the canvas.  With a
whoosh, the oil and the tent ignited. Kahlan coughed on the smoke. She could
hear the crackle of flames. She could see nothing. She was trapped-rolled up
in the bucking tent as it slid across the ground.


        CHAPTER 37

     Tightly  shrouded in stiff canvas,  Kahlan couldn't see  anything.  She
choked and gagged  on the  thick, acrid  smoke burning her lungs. She pulled
frantically at the canvas, trying to disentangle herself, but as she bounced
and tumbled  along the ground,  she couldn't  make  any headway gaining  her
liberty. The  heat  of  flames close to  her face ignited  in her a sense of
panic. Her weariness forgotten, she kicked and struggled madly as she gasped
for air.
     "Where are you!"
     It was Cara's  voice.  It sounded  close,  as  if she, too,  was  being
dragged along and strenuously engaged in  her own fight  for life. Cara  was
smart enough  not  to shout  Kahlan's name or title when  surrounded by  the
enemy; hopefully, Verna knew better, as well.
     "Here!" Kahlan shouted in answer to Cara.
     Kahlan's sword was trapped, pressed  to her legs by  the rolled canvas.
She managed  to wiggle  her left  hand  up onto the knife  at  her belt. She
yanked it free.  She had to turn her face to try to keep away  from the heat
of the oily flames. The smothering smoky blindness was terrifying.
     With  angry resolve, Kahlan stabbed  at the canvas,  punching her knife
through. Just then,  the  tent  hit something and they were bounced into the
air.  The hard  landing knocked the wind  from her  lungs. A  gasp pulled in
suffocating smoke. Again, Kahlan plunged her knife into the heavy canvas and
slashed an opening as her entire shroud erupted into flame.
     She yelled again to Cara. "I can't get-"
     The tent hit  something solid. Her shoulder whacked hard into what felt
like a tree stump and she was flipped up and over the top of it. Had she not
been wearing her stiff leather armor, the blow surely would have broken  her
shoulder. Crashing down  on  the other side, Kahlan  tumbled free and across
the snow. She spread her arms to stop herself from rolling.
     Kahlan saw  General Meiffert reach up, seize a  fistful of  chain mail,
and unhorse the man who  had been dragging  her tent. The man's eyes gleamed
from behind long, curly, greasy hair. His stout  body was covered with hides
and furs over  chain mail and leather armor. He was missing his upper teeth.
As he lunged at the general, he lost his head, too.
     Yet more Order troops wheeled their big warhorses, striking down at the
D'Harans scrambling both to escape the blows and to mount a defense.  One of
the warhorses charged Kahlan's way, its rider leaning out, swinging a flail.
Kahlan sheathed  both her knife and sword. She snatched up  the lance of the
man who had been dragging the  tent. She brought the long weapon up and spun
around just in time to

     plant the  butt end in a frozen  rut and let the charging warhorse take
the steel-tipped point in his chest.
     As the grinning Order soldier with the flail leaped from the staggering
horse, he drew his sword with his  free hand. Kahlan didn't wait; as  he was
still alighting on his feet, she spun while drawing her own sword and landed
a solid backhanded blow across the left side of his face.
     Without pause, she  dove  under the legs of  another  horse to dodge  a
blade when the horse's rider slashed down at her. She sprang up on the other
side and hacked the rider's leg open to  the bone  twice before turning just
in  time to  ram her sword up to its hilt into  the chest of  another  horse
sidling in, trying to crush her against the first. As the animal reared with
a wild scream, Kahlan yanked her sword free and tumbled away just before the
big horse crashed  to the ground. The rider's leg was trapped, and he was at
an awkward angle to defend himself Kahlan made the best of the opportunity.
     For the moment, the  immediate area was clear, enabling her to scramble
over to the tent where  the general was on his knees, yanking at the snarled
mess  of   canvas  and  rope.  More  Order  cavalry  were  thundering  past,
threatening to trample Verna, Adie, and Cara  still trapped in the tangle of
tent. At least the burning section had pulled away.
     Kahlan  worked beside General Meiffert to  tug and  cut the canvas.  At
last  they ripped  open the heavy material, freeing Adie and Verna.  The two
women were  rolled  up together, nearly  in each another's arms. Adie's head
was bleeding,  but she pushed  away  Kahlan's concerned hands. Verna emerged
from the cocoon and stumbled to her feet, still dizzy from the wild ride.
     Kahlan helped Adie up. The scrape  on her brow didn't look too serious.
General  Meiffert  pulled frantically at the canvas. Cara was  still inside,
somewhere, but they no longer heard her.
     Kahlan seized Verna by the arm. "I thought they were false alarms!"
     "They were!" Verna insisted. "Obviously, they tricked us."
     All around, soldiers were engaged in pitched battle with Imperial Order
cavalry. Men shouted in  fury  as they threw  themselves  into battle;  some
screamed  as  they  were  wounded  or  killed;  others  called  out  orders,
commanding a defense, while the men on horseback ordered in their attack.
     Some of the  cavalry were setting fire to wagons, tents,  and supplies.
Others charged past,  trampling men and tents.  Pairs of riders teamed up to
single out soldiers and take them down, then charged after another victim.
     They were using the same tactics the D'Harans had used. They were doing
what Kahlan had taught them to do.
     When a  soldier, draped in filthy fur and weapons, cried out in bravado
as he rushed at her wielding  a  raised mace studded with  glistening bloody
spikes, Kahlan  took  his hand off with a lightning-swift blow. He staggered
to  a  stop and  stared a her in surprise. Without missing a beat, she drove
her sword into his gut and gave it a wrenching twist before pulling it free.
She  turned  her attention  elsewhere  as he crashed  down atop a  fire. His
screams melted in with all the others.
     Kahlan fell to her  knees once more to help General Meiffert free Cara.
He had  found her  amid the snare of rope and folds  of canvas. From time to
time one of  them had  to turn to fight off sporadic attackers. Kahlan could
see  Cara's  red boots sticking out  from under  the canvas, but  they  were
still.

     Tent line was tangled around  Cara's legs. With Kahlan  and the general
working together, they cut through the mire of rope and were finally able to
unroll Cara. She held her head  as  she  moaned. She wasn't unconscious, but
she was groggy and  unable to  get her bearings. Kahlan found a lump  in her
hair, at the right side of her head, but it wasn't bleeding.
     Cara tried to sit up. Kahlan pressed her down on her back.
     "Stay there. You were hit on the head. I don't want you to get up  just
yet."
     Kahlan looked over her shoulder and  saw  Verna, nearby,  singling  out
Imperial Order  troops, each  twitch  of her hands  casting a fiery spell to
blast them  from  their horses, or a  focused edge of air  as sharp  as  any
blade,  yet  more swift and sure,  to  slice  them  down.  Without the  gift
themselves, or one of the  gifted to  protect them, the enemy's simple armor
was no defense.
     Kahlan caught Verna's attention  and motioned for her help. Seizing the
woman's cloak at  her  shoulder, Kahlan pulled Verna close to speak into her
ear so as to be heard above the noise of battle.
     "See how she is, will you? Help her?"
     Verna nodded and then huddled at  Cara's side as Kahlan and the general
turned to a fresh charge of cavalry. As one  man galloped in close, wielding
his lance around, General Meiffert dodged the strike and then leaped up onto
the  side of the horse, catching hold of the  saddle's horn. With a grunt of
angry effort, he drove his sword through the rider. The surprised man clawed
at  the  blade in his soft  middle. The general yanked his sword  free, then
grabbed the man  by the hair and dragged him out of the saddle. As the dying
man fell away, General Meiffert sprang up  into the saddle,  in  his  place.
Kahlan snatched up the fallen cavalryman's lance.
     The big D'Haran general wheeled the huge horse into the way of charging
enemy cavalry, protecting Verna and Cara. Kahlan sheathed her sword and used
the lance  to  good effect against  the warhorses. Horses, even well-trained
warhorses,  didn't  appreciate  being  stabbed  in  the  chest. Many  people
considered them just dumb beasts, but horses were smart enough to understand
that driving themselves onto a pointed lance was not what they wanted to do,
and reacted accordingly.
     As horses  bucked  and reared  when Kahlan stabbed them with her lance,
many of  their riders  fell. Some  were injured from the fall onto scattered
equipment or  the frozen ground, but  most came under the swarming attack of
the D'Harans.
     From atop his Imperial Order  warhorse, General Meiffert commanded  his
men  to  form  a defensive line. After directing them into place, he charged
off,  roaring a string of orders as he went.  He didn't tell his men  who to
protect, so as not to betray Kahlan to the enemy, but  they quickly saw what
it was he intended them to do. D'Harans grabbed up the enemy lances, or came
running  with their  own  pikes,  and  soon  there  was  a bristling line of
steel-tipped pole weapons presenting  a deadly  obstacle to any  approaching
cavalry.
     Kahlan called out orders to men on either side, and, as  she joined the
line, commanded them  into  position to block an Imperial Order cavalry unit
of about two hundred who  were trying to make  good their  escape. The enemy
might  have been emulating the raids  the  D'Haran  cavalry had made  on the
Imperial Order's camp, but Kahlan wasn't  about to allow them to  succeed at
it. She intended them to fail.
     The  enemy's  horses balked  when they  encountered  a  solid  line  of
advancing  pikes brandished by men  shouting  battle cries. Soldiers  coming
from behind the Order cavalry  rained  down arrows. D'Harans dragged trapped
riders from their saddles, down into the bloody hand-to-hand fighting on the
ground.

     "I  don't want one of them escaping camp alive!" she yelled to her men.
"No mercy!"
     "No mercy!" every D'Haran within earshot called out in answer.
     The enemy, so confident and arrogant as they had charged in,  relishing
the prospect of spilling D' Haran blood, were now nothing more than pathetic
men in the ungainly grip of despair as the D'Harans hacked them to death.
     Kahlan  left the  soldiers  with  the  lances  and  pikes, now  that  a
defensive line had been established  and the enemy was trapped, and ran back
through the fires and choking smoke to find Verna, Adie, and Cara.  She  had
to dodge wounded soldiers of both armies on the ground. The fallen attackers
who still had fight  in them snatched at her ankles. She had to stab several
who tried to rise up  to grab  her. Others  afoot who suddenly appeared, she
had to cut down.
     The enemy knew who  she was, or at least they were  pretty sure. Jagang
had seen  her, and no doubt had  described the Mother Confessor  to his men.
Kahlan was sure to have a heavy price on her head.
     There seemed to  be Imperial Order men scattered  throughout  the camp.
She doubted  there had been an attack by foot  soldiers;  they were probably
cavalrymen  who  had  lost their  mounts.  Horses  were  often easier moving
targets to  hit with arrows  and  spears than  were  men.  In  the gathering
darkness it was hard to make out enemy  soldiers.  They were  able to  sneak
through the  camp  undiscovered as  they hunted targets  of  value,  such as
officers, or maybe even the Mother Confessor.
     When the lurking enemy spotted Kahlan making her way through the chaos,
they came  out from their hiding places to  go after her with wild  abandon.
Others,  she  came upon and  surprised.  Remembering not  only her  father's
training, but  Richard's  admonition,  Kahlan cut  fiercely  into  the enemy
soldiers. She gave them no opening; no chance; no mercy.
     Her  training under her  father had  been  a  good  foundation  for the
esoteric  tactical  precepts  that  Richard  had taught  her  when  she  was
recovering from her  wounds  back in  Hartland. Richard's way had  seemed so
strange, then; now,  it seemed so natural. In  much the  same way  a lighter
horse could  outmaneuver a big warhorse, her lighter weight became her edge.
She didn't need the weight because she simply didn't clash with the enemy in
the  traditional manner,  as  they expected. She was a hummingbird, floating
out of their reach, swooping in between their ponderous moves to efficiently
deliver death.
     Such moves were not at odds with the manner of fighting that her father
had taught,  but complemented it  in a way that fit her. Richard had trained
her  not with a sword, but  with a willow switch, a mischievous smile, and a
dangerous glint in his eyes. Now, Richard's sword, strapped over the back of
her shoulder, was an everpresent reminder of those playful  lessons that had
been not only unrelenting, but deadly serious.
     She  finally found Verna, bent  over Cara,  but  didn't see the general
anywhere. Kahlan snatched Verna's sleeve.
     "How is she?"
     "She threw up, but that seemed to have helped, once it passed. She will
probably be woozy for a while, but I think she's otherwise all right."
     I  "She  has a thick  skull," Adie  said.  "It not be  cracked, but she
should lie still for
     a time-at least until she recovers her balance."
     Cara's hands groped  as if having trouble  finding  the ground  beneath
her. Despite

     her obvious dizziness, she was  cursing the Prelate  and trying  to sit
up. Kahlan, squatting beside Cara, pressed her shoulder to the ground.
     "Cara, I'm right here. I'm fine. Lie still for a few minutes."
     "I want at them!"
     "Later,"  Kahlan said. "Don't  worry, you'll get  your chance." She saw
that the blood was cleaned from Adie's head. "Adie, how are you? How is your
head?"
     The  old sorceress  gestured  dismissively. "Bah. I be fine. My head be
thicker than Cara's."
     Soldiers had gathered, forming a protective wall of steel. Verna, Adie,
and Kahlan crouched over Cara, keeping an eye on the surrounding  area,  but
the fighting immediately around them  seemed to have ended. Even if  pockets
of  battle remained,  with  the  large  number of  D'Haran soldiers who  had
protectively closed ranks, the four women were safe for the time being.
     General Meiffert finally returned, charging through the line of D'Haran
defenders  as they parted for  him. He leaped from  his enemy  warhorse. The
horse tossed his head at the indignity of being ridden by the enemy, and ran
off. The young D'Haran general crouched down on the opposite  side of  Cara.
Winded, he started talking anyway.
     "I've  been  down checking with the  front lines.  This is a raid, much
like  what we've  been doing to  them.  It looked bigger than it really was.
When they  spotted the Mother  Confessor,  they  called their men  into this
area, so the damage was mostly focused in this section."
     "Why didn't we know?" Kahlan asked. "What went wrong with the alarm?"
     "Not  sure." He was shaking his head, still  getting his breath.  "Zedd
thinks that they learned our codes,  and that  when we  blew the alarm, they
must have  used Subtractive Magic  to  alter the magic woven into  the sound
that tells our gifted that it's a real attack."
     Kahlan let out  an angry breath.  It was all starting to make sense  to
her. "That's why  there have been so many false alarms. They were numbing us
to  them  so  that  when they attacked, we  would  be  unconcerned,  falsely
believing our own alarms were just another enemy false alarm."
     "I'm guessing you're  right." He  flexed his  fist in  frustration.  He
looked down  then and noticed Cara  scowling  up at him. "Cara.  Are you all
right? I was so-I mean, we thought you might be badly hurt."
     "No,"  she said, casting a cool glare at Verna and Kahlan, each of whom
used a hand to  hold her shoulders down. She casually crossed her ankles. "I
just thought you could handle it, so I decided to take a nap."
     General Meiffert gave her  a quick smile and then turned a serious face
to Kahlan.
     "It gets worse. This  cavalry attack was  a  diversion.  They hoped  it
might get  you, I'm sure, but it was  meant to make us believe it was just a
raid."
     Kahlan felt  her  flesh go  cold with dread.  "They're  coming,  aren't
they?"
     He nodded. "The entire force.  They're still a distance out, but you're
right, they're coming. This was just to throw us into  confusion and keep us
distracted."
     Kahlan stared,  dumbfounded.  The Order  had never  attacked  at sunset
before. The prospect of the onslaught of hundreds of thousands upon hundreds
of  thousands of Imperial  Order troops storming  in from  the darkness  was
bloodcurdling.
     "They've changed  their tactics," Kahlan whispered to herself.  "He's a
quick study. I thought I'd tricked him, but I was the one who was taken in."

     "What are you mumbling  about?" Cara asked, her fingers locked together
over her stomach.
     "Jagang. He counted on me not being fooled by those troops going around
in a circle. He wanted me to think I had outsmarted him. He played me for  a
fool."
     Cara made a face. "What?"
     Kahlan felt  sick  at  the  implications.  She  pressed a  hand to  her
forehead as the awful truth inundated her.
     "Jagang  wanted me to  think I  had his scheme figured out, so we would
pretend  to  play along and send  out our troops. He probably  figured  they
wouldn't be sent after his decoy, but would be used instead against his real
plan of attack.  He  didn't  care  about that,  though.  All  along, he  was
planning on  changing his  tactics. He was waiting only  until  those troops
left so that he could attack before they were in place and while our numbers
were reduced."
     "You  mean,"  Cara asked,  "that  whole  time you were talking to  him,
pretending  to  believe  he  was  moving  troops  north, he  knew  you  were
pretending?"
     "I'm afraid so. He outsmarted me."
     "Maybe, maybe not,"  General Meiffert said.  "He hasn't succeeded, yet.
We don't have to let him have it his way. We  can move  our forces before he
can pounce."
     "Can't we call back the  men  we sent out?" Verna asked. "Their numbers
would help."
     "They're hours  away," General  Meiffert said, "traveling  through back
country on  the way to  their assigned locations. They  would never get back
here in time to help us tonight."
     Rather than dwell on how gullible she  had been, Kahlan put her mind to
the immediate problem. "We need to move fast."
     The general nodded his  agreement. "We could  fall  back on  our  other
plansabout breaking up and scattering into the mountains."
     He  ran  his  fingers  back through  his  blond  hair. The  gesture  of
frustration unexpectedly reminded Kahlan of Richard.  "But if we do that, we
would have to abandon most  of our supplies. In winter,  without supplies, a
number  of our men wouldn't last long. Either way, killed in battle or dying
of hunger and cold-you're just as dead."
     "Broken  up like that,  we would  be  easy  pickings,"  Kahlan  agreed.
"That's  a last resort. It may work later, but not now.  For now, we need to
keep  the army together if we're to survive the winter-and  if we're to keep
the Order distracted from its designs at conquest."
     "We dare not allow them to go  uncontested into  a city.  It would  not
only be a bloodbath, but if they picked the right city, we would face a near
impossible task of dislodging them." The  general shook his head.  "It could
end up being the end of our hopes of driving them back to the Old World."
     Kahlan  gestured over her  shoulder. "What about that  valley we talked
about, back there? The high pass is  narrow-it can be defended on this  side
by two men and a dog, if need be."
     "That's what I was thinking,"  he said. "It keeps the army together-and
keeps the Order having to contend with us, rather  than  being able  to turn
their attention on  any  cities. If they try to move around  us  up into the
Midlands, there are easy northern routes out of the valley from which we can
strike. We have more men on

     the  way, and we can  send  for others; we need to  stay  together  and
maintain our engagement with the Order's army until those forces arrive."
     "Then what are we waiting for?" Verna asked. "Let's get moving."
     He  gave her a worried look. "The problem right now is that if we're to
make it into that  valley before  the Order can pounce on us, we're going to
need more time to do it. The pass is  too narrow for wagons. The  horses can
make  it, but not the wagons-they'll  have to  be  dismantled.  Most of  our
equipment is  designed to be  knocked  down so the parts can be portaged, if
need  be. We'll have to leave a  few that  aren't. It won't take long to get
started, but  we're going to  need  time to funnel all the men  and supplies
over that narrow pass-especially in the dark."
     "Torches will  work well enough with a steady  line of men," Adie said.
"They must only follow the one in front, and even if the fight  be bad, they
can do it."
     Kahlan remembered the handprint made of glowing dust. "The gifted could
lay down a glowing track to guide the men."
     "That would  help,"  the general said. "We're still left with our basic
problem, though.  While our  men are trying to  break  down and move all our
equipment  and supplies, and waiting  their turn to  go  over the pass,  the
Order will arrive. We'll find ourselves in a pitched battle trying to defend
ourselves  while withdrawing  at  the  same time. A  withdrawal requires the
ability to move  faster  than the enemy,  or at least keep  him at bay while
pulling back; the pass doesn't provide that."
     "We've kept ahead of them before,"  Verna said.  "This isn't the  first
attack."
     "You're  right."  He pointed to his left. "We  could try to withdraw up
this valley, instead, but in the  dark and with the Order attacking, I think
that would be a mistake.  Darkness is the problem,  this time. They're going
to  keep coming.  In  daylight,  we could establish  defenses  and hold them
off-not at night."
     "We already  have defenses  set up, here," Cara said. "We  could  stand
where we are and fight them head-on."
     General Meiffert  chewed  his lower lip. "That was  my  first  thought,
Cara, and still an option, but I don't like our chances in a head-on, direct
confrontation like this, not at  night when they can  sneak great numbers of
men in close. We couldn't use our archers to advantage in the dark. We can't
see  their  numbers  or  movements accurately,  so we wouldn't  be  able  to
position our men properly.  It's  a  problem  of numbers: theirs  are almost
unlimited, ours aren't.
     "We don't have enough gifted to cover every possibility-and in war it's
always what you don't  cover that gets hit. The  enemy could pour  through a
gap, get in behind  us in the dark, without  us even realizing it, and  then
we're finished."
     Everyone was silent as the implications truly sank in.
     "I agree,"  Kahlan said.  "The pass is the only chance we have  to keep
from losing a major battle tonight-along with a huge number of our men.  The
risk without real benefit of standing and fighting is a poor choice."
     The general appraised her  eyes. "That still leaves us with the problem
of how we're going to get over that pass before they annihilate us."
     Kahlan turned  to Verna. "We need you to slow the enemy down to give us
the time we need to get our army over that pass."
     "What do you wish me to do?"
     "Use your special glass."
     The general screwed up his face. "Her what?"
     "A weapon of magic," Cara said. "To blind the enemy troops."

     Verna looked thunderstruck. "But I'm not ready. We only made up a small
batch. I'm not ready."
     Kahlan turned  back to the general. "What  did the scouts say about how
much time we have until the Order is upon us?"
     "The Order  could be here within an hour,  at the  soonest, two  at the
latest. If we  don't slow them down, we'll never make  it out of this valley
with our men and supplies. If we can't find a way to delay them, we can only
run  for  the  hills,  or  stand and fight. Neither is a choice I would make
except in desperation."
     "If  we just  run  for the hills,"  Adie said,  "we be as good as dead.
Together, we be  alive and at least be a threat to the enemy. If we scatter,
the  Order  will take the opportunity to  attack and capture cities. If  our
only choice is to  scatter, or stand our ground and  fight, then we can only
choose to stand and fight. Better to try, than  to die one  at a time out in
the mountains."
     Kahlan rubbed her fingers across her brow as she tried to think. Jagang
had changed his tactics and decided to engage them in a night battle. He had
never done that before because it would be  so costly for him,  but with his
numbers, he  apparently  wasn't concerned about that. Jagang  held  life  in
little regard.
     "If  we have to fight him, in a full battle, here, now," Kahlan said in
resignation, "we will probably lose the war by dawn."
     "I agree," the general  finally  said. "As  far as I see it, we have no
choice. We have to act quickly and get as many of  our men  over the pass as
we can.  We'll lose all those who don't get over before  the  Order arrives,
but we'll manage to preserve some."
     The four  of them  were silent a moment, each considering the horror of
that reality, of  who would remain behind to die. Furious activity continued
around them. Men were rushing around, putting out fires, collecting panicked
horses, tending to wounded, and battling the few remaining invaders they had
trapped. The Order soldiers were greatly outnumbered. Not for long, though.
     Kahlan's  mind raced.  She couldn't help being  furious with herself at
being  gulled.  Richard's  words  echoed  through  her  mind: think  of  the
solution, not  the problem. The solution  was the  only  thing that mattered
now.
     Kahlan looked again to Verna. "We have  an hour before they're upon us.
You  have to  try, Verna. Do you think  you have any chance at  making  your
special glass and then deploying it before the enemy is upon us?"
     "I will do  my best-you  have my word on  that. I  wish I could promise
more." Verna scrambled to  her feet. "I'll need the Sisters  who are tending
the wounded, of course. What about  the ones working at the front lines? The
ones countering enemy magic? Can I have any of them?"
     "Take them  all,"  Kahlan said.  "If this doesn't work, nothing else is
going to matter."
     "I'll  take them  all, then.  Every  one," Verna  said. "It's the  only
chance we have."
     "You get started," Adie  told Verna. "Go down near  the front lines, on
this  side  of the valley  where you will be upwind from  the attack. I will
begin collecting the Sisters and get them down there to help you."
     "We need  glass," Verna said to the general.  "Any kind. At least a few
barrels full."
     "I'll have men down there with  the first barrel right away.  Can we at
least help to break it up for you?"

     "No. It  won't  matter if what you  throw  in the barrels  breaks,  but
beyond that, it must be done by the gifted.  Just bring  whatever glass  you
can collect, that will be all you can do."
     The general promised her  he would see to it. Holding her hem up out of
her way, Verna ran off to the task. Adie was close on her heels.
     "I'll  get the men moving now," the general told Kahlan as he scrambled
to his feet. "The  scouts can  mark the trail; then we  can start moving the
heavier supplies first."
     If it worked, they would slip out of Jagang's grasp.
     Kahlan knew that if Verna failed, they could all very  well  lose their
lives,  and  the war, by  morning.  General Meiffert  paused  with  one last
hesitant look, one last chance for her to change her mind.
     "Do it," she said to the general. "Cara-we have work."


        CHAPTER 38

     Kahlan pulled her horse up short. She felt the heat of blood rushing to
her face. "What  are you doing?" Cara asked as Kahlan threw her leg over the
horse's neck and leaped to the ground.
     The moon  lit a  layer of lacy clouds  scudding  past, giving a  faint,
serene illumination to the  surrounding countryside. The thin layer of  snow
gathered the  muted light of  the  moon  to make  it  more  luminous than it
otherwise would be.
     Kahlan pointed in the direction of the small figure she could just make
out in the dim light. The skinny girl, surely  not  much past ten years, was
standing at a barrel, ramming a metal  rod down inside to smash the glass in
the bottom. Kahlan handed the reins to Cara as soon as she had dismounted.
     Kahlan stalked over to the Sisters working on the snowy ground. Running
off  in  a haphazard  line,  to  keep the wind at  their  backs, were over a
hundred of the women, all focused intently on the work before them. Many had
their cloaks tented around themselves and their work.
     Not far down that line, Kahlan  bent,  put a  hand under  the Prelate's
arm, and  lifted her to her feet. Mindful of  the serious nature of the work
going on, Kahlan  at  least kept her voice  quiet,  since she wasn't able to
make it congenial.
     "Verna, what is Holly doing down here?"
     Verna glanced  over  the heads of a dozen intervening Sisters  kneeling
before a long  board,  breeze  at their backs, carefully griding glass chips
with pestles in mortars. There being not nearly enough pestles and  mortars,
many of the women to the other side were using dished rocks and round stones
to  carefully  crunch  the  glass  chips. The  concentration showed on  each
woman's face. The accident that had blinded  a Sister had  happened when the
wind  had changed, and a gust had blown her work  back  up in her  face. The
same thing could happen again at any time, although, as darkness had settled
in, the wind had at least died down to a steady breeze.
     Holly was bundled in  an oversized cloak.  She had a determined grimace
as she lifted the rod and then let it drop down in the  barrel set away from
the Sisters' dangerous work.  Kahlan saw that  the rod had a faint  greenish
glow to it.
     "She's helping, Mother Confessor."
     "She's a child!"
     Verna  pointed  off into the darkness, to what Kahlan hadn't  seen. "So
are Helen and Valery."
     Kahlan  pinched  the bridge of her nose  between her  first finger  and
thumb  and took a purging breath. "What  madness  would possess you to  have
children down here near the front helping to-to blind people?"
     Verna glanced at the women working nearby. She took Kahlan's arm by the
elbow and led her out of earshot  of the others. Alone, where they were less
likely

     to be  heard,  she  folded her hands before herself as  she assumed the
stern visage that came so naturally to her.
     "Kahlan, Holly may be  a child, but she is a  gifted child, and she  is
far from stupid besides.  That goes for  Helen and Valery as well. Holly has
seen  more  in her young life than any  child  should see. She  knows what's
going  on tonight, with that attack, and  with the attack that's coming. She
was terrified-all the children were."
     "So you bring her to the front-to the greatest danger?"
     "What would you have me do? Send her  back somewhere to be watched over
by soldiers? Do you wish me  to force her to be alone at a time like this so
she could only tremble in terror?"
     "But this is-"
     "She's gifted. Despite how horrific it seems, this is better  for  her,
as it is for the others. She's with  the Sisters, who understand her and her
ability as other people can't. Don't you recall the comfort you derived from
being with older Confessors who knew the way you felt about things?"
     Kahlan did, but said nothing.
     "The  Sisters are the only  family she and the other novices have, now.
Holly is  not alone and afraid. She may still  be afraid,  but  she's  doing
something to help us, so that her fear is channeled into something that will
assist in overcoming the cause of her fear."
     Kahlan's brow was still set in a glare. "Verna, she's a child."
     "And  you had to kill a child today. I understand.  But don't let  that
terrible  event make it harder on Holly. Yes, this  is an awful thing she is
helping to do, but this  is the reality of the way things are. She could die
tonight,  along  with the rest of us. Can you even imagine what those brutes
would do to  her, first? At least that much is beyond the imagination of her
young mind. What she can comprehend, though, is fear enough.
     "If she wanted to hide somewhere, I would have  let her,  but she has a
right-if she so chooses-to contribute to saving  herself. She is gifted  and
can use her power to do the simple part of  what  needs doing. She begged me
to give her the chance to help."
     In anguish, Kahlan gathered her fur mantle at her throat as she glanced
back  over her shoulder at the  little girl using  both her spindly arms  to
lift the heavy steel rod and drop it again to break  the glass in the bottom
of the  barrel. Holly's features were  drawn tight  as  she concentrated  on
using her gift while at the same time lifting the weight of the rod.
     "Dear spirits," Kahlan whispered to herself, "this is madness."
     Cara  impatiently  shifted  her  weight to  her other  foot.  It wasn't
indifference to  the  situation, but a matter of priorities. Madness or not,
there was little  tine left, and,  as Verna said, they could all  die before
the  night was  finished. As cruel as it sounded, there were more  important
matters than the life of one child, or, for that matter, three.
     "How is the work going? Are you going to be ready?"
     Verna's bold expression finally  faltered. "I don't know." She lifted a
hand hesitantly, motioning out  over  the dark valley before them. "The wind
is  right, but the valley approach  to  our forces  is quite broad. It's not
that  we won't have some, it's  that we need to have enough so that when the
enemy gets close, we can release the glass dust to float across the span  of
the entire field of battle."

     "But you have some. Surely, what you have will do damage to the enemy."
     "If there  isn't  enough,  then they may skirt  it, or  it  may not  be
concentrated enough to do  the damage necessary to  bring their forces to  a
halt. Their attack will not be turned back by a small number of casualties."
Verna squeezed one  fist in her  other hand. "If the Creator will  just slow
the Imperial Order enough to grant us  another  hour,  at  the least, then I
believe we may have enough."
     Kahlan wiped a hand across  her face. That  was asking a lot,  but with
the darkness,  she thought  that it just might  be  possible  that the Order
would have to go slow enough  to give Verna  and  her Sisters  the time they
needed.
     "And you're sure we can't help? There is nothing any but the gifted can
do to assist you?"
     Verna's mask of authority again emerged in the moonlight.
     "Well, yes, there is one thing."
     "What is it, then?"
     "You could leave me alone so I can work."
     Kahlan sighed. "Just promise me one thing." Verna raised  an eyebrow as
if willing  to listen prudently. "When the attack comes, and you have to use
this special  glass, get the  children  out of  here  first? Get them to the
rear, where they can be taken over the pass to safety."
     Verna smiled  with  relief. "We are  of  like  minds  in  that,  Mother
Confessor."
     As Verna hurried back to her work, Kahlan and  Cara  returned along the
line of Sisters, past the  end to where  Holly was preparing glass to supply
those gifted women. Kahlan couldn't help but to stop for a word.
     "Holly, how are you getting along?"
     When the  girl rested the  rod against the side  of  the  barrel, Cara,
absent  any  fondness for  magic,  aimed a suspicious frown  at the  faintly
glowing metal. As Holly  took  her small  hands from the metal, the greenish
glow faded, as if a magical wick had been turned down.
     "I'm fine, Mother Confessor.  Except  I'm  cold. I'm  getting  terribly
tired of being cold."
     Kahlan smiled warmly as she ran a gentle hand down the  back of Holly's
fine hair. "As are we  all." Kahlan crouched down beside the girl.  "When we
get over into another valley, you can get warm by a nice fire."
     "That would be splendid." She cast a  furtive glance at her steel  rod.
"I have to get back to work, Mother Confessor."
     Kahlan couldn't resist  pulling the girl close and kissing  her  frigid
cheek. Hesitant  at first, the  thin little arms  surrendered to desperately
encircle Kahlan's neck.
     "I'm so scared," Holly whispered.
     "Me too," Kahlan whispered  back  as she  squeezed the girl tight.  "Me
too."
     Holly straightened. "Really? You get  scared, too, that those awful men
will murder us?"
     Kahlan nodded. "I get  frightened, but  I know  we have a lot  of  good
people  who will  keep  us safe. Like you, they work as hard as they  can so
that we can all someday be safe, and not have to be scared anymore."
     The girl stuck her hands under her cloak to warm them. Her gaze sank to
the ground  at  her  feet. "I miss Ann, too."  She looked  up again. "Is Ann
safe?"
     Kahlan groped for words of comfort. "I saw  Ann  not long  ago, and she
was fine. I don't think you need worry for her."

     "She saved me. I love her and miss her so. Will she be with us, soon?"
     Kahlan cupped the girl's cheek. "I don't know, Holly. She had important
business she  was taking  care  of.  I'm  sure, though,  that we'll  see her
again."
     Pleased with that news and seemingly relieved to know  that she was not
alone  in   her  fears,   Holly  turned  back  to   her  work  with  renewed
determination.
     As  Kahlan  and  Cara  collected  their  horses,  they  heard  a  horse
approaching  at a  gallop. Before she  recognized  the rider, Kahlan saw and
recognized the black  splotch on  its rump.  When  he saw  her waving,  Zedd
trotted Spider around to her. He slid down off the animal'