ing past who looked like someone he
knew.  He had probably met  her recently,  was  all.  He'd met a  number  of
Sisters  recently, and  it was never congenial. Zedd admonished himself that
he had to keep a grasp on his wits.
     One of the little  girls not far  away, being  held  prisoner by  a big
guard standing over  her, was watching  Zedd and when he glanced up  at her,
she  smiled.  He thought it the oddest thing  a frightened  child--mid  such
chaos of  soldiers, prisoners, and military activity--could do.  He supposed
that such  a  child could not possibly understand that she  was there to  be
tortured, if necessary, to make sure Zedd  told  all he knew. He looked away
from her long blond hair cascading down around her shoulders, her beautiful,
oddly familiar face. This was madness-- in more ways than one.
     The hump-nosed  Sister  emerged  from the tent. "Bring  them  in,"  she
snapped.
     The four guards jumped into action, two seizing  Adie,  the  other  two
taking Zedd. The men were big enough that Zedd's weight was trivial to them.
The way they held him up by his arms prevented half his  steps from touching
the ground.  They horsed him  into the tent, advanced him around  the table,
spun him around,  and dropped  him into  the chair  with  such force that it
drove the wind from his lungs in a grunt.
     Zedd closed his eyes as he  grimaced in pain. He wished they would just
kill him so that he wouldn't ever have to open his eyes again. But when they
killed him, they would send his head to Richard. Zedd  hated to think of the
anguish that would cause Richard.
     "Well?" Sister Tahirah asked.
     Zedd opened his eyes and peered at the object sitting before him in the
center of the table.
     His breath caught.
     He blinked at what he saw, too astonished to let out the breath.
     It was constructed magic called a sunset spell.
     Zedd  swallowed. Surely,  none of the Sisters  had  opened it. No, they
wouldn't have opened it. He wouldn't be sitting there if they had.
     Before him on the table sat a small box, the size of half his palm. The
box was shaped like the upper half of  a stylized sun--a half disc  with six
pointed rays coming out from  it, meant to represent the sun setting at  the
horizon. The box was lacquered a  bright yellow. The rays were  also yellow,
but with lines of orange, green, and blue along their edges.
     "Well?" Sister Tahirah repeated.
     "Ahh..."
     She was looking in her book, not at the small yellow box. "What is it?"
     "I'm ... not sure I remember," he said, stalling.
     The Sister wasn't in a patient mood. "Do you want me to--"
     "Oh, yes," he said, trying to sound  nonchalant, "I recall, now. It's a
box with a spell that produces a little tune."
     That  much was true.  The  Sister was  still  reading in her book. Zedd
glanced back over his shoulder at Adie sitting on the bench. He could see in
her  eyes that she knew by his demeanor that something was up. He  hoped the
Sister couldn't detect the same thing.
     "It's a music box,  then,"  Sister Tahirah murmured, more interested in
her catalog of magic.
     "Yes,  that's right. A box  that contains  a spell for music. When  you
remove the  lid, it  produces  a melody." Sweat trickled down from his neck,
down  between his  shoulder blades. Zedd swallowed and tried not to let  his
trembling carry in his voice. "Take the lid off--you'll see."
     She  peered suspiciously over the  top of the book. "You take  the  lid
off."
     "Well... I can't. My hands are shackled behind my back."
     "Use your teeth."
     "My teeth?"
     The Sister used the back end of her pen to push the yellow half-sun box
closer to him. "Yes, your teeth."
     He had been counting on her suspicion, but he dared not overplay it. He
worked his tongue in his mouth,  desperately trying to  work up some saliva.
Blood would be better, but he knew that if he bit  the inside of his lip the
Sister would get suspicious. Blood was too common a catalyst.
     Before the  Sister got leery, Zedd leaned forward and  tried to stretch
his lips around the box. He worked  to get his bottom teeth at the bottom of
the sun and his top teeth hooked over a pointed ray. The box was  a hair too
big. With a hand on the back of  his head, Sister Tahirah pushed him down on
it. That was all he needed and he captured the lid with his teeth.
     He  lifted the lid,  but the  whole box came up off the table. He shook
his head and, at last, the top came free. He set the lid aside.
     If not opened by a party to the theft of items preserved at the Keep, a
sunset spell had to be activated by a wizard whom the spell would recognize.
Quickly, before she saw what he was doing, he let some saliva drop  into the
box in order to activate the spell.
     Zedd felt giddy as the music started. It worked. It was  still  viable.
He glanced through the narrow slit of  the tent flap.  The sun would be down
soon.
     He wanted to jump up and dance to the merry tune.  He wanted to let out
a whoop. Even though he didn't have long to live, he still felt exhilarated.
The ordeal was almost  over. In  a short time, all the things of  magic that
were stolen would be destroyed,  and  he would be dead. They would never get
anything out of him. He would not betray their cause.
     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."
     Zedd was incredulous.  "But you  all have to get out  of  here.  Hurry,
before the sun sets. Get out!"
     "Do you have any more men?" Chase asked the captain.
     "A handful. Who are you?"
     "An old friend," Zedd told him. "Now, look here--"
     At that, cries and shouts came  from outside. Captain Zimmer rushed  to
the tent's opening. A man poked his head in.
     "It's not us," he said in answer to the captain's unspoken question.
     In the distance, Zedd could hear the shouts of "Assassin!"
     Captain Zimmer rushed  behind  Zedd and  worked a key in  the manacles.
They broke open. Zedd's arms were suddenly free. The captain hurried to undo
Adie's as she stood and turned her back to him.
     "Sounds like our chance," Rachel said. "Let's use the commotion  to get
you out of here."
     "The brains of the group," Chase said with a grin.
     The first  thing Zedd did when his arms were free was fall to his knees
and hug the girl. He couldn't bring forth words, but they weren't needed. To
feel her spindly arms around his neck was better than any words.
     "I've missed you, Zedd," she whispered in his ear.
     Outside the tent, mayhem had broken out. Orders were being shouted, men
were running, and in the distance the clash of steel rang out.
     The Sister burst back into the tent. She saw  Zedd free and immediately
released a bolt of power through his collar. The shock sent him sprawling.
     Just then,  a second, young, blond Sister  in a  drab brown  wool dress
charged  in behind Sister  Tahirah. Sister Tahirah spun around.  The  second
Sister  smacked her  so  hard it  nearly  knocked the woman  from her  feet.
Without  pause, Sister Tahirah unleashed a bolt  of her power that  lit  the
inside of the tent  with a blinding flash. Instead of it blasting the second
Sister back through the tent's doorway, as Zedd had expected, Sister Tahirah
cried out and crumpled to the ground.
     "Got you!"  the second Sister growled  as she planted a boot on  Sister
Tahirah's neck, keeping her on the ground.
     Zedd blinked in astonishment. "Rikka?"
     Rikka was already turning,  her  Agiel in her  fist. She held it toward
Chase.
     "Rikka?" Captain Zimmer asked from the other side of the tent, sounding
startled,  not just to see who it was, but perhaps to see the Mord-Sith with
her blond hair undone from its single braid and flying free.
     "Zimmer?" She frowned at his black hair. "What are you doing here?"
     "What am I doing  here? What are you  doing  here!" He gestured to  her
dress. "What are you wearing?"
     Rikka grinned that wicked grin she had. "The dress of a Sister."
     "Sister?" Zedd asked. "What Sister?"
     Rikka shrugged. "One who didn't want to give up her dress. She lost her
head over the whole  affair."  With her  finger  and thumb Rikka  pulled her
lower lip  out. "See? I borrowed her ring, too. I spread  the split and hung
it here, so I'd look like a real Sister."
     Rikka pulled Sister Tahirah up by her hair and  shoved her toward Adie.
"Get that thing off her neck."
     "I will do no such--"
     Rikka drove her Agiel up under the Sister's chin. Blood gushed out over
her lower lip. The Sister started choking on it as she gasped in agony.
     "I said, get that thing off Adie's neck. And don't you ever question me
again."
     Sister Tahirah scrambled to Adie to do as the Mord-Sith had commanded.
     Chase planted his fists on his hips as he glared down at Zedd, still on
the ground. "So what are we going to do now--draw straws to see  who gets to
rescue you?"
     "Bags! Isn't anyone listening? You people have to get out of here!"
     Rachel shook a finger at Zedd. "Now, Zedd, you know you're not supposed
to say bad words in front of children."
     Sputtering in frustration, Zedd gaped up at Chase.
     "I know," the boundary warden said with a sigh. "She's been a trial for
me, too."
     "The sun's about to set!" Zedd roared.
     "It would  be better  if we  could delay until it did,"  Captain Zimmer
said. "It would be easier to get out of camp in the dark."
     A humming noise filled the tent,  making the very air vibrate, and then
there was a sudden metallic  pop. Adie cried out with relief  as  the collar
fell away.
     "Isn't  anyone  listening?"  Zedd  scrambled to his feet and  shook his
fists. "I've ignited a sunset spell!"
     "A what?" Chase asked.
     "A sunset spell.  It's a protective device from the Keep. It's a shield
of sorts.  When it  recognizes that  other  shields  are being  violated and
protected  items  are  being  taken,  it insinuates itself  among the stolen
goods. When a thief opens it to see  what  it is, it activates the spell. At
the  first sunset the  spell ignites  and destroys everything that  has been
plundered."
     Sister Tahirah shook her fist at him. "You fool!"
     Rikka seized his arm. "Then let's get going."
     Chase grabbed Zedd's other arm and pulled him back. "Now, hold on."
     Zedd yanked both arms free and pointed out through the slit in the side
of the tent at the setting sun. "We've got mere  moments until this place is
a fireball."
     "How big a fireball?" Captain Zimmer asked.
     Zedd threw up his hands.  "It will kill thousands. It won't destroy the
camp by any means, but this whole area is going to be leveled."
     Everyone  started  talking, but  Chase  cut them all off with an  angry
command for silence.  "Now listen to me.  If  we  look  like we're escaping,
we'll be caught. Captain,  you and your men come with me. We'll pretend like
Zedd and Adie  are our prisoners.  Rachel, too--that's how I  got in here; I
found out they were holding children." He flipped  a  hand toward  Rikka and
Sister Tahirah. "They will look like Sisters in charge  of  prisoners, along
with us playing as the guards."
     "Do you want that thing off your neck, first?" Rikka asked Zedd.
     "No time for that now. Let's go."
     Adie grabbed Zedd's arm. "No."
     "What!"
     "Listen  to me, old man.  There be those families and children in these
tents around us. They will  die.  You  go. Get  to the  Keep. I will get the
innocent people out of here."
     Zedd didn't like the idea, but arguing with Adie was a fool's task,
     and besides, there was no time.
     "We split up, then," Captain  Zimmer said. "Me and my men will play the
part of guards and get the men, women, and children out of here, back to our
lines, along with Adie."
     Rikka nodded. "Tell Verna that I'm going  to go with Zedd  to help take
back the Keep. He will need a Mord-Sith to keep him out of trouble."
     Everyone looked around to see if there would  be any arguments. No  one
said anything. It suddenly seemed settled.
     "Done," Zedd said.
     He threw his arms around Adie and  kissed her cheek. "Be careful.  Tell
Verna I'm going to take the Keep back. Help her defend the passes."
     Adie nodded. "Be careful. Listen to Chase--he be a good man to come all
this way for you."
     Zedd  smiled and then  gasped as Chase grabbed his robes and yanked him
out  of  the  tent.  "The sun is setting--let's get  out  of here. Remember,
you're our prisoner."
     "I know the part," Zedd grumbled as he was dragged out of the tent like
a sack of  grain. He smiled as Adie,  already rushing away, looked over  her
shoulder one last time. She smiled back, and then was gone.
     "Wait!" Zedd  called.  He  quickly reached  into one of  the wagons and
retrieved something he  didn't want to be destroyed. He slipped  it  into  a
pocket. "All right, let's go."
     Outside the tent, the camp was in pandemonium. Elite guards, in a state
of  high alert and with  weapons drawn,  raced past on their  way toward the
command  tents. Other  men  ran  to the ring of barricades. Trumpets  blared
alarms  and coded messages that directed men to tasks. Zedd feared his small
group might be set upon and held for questioning.
     Instead of waiting for that to happen, Chase reached out and snatched a
soldier  running  past. "What's the  matter with you? Get me some protection
for these prisoners until I can get them to a  safe place! The  emperor will
have our heads if we allow them to be recaptured!"
     The  soldier  quickly collected a dozen  men and  fell in around Rikka,
Sister  Tahirah, Chase, Rachel, and Zedd. Rachel was  doing a convincing job
of bawling in fear. For  effect, Chase would occasionally give her  a  shake
and yell at her to shut up.
     Zedd glanced back over his shoulder, seeing the sun touch the  horizon.
He growled at Rikka, out ahead, for her to pick up her pace.
     At  the barricades, scowling guards looked them over carefully  as they
approached and then opened  their ranks.  They  were preventing anyone  from
getting in, and were momentarily confused by such a company of their own men
with prisoners making their way out. One man decided to step out to stop and
question them.
     Chase straight-armed him. "Idiot! Out of our way! Emperor's orders!"
     The man frowned as he stared at the procession  sweeping past. While he
considered what to do, they were past and gone,  swallowed up in  the larger
camp.
     In  moments,  they were out of  the heart of the camp.  In short order,
regular  soldiers, seeing  Rikka at  the lead, moved to block their path.  A
beautiful woman out among the regular soldiers was asking for  trouble,  and
with the confusion the  men saw in the command area, they believed  they had
an  opportunity  while those  in authority were busy. Rikka and  Chase  kept
their small group  moving  at a  quick  pace.  The grinning  soldiers closed
ranks, blocking the way. One of the men, missing his two front teeth, took a
step out in front of his men. With one thumb hooked behind his belt, he held
up the other hand.
     "Hold on there. I think the ladies would like to stay for a visit."
     Without pause, Rachel reached under the hem of  her dress and pulled  a
knife.  She didn't slow  or  even look back as she flipped the knife up over
her shoulder. In one fluid motion, without missing a step, Chase caught  the
knife by the tip and heaved it at the toothless man. With a thunk, the knife
slammed hilt-deep into the man's forehead.
     As he was still toppling  back,  Rachel  flipped a second knife up over
her shoulder.  Chase caught it and  sent it on its way. As  the  second  man
twisted toward the  ground, dead, the rest of the men backed away to let the
small  group, marching  onward,  in among  them.  Deadly rights  within  the
Imperial Order camp were not a rarity.
     Elite  guards or not, the soldiers were confident in their numbers and,
with a  beautiful woman  in their midst, sure of  what they wanted.  Men all
around closed in.
     Zedd snatched a quick glance back. "Now! Hit the ground!"
     Rikka, Chase, Rachel, and Zedd dove to the dirt.
     For an instant, everyone  above  them  froze, staring in surprise.  The
soldiers  who were accompanying them, weapons already drawn  for  the  fight
they expected, also stopped and stood in confusion.
     Sister  Tahirah  saw her opportunity and cried out. "Help! These people
are--"
     The world ignited with brilliant white light.
     An instant later a thunderous blast rocked the ground. A wall of debris
followed, driven before a roar of noise.
     Men were blown into the air. Some were cut down by flying wreckage. The
elite guards that had escorted them tumbled through the air over Zedd.
     Sister Tahirah had  turned toward the flash. A wagon  wheel shot toward
them at incredible speed, hitting her chest-high, cutting her  in  two.  The
bloodied  wheel sailed  onward  without  even  being  slowed.  The  Sister's
shredded  remains were  flung  across the ground along  with  the bodies  of
countless men.
     As the blast from behind still rumbled, the screams of terribly wounded
men rose into the lingering rays of sunset.
     Zedd dearly hoped that Adie had not wasted any time in escaping.
     Chase seized Zedd's robes at one shoulder and hauled him to his feet as
he swept Rachel up in his other arm. Rikka grabbed Zedd's robes at the other
shoulder and pulled him ahead. Together, Zedd's two rescuers rushed with him
into the carnage.
     Rachel hid her face in Chase's shoulder.
     Zedd  was about to ask Chase why  in the  world  he would teach a young
girl such things with knives  when he recalled that he himself had been  the
one who had once commanded  Chase to the task of teaching her everything the
boundary warden knew.
     Rachel was a  special person. Zedd had wanted  her  to be  prepared for
what life might have in store.
     "You should have let me  make  the Sister take off that collar  when we
had the chance," Rikka said as they ran.
     "If we  had  taken the time,"  Zedd  answered, "we would have been back
there and caught up in that fireball."
     "I suppose," she said.
     As they slowed a bit to catch their breath, men ran in every direction.
In the confusion and disorder,  no one noticed  that  the four of  them were
making good their escape. As they  hastily made  their way through  the vast
Imperial  Order encampment,  Zedd put  an  arm  around Rikka's shoulders and
pulled her closer.
     "Thank you for coming to save my life."
     She  flashed  him a  cunning  smile.  "I  wouldn't leave  you to  those
pigs--not  after  all  you've  done for  us.  Besides,  Lord Rahl  has  Cara
protecting  him;  I'm   sure  he  would  want  a  Mord-Sith  protecting  his
grandfather as well."
     Zedd had been right. The world was turned upside down.
     "We  have horses and  supplies hidden," Chase  said. "On our way out of
this place, we'd better take a horse for Rikka."
     Rachel looked back over Chase's shoulder, her arms around his neck. She
gave Zedd a serious frown as she whispered, "Chase is unhappy because he had
to leave all his weapons behind and be so lightly armed."
     Zedd glanced to the battle-axe  at one hip, the sword at Chase's other,
and  two  knives  at the small of  his back. "Yes, I can see  where being so
defenseless would make a man grumpy."
     "I don't like this place," Rachel whispered in Chase's ear.
     He patted her back as she laid her head on his shoulder. "We'll be back
in the woods in no time, little one."
     Amid the screams  and  death, it was as tender a  sight  as  Zedd could
imagine.





        CHAPTER 54


     Verna paused when the sentry rushed up in the dark. She moved her hands
up on the reins, closer to the bit, to keep her horse from spooking.
     "Prelate--I think it might be an attack of some sort," the soldier said
in breathless worry.
     She frowned at the man. "What might be an attack? What is it?"
     "There's  something coming  up the road." He pointed back toward Dobbin
Pass. "A wagon, I think."
     The enemy was always sending things  at them--men  sneaking through the
darkness, horses  encased  in spells  designed to blow  a  breach  in  their
shields running  wildly  toward them, innocent enough  wagons  with  archers
hiding  inside, powerful spell-driven winds laced with  magic  conjuring  of
every sort.
     "Since it's dark, the commander thinks it's suspicious and we shouldn't
take any chances."
     "Sounds wise," Verna said.
     She had  to get back to their camp. She had made the rounds herself  to
get a good  look at their  defenses, to see the men at the  outposts, before
their nightly meeting back at camp to go over the day's reports.
     "The  commander wants  to destroy  the wagon before it gets too  close.
I've checked, Prelate--there are no other Sisters at hand. If you don't want
to see to this, we can have the  men  up above drop a rockslide on the wagon
and crush it."
     Verna had to get back to  meet with the officers.  "You had better tell
your commander to take care of it in whatever manner he sees fit."
     The soldier saluted with snap of a fist to his heart.
     Verna pulled  her horse around  and put a  foot  into the  stirrup. Why
would the Imperial Order think they could get a wagon through, especially at
night? Certainly, they weren't  foolish enough to think it wouldn't  be seen
in the dark. She paused and looked at the soldier hurrying away.
     "Wait." He stopped and turned. "I changed my mind. I'll go with you."
     It  was  foolish  to  use the rocks they had ready overhead; they might
need them if a full-scale attack suddenly charged up this pass. It was silly
to waste such a defense.
     She  followed  the  man  up the  trail to the  lookout  point where his
company waited.  The men were all watching through the trees.  The road  out
ahead and below them looked silver in the light of the rising moon.
     Verna inhaled the  fragrance of  balsam  firs as she watched the  wagon
making its way  up the silvery road,  being pulled  by  a  single,  plodding
horse.  Tense  archers waited  at  the  ready.  They had  a shielded lantern
standing by to light fire arrows in order to set the wagon ablaze.
     Verna  didn't  see anyone in the wagon.  An  empty wagon  seemed pretty
suspicious. She recalled the strange message from Ann, warning her to let an
empty wagon through.
     But they had already  done that. Verna recalled that the girl  with the
message  from Jagang had  come  in by this route  and  method. Verna's heart
pounded in worry at the thought of what new message Jagang might be sending,
now.
     Perhaps it was Zedd's and Adie's heads.
     "Hold," she called to the  archers.  "Let it through,  but stand at the
ready in case it's a trick."
     Verna made her way down  the narrow path  between the trees. She  stood
behind a screen of spruce, watching.  When  the wagon was close enough,  she
opened a small gap  in the weave of the vast  shield she and the Sisters had
spun across the pass. The pattern of magic  was barbed with every nasty sort
of magic they could conjure. This  pass was  small enough  that the  shields
alone could  hold  it, and if  the enemy did come, it was  too small for any
numbers  to come all at  once. Even  without the formidable shield, the pass
was relatively easy to hold.
     When the wagon passed  through the shield, Verna closed the  hole. When
it rolled close enough, one of the men ran out of the trees and look control
of  the horse. As the wagon drew to a halt, dozens of archers behind him and
on the other side, behind Verna, drew their weapons. Verna had spun a web of
magic and she was prepared to unleash it at the slightest provocation.
     The  tarp in the bed of the wagon eased back.  A little girl sat up. It
was the child who had brought the message the last time. Her face lit up  at
seeing Verna, someone she recognized.
     Verna's heart skipped a beat at the thought of  what the  message might
be, this time.
     "I brought some friends," the girl said.
     People lying in the back of the wagon pulled the tarp aside and started
sitting up. They looked like parents with their frightened children.
     Verna blinked  in shock when  she saw some  of the people help Adie up.
The sorceress looked to be  exhausted. Her black and gray hair was no longer
parted neatly in the  middle, but  was in as much disarray as Zedd's usually
was.
     Verna rushed over, leaning in to help the  woman. "Adie! Oh, Adie, am I
ever glad to see you!"
     The old sorceress smiled. "I be awfully happy to see you, too, Verna."
     Verna's  gaze swept  over  the  people in  the wagon, her  heart  still
pounding with apprehension. "Where's Zedd?"
     "He escaped as well."
     Verna closed her eyes with a silent prayer of gratitude.
     Her eyes popped open. "If he escaped, then where is he?"
     "He  be on  his way  back to the Keep, in Aydindril," Adie  said in her
raspy voice. "The enemy has captured it."
     "We heard."
     "That old man intends to have his Keep back."
     "Knowing Zedd, I feel sorry for anyone who gets in his way."
     "Rikka be with him."
     "Rikka! What was  she doing over there? I  ordered her not to do that!"
Verna  realized  how  that  must  have  sounded.  "We  thought it  would  be
pointless, that  she wouldn't have a chance and we would  just lose her  for
nothing."
     "Rikka be Mord-Sith. She has a mind of her own."
     Verna  shook her head. "Well,  even though she  wasn't  supposed  to do
that, now that I  see you again and know Zedd has escaped as well, I'm  glad
that that obstinate woman didn't listen to me."
     "Captain Zimmer be on his way back as well."
     "Captain Zimmer!"
     "Yes, he and some of his men decided to come to rescue us as well. They
be  coming back the way they travel, unseen in  the night." Adie gestured to
the  surrounding trees. "They be up  around us,  protecting the wagon on our
way  in. The captain feared that  some of the enemy might stop the wagon and
capture us all over again. He wanted to make sure we be safe."
     The captain and his men  had special signals  that allowed them to move
through the pass without being attacked by their own men, or the Sisters, by
mistake.  The nature of the way Captain  Zimmer  and his men worked was that
they were, for the most part, outside  regular command. Kahlan had set it up
that way so they could act  on their own initiative. While it could at times
be aggravating, those men accomplished more than anyone ever expected.
     "Zedd  wanted  me  to help these people  escape."  Adie  gave  Verna  a
meaningful look. "There be others we could not help."
     Verna glanced  over at the people huddling together  at the back of the
wagon.  "I can only imagine  what  Jagang has  been doing  with people  like
that."
     "No," Adie said. "I doubt you can."
     Verna changed to an even more horrifying subject. "Has Jagang been able
to find anything from the Keep, so far, that he will use against us?"
     "Thankfully, no. Zedd set a spell that destroyed the things stolen from
the Keep. There be a big explosion in the middle of their camp."
     "Like the one back in Aydindril that killed so many of them?"
     "No, but it  still caused much  destruction and killed  some  important
people--even some of Jagang's Sisters, I believe."
     Verna never thought she would see the day that she would be  pleased to
hear that Sisters of  the Light had died. Those women were controlled by the
dream walker, and even when they had been offered freedom, they had been too
afraid  to  believe those  trying to rescue them. They  had chosen to remain
Jagang's slaves.
     With a sudden thought, Verna grabbed a fistful of Adie's robes.  "Could
the spell Zedd ignited possibly have taken out Jagang?"
     With her completely white eyes, Adie looked  back up Dobbin Pass toward
the Imperial  Order camp. "I wish I had better  news,  Prelate,  but Captain
Zimmer, on the way out, told me that just as we were about to be rescued, an
assassin managed to get deep into the inner camp."
     "An assassin? Who was it? Where was he from?"
     "None of us knows. He appeared much like others from the Old World. The
intruder be  driven  by a single-minded determination  to get to  Jagang and
kill  him. He  somehow made it into the inner defenses, killed some  people,
and took the  uniform  of the elite  guards so he  might get  to Jagang. The
guards somehow recognized he not be one of their own. They hacked the man to
pieces before he could get close to the emperor.
     "Jagang left the area until his men could check over their defenses and
make  sure there be  no more assassins about. Many of  the Sisters went with
him, helping with  his safeguards. That  be when  Zedd  set  off the  sunset
spell. We did not know Jagang had left the area,  but it would have make  no
difference. Zedd had to  use the spell when it  be put before him. The spell
be triggered by the sun setting."
     Verna nodded. For a moment, she had been hoping ...
     "Still,  you  and Zedd escaped, and that's  what matters for now. Thank
the Creator."
     "A surprising  number of people  showed up all  at once  to rescue us."
Adie lifted an eyebrow. "I do not recall seeing the Creator among them."
     The warm breeze ruffled  Verna's curly  hair. "I  suppose  not, but you
know what I mean."
     The crickets in the woods kept up their steady chirping. Life seemed to
be a little sweeter, their situation a little less hopeless.
     She let  out  a sigh. "I hope the  Creator will at least help  Zedd and
Rikka take back the Keep."
     "Zedd will not need the Creator's help," Adie said. "Another man showed
up to help  get us out.  Chase be  an old friend of Zedd,  me, and  Richard.
Chase  will  have those holding  the  Keep praying for the protection of the
Creator."
     "Then we can look forward to the  day the Keep is back in our hands and
Jagang is denied help in breaking through the passes into D'Hara."
     Verna waved  her arm, signaling, and the four couples  standing  at the
back of the wagon shuffled forward with their children.
     "Welcome to D'Hara," Verna told them. "You will be safe, here."
     "Thank you for helping get us out," one of  the men said  with a bow of
his  head to Adie.  "I feel ashamed, now, of the terrible things I  had been
thinking of you."
     Adie  smiled  to  herself  as she  tightened her  thin fingers  on  his
shoulder. "True. But I could not blame you."
     The girl who  had brought the  message the last time tugged  on Verna's
dress. "This is my  mother and father. I told them how nice you were  to me,
before."
     Verna squatted down and  hugged the girl. "Welcome back, child. Welcome
back."






        CHAPTER 55



     Whenever  a breath of wind  sighed among the  branches  above,  silvery
streamers of moonlight cascading down through the forest canopy glided about
in the darkness like ghosts on  the prowl. Kahlan peered around, barely able
to make  out the somber  shapes of the looming trees as she  tried to see if
there was anything that did not  belong. She  heard no  chirps  of bugs,  no
small  animals scurrying among  the  leaf  litter,  no  mockingbirds singing
throughout the night as  there had been. Carefully picking her way over  the
mossy ground, she did her  best  to see in  the gloom so as  not to step  in
holes and cracks in the rocky places or pools  of standing water  in the low
areas.
     Ahead of her, Richard slipped through the open forest like a shadow. At
times he seemed to disappear, causing her to fear that he might no longer be
with them. He  had ordered everyone following behind  him not to talk and to
walk as quietly as possible, but none of them could move  through  the woods
as silently as he did.
     For some  reason, Richard  was as tense as his  bowstring. He felt that
something  was wrong, but  he didn't  know  what.  While  it  might  seem  a
beautiful  moonlit night in the woods, the way Richard was acting, on top of
the haunting silence, had draped a pall of foreboding over everyone.
     Kahlan was  at least pleased that the skies had  cleared.  The rains of
recent days had  made travel  not just  difficult, but  miserable. While  it
hadn't really been cold, the wet made  it feel so.  Taking  shelter had  not
been  an option. Until they had the final  dose of the antidote, they had no
choice but to press on.
     The  antidote from Northwick had improved Richard's condition a little,
in addition  to stopping the advance of the symptoms  of his  poisoning, but
now the temporary improvement was dissipating. Kahlan was so worried for him
that she had no appetite.
     They  now had  well  over double the number  of men with them, and many
more than that were making their way toward the city of  Hawton by different
routes.  Those  other  groups  of  men  planned   to  eliminate  the  lesser
detachments  of Imperial Order soldiers stationed in villages along the way.
Richard,  Kahlan, and  their  smaller  group  were pushing  toward Hawton as
rapidly as possible, deliberately avoiding  contact with  the enemy so as to
get there before Nicholas and  his soldiers  knew  they were  on  their way.
Stealth  would afford them  the best chance of recovering the  final dose of
the antidote.
     Once they had the antidote, then they could gather with the rest of the
men for  an attack.  Kahlan knew that if they could first eliminate Nicholas
it  would  make  it  much easier,  and less risky,  to defeat  the remaining
Imperial  Order  troops.  If she could somehow find  a way  to  get close to
Nicholas she could touch him with her power. She knew better than to suggest
such an idea to Richard; he would never go along with it.
     To a certain extent, Kahlan felt responsible for what  these people had
suffered under the Imperial Order. After  all,  if not for her  freeing  the
chimes, the boundary  protecting  Bandakar would  still be in place. Yet, if
these people  could  rid themselves of the Imperial Order, the changes  that
had come  about also meant the  true  freedom they  had never really enjoyed
and, with it, the opportunity for better lives.
     The change in  the people  in Northwick had been heartening to witness.
That night, the men Richard and Kahlan had brought had stayed up most of the
night talking to the people there, explaining the  things Richard and Kahlan
had explained to them.  The  morning after the annihilation of  the soldiers
who had taken over their city and held them in the grip of fear,  the people
had  celebrated by  singing  and  dancing in  the streets. Those people  had
learned not  only just how precious freedom really was, but also  that their
old ways provided no real tools for improving the quality of their lives.
     After Richard had  dissolved  the  ancient  illusions of the Wise One's
wisdom and the  meaningless  tenets the speakers  substituted for knowledge,
and after  the killing of  the enemy soldiers, the men of  Northwick had not
been  shy about  volunteering to help rid their land of the Imperial  Order.
Freed from the enforced blindness of a repressive mindset, many now hungered
aloud for a future of their own making.
     Kahlan unexpectedly came up against Richard's outstretched arm. She put
a hand to  her chest, over her galloping heart,  then immediately turned and
passed the signal to stop back to  those behind. There was still no sound in
the dark woods--not so much