Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

"I have an idea," Nicci said. "I'm a sorceress, Jillian. I know all about these men and how they work. I know how to handle them. You help Richard, and while you do that I'll go down there and see to getting rid of these men. When I'm done they will no longer be a danger to you or your people."

"If I help Richard, you will help my grandfather?"

Nicci smiled. "I promise."

Jillian looked up at Richard.

"Nicci keeps her word," he told her.

"All right. I will show Richard everything I know about this place while you make those men leave us be."

"Cara," Richard said, "go with Nicci and watch her back."

"And who will watch yours?"

Richard put a boot on the head of the man he had killed and yanked his knife free. He pointed with the weapon. "Lokey will watch our backs."

Cara did not look amused. "A raven is going to watch your back."

He wiped the blade clean on the man's shirt, then returned the knife to its sheath at his belt. "The priestess of the bones will watch over me. After all, she's been here waiting all this time for me to come here. Nicci is the one who will be in danger. I'd appreciate it if you protected her."

Cara glanced at Nicci as if grasping some greater meaning. "I will protect her for you, Lord Rahl."

CHAPTER 61

As Nicci and Cara started down toward where Jillian said the rest of the Imperial Order soldiers were, Richard went back into his tomb and recovered the smallest of the glass spheres. He slipped it into his pack so that it wouldn't interfere with his night vision, but would be handy if they had to go into any of the buildings of the city. Searching ancient decaying buildings in the dark was not a prospect he relished.

Jillian was like a cat that knew every nook and cranny of the ancient city on the headland. They went through streets that had nearly disappeared under rubble and wreckage of walls long since fallen. Some of the debris had collected weather-borne dust and dirt that had eventually filled it in, making small hills where trees now grew among the buildings. There were a number of buildings Richard didn't want to enter because he could see that they were ready to collapse if the wind blew the wrong way. Others were still in relatively good condition.

One of the larger buildings Jillian took him to had arches all along the front that at one time had probably held windows, or maybe had even been open to what seemed an inner courtyard. As Richard walked across the floor, small bits of crumbled mortar crunched underfoot. A mosaic made of tiny square colored tiles covered the entire floor. The colors were long since faded, but Richard could still make them out well enough to see that the swirling lines of tiles made up a sprawling picture of trees dotting a landscape surrounded by a wall, with paths through places where there were graves.

"This building is the entrance to a section of the graveyard," Jillian told him.

Richard frowned as he leaned down a little, studying the picture. There was something odd about it. Moonlight fell across figures in the mosaic that were carrying platters with breads and what looked like meats into the graveyard, while other figures were coming back with empty platters.

Richard straightened when he heard a horrifying cry drift up to them from the far distance, both he and Jillian stood up stock still, listening. More of the distant, faint wails and laments drifted in on the cool night air.

"What was that?" Jillian asked in a whisper, her copper-colored eyes wide.

"I think Nicci is getting rid of the invaders. Your people will be safe once she is finished."

"You mean she is hurting them?"

Richard could see that such concepts were alien to the girl. "These are men who would do terrible things to your people-including your grandfather. If they are left to come back another day, they will kill your people."

She turned and looked back out through the arches. "That wouldn't be good. But the dreams would have driven them away."

"Did casting dreams save your ancestors? Save the people of this city?"

She looked back to his eyes. "I guess not."

"What matters most is that people who value life, like you, your grandfather, and your people are safe to live their lives. Sometimes that means it's necessary to eliminate those who would do you harm."

She swallowed. "Yes, Lord Rahl."

He put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. "Richard. I am a Lord Rahl who wants people to be safe to live as they wish."

At last she smiled.

Richard looked back to the mosaic, studying the picture. "Do you know what this means? This picture?"

Finally pulling herself away from the distant, ghastly screams of pain that drifted in from the darkness, she looked down at the picture. "See this wall here?" she asked as she pointed. "The tellings say that these walls held the graves of the people of the city. This place, here, is where we are, now. This place is the passage to the dead.