Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy Part 2

"Two years…" Zedd said, his voice trailing off in dismay.

"I remember you, now." Richard said as he moved down the steps. "Kahlan told me about you."

Jebra cast Richard a puzzled frown. "Who?"

"The phantom he chases," Shota said, her unwavering gaze fixed on him as if daring him to argue.

"The woman he seeks is no phantom," Nicci said, drawing Shota's attention. "Thanks in part to the pricey and rather equivocal suggestions you offered, we have discovered the truth of what Richard has been telling us all along. Apparently you are still in the dark about it."

Nicci's icy look reminded Richard that she had once been known as Death's Mistress. The cold authority in her voice matched the look. There were few women in the world as widely feared as Nicci had once been — except perhaps for Shota. Nicci's demeanor indicated that she was clearly a woman still to be feared.

Shota, unfazed, deliberately took in the length of Nicci's pink nightdress. Richard expected a smirk. Instead, a hot look flashed in Shota's eyes.

"You have been sleeping in his bed." She sounded almost surprised by her own words, as if the information had come to mind unexpectedly.

Nicci shrugged with satisfaction at Shota's ire. "So I have."

The slightest smile in turn curled the corners of Shota's mouth. "But you have not succeeded in bedding him yet." Her smile widened. "Have you tried, my dear? Or do you fear the sting of rejection?"

"I don't know, why don't you tell me how it felt, then I'll decide."

Richard gently pulled Nicci back from the edge of the step before the two woman did something stupid — like try to scratch out each other's eyes. Or reduce each other to ashes.

"You said you were here for a reason, Shota — this had better not be it."

Shota heaved a soft sigh. "I found your friend Chase. He was gravely injured."

"So you said. How was he injured?"

Shota's gaze didn't shrink from his. "He was hurt by a sword you would be quite familiar with."

Richard blinked in astonishment. "Chase was hurt by the Sword of Truth? Samuel attacked Chase?"

"I'm afraid so."

Zedd shook a bony finger at Shota. "This is your doing!"

"Nonsense." Shota, too, lifted a finger as Zedd stepped closer, but in warning rather than accusation. The gesture, and her words, kept Zedd from taking another step. "I need no sword to accomplish harm." She arched an eyebrow. "Like to see, wizard?"

"Stop it!" Richard descended the steps two at a time and put himself between Shota and his grandfather. He turned a glare of his own on Shota. "What's going on?" She sighed unhappily. "I'm afraid that I don't entirely know."

"You gave Samuel my sword." Richard tried to keep the heat out of his voice, to keep from letting his anger show, but he feared that it wasn't working very well. "I warned you about his nature. Despite my warning, you insisted that he have it. I want to know what he is up to. Where is Chase? How badly is he hurt? And where is Rachel?"

Shota's brow twitched. "Rachel?"

"The girl with him — the girl he adopted. The two of them were on their way back to Westland. Chase was going to bring his family back to the Keep. You mean to say that the girl wasn't there, with him?"

"I found him gravely injured." For the first time, Shota looked disconcerted. "There was no girl with him."

As he watched Rikka take the reins to the two horses and pull them toward the paddock, Richard tried to imagine what was going on, why Rachel hadn't stayed with Chase. He worried about the possible reasons, worried for what might have happened to Rachel. Knowing how resourceful and devoted she was, Richard wondered if she had gone for help and was now wandering around all by herself.

Another thought struck him. "And how was it that you just happened to come across Chase?"

Shota wet her lips. She looked reluctant to say something obviously distasteful to her, but finally she did. "I was hunting Samuel."

Surprised, Richard glanced at Nicci. Her expression showed no reaction and her features appeared so absolutely devoid of emotion that for an instant it reminded Richard of a similar look he had from time to time seen on Kahlan. A Confessor's face, she had called it. Confessors would occasionally shed all emotion in order to do the terrible things that were at times necessary.

"How is Chase?" Richard asked, considerably quieter. He wanted to know why Shota was hunting Samuel, but at the moment there were more important worries weighing on his mind. "Is he going to be all right?"

"I believe so," Shota said. "He'd been run through with a sword — "

"With my sword."

Shota didn't argue the distinction. "I'm not a healer, but I do have certain abilities and I was able to at least reverse his journey toward death. I found some people who could care for him and help him recover. I believe he is safe for the time being. It will be a while before he is on his feet again."

"And why didn't Samuel kill him?" Cara asked from the top step.

"He stabbed Tovi the same way," Nicci said. "He didn't kill her, either."