Stone of Tears

“Scarlet! Are you hurt bad? Are you alive?”

“Go,” she groaned in a deep vibrating voice. “Hurry. Get him before he has us all.” She held her trembling left wing out.

Richard stroked her snout. “I’ll be back. Hang on.”

Richard drew the sword as he charged up the hill of steps. He didn’t need to call forth the anger; it was with him before he had even touched the hilt. He ran in a blind rage toward doors between the colossal columns.

As he ran through the doors, a handful of soldiers charged out of the darkness. Without pause, Richard scythed into them. His blade flashed in the torchlight coming from the vast halls inside. Richard danced with the spirits. His blade was fluid grace among the hacking soldiers.

The first, he cut in half, breastplate and all. Every charge was met with swift steel. In a matter of moments, the fifteen men lay scattered across the bloody floor, and then Richard was moving again.

So much for his welcome back. He remembered the D’Haran army pledging their loyalty to him the last time he had been here, when he had killed Darken Rahl. Maybe they just didn’t know who he was. More likely, they knew precisely who he was.

Richard chose a hall that led in the direction of the Garden of Life. Three levels of balconies looked down on the hall. Most of the torches were dark. He saw no people as he ran past a devotion square with white sand raked in circles around a pitted rock.

From a staircase at the side, a half-dozen Mord-Sith charged down, running toward him. Each wore her red leather uniform, and each had an Agiel in her hand. Through the rage, he realized that he couldn’t use the sword on them, or they would capture him by its magic. He was furious. He needed to get to Darken Rahl. He didn’t need to have to deal with these deadly women.

Reluctantly, Richard sheathed his sword and drew his knife. Denna had told him once that if he had just used his knife instead of his sword, he would have had her. He was not going to be able to outrun them; he was going to have to kill them.

The biggest, a blonde-headed woman at the lead, held her hands out as he went for her. “Lord Rahl, no!”

The other five slid to a stop behind her. Richard slashed at her, but she lurched back into a half crouch with her hands held out to the sides.

“Lord Rahl! Stop! We are here to help you!”

Though he had put the sword away, he had no shortage of rage of his own. He had to get to Darken Rahl if he was to get to Kahlan. “Help me in the afterlife—you will be there shortly!”

“No, Lord Rahl! I am Cara. We are here to help you. You cannot go that way. That hall is not secure.”

Richard stood panting, knife in hand. “I don’t believe you. You want to capture me. I know very well what Mord-Sith do to their captives.”

“I knew Denna, your mistress. You wear her Agiel. Mord-

Sith do not live to hurt their captives any longer. You set us free. We would never hurt the one who set us free. We revere you.”

“When I left here, I told the soldiers to burn all those outfits and give you new clothes. I ordered the Agiel taken from you. If you revere me, why have you not followed my orders?”

A sly smile touched her lips as she lifted an eyebrow over a cold, blue eye. “Because you cannot free us just to enslave us in a life you choose. We are free to choose for ourselves. You made that possible.

“We chose to fight to protect our Lord Rahl. We have sworn to lay down our lives for you, if necessary. Not only the men of the First File can protect you. We have chosen to be your personal bodyguards. Not even the First File dared argue with us. We take orders from no one but Lord Rahl.”

“Then I order you to leave me alone!”

“I’m sorry, Lord Rahl, but we cannot follow that order.”

Richard didn’t know what to believe. This could just be a trap. “I’m here to stop Darken Rahl. I have to get to the Garden of Life. If you don’t get out of my way, I will have to kill you.”

“We know where you go,” Cara said. “We will take you, but you must not go that way. We do not hold all the palace. That way is not safe. In fact, this whole section of the palace is in the hands of the insurgents. The First File would have lost a thousand men to come down here. We told them we would go, that it would be less risk to you. For that reason only, they agreed.”

Richard started angling around the women. “I don’t believe you, and I can’t risk what you would do if you are lying. This is too important. If you try to stop me, I will have to kill you.”

“If you go that way, Lord Rahl, you will die. Please, let me whisper a secret message in your ear.” Cara handed her Agiel to a woman behind her. “You may hold your knife to me. I am without a weapon.”

Richard gripped her hair in one fist, and held the razor-sharp knife to her throat. If she so much as flinched, he intended to cut her throat. Cara put her mouth close to his ear.

“We are here to help you Lord Rahl,” she whispered. “It is the… toasted toads” truth.”

Richard straightened. “Where did you hear such a thing?”