The pillars of creation

The captain smiled distantly. "I'm glad I've lived to see a Lord Rahl like this finally come to command D'Hara as it should be commanded."

Jennsen started out again, troubled by the man's words, troubled that he was pleased this new Lord Rahl was going to conquer and rule the whole world in the name of D'Hara.

Jennsen was eager to get out of the prison and out of the palace. The three of them moved quickly back through the narrow passageways, back through iron doors and past the reaching prisoners. The captain's growled warning silenced them, this time.

When they rushed through the last ironbound door before the stairs, they all came to an abrupt halt. A tall, attractive woman, with a single long blond braid, stood waiting for them, blocking their escape route. The look on her face was lightning waiting to strike.

She was wearing red leather.

It could be nothing other than a Mord-Sith.

CHAPTER 27

The woman's hands were clasped casually behind her back. Her expression was anything but casual. Boot strikes echoed off the stone walls as she stepped forward, a dark thundercloud approaching, a thundercloud that didn't know fear.

A wave of gooseflesh tingled up Jennsen's body from her knees to the nape of her neck where downy hair stiffened.

In a steady, measured pace, the woman strode one full turn around them, looking them up and down, a hawk circling, inspecting mice. Jennsen saw an Agiel, the weapon of a Mord-Sith, hanging from a fine chain at the woman's right wrist. Lethal as Jennsen knew such a weapon could be, it looked like nothing more than a thin leather rod not a foot in length.

"A very agitated official came to see me," the Mord-Sith said in a quiet, silken voice. Her deadly glare moved very deliberately from Sebastian to Jennsen. "He thought I needed to come down here and see what was going on. He mentioned a woman with red hair. He seemed to think she might be trouble of some sort. What do you think he was so worried about?"

The captain, who was behind Jennsen, stepped out to the side. "There's nothing going on that you need concern yourself-"

With a flick of her wrist, the Agiel spun up into her fist and was pointing at the captain's face. "I didn't ask you. I asked this young woman."

The glare turned back to Jennsen. "Why do you suppose he would say that I needed to come down here? Hmm?"

Jennsen.

"Because," Jennsen said, unable to look away from the cold blue eyes, "he's a pompous dolt and he didn't like it that I wouldn't pretend he wasn't, just because he wore white robes."

The Mord-Sith smiled. It was not humor, but grim respect for the verac ity of what Jennsen had said.

The smile evaporated as she glanced at Sebastian. When her gaze re turned to Jennsen, it looked as if it could cut steel. "Pompous or not, that doesn't change the fact that there is a prisoner being released for no more cause than your word."

Jennsen.

"My word is sufficient." Jennsen irritably lifted the knife at her belt and flashed the handle at the woman. "This backs my word."

"That," the Mord-Sith said in her silken hiss, "means nothing."

Jennsen could feel her face going red. "It means-"

"Do you think we're stupid?" The Mord-Sith's skintight red leather creaked as she leaned closer. "That if you come in here and merely wave that knife handle in our faces, that our faculty of reason will evaporate?"

The tight leather outfit revealed a body as shapely as it was powerful.

Jennsen felt small and ugly before this flawless creature. Worse, she felt totally inadequate faking a story before a woman as confident as this woman was, a woman who seemed able to see right through their invented tale, but Jennsen knew that if she dared to waver now, she and Sebastian were as good as dead.

Jennsen put as much of an edge to her voice as she could manage. "I carry this knife for Lord Rahl, in his name, and you will yield to it."

"Really. Why?"

"Because this knife shows the trust Lord Rahl has placed in me."

"Ah. So just because you happen to carry it, we're supposed to believe that Lord Rahl gave it to you? That he trusts you? How are we to know you didn't find the knife? Hmm?"

"Find it? Are you out of your-"

"Or perhaps you and this prisoner, here, ambushed the knife's true owner-murdered him-for no reason but to get your hands on a coveted object, hoping it would give you credibility."

"I don't know how you can possibly believe such a-"

"Or maybe you're a coward and murdered the knife's owner in his sleep? Or maybe you didn't even have that much courage, and you bought if from cutthroats who murdered him. Is that what you did? Simply got it from the real murderer?"

"Of course not!"

The Mord-Sith leaned closer yet, until Jennsen could feel the woman's breath on her own face. "Maybe you enticed the man it belong to into lying between your sweet legs while your partner, here. stole it. Or maybe you're just a whore and it was the gift of a murderous thief in exchange for your womanly favors?"

Jennsen backed away. "I–I wouldn't-"