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Before Kahlan could say another word, before she explained that she planned to make two more trips to recover the other boxes, Sister Ulicia, in a rage, whipped her stout rod around so hard that it whistled through the air.
Kahlan heard a deafening crack as it hit the side of her head with full force.
The world seemed to go silent and black.
Kahlan realized that she was on the floor in a heap, crumpled on her knees. She cupped a hand over her left ear, gasping in paralyzing pain. She saw blood splattered all over the floor. She took her hand away and saw that it looked like she was wearing a warm, bloody glove.
She could only stare at her hand and pant in little gasps. So crushing was the pain that her voice wouldn’t work. She couldn’t even cry out in agony. It seemed as if she were looking through a long, fuzzy, black tunnel. Her stomach felt queasy.
Suddenly, Sister Ulicia seized Kahlan’s shirt and hoisted her up from the floor only to slam her against the wall. Kahlan’s head smacked the stone, but compared to the pain radiating from the side of her head, her jaw, and her ear, it seemed inconsequential.
“You stupid bitch!” Sister Ulicia railed as she pulled Kahlan away and again slammed her against the wall. “You stupid, incompetent, worthless bitch!”
Tovi looked like she, too, wanted to get her hands on Kahlan. She saw that down the corridor half of Sister Ulicia’s broken rod lay against the wall. Kahlan struggled to find her voice, knowing it was her only salvation.
“Sister Ulicia, I couldn’t fit all three inside.” Kahlan could taste salty tears along with blood. “You told me to hide them in my pack. They wouldn’t fit. I planned to go back and get them, that’s all. Please—I’ll go back for the others. I swear, I will get them for you.”
Sister Ulicia backed away, the smoldering anger in her eyes was frightening. Even though the woman backed away, she pointed at the center of Kahlan’s chest with one finger and Kahlan was slammed hard against the marble and pinned to the wall with a force that felt as massive as a bull leaning against her. It was a struggle to draw each breath against the crushing pressure. It was a struggle to see through the blood running into her eyes.
“You should have rolled the other two boxes in your bedroll, then you would have them all right now. Isn’t that right?”
Kahlan hadn’t considered doing that because it wasn’t an option.
“But Sister, I have something else rolled in the bedroll.”
Sister Ulicia leaned in again. Kahlan feared that she was now going to be made to wish she was dead, or fear that she was about to be. She wasn’t at all sure which fate would be worse. She felt the pain come on within her head to match the pain on the outside from the blow. Pinned against the wall, Kahlan couldn’t fall to the ground, cover her ears, and scream, or she would have.
“I don’t care what trifle you have rolled up in your bedroll. You should have left it out. The boxes are more important.”
Kahlan could only stare, unable to move because of the force keeping her flattened to the wall, and unable to talk because of the force of pain crushing her mind. It felt like ice picks were being slowly shoved and twisted into her ears. Her ankles and wrists twitched involuntarily. She gasped with each throbbing wave of agony wrenching through her head, trying, but unable to squirm away from the piercing pain.
“Now,” Sister Ulicia said in a low, menacing voice that carried deadly threat, “do you think you can do that? Do you think you can go back up there and roll the other two boxes in your bedroll and bring them back to me like you should have done in the first place?”
Kahlan tried to talk, but couldn’t. She nodded instead, desperate to agree, desperate for the pain to stop. She could feel the blood running from her ear and the side of her head soaking the collar of her shirt. She was on her tiptoes, pressed back, wishing she could melt through the wall in order to get away from Sister Ulicia. The pain wouldn’t let up enough for her to catch a breath.
“Do you remember seeing some of the hundreds and hundreds of big, lonely soldiers quartered down in the lower reaches of this place as we were coming up?” Sister Ulicia asked.
Kahlan nodded again.
“Well, if you fail me again, then, when I’m done breaking every bone in your body and making you suffer the agony of a thousand deaths, I’m then going to heal you enough so that I can sell you to those soldiers down there to be their barracks whore. That will be where you spend the rest of your life, being passed from one stranger to another with no one to care what happens to you.”
Kahlan knew that Sister Ulicia never made empty threats. The Sister was absolutely ruthless. Kahlan averted her eyes as she sucked back a sob, unable to stand the Sister’s scrutiny any longer.
Sister Ulicia seized Kahlan’s jaw and turned her face back. “Are you certain that you understand the price should you fail me again?”
Kahlan, her chin held firm, managed to nod.
She felt the pressure pinning her to the wall suddenly release. She collapsed to her knees, gasping with the waves of searing pain all along the left side of her face. She didn’t know if any bones were broken, but it certainly felt like it.
“What’s going on here?” A soldier asked.
Sisters Ulicia and Tovi turned and smiled at the man. He glanced down at Kahlan, frowning. She stared up pleadingly at him, hoping to be rescued from these monsters. The man looked up, his mouth open, about to say something to the Sisters, but then he never did. He looked from Sister Ulicia’s smile to Tovi’s, and smiled himself.
“Is everything all right, ladies?”
“Oh, yes,” Sister Tovi said with a jovial chuckle. “We were just about to have a rest on the bench, here. I was complaining about my backache, that’s all. We were both saying what a nuisance it is to get older.”
“I guess it is.” He bowed his head. “Good day, then, ladies.”
He walked off without ever acknowledging Kahlan’s existence. If he saw her, he forgot about her before he could say anything. Kahlan realized that it was the way she, too, seemed to forget things about herself.
“Get up,” the voice over her growled.
Kahlan struggled to her feet. Sister Ulicia jerked Kahlan’s pack around in front again. She flipped back the flap and dragged out the sinister black box wrapped in Kahlan’s satiny white dress.
She handed the bundle to Sister Tovi. “We’ve already been here too long. We’re starting to draw attention. Take this and get going.”
“But that’s mine!” Kahlan cried out as she grabbed for the dress.
Sister Ulicia backhanded her hard enough to make her teeth slam together. The blow knocked her sprawling. Lying on her side on the floor, Kahlan drew her legs up as she cradled her head in agony. Blood was smeared all over the marble. She shook as the pain bore down and would not let up.
“You want me to leave without you?” Sister Tovi asked as she tucked the box wrapped in the white dress under her arm.
“I think it would be best. It will be safest if we get this box on its way while this worthless bitch goes back to get the others. If it takes as long as the first one, I’d just as soon not have us both standing around here in the hall waiting for soldiers to decide to have a look. We don’t need a battle; we need to slip away without a trace.”
“If we were questioned it wouldn’t do to have them find we had one of the boxes of Orden,” Sister Tovi agreed. “I should just start out, then, and wait for you somewhere? Or keep going until I reach our destination?”
“You’d best not stop for now.” Sister Ulicia motioned Kahlan to her feet as she spoke to Sister Tovi. “Sisters Cecilia, Armina, and I will meet back up with you once we get to where we’re going.”
Sister Tovi leaned a little toward Kahlan as Kahlan staggered to her feet. “I guess that gives you a few days to think about what I’m going to do to you when the rest of you join up with me again, doesn’t it?”
Kahlan could manage only a whisper. “Yes, Sister.”
“Swift
journey,” Sister Ulicia said.
After Sister Tovi had rushed off down the wall, taking Kahlan’s beautiful dress with her, Sister Ulicia seized a fistful of Kahlan’s hair and twisted her head close. The Sister’s fingers groped along the side of Kahlan’s face, making her cry out.
“You have broken bones,” she announced after her examination of Kahlan’s injuries. “Complete your mission and I will heal you. Fail, and it will only be the beginning.
“The other Sister and I have a number of other things we must do before our goals are accomplished. So do you. If you complete your task today you will be healed. We would like you to be healthy for those future duties”—Sister Ulicia patted Kahlan’s cheek in a patronizing manner—“but I can always make other arrangements should you fail in this one. Now, hurry up and get me the other two boxes.”
