AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kahlan ignored her. Instead, she continued to look into the dream walker's nightmare eyes. Cloudy shapes shifted like angry thunderstorms on a midnight horizon. It took all of her willpower not to look away.
"Are you sure?" Jagang asked.
"Yes," she said with all the confidence she could muster. "It's a fake."
Now acutely focused on Kahlan, Jagang released Jillian. Once free, the girl fled around behind Kahlan, using her for cover.
Jagang watched Kahlan's eyes. "How do you know that it's not The Book of Counted Shadows'?"
Kahlan, still holding the book out to him, turned it so that he could see the spine. "You are all looking for The Book of Counted Shadows. This says The Book of Counted Shadow."
His glare heated. "What?"
"You asked how I know it's not genuine. That's how. It says 'Shadow,' not 'Shadows.' It's a fake."
Sister Cecilia wearily wiped a hand across her face. Sister Armina rolled her eyes.
Sister Ulicia, though, frowned at the book, reading the spine for herself. "She's right."
"So what?" Jagang threw up his hands. "So the word 'Shadow' is missing a letter. It's shadow, singular instead of plural. So what?"
"Simple," Kahlan said. "One is real, one is not."
"Simple?" he asked. "You think it's that simple?"
"How much more simple can it get?"
"It probably means nothing," Sister Cecilia said, eager to side with her ill-tempered master. "Singular, plural, what difference could it make? It's just the cover; it's what's inside that counts."
"It could just be a mistake," Jagang said. "Maybe the person who bound the copy made a mistake. The book itself would likely have been bound by someone else, so the book itself is no doubt fine."
"That's right," Sister Armina said, wanting to join in with the emperor as well. "The person who made the binding is the one who made the error, not the one who made the copy. It's highly unlikely they would be the same person. The binder was probably an incompetent oaf. The one writing the words in the book would have had to be gifted. Those words written inside the book are what matters. That's the information that must be true, not what it's wrapped in. There is no doubt that it's a simple error made by a binding artisan and it means nothing."
"We brought her here for this reason," Sister Ulicia reminded them under her breath. "It is irrelevant how simple it might appear. The book itself, before anything else, cautions that in this very circumstance it must be verified… by her."
"This is a highly dangerous matter. Such an answer is too simple," Sister Cecilia proclaimed.
Sister Ulicia cocked her head at the woman. "And if an assassin is coming at you with a knife, is that blade too simple for you to believe it a danger?"
Sister Cecilia did not look amused. "This matter is too complex to be decided by something so simple."
"Oh?" Sister Ulicia leveled a condescending glare on the woman. "And where does it say that the verification must be complex? It says only that she must make it. None of us noticed the error. She did. She has satisfied the instruction."
Sister Cecilia looked down her nose at the woman who used to be her leader but was no more. Now Sister Ulicia was no longer the one in charge, no longer the one they had to please.
"I don't think it means anything," Jagang said, still staring into Kahlan's unflinching eyes. "I doubt that she really knows that this is a fake. She's just trying to save her own neck."
Kahlan shrugged. "If that's what you want to think, fine. But maybe there is an absence of doubt in your mind because you want to believe that this copy is real"—she lifted an eyebrow—"not because it is."
Jagang stared at her a moment. He suddenly snatched the book out of her hands and turned back to the Sisters.
"We need to take a careful look at what's inside. That's what matters in finding and opening the right box. We need to make sure it's not flawed in any way."
"Excellency," Sister Ulicia began, "there may be no way to tell if something written in here is—"
Jagang tossed the book on the table, cutting her off. "I want you three to go over everything in this book. See if you can find any reason at all to think that this might be a fake."
Sister Ulicia cleared her throat. "Well, we can try—"
"Now!" His booming voice echoed around the room. "Or would you rather go to the tents and entertain my men? The choice of service is up to you. Pick one."
The three Sisters jumped to the table. They all leaned in as they began studying the book. Jagang pushed between Sisters Ulicia and Cecilia, apparently to watch over what they were reading and make sure that they were not overlooking anything.
* * *
CHAPTER 39
Once she was sure that the four of them were busy, Kahlan quietly ushered Jillian back to the far end of the room, off to the side of the two big guards.
"I want you to listen to me very carefully and do exactly as I say," Kahlan told her in a low voice that Jagang and the Sisters couldn't hear.
Jillian frowned up at her, waiting.
"I need to be sure of something. I'm going to go walk over to those two guards—"
"What!"
Kahlan pressed her hand over the girl's mouth. "Shhh."
Jillian glanced to their captors, now worried that she had caught their attention. She hadn't.
Satisfied that she had made her point, Kahlan took her hand away. "I've come to suspect that I've been spelled by those three sorceresses. I think that's why I don't remember who I am—it's magic of some sort. Almost no one but them and Jagang can ever remember seeing me. Almost no one does. I have no idea why you can. They also put this collar around my neck and they can use it to hurt me.
"Now, I don't think the guards can see me, but I need to find out for sure. I want you to stay right here. Don't watch me or you will make them suspicious of you."
"But—"
Kahlan crossed her lips with a finger. "Listen to me. Do as I ask."
Jillian finally nodded her agreement.
Without waiting to see if the girl would change her mind and decide to argue, Kahlan again checked to make sure that Jagang and the Sisters were busy reading. Once seeing that they were, she immediately started across the floor. She moved as silently as she could; the guards may not know she was there, but if Jagang or the Sisters heard her, she would lose her chance before she could begin.
The two guards stared ahead, watching their emperor. Occasionally, the one closest to Jillian would glance over at the girl. Kahlan could tell by his lingering gaze what he was thinking: he was hoping that Jagang would give Jillian to him. Kahlan imagined that with a man like Jagang, such occasional rewards were a benefit of having earned such a trusted position as personal guard to an emperor. Jillian had no idea of the fate that was in store for her. Kahlan had to do something to change the headlong course of those looming events.
Once in front of the guards, she was careful to stay out of the line of sight between them and the four people at the table. She also had to be careful not to draw the attention of the Sisters, or Jagang, either. Even if the two guards couldn't remember Kahlan long enough to be aware that she was there, she didn't want to find out what would happen if they were mysteriously blocked from seeing their leader. These two were wary men, no doubt of exceptional talents, and there was no telling how small a thing could alert them to trouble, and Kahlan intended on being a great deal of trouble—but not until she was ready.
Standing directly in front of the two huge men, she realized that she came up only to the tops of their shoulders, so she wouldn't likely block their view. They didn't look at her, or in any way acknowledge her presence. She gently touched the metal post through one man's nose. He wrinkled his nose and then casually reached up and scratched, but he did not grab her hand.
Satisfied that he would do no more, Kahlan reached out and smoothly drew a knife from a sheath on the leather strap crossing the men's chest. As the blade came out into the torchlight, she was very caref
