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Verna eased up beside the prophet.
The messenger was looking more displeased by the moment. “You are not the Lord Rahl.”
Nathan eyed the man with a Rahl scowl. “Would you like me to use a bit of conjured wind and blow you off that road? Would that settle the matter to your satisfaction?”
The men across the way stole glances down the drop.
“It’s just that we were expecting someone else,” the messenger said.
“Well, I’m Lord Rahl so I’m what you get. If you have something to say, then say it, otherwise I’m busy. We have a banquet to attend.”
The man finally bowed slightly. “Emperor Jagang is prepared to make a generous offer to those in the People’s Palace.”
“What sort of offer?”
“His Excellency has no desire to destroy the palace or its inhabitants. Surrender peacefully, and you will be allowed to live. Fail to surrender and each of them will die a slow and agonizing death. Their bodies will be thrown off the walls to the plain below, where they will feed the vultures.”
“Wizard’s fire,” Cara said under her breath.
Nathan frowned back over his shoulder. “What?”
“Your power works here. Theirs, if they are gifted, wouldn’t work as well up here, so their shields would be less effective. You can incinerate the lot of them from here.”
Nathan waved his arm in a grand gesture to those across the way. “Will you excuse me for a moment?”
The man bowed his head indulgently.
Nathan led Cara and Verna back up the road to where Adie, several other Mord-Sith, and the escort of soldiers waited.
“I agree with Cara,” Verna said before the prophet could say anything. “Give them our answer in the only way the Order understands.”
Nathan’s bushy brow drew down over his azure eyes. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
Cara folded her arms. “Why not?”
“Jagang is probably watching our reaction through the eyes of those men,” Verna said. “I agree with Cara. We need to show him strength.”
Nathan frowned. “I’m surprised at you, Verna.” He smiled politely at Cara. “I’m not surprised at you, however, my dear.”
“Why are you so surprised?” Verna asked.
“Because it would be the wrong thing to do. You usually don’t give such poor advice.”
Verna restrained herself. This was not the time to launch into a heated lecture—especially not in front of Jagang’s eyes. She also recalled all too vividly how she had thought for most of her life that the prophet was mad. She wasn’t entirely sure that her assessment had been wrong. She also knew from past experience that lecturing Nathan was like trying to talk the sun out of setting.
“You can’t seriously be considering surrender,” she said in a low voice that those across the way wouldn’t hear.
Nathan made a sour face. “Of course not. But that doesn’t mean that we should kill them for asking.”
“Why not?” Cara spun her Agiel up into her fist as she leaned toward the prophet. “I, for one, think that killing them is an excellent idea.”
“Well, I don’t,” Nathan huffed. “If I incinerate them that will tell Jagang that we have no intention of considering his offer.”
Verna contained her fury. “Well, we don’t.”
Nathan turned an intense look on her. “If we tell them that we have no intention of considering the offer then the negotiations are ended.”
“We’re not going to negotiate,” Verna said with rising impatience.
“But we don’t have to tell them that,” Nathan explained with exaggerated care.
Verna straightened and fussed with her hair, using the moment to take a deep breath. “What would be the purpose of not telling them that we have no intention of seriously considering their offer?”
“To buy time,” Nathan said. “If I blast them off that road Jagang would have his answer, now wouldn’t he? But if I take the offer under consideration we can string out the negotiations.”
“There can be no negotiations,” Verna said through gritted teeth.
“To what end?” Cara asked, ignoring Verna. “Why would we want to do such a thing?”
Nathan shrugged as if it were obvious and they were all idiots for not seeing it. “Delay. They know how difficult it is going to be to take the palace. With every foot of elevation that ramp of theirs gains it becomes exponentially more difficult to construct. It could easily take them the winter, and possibly a great deal longer, to build that thing. Jagang can’t be looking forward to an army that massive sitting out there on the Azrith Plain for the entire winter. They are a long way from home and supplies. He could lose the whole army to starvation or a virulent sickness, then where would he be?
“If they think we might consider surrender then they might put thought and effort into winning the palace in that way. Our surrender would solve their problem. But if they think there is no way but to rout us from the place then they will put all their efforts into that method. Why push them to it?”
Verna’s mouth twisted. “I suppose that makes some sense.” When Nathan smiled at the small triumph, she added, “Not a lot, but some.”
“I’m not at all sure it does,” Cara said.
Nathan spread his arms. “Why turn them down? There is nothing to be gained by doing so. We should keep them guessing, keep them wondering if we might be considering giving up without a fight. Enough cities have surrendered to make it seem like a reasonable possibility that we might do the same. If they think there is a chance we might surrender then that hope will keep them from being fully committed to finishing their ramp and ending it with a rout of the palace.”
“I must admit,” Cara said, “there is value in stringing people along so that they fall into waiting for an answer they really want.”
Verna finally gave him a nod. “I guess that for now it can’t hurt to let them wonder.”
Finished with the task of bringing them around to his way of thinking, Nathan brushed his hands together. “I will tell them that we will take their offer under advisement.”
Verna wondered if Nathan had another reason for wanting to say he would consider the offer. She wondered if he could actually be contemplating surrendering the palace. While Verna held no illusions that Jagang would actually keep his word not to harm those in the palace if they surrendered, she wondered if Nathan was thinking of secretly arranging his own surrender deal, a deal that would leave him as the permanent Lord Rahl of a vanquished D’Hara under the authority of the Imperial Order.
After all, once the war was over Jagang would need people to rule far-flung conquered lands.
She wondered if Nathan was capable of such treason.
She wondered how much his resentment had grown over nearly a lifetime of imprisonment in the Palace of the Prophets for no more of a crime than what the Sisters of the Light thought him capable of. She wondered if he could be thinking of revenge.
She wondered if the Sisters of the Light, by their well-intentioned treatment of a man who had done them no harm, might have sown the seeds of destruction.
As Verna watched a smiling Lord Rahl marching back to the edge of the chasm, she wondered if the prophet was scheming to throw them all to the wolves.
CHAPTER 27
Richard was growing ever more concerned. He had expected that at one of the games he would see his chance. But after Jagang and Kahlan had come to the first Ja’La match a dozen days before, the emperor had not again shown up to watch a game.
Richard was frantic with worry over the reason. He tried not to think about what Jagang might be doing to Kahlan, and yet he couldn’t keep himself from imagining the worst.
Sitting chained to the wagon, surrounded by a ring of guards, there was not much Richard could do about it. Despite how desperately he wanted to act, he had to use his head and look for the right opportunity. It had always been a risk that a good opportunity might not come along and then he would
be forced to act, but doing something out of frustration alone was not likely to accomplish anything except maybe ruin any chance he would otherwise have of getting the opportunity he needed. Still, waiting was driving him crazy.
As sore as he was from the Ja’La match that day, he longed to lie down and get some rest. He knew, though, that his anxiety was going to keep him from getting much sleep, just as it had kept him from getting sleep for days. He was going to need the sleep, though, because the next day was their most important game yet—a game that he hoped would get him to the opportunity he was looking for.
He glanced up when he heard the soldier coming with their evening meal. As hungry as Richard was, even the usual hard-boiled eggs sounded good. The soldier, pulling the small cart he always used to haul their food, made his way through the ring of guards around the captive members of Richard’s team. The soldiers gave the man only a cursory look. The wheels of the cart squeaked with a familiar rhythm as the man plodded across the hardscrabble ground. He stopped in front of Richard.
“Hold out your hands,” he said as he picked up a knife and started sawing away on something in his cart.
Richard did as he was told. The man lifted something from the cart and tossed it to Richard. To his surprise, it was a hefty slice of ham.
