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It was a reminder to prompt Richard to stop looking around the Garden of Life and get moving. Richard needed to take a last look at it all and get it fixed in his mind. He had also wanted to make sure that the boxes of Orden were still where he had left them and that they hadn’t been disturbed. Satisfied, he started up the path between the small trees.
Outside the great doors carved with a scene of rolling hills and forests and then sheathed in gold, General Zimmer and a large contingent of the First File waited to protect him wherever he went in the palace. He was going to need a way around that, and he hoped Nathan would provide the excuse.
“General Zimmer,” Richard said, lifting a hand to get the man’s attention as he hurried down the hall. “We need to get down to the containment field in the lower libraries. Nicci has to heal me there, so we’ll be in there all night. While we’re doing that, I want Nathan to take you and the men and show you where we need defensive positions set up.”
The general looked a little confused. “If there is any breach, we will defend right there, wherever it is.”
Richard was shaking his head. “Ordinarily, you would be right. But this threat is different. It involves powers we’ve never had to face before.” Richard signaled to the prophet. “Nathan will take you and the men down and show you the spots where we hope to be able to contain any intrusion. He will know best where his magic will work, should it be needed.”
The general, more accustomed to acting alone and in his own way than by elaborate planning, looked back at Nathan, seeming unsure. Richard gestured again. “Hurry now. Get going. Once you’re done, I’d like you and the men to stand guard outside the library with the containment field where we will be. Nathan knows which one it is.”
General Zimmer clapped a fist to his heart. “I will see that it is taken care of, Lord Rahl.”
With Nathan following closely behind, General Zimmer peeled away as he started down the hall, taking his large contingent of men with him down the nearest staircase. The entire top floor was guarded with a permanent force of the First File who would remain behind to guard the Garden of Life and the boxes of Orden waiting inside.
Richard, with Kahlan at his side, followed Rikka down the grand marble staircases on the other side from the one the general and his men had taken. Nicci, Cassia, and Vale followed him down flights of stairs past landings at several levels. Richard slipped an arm around Kahlan’s waist as they descended the marble steps. He needed to feel her warmth, the life in her. He needed to feel the balance to what churned inside him.
At the unexpected embrace, Kahlan looked over at him, not asking anything, not saying anything, simply happy that he had pulled her close to him. She gave him her special smile, the one she gave no one else.
Rikka knew the way to the library with the containment field better than any of them, so when they reached a lower level she led them without hesitation through guarded double doors out of the restricted areas and into the grand halls of the palace. They were immediately greeted by the background murmur of hushed whispers and the scuffing of feet against the ornate stone floors.
Being one of the main public hallways through the palace, it was several stories high. There were people everywhere nervously going about their business, taking care of urgent matters. He could see small groups of people rushing over the bridges that crossed the hallway overhead. Some stopped to look down at the unexpected sight of the Lord Rahl in the palace. It had been quite a while since they had seen him.
Everywhere, people noticed the statuesque blonde with the single braid, dressed in red leather, walking out in front, leading the Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor through his palace. Richard had forgotten what it was like to have eyes constantly watching them. With that unique skill that beautiful women seemed to possess, Rikka appeared not to notice anyone looking at her, and yet was acutely aware of all the eyes on her.
From a side hall, Nyda arrived to join them. She glanced over to Richard, Kahlan, and those following. She noticed immediately that Rikka marched with purpose, her eyes ahead, and fell in beside her. Rikka and Nyda almost looked as if they could have been sisters. With four Mord-Sith escorting them, surrounding Richard, Kahlan, and Nicci in a wall of red leather, they were drawing even more attention.
Mord-Sith never went anywhere unnoticed. Even if people didn’t look directly at them, most people seemed to have a sixth sense that enabled them to know where the Mord-Sith were and casually, without looking at the women in red leather, to move away and give them ample distance.
The People’s Palace was so sprawling that it took quite some time to get from one end to the other. Richard was glad when Rikka turned them in to a private corridor and then down service stairs that would cut the distance they needed to travel through the palace.
They finally reached the proper hallway where there were several libraries, most with glassed doors, including the one with the containment field.
“Here we are,” Rikka said as she stopped and gestured.
“At last,” Kahlan said with obvious relief. “I never thought we would get here.”
Just before entering through the double doors with squares of opaque glass, Richard came to a stop. He snapped his fingers.
“I forgot. I have to do something a minute. It will be quick.”
Nicci frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Kahlan’s frown was more serious. “Richard, you need to get in here right now and let Nicci get that poison out of you.”
Richard was nodding reassuringly as she spoke. “I know, I know. This will only take a minute. Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
“You can do it after–”
“No, I just need to do this first. It will be quick. I’ll explain in a couple minutes when I’m back. I will be right back.”
Kahlan looked into the dark room and then back to him. “Richard, I don’t think–”
“Get the lamps lit and get the place set up,” he said, gesturing into the room. “Hurry.”
Before Nicci could take his arm, he stepped away and seized Cassia’s instead. “I’ll take Cassia with me. All right? Will that ease your mind?”
He started moving down the hall, still holding Cassia’s arm, ushering her along with him. He waved assurance back at the confused faces of Kahlan and Nicci, and the scowls of the other three Mord-Sith.
Kahlan lifted her hand in confusion. “Richard–”
“Go in and wait for me.” He gestured for her to go into the library. “I’ll be right back.”
As soon as he turned a corner in the hall so that he was out of their sight, he started running.
Cassia ran at his side. “Lord Rahl, what’s going on? Where are we going?”
Richard pointedly didn’t answer her. He caught the round cap of a newel post in one hand to help swing himself around as he caught Cassia’s arm with his other hand to pull her along with him and down the stairs.
His mind raced as fast as his feet as he oriented himself in a mental map of the palace, making sure of each intersection and turn he made so that he wouldn’t get stuck in a dead end with a shield and have to waste time backtracking. He took several unconventional routes simply to skirt one place that he knew was shielded, and a public corridor so that he wouldn’t be seen by anyone.
“Lord Rahl, what are we doing? Where are you going?”
Richard slid to a stop as a shield he hadn’t realized would be in that particular hallway lit the air red right across the hallway. He would have to go back and take a different route.
“Lord Rahl–”
He turned to face Cassia, still holding her by the arm. “I’m going someplace dangerous. I have to do something crazy. I need help. Are you with me? Are you willing to risk your life helping me?”
Cassia blinked at the question, then lifted Cara’s Agiel from where it hung on the chain at her neck, showing it to him. “Of course, Lord Rahl. Like Cara, I would lay down my life for you.”
“I’m trying to save all
of our lives. I have to do this. It’s the only way–our only chance.”
Cassia’s face screwed up with a puzzled frown. “Do what?”
Richard turned her and gave her a shove, starting her running back up the hall with him. He took the next intersection, flinging open the door into the Lord Rahl’s private corridor off the service area. There would be less chance of being spotted in there. He was relieved to see which corridor it was. He remembered the small painting of a statue on a hillside of wildflowers. It was a corridor that would take them where they needed to go.
“Stay with me,” he said as he hurried down the hallway. “There is no time to lose.”
“Lord Rahl, what’s wrong?”
“Sulachan and the half people are going to break in soon and start killing people. We have to get back in time to stop them before it’s too late and everyone is slaughtered.”
“Lord Rahl,” she protested as she ran behind him. “What are you going to do? Why couldn’t you tell the others? Why would you leave the Mother Confessor without telling her?”
He stopped and turned back a moment, catching his breath.
“That horde of half people spread out across the Azrith Plain are going to get in here at any moment. If I don’t do this they will kill everyone in here. The Twilight Count is nearly done. Time is running out. If I don’t do this everyone is going to die.”
“So why couldn’t you tell her that and tell her what you intend to do? And what is it you intend–”
“Even if I succeed in saving the world of life, I will likely die doing it. I couldn’t tell her that. If by some chance I live, then I’ll have to apologize to her, but I couldn’t tell her I’m running off to do something that is likely to get me killed no matter if I succeed or not. This is about everyone, not just the people here.”
Cassia smiled a crooked grin. “Lord Rahl, she knows your heart. Whatever it is you have to do, she would understand.”
“Not this,” he said as he started down the corridor again, heading for the stairs.
At the bottom of the solemn black marble stairs, he raced along the final corridor that would get him to where he needed to go.
“Sliph!” he called out as he ran. “Sliph–I need you!”
