Naked Empire

"The passes will hold," Verna said. She let out a silent sigh. "At least for a while."

The Order had to come across the mountains if they were to conquer D'Hara. There were few ways across those formidable mountains.

Verna and the Sisters had shielded and sealed those passes as well as it was possible to seal them. They had used magic to bring down walls of rock in places, making the narrow roads impassable. In other places, they had used their power to cleave away roads cut into the steep sides of mountains, leaving no way through, except to clamber over rubble. To prevent that, and in other places, the men had worked all winter constructing stone walls across the passes. Atop those walls were fortifications from which they could rain down death on the narrow passes below. Additionally, in every one of those places, the Sisters had set snares of magic so deadly that coming through would be a bloody ordeal that would only get worse, and that was before they encountered the walls lined with defenders.

Jagang had Sisters of the Dark to try to undo the barriers of both magic and stone, but Verna was more powerful, in the Additive anyway, than any of them. Besides that, she had joined her power with other Sisters in order to invest in those barriers magic that she knew would prove formidable.

Still, Jagang would come. Nothing Verna, her Sisters, and the D'Haran army could do would ultimately be able to withstand the numbers Jagang would throw at them. If he had to command his men to march through passes filled a hundred feet deep with their fallen comrades, he would not flinch from doing so. Nor would it matter to him if the corpses were a thousand feet deep.

"I'll be back a little later, Verna," the general said. "We'll need to get the officers and some of the Sisters together and make sure everything is ready."

"Yes, of course," Verna said.

Both General Meiffert and Rikka started to leave.

"Rikka," Verna called. She gestured down at the desk. "Take the dear departed Sister with you, would you please?"

Rikka sighed, which nearly spilled her bosom out of the dress. She made a long-suffering face before snatching up the head and vanishing out of the tent behind the general.

Verna sat down and put her head in her hands. It was going to start all over again. It had been a long and peaceful, if bitterly cold, winter.

Jagang had made his winter encampment on the other side of the mountains, far enough away that, with the snow and cold, it was difficult to launch effective raids against his troops. Just as it had the summer before, the summer Warren had died, now that the weather was favorable, the Order would begin to move. It was starting all over again. The killing, the terror, the fighting, ru

But what choice was there, other than to be killed. In many ways, life had come to seem worse than death.

Verna abruptly remembered, then, about the journey book. She worked it out of the pocket in her belt and pulled the lamp closer, needing the comfort as well as the light. She wondered where Richard and Kahlan were, if they were safe, and she thought, too, about Zedd and Adie all alone guarding the Wizard's Keep. Unlike everyone else, at least Zedd and Adie were safe and at peace where they were-for the time being, anyway. Sooner or later, D'Hara would fall and then Jagang would return to Aydindril.

Verna tossed the small black book on the desk, smoothed her dress beneath her legs, and scooted her chair closer. She ran her fingers over the familiar leather cover on an object of magic that was over three thousand years old. The journey books had been invested with magic by those mysterious wizards who so long ago had built the Palace of the Prophets. A

journey book was twi

A

Verna, herself, had been sent by A

Verna opened the journey book, holding it a little sideways to see the words in the light.

Verna, A

Verna sat back in surprise. After the palace had been destroyed, Nathan, the prophet, had escaped their control and had since been roaming free, a profound danger.

For the last couple of years, the rest of the Sisters of the Light had believed that the Prelate and the prophet were dead. A

There was no telling what catastrophe that man could cause.

Verna leaned over the journey book again.

/ should have Nathan within days, now. I can hardly believe that after all this time, I nearly have my hands on that man. I will let you know soon.

How are you, Verna? How are you feeling? How are the Sisters and how go matters with the army? Write when you can. I will be checking my journey book nightly. I miss you terribly.

Verna sat back again. That was all there was. But it was enough. The very notion of A

Even that momentous news, though, failed to do much to lift her mood.

Jagang was about to launch his attack on D'Hara and A

Verna drew the stylus out of the journey book's spine and leaned over to write A

My dearest A

The siege of the passes into D'Hara is about to begin.

CHAPTER 20

The sprawling corridors of the People's Palace, seat of power in D'Hara, were filled with the whisper of footsteps on stone. A

A

"Come from far?" the closest woman beside her asked.

A

A