The pillars of creation

CHAPTER 49

The sound was horrifying. The sight of it was paralyzing.

This was a weapon conjured for no reason but to kill. This was deadly magic. Lord Rahl's magic.

This time, there was no Sister of the Light to intercept it.

Magic. Lord Rahl's magic. There, but not.

In the last instant before it was on her, Je

Even through her tightly closed eyes, she could see the brilliant light. She could hear the terrible wail of the tumbling flames howling around her.

But Je

She heard it roaring past her, thundering off down the hall. She opened one eye to peek out. At the end of the corridor, the orb of living fire exploded through the wall, coming apart in a shower of liquid flame, sending a hail of blazing wood out onto the lawn far below.

With the wall gone, the hall was better lit. Je

"Emperor-are you alive?" she whispered.

"Thanks to you. He sounded stu

"Hush," she whispered urgently. "Stay down, or he'll see you."

There was no time to waste. It had to be ended. Je

Yet he stared in shock at seeing her racing toward him, as if hardly believing it, hardly believing she had survived his wizard's fire. She was a hole in the world to him. She could see understanding flooding his hazel eyes.

Despite his kindly look, this was a man who had just killed countless people. This was a man doing Lord Rahl's bidding. This was a man who would kill more people unless stopped. He was a wizard, a monster. She had to stop him.

Je

"No. . " the old man called to her. "Child, you don't understand what you're doing. We don't have time-l don't have a moment to spare! Stop! I can't delay! Let me-"

His words were no more to her than those of the voice. She ran through the rubble littering the hall as fast as her legs would carry her, feeling the same sense of wild but deliberate fury she had in her house, when the men had attacked her mother, and then her-that same fierce commitment.

Je

She was invincible.

Before she reached him, he cast one hand out toward her, but lower than he had before. This time, no fire erupted. She didn't care if it did. She would not be stopped. She could not be stopped. She was invincible.

Whatever he did caused the debris at her feet to suddenly shift, as if he'd given the whole lot of it a mighty shove. Before she could jump clear, one foot tangled in the debris, breaking through the jumble of broken plaster and lath. Rumpled carpeting and wreckage of furniture ensnared her ankle. With a surprised gasp, Je

Small chunks and scraps rained down on her back. Dust slowly rolled away. Her face stung with dizzyingly intense pain.

Je

Groaning, Jermsen was at last able to push herself up. Her vision was rapidly returning. She began coughing, hacking, trying to clear her windpipe of the choking dust. Her leg was jammed down among the tangle of debris. She was finally able to pry a board to the side, giving her room to pull her foot free. Fortunately, her boot had prevented the splintered wood from slicing her leg.

Je

With the tips of her fingers, she felt something smooth. She groped along it until she touched the ornately engraved letter "R." Grunting with the effort, she shouldered the leg of the overturned table until the whole mess grated as it moved a little. At last, she was able to reach in far enough to pull her knife free.

When Jermsen was finally able to scramble to her feet, the man was long gone. She went after him anyway. When she reached the intersection of passageways, a quick look revealed only empty halls. She ran down the corridor she thought he had taken, looking in rooms, searching alcoves, making her way ever deeper into the murky palace.

She could hear people in the distance, soldiers, yelling for others to follow them. She listened for Sebastian's voice, but didn't hear him. She heard, too, the sound of magic being unleashed, like the crack of lightning, only indoors. It sometimes shook the entire palace. Sometimes, too, the screams of dying men could be heard.

Jermsen chased after the sounds, trying to find the man who had loosed the wizard's fire, but found only more empty rooms and passageways.

Some places were littered with dead soldiers. She couldn't tell if they had been there from the first, or had been left in the wake of the fleeing wizard.

Jermsen heard the sound of ru

Je

The palace was a maze of corridors and exquisite chambers. Some of the rooms Je

Racing down the wide passageway lined with granite recesses in the walls to each side, each holding a delicate object of one kind or another, Je

Je

Jermsen saw someone making their way among the columns on the other side of the chamber. Just then, Sebastian burst through another door not far to Jermsen's right. A company of soldiers fu

Sebastian lifted his sword, pointing. "There she is!" He was nearly out of breath. Rage flashed in his blue eyes.

"Sebastian!" Je

The men were fa

Sebastian heatedly pointed his sword across the room. "Not until I have her. Jagang will at last have the Mother Confessor."

Je

"The Mother Confessor," Sebastian whispered, transfixed by the sight of her.

Je

He flashed a smug look. "The Mother Confessor."

"What does she look like? What's she wearing?"

"She's wearing that white dress of hers." His heated expression was back. "How can you miss her?"

"She's a beautiful bitch," a soldier on the other side of Sebastian said with a grin, unable to take his eyes from the woman across the room. "But the emperor will be the one to have her."

The rest of the men, too, started across the room with that same disturbing, lecherous look. Je

"No!" she whispered harshly. "Sebastian, it's not her."

"Are you out of your mind?" he asked as he glared at her. "Do you think I don't know what the Mother Confessor looks like?"

"I've seen her before," the soldier beside him said. "That's her all right."

"No, it's not," Je