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CHAPTER 27
The woman's hands were clasped casually behind her back. Her expression was anything but casual. Boot strikes echoed off the stone walls as she stepped forward, a dark thundercloud approaching, a thundercloud that didn't know fear.
A wave of gooseflesh tingled up Je
In a steady, measured pace, the woman strode one full turn around them, looking them up and down, a hawk circling, inspecting mice. Je
"A very agitated official came to see me," the Mord-Sith said in a quiet, silken voice. Her deadly glare moved very deliberately from Sebastian to Je
The captain, who was behind Je
With a flick of her wrist, the Agiel spun up into her fist and was pointing at the captain's face. "I didn't ask you. I asked this young woman."
The glare turned back to Je
Je
"Because," Je
The Mord-Sith smiled. It was not humor, but grim respect for the verac ity of what Je
The smile evaporated as she glanced at Sebastian. When her gaze re turned to Je
Je
"My word is sufficient." Je
"That," the Mord-Sith said in her silken hiss, "means nothing."
Je
"Do you think we're stupid?" The Mord-Sith's skintight red leather creaked as she leaned closer. "That if you come in here and merely wave that knife handle in our faces, that our faculty of reason will evaporate?"
The tight leather outfit revealed a body as shapely as it was powerful.
Je
Je
"Really. Why?"
"Because this knife shows the trust Lord Rahl has placed in me."
"Ah. So just because you happen to carry it, we're supposed to believe that Lord Rahl gave it to you? That he trusts you? How are we to know you didn't find the knife? Hmm?"
"Find it? Are you out of your-"
"Or perhaps you and this prisoner, here, ambushed the knife's true owner-murdered him-for no reason but to get your hands on a coveted object, hoping it would give you credibility."
"I don't know how you can possibly believe such a-"
"Or maybe you're a coward and murdered the knife's owner in his sleep? Or maybe you didn't even have that much courage, and you bought if from cutthroats who murdered him. Is that what you did? Simply got it from the real murderer?"
"Of course not!"
The Mord-Sith leaned closer yet, until Je
Je
"Showing us such a weapon proves nothing. The fact is, we don't know who the knife belongs to."
Surrender.
"It's mine!" Jermsen insisted.
The Mord-Sith straightened and lifted an eyebrow. "Really."
The captain folded his arms. Sebastian, standing to Jermsen's side, didn't move. Je
Je
"I have important business on behalf of Lord Rahl," Je
"Ah," the Mord-Sith mocked, "business on behalf of Lord Rahl. Well, that does sound important." She folded her arms. "What business?"
"It's my affair, not yours."
The cool smile returned. "Magic business? That it? Magic?"
"It's not any of your concern. I'm doing Lord Rahl's bidding and you would do well to remember that. He'd not be pleased to know you were meddling."
The eyebrow lifted again. "Meddling? My dear young lady, it is impossible for a Mord-Sith to meddle. If you were who you say you are, you would know that much, at least. Mord-Sith exist only to protect Lord Rahl. It would be a dereliction of my duty, don't you think, were I to ignore such curious goings-on?"
"No-I told you-"
"And if Lord Rahl finds himself bleeding his life away, and asks me what happened, before he dies I can tell him that a girl with a pretty knife danced in here and demanded to have a very suspicious and tight-lipped prisoner released, and, well, we were so dazzled by the knife and by her big blue eyes that we all just thought we ought to let her have her way. That about it?"
"Of course you have to-"
"Do some magic for me." The Mord-Sith reached out and tested some of Je
"I don't-"
"Do some magic, witch." Her voice was a deadly command.
Surrender.
Angry at the voice, but more so at the Mord-Sith, Je
Faster than seemed possible, Sebastian went for the woman. Faster yet, her Agiel spun into her hand. She rammed the tip against Sebastian's shoulder as he was still flying at her.
Sebastian cried out as the weapon stopped him cold. The woman calmly pressed the Agiel against his shoulder, driving him to the ground. Sebastian screamed as he lay crumpled on the floor.
Je
Thinking only of Sebastian, only of getting to him, only of helping him, Jermsen grabbed the Agiel, pushing it and the woman's hand away. She went to one knee beside Sebastian. He had rolled to his side, holding himself, trembling, as if he'd been struck by lightning.
He calmed under her gentle touch as she told him to lie still. As he recovered somewhat and tried to sit up, Je
"Stand up." The Mord-Sith towered over them. "Both of you."
Sebastian couldn't, yet. Je
The woman was frowning. She held the Agiel out. "Touch it."
Again, Je
"It works," the Mord-Sith muttered to herself, "I know it does-I can feel it."
She turned and experimentally pressed the awful thing to the captain's arm. He cried out and went to his knees.
"Stop it!" Jermsen caught hold of the red rod, pulling it back away from the captain.
The Mord-Sith stared. "How do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Touch it without being hurt? No one is immune to the touch of an Agiel-not even Lord Rahl himself."
Je
"You wanted to see magic-you saw it."
"But how-"
"Do you think that Lord Rahl would allow me to carry the knife if I wasn't competent?"
"But an Agiel-"
The captain was coming to his feet. "What's the matter with you? I fight for the same cause as you."
"And that cause is protecting Lord Rahl," the woman snapped. She held her Agiel up. "This is my means of protecting him. I have to know what's wrong lest I fail him."
Je
"I understand your concern," Je
"I've had enough of this. Lord Rahl's life is in danger. I have no more time to spare. If you don't let me do my job of protecting him, then you are imperiling him and I will remove you as I would any threat to his life.