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"Is everything all right, ladies?"
"Oh, yes," Sister Tovi said with a jovial chuckle. "We were just about to have a rest on the bench, here. I was complaining about my backache, that's all. We were both saying what a nuisance it is to get older."
"I guess it is." He bowed his head. "Good day, then, ladies."
He walked off without ever acknowledging Kahlan's existence. If he saw her, he forgot about her before he could say anything. Kahlan realized that it was the way she, too, seemed to forget things about herself.
"Get up," the voice over her growled.
Kahlan struggled to her feet. Sister Ulicia jerked Kahlan's pack around in front again. She flipped back the flap and dragged out the sinister black box wrapped in Kahlan's satiny white dress.
She handed the bundle to Sister Tovi. "We've already been here too long. We're starting to draw attention. Take this and get going."
"But that's mine!" Kahlan cried out as she grabbed for the dress.
Sister Ulicia backhanded her hard enough to make her teeth slam together. The blow knocked her sprawling. Lying on her side on the floor, Kahlan drew her legs up as she cradled her head in agony. Blood was smeared all over the marble. She shook as the pain bore down and would not let up.
"You want me to leave without you?" Sister Tovi asked as she tucked the box wrapped in the white dress under her arm.
"I think it would be best. It will be safest if we get this box on its way while this worthless bitch goes back to get the others. If it takes as long as the first one, I'd just as soon not have us both standing around here in the hall waiting for soldiers to decide to have a look. We don't need a battle; we need to slip away without a trace."
"If we were questioned it wouldn't do to have them find we had one of the boxes of Orden," Sister Tovi agreed. "I should just start out, then, and wait for you somewhere? Or keep going until I reach our destination?"
"You'd best not stop for now." Sister Ulicia motioned Kahlan to her feet as she spoke to Sister Tovi. "Sisters Cecilia, Armina, and I will meet back up with you once we get to where we're going."
Sister Tovi leaned a little toward Kahlan as Kahlan staggered to her feet. "I guess that gives you a few days to think about what I'm going to do to you when the rest of you join up with me again, doesn't it?"
Kahlan could manage only a whisper. "Yes, Sister."
"Swift journey," Sister Ulicia said.
After Sister Tovi had rushed off down the wall, taking Kahlan's beautiful dress with her, Sister Ulicia seized a fistful of Kahlan's hair and twisted her head close. The Sister's fingers groped along the side of Kahlan's face, making her cry out.
"You have broken bones," she a
"The other Sister and I have a number of other things we must do before our goals are accomplished. So do you. If you complete your task today you will be healed. We would like you to be healthy for those future duties"-Sister Ulicia patted Kahlan's cheek in a patronizing ma
She had no choice, of course. As much pain as she was in, she knew that if she didn't comply, and soon, then it was only going to be worse for her. Sister Ulicia had shown her that there was always more pain just waiting to be applied. Kahlan knew, too, that there was no escape from the Sisters.
Kahlan wished she could forget the pain like she seemed to have forgotten the rest of her life. It seemed that only the bad parts of her existence remained in the dark vaults of her memory.
With her breath catching on the ragged edge of tears from the throbbing hurt, she pulled her pack back around, slipped her arm through the strap, and hiked the whole thing up on her back.
"And you had better do as I said and bring them both," Sister Ulicia growled.
Kahlan nodded and rushed off across the broad corridor. Everyone ignored her. It was as if she were invisible. The few people who did look her way only seemed to see her for a fleeting moment, before they, too, forgot that they had ever noticed her.
Kahlan grabbed the bronze skull in both hands and pulled open one of the snake doors. She raced across the plush carpets and was past the guards before they could think to wonder what they had seen. She dashed up the stairs, ignoring soldiers patrolling the halls, some of whom briefly turned her way, as if trying to hold the image of her in their memories, before losing their mental grip of her and going on about their duties. Kahlan felt like a ghost among the living; there, but not.
She grunted with the effort of pulling open one of the gold-clad doors enough to slip inside the garden. She was in so much pain that she could not rush fast enough. She just wanted to get back and have the Sister make the hurt stop. As before, the garden was as quiet as a sanctuary should be. She had no time to notice or enjoy the flowers and trees. She paused on the grass, staring at the two black boxes sitting on the stone slab, momentarily immobilized by the sight of them, and by the thought of what she had been told to do.
More slowly, she closed the rest of the distance, not wanting to ever get there, not wanting to ever have to do what she knew she must. But the agony of the twisting, throbbing pain all along the side of her head drove her on.
Standing before the slab, she finally slipped off her pack and set it down beside the boxes on its back, rather than its bottom. She wiped her ru
Knowing she had little time, she crossed one arm across her stomach and with the other hand began untying the leather thongs holding her bedroll to the bottom of her pack. Her fingers were slick with blood, making the task of untying the knots more difficult. She finally had to resort to using both hands. When she at last had them undone, she carefully unfurled her bedroll and took out what lay inside, setting it on the stone slab so as to make room for the loathsome black boxes. She sucked in a sob, trying not to think of what she was leaving behind.
Kahlan forced herself to set to work wrapping the two remaining boxes in her bedroll. When she was finished, she laced up the thongs, securely fastening them to insure that the boxes would not fall out. At last finished, she swung the pack onto her back again and reluctantly started across the open area of bare ground in the center of the immense indoor garden.
As she crossed the ring of grass, she paused and turned, looking back through her watery vision at what she was leaving on the stone slab in place of the boxes.
It was the most precious thing she had.
And now she was leaving it behind.
Overwhelmed and unable to go on, feeling more hopeless and helpless than she could ever remember feeling, Kahlan sank to her knees in the grass.
She crumpled forward as she broke down sobbing. She hated her life. She hated living. The thing she loved most was being left behind because of those evil women.
Kahlan wept uncontrollably, gripping the shaggy grass in her fists. She didn't want to leave it. But if she didn't, Sister Ulicia would never let her get away with violating such a direct order. Kahlan sobbed at how sorry she felt for herself, for her helpless situation.
No one but the Sisters knew her, or even knew that she existed.