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Richard put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. He could not imagine how he would feel if someone whom he thought was powerful refused to help save his grandfather.
"I have an idea," Nicci said. "I'm a sorceress, Jillian. I know all about these men and how they work. I know how to handle them. You help Richard, and while you do that I'll go down there and see to getting rid of these men. When I'm done they will no longer be a danger to you or your people."
"If I help Richard, you will help my grandfather?"
Nicci smiled. "I promise."
Jillian looked up at Richard.
"Nicci keeps her word," he told her.
"All right. I will show Richard everything I know about this place while you make those men leave us be."
"Cara," Richard said, "go with Nicci and watch her back."
"And who will watch yours?"
Richard put a boot on the head of the man he had killed and yanked his knife free. He pointed with the weapon. "Lokey will watch our backs."
Cara did not look amused. "A raven is going to watch your back."
He wiped the blade clean on the man's shirt, then returned the knife to its sheath at his belt. "The priestess of the bones will watch over me. After all, she's been here waiting all this time for me to come here. Nicci is the one who will be in danger. I'd appreciate it if you protected her."
Cara glanced at Nicci as if grasping some greater meaning. "I will protect her for you, Lord Rahl."
CHAPTER 61
As Nicci and Cara started down toward where Jillian said the rest of the Imperial Order soldiers were, Richard went back into his tomb and recovered the smallest of the glass spheres. He slipped it into his pack so that it wouldn't interfere with his night vision, but would be handy if they had to go into any of the buildings of the city. Searching ancient decaying buildings in the dark was not a prospect he relished.
Jillian was like a cat that knew every nook and cra
One of the larger buildings Jillian took him to had arches all along the front that at one time had probably held windows, or maybe had even been open to what seemed an i
"This building is the entrance to a section of the graveyard," Jillian told him.
Richard frowned as he leaned down a little, studying the picture. There was something odd about it. Moonlight fell across figures in the mosaic that were carrying platters with breads and what looked like meats into the graveyard, while other figures were coming back with empty platters.
Richard straightened when he heard a horrifying cry drift up to them from the far distance, both he and Jillian stood up stock still, listening. More of the distant, faint wails and laments drifted in on the cool night air.
"What was that?" Jillian asked in a whisper, her copper-colored eyes wide.
"I think Nicci is getting rid of the invaders. Your people will be safe once she is finished."
"You mean she is hurting them?"
Richard could see that such concepts were alien to the girl. "These are men who would do terrible things to your people-including your grandfather. If they are left to come back another day, they will kill your people."
She turned and looked back out through the arches. "That wouldn't be good. But the dreams would have driven them away."
"Did casting dreams save your ancestors? Save the people of this city?"
She looked back to his eyes. "I guess not."
"What matters most is that people who value life, like you, your grandfather, and your people are safe to live their lives. Sometimes that means it's necessary to eliminate those who would do you harm."
She swallowed. "Yes, Lord Rahl."
He put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. "Richard. I am a Lord Rahl who wants people to be safe to live as they wish."
At last she smiled.
Richard looked back to the mosaic, studying the picture. "Do you know what this means? This picture?"
Finally pulling herself away from the distant, ghastly screams of pain that drifted in from the darkness, she looked down at the picture. "See this wall here?" she asked as she pointed. "The tellings say that these walls held the graves of the people of the city. This place, here, is where we are, now. This place is the passage to the dead.
"The tellings say that there were always dead, but only this place to put them within the city walls. The people didn't want their loved ones to be far from them, far from what they considered the sacred place for their ancestors, so they made passages where they could find resting places for them."
Shota's words echoed around in his memory.
You must find the place of the bones in the Deep Nothing.
What you seek is long buried.
"Show me this place," he told Jillian. "Take me back there."
It was more difficult to reach than he had expected it would be. There was a labyrinth of passages and rooms back through the building. Some of it went between walls that were open to the stars, only to reenter the dark depths of the building.
"This is the way of the dead," Jillian explained. "The deceased were brought in through here. It is said that it was made this way in the hopes that the souls of the dead would be confused by the passages and these new spirits would not be able to wander back out. Instead, confined in this place and unable to come back among the living, they would then go on to be where they belonged in the spirit world."
They at last came back out into the night. The crescent moon was rising above the ancient city of Caska. Lokey circled above and called down to his friend. She waved back. The graveyard spread out before him was good sized, but seemed inadequate for a city.
Richard walked with Jillian on the path through the crowded graves. Gnarled trees stood in places. In the moonlight it was a peaceful place, with wild flowers spread across the rising and falling contour of the land.
"Where are the passages you spoke of?" he asked her.
"I'm sorry, Richard, but I don't know. The tellings speak of them, but do not say how to find them."
Richard searched the graveyard, Jillian at his side, as the moon rose higher in the sky, and he could not find any evidence of passages. It all looked like any graveyard he had ever seen. Some of the ground was mounded with a number of markers. The stones for each grave were crowded close. Some yet stood, while others had long since fallen to lie flat on the ground, or be grown over.
Richard was ru
At the People's Palace in D'Hara there would be valuable books that Jagang had not yet been able to loot. It was more likely that he would find useful information there than in an empty graveyard.