Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

He smiled at last. "Thank you.»

"Nicci."

"Thank you, Nicci. I think about her all the time. You don't know how much I've missed her-how much I've worried about her"

"I think I do. But you should tell her that, not me. Now, where is Tovi?"

He lifted an arm and pointed. "Down there, on the right. The last tent in the line."

Nicci nodded. "Do me a favor. See to it that no one disturbs us. Including the surgeons. I need to be alone with her."

"I'll see to it." He turned back and scratched his head. "Ah, it's none of my business, but are you"-he gestured between her and back the way they'd come.»you and Lord Rahl, well, you know."

Nicci couldn't seem to make herself come up with an answer that she wished to voice.

"Time is short. Don't keep Cara waiting."

"Yes, I see what you mean. Thank you Nicci. I hope to see you in the morning."

She watched him rush off into the darkness, then turned to her task. She hadn't really wanted to u

She pulled the tent flap aside and slipped inside. There was a single candle lit on a holder made of wrought iron that was stuck in the ground beside a cot. The tent was stuffy and warm. It smelled of stale sweat and dried blood.

Tovi's bulk lay on her back in the cot, laboring to breathe.

Nicci sat lightly on a field stool beside the woman. Tovi hardly noticed someone sitting down. Nicci laid a hand on Tovi's wrist and began to trickle in a thread of power to help the woman's suffering.

Tovi recognized such gifted help and immediately looked over. Her eyes went wide and her breathing quickened. She then gasped in pain and clutched at her abdomen. Nicci increased the flow of power until Tovi sagged back with a moan of relief.

"Nicci, where have you come from? What in the world are you doing here?"

"Well, since when do you care? Sister Ulicia and the rest of you left me in Jagang's clutches, his personal slave, left me a captive of that pig."

"But you got away."

"Got away? Sister Tovi, are you out of your mind? No one got away from dream walker-except you five."

"Four. Sister Merissa is no longer living."

"What happened?"

"Stupid bitch tried to play her own game with Richard Rahl. You remember how she hated him-wanted to bathe in his blood."

"I remember."

"Sister Nicci, what are you doing here?"

"The rest of you left me to Jagang." Nicci leaned in so that Tovi could see her glare. "You have no idea of the things I've had to endure. Since then, I've been on a long mission for His Excellency. He needs information and he knows I can get it."

Tovi smiled. "Makes you whore for him, to find out what he wants to know."

Nicci didn't answer the question, instead letting it answer itself. "I just happened to hear about some fool woman who in the process of getting herself robbed or something also managed to get herself stabbed. Something about the description made me decide to come and check myself to see if it could possibly be you."

Tovi nodded. "I'm afraid it's not good."

"I hope it hurts. I came to make sure you're a long time dying. I want you to suffer for what you did to me-leaving me in the clutches of Jagang while the rest of you escaped without bothering to even tell me how it could be done."

"We couldn't help it. We had a chance and we had to take it, that's all." A cu

Nicci pressed forward. "How-how can I get free?"

"Heal me and I'll tell you."

"You mean, heal you so you can betray me like before. No good, Tovi. You're going to tell it all, or I'm going to sit right here and watch you suffer your way into the Keeper's eternal embrace. I may trickle in just enough to keep you alive a little longer." She leaned in. "So you can continue to feel the pain twisting in your guts a little longer."

Tovi seized a fistful of Nicci's dress. "Please, Sister, help me. It hurts so much."

"Talk, 'Sister. "

She released her grip on Nicci's dress and let her face roll to face away. "It's the bond to Lord Rahl. We swore a bond."

"Sister Tovi, if you think I'm that stupid, I'm going to make you suffer just to make you regret the thought until you die."

She turned back to look at Nicci. "No, it's true."

"How can you swear a bond to someone you want to eliminate?"

Tovi gri

"This story just gets more preposterous all the time."

Nicci withdrew her hand from Tovi's arm, and with it the trickle of relief. As Nicci stood, Tovi groaned in agony.

"Please, Sister Nicci, it's true." She grasped Nicci's hand. "In exchange for letting us go, we traded for something he wanted."

"What could Lord Rahl possibly want that would convince him to let a clutch of Sisters of the Dark loose? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard."

"A woman."

"What?"

"He wanted a woman."

"As the Lord Rahl, he can have any woman he wants. He has but to pick her and have her sent to his bed, unless she would choose the executioner's block instead, and none do. He hardly needs the Sisters of the Dark to cart women to his bed."

"No, no, not that kind of woman. A woman he loved."

"Right." Nicci huffed a sigh. "Good-bye, Sister Tovi. Be sure to give the Keeper of the dead my regards when you get there. Sorry, but I'm afraid that meeting won't be for a while. I think you look like you may linger for a number of days, yet. Pity."

"Please!" Her arm rotated around, searching for the contact of the one person who could save her. "Sister Nicci, please. Please listen, and I will tell you everything."

Nicci sat down and gripped Tovi's arm again. "All right, Sister, but just remember, the power can go both ways."

Tovi's back arched as she cried out in agony. "No! Please!"

Nicci had no compunction about what she was doing. She knew that there was no moral equivalence between her inflicting torture and the Imperial Order doing what might on the surface seem like the same thing. But her purpose in using it was solely to save i

The Imperial Order used torture because they had no regard at all for human life. Nicci was using it because she did. While at one time she would have seen no difference, since coming to embrace life she saw all the difference in the world.

Nicci reversed the suffering she was trickling into the old woman and Tovi sank back in grateful, weeping relief.

Tovi was covered in a sheen of sweat. "Please, Sister, give me some comfort instead and I will tell you everything."

"Start with who stabbed you."

"The Seeker."

"Richard Rahl is the Seeker. Do you really think I will believe such a story? Richard Rahl would have taken your head off with one swing."

Tovi's head rolled side to side. "No, no, you don't understand. This man had the Sword of Truth." She pointed at her gut. "I ought to know the Sword of Truth when it runs me through. He caught me by surprise and before I knew who he was or what he wanted, the bastard stabbed me."

Nicci pressed her fingers to her brow in confusion. "I think you better go back to the begi

Tovi was already sinking into a stupor. Nicci increased the magic flowing into her, giving her some healing relief without curing her of her injury. Nicci didn't want to cure her, she needed the woman unable to help herself. Tovi looked the kindly grandmother, but she was a viper.