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She affected a timorous tone. "I hope you plan to be more gentle than the last time."
"Matter of fact, lass, the boys was saying how they didn't think we did all we could to enjoy ourselves." He leaned over even more, reached out with his right hand, grabbed her nipple, and pulled her forward in her chair. He smiled at her cry. "Now, before I get in an ugly mood, you whores get your behinds down to the Lady Sefa with us, where we can put 'em to a good use."
Ulicia brought her fist around and slammed a knife through the back of the captain's left hand, pi
"Yes, Captain Blake, let's all of us go down to the Lady Sefa and have another very intimate visit with you and your crew."
With a fist of Han, she clouted him back, the knife embedded in the table slicing his hand in two as it was yanked away. A gag of air filled his mouth when he opened it to scream.
CHAPTER 49
Something be going on out there," Adie whispered. "It must be them." She fixed her white eyes on Kahlan. "You be sure you wish to do this? I be willing, but. ."
"We have to," Kahlan said as she glanced at the fire to make sure it was still going strong. "We must escape. If we can't, escape, and we're killed, well then, Richard won't be lured to come here to fall into their trap, and he can stay where he is and, with Zedd's help, protect the people of the Midlands."
Adie nodded. "We try, then." She sighed. "I know I be right that she be doing it, but I do not know the reason."
Adie had told her that Lunetta did something very peculiar: she was shrouded in her power all the time. Such a task was so extraordinary, Adie had said, that it required the use of a talisman invested with magic. With Lunetta, that talisman could only be one thing.
"Like you said, Adie, even if you don't know the reason, she wouldn't do something like that it if weren't important."
Kahlan crossed her lips with a finger when she heard the squeak of the floor in the hall. Adie's gray and black jaw-length hair swayed as she quickly blew out the lamp and moved back behind the door. The fire still provided light, but the flickering flames made the shadows dance, and would only add to the confusion.
The door opened. Kahlan, standing to the opposite side of the door from Adie, took a deep breath, mustering her courage. She hoped they had removed the shield, or they were going to be in a lot of trouble for nothing.
The two figures stepped into the room. It was them.
"What are you doing in here, you greasy little nick!" Kahlan yelled.
Brogan, with Lunetta behind him, rounded on Kahlan. She spat in his eyes.
His face gone red, he grabbed for her. Kahlan brought her boot up between his legs. When he cried out, Lunetta reached for him. From behind, Adie cracked a log across the squat sorceress's head.
Brogan threw himself on Kahlan, grappling with her, punching her in the ribs. Adie snatched Lunetta's outfit of colored patches as she fell. The whole thing ripped as Adie, her mighty effort powered by desperation, rolled the nearly senseless woman out of her patchwork clothes.
Lunetta, dazed and slow, cried out as Adie spun around with her prize and heaved it into the roaring fire.
Kahlan saw the patches of colored cloth flame up in the hearth as she and Brogan toppled to the floor. She heaved him over the top of her as she crashed to the ground and then rolled to her feet. As Brogan turned to get his footing, she kicked him in the face.
Lunetta squealed in distress. Kahlan kept her eyes on Brogan as he sprang up with blood ru
Kahlan darted a quick glance behind. A woman was pawing frantically at the fire, futilely trying to recover the flaming patches of colored cloth.
The woman was not Lunetta.
It was an attractive, older woman, in a white shift.
Kahlan's eyes went wide at the sight. What happened to Lunetta?
Brogan screamed out in fury. "Lunetta! How dare you do a glamour in front of others! How dare you use magic to make them think you be pretty! Stop it at once! Your taint be ugly!"
"Lord General," she cried, "my pretties. My pretties be burning. Please, my brother, he!p me."
"You filthy streganicha! Stop it, I say!"
"I can't," she wept, "I can't without my pretties."
With a growl of rage, Brogan slammed Kahlan aside and dashed to the fire. He lifted Lunetta by her hair and struck her with his fist. She fell back, knocking Adie to the floor with her.
He kicked his sister as she tried to stand. "I've had enough of your disobedience and your profane taint!"
Kahlan snatched up a log and swung at him, but he ducked and it caught only his shoulders. His fist in her gut drove her back.
Kahlan gasped to get her breath. "You ugly pig! Leave your beautiful sister alone!"
"She be loony! Loony Lunetta!"
"Don't listen to him, Lunetta! Your name means 'little moon'! Don't listen to him!"
Brogan screamed in fury and threw his hands out toward Kahlan. With a loud crack, lightning lit the room. It missed her only because he was raging out of control and striking wildly. Plaster and other debris blasted through the air.
Kahlan was stu
Screaming again, Brogan threw a fist of air that caught Kahlan square in the chest and slammed her against the wall. She crumpled to the floor, dazed and senseless.
Lunetta shrieked louder when she saw what Brogan had done. "No, Tobias! You must not use the taint!"
He felt on his sister, strangling her, pounding her head against the floor. "You be the one who did it! You be using the taint! You be using a glamour! You made the lightning!"
"No, Tobias, you be the one doing it. You must not use the gift. Mamma told me you must not use it."
He lifted her by a fistful of her white shift. "What are you talking about? What did Mamma tell you, you vile streganicha?"
The comely woman panted and gulped. "That you be the one, my brother. The one for greatness. She said I must not make people to notice me — so they would look only to you. She said you be the one who be important. But she said I mus not let you use your gift."
"Liar! Mamma never said any such thing! Mamma didn't know anything!"
"Yes, Tobias, she knew. She be touched with a little of the gift. The Sisters came to take you away. We loved you, and didn't want them to take our little Tobias."
"I don't have the taint!"
"It be true, my brother. They said you had the gift, and they wanted to take you to the Palace of the Prophets. Mamma told me that if they went back without you they would bring others. We killed them. Mamma and me. That be how you got the scar by your mouth — in our fight with them. She said we had to kill them so they wouldn't send others. She said I must never let you use the gift or they would come to take you."
Brogan's chest heaved with rage. "All lies! You did the lightning, and you be using a glamour for others!
"No," she wept. "They burned my pretties. Mamma said you be destined to be great, but it could all be ruined. She taught me how to use the pretties to hide my looks and to keep you from using the gift. We wanted you to be great.
"My pretties be gone. You made the lightning."
Brogan stared off with wild eyes, as if seeing things none of the rest of them saw. "It not be the taint," he whispered. "It just be me. The taint be evil. This noi be evil. It just be me."
Brogan's eyes focused again as he saw Kahlan struggle to rise. The room flashed with blinding light as he threw another lightning boll across the room. It raked the wall over her head as she dove for the floor. Brogan sprang to his feet to come for her.