Throughout the palace, men of the Imperial Order bowed to him as he passed. Nicci didn’t allow Jagang to acknowledge them. The men of the Order were used to his superior arrogance, his indifference to them, so they thought nothing of seeing him march past without so much as a look.
There was no easy way to get to the Garden of Life. The entire palace was laid out in the form of a power spell, designed to enhance the gift of the Lord Rahl and interfere with the gift of any other. To get anywhere, one had to navigate hallways that were really elements of the spell-form. The major lines of the form were the vast corridors. The subordinate elements were formed by smaller halls.
The entire palace was a maze of corridors with columns and halls guarded by rows of statues. Much of the interior of the palace was done in stone beautifully crafted in extravagant designs. The whole palace, while being a spell-form, was also a city, with streets made of the spell’s corridors and halls.
But getting anywhere required maneuvering through the complex lines of that spell-form. That made getting anywhere time-consuming. The journey from the dungeons up to the Garden of Life was a long one. As they made their way past places with skylights, Nicci saw that the sky was just beginning to take on a hint of blue.
By the time they reached the garden level of the palace, the sun was just up. The first warm rays coming in through the east windows were touching the white marble on the opposite walls.
Nicci’s intention was to go into the garden with Jagang to see Richard one last time. She had found out from brief questions that Richard had somehow made it back. Jagang didn’t know how. Nicci supposed that it didn’t really matter, now. He was back, and she wanted to see him one last time before the end. She wanted to let him see Jagang so that he would know that at least the emperor would not enjoy the terrible fruit of the long war he had carried into the new world. After all he had done, Richard deserved at least to know of that small victory.
When they went through the double doors into the Garden of Life, Nicci could see between the trees that the sun was just touching the altar. Half a dozen Sisters were gathered around Sister Ulicia. She was standing before the boxes.
Even as the boxes were bathed in the sunlight, it looked like they were black voids in the world. The sunlight did nothing to illuminate the boxes. They, instead, looked like they were pulling that sunlight in, taking it down to where it would never be seen again.
Jagang struggled mightily to move closer, to fight off the control of the collar, but he couldn’t. Nicci kept him in place, in the back, where his guards thought he was merely watching and didn’t want to be disturbed.
Nicci knew that she could end Jagang’s life in an instant. When the time came, she would. No one had any chance to rescue their emperor, even if they had known that he was in mortal trouble. He was hers now.
Nicci could see Richard in his magnificent war wizard’s outfit. The sight of him made her heart ache.
Kahlan stood quietly beside him. If Richard had preserved the sterile field in order to have a chance to counter Chainfire, she wouldn’t even know his true feelings for her. Now it looked like Richard would never get that chance, and she would die without ever knowing the truth.
Richard spotted Nicci. He saw Jagang beside her and understood that she had succeeded in using the gift he had given her. He gave her a small, private smile.
Sister Ulicia tapped the box on the right. “This one.”
The other Sisters were beaming at their success. They would now be able to deliver the power of Orden to the emperor. They didn’t know that he would never be able to celebrate their victory.
Sister Ulicia lifted the lid on the box on the right. Golden light flowed from within, almost as if it were liquid. It enveloped the Sisters standing before the stone altar.
They all smiled with exhilaration at what they had accomplished, even if it was to be put into service of the Imperial Order, and not themselves. Of course, they would put it to that service without even realizing that Jagang was no longer controlling their minds.
If Nicci made them aware of that, though, then the Sisters would use the gateway to free the Keeper of the underworld. Nicci’s choice was to allow them to give the world over to the Order, or to the Keeper.
She knew that was no real choice. At least life under the Imperial Order would be life. If Sisters of the Dark were allowed to do as they would prefer, there would be no real life.
Nicci did not want to live to see what was going to come of the new world brought into being by hate.
She supposed that she would not have to worry about it. She expected that she had mere moments to live.
But Jagang would die before she did. She would make sure of that.
Justice would finally visit Jagang the Just.
The one thing Nicci couldn’t understand was why Richard was smiling.
CHAPTER 61
Richard watched as the golden light coming from the box of Orden lifted the seven Sisters.
Kahlan’s hand tightened on his. The others in the room watched with a mix of awe and terror. This was something unlike anything that any of them had ever seen, or would ever see again.
Richard glanced at Nicci. Even she was transfixed by the sparkling light that swirled around the Sisters. Jagang, standing beside her, was smiling. Richard could just see the metal of the collar peeking through the front of the vest. Jagang knew that his cause would have the power of Orden, even if he didn’t live to see it. He believed that was all that mattered. He believed in their cause.
The Sisters within the golden glow appeared to be delighted by the heady power of Orden.
It was short-lived.
The light darkened as it swept them all up into the air, carrying them toward the darkening sea of sorcerer’s sand.
The floating Sisters glided together, collecting in a tight cluster above the ground. They all began to rotate helplessly in the sparkling amber light. The room darkened as a few flashes of lightning began to flicker about over their heads. Several Sisters screamed. A low roar grew to fill the room.
The ground trembled as the tight clump of seven Sisters floated out over the sorcerer’s sand.
The sand beneath them began to rotate along with the light. The sparkles within the light connected with the fits of lightning dancing around the room, giving the sisters a flickering appearance.
“What’s going on!” Sister Ulicia screamed.
Richard let go of Kahlan’s hand and walked across the grass to the edge of the sorcerer’s sand that was slowly darkening from honey-colored to amber to a burnt brown. Richard could smell it burning.
“What’s going on!” Sister Ulicia again demanded as her panicked gaze found him.
“Did you read The Book of Life?” he calmly asked her.
“Of course! You have to use The Book of Life to put the boxes of Orden in play. We all read it! We followed every formula and instruction exactly!”
“You may have followed the instructions contained within the book, but you didn’t abide by its meaning. You read what you wanted to read—the formulas and spell-forms.”
Several of the Sisters screamed as lightning cracked through the air right near their faces.
Sister Ulicia was enraged. “What are you talking about!”
Richard clasped his hands behind his back. “At the very beginning there was only one thing all by itself on the first page to emphasize how important—how central—it was. It wasn’t a formula, or a spell-form, but it was the first thing The Book of Life said. It was first for a very important reason. In your arrogance, your greed to have what you wanted, you ignored it.
“The introductory statement to The Book of Life is a warning to anyone who would use the book.
“It says, ‘Those who have come here to hate should leave now, for in their hatred they only betray themselves.’”
“What are you babbling about?” one of the other Sisters asked, not concerned with what they saw as a dusty aphorism.
?
??I’m talking about a book of instruction on using the power of Orden. The Book of Life is the very first thing needed to use that power. Such power is dangerous almost beyond measure. Those who created it wanted to protect it. Most dangerous things of magic are protected by guards, defensive shields, and fail-safes.
“Orden was designed to counter Chainfire, but because it needed to be profoundly powerful to do that, that also made it profoundly dangerous. Those who created it came up with a fail-safe that is at once both striking in its simplicity, and foolproof.
“That safeguard says, ‘Those who have come here to hate should leave now, for in their hatred they only betray themselves.’”
“So what!” Sister Ulicia screamed.
“So,” Richard said with a shrug, “it’s a warning—about as deadly a warning as there can be. It’s telling you that hate will trigger a deadly reaction from the power of Orden. If you want to use Orden to cause harm then that can only mean that you would have to be someone who hates. Only those with hate in their hearts would scheme to use such a thing to harm others.”
“That doesn’t make any sense! How would it harm someone who is evil?” she asked. “How could you use Orden to stop us? You hate us, you would be using Orden for hate.”
Richard shook his head. “You mistake hate and justice. Eliminating those like you who harm innocent people is not done out of hate, but out of love for those who have done no wrong and are being hurt and killed. It’s love and respect for innocent life.
“Eliminating such people is not hate. It is a product of reasoned justice.”
“But we don’t hate!” another Sister cried out. “We want to eliminate those who are heathens, sinners, and are only selfishly concerned with themselves.”
“No,” Richard said, “you hate those you envy. You hate that they are happy.”
“But we used The Book of Counted Shadows!” Sister Ulicia cried in desperation. “We followed the original exactly. It still should have worked.”
“Well,” Richard said as he strolled before the blackening sorcerer’s sand, “even if you disregard the safeguard in The Book of Life, I’m afraid that you made a mistake thinking that The Book of Counted Shadows would be of any use.”
“But it’s the real book! The original!”
Richard smiled as he nodded. “It’s the original of yet another fail-safe. Didn’t you read the first thing in that book as well? It also put the important warning first.”
“What warning!”
“The warning to use a Confessor.”
“But we had the original! We had no need of a Confessor!”
“The warning wasn’t that you need a Confessor. The warning was the mention of a Confessor at all.”
Zedd, unable to contain himself, held up a hand. “Richard, what in the world are you talking about?”
Richard smiled at his grandfather. “Who was the first Confessor?”
“Magda Searus.”
Richard nodded. “The woman who had been married to Baraccus. That was during the war. After the great barrier was up and the war was over the wizards up here discovered that the prosecutor in the trial over the Temple of the Winds, Lothain, was a traitor. To discover how he betrayed them, Wizard Merritt used Magda Searus to create a Confessor.”
“Yes, yes,” Zedd said, nodding. “So what?”
“The boxes of Orden were created during the great war. The first Confessor was not brought into being until long after the war. How could The Book of Counted Shadows be the key created to open the boxes if Confessors had not even been dreamed up when Orden was created?”
Zedd blinked in surprise. “The Book of Counted Shadows couldn’t possibly be a key to open the boxes of Orden.”
“That’s right,” Richard said. “They were merely a trick to prevent the misuse of the power of Orden. Using them, even the original can only get you killed. The Book of Counted Shadows is not the key to opening the power of Orden.”
Richard turned to the pandemonium of a building rumble. Vapor, smoke, shadows, and light spun with a roar. The ground shook violently. The sorcerer’s sand, now black as pitch, was sucked into the vortex. With a grating sound the whole of it rotated over the abyss. The sounds of the world of life and the underworld mixed in a terrible howl.
The Sisters spun in the maelstrom, arms and legs sticking out in every direction, their screams lost in the thundering clamor.
Blinding light ignited in the center of the spinning mass. Beams of white-hot light shot upward through the windows overhead and downward into the blackness of the abyss. The air shimmered with heat, light, and a piercing shriek.
With a wailing roar the blackened sand under the Sisters ripped open. Violet light shot up to engulf the terrified women. The rotating light, black sand, and lightning tightened as it built momentum.
Without the benefit of a spirit guide, the Sisters spiraled down into the world of the dead. They went still alive. They went screaming.
A flash lit everything to a blinding white, and then there was silence as everything went black as death.
When the light gradually returned, the Garden of Life was silent. The hole in the ground was gone. The sorcerer’s sand was gone. The Sisters were gone.
Jagang’s personal guard who had been in the Garden of Life were also gone. Being in the room with the power of Orden had been fatal to them as well as the Sisters.
Jagang, wearing the collar that was under the dominion of Nicci, was still there, looking even more angry, if that was possible.
Men of the First File streamed through the double doors into the Garden of Life to protect Richard.
“Close and bolt the doors,” Richard ordered.
The men rushed to do his bidding.
Richard went to the altar and flipped the open box of Orden closed.
“You may have had your little success,” Jagang said with a sneer, “but it means little. It changes nothing.”
When he fell silent with a choking sound, Richard held up a hand. “Let him speak, Nicci.”
She brought the emperor forward.
“The Imperial Order will still get in here and rip this place and all you miserable people apart,” Jagang said. “They do not need me to pursue the just cause we fight for. The Order will cleanse mankind of the scourge of you selfish people. Our cause is not only moral but divine. The Creator is on our side. Our faith proves it.”
“Truth has advocates who seek understanding,” Richard said. “Corrupt ideas have miserable little fanatics who attempt to enforce their beliefs through intimidation and brutality…through faith. Savage force is faith’s obedient servant. Violence on an apocalyptic scale can only be born of faith because reason, by its very nature, disarms senseless cruelty. Only faith thinks to justify it.”
Jagang’s face went red. “We do the Creator’s work! Devout devotion to the Creator is the only true and moral way of this life. Strict adherence to our pious duties will bring us salvation and everlasting life! It is the blood of nonbelievers like your people that lifts us to the side of the Creator Himself.”
Richard made a face. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“You are a fool! Our faith alone proves us right! We alone will be rewarded in the afterlife for our reverence to Him. We are his true children, and will live forever in his Light.”
Richard sighed as he shook his head. “It’s always been difficult for me to believe that a grown man could actually believe such nonsense.”
Jagang ground his teeth in fury. “Put me to your tortures! I accept your hatred of me because I have faithfully performed my duties to a greater good for mankind.”
“You will not serve some grand place on the stage of life,” Nicci said. “You will not be paraded in chains. You will not serve as a martyr or be venerated for a glorious death.
“You are irrelevant. You will simply die and be buried, and in that way no longer be able to threaten decent, innocent people. You are irrelevant to the future of mankind.”
&nbs
p; “You must extract your revenge on me for all to see!”
Richard leaned close to the man. “There will be other problems, as there always are in life, but you will not be one of them. You will be yesterday’s garbage, rotting back to dust, your life having meant nothing worthwhile.”
Jagang tried to lunge at Richard, but Nicci’s control of him through the collar kept him back like a chained animal. “You arrogantly think you are better than us, but you are not. You too are but a miserable creature that the Creator placed in this vile world. You are no different than us except that you refuse to repent and worship Him. This is about hatred. That’s all it is. It’s just about you venting your hatred of the Order.”
Richard rested the palm of his left hand on the hilt of his sword. “Justice is not the exercise of hatred, it is the celebration of civilization.”
“You can’t simply—”
With a signal from Richard, Nicci opened a flow of her power into the collar. Jagang’s black eyes opened wide as he felt death fill his empty soul. He toppled face-first to the ground.
Nicci gestured to several men of the First File. “I’m sure that there are soon going to be a great many dead. Throw his corpse in the mass grave with the others of his kind.”
As simply as that, the emperor of the Imperial Order was gone. As Richard had commanded, there was no grand end. There would be no celebration through violence and mutilation, no torture, no forced confessions of wrongdoing. Reasoned people understood the wrongdoing quite well enough. The threat to reasoned people was removed; that was all that mattered. Jagang’s death was no more significant than that.
CHAPTER 62
Without delay, Richard went to the stone altar where the boxes of Orden sat.
He drew his sword.
The distinct metallic ring filled the Garden of Life.