Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy Part 2 tsot-10 Page 12

  “The woman he seeks is no phantom,” Nicci said, drawing Shota’s attention. “Thanks in part to the pricey and rather equivocal suggestions you offered, we have discovered the truth of what Richard has been telling us all along. Apparently you are still in the dark about it.”

  Nicci’s icy look reminded Richard that she had once been known as Death’s Mistress. The cold authority in her voice matched the look. There were few women in the world as widely feared as Nicci had once been—except perhaps for Shota. Nicci’s demeanor indicated that she was clearly a woman still to be feared.

  Shota, unfazed, deliberately took in the length of Nicci’s pink nightdress. Richard expected a smirk. Instead, a hot look flashed in Shota’s eyes.

  “You have been sleeping in his bed.” She sounded almost surprised by her own words, as if the information had come to mind unexpectedly.

  Nicci shrugged with satisfaction at Shota’s ire. “So I have.”

  The slightest smile in turn curled the corners of Shota’s mouth. “But you have not succeeded in bedding him yet.” Her smile widened. “Have you tried, my dear? Or do you fear the sting of rejection?”

  “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me how it felt, then I’ll decide.”

  Richard gently pulled Nicci back from the edge of the step before the two woman did something stupid—like try to scratch out each other’s eyes. Or reduce each other to ashes.

  “You said you were here for a reason, Shota—this had better not be it.”

  Shota heaved a soft sigh. “I found your friend Chase. He was gravely injured.”

  “So you said. How was he injured?”

  Shota’s gaze didn’t shrink from his. “He was hurt by a sword you would be quite familiar with.”

  Richard blinked in astonishment. “Chase was hurt by the Sword of Truth? Samuel attacked Chase?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  Zedd shook a bony finger at Shota. “This is your doing!”

  “Nonsense.” Shota, too, lifted a finger as Zedd stepped closer, but in warning rather than accusation. The gesture, and her words, kept Zedd from taking another step. “I need no sword to accomplish harm.” She arched an eyebrow. “Like to see, wizard?”

  “Stop it!” Richard descended the steps two at a time and put himself between Shota and his grandfather. He turned a glare of his own on Shota. “What’s going on?”

  She sighed unhappily. “I’m afraid that I don’t entirely know.”

  “You gave Samuel my sword.” Richard tried to keep the heat out of his voice, to keep from letting his anger show, but he feared that it wasn’t working very well. “I warned you about his nature. Despite my warning, you insisted that he have it. I want to know what he is up to. Where is Chase? How badly is he hurt? And where is Rachel?”

  Shota’s brow twitched. “Rachel?”

  “The girl with him—the girl he adopted. The two of them were on their way back to Westland. Chase was going to bring his family back to the Keep. You mean to say that the girl wasn’t there, with him?”

  “I found him gravely injured.” For the first time, Shota looked disconcerted. “There was no girl with him.”

  As he watched Rikka take the reins to the two horses and pull them toward the paddock, Richard tried to imagine what was going on, why Rachel hadn’t stayed with Chase. He worried about the possible reasons, worried for what might have happened to Rachel. Knowing how resourceful and devoted she was, Richard wondered if she had gone for help and was now wandering around all by herself.

  Another thought struck him. “And how was it that you just happened to come across Chase?”

  Shota wet her lips. She looked reluctant to say something obviously distasteful to her, but finally she did. “I was hunting Samuel.”

  Surprised, Richard glanced at Nicci. Her expression showed no reaction and her features appeared so absolutely devoid of emotion that for an instant it reminded Richard of a similar look he had from time to time seen on Kahlan. A Confessor’s face, she had called it. Confessors would occasionally shed all emotion in order to do the terrible things that were at times necessary.

  “How is Chase?” Richard asked, considerably quieter. He wanted to know why Shota was hunting Samuel, but at the moment there were more important worries weighing on his mind. “Is he going to be all right?”

  “I believe so,” Shota said. “He’d been run through with a sword—”

  “With my sword.”

  Shota didn’t argue the distinction. “I’m not a healer, but I do have certain abilities and I was able to at least reverse his journey toward death. I found some people who could care for him and help him recover. I believe he is safe for the time being. It will be a while before he is on his feet again.”

  “And why didn’t Samuel kill him?” Cara asked from the top step.

  “He stabbed Tovi the same way,” Nicci said. “He didn’t kill her, either.”

  “Samuel is certainly capable of murder,” Richard pointed out.

  Shota clasped her hands before herself. “Samuel apparently couldn’t muster the courage to kill with the sword. He has done so in the past—when the sword was his before—and so he knows the pain it causes when it is used to kill.” She arched an eyebrow at Richard. “I’m sure you know well what I’m talking about.”

  “It’s a weapon that does not belong in the wrong hands,” Richard said.

  Shota ignored Richard’s gibe and went on. “His is the way of a coward. A coward will often leave the person to die on their own, away from his sight.”

  “They suffer all the more that way,” Zedd pointed out. “It’s more cruel. Perhaps that was his reason.”

  The witch woman shook her head. “Samuel is a coward and an opportunist; his goal is not cruelty but rather is entirely self-centered. Cowards don’t necessarily think things out. They act on whim. They want what they want when they want it.

  “Samuel will rarely bother to consider the consequences of his actions; he simply snatches something when he sees an opportunity, when he sees something he desires. He shrinks from the pain it would cause him to kill with the sword and so he fails to complete the killing he initiated on impulse. If the person he injures suffers an agonizing and prolonged end, it doesn’t matter to Samuel because he isn’t around to witness it. Out of sight, out of mind. That was what he did to Chase.”

  “And you gave him the sword,” Richard said, unable to disguise his anger. “You knew what he was like and you still made it possible for him to do this.”

  Shota regarded him a moment before answering. “That’s not the way it was, Richard. I gave him the sword because I thought it would make him content. I believed that he would be satisfied to have it back in his possession. I thought it would mellow his lingering resentment at having the sword so abruptly taken from him.”

  Shota cast a brief but murderous look at Zedd.

  “So, you didn’t consider the consequences of your actions,” Richard said. “You simply wanted what you wanted when you wanted it.”

  Shota’s gaze slid back to Richard. “After all this time, and everything that has happened, you are still as flippant as ever?”

  Richard wasn’t in a mood to apologize.

  “I’m afraid that there is more to this,” Shota said, somewhat less heatedly, “more than I realized at the time.”

  Zedd rubbed his chin as he considered the situation. “Samuel must have stabbed Chase and then kidnapped Rachel.”

  Richard was surprised by Zedd’s suggestion; he hadn’t thought of that. He had assumed that Rachel had gone to find help.

  He turned a frown on Shota. “Why would Samuel do such a thing?”

  “I’m afraid that I don’t have any idea.” Shota looked up at Nicci, still standing at the top of the granite steps. “Who is this woman you say he stabbed? This Tovi?”

  “She was a Sister of the Dark. And it is no idle accusation. Tovi didn’t know the person who stabbed her, didn’t know who Samuel was, but she certainly knew the Sw
ord of Truth; she was once one of Richard’s teachers back at the Palace of the Prophets. Just before she died she told me how she and three other Sisters of the Dark had ignited a Chainfire spell around Kahlan to make everyone forget her. They then used Kahlan to steal the boxes of Orden from the People’s Palace.”

  Shota’s brow creased. She looked truly perplexed.

  “The boxes of Orden are in play,” Richard added.

  Shota flicked a hand dismissively as she stared off in thought. “That much I have come to know. But I did not know how it came to be.”

  Richard wondered how much more of the story she knew, but he told it anyway. “Tovi was taking one of the boxes of Orden away from the People’s Palace, in D’Hara, when Samuel jumped her, ran her through with the sword, and then stole the box she was carrying.”

  Shota again looked surprised, but the look was quickly banished by quiet fury as she silently considered what she’d been told.

  “I’ve known Chase my whole life,” Richard said. “While anyone can make a mistake, I’ve never known him to be caught off guard by someone lying in wait. I can’t imagine that Sisters of the Dark are much easier to ambush. Gifted people of their level of talent and ability have a sense of people being around them.”

  Shota looked up at him. “Your point?”

  “Samuel was somehow able to surprise a Sister of the Dark, and a boundary warden.” Richard folded his arms across his chest. “What’s more, every time Samuel tries to accomplish something evil you always act all surprised and disavow any knowledge of what he was up to. What’s your part in all this, Shota?”

  “None. I had no idea of what he was up to.”

  “Unlike you to be so ignorant.”

  Her cheeks mantled. “You don’t know the half of it.” She finally turned away from him and headed for the steps. “I told you, we have much to talk about.”

  Richard caught her arm, turning her back. “Did you have anything to do with Samuel being able to sneak up on Chase or surprise Tovi and steal that box? Other than providing him with the weapon to accomplish the deed and no doubt telling him all about the power the boxes of Orden contain, I mean.”

  She searched his eyes for a time. “Do you wish to kill me, Richard?”

  “Kill you? Shota, I’ve been the best friend you’ve ever had.”

  “Then you will put your anger aside and listen to what we have come to tell you.” She pulled away from the grip on her arm and again started for the steps. “Let’s get inside and out of this foul weather.”

  Richard glanced to the blue sky. “The weather is beautiful,” he said as he watched her ascend the steps.

  At the top she halted to share a brief glare with Nicci before turning to look down at Richard. It was the kind of haunting, timeless, troubling look that he imagined only a witch woman could conjure.

  “Not in my world,” she said in a near whisper. “In my world it’s raining.”

  Chapter 11

  Shota glided down the steps to stand before the fountain. The diaphanous fabric of the dress that covered her statuesque form moved ever so slightly, as if in a gentle breeze. The gushing, cascading, effervescent waters danced and sparkled in the light from the skylights far above, putting on an exhilarating performance for the gathered audience. Shota stared absently at it for a moment, as if preoccupied with her own private thoughts, and then turned to the small crowd waiting just inside the huge double doors. They all stood silently, watching her, as if awaiting a queen’s pronouncement.

  Behind Shota, the water in the fountain sprayed high into the air. The exuberant surge of spray abruptly stopped. The last of the water, still rising just before the flow had cut off, reached its zenith, a dying liquid arc, and fell back as if slain. The dozens of uniform streams of water overflowing the down-turned points in the tiers of bowls, as if embarrassed by their frothy frolic, slowed to a stop and finally fell silent.

  Zedd stepped to the brink of the steps, a forbidding look settling into the lines of his face. As he halted, the swirl of his simple robes gathered around his legs. At that moment it struck Richard that his grandfather looked very much like who he was: the First Wizard. If Richard had thought that Nicci and Shota had looked dangerous, he realized that Zedd was no less so. At that moment he was a thundercloud harboring hidden lightning.

  “I’ll not have you tampering with anything in this place. I indulge you because you have come here for reasons that may somehow be important to us all, but my leniency will not tolerate your meddling with anything here.”

  Shota flicked a hand, dismissing his warning. “I assumed that you would not acquiesce to me going any farther than this room. The fountain is noisy. I don’t want Richard to fail to hear anything I or Jebra has to say.”

  She lifted an arm toward Ann, standing beside Nathan, watching, almost unseen in the deep shadows of the balcony and soaring red pillars. “It is a matter that has been close to your heart for half of your life, Prelate.”

  “I am no longer Prelate,” Ann said in a quietly commanding voice that sounded very much as if she still were.

  “Why were you hunting Samuel?” Cara asked, drawing the witch woman’s attention.

  “Because he was not supposed to have left my valley in Agaden Reach. Moreover, he should not have been able to do so without my expressed permission.”

  “And yet he did,” Richard said.

  Shota nodded. “So I went looking for him.”

  Richard clasped his hands behind his back. “How is it, Shota, that you weren’t aware that Samuel was going to leave you? I mean, considering your power, vast knowledge, and all that business you’ve explained to me about how a witch woman can see the way that events flow forward in time. For that matter, how was he able to do so without your consent?”

  Shota did not shrink from the question. “There is only one way.”

  Richard bit back the sarcastic remark that came to mind and instead asked, “And what would that be?”

  “Samuel has been bewitched.”

  Richard wasn’t sure that he’d heard her correctly. “Bewitched. But you’re the witch woman. You’re the one who does the bewitching.”

  Shota clasped her hands, looking down at the floor a moment as she folded her fingers together. “He was bewitched by another.”

  Richard descended the five steps. “Another witch woman?”

  “Yes.”

  Richard took a deep breath as he glanced around to see the others sharing troubled looks. No one appeared inclined to ask, so he did. “You mean to say that there is another witch woman around, and she bewitched Samuel away from you?”

  “I thought that I had made that perfectly clear.”

  “Well . . . where is she?”

  “I have no idea. Certain issues in the flow of time are my business—I have seen to it. For me to be this blind to events that eddy so tightly through my purview can only mean that another witch woman has deliberately occulted those flows from me.”

  Richard stuffed his hands in his back pockets as he tried to reason it out. He paced briefly before turning back to her.

  “Maybe it wasn’t a witch woman. Maybe it was a Sister of the Dark or someone like that. A gifted person. Maybe even a wizard. Jagang has those, too.”

  “To manipulate a witch woman in an insignificant way is far from an easy task.” She shot a brief glare up at Zedd. “Ask your grandfather.”

  Shota gestured around at some of the people in the room before her gaze returned to Richard. “A gifted person, even such as these, no matter how talented, could not begin to achieve a deception as comprehensive as this one has been. Only another witch woman could slip herself unseen into my domain. Only another witch woman could draw a shroud over my vision and then bewitch Samuel into doing what he has done.”

  “If your vision is shrouded,” Cara asked, “how can you be so certain that Samuel has been bewitched? Maybe he was acting on his own. From what I’ve seen of him, he needs no mysterious enchantress to coax him into
impulsive behavior. He seemed plenty treacherous all on his own.”

  Shota slowly shook her head. “You have only to look at what you’ve told me to see that this involves not simply cunning but knowledge beyond Samuel’s ability. A Sister of the Dark was attacked; a box of Orden was stolen from her. In the first place, how would Samuel be aware that this woman had anything valuable? I didn’t know of her myself because that is part of what has been hidden from me, so I couldn’t have told him—not even absently, carelessly, or inadvertently, which is what you’re thinking. So, Samuel didn’t learn of it from me. If he happened across a treasure of some sort there is no doubt that Samuel is fully capable of doing whatever he could to snatch it, that much I concede.”

  “You mean the way he acquired the Sword of Truth in the first place?” Zedd asked.

  Shota met his gaze briefly but chose to return to the matter at hand rather than confront the challenge. “Secondly, how would Samuel know where he could find a Sister carrying a box of Orden? You can’t seriously mean to suggest that you think he simply was wandering around—way off in D’Hara—and by chance happened across this very Sister of the Dark, stabbed her, and robbed her of what she was carrying only to have it turn out to be one of the boxes of Orden?”

  “I have to admit,” Richard said, “I never have much believed in coincidence. It certainly doesn’t seem plausible in this case, either.”

  “My thoughts, exactly,” Shota said. “And then there’s Chase. Due to his grave condition I wasn’t able to learn much from him, but I was able to discover that he had been ambushed. Another coincidence—Samuel happening across and randomly attacking someone and it just happens to be someone else you know? I hardly think so. That leaves the question of why Samuel would be lying in wait for a man you know. Why would he attack him? What thing of value did Chase have?”

  “Rachel,” Zedd answered as he stared off, rubbing his chin in thought.

  “But what would he want with a girl?” Cara asked. When several people glanced her way with troubled looks, she added, “I mean, that girl in particular?”