n ornate  chair draped
with rich, red silks. If this was Emperor Jagang's throne, he was not in it.
     While  guards surrounded  Zedd  and  Adie,  keeping them restricted  in
place, one of the men went off behind the fabric walls from where a glow  of
light came.  The  guards standing close around  Zedd stank of  sweat.  Their
shoes were caked with manure. For all the sumptuous surroundings doing their
best to  simulate  a reverent  aura, a  sacred setting,  an abiding barnyard
stench permeated the place. The horse manure and human sweat of  the men who
had entered the tent with Zedd and Adie were only making it worse.
     The  man who  had  gone behind  the  walls poked  his  head  back  out,
signaling  the  Sister  forward.  He  whispered to her  and  then she,  too,
disappeared behind the walls.
     Zedd stole a  look  at Adie. Her completely white eyes stared ahead. He
shifted  his weight as an excuse  to lean toward her and  stealthily touched
her shoulder with his, a message of comfort where there  could be none.  She
returned  a  slight  push; message received, and  appreciated.  He longed to
embrace her, but knew he probably never would again.
     Muffled words could be heard, but the heavy wall hangings muted them so
that Zedd couldn't understand any of it. Had he access to his gift, he would
have been able to hear it all, but the collar cut him off from his  ability.
Even so,  the nature  of  the Sister's  report,  the words, were  short  and
businesslike.
     Those slaves working in the tent at brushing carpets, or polishing fine
vases, or waxing cabinets paid  no attention to  the people  the  guards had
brought in, but the sudden, low  tone  of menace that came  from  beyond the
wall caused them all to put  markedly more  attention into their work. While
no doubt prisoners were  brought  before the emperor often enough, Zedd  was
sure  that it would not be wise  for those working in the grand tent to  pay
any notice to the emperor's business.
     From beyond the walls composed of woven scenes also came the warm smell
of food.  The variety of scents Zedd was able to detect was astonishing. The
stink of  the place, though,  tended  to  make the fragrant aromas of meats,
olive oil, garlic, onions, and spices somewhat repugnant.
     The Sister stepped out  from behind the  wall of colorful hangings. The
ring through her lower lip stood out in stark relief against her ashen skin.
She gave a slight nod to the men to either side of the prisoners.
     Powerful fingers gripping their arms, Zedd and Adie were ushered toward
the opening and the glow of light beyond.





        CHAPTER 37




     Dragged to an  abrupt  halt, Zedd, at last, stood  shackled before  the
intent glower of the dream walker himself, Emperor Jagang.
     Enthroned in an ornately carved high-backed chair behind a grand dining
table,  Jagang leaned on both elbows, a goose leg spanning his fingers as he
chewed. Points of  candlelight reflecting  off  the sides of his shaved head
danced as  the tendons all the way up through his  temples  rippled with his
chewing. A thin mustache, growing down from the  corners of his mouth and at
the center under his lower lip, moved rhythmically in time with his  jaw, as
did the fine chain connected to gold loops in his ear and nose. Greasy goose
fat covering his meaty, ringed fingers glistened  in the candlelight and ran
down his bare arms.
     From his place behind  his table, Jagang casually  studied  his  latest
captives.
     Despite the candles set about  the table and on stands to either  side,
the inside of the tent had the murky feel of a dungeon.
     To each  side of  him on the broad table  sat plates of  food, goblets,
bottles, candles, bowls, and, here and there, books and scrolls. There being
no room for all of the silver platters among the multitude, some of them had
to be strategically balanced  atop small decorated pillars. There  looked to
be enough food for a small army.
     For all the  Order's  talk of  sacrifice for the betterment of  mankind
being their noble  cause, Zedd knew that  such  abundance  at  the emperor's
table was  meant to send a contradictory message, even when there was no one
but the emperor himself to see it.
     Slaves  stood  lined  up along the  wall  behind  Jagang,  some holding
additional platters, some  in stiff  poses, all  awaiting command.  Some  of
those   in  back   were  young  men--young  wizards,  from   what  Zedd  had
heard--dressed  in  loose-fitting white trousers  and nothing else. This was
where  wizards in training at the Palace of the Prophets had ended up, along
with the captured Sisters who had been their teachers. All were now captives
of  the  dream walker.  The  most  accomplished  of  men, men with  enormous
potential, were used as houseboys to perform menial tasks. This, too,  was a
message sent by the emperor  of the Imperial Order to show everyone that the
best  and the brightest were  to be used to clean chamber pots, while brutes
ruled them.
     The  younger  women,  Sisters  of  both the Dark and  the  Light,  Zedd
assumed,  wore outfits that  ran from  neck to wrist to  ankle, but were  so
transparent that the women  might as  well have  been naked. This, too,  was
meant to show that Emperor  Jagang thought little of these women's  talents,
and valued  them only for  his pleasure.  The older,  less  attractive women
standing off to the sides wore drab clothes. These were probably Sisters who
served the emperor in other menial ways.
     Jagang delighted  in having under his control, as  slaves, some  of the
most gifted people in the world. It suited the nature of the Order to demean
those with ability, rather than to celebrate them.
     Jagang watched Zedd taking in the house slaves,  but showed no emotion.
The  dream walker's bull neck  made him  look almost  other  than human. The
muscles of his chest, as well as his massive shoulders, were displayed by an
open, sleeveless lamb's-wool  vest.  He was as powerful  and brawny a man as
Zedd had seen, an intimidating presence even at rest.
     As Zedd and Adie  stood mute, Jagang's  teeth tore off another chunk of
meat from the goose leg. In the tense silence, he watched them as he chewed,
as if deciding what he might do with his newest plunder.
     More than anything, it was his inky black  eyes,  devoid of any pupils,
irises, or whites,  that threatened to halt  the blood  in Zedd's veins. The
last time he had  seen  those eyes,  Zedd  had not been  shackled, but  that
ungifted  girl  had prevented Zedd from finishing the man. That was going to
turn  out  to be the  missed opportunity that Zedd  would most  regret.  His
chance to kill  Jagang had slipped through his ringers that day, not because
of the vast power of all the skilled Sisters and troops arrayed against him,
but all because of a single ungifted girl.
     Those black eyes, the eyes of a  mature  dream walker, glistened in the
candlelight. Across their  dark voids, dim shapes shifted, like  clouds on a
moonless night.
     The  directness of the dream walker's gaze was as obvious as was Adie's
when she looked  at  Zedd with  her pure white eyes. Under Ja-gang's  direct
glare,  Zedd  had  to remind himself to relax his muscles,  and remember  to
breathe.
     The thing about those eyes that most terrified him, though, was what he
saw  in them: a keen, calculating mind. Zedd had fought against  Jagang long
enough to  have come to understand that one underestimated this man at great
peril.
     "Jagang the Just," the Sister said, holding an introductory hand out to
the nightmare before them. "Excellency,  this  is  Zeddicus  Zu'l Zo-rander,
First Wizard, and a sorceress by the name of Adie."
     "I know who they are," Jagang said in a deep voice as heavy with threat
as with distaste.
     He leaned back, hanging one arm over  the back of the chair and one leg
over a carved arm. He gestured with the goose leg.
     "Richard Rani's grandfather, as I hear told."
     Zedd said nothing.
     Jagang  tossed  the partially  eaten leg on a  platter and picked  up a
knife. With one hand  he sawed a chunk of  red meat  off a roast and stabbed
it. Elbow on the table, he  waved  the knife as he spoke. Red juice ran down
the blade.
     "Probably not the way you had hoped to meet me."
     He laughed at his own joke, a deep, resonating sound alive with menace.
     With his teeth, Jagang  drew the chunk of meat off the knife and chewed
as  he watched  them, as if  unable to  decide  on a wealth  of delightfully
terrible options parading through his thoughts.
     He  washed the meat  down with a gulp from a jeweled silver goblet, his
gaze  never leaving  them. "I can't tell you how pleased I am that  you have
come to visit me."
     His grin was like death itself. "Alive."
     He rolled his wrist, circling the knife. "We have a lot to talk about."
His laugh died out, but the grin remained. "Well, you do, anyway. I'll  be a
good host and listen."
     Zedd and Adie remained silent as Jagang's black-eyed gaze went from one
to the other.
     "Not so talkative, just yet? Well, no matter. You will be babbling soon
enough."
     Zedd didn't waste the effort telling Jagang that torture would gain him
nothing.  Jagang  would not believe any such boast,  and even  if he did, it
would hardly stay his wish to see it done.
     Jagang  fingered  a few grapes from a bowl. "You are a resourceful man,
Wizard Zorander." He  popped  several grapes in  his  mouth and chewed as he
spoke. "All alone there in  Aydindril, with an  army  surrounding  you,  you
managed to gull me into  thinking  I had trapped Richard Rahl and the Mother
Confessor. Quite a trick. I must give you credit where credit is due.
     "And the light spell you ignited among my men, that was remarkable." He
put another grape  in his mouth.  "Do you have any idea how many hundreds of
thousands of them were caught up in your wizardry?"
     Zedd  could see the corded  muscles  in the man's hairy arm draped over
the back of the  chair stand out as he flexed the fist.  He relaxed the hand
then and leaned forward, using his thumb to gouge out a long chunk of ham.
     He waved the meat as he went on. "It's that kind of magic I need you to
do for me,  good wizard.  I  understand, from the stupid bitches  I have who
call  themselves  the  Sisters  of the Light,  or the Sisters of  the  Dark,
depending on who they've decided can offer  better favors in the  afterlife,
that  you probably didn't conjure that little bit of magic on your own, but,
rather,  you  used  a  constructed spell from  the Wizard's Keep and  simply
ignited it among my men with some  kind of trick,  or trigger--probably some
small curiosity that one of them picked up and in  the act of having a look,
they set it off."
     Zedd was  somewhat alarmed that Jagang had been  able to learn so much.
The  emperor took  a big bite off the end of the piece of ham as  he watched
them. His indulgent look was beginning to wear thin.
     "So, since  you can't do  such marvelous magic yourself, I've had a few
items brought from the Keep so you can tell me how they work, what they  do.
I'm  sure  there  must be  a great  number of  intriguing  items  among  the
inventory. I'd like  to have some  of those conjured spells so they can blow
open a few of the passes into D'Hara for us. It would save  me some time and
trouble. I'm sure you can understand my eagerness to be into D'Hara and have
this petty resistance finally over with."
     Zedd heaved a deep breath and finally spoke. "For most of those  items,
you could torture me to the end of time and I still wouldn't be able to tell
you anything because I don't have  any knowledge of them. Unlike you, I know
my own limits. I simply don't know what  such a spell  might look like. Even
if I did, that doesn't mean I would know how  to work it. I was simply lucky
with that one I used."
     "Maybe,  maybe, but you do know about some of the items. You are, after
all, as I hear  told, First Wizard; it is  your Keep. To claim ignorance  of
the things in it is hardly credible. Despite your claim of luck, you managed
to know enough about that constructed light web to ignite  it among  my men,
so you obviously have knowledge about the most powerful of the items."
     "You don't know the first thing about magic," Zedd snapped. "You have a
head full of grand ideas and you think all you have to do is command they be
done. Well, they can't. You're a fool who doesn't know the first thing about
real magic or its limits."
     An eyebrow lifted over one of Jagang's inky  eyes. "Oh, I think  I know
more than you might think, wizard. You see, I love to  read, and  I, well, I
have the advantage of perusing some of the most remarkably gifted minds  you
can imagine. I  probably know a great deal more about magic than you give me
credit for."
     "I give you credit for bold self-delusion."
     "Self-delusion?"  He spread his arms.  "Can you create a Slide,  Wizard
Zorander?"
     Zedd froze. Jagang  had heard the name;  that was all. The man liked to
read. He'd read that name somewhere.
     "Of course not, and neither can anyone else alive today."
     "You can't create such a  being, Wizard Zorander. But you have  no idea
how much I  know about magic.  You see, I've learned to bring  lost  talents
back to life--arts that have long been believed to be dead and vanished."
     "I  give you the grandiosity of your dreaming,  Jagang, but dreaming is
easy. Your dreams can't be made real just because  you dream them and decide
that you wish them to come alive."
     "Sister Tahirah, here, knows the truth of it." Jagang gestured with his
knife. "Tell him, darlin. Tell him what  I can dream and what I can bring to
life."
     The woman  hesitantly  stepped  forward  several paces. "It  is as  His
Excellency says."  She looked  away from Zedd's frown to  fuss with her wiry
gray hair. "With His Excellency's brilliant direction, we were able to bring
back some of the old knowledge. With  the expert guidance of our emperor, we
were able to invest in a  wizard  named Nicholas an  ability not seen in the
world  for three  thousand  years. It is one  of  His Excellency's  greatest
achievements. I can personally assure you that it is as His Excellency says;
a Slide  again walks the  world.  It is no  fancy, Wizard Zorander,  but the
truth.
     "The spirits help me," she  added under her breath, "I was there to see
the Slide born into the world."
     "You created a Slide?" Fists still bound behind his back, Zedd  took an
angry stride  toward  the Sister. "Are  you out of  your  mind,  woman!" She
retreated to the  back wall. Zedd turned his fury  on Jagang. "Slides were a
catastrophe! They can't be controlled! You would have to be crazy to  create
one!"
     Jagang  smiled.  "Jealous, wizard?  Jealous  that  you  are  unable  to
accomplish such a thing, can't create such a weapon against me,  while I can
create one to take Richard Rahl and his wife from you?"
     "A Slide has powers you couldn't possibly control."
     "A Slide is  no danger to  a  dream  walker. My ability is quicker than
his. I am his better."
     "It  doesn't matter how  quick  you are--it isn't about being quick!  A
Slide can't be controlled and he isn't going to do what you want!"
     "I seem to be controlling him just fine." Jagang leaned in on an elbow.
"You think magic is necessary to control those you would master, but I don't
need magic. Not with Nicholas nor with mankind.
     "You seem to be obsessed with control,  I am not.  I  managed to find a
people those like you didn't want  to walk  freely among their fellow man, a
people cast out by the gifted, a people reviled for not having  any spark of
your precious gift of magic--a  people hated  and banished because your kind
wasn't able to control them. That was their crime: being outside the control
of your magic."
     Jagang's  fist slammed  the table.  The  slaves  all  jumped  with  the
platters.
     "This is how  your kind wants mankind's  future to be;  your kind wants
only those with a spark of the gift to be allowed to walk free. This, so you
can use  your gift to control  them! Like that collar around your neck, your
lust is to collar all of mankind with magic.
     "I  found those outcast ungifted people and have brought them back into
the fold of their fellow man. Much  to your disapproval and the  loathing of
your kind, they can't be touched by your vile magic."
     Zedd couldn't imagine where Jagang  had found such people.  "And so now
you have a Slide to control them for you."
     "Your kind condemned and banished them; we have welcomed them among us.
In  fact, we wish to model man himself after  them. Our cause  is theirs  by
their very nature--purity of mankind without any taint of magic. In this way
the world will be one and at last at peace.
     "I  have the advantage  over you,  wizard; I  have right on  my side. I
don't need magic to win; you do. I have  mankind's  best future  in mind and
have set our irreversible course.
     "With  the help of these people, I  took your Keep. With their  help, I
have recovered invaluable treasures  from within. You couldn't do a thing to
stop them, now could you? Man will now set his own course, without the curse
of magic darkening his struggle.
     "I  now have a Slide to  help  us to that noble end. He is working with
those people for the benefit of our cause. In doing so, Nicholas has already
proved invaluable.
     "What's  more, that  Slide, which  your  kind could  never control, has
vowed to deliver to me the  two I  want most:  your grandson and his wife. I
have  great things planned  for them--well, for  her, anyway." His red-faced
rage melted into a grin. "For him, not so great things."
     Zedd could  hardly contain his  own rage.  Were it not for  the  collar
stifling his gift, he would have reduced the entire place to ash by now.
     "Once this Nicholas becomes adept at what he can do, you will find that
he will want revenge of his own, and a price you may find far too high."
     Jagang  spread  his arms. "There, you  are wrong, wizard. I  can afford
whatever Nicholas wants for Lord  Rahl and the Mother Confessor. There is no
such thing as a price too high.
     "You may think me greedy  and selfish, but you would be  wrong. While I
enjoy  the spoils,  I  most relish  the role  I play in bringing heathens to
heel.  It  is the end  that  truly concerns  me, and in  the end I will have
mankind bow as they should to our just cause and the Creator's ways."
     Jagang seemed to have spent his flash of intensity. He  leaned back and
scooped walnuts from a silver bowl.
     "Zedd be wrong,"  Adie finally  spoke  up. "You have  shown us that you
know what you be doing. You will  be able  to  control your Slide just fine.
May I suggest you keep him close, to aid you in your efforts."
     Jagang  smiled  at her. "You, too,  my dried-up old sorceress, will  be
telling me all you know about what is in those crates."
     "Bah," Adie scoffed. "You be a  fool  with  worthless treasures. I hope
you pull a muscle carrying them with you everywhere."
     "Adie's  right," Zedd put in. "You are an incompetent  oaf who  is only
going to--"
     "Oh, come, come, you two.  Do you think you will throw me into a fit of
rage  and I'll  slaughter the  both of you on  the  spot?"  His  wicked grin
returned. "Spare you the proper justice of what is to come?"
     Zedd and Adie fell silent.
     "When I was a boy," Jagang said in a quieter tone as he stared off into
the distance, "I  was  nothing. A  street  tough in  Altur'Rang. A  bully. A
thief. My life was empty. My future was the next meal.
     "One day, I  saw  a man coming down the street. He looked like he might
have  some  money and I  wanted it. It was  getting dark. I came up silently
behind him,  intending to  bash in his head,  but just then  he  turned  and
looked me in the eye.
     "His smile stopped me in my tracks. It wasn't a kindly smile, or a weak
smile, but the kind of  smile a man gives  you when he knows he can kill you
where you stand if it pleases him.
     "He  pulled a coin from  his pocket and  flipped  it to  me, and  then,
without a word, turned and went on his way.
     "A few weeks later, in the middle of the night, I woke up  in an alley,
where I slept under old blankets and crates, and I saw a shadowy form out by
the street. I knew  it was him  before he flipped me the coin and moved  off
into the darkness.
     "The next time I  saw him, he was sitting  on a stone bench at the edge
of  an old  square  that  some  of  the less  fortunate  men  of  Altur'Rang
frequented. Like me, no  one would give these men a chance in life. People's
greed had  sucked the life out  of these men. I used to go there  to look at
them, to  tell myself I didn't want to grow up to be like them, but I knew I
would, a nobody, human refuse waiting to pass into the shadow of oblivion in
the afterlife. A soul without worth.
     "I sat down on the bench beside the man and asked him why he'd given me
money. Instead of  giving me some answer that most people would give a  boy,
he told me about  mankind's grand purpose, the meaning of  life, and how  we
are here only as a brief stop on  the way to what  the Creator has  in store
for us--if we are strong enough to rise to the challenge.
     "I'd never heard such a thing. I told him that I didn't think that such
things mattered  in my life because I  was only a thief. He said that I  was
only striking  back  from  the  injustice of my lot  in  life. He  said that
mankind was evil for making me the way  I was and only through sacrifice and
helping  those  like me could man hope to be redeemed in  the  afterlife. He
opened my mind to man's sinful ways.
     "Before he  left,  he turned back  and  asked me  if  I  knew  how long
eternity was. I said no.  He said  that our miserable time in this world was
but a blink before we entered the next world. That really made me think, for
the first time, about our greater purpose.
     "Over the next months, Brother Narev  took  the time to  talk to me, to
tell me about  Creation  and  eternity. He gave  me a  vision  of a possible
better  future where  before  I had  none. He taught me  about sacrifice and
redemption.  I  thought I  was  doomed to an eternity  of darkness  until he
showed me the light.
     "He took me in, in return for helping him with life's chores.
     "For me,  Brother Narev was a teacher, a priest, an advisor, a means to
salvation"--Jagang's gaze rose  to Zedd--"and a grandfather, all rolled into
one.
     "He  gave me the fire of  what mankind can and should be. He  showed me
the  true  sin of selfish greed and the  dark void  of  where  it would lead
mankind. Over time, he made me the  fist  of his vision. He was the  soul; I
was the bone and muscle.
     "Brother Narev allowed  me  the honor of  igniting  the  revolution. He
placed  me at  the  fore of  the  rise of  mankind over  the  oppression  of
sinfulness.  We are  the  new hope for the future of man, and  Brother Narev
himself allowed me to be the one to carry his vision in the cleansing flames
of mankind's redemption."
     Jagang  leaned  back in his  chair, fixing  Zedd with as grim a look as
Zedd had ever seen.
     "And then this spring, while carrying Brother  Narev's noble  challenge
to mankind,  to those who had never had  a chance to see the vision  of what
man can be,  of the future  without the blight  of magic  and oppression and
greed  and groveling to  be better  than others, I  came to Aydindril... and
what do I find?
     "Brother Narev's head  on a pike, with a note,  'Compliments of Richard
Rahl.'
     "The man I admired most in the world, the man who brought to us all the
hallowed dream of  mankind's  true purpose in  this  life as  charged by the
Creator himself, was dead, his head stuck on a pike by your grandson.
     "If ever there  was a  greater  blasphemy, a greater  crime against the
whole of mankind, I don't know of it."
     Sullen shapes shifted across Jagang's black eyes. "Richard Rahl will be
dealt justice. He will  suffer such a blow, before I send him to the Keeper.
I just  wanted  you to  know your fate,  old man.  Your grandson  will  know
something of that kind of pain, and the additional torment of knowing that I
have his bride and will make her pay dearly for her own crimes."  A ghost of
the grin returned. "After he has paid this price, then I will kill him."
     Zedd  yawned.  "Nice  story.  You  left  out all  the  parts  where you
slaughter innocent people by the  tens of  thousands because they don't want
to live under your vile rule or Narev's sick, twisted vision.
     "On second thought, don't bother  with the sorry excuses. Just  cut off
my head, put it on a pike, and be done with it."
     Jagang's smile returned in its  full glory. "Not as easily as that, old
man. First you have some talking to do."







        CHAPTER 38





     Ah, yes," Zedd said. "The torture. I almost forgot."
     "Torture?"
     With two fingers Jagang  signaled a woman to the side. The older Sister
standing  wringing  her  hands  flinched  at  seeing  his  gaze  on her  and
immediately rushed off  behind a  curtain of  wall hangings. Zedd could hear
her whispering urgent  instructions to people beyond, and then the thump  of
feet rushing across the carpets and out of the tent.
     Jagang went back to his leisurely meal while Zedd and Adie stood before
him,  starving,  dying of  thirst.  The dream walker  finally set  his knife
across a plate. Seeing this, the  slaves  sprang  into action, clearing away
the variety of dishes, most  having been tasted, but that hardly made a dent
in them. In a matter of moments the entire table was emptied of the food and
drink, leaving only the books, the scrolls, the candles, and the silver bowl
of walnuts.
     Sister Tahirah, the Sister who had captured  Zedd and Adie at the Keep,
stood to the side, her hands clasped before her as she watched them. Despite
her obvious  fear  of  Jagang, and  her  servile  fawning over the man,  the
knowing  smirk at Zedd and Adie betrayed the pleasure she  was deriving from
what was to come.
     When half a  dozen  grisly men  entered  the room and  stood off to the
side, Zedd began to understand what it was that pleased Sister Tahirah.
     They were unkempt, brawny, and as merciless-looking as any men Zedd had
ever  seen.  Their  hair  was  wildly tangled  and greasy.  Their  hands and
forearms  were  spattered with sooty  smears,  their fingernails  ragged and
foul. Their filthy clothes were stained dark with dried blood from the labor
of their profession.
     These men worked at torture.
     Zedd looked away from the Sister's steady gaze. She hoped  to see fear,
panic, or perhaps sobbing.
     Then  a group of men and  women  were  ushered into the dim room in the
emperor's tent. They  looked to be  farmers or humble working folk, probably
picked up  by patrols.  The men  embraced  their wives as  children  huddled
around the women's skirts  like  chicks around hens. The people were  herded
over to the side of the room, opposite the line of torturers.
     Zedd's  eyes suddenly turned to Jagang. The dream walker's  black  eyes
were watching him as he chewed a walnut.
     "Emperor,"  said the Sister who had brought the families in, "these are
some  of the  local people, people from the  countryside, as you requested."
She  held  an introductory hand  out.  "Good  people,  this is  our  revered
emperor,  Jagang the Just. He  brings the light of the Imperial Order to the
world, guided by the  Creator's  wisdom, that we might all lead better lives
and find salvation with the Creator in the afterlife."
     Jagang surveyed the cluster of Midlanders as they awkwardly  bowed  and
curtsied.
     Zedd felt sick at  seeing  the timid terror on their faces.  They would
have  had to walk through the encampment of Order soldiers. They would  have
seen the size of the force that had overrun their homeland.
     Jagang lifted his arm toward Zedd. "Perhaps you know this  man? This is
First  Wizard  Zorander.  He is one  who has ruled you  with his command  of
magic. As you can  see, he is now shackled before us. We have freed you from
the wicked rule of this man and those like him."
     The people's eyes darted between Zedd and Jagang,  unsure of their role
in the emperor's tent, or what they were supposed to do. They finally bobbed
their heads, mumbling their thanks for their liberation.
     "The gifted, like these two, could  have  used  their ability  to  help
mankind. Instead,  they  used  it for  themselves.  Where they  should  have
sacrificed for those in need, they were selfish. It is criminal to behave as
they have, live as they have, with all they have. It makes me angry to think
of all they  could do for those in need, those like you poor people, were it
not  for  their  selfish ways. People suffer  and die  without the help they
could have had, without the help  these  people could have  given, were they
not so self-centered.
     "This wizard and  his sorceress are here  because they have refused  to
help  us  free the  rest of the people of the  New World by  telling  us the
function   of  the  vile  things  of  magic  we  have  captured  along  with
them--things of  magic they  scheme  to use to  slaughter  untold numbers of
people. This  selfish  wizard and sorceress do  this out of  spite that they
could not have their way."
     All the wide eyes turned to Zedd and Adie.
     "I  could tell  you people  of  the vast numbers of  deaths this man is
responsible for, but I fear you would be unable to fathom it. I can tell you
that I simply cannot allow this man to be responsible for tens of  thousands
more deaths."
     Jagang smiled at the children then and gestured with both hands, urging
them to come to him. The children, a dozen or so, from six or seven to maybe
twelve, clung  to their  parents. Jagang's gaze rose to those parents  as he
again motioned  the  children  to come to him. The  parents  understood  and
reluctantly urged their children to do as the emperor bid of them.
     The clump of innocence  haltingly approached Jagang's outstretched arms
and  wide  grin. He embraced them woodenly as  they shuffled in close around
him. He tousled the blond hair of a boy, and then the straight sandy hair of
a girl. Several of the younger ones peered pleadingly back at parents before
cringing at  Jagang's  meaty hand  on  their backs, his  jovial pat on their
cheek.
     Silent terror hung thick in the air.
     It was as frightening a sight as Zedd had ever witnessed.
     "Well, now," the smiling emperor said, "let me get to the reason I have
called upon you people."
     His powerful arms gathered the children before him. As a Sister blocked
a boy wanting to return to his parents, Jagang put his huge hands on a young
girl's waist and set her upon  his  knee. The girl's  wide eyes stared up at
the  smiling face, the bald head,  but mostly at the  nightmare void of  the
dream walker's inky eyes.
     Jagang looked from the girl back  to the parents.  "You see, the wizard
and sorceress have  refused to offer their  help.  In order  to save a great
many lives, I must have  their cooperation. They must answer honestly all my
questions. They refuse. I'm hoping you good people can convince them to tell
us what  we need  to know in order to save the lives of a great many people,
and free a great many more from the oppression of their magic."
     Jagang  looked  toward the  row of men  standing  silently  against the
opposite wall. With a single tilt of his head, he commanded them forward.
     "What are  you doing?"  a woman  asked,  even as  her  husband tried to
restrain her. "What do you intend?"
     "What I intend,"  Jagang  told the crowd of parents, "is  for you  good
people to  convince the wizard and the sorceress  to talk.  I'm going to put
you in a tent alone with them so that you can persuade them to do their duty
to mankind--persuade them to cooperate with us."
     As  the  men began  seizing  the children,  they  finally  burst out in
frightened crying.  The parents, seeing their red-faced  children bawling in
terror, cried  out themselves and rushed forward to retrieve them.  The  big
men, each holding one or two little arms in a fist, shoved the parents back.
     The parents fell to hysterical screaming for the children to be freed.
     "I'm sorry,  but I can't do  that," Jagang said over  the wails of  the
children. He tilted his head again and the men started carting the twisting,
screaming children out of the tent. The parents were wailing as well, trying
to reach in past  big filthy arms to touch what was to them most precious in
the world.
     The parents were bewildered and horrified, fearing to cross a line that
would bring wrath down on their children, yet not  wanting them to be carted
away. Against their urgent pleading, the children were swiftly whisked away.
     As  the  children were  taken out, the  Sisters immediately blocked the
doorway behind them, keeping the  parents from  following. The  tent fell to
pandemonium.
     With the single word "silence" from Jagang, and his fist on the  table,
everyone fell silent.
     "Now," Jagang said, "these two  prisoners are going to be confined to a
tent. All of you are going to be in there, alone, with  them. There  will be
no guards, no watchers."
     "But what about our  children?" a woman in tears begged, caring nothing
about Zedd and Adie.
     Jagang pulled a squat candle toward him on the table. "This will be the
tent with these two, and you  good  people." He circled a  finger around the
candle. "All  around  this tent with you and the  criminals, there  will  be
other tents close."
     Everyone stared at his ringed finger  going round and round the candle.
"Your  children will  be close  by, in  these  tents."  Jagang scooped  up a
handful of walnuts  from the silver bowl. He  dribbled  some onto the  table
around the candle and put the rest into his mouth.
     The room  was silent as they all stared at him, watching  him chew  the
walnuts, afraid to ask a question, afraid to hear what he might say next.
     Finally  a  woman could  no longer hold her tongue.  "Why will  they be
there, in those tents?"
     Jagang's black eyes took  them all in before he spoke, making sure none
would miss what he had to tell them.
     "Those  men  who  took your children to those tents  will be  torturing
them."
     The  parents' eyes widened. Blood drained from their  faces. One  woman
fainted. Several  others bent to  her.  Sister  Tahirah squatted beside  the
woman and  touched a hand to  the woman's forehead. The woman's eyes  popped
open. The Sister told the women to get her to her feet.
     When Jagang was satisfied that  he had everyone's attention, he circled
a  finger around  the candle again, over the walnuts  around it. "The  tents
will  be  close  around so  you  can  all clearly hear your  children  being
tortured, to be sure that  you understand that  they will not be spared  the
worst those men can do."
     The  parents stood frozen, staring,  seemingly  unable  to believe  the
reality of what they were hearing.
     "Every few hours, I will come to  see if you good people have convinced
the wizard and the  sorceress  to tell  us what we need to know. If you have
not succeeded, then I will go off to other business and when I have the time
I will return again to check if these two have decided to talk.
     "Just  be  sure that this wizard and sorceress  do  not  die while  you
convince  them  to be reasonable. If they die, then  they can't  answer  our
questions.  Only  when  and  if they answer questions will  the  children be
released."
     Jagang turned his nightmare  eyes on Zedd. "My men have a great deal of
experience at torturing people. When  you hear  the  screams coming from the
tents  all around,  you  will  have no doubt as to  their  skill,  or  their
determination. I think you should know that they can keep their guests alive
under torture for days, but they  cannot  work  miracles. People, especially
such young, tender  souls, cannot  survive  indefinitely.  But, should these
children die before  you agree to cooperate,  there are plenty more families
with children who can take their place."
     Zedd could  not halt the tears  that ran down his face to drip  off his
chin as Sister Tahirah took his arm and pulled  him toward  the doorway. The
crowd of parents  fell on him, clawing at his  clothes, screaming and crying
for him to do as the emperor asked.
     Zedd  dug  in his heels  and struggled  to  a  stop  before  the table.
Desperate  hands clutched  at his  robes.  As  he  looked  around  at  their
tear-stained faces, meeting the eyes of each, they fell silent.
     "I hope you people can now understand the  nature of what it is  we are
fighting. I am so  sorry, but I cannot dull the pain of this darkest hour of
your lives. If I were to do as this man wants, countless more children would
be subjected to this tyrant's brutality. I know that you will not be able to
weigh this against the precious lives of your children, but I must. Pray the
good spirits take them quickly, and take them to a place of eternal peace."
     Zedd could not  say more  to them, to their desperate  gazes. He turned
his watery eyes to  Jagang. "This will not work, Jagang. I know you will  do
it anyway, but it will not work."
     Behind the  heavy table, Jagang slowly  rose. "Children in this land of
yours are plentiful. How many are you prepared to sacrifice before you allow
mankind to be free? How long  are you willing to  persist in  your  stubborn
refusal to allow them to have a  future free from suffering, want,  and your
uninspired morals?"
     The heavy gold and silver chains around his neck, the looted medallions
and ornaments resting against his  muscled  chest, and the rings of kings on
his fingers all sparkled in the candlelight.
     Zedd  felt  the numb weight of a hopeless future under  the yoke of the
monstrous ideals of this man and his ilk.
     "You cannot win in this, wizard. Like all those who fight on  your side
to oppress mankind, to allow the common people to be left to cruel fate, you
are not even willing to sacrifice for the sake of the lives of children. You
are brave with words, but you have a cold soul and a  weak heart. You  don't
have the will to do what must be done to prevail. I do."
     Jagang tilted  his head and the Sister shoved Zedd toward the door. The
screaming, crying,  begging crowd of people  closed in around Zedd and Adie,
clawing and pawing at them in wild desperation.
     In  the distance,  Zedd  could  hear  the horrifying  screams of  their
terrified children





        CHAPTER 39


     They aren't far," Richard said as  he stepped back  in among the trees.
He  stood  silently  watching  as  Kahlan straightened the shoulders of  her
dress.
     The  dress showed no  ill effects  from  its long confinement  in their
packs. The  almost white, satiny smooth fabric  glistened in the eerie light
of the churning overcast. The flowing lines of the dress, cut square at  the
neck, bore  no lace or frills, nothing to distract from its simple elegance.
The sight of Kahlan in that dress still took his breath away.
     She looked  out through the trees  when they heard  Cara's whistle. The
warning  signal Richard  had  taught  Cara was the  plaintive,  high,  clear
whistle  of  a common wood pewee, although Cara didn't know  that's what  it
was. When he'd first told Cara  that he wanted to teach her a pewee birdcall
as a warning signal, she said she wasn't going to learn the call of any bird
named a pewee. Richard gave  in and told her that he would instead teach her
the call of the small, fierce, short-tailed pine hawk, but only if she would
be willing  to work  hard at getting it  right, since it was more difficult.
Satisfied  to have her  way, Cara had agreed and readily learned the  simple
whistle. She  was good at it  and  used it  often as a signal. Richard never
told her that there was no  such thing as a short-tailed pine hawk, or  that
hawks didn't make whistles like that.
     Out through the screen of  branches, the  dark form of the statue stood
guard  over an area of  the  pass  that  for  thousands  of  years had  been
deserted.  Richard  wondered again why the people back  then would have  put
such a statue in a pass no one  was likely to ever  again visit.  He thought
about the  ancient society that  had  placed  it, and at what they must have
thought, sealing  people away  for the crime of not having  a  spark  of the
gift.
     Richard brushed  pine needles  off  the back of  the sleeve of