Pillars of Creation

by Terry Goodkind

  Jennsen's nose wrinkled at a foul smell. She looked up to see the head, so perfect only moments before, beginning to putrefy before her very eyes. The flesh sagged heavily. The bottom eyelids drooped, revealing their red undersides. The jaw sank. The thin line of the mouth opened, almost looking as if the head were letting out a scream.

  Jennsen, along with everyone else, including Emperor Jagang, took a step back as the flesh of the face decayed in sudden ghastly ruptures, revealing festering tissue beneath. The tongue swelled as the jaw dropped lower. The eyeballs sank forward out of their sockets as they shriveled. Reeking flesh fell away in clumps.

  What would have been long months of decomposition took place in a matter of seconds, leaving the skull beneath that creased cap grinning at them through tattered bits of hanging flesh.

  "It had a web of magic around it, Excellency," Sister Perdita said, almost sounding as if she were answering a question unspoken. Jennsen hadn't heard her come up behind them. "The spell preserved it in that condition until you pulled the note from the cap, triggering the dissolution of the magic preserving it. Once that magic was withdrawn, the ... remains went through the decomposition that would ordinarily have taken place."

  Emperor Jagang was staring at her with cold dark eyes. What he might be thinking, Jennsen couldn't be sure, but she could see the fury building within those nightmare eyes.

  "It was a very complex and powerful ward that preserved it until the right person touched it-to pull the note free," Sister Perdita said in a quiet voice. "The ward was likely keyed to your touch, Excellency."

  For a long, terrifying moment, Jennsen feared that Emperor Jagang might suddenly swing his sword with a wild cry and behead the woman.

  To the side, an officer suddenly pointed up at the Confessors' Palace.

  "Look! It's her!"

  "Dear Creator," Sebastian whispered as he, too, looked up and saw someone in the window.

  Other men yelled that they saw her, too. Jennsen rose up on tiptoes, trying to see around the tall soldiers rushing forward, and the officers pointing, past the reflections on the glass, to the person she saw back within the dark interior. She shielded her eyes, trying to see better. Men whispered excitedly.

  "There!" another officer on the other side of Jagang cried out. "Look! It's Lord Rahl! There! It's Lord Rahl! "

  Jennsen froze from the jolt of those words. It didn't seem real. She ran the man's words through her mind again, so shocking were they to hear that she felt she had to check again if it really was what she thought she had heard.

  "There!" another man yelled. "Moving down that way! It's both of them! "

  "I see them," Jagang growled as he tracked the two fleeing figures in his black glare. "I'd recognize that bitch in the farthest reaches of the underworld. And there! -Lord Rahl is with her!"

  Jennsen could catch only fleeting flashes of two figures racing away past windows.

  Emperor Jagang sliced the air with his sword, signaling his men. "Surround the palace so they can't escape!" He turned to his officers. "I want the assault company to come with me! And a dozen Sisters! Sister Perdita-stay with the Sisters out here. Don't let anyone get by you!"

  His gaze sought Sebastian and Jennsen. When he found them among those standing close he fixed Jennsen in his hot glare.

  "If you want your chance, girl, then come with me!"

  Jennsen realized, as she and Sebastian raced away after Emperor Jagang, that she had her knife clenched in her fist.

  Close on Jagang's heels, in the shadows of towering marble columns, Jennsen raced up the wide expanse of white marble steps. Sebastian's reassuring hand was on the small of her back the whole way. Fierce determination etched the faces of the savage men bounding up the steps all around her.

  The men of the assault company, sheathed in layers of leather armor, chain mail, and tough hides, wielded short swords, huge crescent axes, or wicked flails in one hand, while on their other arm they all carried round metal shields for protection, but the shields were also set with long center spikes to make them weapons as well. The men were even swathed with belts and straps set with sharpened studs to make grappling with them in hand-to-hand combat treacherous, at best. Jennsen couldn't imagine anyone with the nerve to go against such vicious men.

  Storming up the steps, the burly soldiers growled like animals, crashing through the carved double doors as if they were made of sticks, never checking to see if the doors might be unlocked. Jennsen shielded her face with an arm as she flew through the shower of splintered wood fragments.

  The thunder of the men's boots echoed through the grand hall inside. Tall windows of pale blue glass set between polished white marble pillars threw slashes of light across the marble floor where the assault force stormed through. Men hooked the marble railing with big hands and

  swooped up the first stairway, going for the upper floors where they had seen the Mother Confessor and Lord Rahl. The sound of the soldiers' boots on stone echoed up through the high-ceilinged stairwell decorated with ornate moldings.

  Jennsen couldn't help being wildly excited that this might be the day it all ended. She was but one mighty thrust of her knife from freedom. She was the one to do it. She was the only one who could. She was invincible.

  The fact that she was going to kill a man was only dimly important to her. As she raced up the steps, she thought only about the horror Lord Rahl had brought to her life and the lives of others. Filled with righteous rage, she intended to end it once and for all.

  Sebastian, racing right along with her, had his sword out. A dozen of the big brutes were in front of her, led by Emperor Jagang himself. Behind were hundreds more of the grim assault force, all determined to deliver merciless violence to the enemy. Between her and those charging soldiers behind, Sisters of the Light ran up the steps, without weapons but for their gift.

  At the top of the flight of stairs, they all bunched to a halt on a slick oak floor. Emperor Jagang looked both ways down the hall.

  One of the panting Sisters pushed through the men. "Excellency! This makes no sense!"

  His only answer was a glare as he caught his breath, before his gaze moved, searching for his prey.

  "Excellency," the Sister insisted, if more quietly, "why would two people-so important to their cause-be alone here in the palace? Alone without even a guard at the door? It doesn't make sense. They would not be here alone."

  Jennsen, as much as she wanted Lord Rahl under her knife, had to agree. It made no sense.

  "Who says they're alone?" Jagang asked. "Do you sense any conjuring of magic?"

  He was right, of course. They might go through a door and encounter a surprise of a thousand swords waiting for them. But that chance seemed remote. It seemed more logical that a protecting force, if there was one here, would not have wanted to allow them to all get inside.

  "No," the Sister answered. "I sense no magic. But that doesn't mean it can't be called in an instant. Excellency, you are endangering yourself needlessly. This is dangerous to go chasing after such people when there are so many things about it that make no sense."

  She stopped short of calling it foolish. Jagang, seeming to pay minimal

  attention to the Sister as she spoke, signaled to his men, sending a dozen racing off in each direction down the hall. A snap of his fingers and a quick gesture sent a Sister with each group.

  "You're thinking like a green army officer," Jagang said to the Sister. "The Mother Confessor is far more sly and ten times as cunning as you give her credit for. She is smarter than to think in such simple terms. You've seen some of the things she's pulled off. I'll not let her get away with this one."

  "Then, why would she and Lord Rahl be here alone?" Jennsen asked when she saw that the Sister feared to speak up further. "Why would they allow themselves to be so vulnerable?"

  "Where better to hide than in an empty city?" Jagang asked. "An empty palace? Any guards would tip us to their presence."

  "But why would they even hide he
re, of all places?"

  "Because they know that their cause is in jeopardy. They're cowards and want to evade capture. When people are desperate and in a panic, they often run for their home to hide in a place they know." Jagang hooked a thumb behind his belt as he analyzed the layout of halls around him. "This is her home. In the end, it's only their own hides that they think of, not that of their fellow man."

  Jennsen couldn't help herself from pressing, even as Sebastian was pulling her back, urging her to be quiet. She threw her arm out toward the expanse of windows. "Why would they allow themselves to be seen, then? If they're trying to hide, as you suggest, then why would they let themselves be spotted?"

  "They're evil!" He leveled his terrible eyes at her. "They wanted to watch me find Brother Narev's remains. They wanted to see me discover their profane and heinous butchery of a great man. They simply couldn't resist such sick delight!"

  "But-"

  "Let's go!" he called to his men.

  As the emperor charged off, Jennsen seized Sebastian's arm in exasperation, holding him back. "Do you really think it could be them? You're a strategist-do you honestly think that any of this makes sense?"

  He noted which way the emperor went, followed by a flood of men charging after him, then turned a heated glare on her.

  "Jennsen, you wanted Lord Rahl. This may be your chance."

  "But I don't see why-"

  "Don't argue with me! Who are you to think you know better!"

  "Sebastian, I-"

  "I don't have all the answers! That's why we're in here!"

  Jennsen swallowed past the lump in her throat. "I'm only worried for you, Sebastian, and Emperor Jagang. I don't want your heads to end up on the end of a pike, too."

  "In war, you must act, not only by careful plan, but when you see an opening. This is what war is like-in war people sometimes do stupid or even seemingly crazy things. Maybe she and Lord Rahl have simply done something stupid. You have to take advantage of an enemy's mistakes. In war, the winner is often the one who attacks no matter what and presses any advantage. There isn't always time to figure everything out."

  Jennsen could only stare up into his eyes. Who was she, a nobody, to try to tell an emperor's strategist how to fight a war?

  "Sebastian, I was only-"

  He snatched a fistful of her dress and yanked her close. His red face twisted in anger. "Are you really going to throw away what might turn out to be your only chance to avenge your mother's murder? How would you feel if Richard Rahl really is crazy enough to be here?-Or if he has some plan we can't even conceive of ?-And you just stand here arguing about it!"

  Jennsen was stunned. Could he be right? What if he was?

  "There they are!" came a cry from far down the hall. It was Jagang's voice. She saw him among a distant clot of his soldiers, pointing his sword as they all scrambled to turn a comer. "Get them! Get them!"

  Sebastian seized her arm, spun her around, and shoved her on down the hall. Jennsen caught her footing and ran with wild abandon. She felt ashamed for arguing with people who knew what war was all about when she didn't. Who did she think she was, anyway? She was a nobody. Great men had given her a chance, and she stood around on the doorstep of greatness, arguing about it. She felt a fool.

  As they ran past tall windows-the very windows where the Mother Confessor and Lord Rahl had only moments before been seensomething outside caught her eye. A collective groan went up from beyond the panes of glass. Jennsen slid to a stop, her hands out, gathering up Sebastian to stop him, too.

  "Look! "

  Sebastian glanced impatiently toward the others racing away, then stepped closer to look out the window as she shook her hand, frantically pointing.

  Tens of thousand of cavalry men had formed up into a huge battle line out across the palace grounds, stretching all the way down the hill, appearing to charge the enemy in a great battle. They all brandished swords, axes, and pikes as they rushed as a single mass, yelling bloodcurdling battle cries.

  Jennsen watched in stunned silence, seeing nothing yet for them to fight. Still, the men, raising a great cry, ran forward with weapons raised. She expected to see them run down the hill toward something out beyond the wall. Perhaps they could see an enemy approaching that she could not from her angle up in the palace.

  But then, in the middle of the grounds, with a mighty shock all along the line, there was a resounding crash as they met the wall of an enemy that was not there.

  Jennsen couldn't believe her eyes. Her mind groped to reconcile it, but the terrifying sight outside made no sense. She wouldn't have believed what she was seeing, were it not for the shock of sudden carnage. Bodies, man and horse, were rent open. Horses reared. Others went down, tumbling over broken legs. Men's heads and arms spun through the air, as if lopped off by sword and axe. All along the line, blood filled the air. Men were driven back by blows that exploded through their bodies. The dark and grimy force of Imperial Order cavalry was suddenly bright red in the muted daylight. The slaughter was so horrific that the green grass was left red in a swath down the hill.

  Where there had been battle cries, now there were piercing screams of appalling suffering and pain as men, hacked to pieces, limbs severed, mortally wounded, tried to drag themselves to safety. Out in that field, there was no such place, there was only confusion and death.

  Horrified, Jennsen looked up into Sebastian's baffled expression. Before either could say a word, the building shook as if struck by lightning. Following close on the heels of the thunderous boom, the hall filled with billowing smoke. Flames boiled toward them. Sebastian snatched her arm and dove with her into a side hall opposite the window.

  The blast roared down the hall, driving chunks of wood, whole chairs, and flaming drapery before it. Fragments of glass and metal shrieked by, slicing through walls.

  As soon as the smoke and flames had rolled past, Jennsen and Sebastian, both with weapons to hand, raced out into the hall, running in the direction Emperor Jagang had gone.

  Whatever questions or objections she had were forgotten-such ques-

  tions were suddenly irrelevant. It only mattered that-somehow-Richard Rahl was there. She had to stop him. This was finally her chance. The voice, too, urged her on. This time, she didn't try to put the voice down. This time, she let it fan the flames of her burning lust for vengeance. This time, she let it fill her with the overwhelming need to kill.

  They raced past tall doors lining the hall. Each of the deep-set windows that flashed by had a small window seat. The walls were faced with frame and panel wood painted a shade of white warmed with a bit of rose color to it. As they came to the intersection of corridors and rounded the corner, Jermsen didn't really notice the elegant silver reflector lamps centered in each of those panels; she saw only the bloody handprints smeared along the walls, the long splashes of blood on the polished oak floor, the disorderly tangle of still bodies.

  There were at least fifty of the burly assault soldiers scattered haphazardly down the hall, each burned, many ripped open by flying glass and splintered wood. Most of the faces weren't even unrecognizable as such. Shattered rib bones protruded from blood-soaked chain mail or leather. Along with the weapons that lay scattered, the hall was awash with gore and loose intestines, making it look like someone had spilled baskets of bloody dead eels.

  Among the bodies was a woman-one of the Sisters. She had been nearly torn in two, as had been a number of the men, her slashed face set in death with a fixed look of surprise.

  Jennsen gagged on the stench of blood, hardly able to draw a breath, as she followed Sebastian, jumping from one clear space to another, trying not to slip and fall on the human viscera. The horror of what Jennsen was seeing was so profound that it didn't register in her mind; at least, it didn't register emotionally. She simply acted, as if in a dream, not really able to consider what she was seeing.

  Once past the bodies, they followed a trail of blood down a maze of grand halls. The distant sound of men shouting
drifted back to them. Jennsen was at least relieved to hear the emperor's voice among them. They sounded like hounds locked on the scent of a fox, baying insistently, refusing to lose their prey.

  "Sir!" a man called from far back through a doorway to the side. "Sir! This way!"

  Sebastian paused to look at the man and his frantic hand signals, then pulled Jennsen into a resplendent room. Across a floor covered with an elegant carpet of gold and rust-colored diamond designs, past windows

  hung with gorgeous green draperies, a soldier stood at a doorway into another hall. There were couches like none Jennsen had ever seen, and tables and chairs with beautifully carved legs. While the room was elegant, it was not imposingly so, making it seem like a place where people might gather for casual conversations. She followed Sebastian as he ran for the soldier at the door on the opposite side of the room.

  "It's her!" the man called to Sebastian. "Hurry! It's her! I just saw her pass by!"

  The hulking soldier, still trying to catch his breath, sword hanging in his fist, peeked out the doorway again. Just before they reached him, as he peered down the hall, Jennsen heard a dull thump. The soldier dropped his sword and clutched at his chest, his eyes going wide, his mouth opening. He fell dead at their feet, no sign of any wound.

  Jennsen pushed Sebastian up against the wall before he could go through the doorway. She didn't want him encountering whatever had just dropped the soldier.

  Almost at the same time, from the way they had come, she heard the snapping hiss of something otherworldly. Jermsen dropped to the floor, stretching out over Sebastian, holding him against the edge of floor and wall, as if he were a child to be protected. She closed her eyes tight, crying out with fright at the thunderous blast behind her that shook the floor. A barrage of rubble shrieked through the room.

  When it finally went still and she opened her eyes, dust drifted through the destruction. The wall around them was peppered with holes. Somehow, she and Sebastian were not hurt. It only served to confirm what she already believed.