"In my eyes, too, because Richard gave it to me. I am his protector, as are you. In that way, we are sisters of the Agiel."

Cara smiled her approval.

"Does this mean that you'll follow our orders for a change?" Kahlan asked.

"We always follow your orders."

With a wry smile, Kahlan shook her head.

Cara nodded toward the man on the floor. "He will answer your questions, as I promised you before, Mother Confessor. I won't practice my skills on him any more than is necessary."

Kahlan squeezed Cara's arm in sorrow and sympathy for the warped role the woman's life had been twisted into by others. "Thank you, Cara."

Kahlan turned her attention to Marlin and the problem at hand. "Let's try it again. What were your plans?"

He glared up at her. Cara shoved him with a foot.

"You answer truthfully, or I'll start finding some nice, tender places for my Agiel. Understand?"

"Yes."

Cara squatted down, fanning her Agiel before his face. "Yes, Mistress Cara." The sudden threat in her tone seemed to annul everything she had just said. It frightened even Kahlan.

Wide-eyed, he swallowed. "Yes, Mistress Cara."

"That's better. Now, answer the Mother Confessor's question."

"My plans were as I told you: to kill Richard Rahl and you."

"How long ago did Jagang give you these orders?"

"Nearly two weeks."

Well, there was that. It could be that Jagang had been killed at the Palace of the Prophets when Richard destroyed it. That was what they had been hoping, anyway. Perhaps he had given the orders before he was killed.

"What else?" Kahlan asked.

"Nothing else. I was to use my talent to get in here and kill the both of you, that's all."

Cara landed a kick on his cracked rib. "Don't lie to us!"

Kahlan gently pushed Cara back and knelt beside the choking, gasping young man.

"Marlin, don't mistake my distaste for torture as a lack of resolve. If you don't start telling me what I want to know," she whispered, "I'm going to go for a long walk and then to dinner and I'm going to leave you in here all alone with Cara. Crazy as she is, I'll leave you alone with her. And then, when I come back, if you still think to hold out on me, I'm going to use my power on you, and you can't even imagine how much worse that will be. Cara can't even come close to what I can do; she can use your magic and your mind. I can destroy it. Is that what you want?"

He shook his head as he clutched his ribs. "Please," he begged, tears welling up again, "don't. I'll answer your questions… but I don't really know anything. Emperor Jagang comes to me in my dreams and tells me what to do. I know the cost of failure. I do as I'm told." He paused to gasp a sob. "He told me to… to come here and kill you both. He told me to find a soldier's uniform, and weapons, and to come kill you both. He uses wizards, and sorceresses, to do his bidding."

Kahlan stood, puzzling over Marlin's words. He seemed to have reverted to being hardly more than a boy. Something was missing, but she couldn't imagine what it could be. It made sense on the surface-Jagang sending an assassin-but something deeper didn't tally. She paced to the side table with the lamp and leaned a hip against it. With her back to Marlin, she rubbed her throbbing temples.

Cara inched close. "Are you all right?"

Kahlan nodded. "This worry is just giving me a headache, that's all."

"Maybe you could have Lord Rahl kiss it and make it better."

Kahlan chuckled silently at Cara's concerned frown. "That would work." She waved her hands in the air as if shooing a gnat, trying to chase away the doubts. "It doesn't make any sense."

"The dream walker trying to kill his enemy doesn't make sense?"

"Well, think about it." She glanced over her shoulder to see Marlin hugging his ribs and rocking on the floor. His eyes, even when they were filled with terror, and even, as now, when he wasn't looking her way, for some reason made her skin crawl. She turned back to Cara and lowered her voice. "Surely Jagang had to know that one man, even a wizard, would fail at such a task. Richard would recognize a man with the gift, and besides, there are too many people here who would be only too ready to kill an intruder."

"But still, with his gift, he might have a chance. Jagang wouldn't care if the man was killed. He has an abundance of others to do his bidding."

Kahlan's thoughts flicked about, trying to pick out the nettle of a reason behind her itching doubt.

"Even if he managed to kill some of them with his magic, there are still too many. A whole army of mriswith failed to kill Richard. He can recognize one with the gift, with magic, as a threat. He doesn't know how to command his magic, much as you don't understand how to control Marlin's, beyond giving him pain with it, but his guard would be up, at the least.

"This just doesn't make any sense. Jagang is far from stupid; there has to be more to it. He must have some plan to this. Something more than we're seeing."

Cara clasped her hands behind her back as she took a deep breath. She turned. "Marlin." His head came up, his eyes at attention. "What was Jagang's plan?"

"To have me kill Richard Rahl and the Mother Confessor."

"What else?" Kahlan asked. "What more was there to his plan?"

His eyes flooded. "I don't know. I swear. I told you as he ordered me. I was to get a soldier's uniform and weapons so I would look like I belonged and could get close. I was to kill you both."

Kahlan wiped a hand across her face. "We're not asking the right questions."

"I don't know what else there could be. He has admitted the worst of it. He told us his goal. What more could there be?"

"I don't know, but there's something still itching at me." Kahlan sighed in resignation. "Maybe Richard can reason this out. He is the Seeker of Truth, after all. He'll figure out what it means. Richard will know the right questions to ask so that…"

Kahlan's head suddenly came up, her eyes wide. She advanced a long stride toward the man on the floor.

"Marlin, did Jagang also tell you to announce yourself when you arrived?"

"Yes. Once inside the palace, I was to give my reason for being here."

Kahlan stiffened. She snatched Cara's arm and pulled her close while keeping her eyes on Marlin. "Maybe we shouldn't tell Richard about this. It's too dangerous."

"I have Marlin's power. He's helpless."

Kahlan's gaze darted about, hardly hearing what Cara had said. "We have to put him somewhere safe. This room won't do." She put a thumbnail between her teeth.

Cara frowned. "This room is as safe as anywhere. He can't get away. He's safe in here."

Kahlan took her thumb from her mouth as she stared at the man rocking on the floor.

"No. We have to find someplace safer. I think we've made a big mistake. I think we're in a lot of trouble."