Once back inside, Nicci waited until Nathan pushed the heavy door closed against the cold night descending on the outside world.

"I need to go down to see Panis Rahl's tomb."

He looked back over his shoulder as he forced the latch into place. "So you said. Let's go, then."

As they started away, Ann hesitated. "I know how much you hate going down in that tomb," she said to Nathan as she caught his arm, bringing him to a halt. "Verna and Adie will be waiting. Perhaps you could see to that while I take Nicci down to the tomb."

Nathan cast her a suspicious look. He was about to say something when -Ann gave him a look of her own. He seemed to grasp her meaning.

"Yes, that's a good idea, my dear. Cara and I will go speak with Verna and Adie."

The leather of Cara's outfit creaked as she folded her arms. "I'll stay with Nicci. In Lord Rahl's absence it's my job to protect her."

"I really think that Berdine and Nyda would like to talk over some issues of palace security with you," Ann said. When Cara didn't look at all nclined to agree to the plan, Ann hastily added, "For when Richard gets back. They want to be certain that everything is being done to insure his security when he returns to the palace."

Nicci thought that there were few people as wary as a Mord-Sith. They seemed to be constantly suspicious and to assume the worst. Nicci could :ell that Ann simply wanted to speak with her alone. She didn't know why -he didn't just tell Cara that. She guessed that Ann probably wasn't convinced that such an approach would work.

Nicci placed a hand on the small of Cara's back and leaned toward her. "It's all right, Cara. Go on with Nathan and I'll join you shortly."

Cara looked from Nicci's eyes to Ann's. "Where?"

"You know the dining room between the Mord-Sith quarters and the devotion square beside the small grouping of trees?"

"Of course."

"That is where Verna and Adie are to meet us. We'll catch up with you there after Nicci has had her look at the tomb."

Only when Nicci gave Cara a nod did she finally agree.

As they started away, Nicci just caught a parting look that Ann gave Nathan. It was an intimate gaze warmed by a childlike smile, a look of shared understanding and affection. Nicci almost felt embarrassed to be witness to such a private moment. At the same time, it revealed a quality of both Ann and Nathan that she found captivating. It was the kind of simple thing that almost anyone who saw it would understand and appreciate.

The brief glimpse into their feelings gave Nicci a sense of comfort and peace. This was not just the prelate she had feared for so much of her life, but a woman who shared the same feelings, longings, and values as most anyone.

As they made their way back along the hallway while Nathan and Cara vanished down a stairwell, Nicci glanced over at Ann.

"You love him, don't you?"

Ann smiled. "Yes."

Nicci stared, unable to think of what to say.

"Surprised that I would admit it?" Ann asked.

"Yes," Nicci confessed.

Ann chuckled. "Well, I guess there would have been a time when I would have been surprised as well."

Nicci loosely intertwined her fingers. "When did all this happen?"

Ann stared off into memories. "Probably centuries ago. I was just too foolish, too caught up in being the Prelate, to recognize what was right there before me. Maybe I thought I had a duty which came first. But I think that's just an excuse for being a fool."

Nicci was struck dumb by such a frank admission from this woman.

A look of amusement overcame Ann when she saw the look on Nicci's face. "Shocked to find me human?"

Nicci smiled. "That's not a very flattering way to put it, but I guess that must be the heart of it."

They turned down a long flight of stairs with evenly spaced landings in the square stairwell descending through the palace. The railing all the way down was vinelike wrought iron, held in place by masterfully worked iron made to mimic leafy branches.

"Well," Ann sighed, "I guess that I, too, was shocked to find out that I was human. At the same time, at first anyway, it made me quite sad."

"Sad?" Nicci frowned. "Why?"

"Because I had to admit to myself that I had thrown away most of my life. I've been blessed by the Creator with a very long life, but I realized only as I approach the end of it that I had lived very little of that life." She looked up at Nicci as they reached a landing. "Doesn't it make you feel remorse to realize how much of your life you wasted without ever realizing what was really important about that life?"

Nicci swallowed back a pang of regret of her own as they reached the edge of a landing and started down the next flight of stairs. "We have that in common."

Together they listened in silence to the whisper of their footsteps as they made their way down the rest of the stairs. When they finally reached the bottom they took a broad hallway leading straight ahead rather than one of the passageways branching off to sides. The hallway carried the spiced scent from the evenly spaced oil lamps.

Cherrywood squares paneled the walls to each side, each panel separated by straw-colored draperies spaced at uniform intervals. Each set of draperies was swagged with a golden rope terminated with gold and black tassels. The reflector lamps hung in every other opening between the drapes lent the hall a warm glow.

In every other warmly paneled square hung a painting. Most were ornately framed, as if the works of art were beloved. Each painting had a panel to itself.

While the subject matter varied greatly, from a late-day mountain scene beside a lake, to a barnyard scene, to a towering waterfall, the thing that all the paintings had in common was an achingly beautiful use of light. The mountain lake sat between soaring mountains with light from beyond hazy mountains breaking through billowing, golden clouds. A shaft of that glorious light spilled across the shoreline. The forest all around fell back into a cozy darkness, while in the center, the distant couple standing on a rocky prominence were bathed in the warmth of the shaft of light.

In the barnyard scene the chickens scratched on stone pavers littered with straw and lit by an unseen source of muted light that, without the harsh touch of direct sunlight, made the whole painting all the more vibrant. Nicci had never before thought of a barnyard as beautiful, but this artist had seen the beauty in it, and brought it forth.

In the foreground of the painting with the towering waterfall spilling over a distant, lofty ridgeline, the arch of a natural stone bridge emerged from dark woods to either side. A couple faced each other across that bridge, backlit by the setting sun, which had turned the majestic mountains a deep purple. Standing in that light the two people had a nobility about them that was transfixing.

Nicci found it interesting to note that so much about the People's Palace was devoted to beauty. From the design of the interior, to the variety of stones used for the floors, stairs, and pillars, to the statues and artwork, the place seemed to be filled with a celebration of the beauty of life. Everything from the structure of the palace itself to its contents seemed intent on displaying the highest accomplishments of man. It was almost a setting dedicated to virtuosity meant to inspire.

What was perhaps even more intriguing was that these masterful paintings would be seen by few people. This was a private corridor, down in the depths of the palace on the way to the tombs of past leaders. It would be used almost exclusively by the Lord Rahl.

Some might see it as a display of greed, a private show of possessions, but that would be a mistake born of cynicism.