"He one day convinced me of very much the same things you have just brought back to my attention. In fact, he used much the same reasoning as you have just used. I misjudged Nathan, just as I have misjudged you, Nicci. You have my apology, child, not just for this, but for so much more I have robbed you of."

Nicci shook her head. "No, don't apologize for my life. I made the choices I made. Everyone, to one extent or another, must face life's trials. There will always be those who try to influence or even dominate us. We cannot allow such things to be an excuse for making the wrong choices. Ultimately, each of us lives our own life and we are responsible for it."

Ann nodded. "The mistakes that we spoke of before." She laid a hand tenderly against Nicci's back. "But you have made amends for yours, child. You have come to be responsible for yourself. You have done good."

"While I've come to see the grievous errors in my thinking, and I've tried to correct my mistakes, I don't think that counts as amends, but I promise you, Ann, if Richard needs anything, he will have it from me. That is what a true friend would do."

Ann smiled. "I guess you really are his friend, Sister."

"Nicci."

Ann chuckled. "Nicci, then."

They walked in silence past a dozen torches. Nicci was relieved that Ann had finally understood. She supposed that one could never be too old to come to new understandings. She hoped that Ann truly did understand, and that this was not just another strategy, another way to wield her influence over events. Maybe Nathan had actually changed her, as Ann had suggested.

To Nicci, it felt sincere. It also felt like this had been a conversation with Ann that she had been waiting her whole life to have.

"Which reminds me," Ann said, "in regard to Nathan and the terrible thing I had intended for him just before he helped me come to my senses. There is something important I left down in the dungeons."

Nicci glanced over at her squat companion. "And what would that be?"

"I was intending-"

"Well, well, well," a voice said.

Nicci froze in place, looking up just in time to see three women step out of a hallway ahead and to the left.

Ann stared in confusion. "Sister Armina?"

Sister Armina wore a haughty smirk. "If it isn't the dead prelate-once again alive, it would seem." She lifted an eyebrow. "I believe we can remedy that problem."

Ann used her weight to pull Nicci behind her. "Run, child. It's upon you now to protect him."

There was no doubt in Nicci's mind who Ann meant.

Having been in countless deadly confrontations, Nicci knew that running right then Would be a fatal mistake. Instead, she fell back on instinct and lifted a hand over Ann's shoulder, summoning every bit of dark power she possessed. Nicci fully committed herself to visiting unrestrained violence upon the three women down the hall.

In the same bewildering instant that she felt the failure of that dynamic connection-and nothing happened-she realized that within the People's Palace her power was, for the most part, useless. The dead weight of dread descended on her.

From down the corridor lightning ignited. The sudden sound within the confines of the hall was deafening. The blazing light of it arcing through the white passageway nearly blinded her.

Dark ropes of inky blackness tangled with the flare of lightning, creating a snarling mix that cracked and popped where it touched. Sparks flew. The air burned. So black was the Subtractive element that it seemed like a void in existence. In effect, it was.

Marble covering the floor, ceiling, and walls ripped open in ragged rifts at the contact. Stone chips shot through the hall, ricocheting everywhere. Marble dust billowed as the air itself convulsed with the violence of the discharge of power. The concussion snuffed the light of several of the closer torches.

Despite her power being so diminished that the commitment of force failed, in that instant of connecting with her Han, Nicci still had enough use of her gift to feel the familiar shift in her perception of time.

Her arms and legs felt like lead. The world, within the tunnel of her vision, seemed to slow almost to a stop.

She could see every bit of stone tumbling as it flew toward her through the smoky passageway. She would have had ample time to have counted them all while suspended in midair. She could see each chip, flake, and speck rotating as it flew. All the while the lightning thrashed wildly, lashing ever so slowly back and forth, leaving a dazzling tracing of afterglow in Nicci's vision. The lightning blasted through stone wherever it touched.

At the same time as the world slowed, her mind raced, trying to think of a way to stop what was inexorably coming toward them. But there was nothing within her ability to conjure that could stop Additive and Subtractive Magic laced together in such a violent mix. The power of it cut through stone down to bedrock. The air itself sizzled.

As the rope of liquid light twisted unchecked across the passageway, Ann dove in front of Nicci. Nicci knew all too well what was coming. She knew the nature of the three woman facing them. She knew the sort of lethal power they had invoked.

With no time to scream a command, Nicci instead stretched out to grab the Prelate and throw her down out of harm's way. She caught the gray dress. Her fingers started the ever so slow labor of closing.

It was a race between getting a firm grip and the flickering lightning that seemed to be raging out of control. But Nicci knew that it wasn't really out of control.

The crackling discharge of power jumped sideways and slammed squarely into the short woman. The blinding flash ripped right through her, coming out her back. The impact was of such power that it yanked the Prelate from Nicci's tenuous grasp.

Ann's squat body crashed into the wall with enough force to crack the marble slab. Such an impact would certainly have broken nearly every bone in her body.

Nicci could see, though, that Annalina Aldurren had been dead before she'd hit the wall.

The lightning abruptly cut off. The clap of thunder left Nicci's ears ringing. The afterglow burned in her vision.

Ann, her dead eyes staring, slid to the floor and fell over face-first. A pool of blood grew under her, flooding across the white marble.

The three woman down the hall, like three vultures perched on a dead limb, stood shoulder-to-shoulder, watching Nicci.

Nicci knew how they had just accomplished what she could not: they had linked their power. She herself, when they had first been captured by Jagang, had linked her ability with Sisters of the Dark. The three of them had acted as one and by that means had just managed to use their power inside the palace.

What Nicci didn't know was how they had gotten in.

She expected that at any second the lightning would again ignite and she would suffer the same fate as Ann. There had been a time when she hadn't cared one way or the other if she died. Now she cared. She cared greatly. She regretted that she would not have the opportunity to fight back before the end. At least it would be swift.

Sister Armina smiled a wicked smile. "Nicci, dear. How good to see you again."

"Bad company you keep," said Sister Julia, standing close on Sister Armina's right.

A stocky Sister Greta, close on her left, glared.

All three were Sisters of the Dark. Sister Armina had been free of Jagang, along with Ulicia, Cecilia, and Tovi. On their own those four had ignited Chainfire, captured Kahlan, and put the boxes of Orden in play.

But Sisters Julia and Greta, whom Nicci also knew well, had long been captives of Jagang. Sister Armina being with the other two made no sense.