Richard clasped his hands behind his back. "How is it, Shota, that you weren't aware that Samuel was going to leave you? I mean, considering your power, vast knowledge, and all that business you've explained to me about how a witch woman can see the way that events flow forward in time. For that matter, how was he able to do so without your consent?"

Shota did not shrink from the question. "There is only one way."

Richard bit back the sarcastic remark that came to mind and instead asked, "And what would that be?"

"Samuel has been bewitched."

Richard wasn't sure that he'd heard her correctly. "Bewitched. But you're the witch woman. You're the one who does the bewitching."

Shota clasped her hands, looking down at the floor a moment as she folded her fingers together. "He was bewitched by another."

Richard descended the five steps. "Another witch woman?"

"Yes."

Richard took a deep breath as he glanced around to see the others sharing troubled looks. No one appeared inclined to ask, so he did. "You mean to say that there is another witch woman around, and she bewitched Samuel away from you?"

"I thought that I had made that perfectly clear."

"Well… where is she?"

"I have no idea. Certain issues in the flow of time are my business — I have seen to it. For me to be this blind to events that eddy so tightly through my purview can only mean that another witch woman has deliberately occulted those flows from me."

Richard stuffed his hands in his back pockets as he tried to reason it out. He paced briefly before turning back to her.

"Maybe it wasn't a witch woman. Maybe it was a Sister of the Dark or someone like that. A gifted person. Maybe even a wizard. Jagang has those, too."

"To manipulate a witch woman in an insignificant way is far from an easy task." She shot a brief glare up at Zedd. "Ask your grandfather."

Shota gestured around at some of the people in the room before her gaze returned to Richard. "A gifted person, even such as these, no matter how talented, could not begin to achieve a deception as comprehensive as this one has been. Only another witch woman could slip herself unseen into my domain. Only another witch woman could draw a shroud over my vision and then bewitch Samuel into doing what he has done."

"If your vision is shrouded," Cara asked, "how can you be so certain that Samuel has been bewitched? Maybe he was acting on his own. From what I've seen of him, he needs no mysterious enchantress to coax him into impulsive behavior. He seemed plenty treacherous all on his own."

Shota slowly shook her head. "You have only to look at what you've told me to see that this involves not simply cunning but knowledge beyond Samuel's ability. A Sister of the Dark was attacked; a box of Orden was stolen from her. In the first place, how would Samuel be aware that this woman had anything valuable? I didn't know of her myself because that is part of what has been hidden from me, so I couldn't have told him — not even absently, carelessly, or inadvertently, which is what you're thinking. So, Samuel didn't learn of it from me. If he happened across a treasure of some sort there is no doubt that Samuel is fully capable of doing whatever he could to snatch it, that much I concede."

"You mean the way he acquired the Sword of Truth in the first place?" Zedd asked.

Shota met his gaze briefly but chose to return to the matter at hand rather than confront the challenge. "Secondly, how would Samuel know where he could find a Sister carrying a box of Orden? You can't seriously mean to suggest that you think he simply was wandering around — way off in D'Hara — and by chance happened across this very Sister of the Dark, stabbed her, and robbed her of what she was carrying only to have it turn out to be one of the boxes of Orden?"

"I have to admit," Richard said, "I never have much believed in coincidence. It certainly doesn't seem plausible in this case, either."

"My thoughts, exactly," Shota said. "And then there's Chase. Due to his grave condition I wasn't able to learn much from him, but I was able to discover that he had been ambushed. Another coincidence — Samuel happening across and randomly attacking someone and it just happens to be someone else you know? I hardly think so. That leaves the question of why Samuel would be lying in wait for a man you know. Why would he attack him? What thing of value did Chase have?"

"Rachel," Zedd answered as he stared off, rubbing his chin in thought.

"But what would he want with a girl?" Cara asked. When several people glanced her way with troubled looks, she added, "I mean, that girl in particular?"

"I don't know," Shota said. "And that's the problem. As I've said, the events surrounding all of this are blocked to me, but blocked in a way that I didn't recognize, so I was unaware that anything was being hidden. It's obvious that there is a hand directing Samuel. That hand could only be another witch woman's."

"Do you know her?" Richard asked. "Do you know who it is, or who she might be?"

Shota regarded him with as forbidding a look as he had ever seen grace such feminine features. "She is a complete mystery to me."

"Where did she come from? Do you have any idea about that much of it?"

Shota's scowl only darkened. "Oh, I think I do. I believe she came up from the Old World. When you destroyed the great barrier several years back she no doubt saw an opportunity and moved into my territory — in much the same way that the Imperial Order saw an opportunity to invade and conquer the New World. By bewitching Samuel she is sending a message that she is taking my place, taking what is mine — including my territory — as her own."

Richard turned toward Ann, off at the side of the anteroom. "Do you know of a witch woman in the Old World?"

"I ran the Palace of the Prophets, guiding young wizards and a whole palace full of Sisters toward the way of the Light. I paid great heed to prophecy in that task but, other than prophecy, I didn't really involve myself in the goings-on in the rest the Old World. From time to time I heard vague rumors of witch women, but nothing more than rumors. If she was real, she never stuck her head up for me to know of her."

"I never knew anything of a witch woman, either," Nathan added with a sigh. "I never even heard the rumors of such a woman."

Shota folded her arms. "We're a rather secretive lot."

Richard wished he knew more about such things — although knowing one witch woman had proven on more than one occasion to be trouble enough. It seemed that there might now be twice the trouble.

"Her name is Six," Nicci said into the quiet anteroom.

Everyone turned to stare at her.

Shota's brow drew down. "What did you say?"

"The witch woman down in the Old World. Her name is Six, like the number." Nicci's expression had that cool absence of emotion again, her features as still as a woodland pond at dawn after the first hard freeze of the season. "I never met her, but the Sisters of the Dark spoke of her in hushed tones."

"It would be those Sisters," Ann grumbled.

Shota's arms slowly dropped to her sides as she took a step away from the fountain, toward where Nicci stood on the expanse of marble floor at the top of the steps. "What do you know of her?"

"Nothing much. I've only heard her name, Six. I only remember it because it was unusual. Some of my superiors at the time — my Sisters of the Dark superiors — apparently did know her. I heard her name mentioned several times."

Shota's countenance had turned as dark and dangerous as that of a viper with its fangs bared. "What were Sisters of the Dark doing with a witch woman?"

"I don't really know," Nicci said. "They may have had dealings with her, but if they did I never knew about it. I wasn't always included in their schemes. It may be that they only knew of her. It's possible they never even met her."