The girl brushed her dark hair back from her face. She hesitated, then answered. "She is holding my grandfather captive. She said that if I didn't do as she said, then she would kill him."

Ulicia smiled the way Kahlan imagined a snake would smile, if a snake could smile. "Well, well. I guess you really do know Tovi. Where is she, then?"

Kahlan pushed herself up on an arm. The girl pointed toward the headland. "There. She is in a place with old books. She made me show her where the books were kept. She told me to guide you to her."

Sister Ulicia shared a look with the other two. "Perhaps she's already located the central site in Caska."

Sister Armina cackled with relief as she jovially clapped Sister Cecilia on the back of the shoulder. Sister Cecilia returned the gesture in kind.

"How far is it?" Sister Ulicia asked, suddenly eager.

"It will take all of two days, maybe three, if we leave at first light in the morning."

Sister Ulicia peered off into the darkness for a moment. "Two or three days…" She turned back. "What's your name?"

"Jillian."

Sister Ulicia kicked Kahlan in the side, the unexpected blow rolling her off the girl. "Well, Jillian, you can have Kahlan's bedroll. She won't be needing it. She's going to stand for the night as punishment."

"Please," Jillian said as she laid a hand on Kahlan's arm, "if not for her, you would now be without a guide to the place where Tovi is. Please don't punish her. She did you a favor."

Sister Ulicia considered a moment. "I'll tell you what, Jillian. Since you spoke up for our disobedient slave, I'll let you make sure that she doesn't sit down during the night. If she does disobey us, I will give her a beating that will leave her with a painful limp for the rest of her life. But you can prevent that by making sure she stands the entire night. What do you think of that?"

Jillian swallowed, but didn't answer.

Sister Ulicia snatched Kahlan by the hair and hauled her to her feet. "Make sure she stays on her feet, or what we do to her will be your fault for not making sure that she did as she was told. Understand?"

Jillian, her copper-colored eyes wide, nodded.

Sister Ulicia smiled a sly smile. "Good." She turned to the other two. "Come on. Let's get some sleep."

After they had gone, Kahlan gently laid a hand on the top of the head of the girl sitting at her feet.

"Glad to meet you, Jillian," Kahlan whispered so that the Sisters wouldn't hear.

Jillian smiled up at her, and whispered. "Thank you for protecting me. Your promise was true." She gently took Kahlan's hand and held it to her cheek for a moment. "You are the bravest person I've seen since Richard."

"Richard?"

"Richard Rahl. He was here before. He saved my grandfather, before, but now…"

Jillian's voice trailed off as she looked away from Kahlan's gaze. Kahlan gently stroked the girl's head, hoping to comfort her heartache for her grandfather. She gestured, pointing with her chin.

"Go in that saddlebag, there, Jillian, and get yourself something to eat." She was trembling from the pain, and wanted very much to lie down, but Kahlan knew that Sister Ulicia had not made an empty threat. "Then if you would, please… just sit with me for the night? I could use a friend tonight."

Jillian smiled up at her. It warmed Kahlan's heart to see such a sincere smile.

"In the morning you will have another friend to join us." When Kahlan twitched a frown, Jillian pointed up at the sky. "I have a raven, named Lokey. In the day he will come and entertain us with some of his tricks."

Kahlan smiled at the very idea of having a raven for a friend.

The girl squeezed Kahlan's hand. "I won't leave you tonight, Kahlan. I promise."

As much agony as she was in, as bleak as her future seemed, Kahlan was joyous. Jillian was alive. Kahlan had just won her first battle, and that accomplishment was exhilarating.

As he walked among the gathered soldiers, Richard acknowledged their greetings with a smile and a nod. He was in no mood to smile, but he feared that the men would misunderstand it if he didn't. Their eyes were filled with expectation and hope as they watched him make his way among them. Many a man stood silently with a fist over his heart, not just in salute but in pride. Richard could not begin to explain to each of these men the horrific things Shota had shown him, and so he smiled as warmly as he was able.

Beyond the encampment, lightning flickered at the horizon. Even over the sounds of camp life, the thousands of men and horses, of the ring of blacksmiths' hammers, the unloading of supplies, the provisions being distributed, the orders being shouted, Richard could hear the lightning's ominous rumble rolling along the Azrith Plain. Angry thunderclouds gathered an ever-growing charge of black shadows under their skirts. The still, humid air was occasionally aroused by gusts that lifted flags and pennants to flapping attention. Almost as soon as it arrived, the wind would suddenly vanish, like an advance guard racing back to report to the gathering storm.

No one seemed to care about the threatening sky, though. They all wanted to get a glimpse of Richard as he made his way through the encampment. There was a time when this very army was bound and determined to kill or capture him. But that was before Richard had become the Lord Rahl.

Once he had taken on that responsibility, he had given these men the chance to stand for a worthy cause, rather than carry arms in service to tyranny. There had been some who had viewed that offer with open hatred. They turned instead to the cause of the Order and swept across the land with blind brutality, seeking to exterminate the very idea that any man had a right to his own life.

But the rest of them, most of them in fact, had not just taken up Richard's challenge, they had embraced it with the kind of fervor that only men who had lived under repression could. These men, the first in generations to be offered real freedom, truly grasped its meaning for their lives. They held on tenaciously to the chance to live in the kind of world Richard had shown them was possible. There was no greater nor more meaningful a gift these men could in turn give their families and loved ones than that chance to live life free, to live for themselves. Many had died in that noble effort.

Much the same as the Mord-Sith, these men followed him now because they chose to, not because they were forced to. When they called him "Lord Rahl" it had meaning to them that it had never carried before.

But these men now faced the edged steel that enforced a belief that said they and their loved ones had no right to their own lives. Richard did not doubt the hearts of these men, but he knew that they could not prevail in a battle against the vast numbers of Imperial Order invaders. This day of all days, he had to be the Lord Rahl. If there was to be a chance at a future worth living, Richard had to be the Lord Rahl in the purest sense, the Lord Rahl who cared about those he led. He had to make them see what he saw.

Verna, hurrying along beside him, tightened her grip on his arm as she leaned a little closer. "You can't imagine how uplifting it is for these men to see you before the battle they will be facing, Richard, the battle that prophecy has been foretelling for thousands of years. You just can't imagine."

Richard doubted that the men could imagine what he was about to ask of them.

He glanced over at Verna's smile. "I know, Prelate."

Because they were steadily making headway south to meet the threat from the Imperial Order, the ride from the People's Palace to catch up with them had taken considerably longer than the last time he had come to see these soldiers. Once the Order turned north up into D'Hara, this army was all that stood against them. These men were the last hope of the D'Haran Empire. That was their calling, their duty.