"Jagang has been sending Sisters scouting the passes all winter," the young general said. "The Prelate has laid traps and shields." His level of concern rose. "Are you telling us that one of them got through?"
"No, I'm telling you that I went hunting for them."
Verna frowned. "What are you talking about? We lost half a dozen Mord-Sith trying that. After you found the heads of two of your sister Mord-Sith mounted on pikes, the Mother Confessor herself ordered you to stop throwing their lives away on such useless missions."
Rikka at last smiled. It was the kind of satisfied smile, especially coming from a Mord-Sith, that tended to give people nightmares.
"Does this look useless?"
Rikka reached into her sack and pulled out a human head. Holding it by the hair, she brandished it in front of Verna's face. She turned, shook it at General Meiffert as well, and then plunked it down on the desk. Gore oozed out over the reports.
"Like I said, a Sister of the Dark."
Verna recognized the face, even as twisted in death as it was. Rikka was right, it was a Sister of the Dark. The question was, how did she know it was a Sister of the Dark, and not one of the Light?
Outside Verna could hear horses clopping past her tent. Some of the soldiers called out greetings to men returning from patrols. In the distance could be heard conversations and men issuing orders. Hammers on steel rang like bells as men worked hot metal into useful shapes for repairs to equipment. Nearby, horses frisked in a corral. As men made their way past Verna's tent, their gear jingled. Fires crackled as wood was added for the cooks or roared as bellows pumped to turn it white-hot for the blacksmiths.
"You touched her with your Agiel?" Verna asked in a quiet voice. "Your Agiel doesn't work effectively on those the dream walker controls."
Rikka's smile turned sly. She spread her arms. "Agiel? Do you see an Agiel."
Verna knew that no Mord-Sith would ever let her Agiel out of her control. With a glance to the woman's cleavage, she could only imagine where she had it hidden.
"All right," General Meiffert said, his tone no longer indulgent. "I want to know what's going on, and I want to know right now."
"I was down near Dobbin Pass, checking around, and what do I find but an Imperial Order patrol."
The general nodded as he let out a frustrated sigh. "They've been coming in that way from time to time. But how did you manage to come across such an enemy patrol? Why hadn't one of our Sisters already snared them?"
Rikka shrugged. "Well, this patrol was still on the other side of the pass. Back at that deserted farm." She tapped Verna's desk with her toe.
"Where you got the wood for this."
Verna twisted her mouth with displeasure. Rikka wasn't supposed to be beyond the pass. The Mord-Sith, though, recognized no orders but those from Lord Rahl himself. Rikka had only followed Kahlan's orders because, during his absence, Kahlan was acting on Richard's behalf. Verna suspected that it was simpler than that, though; she suspected that they had only followed the Mother Confessor's orders because she was wife to Lord Rahl, and if they didn't it would bring Lord Rahl's wrath down on them. As long as such orders weren't viewed by the Mord-Sith as troublesome, they went along. When they decided otherwise, they did as they wished.
"The Sister was by herself," Rikka went on, "having one powerful-looking headache."
"Jagang," Verna said. "Jagang was issuing his order, or punishing her for something, or giving her a lecture in her mind. He does that from time to time. It isn't pleasant."
Rikka stroked the hair on the woman's head sitting on Verna's desk, making a mess of the reports. "The poor thing," she mocked. "While she was off among the pines staring at nothing while she pressed her fingers to her temples, her men were back at the farmhouse, having their way with a couple of young women. The two were squealing and crying and carrying on, but the men weren't put off by it any."
Verna lowered her eyes as she let out a heavy breath. Some people had refused to believe the necessity of fleeing before the arrival of the Imperial Order.
Sometimes, when people refused to recognize the existence of evil, they found themselves having to face precisely that which they had never been willing to admit existed.
Rikka's satisfied smile returned. "I went in and took care of the brave soldiers of the Imperial Order. They were so distracted, they paid no attention as I snuck up behind them. The women were so terrorized that they screamed even though I was saving them. The Sister hadn't been paying any attention to the screaming before, and didn't then, either.
