"I have the price of a room," Ann assured her. "I just haven't found where they are, yet, that's all. After such a long journey, I meant to go there right away and get myself cleaned up, but I just needed to rest my weary feet for a bit, first. Could you tell me where to find the rooms to rent?"
The smile looked a little easier. "I'm off to my own room and I could take you. It isn't far."
"That would be kind of you," Ann said as she rose now that she saw the guards moving off down the corridor.
The woman stood, bidding her two benchmates a good night.
If Ann was tired, it was only from being caught up in the afternoon devotion to the Lord Rahl. A bell in an open square had tolled, and everyone had moved to gather there and bow down. Ann had noticed then that no one missed the devotion. Guards moved among the crowd watching people gather.
She felt like a mouse being watched by hawks so she joined with the other people moving toward the square.
She had spent nearly two hours on her knees, on a hard clay tile floor, bowed down with her forehead touching the ground like everyone else, repeating the devotion in concert with all the other somber voices.
Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours.
Twice a day, those in the palace were expected to go to the devotion.
Ann didn't know how people endured such torture.
Then she remembered the bond between the Lord Rahl and his people that prevented the dream walker from entering their minds, and she knew how they could endure it. She, herself, had briefly been a prisoner of Emperor Jagang. He murdered a Sister right before her eyes, just to make a point.
In the face of brutality and torture, she guessed that she knew how people endured a mere devotion.
For her, though, such a spoken devotion to the Lord Rahl, to Richard, was hardly necessary. She had been devoted to him for nearly five hundred years before he had even been born.
Prophecy said that Richard was their only chance to avoid catastrophe.
Ann peered carefully around the halls. Now she just needed the prophet himself.
"This way," the woman said, tugging at Ann's sleeve.
The woman gestured for Ann to follow her down a hallway to the right.
Ann pulled her shawl forward, covering the pack she carried, and hugged her travel bag closer as she followed along the wide corridor. She wondered how many people sitting on benches and low marble walls around fountains were gossiping about her.
The floor had a dizzying pattern of dark brown, rust, and pale tan-colored stone running across the hall in zigzag lines meant to look three-dimensional. Ann had seen such traditional patterns before, down in the Old World, but none of this grand scale. It was a work of art, and it was but the floor. Everything about the palace was exquisite.
Shops were set back under a mezzanine to each side. Some of them looked to sell items travelers might want. There was a variety of small food and drink stands, everything from hot meat pies, to sweets, to ale, to warm milk. Some places sold nightclothes. Others sold hair ribbons. Even at this late hour, some of the shops were still open and doing brisk business. In a place such as this, there would be people who worked at night and would have need of such shops. The places that offered to do up a woman's hair, or paint her face, or promised to do wonders with her fingernails, were all closed until morning. Ann doubted they could pull off wonders with her.
The woman cleared her throat as they strolled down the broad corridor, gazing at the shops to each side. "And where have you traveled from?"
"Oh, far to the south. Very far." Ann took note of the woman's focused attention as she leaned in a bit. "My sister lives here," Ann said, giving the woman something more to chew on. "I'm here to visit my sister. She advises Lord Rahl on important matters."
The woman's eyebrows lifted. "Really! An advisor to Lord Rahl himself.
What an honor for your family."
"Yes," Ann drawled. "We're all proud of her."
"What does she advise him on?"
"Advise him on? Oh, well, matters of war."
The woman's mouth fell open. "A woman? Advising Lord Rahl on warfare?"
"Oh yes," Ann insisted. She leaned over and whispered, "She's a sorceress. Sees into the future, you know. Why, she wrote me a letter and told me she saw me coming to the palace for a visit. Isn't that amazing?"
The woman frowned a bit. "Well, that does seem rather remarkable, since here you are and all."
"Yes, and she told me that I'd meet a helpful woman."
The woman's smile returned, it again looked forced. "She sounds to be quite talented."
"Oh, you have no idea," Ann insisted. "She is so specific in her forecasts about the future."
"Really? Had she anything else to say about your visit, then? Anything specific?"
"Oh yes indeed. Why, do you know that she told me I would meet a man when I came here?"
