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with you?”
    Jagang’s completely black eyes turned to the woman. Cloudy shapes shifted in those inky eyes, a storm of his own brewing.
    “She was with me. She left. Unlike your clumsy and insincere attempt at trying to shield your minds from me with the bond to the Lord Rahl, the bond worked for Nicci. For reasons I can’t begin to understand she was sincere, and so it worked. She gave up everything she had worked for her whole life—gave up her moral duty!”
    He rolled his shoulders, pulling the mantle of calm authority back around himself. “The bond worked for Nicci. I can no longer enter her mind.”
    Sister Armina stood frozen in more than simple fear of the man; she was obviously baffled by what she’d just heard.
    Sister Ulicia nodded to herself, staring off into memories. “I guess that, in retrospect, it’s not a surprise. I guess I always knew that she loved Richard. She never said a word to us, of course, to the other Sisters of the Dark, but back at the Palace of the Prophets she gave up a great deal—things I would never have imagined her giving up—in exchange for me naming her to be one of his six teachers.
    “The price she paid for that chance to be his teacher made me suspicious of her motives. A couple of the others were driven by greed. They simply wanted to suck the gift out of that man—have it for themselves. But not Nicci. That wasn’t what she was after. So I watched her.
    “She never gave it away—dear spirits, I don’t think she was even aware of it herself at the time—but there was a look in her eyes. She was in love with him. I never really understood that look back then, probably because she seemed so sure of her hatred for the man and for all that he represented, but she was in love with Richard Rahl. Even back then, she was in love with him.”
    Jagang had gone crimson. Absorbed in her recollections, Sister Ulicia hadn’t noticed his mute rage. Sister Arminasurreptitiously touched the other woman’s arm in warning. Sister Ulicia looked up and blanched at seeing the look on the emperor’s face, and immediately changed the subject.
    “Like I said, she never said any such thing, so perhaps I’m just imagining it. In fact, now that I think about it, I’m sure of it. She hated the man. She wanted him dead. She hated everything he represented. She hated him. Plain as day. She hated him.”
    Sister Ulicia closed her mouth, visibly forcing herself to stop babbling.
    “I gave her everything.” Jagang’s voice rumbled like bottled thunder. “I made her as good as a queen. As Jagang the Just, I granted her the authority to be the fist of the Fellowship of Order. Those who opposed the righteous ways of the Order came to know her as Death’s Mistress. She was able to fulfill that virtuous call to duty only because of my generosity. I was foolish to have given her so much latitude. She betrayed me. Betrayed me for him.”
    Kahlan didn’t think that she would ever see Jagang in the grip of hot jealousy, but she was seeing it now. He was a man who took what he wanted. He was not used to being denied anything. Apparently, he couldn’t have this woman Nicci. Apparently, Richard Rahl had her heart.
    Kahlan swallowed back her own confused feelings over Richard Rahl—a man she had never met—and stared at her guards marching back and forth.
    “But I’ll have her back.” Jagang held up a fist. Muscled cords stood out on his arms as the fist tightened. Veins in his temples bulged. “Sooner or later I will crush the immoral resistance offered by Richard Rahl, and then I’ll deal with Nicci. She will pay for her sinful ways.”
    Kahlan and this Nicci had something in common. If Jagang ever got his hands on Nicci, Kahlan knew, he was going to do his worst to her as well.
    “And the boxes of Orden, Excellency?” Sister Ulicia asked.
    The arm dropped. He turned a grim smile on her. “Darlin, it doesn’t matter if one of them has somehow managed to put the boxes of Orden in play.