“Never knew a general before,” Bruce muttered as he hurried after the others.
Chapter 39
Verna clasped her hands loosely in front of her and sighed quietly as she watched Cara plant her fists on her red-leather-clad hips. The gaggle of men and women in white robes shuffled farther down the hall, gazing at the white marble walls, trailing their fingers across it, stopping here and there to peer closely at it as if they were searching for a message from the world of the dead.
“Well?” Cara asked.
An older man, Dario Daraya, laid a finger lightly across his lips. He frowned thoughtfully for another long moment as he watched the cluster of people bobbing and swaying down the corridor like corks in a river, then swiveled toward the Mord-Sith. He ran his fingers down the sky blue silk edging running down the front of his crisp white robes. He frowned at Cara, his features twisting a little as he scratched the fringe of white hair encircling his bald head.
“I’m not sure, Mistress.”
“Not sure about what? Not sure that I’m right, or not sure of what they think about it?”
“No, no, Mistress Cara. I agree with you. Something is wrong down here.”
Verna stepped forward. “You agree with her?”
The man nodded earnestly. “I’m just not sure what it could be.”
“Like something just feels out of place?” Cara suggested.
He waggled a finger skyward. “Yes, I think that’s it. Rather like in one of those dreams where you get lost in a place because the rooms are all mixed around from where they belong.”
Cara nodded absently as she watched the crypt staff gliding along close to the opposite wall. They moved on down the corridor, their heads weaving up and down as they peered at the walls. They reminded Verna a little of hounds hunting through brush.
“You run the crypt staff,” Verna said to the man. “Wouldn’t you know if something was out of place?”
She couldn’t imagine how anything could be out of place. There were carpets in a few places, a chair or two in small, side rooms, but other than that there wasn’t much of anything to be out of place.
Dario watched his people for a moment, then turned back to Cara and Verna. “I take care of everything surrounding their service. There are quarters to see to, meals, clothes, supplies—all that sort of thing. I run the crypt staff. They are the ones who actually attend to the work down here.”
“What kind of work, exactly?” Verna asked.
“Well, in general, sweeping, cleaning, dusting—that sort of thing. There are miles of corridors down here. The staff replaces lamp oil and candles in some places, keeps fresh torches in others. Occasionally a piece of stone will crack and need to be repaired or replaced. The caskets that aren’t entombed within walls or in the floor have to be kept in good condition—the metal on some polished, on others kept free of rust, and the carved wooden ones need to be waxed to keep the wood from drying excessively. There have occasionally been leaks down here, so the exterior of the caskets must be carefully inspected to make sure they aren’t getting damp or moldy.
“The crypt staff is ultimately at the service of the Lord Rahl. They see to his specific wishes, if he has any. Those entombed down here, after all are his ancestors.
“It used to be, when Darken Rahl was alive, that the staff primarily carried out his wishes having to do with his father’s tomb. Darken Rahl was the one who ordered that the tongues of the crypt staff be cut out. He feared that, while they were down here alone, they might speak ill of his dead father.”
“And what if they did?” Verna asked. “What could it hurt?”
The man shrugged. “I’m sorry, but I wasn’t about to question the man. When he was alive there was a constant stream of new staff workers replacing those who had been executed for various reasons. It was unhealthy to be anywhere near the man, and the crypt staff often found themselves the object of his rages. New staff were rounded up from time to time and pressed into service.
“Darken Rahl only left me with my tongue because my work didn’t take me down here very often. I oversaw the staff. I need to interact with others on the palace staff, so I need to be able to talk with people. The rest of the staff, in Darken Rahl’s view, didn’t have anything worthwhile they needed to say, and no need for a tongue.”
“How do you communicate with them?” Cara asked.
Dario touched his lips again as he glanced at his staff slowly making their way farther on down the hall. “Well, the way you would imagine. They use signs. Grunt a little, or nod, to make their thoughts known. They can hear, of course, so I don’t need to use signs to speak to them.
“They share the same quarters and work together, so they are almost always alone among themselves. For that reason they’ve come to be quite conversant with signs they’ve invented among themselves. I’m not nearly as familiar with their unique language as they are among themselves, but for the most part I’ve come to be able to understand them. Enough to get by, anyway.
“Most of them are quite bright. People sometimes think they’re stupid because they can’t talk. In some ways they are more aware of the goings-on in the palace than most of the other members of the palace staff. Since people know that they’re mute, they often don’t even consider that they listen just fine. These people often know what’s happening around the place long before I do.”
Verna found their little world down in the tombs a remarkable, if somewhat unsettling, revelation. “Well, what about down here? What do they think is going on down here.”
Dario shook his head with a look of concern. “They haven’t brought anything to my attention, yet.”
“Why not?” Cara asked.
“Fear, probably. In the past crypt staff were frequently executed for the most trivial things. Such executions never made any real sense. They learned that to stay alive it was best to be part of the background, to be as invisible as possible. Bringing up problems was not the way to live a long life.
“To this day, they even feared to come and tell me things. Once, there had been a leak staining a wall. They never said a word, probably because they feared they would be put to death for the stain tainting the tombs of the ancestors of Lord Rahl. I only found out about the stain because one night I went to see them in their quarters and they were gone. I found them down here, all working feverishly to scrub the stain away before anyone saw it.”
“What a way to live,” Cara murmured to herself.
“What are they doing, anyway?” Verna asked as she watched several of the staff running their hands along the wall, as if feeling for something hidden in the smooth, white marble.
“I’m not sure,” Dario said. “Let’s ask them.”
Some distance back down the corridor a force of the First File waited. Some of them had their crossbows loaded with the special red-fletched arrows that Nathan had found for them. Verna didn’t like being anywhere near those wicked things. Their deadly magic made her sweat.
The crypt staff, made up of both women and men, was gathered in a clutch, inspecting the walls and every intersection along the way. They had all been down in the various tomb levels most of the day and Verna was tired. She was usually in bed by this time. That was where she wanted to be. As far as she was concerned, the meticulous inspection of nothing at all could wait until the next day.
Cara didn’t look tired. She looked intense. She had this “problem down in the tombs” bone in her teeth and she wasn’t going to let go for anything.
Verna would have left Cara to it, except that when they had searched out Dario Daraya, the man in charge of the crypt staff, to ask what he could tell them, he had not dismissed the inquiry, as Verna had expected. He seemed nervous that they had even asked the question. It turned out that he shared Cara’s uneasy suspicion but as of yet hadn’t mentioned it to anyone. He told Verna and Cara that he strongly suspected that the members of his staff were also aware of something being amiss.
Verna had learned that among the vast
force that was the palace staff, the members of the crypt staff were considered the lowest of the low. Those with responsibility over important sections of the palace dismissed the work down in the tomb areas as simple, menial work for mutes. The crypt workers were also shunned because they spent their existence working among the dead, thus carrying the invisible taint of superstition.
Dario had explained that such attitudes had left them a shy and withdrawn lot. They didn’t eat in the common areas with other people on the staff. They kept to themselves and kept their own counsel.
Verna watched them down the corridor a ways, conversing among themselves in their strange language of signs. Having developed the language among themselves, no one else understood them except, perhaps, for Dario Daraya.
As much as Verna, and especially Cara, wanted to question the staff directly, they were forced to allow Dario to do it. The mere close proximity of an outsider—especially a Mord-Sith—sent the silent group into trembling and even tears. These were people who had been treated very badly by the last Lord Rahl, and probably the one before that. Many of their number, no doubt close friends and loved ones, had been put to death for allowing the petal of a white rose to lie too long on the floor of the tomb of Darken Rahl’s father. They had lived and died by the decree of a madman.
These people were, understandably, quite terrified of authority.
Verna had cautioned Cara that if she really wanted to get answers then she had to stay back and let Dario get those answers for them.
Verna watched Dario, standing in their midst, quietly asking questions. The people surrounding him became excited at certain points, pointing this way and that, and making signs to him. Dario nodded from time to time and gently asked more questions, which drew more of the silent language from some of the staff.
Dario at last returned. “They say that there is no problem in this corridor. Everything here is fine.”
Cara spoke through gritted teeth. “Well then if they don’t—”
“But,” Dario interrupted, “they say that in that corridor there”—he pointed ahead to the right—“there is something wrong.”
Cara studied the man’s face for a moment. “Come on, then, let’s have a look.”
Before Verna could hold her back, Cara marched in long strides right up to the knot of a dozen and a half people. Verna thought that several of them might faint of fright as they cringed back, fearful of what she was going to do to them.
“Dario says that you think there is something wrong in that corridor up there.” Cara gestured to the intersection ahead. “I think there’s something wrong, too. That’s why I wanted to have all of you come show me what you think. I’m the one who called for you. I called for you because I know that you people know more about this place than anyone.”
They looked uneasy about her intentions.
Cara looked around at the faces watching her. “When I was a little girl, Darken Rahl came to our home and captured my family. He tortured my mother and father to death. He locked me up for years. He tortured me to make me be a Mord-Sith.”
Cara turned a little and lifted the red leather at her waist, showing them a long scar along her side and back. “He did this to me. See?”
The people all leaned in ogling the scar. One man reached out and tentatively touched it. Cara turned his way to let him. She took a woman’s hand and rubbed her finger along the bumpy length of the scar.
“Here, look at this,” she said, pulling her sleeves up and holding out her wrists for them to see. “These are left from the shackles when he hung me up—chained to the ceiling.”
The people all leaned in looking. Some of them gently touched the scars on her wrists.
“He hurt you, too, didn’t he?” Cara knew the answer, but she had asked anyway. When they all nodded, she said, “Show me.”
The people all opened their mouths wide for her to see their missing tongues. Cara looked in each mouth, nodding at what she saw. Some held a cheek aside, turning their heads to be sure she saw their scars. Cara carefully looked at each one until they were satisfied that she had really wanted to see.
“I’m glad that Darken Rahl is dead,” she finally told them. “I’m sorry for what he did to all of you. You all have suffered. I understand; I’ve suffered, too. He can’t hurt us anymore.”
They stood listening carefully as she went on. “His son, Richard Rahl, is not at all like his father. Richard Rahl would never hurt me. In fact, when I was hurt and dying, he risked his own life to use magic to save me. Can you imagine that?
“He would never hurt any of you, either. He cares that all people can have a chance to live their own lives. He even told me that I am free to leave my service to him any time I want and he will wish me well. I know that he’s telling me the truth. I stay because I want to help him. I want to help a good man for a change instead of being a slave to a bad one.
“I’ve seen Richard Rahl weep for Mord-Sith who have died.” She tapped her chest over her heart with a finger. “Do you understand what that means to me? In here? In my heart?
“I think Richard Rahl is in trouble. I want to help him and those fighting with him against people who harm others. We want to protect your lives from all those men outside, on the Azrith Plain, who would harm or enslave you all over again.”
The people were blinking tearfully at her story, a story they could understand in a way that others couldn’t.
“Will you help me? Please?”
Verna knew how heartfelt Cara’s words really were.
She felt shame that she had never really thought Cara could be kind and understanding, that she mistook Cara’s steadfast defense of Richard as merely a Mord-Sith’s aggressive nature. It was much more than that. It was appreciation. Richard had done more than save her life. He had taught her how to live her life. Verna wondered if, as Prelate, she could ever hope to do as much.
Two of the women, one to each side, took up Cara’s hands and started leading her down the corridor. Verna shared a look with Dario. He lifted an eyebrow, as if to say that now he’d seen everything.
The two of them followed after the shuffling group of people who had adopted Cara as a patron sister. A number of the people reached out as they made their way down the corridor to touch her, to run a hand down the red leather of her arm, to rest a hand on her back as if to say that they understood the pain and abuse she had endured and were sorry that they had misjudged her.
As they went down the next corridor, Verna realized that she was no longer sure where they were. The tomb area was a confusing maze that occupied several levels. In addition to that, most of the corridors were identical. They were all the same width and height and all made of the same white marble with gray veining through it. She knew that they were down in the lowest level, but other than that, she was depending on the others to know exactly where they were.
Behind, keeping their distance so as not to interfere, the soldiers, ever watchful, followed as quietly as possible.
The group of people in white robes finally came to a halt along a section of the corridor where there wasn’t an intersection. Farther down there were a number of halls going off in both directions, but in this place there were none.
Several of the staff placed the flats of their hands on the white marble. They glanced back at Cara as they lightly ran their hands over the walls.
“Here?” Cara asked.
The staff, most of them gathered around her like chicks around a mother hen, were all nods.
“What is it about this place, this corridor, that is strange to you?” she asked them.
Several people, with their hands held uniformly apart, made back and forth gestures toward the wall.
Cara didn’t understand. Neither did Verna. Dario scratched his fringe of white hair. Even he was puzzling at the strange show. The staff huddled a moment, using their signs, silently discussing the problem among themselves.
The people all turned back to Cara. Three of them pointed at the wall
, then shook their heads. They all turned and looked at Cara again to gauge her reaction and understanding.
“You don’t like the way the wall looks?” Cara guessed.
The people all shook their heads side to side. Cara cast a questioning look back at Verna and Dario. Dario turned his palms up and shrugged. Verna could offer no suggestion either.
“I still don’t understand,” Cara said. “I know you think something is wrong with the wall”—heads nodded—“but I don’t know what.” She sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. It’s my failing. I just don’t know much about walls. Can you help me understand?”
One of the men in the group took Cara’s hand and gently pulled her closer to the wall. He reached out and with the finger of his other hand touched the stone. He looked back at Cara.
“Go on,” she said, “I’m listening.”
The man smiled at the way she’d put it and then returned his attention to the wall. He began tracing some of the gray veining. Cara leaned in a little and frowned as she watched. He looked back over his shoulder. When he saw her frowning in concentration, he went back to tracing the gray swirl. He did it several times, over and over in the same place, to make Cara pay attention.
“It looks like a face,” Cara said in quiet wonder.
The man nodded furiously. Others nodded with him. They all rejoiced silently. A woman reached out and eagerly traced the same gray whorl.
Her finger followed a curl, an arc. She then punctuated it the same as the man, by touching the center in two places. Eyes.
Cara reached out and traced the same face in the stone, just as they had done, following the gray eddies with a finger, tracing out the mouth, the nose, then the eyes.
The white-robed group made happy-sounding grunts, clapping her on the back, thrilled that they had been able to make her see the face.
Verna couldn’t imagine what it could mean.
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