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  　"Why are they up there? Why aren't Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor with their army? Or back in Aydindril? Or in D'Hara, for that matter?"

  　He shook his head. "This messenger was just a low-ranking soldier who knew how to ride fast and read the lay of the land. That's all he knew: they're up there, and they're all alone."

  　Nicci was puzzled by such a development.

  　"Anything else? Anything at all?" He shook his head. She laid her hand on the man's back, between his shoulder blades. "Thank you, Sergeant Wetzel. You have been more help than you will ever know."

  　As he grinned, Nicci released a flow of power that shot up through his spine and instantly incinerated his brain inside his skull. He dropped with a crash to the hard ground, the air fleeing his lungs in a grunt.

  　Nicci held up the map she had committed to memory and with her gift set it aflame. The paper crackled and blackened as the fire advanced across the rivers and cities and mountains all carefully drawn out on it, until the hot glow surrounded the bloody fingerprint over a dot in the mountains. She let the paper rise from her fingers as it was consumed in a final puff of 【创建和谐家园】oke. Ash, like black snow, drifted down onto the body at her feet.

  　Outside the tent where the Mord-Sith was held, Nicci cast a wary gaze across the surrounding camp to see if anyone was watching. No one was paying any attention to the business of the torture tents. She slipped in through the opening.

  　Nicci winced at the sight of the woman laid out on the wooden table. She finally made herself draw a breath.

  　A soldier, his hands red from his work, scowled at Nicci. She didn't wait for him to object, but simply commanded, "Report."

  　"Not a word from her," he growled.

  　Nicci nodded and placed her hand on the soldier's broad back. Wary of her hand, he began to step away from it, but he was too late. The man fell dead before he knew he was in trouble. Had she the time, she would have made him suffer first.

  　Nicci made herself step up to the table and look down into the blue eyes. The woman's head trembles slightly.

  　"Use your power . . . to hurt me, witch."

  　A 【创建和谐家园】all 【创建和谐家园】ile touched Nicci's lips. "To the bitter end, you would fight, wouldn't you?"

  　"Use your magic, witch."

  　"I think not. You see, I know a bit about you women."

  　Defiance blazed up from the blue eyes. "You know nothing."

  　"Oh, but I do. Richard told me. You would know him as your Lord Rahl, but be was for a time my student. I know that women like you have the ability to capture the power of the gifted, if that power is used against you. Then, you can turn it against us. So, you see, I know better than to use my power on you."

  　The woman looked away. "Then torture me if that is what you came to do. You will learn nothing."

  　"I'm not here to torture you," Nicci assured her.

  　"Then what do you want?"

  　"Let me introduce myself," Nicci said. "I am Death's Mistress."

  　The woman's blue eyes turned back, betraying for the first time a glint of hope, "Good. Kill me."

  　"I need you to tell me some things."

  　"I'll not . . . tell you . . . anything." It was a struggle for her to speak. "Nor anything. Kill me."

  　Nicci picked up a bloody blade from the table and held it before the blue eyes, "I think you will."

  　The woman 【创建和谐家园】iled. "Go ahead. It will only hasten my death. I know how much a person can take. 1 am not far from the spirit world. But no matter what you do, I'll not talk before I die."

  　"You misunderstand. I do not wish you to betray your Lord Rahl. Didn't you hear your questioner hit the ground? If you turn your head a little more, perhaps you can see that the man who did this to you is now dead. I don't wish you to tell me any secrets."

  　The woman glanced, as best she could, toward the body on the ground. Her brow twitched. "What do you mean?"

  　Nicci noticed that she didn't ask to be freed. She knew she was well past the point of hope to live. The only thing she could hope for, now, was for Nicci to end her agony.

  　"Richard was my student. He told me that he was once a captive of the Mord~ Sith. Now, that's not a secret, is it?"

  　"No."

  　"That's what I want to know about. What is your name?"

  　The woman turned her face away.

  　Nicci put a finger to the woman's chin and turned her head back. "I have an offer to make you. I won't ask you anything secret that you aren't supposed to tell. I'll not ask you to betray your Lord Rahl - I wouldn't want you to. Those are not the things that are of interest to me. If you cooperate" - Nicci held up the blade again for the woman to see - "I will end it quickly for you. I promise. No more torture. No more pain. Just the final embrace of death."

  　The woman's lips began trembling. "Please," she whispered, the hope returning to her eyes. "Please . . . kill me?"

  　"What is your name?" Nicci asked.

  　Nicci, for the most part, was numb to sights of torture, but this she found disturbing. She avoided looking away from the woman's face, down at the naked body, so as not to have to consider what had been done to her. Nicci could not imagine how this woman could keep from screaming, or even how she was able to speak.

  　"Hania." The woman's hands and ankles were shackled to the table, so she was unable to move much other than her head. She stared up into Nicci's eyes. "Will you kill me? . . . Please?"

  　"I will, Hania, I promise. Quickly and efficiently - if you tell me what I want to know."

  　"I can't tell you anything." In despair, Hania seemed to sag against the table, knowing her ordeal was to go on. "I won't."

  　"I only want to know about when Richard was a captive. Did you know he was once a captive of the Mord Sith?"

  　"Of course."

  　"I want to know about it."

  　"Why?"

  　"Because 1 want to understand him."

  　Hania's head rocked side to side. She actually 【创建和谐家园】iled. "None of us understands Lord Rahl. He was tortured, but he never . . . took revenge. We don't understand him."

  　"I don't either, but I hope to. My name is Nicci. I want you to know that. I'm Nicci, and I'm going to deliver you from this, Hania. Tell me about it. Please? I need to know. Do you know the woman who captured him? Her name?"

  　The woman considered for a moment before she spoke, as if testing in her own mind whether or not the information was in any way secret, or could in any way harm him.

  　"Denna," Hania whispered at last.