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  　He cast her a sidelong glance. "I am the Order's cleansing fire. The fire is a necessary conflagration, but not the important end - it is merely the means to the end. From the ashes I, Jagang, create, new order can sprout and grow. It is this end, this glorious new age of man, that warrants the means. In this, it is my responsibility not yours - to decide justice, when and how I will dispense it, and who will receive it."

  　She grew impatient with his vanity. Scorn seeped into her voice. "I have simply put a name to it - Jagang the Just - and begun to spread your new title for you when the opportunity arose. I sacrificed Kadar to that end, for all the same reasons you've listed. It had to be done now in order for it to have the necessary time to spread and flourish, or the New World would soon harden irreversibly against the Order. I chose the time and place, and by using Kadar Kardeef's life - a war hero's life - proved your devotion to the cause of the Order above all else. You benefit.

  　"Any brute could ignite the conflagration; this new title shows your moral vision - another manifestation of worth over other men. I have planted the vital seed that will make you a hero to the common people and, even more important, to the priests. Are you going to pretend you think the title inadequate? Or that it will not serve you well?

  　"What I alone have done will help win what your powerful army cannot: willing allegiance without a battle, at a cost of nothing. With Kadar's life, I, Nicci, have made you more than you could make of yourself. I, Nicci, have given you the reputation of honor. I, Nicci, have made you into a leader people will trust because they believe you to be just."

  　He brooded for a time, turning his gaze from her hot glare. His arm finally fell own and his fingers tenderly trailed down her thigh. The touch was an admission for him - an admission that she was right, even if he would not say the words.

  　After a few moments he yawned, and then his eyes closed. His breathing evened, and he started to drift off into a nap, as was his way with her. He expected her to remain right where she was, so that when he awoke she would be available to him. She supposed she could leave. But it was not time. Not yet.

  　He finally awoke an hour later. Nicci was still staring up at the canopy, thinking about Richard. There seemed to be one piece missing in her plan, one more thing that she felt needed to fall into place.

  　In his sleep Jagang had rolled over on his side facing away from her. Now, he turned back. His dark eyes took her in with a look of lust rekindled. He drew her close. His body was as warm as a rock in the sun and only slightly softer.

  　"Pleasure me," he commanded in a husky growl that would have frightened any other woman into doing as ordered.

  　"Or what? You will kill me? If I feared that, I would not be here. This is by force, not consent. I will not willingly take part in it, nor will I allow you to deceive yourself into believing that I want you."

  　He backhanded her, knocking her across the bed. "You take part willingly!" He seized her by the wrist and dragged her back toward him. "Why else would you be here?"

  　"You ordered me here."

  　He 【创建和谐家园】irked. "And you came when you could have fled."

  　She opened her mouth, but she had no answer she could put into words, no answer he would understand.

  　With a grin of victory, he fell on her and pressed his lips to hers. As much as it hurt her, for Jagang this was gentle behavior. He had told her several times that she was the only woman he ever cared to kiss. He seemed to believe that by expressing those emotions for her, she could have no alternative but to surrender feelings in kind, as if spoken feelings were currency with which he could purchase affection on demand.

  　It was only the beginning of a long night - along ordeal - she knew. She would have to endure his forceful violation several more times before morning. His question haunted the distant place in her mind.

  　Morning came, accompanied by the dull throbbing of a headache from her succeeding beating, and the sharper aches from the places where he'd struck her when he came to find that what he thought was her willing submission was but a delusion that left him more angered than before. The pillows were stained with her blood. It had been a long night of rare sensations experienced. Nicci knew she was evil, and deserved to be violated in such a brutal fashion. She could offer no moral objection to it; even in the terrible things he did to her, Jagang was nowhere near as corrupt as she. Jagang erred in simple matters of the flesh, and that could only be expected all people were corrupt in the flesh - but because of her indifference to the suffering around her, she failed in matters of the spirit. That, she knew, was pure evil. That was why she deserved to suffer whatever he did to her. For the moment, that deep dark place within came close to being sated.

  　Nicci touched her mouth and found the cuts painful, but closed. The healing of wounds, though, did not offer the warranted sensations of receiving them, so she resolved to have one of the other Sisters heal her, rather than give him the satisfaction of witnessing her suffering the inconvenience of the injures.

  　With that, her mind turned to thoughts of Sister Lidmila.

  　Nicci realized that Jagang wasn't in bed beside her. She sat up and saw him in a chair not far away, watching her.

  　She pulled the sheet up to cover her breasts, speckled with droplets of dried blood. "You are a pig."

  　"You can't get enough of me. Despite what you say, Nicci, you wish to be with me. If not, why would you stay?"

  　Those nightmare eyes of his watched her, trying to find a way into her mind. There was none. He could no longer be a nightmare for her. Richard guarded her mind.

  　"Not for the reasons you wish to believe. I stay because the ultimate cause of the Order is a moral one. I wish it to succeed. I wish the suffering of life's helpless victims to end. I wish everyone to finally be equal and to finally live with everything they need. I have worked nearly my entire life for those goals. The Order can see to it that such a fair world comes to be. If I must endure you - even aid you - for such an end, then it is but an insignificant gnat to swallow."

  　"You sound so very noble, but I think there is something more basic behind it. I think you would have left if you could, or" - he 【创建和谐家园】iled - "if you could, you would have left if you really wanted to. Which is it, then, Nicci?"

  　She didn't want to contemplate the question. Her head hurt.

  　"What's all the talk about you building a palace?"

  　"So you heard, then." He took a deep breath and sighed wistfully. "It will be the grandest palace ever built. A fitting place for the Emperor of the Imperial Order, for the man who rules both the Old and the New Worlds."

  　"The man who wants to rule. Lord Rahl stands in your way. How many times has he bested you, now?"

  　Jagang's eyes flashed a rage she knew could turn violent. Richard had frustrated Jagang a number of times. Even if Richard hadn't been victorious over Jagang, he had stung him. Quite an accomplishment, really, for such a tiny force against the

  　array of the Imperial Order. A man like Jagang hated the humiliation of a sting almost as much as he would hate to be gored.

  　"I will eliminate Richard Rahl, don't you worry," Jagang said in a low growl'

  　She changed the subject back to what she really wanted to know about. "Sine when has the all conquering Emperor Jagang turned soft and wanted to live in splendor?"

  　"Ali, but I am Jagang the Just, now. Remember?" He returned to the bed and flopped down beside her. "Nicci, I'm sorry I hurt you. I never want to hurt you, but you make me do it. You know I care about you."

  　You care about me yet you heat me? You care about me, yet you never bothered to tell me of such an enormous project as the building of a palace? I am insignificant to you.

  　"I told you, I'm sorry I hurt you - but that was your own fault and you know it." He spoke the words almost lovingly. With mention of the palace, his face had softened into a visionary look. "It's only proper and fitting that I at last have the prestige of such a monumental edifice."

  　"You, the man who was content in tents in the, field, now wants to live in a resplendent building? Why?"

  　"Because once I bring the New World under the guidance of the Order, I will owe it to all the people, as their leader, to be seen in a majestic setting . . . but it will have more than simple splendor."

  　"But of course," she sniped.

  　He gathered up her hand. "Nicci, I will proudly wear the title Jagang the Just. You're right, the time has come for such a move. I was only angered because you

  　wrongly made that move without first discussing it with me. But let us forget that, now."

  　She said nothing. He gripped her hand more tightly, to show his sincerity, she supposed.

  　You're going to love the palace, when it's finished." He ran the back of the fingers of his other hand tenderly down her cheek. "We will all live there for a very long time."

  　The words struck a cord in her. "A very long time?"

  　For the first time she realized there was something more to this than simply his vanity of wanting a palace after Richard had denied him the Palace of the Prophets. He wanted what else Richard had denied him. Could it be . . .

  　She looked up into his face, searching for the answer. He simply 【创建和谐家园】iled at the questions in her eyes.

  　"Construction has already begun," he said, turning his words away from those questions. "Architects and great builders from all over the Old World have gathered to work on it. Everyone wants to be part of such a grand project."

  　"And Brother Narev?" she probed. "What does he think of building such a frivolous monument to one man when there is important work to be done for so many needy people?"

  　"Brother Narev and his disciples greatly favor the project." Jagang flashed her a sly 【创建和谐家园】ile. "They will live there, too, of course."

  　Understanding washed over her.