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CHAPTER 1

For the second time that day, a woman stabbed Richard

Jolted fully awake by the shock of pain, he instantly seized her bony wrist, preventing her froy dress, buttoned all the way up to her throat, covered her gaunt figure In the diht of distant campfires Richard saw that the square of cloth draped over her head and knotted under her angular jaw looked to be made out of a scrap of frayed burlap

Despite her frail fralare of a predator The woht had been heavier, and stronger Her eyes, too, had burned with hate

The slender blade this woman wielded was smaller as well While it h muscle, as she’d apparently intended by the way she was holding the knife, it would have been far worse The army of the I injuries; they would simply have put him to death That had probably been her plan in the first place

Gritting his teeth with awakened rage as he held the struggling worip, Richard twisted her arm as he lifted her white-knuckled fist in order to withdraw the blade fro A drop of blood dripped from the tip

He easily muscled her under his control She was not the powerful killer he had at first feared Her desire, her intent, her lust, however, were just as vicious as that of any of the invading horde she followed As she grunted in pain, vapor froht air Richard knew that to be gentle would only give her another opportunity to finish the job Surprise had provided her with an opening; he would not foolishly grant her a second chance Still firrasp

He didn’t let up the pressure on her arm until he had possession of the blade He could have broken her arm, and she deserved no less, but he didn’t—this was not the time or place to create a disturbance He merely wanted her away from him Once he’d disarmed her, he shoved her back

As soon as she stumbled to a halt, she spat at hilorious Es—all of you! All of you fros!”

Richard glared at her, watching to make sure she didn’t pull another knife and renew the attack He checked to the sides for an accoh there were soldiers not far away, just beyond the sons, they were preoccupied with their own business There didn’t appear to be anyone with the woman

When she started to spit at hiht as she flinched back Having lost courage for the business of stabbing a man when he ake and able to defend hilare, then turned and escaped into the night Richard had known that the length of heavy chain attached to the collar around his neck wasn’t long enough to allow hiet to her, but she hadn’t known that and so the threat had been convincing enough to scare her off

Even in the ht the vast army encampment into which she had vanished was ceaselessly busy Like so beast it sed her up

While , others see weapons, cooking, eating, or engaged in drinking and raucous stories around fires as they passed the ti for their next opportunity at , it seeainst one another, soathered from time to time to watch such contests and to bet on the outcons of serious trouble, soldiers looking for entertain for a handout prowled the encaht Occasionally men wandered by to size up Richard and his fellow captives

Between gaps in the wagons Richard could see so to earn food or even a s to play a flute and sing for the men Others offered to shave soldiers, wash and care for their clothes, or tattoo their flesh A nuotiations, disappeared into tents with theto steal And a few of those out in the night were intent on murder

In the center of it all, in a prison island created out of a ring of supply wagons, Richard lay chained with other captive ht in to play in the Ja’La dh Jin tournaular I in their own tents

Hardly a city ruled by the Order ithout a Ja’La team As children these soldiers had played it almost from the time they could walk They all expected that after the as over Ja’La would endure for them To many of the soldiers of the Order, Ja’La dh Jin—the Game of Life—was itself a matter of life and death, nearly equal to the cause of the Order

Even to a scrawny old woman who followed her emperor to war and lived off the scraps of his conquest, murder was an a

cceptableher favored team to victory

Having a winning Ja’La teareat pride for an ar, the officer responsible for Richard’s tea far lory Those who ran the top tea Ja’La players becaions of woer to be with them

At night Richard was chained to the wagons that held the cages that had transported hia the way he was the point ’s a’s main encampment Richard’s life depended on hoell he did his job So far he had rewarded Co’s faith in him

Richard’s choice fro’s effort, or be executed in the ruesome manner possible

Richard, though, had had other reasons for “volunteering” Those reasons were farelse

He glanced over and saw that Johnrock, chained to the saon, lay on his back sound asleep The man, a miller by trade, was built like an oak tree Unlike the point men of other teams, Richard insisted on endless practice whenever they were not on the move Not everyone on his team liked it, but they followed his instructions Even in their cage as they had traveled to the Imperial Order’s main force, Richard and Johnrock analyzed how they could have done better, devised and memorized codes for plays, and did endless push-ups and other exercises to build their strength

Exhaustion had apparently overco as peacefully as a baby, unaware that their reputation had brought people out into the night anted to end their team’s chances before they reached the tournaments

As tired as Richard was, he had only been dozing fro So not connected to all theto do with the i a captive This was so deep within him In a way it reminded him a little of the times he’d been sick with a fever, but that wasn’t really it, either No matter how carefully he tried to analyze it, the nature of the feeling remained elusive He was so confused by the inexplicable sensation that he was left with nothing so

Besides that, he was too preoccupied thinking about Kahlan to be able to sleep Held captive by E himself, she was not all that far away

Soht sitting before a fire, she had stared into those fla had brutalized her Those stories gnawed at Richard’s insides

He couldn’t see the eh the sprawling encampment earlier that day he had seen the i into Kahlan’s green eyes after all this tilast found her, and she was alive He had to find a way to get her out

Reasonably sure that the latest wo in the shadows for another attempt, Richard finally pulled his hand away to inspect the wound It wasn’t as bad as it ht have been If he had been sound asleep, like Johnrock, it one much worse

He guessed that perhaps the odd feeling that had been keeping him awake had actually served him well

Ashis hand tightly over it had stopped the bleeding The wound froht was also painful, but it, too, wasn’t anywhere as bad as it ht the tip of the woman’s knife and thwarted her attempt at murder