Everyone started talking, but Chase cut them all off with an angry command for silence. "Now listen to me. If we look like we're escaping, we'll be caught. Captain, you and your men come with me. We'll pretend like Zedd and Adie are our prisoners. Rachel, too-that's how I got in here; I found out they were holding children." He flipped a hand toward Rikka and Sister Tahirah. "They will look like Sisters in charge of prisoners, along with us playing as the guards."

"Do you want that thing off your neck, first?" Rikka asked Zedd.

"No time for that now. Let's go."

Adie grabbed Zedd's arm. "No."

"What!"

"Listen to me, old man. There be those families and children in these tents around us. They will die. You go. Get to the Keep. I will get the innocent people out of here."

Zedd didn't like the idea, but arguing with Adie was a fool's task, and besides, there was no time.

"We split up, then," Captain Zimmer said. "Me and my men will play the part of guards and get the men, women, and children out of here, back to our lines, along with Adie."

Rikka nodded. "Tell Verna that I'm going to go with Zedd to help take back the Keep. He will need a Mord-Sith to keep him out of trouble."

Everyone looked around to see if there would be any arguments. No one said anything. It suddenly seemed settled.

"Done," Zedd said.

He threw his arms around Adie and kissed her cheek. "Be careful. Tell Verna I'm going to take the Keep back. Help her defend the passes."

Adie nodded. "Be careful. Listen to Chase-he be a good man to come all this way for you."

Zedd smiled and then gasped as Chase grabbed his robes and yanked him out of the tent. "The sun is setting-let's get out of here. Remember, you're our prisoner."

"I know the part," Zedd grumbled as he was dragged out of the tent like a sack of grain. He smiled as Adie, already rushing away, looked over her shoulder one last time. She smiled back, and then was gone.

"Wait!" Zedd called. He quickly reached into one of the wagons and retrieved something he didn't want to be destroyed. He slipped it into a pocket. "All right, let's go."

Outside the tent, the camp was in pandemonium. Elite guards, in a state of high alert and with weapons drawn, raced past on their way toward the command tents. Other men ran to the ring of barricades. Trumpets blared alarms and coded messages that directed men to tasks. Zedd feared his small group might be set upon and held for questioning.

Instead of waiting for that to happen, Chase reached out and snatched a soldier running past. "What's the matter with you? Get me some protection for these prisoners until I can get them to a safe place! The emperor will have our heads if we allow them to be recaptured!"

The soldier quickly collected a dozen men and fell in around Rikka, Sister Tahirah, Chase, Rachel, and Zedd. Rachel was doing a convincing job of bawling in fear. For effect, Chase would occasionally give her a shake and yell at her to shut up.

Zedd glanced back over his shoulder, seeing the sun touch the horizon.

He growled at Rikka, out ahead, for her to pick up her pace.

At the barricades, scowling guards looked them over carefully as they approached and then opened their ranks. They were preventing anyone from getting in, and were momentarily confused by such a company of their own men with prisoners making their way out. One man decided to step out to stop and question them.

Chase straight-armed him. "Idiot! Out of our way! Emperor's orders!"

The man frowned as he stared at the procession sweeping past. While he considered what to do, they were past and gone, swallowed up in the larger camp.

In moments, they were out of the heart of the camp. In short order, regular soldiers, seeing Rikka at the lead, moved to block their path. A

beautiful woman out among the regular soldiers was asking for trouble, and with the confusion the men saw in the command area, they believed they had an opportunity while those in authority were busy. Rikka and Chase kept their small group moving at a quick pace. The grinning soldiers closed ranks, blocking the way. One of the men, missing his two front teeth, took a step out in front of his men. With one thumb hooked behind his belt, he held up the other hand.

"Hold on there. I think the ladies would like to stay for a visit."

Without pause, Rachel reached under the hem of her dress and pulled a knife. She didn't slow or even look back as she flipped the knife up over her shoulder. In one fluid motion, without missing a step, Chase caught the knife by the tip and heaved it at the toothless man. With a thunk, the knife slammed hilt-deep into the man's forehead.

As he was still toppling back, Rachel flipped a second knife up over her shoulder. Chase caught it and sent it on its way. As the second man twisted toward the ground, dead, the rest of the men backed away to let the small group, marching onward, in among them. Deadly rights within the Imperial Order camp were not a rarity.

Elite guards or not, the soldiers were confident in their numbers and, with a beautiful woman in their midst, sure of what they wanted. Men all around closed in.

Zedd snatched a quick glance back. "Now! Hit the ground!"

Rikka, Chase, Rachel, and Zedd dove to the dirt.

For an instant, everyone above them froze, staring in surprise. The soldiers who were accompanying them, weapons already drawn for the fight they expected, also stopped and stood in confusion.

Sister Tahirah saw her opportunity and cried out. "Help! These people are-"

The world ignited with brilliant white light.

An instant later a thunderous blast rocked the ground. A wall of debris followed, driven before a roar of noise.

Men were blown into the air. Some were cut down by flying wreckage. The elite guards that had escorted them tumbled through the air over Zedd.

Sister Tahirah had turned toward the flash. A wagon wheel shot toward them at incredible speed, hitting her chest-high, cutting her in two. The bloodied wheel sailed onward without even being slowed. The Sister's shredded remains were flung across the ground along with the bodies of countless men.

As the blast from behind still rumbled, the screams of terribly wounded men rose into the lingering rays of sunset.

Zedd dearly hoped that Adie had not wasted any time in escaping.

Chase seized Zedd's robes at one shoulder and hauled him to his feet as he swept Rachel up in his other arm. Rikka grabbed Zedd's robes at the other shoulder and pulled him ahead. Together, Zedd's two rescuers rushed with him into the carnage.

Rachel hid her face in Chase's shoulder.

Zedd was about to ask Chase why in the world he would teach a young girl such things with knives when he recalled that he himself had been the one who had once commanded Chase to the task of teaching her everything the boundary warden knew.

Rachel was a special person. Zedd had wanted her to be prepared for what life might have in store.

"You should have let me make the Sister take off that collar when we had the chance," Rikka said as they ran.

"If we had taken the time," Zedd answered, "we would have been back there and caught up in that fireball."

"I suppose," she said.

As they slowed a bit to catch their breath, men ran in every direction.

In the confusion and disorder, no one noticed that the four of them were making good their escape. As they hastily made their way through the vast Imperial Order encampment, Zedd put an arm around Rikka's shoulders and pulled her closer.

"Thank you for coming to save my life."

She flashed him a cunning smile. "I wouldn't leave you to those pigs-not after all you've done for us. Besides, Lord Rahl has Cara protecting him; I'm sure he would want a Mord-Sith protecting his grandfather as well."