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"He's expendable. Unfortunately, for' you, the damage has already been done, thanks to Marlin."

With a furtive glance to the side, Kahlan checked her slow progress toward the facedown Cara. "Why? What has he done?"

"Why, Marlin has brought you and Richard Rahl down for me. Of course, you have yet to suffer what I have wrought, but he has done it. I had the privilege of witnessing the glory of it."

"What have you done? What are you doing here in Aydindril?" Jagang chuckled. "Why, I've been enjoying myself. Yesterday, I even went to watch a Ja'La game. You were there. Richard Rahl was there. I saw you both. I wasn't pleased to see that he changed the broc, replacing it with a lightweight one. He's turned it into a game for the weak. It's meant to be played with a heavy ball, and by the strongest, the most aggressive and brutish players-those with the true lust to win.

"Do you know what Ja'La means, darlin?"

Kahlan shook her head as she ran through a list of her options and priorities. Foremost on the list was using her power to stop this man before he escaped the pit, but first she had to find out all she could, if they were to stop his plans. She had already failed once at that task. She wouldn't fail again.

"It's from my native tongue. The full and proper name is Ja'La dh Jin-The Game of Life. I don't like the way Richard Rahl corrupted it."

Kahlan had almost reached Cara. "So you infested this man's mind so that you could come and watch children play a game? I thought that the great and all-powerful Emperor Jagang would have better things to do."

"Oh, I've had better things to do. Much better." His grin was maddening. "You see, you thought I was dead. I wanted you to know that you failed to kill me at the Palace of the Prophets. I wasn't even there. I was enjoying the charms of a young woman, at the time, actually. One of my newly captured slaves."

"So you aren't dead. You could have sent us a letter, and not have to go to all this trouble. You came for some other reason. You were here with a Sister of the Dark."

"Sister Amelia had a little task to perform, but I'm afraid she's no longer a Sister of the Dark. She betrayed her oath to the Keeper of the underworld, so that I could destroy Richard Rahl."

Kahlan's foot touched Cara. "Why didn't you tell us all this before, when we first captured Marlin? Why wait until now?"

"Ah, well, I had to wait until Amelia returned with what I sent her for. I'm not one to take chances, you see. Not anymore." "And what did she steal from Aydindril for you?" Jagang chuckled derisively. "Oh, not from Aydindril, darlin." Kahlan squatted down beside Cara. 'Why would she no longer be sworn to the Keeper? Not that I'm unhappy about it. but why would she betray her oath?"

"Because I placed her in a double bind. I gave her the choice of being sent to her master, where she would suffer for eternity at his merciless hands for her past failure with your love, or to betray him, and escape his grasp for now, only to intensify his anger for later.

"And, darlin, you should be unhappy about it, very unhappy, as it will be the downfall of Richard Rahl."

Kahlan forced herself to speak. "An empty threat."

"I don't make empty threats." His smile widened. "Why do you think I went to all this trouble? To be there at its doing, and to let you know that it is I, Jagang, who has brought it upon you. I'd hate to have you think it was simply chance."

Kahlan shot to her feet and took an angry stride toward him. "Tell me, you bastard! What have you done!"

Marlin's hand jerked up, raising one finger. Nadine made a strangling sound. l "Careful, Mother Confessor, or you'll be denying yourself hearing the rest of it."

Kahlan stepped back. Nadine gasped for air. "That's better, darlin.

"You see, Richard Rahl thought that by destroying the Palace of the Prophets, he kept me from gaining the knowledge it contained." Marlin's puppet finger waggled. "Not so. Prophecies were not unique to the Palace of the Prophets. There have been prophets about, elsewhere, and there are prophecies elsewhere. Here, for example, there are prophecies in the Wizard's Keep. In the Old World, there are prophecies, too. I found a number of them when I excavated an ancient city that once thrived at the time of the great war "Among them, I found one that will be Richard Rahl's undoing. It is an extraordinarily rare type of prophecy, called a bound fork. It enforces a double bind on its victim.

"I have invoked the prophecy."

Kahlan didn't have the slightest idea what he was talking about. She quickly squatted and lifted Cara's head. Cara scowled up at her.

"You idiot," Cara whispered under her breath, "I'm fine. Leave me. Get answers. Then signal, and I will use my link to kill him."

Kahlan dropped Cara's head and stood. She started inching back toward the ladder.

''You're talking babble, Jagang. ' She moved more quickly, hoping Jagang would think she had found Cara dead. She was halfway to the ladder, although she had no intention of trying to escape. She intended to unleash her power on him. Nadine, or no Nadine. "I don't know anything about prophecy. You're making no sense." "Well, darlin, it's like this, either Richard Rahl lets the firestorm of what I have wrought rage out of control, fulfilling one fork of the prophecy, in which case it kills him, too, or he tries to stop what I have done, fulfilling the other fork of the prophecy. On that fork, he is destroyed. See? He can't win, no matter which he chooses. Only one of two events can now evolve, only one of the two forks. He has the power to choose which one, but either will be his doom." "You are a fool. Richard will choose neither." Jagang roared with laughter. "Oh, but he will. I've already invoked the prophecy, through Marlin. Once invoked, there is no turning back from a bound fork prophecy. But enjoy your delusions, if it will please you. It will make the fall all that much more painful."

Kahlan paused in her tracks. "I don't believe you." "You will. Oh, yes, you will." — "Empty threats! What proof have you?" "Proof will come on the red moon." "There is no such thing. You are full of empty threats." Kahlan lifted a finger toward him as her fear dissolved in the heat of rage. "But I want you to know of my threat, Jagang, and it is not empty. I have seen the bodies of the women and children you ordered slaughtered in Ebinissia, and I swore undying vengeance on your Imperial Order. Even prophecy will not stop us from defeating you."

If nothing else, she needed to at least provoke him into revealing the prophecy. If they knew it, perhaps they could thwart it. "That is my prophecy to you, Jagang. Unlike your pretend prophecy, it has words to it."

His belly laugh echoed around the pit. 'Pretend? Let me show you the prophecy, then." One of Martin's hands lifted. Lightning exploded in the pit. Kahlan covered her ears as she ducked, hunching to protect tier head. Stone chips howled through the air. She felt a sharp pain as one sliced across her arm and another speared the side of her shoulder. She felt the sickening feeling of warm blood soaking down her sleeve.

Above their heads, the lightning jumped and leaped across the wall, incising the stone, leaving in its wake lettering she could just see through the blinding flashes. The crash of lightning cut off, leaving jagged afterimages across her vision, the smell of dust and smoke choking her lung;, and the cacophony echoing in her head. "There you go, darlin."

Kahlan rose to her feet, squinting up at the wall. "Gibberish. That's all it is. It means nothing."

"It's in High D'Haran. According to the records, in the last war we had captured a wizard, a prophet, and of course since he was loyal to the House of Rahl, my ancestor dream walkers were denied access to his mind.

"So, they tortured him. In a delirious state, and missing half his intestines, he gave forth this prophecy. Have Richard Rahl translate it." He leaned toward her with a venomous sneer. "Though I doubt he will want to tell you what it says."