Kahlan struggled and twisted, but he was far too big and husky for her. She couldn't get any leverage to break free of his grip.

"You're a feisty one," he said into her ear. "What did you think — that you could avoid your sacred duty to the soldiers of the Order? Think you're too good to serve in the tents? Well, you're not. Here's my tent, so it's time to do your duty."

Kahlan twisted around to try to bite him as he dragged her toward an empty tent not far away. He backhanded her. The blow stunned her. The noise of the encampment seemed to fade away. She couldn't make her muscles do as she wished, couldn't make them resist the grimy soldier as he pulled her toward the tent.

Suddenly, Kahlan saw Sister Ulicia's face. She had never before been glad to see one of the Sisters, but she was now.

The Sister distracted the man's attention from Kahlan for an instant, then pressed her fingers to the side of his forehead. Finally free, Kahlan jumped back as her captor dropped to his knees, clutching his fists to his head as he cried out in pain.

"Get up," Sister Ulicia told him. "Or I'll do worse by far." He stood on wobbly legs. "You are ordered immediately to the emperor's tent to serve as a special guard."

The man looked confused. "Special guard?"

"That's right. You will be guarding this troublesome young lady for His Excellency."

The man gave Kahlan a dangerous look. "It would be my pleasure."

"Pleasure or not, get moving. That's an order from Emperor Jagang himself." She pointed a thumb back over her shoulder. "That way."

The soldier dipped his head in a bow, obviously fearful of her ability with magic. He regarded the Sister with a kind of wary, if unspoken, loathing. These men obviously did not hold those with the gift in high regard.

"I'll be seeing more of you, soon," the man promised Kahlan before he ran off to do as he'd been ordered.

Kahlan saw Sister Armina giving the man with the broken nose the same instructions. She spoke in a voice that Kahlan couldn't hear over the riot of cheering, but the man clearly heard her because he stiffened with fear, bowed to her, and ran off after the first man.

Sister Ulicia turned her attention back to Kahlan. "Tears won't do you any good. Now get going."

Kahlan didn't argue. The sooner it was over, the better. She started out at once, counting herself fortunate to have eliminated two of the four who had so far been able to see her. She had to skirt the Ja'La game that was working the crowd of men to a fever pitch of excitement. She paused at one point to rise up on her tiptoes and make sure where the rock was; then she headed for it.

By the time she had made it back to Jagang's tent, they had collected five men. All of them stood outside the tent, awaiting orders, including the one nursing his broken nose. He glared at her as she walked past him, ushered through the tent's opening by the two Sisters.

Kahlan had managed to quickly arm herself after Sister Ulicia had rescued her the first time. This time, though, Kahlan had seen to it that she secured two knives, one for each hand. She held the hilts in her fists, with the blades lying up against the insides of her wrists so that the Sisters, following her at a good distance, hadn't been able to see them.

Kahlan had managed to kill another six men who could see her, without the Sisters realizing what she had done. It hadn't been hard; they saw no threat coming from a naked woman. They were dead wrong. With their guard down she had been able to thrust her weapons home quickly and without a fuss. There was so much noise, confusion, drinking, yelling, and fighting in the camp that the Sisters never noticed the men Kahlan had taken out.

When she hadn't been able to dispatch the men who could see her, either because Sister Ulicia or Armina were too close or because they were watching closely and rushed in to rescue her and give the soldiers their new assignments as special guards, Kahlan always let her knives slip to the ground and vanish under the throng of soldiers so that the Sisters wouldn't suspect what she had been up to. Being invisible to almost all the men, it had been easy enough to get more knives throughout the long, nerve-racking walk among the soldiers.

Once she was inside the tent, Jagang threw Kahlan's clothes at her. "Get dressed."

Rather than questioning his reasons for a command she hadn't expected, she wasted no time in complying with his orders. Under the unwavering dark gaze of the man, it was a huge relief to finally have her clothes back on. It didn't seem to lessen his obvious interest in what he had seen, though.

His attention finally turned to the two Sisters. "I've instructed our new guards in their duties." He smiled in a way that made both Sisters swallow in dread. "What with some guards to take the load off your backs, you will have some free time to spend in the tents, being on your backs for a different duty."

"But Excellency…" Sister Armina said in a trembling voice, "we have done everything you requested. We got the men — "

"You think that because you do as you're told for a short time I will forget the years you have been running around plotting and scheming to do me in? You think I will so easily forget your neglect of your duty to others, your obligations to the cause of the Order, your moral responsibility to sacrifice your worldly wishes to the good of others?"

"It wasn't that way, Excellency." Sister Armina dry-washed her hands as she searched for words that might save her. "Yes, we were shamefully selfish, I admit, but we had no direct thought to harm you."

He snorted a laugh. "You don't think freeing the Keeper of the underworld would harm me? You don't think turning mankind over to the Keeper of the dead would be against me, against the ways of the Order, against the Creator?"

Sister Armina fell silent. She knew she had no argument. Kahlan had always thought of the Sisters as vipers. But now they were writhing before someone with hide too tough to sink their fangs into.

Sister Ulicia and Armina were attractive women. Kahlan had the feeling that their looks were only going to make it worse for them out among the animals that were the Imperial Order army.

"I have control of the…" Jagang caught himself almost using her title. "… of Kahlan, through the collar, through your ability. You don't need to be present for me to call upon that power if necessary — just alive. I will instruct the men that I don't want you two murdered while they are enjoying your feminine charms."

"Thank you, Excellency," Sister Ulicia managed in a small voice. She was gripping her skirts in white-knuckled fists.

"Now, there are two men waiting outside who have been instructed in what they are to do with you both. Go with them." He grinned at them like death itself. "Have a good night, ladies. You deserve it — and many more."

As they left the tent, Kahlan stood in the center, awaiting a similar fate.

Jagang stepped closer to her. Kahlan thought she might either faint from dread, or be sick at the thought of what was about to happen to her.