The pillars of creation

Jennsen could feel her face heat. She was about to meet an emperor. What would her mother think of such a thing? As she rode, she considered how her mother, as a young servant girl on the palace staff-a nobodymust have felt when she met Darken Rahl himself. Jennsen could, for the first time, truly begin to empathize with the enormity of such an event in her mother's life.

As she and Sebastian trotted their horses into camp, men everywhere peered Jennsen's way. Mobs of men crowded closer to see the woman riding in. She saw that there were a number of soldiers with pikes forming a rough line along their route, holding back the press of men. She realized that the guards were clearing the way and preventing any of the more celebratory men from getting too close.

Sebastian watched her as she took note of the way the soldiers opened a clear path for them.

"The emperor knows we're coming," he told her.

"But how?"

"When we encountered scouts a few days ago, and then sentries this morning as we got closer, they would have sent runners on ahead to inform Emperor Jagang that I've returned, and that I'm not alone. Emperor Jagang would want to insure the safety of any guest I would bring."

It appeared to Jennsen that the guards were meant to keep the great mass of regular soldiers away from the two of them. She thought it an odd thing to do, but by the drunken nature of some of the soldiers, and the rough looks and leering grins of others, she couldn't say that she was sorry about it.

"The soldiers look so… I don't know… brutish, I guess."

"And as you are about to plunge your knife into Richard Rahl's heart," Sebastian said without pause, "do you intend to curtsy and say please and thank you so that he will see how well mannered you are?"

"Of course not, but-"

He turned his halting blue eyes on her. "When those brutes came into your house and butchered your mother, what sort of men would you have wished were there to protect her?"

Jennsen was taken aback. "Sebastian, I don't know what that has to do-»

"Would you trust dressy soldiers with polished leather and polite manners-like some pompous king would have at a fancy dinner party-to be the ones to make a desperate last stand protecting your beloved mother against the onslaught of vicious killers? Or would you want men even more brutish to be the ones to stand before your mother, protecting her life? Wouldn't you want men steeped in the most brutal traditions of combat, to be the ones standing between her and those savage men intent on killing her?"

"I guess I see what you mean," Jennsen admitted.

"These men are serving in that role for all their loved ones back in the Old World."

The unexpected encounter with that terrible memory was so chilling, so painful, that she had to work at putting it out of her mind. She felt humbled, too, by Sebastian's heated words. She was here for a reason. That reason was all that mattered. If the men arrayed against Lord Rahl's forces were tough and mean, so much the better.

It wasn't until they reached the heavily defended compound around the emperor's tents that Jennsen saw other women. They were an odd mix, from young-looking to some who were stooped with age. Most peered curiously, some frowned, and a few even appeared alarmed, but all watched as Jennsen rode, closer.

"Why do the women all have rings through their lower lip?" she whispered to Sebastian, His gaze swept the women near the tents. "As a sign of loyalty to the Imperial Order, to Emperor Jagang."

Jennsen thought it not just a strange way to show loyalty, but disquieting. Most of the women wore drab dresses, most had unkempt hair. Some were dressed a little better, but only a little.

Soldiers took the horses when they dismounted. Jennsen stroked Rusty's ear and whispered reassuringly to the nervous animal that it was all right to go with the stranger. Once Rusty was calmed, Pete contentedly followed her toward the stable area. Parting from her constant companion of so long unexpectedly reminded Jennsen of how she missed Betty.

The women moved farther into the background as they watched, as if fearing to get too close. Jennsen was used to such behavior; people feared her red hair. It was a rare warm spring day, and it had intoxicated Jennsen with the promise of more such days. She had forgotten to put her hood up as they came close to the encampment. She started, then, to put it up, but Sebastian's hand stayed her arm.

"It's not necessary." With a tilt of his head, he indicated the women.

"Many of them are Sisters of the Light. They don't fear magic, only strangers entering the emperor's compound."

Jennsen realized then the reason for the strange looks from a number of the women; they were gifted and saw her as a hole in the world. Their eyes were seeing her, but their gift was not.