Phantom Read Free

verification webs.”
    “Exterior,” Sister Cecilia corrected.
    Sister Armina blinked at the older woman. “What?”
    “We only cast exterior verification webs. We didn’t do an interior review.”
    “Are you out of your mind?” Sister Armina snapped. “In the first place it isn’t necessary and in the second place who would be fool enough to be the one to do an aspect analysis of a verification web from an interior perspective! No one ever does such a thing! It isn’t necessary!”
    “I’m only saying—”
    With a withering look, Sister Ulicia silenced them both. Sister Cecilia, her wet curls plastered to her scalp, looked like she was about to finish her complaint, but then decided instead to remain mute.
    Orlan seemed to recover his senses as he pulled away from his wife’s embrace and began to stagger to his feet. Blood ran down his forehead and to either side of his broad nose.
    “Were I you, innkeeper,” Sister Ulicia said, turning her attention back to him, “I’d remain on my knees.”
    The menace in her voice gave him pause for only a moment. He was clearly angry as he rose up to his full height, letting his bloody hand drop away from his head. His back straightened, his chest expanded, and his fists tightened. Kahlan could clearly tell that his temper was outpacing his sense of caution.
    Sister Ulicia indicated with her rod that she wanted Kahlan to back away. Kahlan, ignoring the direction, instead stepped closer to Sister Ulicia, hoping to change the rush of events before it ended up being too late.
    “Please, Sister Ulicia, he will answer your questions—I know he will. Let him be.”
    The three Sisters turned unpleasantly surprised looks on Kahlan. She had not been spoken to, or asked to speak. Such insolence would cost her dearly, she knew, but she also knew what was liable to happen to the man if something didn’t change, and right then it seemed to her that she was the only one who could effect a change.
    Besides, Kahlan knew that this was her only chance to find out something about herself—to perhaps find out who she really was and maybe even why she could remember only the most recent parts of her life. Thisman had clearly recognized her. He very well might be the key that could unlock her lost past. She dared not let the chance slip away—even if she had to risk the Sisters’ wrath.
    Before the Sisters had a chance to say anything, Kahlan addressed the man. “Please, Master Orlan, listen for a moment. We’re looking for an older woman named Tovi. She was to meet these women here. We were delayed, so she should already be here, waiting for us. Please, answer their questions about their friend. This could all be quickly resolved if you would hurry upstairs and get Tovi for them. Then, like this passing storm, we will all soon be out of your lives.”
    The man reverently dipped his head, as if a queen had asked his help. Kahlan was not only surprised, but completely bewildered by such an act of deference.
    “But we have no guest named Tovi here, Mot—”
    The room lit with a blinding flash—lightning that was the match of anything out in the raging storm. The twisting rope of liquid heat and light that ignited from between Sister Ulicia’s hands blasted across Orlan’s chest before he could finish the appellation he had been about to use. The jarring concussion from being so close to the explosive detonation of such thunderous power hammered deep into the core of Kahlan’s chest. The impact threw Orlan back, sending him crashing through a table and both benches, slamming him against the wall. The deadly contact with such power had nearly cut the man in half. Smoke curled up from what was left of his shirt. A glistening red splatter of gore marked the wall where he’d hit before slumping to the ground.
    In the aftermath of the deafening blast, Kahlan’s ears rang in what seemed the sudden silence.
    Emmy, her eyes wide with the shock of an event that had in an instant forever