Faith of the Fallen   ::   Goodkind Terry

Richard threw the dead brother's brown robes up over his head. Victor snatched him by the arm. "What are you doing?"

Richard popped his head up through the neck opening. "I'm going in there. In the darkness, Narev will think I'm a brother, and I'll be able to get close to him." He poked his confiscated sword through the robes to hide the blade. He covered the hilt with his wrist. "Keep people out Narev commands dangerous magic. I have to stop him."

"You watch yourself," Victor said.

The men who had assumed command began fanning out, urging people to follow their orders. Some people did, and as they did, yet more followed.

With all the officials who they'd captured now dead, the mob was slowly being brought to task, and not a moment too soon. The crushing weight of people flooding up onto the plaza was a danger to everyone.

Passing people wept as they picked up pieces of marble from the statue, holding the tokens of freedom and beauty to their breast as they moved on to allow others to do the same. These were people who had been offered life, and had taken it. They had proven themselves.

Victor saw what everyone was doing. "Richard. . I'm so sorry-"

A fiery blast exploded through the plaza, cutting down well over a hundred people. Bodies were ripped apart in the violence of it. A huge stone column toppled, crushing people who couldn't get out of the way because of the press of the throng.

"Later!" Richard yelled over the pandemonium. "I've got to stop Narev!

Keep these people out-they'll only die in there!"

Victor nodded before he rushed off with the other men he knew to try to gain control of the situation.

Richard put the tumult and confusion behind him, and stepped through a gaping doorway between the columns. . into the darkness.

-]--

There were miles of unfinished corridors, some clogged with bodies. In the first crush, as the people swept up onto the plaza, they had chased brothers and officials into the labyrinth of the palace. Many of those people had been unfortunate enough to find Brother Narev. The stench of burned flesh filled Richard's nostrils as he moved silently through the darkness.

Richard had been a woods guide long before he became the Seeker, long before he became Lord Rahl. Darkness was his element. In his mind, he gathered that cloak of darkness around himself.

Within the massive stone walls, under the heavy beams, partial wooden floors, and slate roofs overhead, the riot of the crowd was a distant, echoing rumble.