JК
Faith of the Fallen :: Goodkind Terry
Страница: 69 из 617Spread the word of the mercy and wisdom of Jagang the Just, and Iwill have no need to return."
The crowd mumbled that they would.
"Do you want us to bring the commander with us," a soldier asked. The man, Kadar Kardeef's loyal second, now wore Kardeef's sword. Like vegetables, fidelity's fresh vitality was fleeting, its final fate stench and rot.
"Leave him to roast as a reminder. Everyone else will return with me to Fairfield."
"By your command," he said with a bow. He circled his arm and ordered the men to mount up and move out.
Nicci leaned out farther and looked up at the driver. "His Excellency wishes to see me. Although he has not said as much, I'm reasonably sure he would like you to hurry."
Nicci took her place on the hard leather cushion inside, her back straight against the upright seat, while the driver let out a shrill whistle and cracked his whip. The team leaped forward, jerking the carriage ahead.
With a hand on the windowsill, she steadied herself as the ironbound wheels bounced over the hard, rough ground of the town square until they reached the road, where the carnage settled down into this familiar jolting ride.
Sunlight slanted in the window, falling across the empty cushion opposite her. The bold bright patch glided off the seat as the carriage negotiated a curve in the road, finally slipping up to come to rest in her lap like a warm cat. Darkly clad riders to each side, ahead, and behind stretched forward over the withers of their galloping mounts. A rumbling roar along with billowing plumes of dust lifted into the air from the thundering hooves.
For the moment, Nicci was free of Jagang. She was surrounded by two thousand men, yet she felt totally alone. Before long, she would have pain to fill the terrible void.
She felt no joy, no fear. She sometimes wondered why she felt nothing but the need to hurt.
As the carriage raced toward Jagang, her thoughts were focused instead on another man, trying to recall every occasion that she had seen him. She went over every moment she had spent with Richard Cypher, or as he was now known-and as Jagang knew him-Richard Rahl.
She thought about his gray eyes.
Until the day she saw him, she had never believed such a person could exist.
When she thought about Richard, like now, only one haunting need burned in her: to destroy him.
The crowd mumbled that they would.
"Do you want us to bring the commander with us," a soldier asked. The man, Kadar Kardeef's loyal second, now wore Kardeef's sword. Like vegetables, fidelity's fresh vitality was fleeting, its final fate stench and rot.
"Leave him to roast as a reminder. Everyone else will return with me to Fairfield."
"By your command," he said with a bow. He circled his arm and ordered the men to mount up and move out.
Nicci leaned out farther and looked up at the driver. "His Excellency wishes to see me. Although he has not said as much, I'm reasonably sure he would like you to hurry."
Nicci took her place on the hard leather cushion inside, her back straight against the upright seat, while the driver let out a shrill whistle and cracked his whip. The team leaped forward, jerking the carriage ahead.
With a hand on the windowsill, she steadied herself as the ironbound wheels bounced over the hard, rough ground of the town square until they reached the road, where the carnage settled down into this familiar jolting ride.
Sunlight slanted in the window, falling across the empty cushion opposite her. The bold bright patch glided off the seat as the carriage negotiated a curve in the road, finally slipping up to come to rest in her lap like a warm cat. Darkly clad riders to each side, ahead, and behind stretched forward over the withers of their galloping mounts. A rumbling roar along with billowing plumes of dust lifted into the air from the thundering hooves.
For the moment, Nicci was free of Jagang. She was surrounded by two thousand men, yet she felt totally alone. Before long, she would have pain to fill the terrible void.
She felt no joy, no fear. She sometimes wondered why she felt nothing but the need to hurt.
As the carriage raced toward Jagang, her thoughts were focused instead on another man, trying to recall every occasion that she had seen him. She went over every moment she had spent with Richard Cypher, or as he was now known-and as Jagang knew him-Richard Rahl.
She thought about his gray eyes.
Until the day she saw him, she had never believed such a person could exist.
When she thought about Richard, like now, only one haunting need burned in her: to destroy him.