That had been trouble.

As surprised as the hiding Order troops had been when in the dark, they had quickly recovered and were now in their element: battle. These were the men the Order typically used to lead an invasion, to overwhelm an opponent in a powerful attack meant to slice all opposition to pieces.

Fortunately for Richard, he, Bruce, and General Meiffert at last didn't have to fight alone. Cara dropped any men she could get near and climbed over others to get at those trying to hack Richard to pieces. These men were familiar with armed opposition; they knew little about Mord-Sith. Already they were trying to back away from Cara, only to have other Mord-Sith spring up and take them down. Richard saw Berdine and Nyda ramming their Agiel to the backs of heads or thrusting and twisting them against big chests to kill instantly. Everywhere men screamed in agony.

Not far away the First File charged into the Imperial Order soldiers from both sides at once. Richard saw General Trimack leading his men into the teeth of the battle. The First File were the elite of the elite, more than a match for the Order soldiers not only in size but in ability. The D'Haran troops were all battle-hardened men who were well versed in deadly tactics that gave them a feared and well-deserved reputation.

Several men in dark leather armor, their faces twisted in hate and rage, rushed toward Richard. Before he could bring his sword to bear, yet other big men stepped right in front of them, blocking their ability to get to Richard. With lightning strikes from the elbows of the two men, the necks of the Order soldiers were ripped open, severing carotid arteries.

Richard blinked when he saw that it was Ulic and Egan, two great blond-headed bodyguards to the Lord Rahl. The dark leather straps, plates, and belts of their uniforms were molded to fit like a second skin over the prominent contours of their muscles. Incised in the leather at the center of their chests was an ornate letter "R," and beneath that were two crossed swords. They wore metal bands just above the elbows specially designed for close-quarters fighting. Those bands had razor-sharp projections. It soon became apparent to the invading soldiers that anyone close enough to encounter Ulic and Egan was not just going to die, but going to die in a most gruesome manner.

Yet other troops pouring out of the breach in the wall were cut down by gifted means cast at them by Nathan. Flashes of explosive light sliced through men in chain mail, sending shards of hot steel ricocheting off the walls, floors, and ceilings. It was a grim, one-sided contest, with the soldiers never having a chance to even raise their swords against the tall prophet before they were torn apart by a focused use of his gift.

General Meiffert ducked under swinging axes as he charged through the smoke, Jillian cowering behind the cover of his sword with Adie being held up by his other arm.

Richard saw that Adie was covered in blood.

Cara froze in her tracks. "Benjamin?"

"Here! Take Adie!"

"I have to protect Lord Rahl."

"Do as you're told!" he yelled at her over the roar of the battle. "Help her!"

Richard was surprised to see Cara immediately abandon her argument to help lift Adie from General Meiffert's care. He seized Jillian with his newly freed hand and pulled her around to the other side of him, away from two men who were charging in from his right. He ducked as he thrust his sword, running one man through. Bruce was right there, but down low so as not to get in the way of the general's blade. From that low position Bruce cut the second attacker down at the knees. When a third man reached for the general, Egan wrapped a muscled arm around the soldier's neck and wrenched it around. The man went limp. Egan tossed him aside like a rag doll and immediately went after another Order soldier.

"Get back!" General Meiffert yelled at Cara when she returned to rush back into the thick of the battle.

"I have to-"

"Move!" he yelled at her at the same time he rammed her back with a hand. "I said move!"

"Nathan!" Richard cried out over the roar of noise when he saw the opportunity that General Meiffert had just opened up by forcing Cara back out of the way with him. When the prophet turned to his name, Richard pointed to the dark corridor the general had just cleared. "That's all of us! Do it!"

Nathan understood and didn't waste an instant. He immediately brought his hands up. Light ignited between his palms. Wizard's fire erupted into life from the gathering light, sending glimmering colors and light flickering over the scene of the pitched battle.

Without pause Nathan cast the wizard's fire into the enemy.

The deadly sphere of bubbling, boiling, liquid light tumbled away. The white-hot inferno expanded as it hurtled through the air. Even over the noise of the battle echoing through the stone halls Richard could hear the wail of it flying toward the dark corridor full of Imperial Order troops all pushing forward to get into the palace and join the battle.

The wizard's fire shot down the corridor, casting an orange-red light across the white marble. The sound alone was enough to stiffen men in panic.

It was a horrific sight as burning death splattered across living flesh. The growing sphere of liquid fire stayed aloft as it skipped across the heads of the men, all the while spilling death down on them until the tumbling inferno burst into a cascade of molten light and flame splashing down into the terrified mass of men.

The shrieks of agony drowned out the clash of steel in the battle.

Nathan conjured yet more wizard's fire. In an instant it, too, was away.

The sphere of fire tumbled down the dark corridor, careening off walls and men, spilling flames, catching everything ablaze. The liquid flame was so tenacious, so sticky, so fiercely alive with searing heat that it melted its way through tough leather armor and sloshed right through chain mail to cling to flesh as it burned. Men on fire tore at their clothes, trying to get the fire off them, but they couldn't. Wizard's fire, once on a person, would often burn down to bone before it went out. Even as men started to pull off leather armor plates that the sticky, liquid fire was burning through, it was too late. Their clothes were already melted to their skin and they only ended up pulling off their own flesh.

Fire enveloped faces. Gasping in shock, men sucked swirling flames into their lungs. The stench of burning flesh was overpowering. The sound of the screams was horrifying.

The men already in the hall knew that they would have no one coming from behind to help them. The men of the First File were already bearing in, rolling them under, spearing men who couldn't move in the crushing weight pressing in from both sides.

They had no choice but to fight for their lives. In this battle, there would be no surrender allowed.

General Meiffert hacked a man across the shoulder. Bruce used both hands on the hilt of his sword to thrust it down into a man who fell sprawling on the floor at his feet. As another man, his face twisted with rage and hate, went for Richard, Richard swung, burying his sword halfway through the man's head just below his eyes. He yanked his sword back as the man dropped to his knees crying out in unexpected fright. Berdine, in her red leather like all the Mord-Sith, stepped in and pressed her Agiel to the base of his skull, finishing him off.

Nathan launched another expanding, tumbling, twisting sphere of wizard's fire down the hall. The relentless inferno of death was sickening to behold as it splashed down through crowds of men who had thus far avoided it. Men on fire frantically tried to escape the growing conflagration. There was no escape. They were trapped not just by the flames, but by their numbers and by the dead all around them. They had no choice but to scream in agony and desperate panic as they burned alive. Whorls of flame curled in the open mouths of those shrieks. Richard was certain that near the back men would have abandoned the attack and already be racing back to the safety of the catacombs.