As they walked, with Jagang conversing with his guard, Nicci cast a brief glance back over her shoulder at Kahlan. Kahlan knew that she was thinking about the man Kahlan had told her about. Kahlan felt a flutter of anxiety.

As they took a course through the jumble of the camp in the direction the guard indicated, pushing their way through tightly packed throngs of men as they got ever closer to the Ja'La field, Kahlan could hear soldiers in the distance cheering and shouting encouragement to their favored team. Even this far back, with no chance to see the action, men waited for word on the score to be relayed back to them.

There were far more spectators than Kahlan had seen at the previous games. This was obviously an important match and she could see the excitement of the crowd. When a deafening roar suddenly went up she knew that one of the teams had scored. Men pushed in closer, jostling each other, eager for word on which team had scored.

As the guards growled orders or shoved men, the tight press of soldiers looked over their shoulders and then reluctantly parted to let the emperor's party through. With a wedge of big guards opening a pathway, they finally made it to an area that had been roped off for the emperor next to the field. Yet more of Jagang's guards who had gone on ahead had already formed a wall to each side to keep the men back.

Through the screen of spectators Kahlan caught flashes of men running across the field. The yells and shouts from the crowd made it hard for her to hear her own thoughts. She caught brief flashes of red paint. With the press of soldiers watching the game, and the wall of royal guards to each side, to say nothing of the bull of an emperor in front of her flanked by his huge personal guards, it was difficult to see anything other than short snatches of the action on the field.

Another wild cry rose from the crowd as a team scored. The roar shook the ground beneath Kahlan's feet.

Through the small gaps between guards, she spotted something different about this game. All the way around the edge of the field, in front of the spectators, men stood at even intervals, feet spread, hands clasped behind their backs. None wore shirts, apparently to display their powerful builds.

Kahlan had rarely seen the likes of such men. Each was a huge specimen. They all looked like statues, as if they had been smelted from the same iron ore and forged from ingots of white-hot steel.

As Jagang moved out in front, going to the edge of the field to see what was happening, Nicci, seeing the grim men Kahlan was looking at, leaned closer. "Jagang's team," she said under her breath.

Kahlan understood, then, what they were doing. The winner of this match would play the emperor's team. These men were not merely there to watch the tactics of the team they would face. They were there to intimidate the men before them, the men who would win the chance to play them. It was an open threat of pain to come.

Commander Karg spotted the newly arrived emperor and squeezed his way through the wall of guards. Kahlan had come to recognize the man by his unique pattern of snake-scale tattoos. He and Jagang exchanged pleasantries as cheers of encouragement went up for another play on the field.

"Your team seems to be faring well," Jagang said when the cheering died down a little.

Commander Karg glanced back over his shoulder at Nicci like a snake considering its prey. Her glare was already on the man. His knowing gaze swept over the length of her before his attention returned to Jagang.

"Well, Excellency, despite how good my team is, I'm well aware that your team is not merely good, but unbeaten. They are the best, of course."

The back of Jagang's shaved head and bull neck creased as he nodded. "Your team is unbeaten as well, but not truly tested against real competition. My men will easily defeat them. There is no doubt in my mind."

Commander Karg folded his arms, watching the play for a time. The crowd screamed with excitement as a cluster of men raced past, only to moan with disappointment as they apparently failed to make the score. Karg turned once more to the emperor.

"But if they do win against your team-"

"If they do," Jagang interrupted.

Karg smiled as he bowed his head. "If they do, then it would be a great accomplishment for a humble challenger, such as myself."

Jagang viewed his commander with good-natured suspicion. "A great accomplishment worthy of a great reward?"

Karg gestured out at the men on the field. "Well, Excellency, if my team were to win each of them would have a reward. Each would have the woman of his choice." He clasped his hands behind his back as he shrugged. "It seems only right that as the one who handpicked each player and runs such an accomplished team I would have a similar reward."

Jagang's deep chuckle was so lewd that it gave Kahlan a shiver.

"I suppose you're right," Jagang said. "Name her, then, and if you win, she is yours."

Karg rocked on his heels a moment, as if considering his choices.

"Excellency, if my team wins"-Commander Karg turned a sly smile back over his shoulder-"I would like to have Nicci in my bed."

Nicci's cold glare could have cut steel.

His amusement dying out, Jagang glanced back over his shoulder at the woman who had had his recent undivided attention.

"Nicci is not available."

The commander nodded as he went back to watching the game for a time. After the cheering for another play out on the field died down, he regarded Jagang with a sidelong glance.

"Since you are sure to win, Excellency, it's really only an insignificant promise of a reward, an idle bet. If you really believe that your team will certainly triumph, then I wouldn't have the pleasure of ever collecting such a reward."

"Then there would be no point in such a bet."

Karg gestured out at the Ja'La field. "You are sure of your team's success, aren't you, Excellency? Or are you having doubts?"

"All right, Karg," Jagang said at last, "if you win, she is yours for a time. But only for a time."

Commander bowed his head again. "Of course, Excellency. But, as we all know, you have no need to actually fear your team losing."

"No, I don't.* Jagang's black eyes turned to Nicci. "You don't mind my little wager, do you, darlin?" His grin returned. "After all, it's only hypothetical, since my team does not lose."

Nicci arched an eyebrow. "As I told you when I first arrived, it doesn't really matter what I want, now, does it?"

Jagang's smile remained as he watched her for a moment. It was a smile that looked like it covered thoughts of bloody murder at her public insolence.

As the intensity of the play on the field built, the crowd all around started pushing forward, trying to get a better view. Jagang's guards reacted by driving men back, giving the emperor even more room. They wanted to be sure that they had the space they needed to protect him. The spectators, seeing the guards' ill humor, reluctantly moved back.

As Jagang and Commander Karg watched the game, becoming completely absorbed by the action of the field, Kahlan checked on her special guards and saw that they, too, were getting caught up in the game. They kept moving up, a little at a time, craning their necks, trying to get a better view. Kahlan edged closer to Nicci. As the royal guards put muscle in their effort and moved the spectators back, it gave Kahlan and Nicci a wider angle of view so that they could see more of both the field and the players.

"The team with the red paint is run by the man I told you about," Kahlan whispered. "I think he painted himself and all his men with the red paint so that no one would recognize him."

As players ran past they got their first clear view of the wild designs painted on all the men of the red team.