slaves, promising them agony if they use magic without his direct order. He then hands the sisters over to a bunch of sailors to rape, save for Merissa who he keeps as his new favorite after he kills Christabel as an example. At the Confessors' Palace, Richard manages to retire to his room for the night in an attempt to escape the tempting Duchess Lumholtz. Soon after she enters his room eager to have sex with him, Richard realizes that something is wrong and uses his magic to see the nature of the spell cast on the Duchess. He realizes that she is about to stab him and barely manages to escape the attack. A mriswith enters the room and cuts Cathryn in half, telling Richard that he came to save him because he is a "skin brother." Baffled, Richard observes that there is something strange about Cathryn's left breast. He licks his finger and erases the paint, making him realize that the nipple was missing. He senses that this is tied to the spell that changed the behavior of the now dead Duchess. He has Egin roll up Cathryn's corpse in a carpet and take it away. Lord Rahl calls the three Mord-Sith and orders them to take their tops off. This reveals that Berdine, the Mord-Sith who threatened him with Agiel the previous day, has the same mutilation. Trying to save Berdine, Richard lets her hit him with the Agiel in order to prove that the magical link with the House of Rahl is the most powerful spell. Because the magical bond with Lord Rahl prevents Berdine from killing Richard if he does not try to defend himself, the woman is eventually destroyed by the pain of magic and begs Richard to kill her. Instead he saves her which erases the possession spell. Stunned by Richard's altruistic behavior, the three Mord-Sith swear their loyalty again. At Aydindril, Richard and Berdine enter the Wizard's Keep to search for anything that can help defeat the dreamwalker. Following the directions of a mriswith, they arrive in a room in which they find the mummified body of a magician and a diary. The two take the diary and return to the Confessors' Palace. The Prelate Verna wakes up in a cell and learns from Sister Leoma that her imprisonment has a specific purpose: Emperor Jagang wants to find out if it is