Blood 3

**Chapter 3**

The Misters attack Gratch, and Richard runs toward the battle. We get another description of the Misters, which I shall summarize thusly: color-changing lizardmen. Richard guesses there are about ten Misters present and thinks that he's never fought more than one at a time before, *“and that had been a formidable ordeal.”* Nevertheless, he kills two in a sentence, and Gratch claws an indeterminate number to death just as quickly.

It seems the Misters have been downgraded in status from “Nazgul” to “Orc.”

Three more Misters appear, running to join the fight, only Sandy is in their path. Richard tells Gratch to protect her, which Gratch does handily (I have to admit, it's nice to have a winged creature that actually remembers to use its wings in a fight).

Richard ends up fighting the three Misters, which I guess means that Gratch is taking on the other six or so. Richard manages to isolate one of the Misters (since they break ranks like idiots) and is about to kill it, when the other two cry out *“No!”* This astonishes Richard, as *“He hadn't know the mriswith could speak.”*

They wear clothes and wield weapons. They are **obviously intelligent beings.** Why *wouldn't* you assume they could speak? \~/

The Misters Three try to get around Richard to attack Gratch, but Richard blocks them and manages to kill one. Another Mister jumps him and they both fall down, losing their weapons. After a brief bare-handed fight, Richard breaks the Mister's arm and demands to know *“Who sent you?”* The Mister replies *“The dreamssss walker.”* Because all reptilian creatures hissss their sssibilantsss, you ssssee.

Before Richard get any more information from the Mister, Gratch kills it, then attacks Richard in his mad frenzy. Richard calms him down, and apparently all the Misters are either dead or gone. So, thirteen of them took on two people – *with surprise* – and lost dramatically.

The Misters are now officially mooks.

Richard asks Gratch how he knew the Misters were there, since they were camouflaged and it has been established that they're even invisible to magic (except for Sue Magic, of course). Gratch doesn't know, and we waste about a page before Richard writes it off to nonhuman senses. There's a scene where Sandy acknowledges that Gratch saved her life and isn't a monster (yes he is!).

Richard takes one of the Misters' capes (oh Lord, I just realized that this means he now has *fifteen* Cloaks of Invisibility!) and has Sandy try it on. She's unable to make it work, so Richard demonstrates. This makes Gratch start glaring and growling at him until Richard de-invisibilizes. Richard decides to burn the extra capes, lest they fall into The Wrong Hands. Sandy wonders whether using a Mister cape could be dangerous, but Richard dismisses her fears.

Richard takes a moment to look around the city, *“studying the Imperial Order troops he could see.”* So . . . wait a minute. This means that a dozen magical lizardmen just appeared out of nowhere and *attacked two people and a furry monster* **on the steps of the Mindrapists' Palace,** and . . . there's no reaction. None. No town guards wandering by; no panicked commoners; no curious gawkers; nothing.

Mind you, we were told **just last chapter** that there were crowds of people outside the Mindrapists' Palace.

. . .

I got nothing. \~/\~/

Richard and Sandy converse, giving us a brief history lesson (which, I admit, is a more-graceful-than-usual infodump). Apparently the D'Harans have not been particularly cruel since conquering the city, and they had some sort of pact with the Imperial Order. The situation now seems to have Kelton at the top of the heap with D'Haran soldiers keeping order, all in the Imperial Order's name.

About then a *“crowd of kitchen workers”* materializes to mutter over the Mister corpses. Sandy speaks with one of them, named Hank, who exposits that there have been a bunch of killings in the city this morning, apparently done with the three-bladed knives wielded by the Misters. *“The dead mark lines, like the spokes of a wheel, all leading here.”*

Hank seems to be a remarkably well-informed kitchen worker. Also, this means that the Misters arranged themselves around or throughout the city for some reason, then all headed for the Palace at once, killing their way there in perfectly straight lines. That is simultaneously impressive and stupid.

Also, remember that it took Richard several weeks of riding horses to death to reach Aydindril, and that was with a dragon-ride head start that got him to the Peoples' Palace in D'Hara. How did the Misters get there so damn fast? And why? It appears they were after Gratch . . . except that Gratch wasn't even in the city until the last day or two, if that.

Come to think of it, how did *Gratch* get there so fast?

Richard orders Hank to collect the Mister corpses and loose heads and line them up on either side of *“the grand entrance”* to the Mindrapists' Palace. Hank *“glanced to the sword at Richard's hip”* and agrees. Nice. Richard didn't even have to invoke his fictitious authority as the Seeker this time; he's just a man with a sword, so he gets to order the servants around.

The point of this grisly little display, apparently, is that *“The mriswith must have magic. Maybe the fear of it will at least keep the D'Harans from the palace for a while.”* Except . . . I thought the palace was **already** in the hands of the Imperial Order, wasn't it? I seem to recall Ranson the Noble Rapist being pretty much in charge there, and Kahlan & Co. killing a bunch of Order soldiers there last book.

Consistency? What's that? \~/

Sandy speculates that maybe the “dream walker” sent the Misters to kill those with magic (which is a pretty huge leap in logic, especially considering that the Misters **themselves** have magic), then points out that Zedd and Kahlan both have magic. Richard agrees, but says he has to fight the Order here and now. He then thinks about the various people he might get to help him: Warren, Verna, Nathan, and maybe Pope Ann. He decides that *“The aggressor makes the rules. Somehow, I must change them.”*

The chapter ends with Richard declaring dramatically, *“I vow to give this dream walker nightmares.”*

Drinks: 4

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