“They are the ones who corrupt and poison unthinking minds and, if not stopped, they will breed an endless supply of newly minted brutes to come after you and your families. Men with such hate in their hearts recognize no boundaries. They will never allow you to exist because your prosperity and happiness puts the lie to what they teach.
“If you wish to live free, then you must see to it that these disciples of hatred know that there is no safe place for them, that their ways will not be tolerated by civilized men, and that you will not rest until they are all hunted down and killed because you understand that they want nothing less than to end civilization. You must not let them have what they lust after.
“You’ve all bravely taken the first step and thrown off your shackles. None of you need prove yourselves to me. But this is not about a single battle won. This is about the future of how you will live your lives from now on—how your children and your grandchildren will live their lives. You’ve fought bravely. Many have already lost their lives pursuing our common goal and many more yet will. But victory over evil is possible and within your power. You won a battle for something profound: your own lives to live as you see fit. But don’t now fail to see that the war for that ideal is a long way from being finished.
“You have won your right to live free today. Now you must have the fire to fight to live free always.”
“Freedom is never easy to keep and can easily be lost. All it takes is willful indifference.”
Richard lifted an arm back toward the statue standing proudly in the afterglow of sunset. “That will to hold life dear, to be free, is the spirit of this statue we all so admire.”
“But Lord Rahl,” someone complained, “that is too big a task for us. We are simple people, not warriors. Maybe if you were to lead us it would be different.”
Richard laid a hand on his chest. “I was a simple woods guide when I realized that I had to rise to the challenges facing me. I, too, didn’t want to lace the seemingly invincible evil that loomed over me. But a wise woman—the woman that statue is modeled after—made me see that I had to do so. I am no better than you, no stronger than you. I am simply a man who has come to understand the need to stand without compromise against tyranny. I have taken up that cause because I no longer wanted to live in fear, but to live my own life.
“Those people in the New World to the north are fighting and dying every day. They are simple people like you. None of them wishes to fight, but they must or they will surely die. Their fate today is your fate tomorrow. They can’t continue to stand alone and hope to win. When your time comes, neither will you. They need you to be a part of a free world, to attack those who bring the shadow of a dark age over all the world.”
A man near the front spoke up. “But aren’t you saying the same thing as the Order, that we must sacrifice for the greater good of mankind?”
Richard smiled at the very idea. “Those who wish to impose an idea of a greater good are simply haters of the good. It’s enlightened self-interest that causes me to lift a sword against the Imperial Order. It’s purely for your own self-interest, and your self-interest in those you love, that I think you should fight—in whatever way you think you can best help our common goal. I’m not forcing you to fight for the greater good of mankind, but trying to make you see that it’s a fight for your own life.
“Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that such self-interest is wrong. Self-interest is survival. Self-interest is the substance of life.
“In your own reasoned self-interest, I suggest that you rise up and strike down the Order. Only then can you truly have freedom.
“The eyes of the Old World are upon you.”
The dark figures of all the people in fading light stretched back as far as Richard could see. He was relieved to see a lot of nodding heads.
Victor’s gaze swept over the men before he turned back to Richard. “I think we are of a mind, Lord Rahl. I will do what I can to see it through.”
Richard clasped arms with Victor as the crowd broke into cheering. Finally, as men all across Liberty Square began talking among themselves as to how best to meet the challenge, Richard turned away and took Nicci aside. Cara followed close on his heels.
“Richard, I know the value of what you have just done, but these people still need you to . . .”
“Nicci,” he said, cutting her off, “I have to leave in the morning. Cara is going with me. I’m not going to tell you what to do, but I think it would be a good idea if you were to choose to stay and help these people. They’re facing a terrible enough challenge just with the soldiers, but they additionally must face a wizard. You know a lot better than I how to counter that kind of threat. You could be a tremendous help to these people.”
She looked for a long time into his eyes before she glanced to the crowd not far off behind him and down the steps.
“I need to be with you,” she said in a measured tone, but it still sounded to him like a plea.
“Like I said, it’s your life and I’m not going to tell you what to do, just like I’d not like you trying to tell me what I must do.”
“You should stay and help,” she said. She broke eye contact and looked away. “But it’s your life and you must do what you think best. I guess, after all you are the Seeker.” She again glanced at the men gathering around close to Victor, making plans. “These people may not right now voice objections to what you had to say, but they will be thinking about it and they may very well decide later, after they face the soldiers, after a terrible and bloody fight, that they don’t wish to do more.”
“I was kind of hoping that if you stayed and help them defeat this wizard and the troops coming this way, that you could then add your weight to my words and help convince them of what they need to do. Many of them are well aware of how much you know about the nature of the Order. They will put stock in what you say to them, especially if you’ve just helped them save their city and keep their families safe.” Richard waited until she looked up at him before he went on. “After that, you could then come to join Cara and me.”
She appraised his eyes as she folded her arms across her breasts. “You are saying that if I help stop the Order’s force coming to kill all these people, then you would allow me to join you?”
“I’m just telling you what I think would be the most beneficial thing for you to do in our struggle to eliminate the Order. I’m not telling you what to do.”
She looked away again. “But it would please you if I did as you suggest and stay to help these people.”
Richard shrugged. “I admit to that.”
Nicci sighed irritably. “Then I will stay, as you suggest, and help them defeat the threat looming a few days away. But if I do that—defeat the troops and eliminate the wizard—then you would allow me to join you?”
“I said I would.”
She finally, reluctantly, nodded. “I agree.”
Richard turned. “Ishaq?”
The man hurried close. “Yes?”
“I need six horses.”
“Six? You will be taking others with you?”
“No, just Cara and me. We’ll be needing fresh mounts along the way so we can rotate the horses we ride to keep them strong enough for the journey. We need fast horses, not the draft horses from your wagons. And tack,” Richard added.
“Fast horses . . .” Ishaq lifted his hat and with the same hand scratched his scalp. He looked up. “When?”
“I need to leave as soon as it’s light enough.”
Ishaq eyed Richard suspiciously. “I suppose this is to be in partial payment for what I owe you?”
“I wanted to ease your conscience about when you could begin to repay me.”
Ishaq succumbed to a brief laugh. “You will have what you need. I will see to it that you have supplies as well.”
Richard laid a hand on Ishaq’s shoulder. “Thank you, my friend. I appreciate it. I hope someday I can get back here and haul a load or two for you, just for old times’ sa
ke.”
That brightened Ishaq’s expression. “After we are all free for good?”
Richard nodded. “Free for good.” He glanced at the stars beginning to dot the sky. “Do you know a handy place where we can get some food and a place to sleep for the night?”
Ishaq gestured off across the broad expanse of the old palace grounds to the hill where the work shacks used to be. “We have inns, now, since you were here last. People come to see Liberty Square and so they need rooms. I have built a place up there where I rent rooms. They are among the finest available.” He lifted a finger. “I have a reputation to uphold of offering the best of everything, whether it be wagons to haul goods, or rooms for weary travelers.”
“I have a feeling that what you owe me is going to be dwindling rapidly.”
Ishaq smiled as he shrugged. “Many people come to see this remarkable statue. Rooms are hard to come by, so they are not cheap.”
“I wouldn’t have expected them to be.”
“But they are reasonable,” Ishaq insisted. “A good value for the price. And I have a stable right next door, so I can bring your horses once I collect them. I will do it now.”
“All right.” Richard lifted his pack and swung it onto a shoulder. “At least it’s not far, even if it is expensive.”
Ishaq spread his hands expansively. “And the view at sunrise is worth the price.” He grinned. “But for you, Richard, Mistress Cara, and Mistress Nicci, no charge.”
“No, no.” Lifting a hand, Richard forestalled any argument. “It’s only fair that you should be able to earn a return on your investment. Deduct it from what you owe me. What with the interest, I’m sure the amount has grown handsomely.”
“Interest?”
“Of course,” Richard said as he started toward the distant buildings. “You have had the use of my money. It’s only fair that I be compensated for that use. The interest is not cheap, but it’s fair and a good value.”
Chapter 16
As he walked into his room, Richard was pleased to see the wash basin. It wasn’t a bath, but at least he would be able to clean up before bed. He threw closed the bolt on the door, locking himself in, even though he felt perfectly safe in the small inn. Cara was in the room beside his. Nicci was in a room downstairs on the first floor close to the entrance and right beside the only stairs up to the second floor. Men stood guard both inside and outside the inn while yet more men patrolled the streets in the area around the building. Richard hadn’t thought so many men were necessary, but Victor and the men were insistent about providing the protection since enemy troops were in the area. In the end, appreciating the opportunity for a safe and peaceful night’s sleep, Richard hadn’t objected.
He was so weary that he could hardly stand any longer. His hip sockets ached from the long day of walking over rough terrain. On top of the journey, the emotional talk with the people at Liberty Square had taken what energy he had left.
Richard sloughed off his pack, letting it clunk down on the floor at the foot of the small bed, before stepping to the washstand and splashing water on his face. He didn’t know that water could feel so good.
Nicci, Cara, and Richard had had a quick meal of lamb stew down in the small dining room. Jamila, the woman who ran the place for Ishaq—another partner—had been instructed by Ishaq to treat them as royalty. The round-faced woman had offered to cook them anything they desired. Richard hadn’t wanted to make a fuss, and besides, the leftover lamb stew had meant there would be no waiting and they could get to sleep all that much sooner. Jamila had seemed a little disappointed not to have the chance to cook them up something special. With the kind of meals they’d had over recent days, though, the bowl of lamb stew and fresh, crusty bread with loads of butter had been about the best food Richard could recall having. Had it not been for so many troubling things on his mind he would have savored it more.
He knew that Cara and Nicci needed the rest as much as he did so he’d insisted that each lake a room of their own. Both women had wanted to stay in the same room as Richard so that they could be close at hand and watch over him. He’d had visions of them both standing with their arms folded at the foot of his bed as he slept. He’d maintained that nothing was going to get to him on the second floor, and besides, there were plenty of men to stand guard. They had relented, but reluctantly and only after he reminded them that the two of them would be more help to him if they were well rested and alert. It was a luxury for all of them not to have to stand watch, for once, and be able to get the rest they needed.
Victor had promised to come see Richard and Cara off in the morning. Ishaq had promised to have the horses in the stable and waiting long before then. Both Victor and Ishaq were sorry that he was leaving, but they understood that he had his reasons. None of them had asked where he was going, probably because they felt ill-at-ease talking about the woman none of them believed existed. He had begun to sense the distance it created in people when he mentioned Kahlan.
From the tall window in his top floor room, Richard had a breathtaking view of Spirit off across the grounds below the rise where the inn stood. With the wick on the lamp in his room turned down low, he had no trouble seeing the statue in white marble lit by a ring of torches in tall iron stanchions. He idly recalled the many times he had been up on this same hillside looking down at Emperor Jagang’s palace under construction. It hardly seemed like the same world. He felt as if he’d been dropped into some other life he didn’t know and all the rules were different. Sometimes he wondered if he really was losing his mind.
Nicci, in a room on the bottom floor close to the front door, probably couldn’t see the statue, but Cara had the room next to his so she undoubtedly had the same view. He wondered if she was taking advantage of it, and, if she was, what she thought of the statue she saw. Richard couldn’t imagine how she could not clearly remember everything it meant to him—to Kahlan. He wondered if she, too, felt as if she were living someone else’s life—or if she thought he was losing his mind.
Richard couldn’t imagine what could possibly have happened to make everyone forget that Kahlan existed. He had held out some slim hope that the people in Altur’Rang would remember her, that it had only been those immediately nearby when she had disappeared who were affected. That hope was now dashed. Whatever the cause, the problem was widespread.
Richard leaned against the cabinet with the washbasin and tilted his head back as he closed his eyes for a moment. His neck and shoulders were sore from days of carrying his heavy pack as they had trudged through dense and seemingly endless woods. Throughout the swift and difficult journey even conversation had, for the most part, required too much effort. It felt good not to have to walk for a while, even if when lie closed his eyes it seemed that all he could see was a parade of endless forests. With his eyes closed, it felt as if his legs were still moving.
Richard yawned as he lifted the baldric over his head and stood the Sword of Truth against a chair beside the washstand. He pulled off his shirt and tossed it on the bed. It occurred to him that this would be a good time to wash some of his clothes, but he was too worn-out. He just wanted to clean up and then fall into bed and sleep.
He stepped over to the window again as he went about washing with a soapy cloth. The night was dead quiet but for the ceaseless drone of the cicadas. He couldn’t resist staring at the statue. There was so much of Kahlan in it that it made him heartsick. He had to force himself not to think about what horrors she might be facing, what pain she might be enduring. Anxiety constricted his breathing. In an effort to set his worry aside for a while, he did his best to recall Kahlan’s smile, her green eyes, her arms around him, the soft moan she sometimes made as she kissed him.
He had to find her.
He dipped the cloth in the water and wrung it out, watching dirty water run back into the basin, and saw that his hands were trembling.
He had to find her.
In another attempt to force his mind onto other things, he rested h
is gaze on the washbasin, deliberately taking in the vines painted all around the edge. The vines were blue, not green, probably so as to match the blue flowers stenciled on the walls and the blue flowers on the simple curtains and the decorative cover on the bed. Ishaq had done an admirable job of building a warm and inviting inn.
The water in the basin, still as a woodland pool, suddenly trembled for no apparent reason.
Richard stood stock-still, staring at it.
The slack surface abruptly bunched into perfectly symmetrical harmonic waves, almost like the hair on a cat’s back standing on end.
And then the whole building shuddered with a hard thump, as if struck with something huge. One of the panes of glass in the window cracked with a bridle pop. Almost instantly, from the far end of the building, came the sound of splintering wood.
Richard crouched, frozen, eyes wide, unable to tell what had caused the incomprehensible sound.
His first thought was that a big tree had fallen on the place, but then he remembered that there were no large trees anywhere nearby.
A heartbeat after the first jolt, came a second thump—louder this time. Closer. The building swayed under the crash of splintering wood. He glanced up, fearing that the ceiling might collapse.
Half a heartbeat later came another thump that shook the building. Shattering, splintering wood let out a high-pitched screech as if crying out in agony as it was being ripped apart.
THUMP. Crash. Louder, closer.
Richard touched the fingers of one hand to the floor to keep his balance as the building quaked under the jolt of the heavy impact. What had started at the far end of the building was rapidly coming closer.
THUMP, CRASH. Closer yet.
Splintering shrieks howled through the night air as wood was rent violently apart. The building swayed. Water sloshed in the basin, slopping over the rolled metal edge with the painted blue vines. The sounds of ripping walls and splintering boards melted together into one continuous roar.
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