Naked Empire (Sword of Truth 8)

“Richard…look at this.”

He turned to see what she saw, and then started hurriedly brushing away more of the snow. The others crowded around, trying to see what was written in the stone of the statue’s base. Cara, on the other side of Richard, ran her hand all the way to the end to clean off the entire ledge.

Kahlan couldn’t read it. It was in another language she didn’t know, but thought she recognized.

“High D’Haran?” Cara asked.

Richard nodded his confirmation as he studied the words. “This must be a very old dialect,” he said, half to himself as he scrutinized it, trying to figure it out. “It’s not just an old dialect, but one with which I’m not familiar. Maybe because this is so distant a place.”

“What does it say?” Jennsen wanted to know as she peered around Richard, between him and Kahlan. “Can you translate it?”

“It’s difficult to work it out,” Richard mumbled. He swiped his hair back with one hand as he ran the fingers of his other lightly over the words.

He finally straightened and glanced up at Owen, standing to the side of the base, watching.

Everyone waited while Richard looked down at the words again. “I’m not sure,” he finally said. “The phraseology is odd….” He looked up at Kahlan. “I can’t be sure. I’ve not seen High D’Haran written this way before. I feel like I should know what it says, but I can’t quite get it.”

Kahlan didn’t know if he really couldn’t be sure, or if he didn’t want to speak the translation in front of the others.

“Well, maybe if you think it over for a while, it might come to you,” she offered, trying to give him a way of putting it off for the time being if he wanted to.

Richard didn’t take her offer. Instead, he tapped a finger to the words on the left of the warning beacon. “This part is a little more clear to me. I think it says something like ‘Fear any breach of this seal to the empire beyond…’”

He wiped a hand across his mouth as he considered the rest of the words. “I’m not so sure about the rest of it,” he finally said. “It seems to say, ‘for beyond is evil: those who cannot see.’”

“Of course,” Jennsen muttered in angry comprehension.

Richard raked his fingers back through his hair. “I’m not at all sure I have it right. Something about it still doesn’t make sense. I’m not sure I have it right.”

“You have it perfectly right,” Jennsen said. “Those who cannot see magic. This was placed by the gifted who sealed those people away from the rest of the world because of how they were born.” Her fiery eyes filled with tears. “Fear any breach of this seal to the empire beyond, for beyond is evil—those who cannot see magic. That’s what it means, those who cannot see magic.”

No one argued with her. The only sound was the rush of the wind across the open ground.

Richard spoke softly to her. “I’m not sure that’s it, Jenn.”

She folded her arms and turned away, glaring out toward the Pillars of Creation.

Kahlan could understand how she felt. Kahlan knew what it was like to be shunned by almost everyone except those who were like you. Confessors were thought of as monsters by many people. Given the chance, Kahlan was sure that much of the rest of humanity would be happy to seal her away for being a Confessor.

But just because she could understand how Jennsen felt, that didn’t mean Kahlan thought the young woman was right. Jennsen’s anger at those who banished these people was justified, but her anger at Richard and the rest of them for having the same spark of the gift, which made them in that way the same, was not.

Richard turned his attention to Owen. “How many men do you have waiting in the hills for you to return?”

“Not quite a hundred.”

Richard sighed in disappointment. “Well, if that’s all you have, then that’s all you have. We’ll have to see to getting more later.

“For now, I want you to go get those men. Bring them here, to me. We’ll wait here for you to return. This will be our base from where we work a plan to get the Order out of Bandakar. We’ll set up a camp down there, in those trees, where it’s well protected.”

Owen looked down the incline to where Richard pointed, and then off toward his homeland. His confused frown returned to Richard. “But, Lord Rahl, it is you who must give us freedom. Why not just come with me to the men, if you want to see them?”

“Because I think this will be a safer place than where they are now, where the Order probably knows they’re hiding.”

“But the Order does not know that there are men hiding, or where they are.”

“You’re deluding yourselves. The men in the Order are brutal, but they aren’t stupid.”

“If they really know where the men are, then why hasn’t the Order come to call them in?”

“They will,” Richard said. “When it suits them, they will. Your men aren’t a threat, so the men of the Order are in no hurry to expend any effort to capture them. Sooner or later they will, though, because they won’t want anyone to think they can escape the Order’s rule.

“I want your men away from there, to a place they’ve not been: here. I want the Order to think they’re gone, to think they’ve run away, so they won’t go after them.”

“Well,” Owen said, thinking it over, “I guess that would be all right.”

Tom stood watch near the far corner of the statue’s base, giving Jennsen room to be alone. She looked angry and he looked like he thought it best just to leave her be. Tom looked as if he felt guilty for having been born with the spark of the gift that allowed him to see magic, that same spark possessed by those who had banished people like Jennsen.

“Tom,” Richard said, “I want you to go with Owen.”

Jennsen’s arms came unfolded as she turned toward Richard. “Why do you want him to go?” She suddenly sounded a lot less angry.

“That’s right,” Owen said. “Why should he go?”

“Because,” Richard said, “I want to make sure that you and your men get back here. I need the antidote, remember? The more men I have back here with me who know where it is, the better. I want them safely away from the Order for now. With blond hair and blue eyes, Tom will fit in with your people. If you run into any soldiers from the Order they will think he’s one of you. Tom will make sure you all get back here.”

&n

bsp; “But it could be dangerous,” Jennsen objected.

Richard fixed her in his challenging stare. He didn’t say anything. He simply waited to see if she would dare to attempt to justify her objections. Finally, she broke eye contact and looked away.

“I guess it makes sense, though,” she finally admitted.

Richard turned his attention back to Tom. “I want you to see if you can bring back some supplies. And I’d like to use your hatchet while you’re gone, if that’s all right.”

Tom nodded and pulled his hatchet from his pack. As Richard stepped closer to take the axe, he started ticking off a list of things he wanted the man to look for—specific tools, yew wood, hide glue, pack-thread, leather, and a list of other things Kahlan couldn’t hear.

Tom hooked his thumbs behind his belt. “All right. I doubt I’ll find it all right off. Do you want me to search out what I can’t find before I return?”

“No. I need it all, but I need those men back here more. Get what’s readily available and then get back here with Owen and his men as soon as possible.”

“I’ll get what I can. When do you want us to leave?”

“Now. We don’t have a moment to lose.”

“Now?” Owen sounded incredulous. “It will be dark in an hour or two.”

“Those couple of hours may be hours I need,” Richard said. “Don’t waste them.”

Kahlan thought that he meant because of the poison, but he could have had the gift in mind. She could see how much pain he was in because of the headache caused by the gift. She ached to hold him, to comfort him, to make him better, but she couldn’t make it all just go away; they had to find the solutions. She glanced at the small figure of Richard standing on the base of the statue. Half of that figure was as dark as a night stone, as dark and dead as the deepest part of the underworld itself.