Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

"When I was a farrier," the man explained, "I had to understand horses if I was to shoe them. You can't ask a horse what's bothering him, but if you pay attention you can learn to pick up on things, like the way the horse moves, and after a time you start to understand the meaning behind certain body language. If you pay attention to those little movements you can avoid getting kicked, or bitten."

"That's very good," Richard said. "That's something like what I'm doing. I'm going to give each of you a kind of visual picture of power."

"And how would you know so much about drawing symbols of power?" one of the men, Bruce, asked in a suspicious tone. He was one of the Order soldiers on the team-one of the men who slept in his own tent and resented having to follow the orders of a point man who was an unenlightened heathen, a man who was kept chained at night like an animal. "You people up here put a lot of stock in the outdated beliefs of magic and such, rather than devoting your minds to proper things, to matters of the Creator, to your responsibilities and duty to your fellow man."

Richard shrugged. "I guess that what I meant by that is that it's my vision, my idea, of symbols of power. My intention is to draw on each man what I think makes them look more powerful, that's all."

Bruce didn't look satisfied by the answer. He gestured at Johnrock's face. "What makes you think all them squiggly lines and such look like visions of power?"

"Well, I don't know," Richard said, trying to come up with something to make the man stop asking questions without having to actually reveal anything important, "the form of the lines just seem powerful to me."

"That's nonsense," Bruce said. "Drawings don't mean anything."

Some of the soldiers on the team watched Bruce and waited for Richard's answer as if considering a rebellion against their point man.

Richard smiled. "If you think so, Bruce, if you're convinced that drawings don't mean anything, then how about if I paint a flower on your forehead."

All the men laughed-even the soldiers.

Bruce, suddenly looking a little less sure of himself as his gaze darted around at his chuckling teammates, cleared his throat.

"I guess, now that you put it that way, I can see some of what you mean. I guess I'd like to have some of your power drawings, too." He thumped his chest with a fist. "I want the other teams to fear me."

Richard nodded. "They will, if you all do as I say. Keep in mind that before this first game the men on the other teams will probably see this red paint on all our faces and think it's foolish. You have to be prepared for that. When you hear them laughing at you, let that laughter make you angry. Let it fill your hearts with the desire to jam that laughter right back down their throats.

"In that very first moment when we step onto the field, the other team, as well as many of those watching, will probably not just laugh, but call us names. Let them. We want that. Let them underestimate us. When they do that, when they laugh at you or call you names, I want you to save up the anger you're feeling. Fill your hearts with it."

Richard met the eyes of each man in turn. "Keep in mind that we are here to be victorious in the tournaments. We are here to win the chance to play the emperor's team. We alone are worthy of that chance. Those men who are laughing at you are the worthless dregs of Ja'La players. We must sweep them aside so that we can get at the emperor's team. The men in the first games are in our way. They are in our way and they are laughing at us.

"When you step onto the field of play let their laughter ring in your ears. Soak it in, but keep silent. Let them see no emotion from you. Hold it inside until the right moment.

"Let them think us fools. Let them be distracted by believing that we will be easy marks, rather than focusing on how to play us. Let them lower their guard.

"Then, the instant the game begins, in a focused, coordinated manner unleash your rage against those who laughed at you. We have to hit them with our full force. We have to crush them. We have to make this game as important as if it were the emperor's team we were playing.

"We can't simply win this first game by a point or two as is usually the way it goes. That's not good enough. We can't be satisfied with that kind of piddling victory. We must be unyielding. We must overwhelm them. We must hammer them into the ground.

"We must beat them by at least ten points."

The men's jaws dropped. Eyebrows went up. Such lopsided victories happened only in children's mismatched games. A Ja'La team on this level winning by more than four or five points was virtually unheard of.

"Every member of the losing team gets a lash of the whip for each point they lose by," Richard said. "I want that bloody whipping to be on every tongue of every other team in this camp.