Naked Empire

Cara rose up on her knees when they finished and glared back at the men all still bowed forward but peeking up at her. "Those are the words of the devotion to the Lord Rahl. You will now speak it together with me three times, as is proper in the field."

Cara again put her forehead to the ground at Richard's feet.

"Master Rahl, guide us. Master Rahl, teach us. Master Rahl, protect us.

In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours."

Richard and Kahlan stood above the people as they spoke the second and third devotion. This was no empty show put on by Cara for the benefit of the men; this was the devotion as it had been spoken for thousands of years and Cara meant every word of it.

"You may rise now," she told the men.

The men cautiously returned to their feet, hunched in worry, waiting silently. Richard met all their eyes before he began.

"I am Richard Rahl. I am the man you men decided to poison so as to enslave me and thus force me to do your bidding.

"What you have done is a crime. While you may believe that you can justify your action as proper, or think of it as merely a means of persuasion, nothing can give you the right to threaten or take the life of another who has done you no harm nor intended none. That, along with torture, rape, and murder, is the means by which the Imperial Order rules."

"But we meant you no harm," one of the men called out in horror that Richard would accuse them of such a ghastly crime. Other men spoke up in agreement that Richard had it all wrong.

"You think I am a savage," Richard said in a tone of voice that silenced them and put them back a step. "You think yourselves better than me and so that somehow makes it all right to do this to me-and to try to do it to the Mother Confessor-because you want something and, like petulant children, you expect us to give it to you.

"The alternative you give me is death. The task you demand of me is difficult beyond your imagination, making my death from your poison a very real possibility, and likely. That is the reality of it.

"I already came close to dying from your poison. At the last possible instant I was granted a temporary stay of my execution when one of you gave me a provisional antidote. My friends and loved ones believed I would die that night. You were the cause of it. You men consciously decided to poison me, thereby accepting the fact that you might be killing me."

"No," a man insisted, his hands clasped in supplication, "we never intended to harm you."

"If there was not a credible threat to my life, then why would I do as you wish? If you truly mean me no harm and are not committed to killing me if I don't go along with you, then prove it and give me the antidote so that I can have my life back. It's my life, not yours."

This time no one spoke up.

"No? So you see, then, it is as I say. You men are committed to either murder or enslavement. The only choice I have in it is which of those two it will be. I will hear no more of your feelings about what you intended. Your feelings do not absolve you of your very real deeds. Your actions, not your feelings, speak the truth of your intent."

Richard clasped his hands behind his back as he paced slowly before the men. "Now, I could do as you people are fond of doing, and tell myself that I can't know if any of it is true. I could do as you would do, declare myself inadequate to the task of knowing what's real and refuse to face reality.

"But I am the Seeker of Truth because I do not try to hide from reality. The choice to live demands that the truth be faced. I intend to do that. I intend to live.

"You men must today decide what you will do, what will be the future of your lives and the lives of the ones you love. You are going to have to deal with reality, the same as I must, if you are to have a chance at life. Today you will have to face a great deal of the truth, if you are to have that which you seek."

Richard gestured to Owen. "I thought you said there were more men than this. Where are the rest?"

Owen took a step forward. "Lord Rahl, to prevent violence, they turned themselves over to the men of the Order."

Richard stared at the man. "Owen, after all you've told me, after all those men have seen from the Order, how could they possibly believe such a thing?"

"But how are we to know that this time it will not stop the violence?

We can't know the nature of reality or-"

"I told you before, with me you will confine yourself to what is, and not repeat meaningless phrases you have memorized. If you have real facts I want to hear them. I'm not interested in meaningless nonsense."

Owen pulled his small pack off his back. He fished around inside and came up with a small canvas pouch. Tears welled up in his eyes as he gazed at it.