Naked Empire

"With the spread of such ideas, with the kind of rabid hold it has over some people, such as it has over you men, Kaja-Rang and his people saw how, if such beliefs ran free, it would eventually bring anarchy and ruin by sanctioning evil to stalk among their people, just as it leaves you men defenseless against the evil of the Imperial Order now come among you.

"Kaja-Rang saw such beliefs for what they were: embracing death rather than life. The regression from true enlightenment into the illusion of insight spawned disorder, becoming a threat to all of the Old World, raising the specter of a descent into darkness."

Richard tapped his finger on the top of the ledge. "There is other writing up here, around the base, that suggests as much, and what became the eventual solution.

"Kaja-Rang had those who believed these teachings collected, not only all the pristinely ungifted banished from the New World, but also the rabid believers who had fallen under their delusional philosophy, and banished the whole lot of them.

"The first banishment, from the New World down to the Old, was unjust.

The second banishment, from the Old World to the land beyond here, had been earned."

Jennsen, twiddling the frayed end of Betty's rope, looked dubious. "Do you really think there were others banished along with those who were pristinely ungifted? That would mean there were a great many people. How could Kaja-Rang have made all these people go along? Didn't they resist? How did Kaja-Rang make them all go? Was it a bloody banishment?"

The men were nodding to her questions, apparently wondering the same thing.

"I don't believe that High D'Haran was a common language among the people, not down here, anyway. I suspect that it was a dying language only used among certain learned people, such as wizards." Richard gestured to the land beyond. "Kaja-Rang named these people Bandakar-the banished. I don't think the people knew what it meant. Their empire was not called the Pillars of Creation, or some name referring only to the ungifted. The writing here suggests that it was because it was not only the pristinely ungifted who were banished, but all those who believed as they did. They all were Bandakar: the banished.

"They thought of themselves, of their beliefs, as enlightened.

Kaja-Rang played on that, flattering them, telling them that this place had been set aside to protect them from a world not ready to accept them. He made them feel that, in many ways, they were being put here because they were better than anyone else. Not given to reasoned thinking, these people were easily beguiled in this fashion and duped into cooperating with their own banishment. According to what's hinted at in the writing here around the statue's base, they went happily into their promised land. Once confined to this place, marriage and subsequent generations spread the pristinely ungifted trait throughout the entire population of Bandakar."

"And Kaja-Rang really believed they were such a terrible threat to the rest of the people of the Old World?" Jennsen asked. Again, men nodded, apparently in satisfaction that she had asked the question. Kah-lan suspected that Jennsen might have asked the question on behalf of the men.

Richard gestured up at the statue of Kaja-Rang. "Look at him. What's he doing? He's symbolically standing watch over the boundary he placed here.

He's guarding this pass, watching over a seal keeping back what lies beyond.

In his eternal vigilance his hand holds a sword, ever at the ready, to show the magnitude of the danger.

"The people of the Old World felt such gratitude to this important man that they built this monument to honor what he had done for them in protecting them from beliefs they knew would have imperiled their society.

The threat was no trifling matter.

"Kaja-Rang watches over this boundary even in death. From the world of the dead he sent me a warning that the seal had been breached."

Richard waited in the tense silence until all the men looked back at him before he quietly concluded.

"Kaja-Rang banished your ancestors not only because they couldn't see magic, but, more importantly, because they couldn't see evil."

In restless disquiet, the men glanced about at their companions. "But what you call evil is just a way of expressing an inner pain," one of them said, more as a plea than as an argument.

"That's right," another told Richard. "Saying someone is evil is prejudiced thinking. It's a way of belittling someone already in pain for some reason. Such people must be embraced and taught to shed their fears of their fellow man and then they will not strike out in violent ways."

Richard swept his glare across all the watching faces. He pointed up at the statue.

"Kaja-Rang feared you because you are dangerous to everyone-not because you are ungifted, but because you embrace evil with your teachings.