Naked Empire

In so doing, in trying to be kind, to be unselfish, in trying to be nonjudgmental, you allow evil to become far more powerful than it otherwise would. You refuse to see evil, and so you welcome it among you. You allow it to exist. You give it power over you. You are a people who have welcomed death and refused to denounce it. "You are an empire naked to the shadow of evil."

After a moment of thick silence, one of the older men finally spoke up.

"This belief in evil, as you call it, is a very intolerant attitude and is far too simplistic a judgment. It's nothing less than an unfair condemnation of your fellow man. None of us, not even you, can judge another."

Kahlan knew that Richard had a great deal of patience, but very little tolerance. He had been very patient with these men; she could see that he had reached the end of his tolerance. She half expected him to draw his sword.

He walked among the men, his raptor glare moving individuals back as he passed. "Your people think of themselves as enlightened, as above violence.

You are not enlightened; you are merely slaves awaiting a master, victims awaiting killers. They have finally come for you."

Richard snatched up the small bag and stood before the last man who had spoken. "Open your hand."

The man glanced to those at his sides. Finally, he held his hand out, palm up.

Richard reached into the bag and then placed a small finger, its flesh withered and stained with dried blood, in the man's hand.

The man obviously didn't want the little finger sitting in the palm of his hand, but after he looked up into Richard's withering glower, he said nothing and made no attempt to rid himself of the gory trophy.

Richard walked among the men, ordering random men to open their hands.

Kahlan recognized the ones he selected as men who had objected to the things he was trying to do to help them. He placed a finger in each upturned hand until the bag was empty.

"What you hold in your hand is the result of evil," Richard said. "You men all know the truth of it. You all knew evil was loose in your land. You all wanted that to change. You all wanted to be rid of evil.

You all wanted to live. You all wanted your loved ones to live.

"You all had hoped to do it without having to face the truth.

"I have tried to explain things to you so that you could understand the true nature of the battle we all face."

Richard straightened the baldric over his shoulder.

"I am done explaining.

"You wanted me brought to your land. You have accomplished your goal.

Now, you are going to decide if you will follow through with what you know to be right."

Richard again stood before them, his back straight, his chin held high, his scabbard gleaming in the gloomy light, his black tunic trimmed in gold standing out in sharp contrast against the fog-shrouded mountains behind him. He looked like nothing so much as the Lord Rahl. He was as commanding a figure as Kahlan had ever seen.

After Richard and Kahlan's beginning so long ago, when they had struck out from those secluded woods of his, Richard had turned the world upside down. From the beginning, he had always been at the heart of their struggle, and was now the ruler of an empire-even if that endangered empire was largely a mystery to him, as was his gift.

His cause, though, was crystal clear.

Together, Kahlan and Richard were at the center of the storm of a war that had engulfed their world. It had now engulfed these men and their land.

Many people saw Richard as their only salvation. Richard seemed forever trying to prove them wrong. For many others, though, he was the single most hated man alive. For them, Richard sought to give them cause; he told people that their life was their own. The Imperial Order wanted him dead for that more than for any blow he had dealt them.

"This is the way things are going to be," Richard finally said in a voice of quiet authority.

"You will surrender your land and your loyalty to the D'Haran Empire, or you will be the subjects of the Imperial Order. Those are your only two choices. There are no others. Like it or not, you must choose. If you refuse to make a choice, events will decide for you and you will likely end up in the hands of the Imperial Order. Make no mistake, they are evil hands.

"With the Order, if you are not murdered, you will be slaves and treated as such. I think you know very well what that entails. Your lives will have no value to them except as slaves, called upon to help them spread their evil.

"As part of the D'Haran Empire, your lives will be your own. I will expect you to rise up and live them as the individuals you are, not as some speck of dirt in a pit of filth you have dug yourselves into.

"The seal to your hiding place, to the Bandakaran Empire, has failed. I don't know how to repair it, nor would I if I could. There is no more Empire of Bandakar.

"There is no way to allow you to be who you were and to protect you.