Soul of the Fire

Richard filled the dragging silence. "I'm certain that by now you have heard the proposal I've made for the lands of the Midlands to join with us. The terms are fair and equitable to all. Your representatives would have brought our terms to you. If you join willingly, your people will be welcomed. If you oppose us… well, if you oppose us, then we will have to conquer you and the terms will be harsh."

"So I've been told," the Minister said.

Kahlan leaned in. "And you have been informed my word backs Lord Rahl's? You know my advice is for all lands to join us?"

The Minister tipped his head in a slight bow. "Yes, Mother Confessor, and please be assured we value greatly your sound advice."

"Then is it your intention to join with us, Minister, in our struggle for freedom?"

"Well… you see, Mother Confessor, it is not quite that simple."

"Fine," Richard said, beginning to rise. "I will see the Sovereign, then."

"You can't," Dalton Campbell said.

Richard, a scowl growing, sank back down. "And why would that be?"

The Minister licked his lips. "The Sovereign, the Creator watch over his blessed soul, is very ill. He is bedridden. Not even I have been able to see him. He is in no condition to talk, from what the healers and his wife tell me. Speaking with him would be hopeless, since he is rarely conscious."

"I'm so sorry," Kahlan said. "We had no idea."

"We would take you to see him, Mother Confessor, Lord Rahl," Dalton Campbell said in a sincere-sounding voice, "but the man is so ill he would be unable to offer his advice."

The harpist went into a louder, more complex and dramatic piece, using every string, it seemed.

"Then you will have to decide without his advice," Richard said. "The Imperial Order is already invading the New World. We need everyone we can get to resist their tyranny, lest their dark shadow cover us all."

"Well," the Minister said as he intently picked at invisible things on the tablecloth, "I want the land of Anderith to join with you and your noble cause. I really do. As do most of the people of Anderith, I'm sure-"

"Good. Then that's settled."

"Well, no, it's not." Minister Chanboor looked up. "Though I might wish it, as would my wife, and as Dalton has so forcefully advised we do, we cannot decide something this important on our own."

"The Directors?" Kahlan asked. "We will speak with them straightaway."

"They are part of it," the Minister said, "but not all. There are others who must be part of such a momentous decision."

Richard sat puzzled. "Who else is there?"

The Minister leaned back in his chair and gazed out at the room for a time before his dark eyes turned back to Richard.

"The people of Anderith."

"You are the Minister of Culture," Kahlan said heatedly as she leaned in. "You speak for them. You have but to say it will be so and it will."

The man spread his hands. "Mother Confessor, Lord Rahl, you are asking us to surrender our sovereignty. I can't callously do that on my own."

"That is why it is called 'surrender, " Richard growled.

"But you are asking our people to cease to be who they are, and become one with you and your people. I don't think you realize what that means. You are asking us to surrender not only our sovereignty, but our very culture.

"Don't you see? We would cease to be who we are. We have a culture stretching back thousands of years. Now you come in, one man, and ask the people to throw away all that history? How can you think it so simple a matter to forget our heritage, our forebears, our culture?"

Richard drummed his fingers on the table. He gazed out at the people enjoying the dinner, who had no idea how important were the words being spoken at the head table.

"You misstate it, Minister Chanboor. We have no desire to destroy your culture"-Richard leaned toward the man- "although from what I've heard of it, there are unfair aspects of it that will not be allowed. Under our law, everyone is treated equally.

"As long as you follow the common laws, you may retain your culture."

"Yes, but-"

"In the first place, it is a matter of necessity to the very freedom of hundreds of thousands of people of the New World. We will not tolerate a risk to so many. If you don't join us, we will conquer you. When that happens, you will lose your say in the common laws we set down, and, you will pay penalties that will cripple your land for a generation."

The heat in Richard's eyes moved the Minister back a few inches. "Worse, though, would be if the Imperial Order gets to you first. They will not impose financial penalties, they will crush you. They will murder and enslave you."

"The Imperial Order demanded the surrender of Ebinissia, — " Kahlan said in a distant voice. "I was there. I saw what the Order did to those people when they refused to surrender and become slaves. The men of Imperial Order tortured and butchered every man, woman, and child in the city. Every last one. Not one person was left alive."

"Well, any men who would-"