Soul of the Fire

Richard turned sideways on his small folding stool so he might speak to her as well as the captain.

"We don't know for sure how the Dominie Dirtch work."

"So, we ask someone here," Kahlan said.

"It's not a weapon they use. We can't count on their expertise. Yes, they know that if they're being attacked they ring the things and the enemy will be killed."

"Lord Rahl, we have a thousand men, once they all return from watching the vote. We can take the Dominie Dirtch in a wide swath and General Reibisch will be able to safely bring his army through. Then we can use his men to take the rest, all along the frontier, and the Imperial Order will not be able to get through. Perhaps they will even approach, thinking they will be able to pass, and then we will have the opportunity to use the Dominie Dirtch against them."

Richard turned the candle on the table round and round in his fingers as he listened, and then in the silence that followed.

"There's one problem with that," he said at last, "and that is what I've already said: we aren't sure how they work."

"We know the basics of the things," Kahlan said, her frustration growing.

"But the problem is," Richard said, "that we don't know enough. First of all, we can't take all the Dominie Dirtch all along the frontier. There are too many-they run along the entire border. We could only take some, like you suggested, Captain.

"Therein lies the problem. Remember when we came through? How those people were killed when the Dominie Dirtch rang?"

"Yes, but we don't know why they rang," Kahlan said. "Besides, what difference does that make?"

"What if we capture a stretch of the Dominie Dirtch," Richard said, looking back and forth between. Kahlan and Captain Meiffert, "and then tell General Reibisch it's safe to bring his army in. What if, when all those men are just about there, Anderith soldiers somewhere else, ones still in control of the Dominie Dirtch, ring theirs?"

"So what?" Kahlan asked. "They will be too far away."

"Are you sure?" Richard leaned toward her for emphasis. "What if that rings them all? What if they know how to ring the entire line?

"Remember when we came in, how they said they all rang, and everyone out in front of the Dominie Dirtch was killed? They all rang together, as one."

"But they didn't know why they all rang," Kahlan said. "The soldiers didn't ring them."

"How do you know that one person somewhere along that entire line didn't ring their Dominie Dirtch, and caused them all to ring? Maybe accidentally, and they're too afraid to admit it for fear of their punishment, or perhaps one of those young people stationed there, out of boredom, just wanted to try it?

"What if the same thing happens while our army is out there before those murderous things? Can you imagine? General Reibisch has near to a hundred thousand men- maybe more by now. Can you imagine his entire force killed in one instant?"

Richard looked from Kahlan's calm face to the captain's alarmed expression. "Our entire army down here in the South, at once, dead. Imagine it."

"But I don't think-" Kahlan began. "And are you willing to risk the lives of all those young men on what you think? Are you so sure? I don't know that the Dominie Dirtch work together like that, but what if they do? Maybe one rung in anger rings them all. Can you say it won't?

"I'm not willing to put the innocent lives of those brave men to such a deadly gamble. Are you?" Richard looked back to Captain Meiffert. "Are you? Are you "a gambler, Captain? Could you so easily wager the lives of all those men?"

He shook his head. "If it was my own life, Lord Rahl, I would willingly risk it, but not for all those lives."

The roar eased up as the rain slowed a little. Men went by outside the opening of the tent, taking feed to the horses. For the most part, the camp sat in pitch blackness; fires were forbidden except where essential.

"I can't disagree with that." Kahlan lifted her hands and then in frustration let them drop back into her lap. "But Jagang is coming. If we don't win the people to our cause so they will stand against him he will take Anderith. He will be invincible behind the Dominie Dirtch and be able to stab into the Midlands at will and bleed us to death."

Richard listened to the rain drumming on the tent roof and splashing outside the open doorway. It sounded like the kind of steady rain that was going to be with them for the night.

Richard spoke softly. "As I see it, we have only one option. We must go back to the library at the estate and see if we can find anything useful."

"We haven't yet," Kahlan said.

"And with the people in charge now taking a stand against us," Captain Meiffert said, "they might resist that."

Richard made a fist on the table as he met the man's blue-eyed gaze. Richard once again wished he had the Sword of Truth with him.